The Texas Observer OCTOBER 29, 1965 A Journal of Free Voices A Window to The South 25c 'But My Heart Is Black'

By Jonathan Myrick Daniels

SHOT DEAD AT HAYNEVILLE, ALABAMA, NEAR SELMA, ON FRIDAY, AUGUST 20, 1965

Reality is kaleidoscopic in the black belt. Now you see it; now you don't. The view is never the same. Climate is an affair of the soul as well as the body: today the sun sears the earth, and a man goes limp in its scorching. Tomorrow and yesterday sullen rain chills bones and floods unpaved streets. Fire and ice ... the advantages of both may be obtained with ease in the black belt. Light, dark, white, black : a way of life blurs, and the focus shifts. Black, white, black . . . a rhythm ripples in the sun, pounds in steaming, stinking shacks, dances in the blood. Reality is kaleidoscopic in the black belt. Sometimes one's vision changes with it. A crooked man climbed a crooked tree on a crooked hill. Somewhere, in the midst of the past, a tenor sang of valleys lifted up and hills made low. Death at the heart of life, and life in the midst of death. The tree of life is indeed a Cross. Darkly, incredibly, the interstate high- way that had knifed through Virginia and the Carolinas narrowed and stopped. It was three o'clock in the morning and bit- terly cold. We found it difficult to believe that we were actually back in the South. But in the twinkling of an eye our brave, clean highway became a backwoods Geor- gia road, deep in Cracker country, and we knew we were home. We were low on gas and miles from a point on the map, miles from sanctuary in Atlanta. We found a gas station and stopped. While one of us got the tank filled, the other went to the outdoor phone. Our Massachusetts plates seemed to glow in the night. As I shivered in the phone booth, I saw, through a win- dow, white men turn and stare. Then my eye caught the sign over the door . . . WHITE ONLY. We had planned to get a Coke to keep us awake until Atlanta, but I guessed I no longer cared. I heard the operator speak and then Father Scott in Atlanta. His voice was sleepy—and tired— and it took him a minute to recall our meeting at the airport a week or two be- fore. Then he shifted into gear, and I re- Episcopal Seminarian Daniels Preaching in Alabama, ceived precise instructions. We would find a small street at the end of the night and as Photographed by His Co-Seminarian, Judith Upham a certain door. We would knock and say that Fr. Scott had said that we were to be mature black baby in the white hospital). gave thanks to the One Whom we had be- admitted to the Canterbury House next She smiled, yet there was a hesitancy in sought as we stepped across the threshold door. There would be bjack faces and a her eyes. Her daddy smiled down at her of his office, and quietly savored the glory warm floor, the Eucharist in the morning, and asked, "Do you love Jon?" Quietly but of God as we strolled back to the car. We and coffee to send us on our way. firmly, Bunnie said, "No." We had lived stopped for a light, and a man got out of with Bunnie's family only a few days, and his car and approached us. He was dressed What we found there we sometimes think I was sure I knew what she meant. A part in a business suit and looked respectable— we shall see again only in Heaven. The of me seemed to die inside, and I fought this was not a redneck, so we could relax. Love before Which we knelt in the morn- back tears. But there was nothing I could He stopped in front of us, inspecting us ing would not again be visible at an altar, say, nothing I could do. Wisely, her daddy. from head to toe. His eyes paused for a except to souls that had taken their first who was already a very dear friend, did moment at our ESCRU buttons and the steps on the long trek out of the flesh. One not pursue the matter. . . . When, a few collar. Then he spoke, very quietly. "Are cannot otherwise kneel in the real presence days later, Bunnie pulled me down to her, you the scum that's been going to the Epis- of a brother's hate, but that is to get ahead cupped my face with her tiny hands and copal Church?" With a single voice we an- of our story. . . . kissed me, I knew something very impor- swered, "the scum, sir?" "Scum," he re- tant (and incredibly beautiful) had hap- turned, "S-C-U-M. That's what you are— We drove on into the night. Incongru- pened. As Stringfellow says in My People you and the nigger trash you bring with ously, we came upon an all-night truck- Is The Enemy, "that is called a sacrament." you." We replied as gently as we could, stop, midway to nowhere. There appeared We had parked the car at the Church. "We can spell, sir. We're_ sorry you feel to be no sign over the door, and I went in The rector had not been there, so we had that way." He turned contemptuously on to get coffee-to-go. Too late, I discovered strolled a block or two to the office of an his heel, and we crossed our street sadly. hatred hadn't advertised—perhaps the sign attorney whom we had met at St. Paul's Yet it was funny- riotously, hilariously, had blown off in a storm. When I ordered and encountered several times since. This hideously funny! We laughed all the way the coffee, all other voices stopped. I turned time our visit was more cordial. We had back home—at the man, at his cruelty, at from cold stares and fixed my gaze on a given him and his wife a copy of My People his stupidity, at our cleverness, at the suc- sign over the counter. "ALL CASH RE- Is The Enemy for Easter, and I think they cess with which we had suavely maintained CEIVED FROM SALES TO NIGGERS were deeply touched. This time he was less "the Christian posture." And then, though WILL BE SENT DIRECTLY TO THE suspicious, less defensive, less insistent that we have not talked about it, we both felt UNITED KLANS OF AMERICA." I read we "get the hell out of town." We had a little dirty. Maybe the Incarnate God was it again and again, nausea rising swiftly talked this time of the Gospel, of what a truly present in that man's need and ask- and savagely, as the suspicious counter white moderate could do when he discov- ing for something better than a smirk. (I boy spilled coffee over the cups. It was ered that the White Citizens' Council wasn't started to say "more truly human than a lousy coffee. But worse than chicory was all-powerful, of certain changes in the smirk. . . ." But I don't know about that. the taste of black men's blood. It was school system that the grapevine said We are beginning to believe deeply in orig- cheap: only twenty-five cents. At least might be forthcoming. We left his office inal sin: theirs and ours.) Judas went for thirty. in a spirit of something very much like The Judge, an Episcopalian and a racist, friendship. Something having to do with waited for us to finish a nervous introduc- It was high noon as we walked into the human hearts, something like the faith of tion. We had encountered him only too Selma Post Office to sign for a registered the Church had been explored and shared often in his capacity as head usher, and letter, and the lines at the windows were with a white man in the black belt. We we knew our man. Now that we sat in his long. In the line next to me a redneck turned and stared: at my seminarian's col- lar, at my ESCRU* button, at my face. THE TEXAS OBSERVER He turned to a friend. "Know what he is?" © Texas Observer - Co., Ltd. 1965 The friend shouted "No." Resuming, the A Journal of Free Voices A Window to the South speaker whined, "Why, he's a white nig- 59th YEAR — ESTABLISHED 1906 gah." I was not happy thus to become the Vol. 57, No. 21 October 29, 1965 object of every gaze. And yet deep within 7c.5) me rose an affirmation and a tenderness Incorporating the State Observer and the Grande Valley, Mrs. Jack Butler, 601 Houston, and a joy that wanted to shout. Yes! If East Texas Democrat, which in turn incor- McAllen, MU 6-5675; San Antonio, Mrs. Mae B. Cambridge, pride were appropriate in the ambiguities porated the State Week and Austin Forum- Tuggle, 531 Elmhurst, TA 6-3583; Advocate. Mass., Victor Emanuel, 33 Aberdeen Ave., Apt. of my presence in Selma, I should be un- We will serve no group or party but will hew 3A. speakably proud of my title. For it is the hard to the truth as we find it and the right The editor has exclusive control over the edi- as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole torial policies and contents of the Observer. highest honor, the most precious distinction None of the other people who are associated I have ever received. It is one that I do not truth, to human values above all interests, to the rights of man as the foundation of democ- with the enterprise shares this responsibility deserve—and cannot ever earn. As I type racy; we will take orders from none but our with him. Writers are responsible for their own now, my hands are hopelessly white. "But own conscience, and never will we overlook or work, but not for anything they have not them- misrepresent the truth to serve the interests selves written, and in publishing them the edi- my heart is black. . . ." Oh, the drolleries tor does not necessarily imply that he agrees one could spin! I was proud, for the red- of the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the human spirit. with them, because this is a journal of free neck's contempt was the obverse of an voices. Editor and General Manager, Ronnie Dugger. identity and an acceptance that were very The Observer publishes articles, essays, and Partner, Mrs. R. D. Randolph. creative work of the shorter forms having to real, if still ambiguous, in another part of Business Manager, Sarah Payne. do in various ways with this area. The pay town. Hear, 0 Israel: given an irony or Contributing Editors, Elroy Bode, Bill Bram- depends; at present is is token. Unsolicited mer, Larry Goodwyn, Harris Green, Franklin manuscripts must be accompanied by return two in the holy mystery of His economy, Jones, Lyman Jones, Larry L. King, Georgia I am indeed "a white nigger." I wouldn't postage. Unsigned articles are the editor's. Earnest Klipple, Robert L. Montgomery, Willie The Observer is published by Texas Observer swap the blessings He has given me. But Morris, James Presley, Charles Ramsdell, Co., Ltd., biweekly from Austin, Texas. En- black would be a very wonderful, a very Roger Shattuck, Dan Strawn, Tom Sutherland, tered as second-class matter April 26, 1937, at beautiful color to be. Charles Alan Wright. the Post Office at Austin, Texas, under the Act Staff Artist, Charles Erickson. of March 3, 1879. Second class postage paid at Contributing Photographer, Russell Lee. Bunnie sat astride my knee. She is four, Austin, Texas. Delivered postage prepaid $5.00 Subscription Representatives: Austin, Mrs. :I year; two years, $9.50; three years, $13.00. the youngest of, eleven (it would have been Helen C. Spear, 2615 Pecos. HO 5-1805; Dallas, Foreign rates on request. Single copies 25c; twelve, but there wasn't room for a pre- Mrs. Cordye Hall, 5835 Ellsworth, TA 1-1205; prices for ten or more for students. or bulk El Paso, Mrs. Jeanette Harris, 5158 Garry Owen orders, on request. Rd., LO 5-3448; Fort Worth, Dolores Jacobsen, The Texas 3025 Greene Ave., WA 4-9655; Houston, Mrs. Editorial and Business Offices: -::-The Episcopal Society for Cultural and Shirley Jay, 10306 Cliffwood Dr., PA 3-8682; Observer, 504 West 24th St., Austin 5, Texas. Racial Unity. Lubbock, Doris Blaisdell, 2515 24th St.; Midland, Telephone GR 7-0746. Eva Dennis, 4306 Douglas, OX 4-2825; Odessa, Change of Address: Please give old and new 2 The Texas Observer Enid Turner, 1706 Glenwood, EM 6-2269; Rio address and allow three weeks. elegantly appointed office in the Dallas nomenon is real enough) he had raped our County courthouse, we were terrified. We sister and friend. If she were older, if she knew what this man could do, and what had already shared more of the "cultural" we had heard from our friends among the and life experience that, for better or high school kids. We concluded with some- worse, has gone into the making of me, thing more-or-less coherent about the situ- I would court her. From that moment, we ation in St. Paul's. He began : "You, Jona- loathed the man—perhaps a bit more acute- than and Judy, will always be welcome in ly than he loathed her. His sin . . . and St. Paul's." We smiled appreciatively. ours. "The strategy of love" had already "But," he continued, "the nigger trash you been lost. What, Lord Christ? does one do? bring with you will- never be accepted in Sometimes we do not know. St. Paul's." We thought for an instant Much later we told the judge that we about the beautiful kids we take with us thought the Gospel, as it had been deliv- every Sunday. Especially about Helen, the ered to the Holy Catholic Church (of eldest daughter in the first family who which we hoped the Episcopal Church was had opened their home and hearts to us, a a part,) rather specifically discouraged his lovely, gentle, gracious girl who plans to notion that "our Episcopal Church is a enter nurse's training when she is gradu- white church." He answered that the Gos- ated from high school this June. She might pel also forbade our living with Negroes.... be one of the sweetest, prettiest girls in "since God made white men and black men creation. Then anger rose in us—a feeling separate and if He'd wanted them com- akin, I suppose, to the feeling of a white mingled He'd have made them all alike." man for the sanctity of Southern woman- hood. Helen, trash? We should have left We -asked him to cite New Testament evi- his office then, for we were no longer free dence. He replied that he wasn't talking --Judith Upham men. Symbolically (a less symbolic phe- about the Gospel anyway, but about reality. He was quite sure that he knew God's thinking on this point, however. We then talked a bit about white -supremacy and some of the means which had been used to achieve it. He denied that human slavery `He Returned to Selma' had had anything to do with it—and also that the beating of our kids on "Bloody The day Jonathan Daniels was shot in own example the divisions in Selma. He Sunday" was any exception to his assertion Hayneville, and died, the Rev. John B. Mor- crossed the great gulf fearlessly, seeking that Negroes get more kindly treatment in ris, executive director of the Episcopal So- on the one hand to say to the Negro com- the black belt than they do anywhere else ciety for Cultural and Racial Unity in At- munity that the churches of the nation in the country—and concluded that the real lanta, Ga., wrote, as an explanation to go still cared about Selma, and endeavoring problem was federal intervention in the along with mimeographed copies of the in the white community to be a catalyst cotton industry, in voter registration, in article Daniels had written that is printed for reconciliation. On Saturday, August 1 he churches. this issue, this short statement: 14th, he was arrested with others in Fort Towards the end of the interview, the Deposit, Ala., in what was a peaceful dem- judge brought up the matter of the pho- Jon Daniels went to Selma immediately onstration for justice. Fr. Stines of our tographers who had accompanied the first following the violence at the bridge on staff went to Selma and saw Jon. He could group who had attempted to integrate the March 7th, together with another student have been bailed out, but it would have church. Though we had been energetically at the Episcopal Theological School, Cam- meant leaving the rest for further funds involved in the attempt, we too, had not bridge, Mass. With the permission of the to be raised. It was not like Jon to retreat been entirely happy about the photogra- seminary and their respective bishops they at anytime, but neither was he foolhardy. phers. The judge insisted that we had returned to Selma several weeks later to In the deepest sense of that word, he was brought them, which we denied. We made stay through the spring, continuing their faithful. While he was in jail an Episcopal it clear that to an extent we sympathized studies by correspondence. They hoped to priest, the Rev. Francis Walter, arrived with his objections. But he insisted on pur- be able to communicate something of the in Selma to join Jon in' this ministry of suing the point, claiming that since we love of God in Christ Jesus to the people of presence. Fr. Walter only had the oppor- Selma among whom they lived. They sought were in the group we shared in the guilt to build bridges across the white com- tunity to meet Jon through bars at the jail of the group. Though we had not known munity. Both returned to the seminary in in Hayneville. Today, August 20, 1965, Jon that the photographers were with us until and the others were released from jail. mid-May to take their final examinations. we got almost to the church, we agreed Jon wrote this article in April, before his Shortly thereafter he was shot. with the judge that we shared the "guilt" return to Cambridge, for publication in the of the group. (It is not a guilt we lament ETS Journal.* After visiting his family in Tom Coleman, accused of the murder particularly: the photographers made the Keene, New Hampshire, he assisted with a and tried in Hayneville, was acquitted by a moment an object of national concern, diocesan summer camp. At our request he jury of twelve whites. Thereupon, on Sept. which was entirely appropriate.) Then we returned to Selma in early July as a part 30, Rev. Morris issued a statement: suggested that, by the, same token, the of a continuing ministry of presence in that We have watched an almost-total con- judge himself was implicated in the in- torn community. Admired by persons in spiracy of the civil and religious leadership justice perpetrated against the Negro by the white men in Dallas County (actually the Negro community, and respected by of Lowndes County to exonerate one of some in the white community, he moved their own. he, is notorious on his own hook, even by the standards of white moderates in the around Selma with a patience, persistence, Last Saturdciy, Oct. 23, in Hayneville, a and gentleness which -could not but be ef- county). With some belligerence, he re- white jury, four members of whom had de- plied that he was not, that he had spent fective in having others realize that he clared they believe Negroes and white civil all his life in Selma. We missed the point served Someone else. Jon overcame in his rights workers are inferior persons, ac- of the last said: "Sir, you're a legal mind, quitted Ku Klux Klansman Collie Leroy trained to be consistent. Don't you see the *The mimeographed student journal of the Wilkins of the nightrider murder of Mrs. inconsistency of what you've just said?" Episcopal Theological Seminary of Cambridge, Viola Liuzzo, a white civil rights worker A crafty smile spread across the judge's Mass., where Daniels was a student. The arti- from Detroit. UPI said the jury'received cle was subsequently published in the June is- face as he replied, "That's not inconsistent. sue of the diocesan magazine of the Episcopal a resounding cheer in the century-old Diocese of New Hampshire.—Ed. Lowndes County courthouse." October 29, 1965 3 . That's the way we think here, those of us "Jon and Judy are who have spent all our lives here and my friends. They're really know the situation." He had made staying in my home. the same point in several other contexts I'll pick my own that only a Southern white man who had friends, and nobody'll never left the black belt could .see things tell me otherwise." as they really are. The name for that, His concluding remark was more con- Brother Stringfellow, cise that the home-style filibuster he had is miracle. staged earlier (at a particularly crucial The girls looked moment he had insisted on reading us particularly beautiful page after page of a statistical school re- as we wen t into port): "I'm not guilty of anything. Only church on Palm Sun- guilty men have trouble sleeping at night. day. Their gloves and I don't have any trouble sleeping." We dresses were freshly could not suppress the retort that we cleaned and pretty. thought maybe he should. In spite of our- Their hairdo's were selves, we went through the farce of shak- lovely. There was a ing hands. As we had strolled to the court- freshness, a quiet ra- house, on our way to see the judge, we had diance about them recalled—only partly in jest—that "this which made us 'catch kind does not come out, except by prayer our breath. We were and fasting." startled from our vi- When we got an Alabama plate for the sion by a member of car, we made the mistake of giving the the congregation en- Scotts' number in the federal project as tering the church as our local address. In less than twenty-four we were. His greeting hours, Mrs. Scott was notified by the pro- was unmistakable: ject authorities that her house was being "You goddamned watched and would soon be inspected. If scum. . ." "those troublemakers at the Episcopal Church" or any of their luggage were The disappoint- found, the Scotts would be thrown out in ments of Holy Week the street. . . . We moved out a little after and the bitterness of )•tl,17 midnight when the streets were dark and Easter Communion --Judith Upham nearly deserted. Fortunately, friends of at St. Paul's . . . we assume you have seen a copy of our work until the End is in sight. The the Scotts, who owned their house in a thought of the Church is fraught With ten- Negro neighborhood on the edge of town, letter to Bishop Carpenter'—forced our eyes back to the inscription over the sions because the Life of the Church is offered to take us in. Then we noticed that caught in tension. For the individual Chris- we were being followed up town, especially altar. "He is not here. For he is risen." In a dreadful parody of their meaning, the tian and the far-flung congregation alike, when we drove away from the church. that is part of the reality of the Cross. Mrs. Scott told us one evening that the words seem to tell a grim truth that was There are good men here, just as there police had been looking for "the people not exhausted by their liturgical import. are bad men. There are competent leaders who've been going to the Episcopal This is the stuff of which our life is made. and a bungler here and there. We have ac- Church." We discussed the situation with There are moments of joy and moments of sorrow. Almost imperceptibly, some men tivists who risk their lives to confront a Bunnie's father, who felt that we were too people with the challenge of freedom and' a remote in East Selma and insisted that we grow in grace. Some men don't. Christian hope, grounded in the reality of Easter, nation with its conscience. We have neu- move in with his family. Now the telephone tralists who cautiously seek to calm trou- rings at six in the morning. When some- must never degenerate into optimism. For that is the road of despair. Yet it ought bled waters. We have men about the work body finally stumbles • out of bed to an- never to conclude that because its proper of reconciliation who are willing to reflect swer, there is only the sound of breath- upon the cost and pay it. Perhaps at one ing at the other end. end is Heaven, the Church may dally at its time or another, the two of us are all of When we moved in with our present *On April 21, 1965, Daniels and his student col- these. Sometimes we take to the streets, family, we knew where Bunnie's mother league from the seminary, Judith Upham, wrote sometimes we yawn through interminable stood. A few nights before, she had told the Rt. Rev. C. C. J. Carpenter, the Bishop of Alabama, telling him that the rector of St. meetings, sometimes we talk with white us politely but emphatically that she didn't Paul's had told them that Bishop Carpenter like white people—any white people. She men in their homes and offices, sometimes "had directed that our racially mixed group of we sit out a murderous night with an al- knew from countless experiences that they worshippers could not be excluded from the Eucharist, but that the ushers might seat us at coholic- and his family because we love couldn't be trusted. Until very recently, their own discretion." At the service last Easter she would not have allowed white people him and cannot stand apart. Sometimes we Sunday, Daniels and Miss Upham continued, confront the posse, and sometimes we hold to stay in her home. Though saddened, we "we were seated in the left rear pew, six pews were grateful for her honesty and told her behind the nearest communicants in front of a child. Sometimes we stand with men who us, and without access to the central aisle. Not so. We also told her that though we would. have learned to hate, and sometimes we only were we thus the last to be communicated, must stand a little apart from them. Our understand if she didn't believe us, we had but we were furthermore forced to remain in begun to love her and her family deeply. our seats until after the rest of the congrega- lives in Selma are filled with ambiguity, tion had communicated and returned to their and in that we share with men everywhere. By the night we moved in, her reserve had seats. Only when the altar rail and the several almost disappeared. She was wonderfully aisles were empty were we finally allowed to We are beginning to see the world as we hospitable to . us, notwithstanding the sus- approach the altar." They asked the Bishop to never saw it before. We are truly in the correct the situation. world, and yet ultimately not of it. For picion she must still have felt. We spent Eight days later, the two students and three an evening with Lonzie and Alice at the ministers in the Episcopal Society for Cultural through the bramble bush of doubt and Elk's Club. Late in the evening a black and Racial Unity in Atlanta signed a statement fear and supposed success we are groping about Bishop Carpenter's role in this matter our way to the realization that above all nationalist approached her. "What are you which said in part: "The Carpenter of Birming- doing here with them?" he asked. "They're ham must not be allowed to forever deny else, we are called to be saints. That is the white people." Much to our surprise and the Carpenter of Nazareth. . . . Segregated mission of the Church everywhere. And in perhaps a little to her own, she answered: seating, now largely discarded on public con- this Selma, Alabama, is like all the world: veyances, must not be allowed to gain a foot- it needs the life and witness of militant hold in Alabama Episcopal churches or else- 4 The Texas Observer where." Saints. 1:1 The Klan Has Come to Texas Again The Popularity of Hate'

A Southern reporter, who, in the South, Aaron was walking down the highway, and his family to stay in Birmingham. They saw many of the events here described, but he was the first one they saw. They took moved out, like lots of other people before who cannot take "a signer" on this piece, him off and castrated him. In Alabama, them, including a bank president, the med- reflects on the Klan revival after covering you could still be convicted for things like ical school dean, the symphony conductor, a Klan rally near Houston.—Ed. that, and four men got twenty years. But a college president—folks like that who as the climate worsened and two Klan-sup- Houston Were supposed to be leaders and found out ported governors helped change the shape they didn't have much in the way of fol- That familiar white hood looks pretty of things, the four got early paroles.* ludicrous in modern Houston, where peo- lowers any more. In Birmingham, they The Klan started parading around At- never have found out who dynamited the ple work at a manned space center, a sea- lanta. That's a lot bigger city and more port 50 miles inland, an intercontinental Sunday school. Or at least, the evidence cosmopolitan than anywhere in Alabama. airport, and other kinds of growing things. never has been brought forth. They seemed to look silly there too. The hood has never been a partner with Meanwhile, in Atlanta folks held their Sometimes they walked around the big- growing things. heads up high and said it couldn't happen gest department store. Sometimes they had there. It did. Negro demonstrators and But then, it looked kind of silly at first night rallies out at Stone Mountain. Lots robed Klansmen got into an outright fight when Bobby Shelton and his friends re- of folks went out to see what it was like. in the middle of downtown on Jan. 25, vived it in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, back in They didn't think too much about it, 1964. the late 1940's. Some folks in Tuscaloosa though. The next summer, a Negro Army officer, went to some of the meetings—not like Once some Klansmen, all hooded up, Col. Lemuel Penn, was shot dead by night- you'd go to see the Beatles or something— picketed an Atlanta hotel where there was riders as he was driving back to Washing- but because there'd seemed something no- an integrated reception honoring Lillian ton from his tour of duty at Ft. Benning. ble about the tales of great-grandfathers Smith, a liberal author who had cancer. That shook city people up pretty badly. who used to ride out at night and scare the (She wrote Killers of the Dream.) One man But they thought they could at least con- conquering Yankees. But the word got out said he wasn't sure.what he was picketing vict and show that killers couldn't get off. that it wasn't exactly the kind of crowd there about. He'd just been told to show up. The ones who were accused got off. they'd bragged their grandfathers were. Back in Alabama, a Sunday school was A young Atlanta congressman decided Before the hooded gangs started roaming dynamited. It had children in it, four of something ought to be done. He didn't want out on the streets, lots of people who were whom died. There'd been lots of churches the "popularity of hate" to spread any getting wise dropped out like flies. bombed before, but not with people in further. His name was Charles Weltner, There was one night, back before Bobby them. and he asked to be a member of the House Shelton got fired from the Goodrich rub- People used to raise funds to help the Un-American Activities Committee. He ber plant near town for his extracurricular Negroes rebuild their churches, before asked for an investigation of the Klan. activities, when the cotton-hooded knights there got to ' be too many bombings to Some liberals didn't think that was real paraded around the Tuscaloosa News build- keep up with. smart. Even Charles Morgan, formerly of ing block all night. There was an uneasy When the four children died, people in Birmingham, still an advocate of every- feeling that a faceless mob had control for Birmingham looked around trying to say one's right to have his say, called Con- the night, and few folks ventured out. who was to blame. One person spoke out gressman Weltner time and again and Henry Mize, Tuscaloosa's state senator real loud. He was a young lawyer, Charles urged him to get off that track. then, thought that was serious. He got a Morgan, and he said everybody was to bill passed through the Alabama legisla- blame for letting things come to such a TH EN AL AB A M,A troubles ' ture in a hurry that people couldn't parade point. He asked people not to let the "popu- started brewing again. There was going to about with their faces covered up. Folks larity of hatred" take over. be a march in Selma, led by Dr. Martin weren't ready yet to, let their neighbors That speech wasn't reported in Birming- Luther King, Jr. He wasn't there the first see them acting like that. Things quieted ham. It finally got around though, because night, for some reason. But the Alabama down some. national magazines printed it and people State Troopers, commanded by Col. Al After the Montgomery boycotts and then in Alabama read national magazines even Lingo and Gov. George Wallace, were. They the Little Rock school business got people when they don't like what they print. It • rode horses through the demonstrators, thinking more about ways to fight back got pretty rough for Charles Morgan and swinging clubs and knocking them down against the law, they tried a different ap- *"MONTGOMERY, Jan. 5—(AP)—A 37-year- like flies. President Johnson gave Alabama proach. Taking as their first leader a old Birmingham man convicted of mayhem in two whole weeks to try to get its own football hero in Mississippi, they called the castration of a Negro man in 1957 will be problems under control, but the State of released on parole later this month. themselves White Citizens Councils. "The chairman of the state pardon and Alabama didn't do anything. More and parole board, the Rev. W. H. Swearingen, said more people gathered, and finally Presi- BUT Monday that Bart Floyd, an admitted mamber dent Johnson gave federal protection for THE KKK, like the Nazi of the Ku Klux Klan, would be released from Party, hadn't faded all the way out. It's prison on Jan. 18. the Negro demonstrators to march to sort of like a hate seed, scattered. You "Floyd was one of four men, all claiming Montgomery. A lot of white clergymen could see it begin to grow again in Bir- KKK membership, who received maximum from all over the country joined them. sentences of 20 years each in the castration of They walked about 30 miles, and there was mingham, like the night Nat King Cole Judge Edward Aaron on Labor Day night, 1957. was beaten up on a concert stage in the "Trial records of the widely publicized case a lot of praying, and a bit of singing. Some city auditorium, in front of everybody. showed that Floyd, accompanied by five other who participated said they found a strange Klan members, was ordered to 'perform an lack of convention-like spirit to it. Some- The men who did it didn't say Klan . . . act' to prove his worthiness to become a Klan they said something like "white suprem- officer. thing much more serious, much more in- acy." "Aaron, who had not been known to partici- tense. Not too much else happened, except pate in any form of civil rights activity, was that they got there and went home. There wasn't any question Labor Day abducted as he walked along a highway. . . . night, 1957, when hooded "knights" drove "Floyd will have served one:thirt1 of his One white woman did not get back out to see who was "brave" enough to let sentence this month—the legal minimum before home, though. Her name was Mrs. Liuzzo, becoming eligible for parole."—From the Bir- some "nigger blood." That night Judge mingham News, Jan. 5, 1965. October 29, 1965 and she had five children back in Detroit. The man who wasn't convicted for killing ting them into Episcopal church services The man accused of killing her was de- Mrs. Liuzzo showed up, along with Ala- there. fended by the Klan lawyer, with Bobby bama's top KKK dragons, for another trial Coleman's lawyer told the jury: "I think Shelton sitting at the table beside him in at September's end. That was the trial you all outta thank God that you have a the courtroom. The man got off. Bobby where 12 white men didn't convict Tom man like Tom Coleman in our country." Shelton said Mrs. Liuzzo should have Coleman for killing the young seminarian, So Tom Coleman's still part of Alabama. stayed home and taken care of her chil- Jon Daniels, who'd worked with Selma Ne- And Bobby Shelton's now trying to tell dren. groes and halfway succeeded in finally get- Texans what to think. ❑

Two Southern Reports by Jerry DeMuth Mississippi: A War on Poverty or Civil Rights?

Atlanta, Ga. The paper then quickly pointed out that The biggest threat to the civil rights AN ADDITIONAL $1.6 million in the C.D.G.M. stated it was "aggressively movement in Mississippi now is no longer Head Start funds went to the Child Devel- complying" with racial integration. This the violent bands of night riders, it is the opment Group of Mississippi (C.D.G.M.) of course has not been true Of other fed- federal government itself. through a grant to all-Negro Mary Holmes eral programs in the state. Already some $20 million in funds from Junior College in West Point, Miss. Using The presence of many civil rights activ- the Office of Economic Opportunity has an approach similar to last year's freedom ists in the C.D.G.M. program and its shar- been approved by the federal office and school programs, C.D.G.M. operated 83 ing of quarters with the N.C.C. led Sen. okayed by Gov. Paul Johnson. Last winter, centers for over 5,000 children. About half John Stennis (D.-Miss.) to make charges when the "War on Poverty" program was the staff were former civil rights workers, against C.D.G.M. To end the resulting up- beginning, Gov. Johnson stated, "We , will many of whom had had freedom school roar, President Johnson ordered that use such funds as long as this program does experience. C.D.G.M. rented space for its C.D.G.M. move to ' Mary Holmes Junior not interfere with our traditional customs headquarters from the Delta Ministry College. The Delta Ministry center, mid- and particular way of life." Activities fi- headquarters of the National Council of way between Jackson and the Mississippi nanced through this money range from the Churches. River, is in the heart of the C.D.G.M. pro- Head Start programs for pre-school chil- The C.D.G.M. program led the Jackson ject area, and the college is located away dren this past summer to programs to edu- Daily News, one of the state's two leading from everything, 20 miles from the Ala- cate illiterate adults and retrain sharecrop- newspapers, to quote an earlier editorial: bama border. Some staff members were pers whose jobs have been displaced by "However, as all federal programs are now willing to go along with the move, argu- machines. These programs are being run designed, here is one of the most subtle ing that even a weak program was better by the same power structure which has mediums for instilling the acceptance of than no program at all. Others—those with kept the state's Negroes down in a segre- racial integration and ultimate mongreli- civil rights experience—refused and won gated society. zation ever perpetrated in this country." out, and the strong program continued. Almost $7 million is going to the Cath- olic diocese of Natchez-Jackson, Mississippi However, after this display of local de- —$5.3 million from the Office of Economic mocracy resulting in a decision contrary Opportunity, $1.6 million from the Depart- ON ORGANIZING to orders from Washington, it is doubtful ment of Labor—to educate illiterate adults. To sing so others hear whether C.D.G.M. will be able to get any Local officials dominate the staff. In the and join the song more money to continue its programs into delta, $5 million is going into a program requires a silence far inside the fall. Unlike other federally financed to retrain sharecroppers. The chairman of secured by suffering programs in the state, C.D.G.M. did not the board is an official in the State Sov- and work to preserve the status quo. ereignty Commission, the official state in ease with solitude. On the political front, President John- segregation watchdog group; his assistant son is pushing the new Democratic Coun- is Aaron Henry, state NAACP chairman Perhaps cil, which is made up of moderate white and a former leader in the Freedom Demo- the bugle call's a whisper passed along and conservative Negro leaders. This is cratic Party. Over $2 million went to local an attempt to undercut the support for the communities this past summer for Opera- a sigh swiftly shared. Perhaps civil rights-oriented, integrated Freedom tion Head Start schools. The classes were Democratic Party which is challenging the strictly segregated, with one exception. the song all-white reactionary state Democratic Classes at the Unitarian Church in Jackson is Party. Here too the administration wants were integrated. The pastor there is the sad. something it can control. With rules against Rev. Donald Thompson, who was recently an all-white state party stemming from shot while entering his apartment building. TO MENDY—ON ORGANIZING II last year's party convention, the President Besides being conservative in content, to enter softly must fear that the F.D.P. will gain even these programs can also be used as a lever speak silently more support in the future and want to to halt or slow down civil rights activities. smile a freedom song In Jackson, where over $200,000 went into stop it now. the Head Start program, local Head Start to live revolt officials put pressure on Negro ministers. without the god of should FEDERAL PROGRAMS can cut During the demonstrations there early in to transform pain off political support for the civil rights the summer, places were needed for meet- to a caress ings. Head Start officials warned Negro movement, strengthen the existing power untying structure, lure away civil rights partici- ministers that if they permitted civil rights uniting meetings, Head Start classes would not unspokenly saying pants, and establish conservative programs meet at their churches and they would not "I, too" for superficial change to undercut civil get Head Start money. Ministers complied. CASEY HAYDEN rights programs which attack basic situa- 6 The Texas Observer tions. ❑ The Forgotten Battle in Arkansas

Little Rock Arkansas, but the main push was for voter picions. Poll watchers for Green were per- Arkansas was the home for a civil rights registration. Arkansas is unique in this area mitted at only two of the 18 polling places project last summer different only in size of voting. Questionable voting procedures in the county. Though each person had written permission from Green to act as from the one last year in Mississippi. It was and political infighting have created havoc. his poll watcher, all that is needed under an outgrowth of two and a half years' work For three and a half months last spring Arkansas law, they were turned away at in the state by the Student Nonviolent Co- the state did not have one registered voter. 16 places with either no explanation or the ordinating Committee, the main force be- The situation has its roots in an amend- explanation that the permits were not hind the Mississippi project, but because ment to the state constitution that banned notarized. Notarization is not required the Arkansas movement did not involve the poll tax and made registration perma- under state law. large numbers of volunteers or dramatic nent rather than yearly. (Adopted by the violence, it has been ignored. voters last November with the verbal sup- The independent Election Research Coun- cil investigated the 1964 election and found Forty volunteers, roughly one-fourth of port of Gov. Orval Faubus, this amend- ment was actually opposed by the governor that over 30,000 of the votes cast, 8%, the applicants, helped the seven regular were absentee votes. Many of those who S.N.C.C. staff members working from six behind the scenes, according to some sources here.) The new registration voted absentee hadn't applied for absentee offices in 14 counties in the southeast sec- was supposed to take place during the first ballots, which they must do according to tion of the state. This is the area where two months of the year, but those months state law. almost all of the state's Negroes are con- ended with a hassle over what information In Poinsett County, according to the centrated, an agricultural, primarily a cot- should be on the registration forms still Election Research Council, 184 absentee ton-growing area similar to the Mississippi continuing. Without any registered voters, ballots were sent to the same post office Delta on the other side of the river. elections had to be postponed. box number. Patients at nursing homes The closeness to Mississippi leads Arkan- and other institutions were voted absentee Age and residency are the only voting sas Negroes to make comparisons. They through the operators. In the Old River requirements, but there are still problems don't find themselves as badly off as Township in Pine Bluff, where S.N.C.C. in registering Negroes. In the past county Negroes in the Magnolia state, and they has been working for over two years, there sheriffs did the registering; under the new are not much worse off than Arkansas are only 39 registered voters; 53 persons law this work is done by the county clerks. whites, who make much less than Missis- voted. sippi whites, so the Negroes in Arkansas Perspective voters must go to the county County clerks blocked the G.O.P. from are often apathetic; but they have little to courthouse, which is difficult for Negroes who normally lack the means of transpor- attempts to examine the voting records. be proud .of. Despite its name, Arkansas is In Faubus' home county, Madison, while not "The Land of Opportunity." The medi- tation or the time to make such a trip. The county clerk can go out into the coun- the G.O.P. was trying to examine the vot- an yearly income for Negro families in ing records, the records were stolen from Arkansas in 1960 was $1,636; in Mississippi ty, but this has been done only seldom, and then mainly in the predominantly white the courthouse. Someone had conveniently it was $1,444. At those levels the question left the back door to the courthouse un- is how much one starves. The income for counties. In Lincoln County, which is 48% Negro, the clerk let it be known that he locked that night. Madison County had the Negro families in the cities of Arkansas highest percentage of absentee votes cast was going to two towns for a week each was $2,044, less than in Mississippi, where of all the counties, 11%. it was $2,100. to register people. The first week he went The atmosphere changes in Arkansas as to Gould, site of a S.N.C.C. project and 25 In Phillips County, where S.N.C.C. has a one gets farther from Little Rock and miles west of Mississippi, and set up his project, only 301 applications for absentee closer to Mississippi. Middle-class Negroes office in the local Moose lodge. During the ballots were mailed out, but 835 persons voted absentee. The Election Research become rarer, and whites become more first two days 300 Negroes and only 16 Council studied 500 of the absentee voters; hostile. Reports of threats and beatings whites showed up to register, whereupon 326 of the 500 were Negro, and of those increase. Persons have lost jobs for enroll- Moose officials ordered the clerk to leave 326, 195 resided in Ward 4 in Helena. The ing their children in white schools or sup- the building. He left the town and returned absentee ballots of many of these Negroes porting the civil rights movement. Police to the county seat, never to venture forth were filled out by Jack and Amanda harass rights workers, following them, again. S.N.C.C. workers picketed and de- Bryant, a Negro couple, in their home, stopping them, making false arrests, oc- manded he return to Gould, to no avail— which was not an official polling place. casionally beating them. As in Mississippi, police raided the homes and businesses of five of the picketers. Mrs. Bryant signed the ballots and the police sometimes arrest the beaten and county sheriff was present at least part not the beater. Still, a large number of Negroes are of the time. Half of the Negroes who voted The movement that has formed lacks registering. The next problem will be to at the Bryants were questioned by the the drive and militancy of the movement see that their votes are counted and fairly. Election Research Council and affidavits in Mississippi. Mass meetings don't reach A year ago a Negro was elected to the taken and 40 stated that they did not vote the emotional intensities of meetings across Dollarway school board in Pine Bluff. absentee of their own accord. Last winter the big river, and the background of some Other Negroes who ran with S.N.C.C.'s Jack Bryant became local head of the of the participants in Arkansas is middle- help lost, one of them under questionable N.A.A.C.P. class. I attended a meeting in Stuttgart, circumstances. William Green ran for the Arkansas, the "Rice Capital of the World." State House of Representatives in Lincoln WHAT LIES AHEAD of the A smartly-dressed young woman made a County, home of Gould. There were then movement in Arkansas is hard but quiet strong plea for support of the S.N.C.C. 1,800 registered Negroes in the county and work, political education, and the close workers; after the meeting broke up she 3,100 registered whites. Green got only watching of elections. This work in Arkan- drove off with her husband in a new Bar- about 1,000 votes. Persons who helped take sas lacks the drama to capture the interest racuda. Negroes to the polls, including Bill Hansen, and concern of the rest of the nation, but former S.N.C.C. project director for Ar- for Negroes here it is no less important COMMUNITY CENTERS and kansas, believe that he should have gotten than the battle in Mississippi. J.D. freedom schools similar to those in Missis- more votes than he did in many precincts. sippi were part of most of the projects in but they were not able to check these sus- October 29, 19(i5 7 A Stroll to the Capitol

Austin traded thoughts about the gesturing peace- During the week before the Austin Hugh Rice Kelly mongers. "They oughta be in jail," one demonstration that was part of the Oct. 16 declared, tipping a cigar ash in their direc- "International Days of Protest" against the stepped into the street for the thirteenth tion: "Or in the Army." A few of the un- war in Vietnam, the information booth set time. committed gazed absently at the propa- up by Students for a Democratic Society ganda leaflets spread around by the pa- The march wound from the campus to on the University's West Mall was the raders. A vocal minority hooted and the Capitol. Anti-war signs swayed random- scene of day-long wrangling and some snickered at the pronouncements of the ly to the halting advance of the block-long shouting matches among the aggressive, speakers. "We want Ringo," one blurted. articulate New Leftists, the clean-cut double file. "End the War in Vietnam," partisans of patriotic affirmation, and the read one; "500,000 Vietnamese DEAD .. . From the steps a scholarly-looking Uni- philistine majority. "Look at that fart!" 1200 Americans DEAD" said another. versity history instructor, John Morby, an ex-Aggie said, indicating a nearby S.D.S. Behind the Capitol a bewhiskered S.D.S. fidgeting with his hand-scrawled text, in- man who was bearded Jesus-style. "God, leaflet-passer was accosted by a sneering voked the Roman historian Tacitus: " 'We will you look at that hair! I bet he doesn't teen-ager. Fingering a wadded leaflet in have made a desert and call it peace.' .. . have a brain in his head." A few steps his hand, he drawled, "Gimme another one If the leaders of our government are in- from the S.D.S. encampment, the Young so I can tear it up, too," and thrust the sensitive to moral issues, let them become Republicans, studies in clean-shaven im- wad hard into the forehead of the marcher. sensitive to the realities of human nature— peccability, managed 4,000 signatures on a At the front of the Capitol an un- in a world of emerging underdeveloped document supporting President Johnson's disciplined snarl of reporters and photog- nations, a policy of backing the rightest- policies in the war. Still further up the raphers elbowed through the milling herd wing governments we can find in each case Mall, a table run by a pep group got 14,000 of demonstrators. A large push of sight- is not just profoundly immoral. It could names, at a nickel a name, wishing Bevo seers and hecklers squinted at the "Viet- result—practically speaking — in political and company good hap in their weekend niks" in the late morning glare of the suicide." A handful of his colleagues plug- football game. Texas autumn. Against the pink granite ged away on variants of the same basic The Austin city council made it clear facade of the Capitol .a team of anti-war humanitarian, strategic, and moral objec- that it has at least one thing in common speakers mounted the steps to address the tions to the Vietnamese war. with Johnson, Atty. Gen. Nicholas Katzen- assembled. A chorus of jeers, scattered Behind them three grotesqde nine-foot bach, and Supercop J. Edgar Hoover: they applause, and clicking camera shutters effigies, held up from the inside by stu- all agreed that the demonstrations were punctuated their speeches. A little girl dents, labeled "GAS for Vietnam," going to be a bad thing. Council members sitting on a bench nearby chanted in Dick- "BOMBS for Vietnam," and "NAPALM Emma Long and Travis LaRue dissenting, and-Jane cadence, "End the . . . War .. . for Vietnam," nodded under the warming the majority—Louis Shanks, Ben White, in . . . Vietnam." Her father indulgently sun. A trio of mock soldiers in gas masks and Mayor Lester Palmer—ruled two days watched the wild-looking kids on the stood smartly at attention before a crepe before the Austin demonstration that a Capitol porch. A pair of well-fed worthies paper coffin. 0 street parade would be "not in the best interests of Austin," this being LBJ's honorary home town and all. This. meant S.D.S. would have to stay on the sidewalks. The next afternoon, however, Judge Her- 'Captives of the Lawless'? man Jones of the 53rd district court set aside the city council's decision. "While Americans are dying in Vietnam to oppose Here is the text of the hand-written upon a question of vital public concern. In the closed society of communism, it would ruling issued by Judge Herman Jones of the evidence there is no suggestion that the 53rd district court in Austin on the petitioners plan any character of violence be odd indeed if we . deny the free society in Austin, Texas," he observed. But a scant Austin city council's refusal to authorize or civil disobedience. The only possible 15 minutes before the double line of dem- a street parade for demonstrators against violence which has been speculated upon onstrators struck out for the State Capitol, the war in Vietnam: by any witness is to the effect that if a "writ of prohibition" issued by Judges "This controversy again presents the petitioners are permitted freely to exercise W. A. Morrison and K. K. Woodley of the conflicts which continually arise as we rights guaranteed by our state and federal Texas Court of Criminal Appeals was pre- seek to keep a free society free. It must Constitution, then some person or persons sented to S.D.S. member Richard Robbins, be remembered that the American ideal who disagree with their views may resort upholding the council order and thus con- presumes that strength not weakness to violence or lawlessness by way of pro- fining the demonstration to the sidewalks. comes from the free expression of di- test. If this suggestion is embraced, then vergent views upon public questions. Jus- we are all captives of the lawless, because Although most of the 150-odd demon- tice Holmes long ago reminded us that no freedom could be permitted if it might strators obediently stuck to the walks, two freedom means freedom for the ideas we provoke some depraved soul to commit an of their number ventured resolutely if self- hate not just for those we approve. This act of violence. consciously into the street. A regiment of ideal requires great faith, intelligence, and "The defendants will be restrained from well-coached Austin policemen, tiring of restraint upon the part of people who en- interfering with Petitioners peacefully the game after having dragged the pair off joy its blessings. While Americans are parading over the route designated by the the blacktop a dozen times, placed them dying in Vietnam to oppose the closed Chief of Police at the time and date set under "protective custody" only when they society of communism, it would be odd out in the Petition. The writer, a graduate in history from. indeed if we deny the free society in "Counsel for Petitioners will prepare an Rice University, where he was the editor Austin, Texas. appropriate order." of the student newspaper, is now a gradu- "The evidence which has been presented Judge Jones' order was overruled by ate student in history at the University of shows that petitioners seek only to march Judges Morrison and Woodley of the TeXas Texas. in the streets of Austin over a route ap- Court of Criminal Appeals, and the dem- proved by the Chief of Police for the sole onstrators were denied the right to parade 8 The Texas Observer purpose of peacefully presenting their views in the streets of Austin. 0 On Four-Year Terms Connally, Business vs. Liberals, Labor

Austin for this effort should come rather easily. be one-man rule, to which he said he was The State Democratic Executive Com- Your quota is $*"-**". Please send in the "unalterably opposed." Announcing for a mittee, which has not taken up constitu- checks as you receive them for proper third term at Amarillo this fall, he said tional amendment four to provide four- credit. For every contribution of $25.00 or of his earlier position that he could not -year terms for governors at any of its more, we will send to the contributor a have been more wrong. meetings, is mobilized now for an all-out 33 1/3 LP record, 'The Story of Mr. Sam campaign to ,pass Rayburn,' a wonderful collection of the AS WE GO to press big guns are Mrs. Billie Carr, S.D.E.C. member from beloved Democrat's speeches and historical taking the range on public opinion on Houston who is opposed to the four-year moments. amendment four. term for governors, told the Observer that "The S.D.E.C. cannot afford to fail in Gen. Preston Weatherred of Dallas is its endorsement was supposed to have been this effort, so please 'gear up' and get the the principal business spokesman in Texas effected at the S.D.E.C. meeting in Ama- vote out for '4'. Let us hear from you im- on politics. In his latest "Interested Par- rillo at which Gov. John Connally an- mediately if we can count on you in this ties" newsletter he reprints a letter Con- nounced for a third term, but that the program." nally has written for No. 4 and says of matter was not taken up because she let A postcard was enclosed asking the state government, "Change in its top man- it be known she would speak against it. S.D.E.C. members if they would work in agement every 24 months runs contrary to There would have been no doubt about the campaign. At no point in this Mailing good business sense and business experi- the outcome. The S.D.E.C. is firmly con- were the S.D.E.C. members asked for their ence." He says that "the AFL-CIO, PASO, trolled by the governor, who is working views • on amendment four. The Harris liberal, big Yarborough little Yarborough hard with -business and other groups for County quota was $15,240, according to junta" sees No. 4 as a chance "-to humili- the four-year term and who was expected Mrs. Carr. ate Gov. Connally, whom they hate as their to , go on statewide TV to speak for it. An enclosure entitled "How to be 'for' political enemy"; also, Weatherred said, On Oct. 8, the Observer can report, Will 4—effectively!" said, "Be for 4 publicly "for them, there is the chilling political co- Davis, the new S.D.E.C. chairman, Mrs. and vociferously; don't be against any of incidence" that Connally's four-year term Alfred Negley, vice-chairman, and Ray them publicly. . . : [O]ther amendments would expire in 1970 "on the same day and Pearson, secretary, wrote all members of . . . have appeal to certain groups—pen- hour" when Sen. Yarborough's present the S.D.E.C. telling them they had "an sioners who need to continue receiving term ends. obligation" to work for amendment four, their welfare checks (No. 3) and the stu- The Texas Mid-Continent Oil and Gas giving them money-raising quotas, saying dent loan amendment (No. 6) •. Utilize their Assn., which is the voice of the major oil "The S.D.E.C. cannot afford to fail in this affirmative interest . . . to be also 'for 4'. companies in Texas, endorsed four-year effort," and urging S.D.E.C. members to • "Call your friends to recruit workers. governors' terms. "Contact hospitals, nursing homes, and Say: 'Governor Connally has asked me to Speaker Ben Barnes is for No. 4. He homes for the aged; get them to vote bed- ask you to help us pass Amendment No. 4 was opposed to Amendment 10, to provide ridden patients absentee." on November 2.' If they say, 'You bet, I'll four-year terms for House members, but The letter from the three said: help,' then ask them to call 10 of their has announced now that he will vote for "As your, steering committee we have friends and repeat the process and broaden this, too. been in conference with Governor Connal- the 'Connally Circle'! .. . Forces of the liberal-labor opposition in ly, Lt. Gov. Smith, Attorney General Carr, "Contact hospitals, nursing homes, and Texas have organized as "Citizens to Keep State Treasurer James, State Comptroller homes for the aged; get them to vote bed- Government Close to the People" to fight Calvert, Land Commissioner Sadler, and ridden patients absentee. . . . amendments four and ten. Member organi- Agriculture Commissioner White, the state- "Call all your precinct chairmen and/or zations include Texas AFL-CIO's Commit- wide Democratic officials who are now captains; this is an excellent way to start tee on Political Education, the Texas elected for two-year terms of office, con- spadework for next year's elections." Council of Voters, the Senior Citizens' cerning the proposed constitutional amend- Four days after this letter went out, Council, the Teamsters' DRIVE, PASO, ment to increase the terms to four years. Davis, Mrs. Negley, and Pearson issued a the State Building Trades Council, the . . . All of us are of the opinion that this statement to the press arguing for amend- State Industrial Union Council, the rail- amendment is vital and necessary. . . . ment four. way brotherhoods, the Texas Organization "All of us were greatly relieved when In his formal statement for the four- of Liberal Democrats, the Farmers' Union, Governor Connally decided to run for re- year term, Connally said it would "place and the State Democratic Women's Execu- election. He strongly feels that the amend- our state on the same modern basis as 39 October 29, 1965 9 ment is of extreme importance to more ef- other states which have seen the wisdom fective and efficient government in Texas. of longer terms for greater efficiency and Therefore, we have an obligation to join stability. Whether I am running for a two- with him and to do all that is necessary year term or a four-year term means noth- Largest Manufacturer to cause its adoption. ing whatever to me personally. But I am . . . we are activating the S.D.E.C. in convinced as a matter of principle that an all-out effort to stimulate voter interest four-year terms, which are already pro- of Political Printing in and support of this important 'four-year vided for local offices, have become vir- term' amendment. . . . You are urged to tually essential if the state government is in Texas activate your organization just like any to meet its vastly increasing responsibili- other campaign [sic] and go all out to win. ties." Use radio, television, newspapers, speeches, Connally opposed more than two terms FUTURA PRESS INC civic groups, and all the other devices you while campaigning against Gov. Price have employed so successfully before. We Daniel. On statewide TV he proposed a IF Hickory 2-8682'. Hickory 2-2426 have devised the enclosed pamphlet and constitutional amendment to limit gov- recommend its use in mailings, etc. ernors to two two-year terms an warned, 1714 SOUTH CONGRESS AVENUE "The S.D.E.C. will act as the finance that an eight-year governor could domi- P. 0. BOX 3485 • AUSTIN, TEXAS committee and we feel that contributions nate every state board and that this would tive Committee. Labor has put out 100 billboards stress- ing an anti-politician theme in calling for the defeat of four and ten. Leaflets, some of them in Spanish, are being distributed by the anti-four-year-term group. So are editorials from the Tyler Telegraph and the Observer. A related development is the "Publish- ers' Committee to Stop Amendments 4 and 10," composed of Houston Thompson of the Kountze Pine Needle, Charles Jetty of the Travis County Citizen, and Bob Barton of the Hays County Citizen, who have put out a letter to editors and publishers op- . posing four and ten. In Texarkana, Roy Evans, Texas AFL- CIO Secretary, -told the local labor council that amendments for and ten could make a governor a dictator. "Texas needs more democracy rather than less," he said. He charged $250,000 has been allocated to brainwash the people for the four-year term and criticized Connally for using his staff and the Democratic machinery of the state for the campaign to pass it. Evans said the longer terms would make officeholders less responsive to the will of the people, double patronage, and let the governor appoint every member of every board and commission whose offices have ... and 'assure six-year staggered terms. He said Birch- controlled counties_ will go heavily for the a stronger judiciary four-year term. As for organizational activity on other for Texas. amendments, the Dallas chamber of com- merce opposed amendments 2, 7, and 10, and favors the others. The Rio Grande Valley chamber of commerce opposed 6, 7, and 10; "tabled" 9; and set aside 3 for further study. The Texas State Teachers' Assn. announced support of 1, 5, and 6. The Texas Social Welfare Assn.'s direc- tors endorsed 3. The Travis County Demo- cratic Women's. Cmte. suggested voting no on all of them.

`Party Harmony'

Houston The chairmen of both the Republi- can and Democratic parties in Harris County have jointly declared against Providing for the automatic retirement of District four-year terms for governors. and Appellate Judges at age 75, creating the State Amendment four, said Jim Mayor of the GOP and Democratic chairman Judicial Qualifications Commission, defining its func- Bill Kilgarlin, would be "detrimental tions; and empowering the Supreme Court, upon to government and honest politics in Texas" and would be unwise without recommendation of said Commission, to remove Dis- prohibiting "excessive continuation in trict and Appellate Judges for misconduct and to retire office by one person or one party." Other four-year-term states limit how such Judges in cases of disability. long a governor can serve or have highly-developed two-party systems, they said. The President is limited to two four- year terms, they said. After No. 4 is defeated, they said, the legislature could draft a new proposal for four- year terms "with adequate safeguards against the indefinite 'perpetuation of one man in office." The two chairmen noted that neither of their party's state committees has taken "a formal position" on No. 4. 0 zens or non-citizens who have lived in the practice, appointed by the board of direc- U.S. for at least 25 years (thus including tors of the State Bar; and three non-law- between 20,000 and 30,000 aged Mexican yers at least 30 years old, not holding any non-citizens in Texas). Without the change salaried public office or employment, ap- THE TEN in the residence requirements the U.S. will pointed by the governor. All nine appoint- not increase its matching contribution un- ments would be subject to Senate approval. der Kerr-Mills from 2-1 to 4-1. The needy The commission could act by a five-vote blind would become eligible for aid at 18 majority. No. 8 says that any state district Austin instead of 21; aid to dependent children or appellate judge "may . . . be removed It may be useful to summarize the sa- would be cut off, not at 16 as now, but at from office for willful or persistent conduct, lient factual aspects of the ten constitu- 21, and caretakers of them would be ex- which is clearly inconsistent with the prop- tional amendments to be voted on in Texas tended aid, including medical care. er performance of his said duties or casts Nov. 2 without turning aside to take up 4 would change the terms of the Texas public discredit upon the judiciary or ad- the pro and con contentions, which have governor, lieutenant governor, attorney ministration of justice; or any such justice been reviewed in the dailies for many general, comptroller, treasurer, land com- or judge may be involuntarily retired for weeks. missioner, and agriculture commissioner disability seriously interfering with the 1 would increase the five-cent state prop- from two to four years, effective in 1966. performance of his duties which is, or is erty tax dedicated to the college build- Texas state government statewide elections likely to become, permanent in nature." ing program, making the overall state would then occur thereafter every four The commission's proceedings would be property tax 47 instead of 42 cents per years when presidential elections were not confidential, but "upon being filed in the $100 valuation. In 1964 receipts from the occurring. Thirty-five states now elect Supreme Court the record loses its confi- 5-cent tax were $5.2 million. Five new their governors for four years. Of the 35, dential character." The commission could colleges would be added to the 12 that now 23 provide that the governor can't succeed only recommend to the Texas Supreme participate in the fund: the new ones would himself or that he can't serve more than Court the removal or involuntary retire- be the Arlington, Midwestern, Pan-Ameri- two successive terms. Amendment 4 con- ment of a judge; the court could act only can, and San Angelo colleges and the Uni- tains no limit on how long a governor may after another hearing, and could accept versity of Houston. Passage of No. 1 would serve. If No. 4 passes, Gov. Connally, who or reject the commission's recommendation. put the colleges in line for $50 million in has announced for a third term beginning About 10% of Texas appellate and district matching federal funds which otherwise in 1966, would serve, if elected, eight years, judges are at least 70; about 20% are at they won't get; Sen. Walter Richter, Gon- longer than any other Texas governor. least 65. A further question of fact is what zales, says the colleges will lose $70 mil- would make trustees of the teachers' is intended by the standards of conduct 5 alluded to in the amendment. Judge W. St. lion in such funds if No. 1 is not adopted. retirement fund constitutional, rather John Garwood, president of the Texas The basis for distributing the funds would than legislative officers, and would give be changed from actual recent to projected Civil Judicial Council which proposed this them more latitude than they now have reform, says few judges are too old or enrollments. Gov. John Connally asked re- in investigating the fund in stocks and seriously disabled, and "Even fewer still peal of the state property tax, and al- bonds. It would cut loose the fund from will ever be found morally unfit to remain though No. 1 would raise it, Connally was the present rule that investments of it in represented as not opposed to it as the in office." Dist. Judge Penn Jackson of stocks and bonds cannot be made outside Cleburne said to the State Bar judicial sec- college superboard endorSed it on Oct. 18. the patterns of the investments of the per- 2 would ask Texas voters, who refused to tion, which has endorsed No. 8, that a manent university and schools funds. The prompt method of removal should be adopt- approve another $150 million in bonds fund has reached about $850 million and ed for "those who disgrace the judiciary," for the veterans' land program in 1963, to grows at $80 million a year. approve $200 million. The whole program and Judge Walter Ely, U.S. Ninth Circut 6 would let the college coordinating board Court of Appeals judge, referred to law- dies if the amendment fails; if it carries, issue $85 million in bonds at 4% (high- the program continues eight years. The yers who loaf on the job. Chief Justice er than the federal loan program's 3%) Robt. Calvert of the Texas Supreme Court present maximum interest rate on veterans' and provide loans to college students who land is 4.5%; the pending amendment said No. 8 gives an opportunity "to rid the prove they need the money and are rec- judiciary of incompetent and irresponsible would authorize 5.5%; Land Cmsr. Jerry ommended by citizens where they live. The judges." He has written that judges must Sadler doubts it would go that high, as- board could set further standards. The rescue their integrity "from those few who serting that the average interest up to now colleges could not require higher standards think they can discharge their public and has been 3.25%. The maximum state loan of scholarship for loan recipients than for would go from $7,500 to $10,000 and the official obligations with a 24-hour work other students. The board could make loans week, those who believe a judicial salary maximum purchase price of $15,000 would to students at church colleges as well as is only a subsidy for sideline business ac- be discontinued. If land couldn't be sold to to those in the public colleges. Students veterans it could be sold to non-veterans. tivities. . . ." John Louis Shook, vice-presi- would have to start paying the loans back dent of the State Bar, wrote in the Dallas Sadler contends the state has made $2.5 four months after graduation and pay News Sept. 20 that according to experience million "profit" from the program and will them off within five years. Federal loans with such removal machinery in Califor- profit $5 million a year if the new bonds to college students allow ten years to re- nia, it will "also induce unworthy judges are approved. About 35,000 veterans have pay at the lower interest rate. The college to retire or resign rather than face justi- bought land under the program. It's esti- superboard endorsed No. 6 Oct. 18. fiable investigation and removal proceed- mated there are 1,000,000 veterans in 7 would exempt from local property taxes Texas. ings." hospitals in counties of more than 1.2 9 would let the legislature establish the 3 would bring state welfare aid stand- million people that provide free medical salaries of the lieutenant governor and ards in line with federal requirements. and hospital care to the poor that has been House Speaker higher than legislators' If it fails and the state does nothing else worth $1.5 million in a year and will be $4800 a year and would increase legislators' by July 1, 1967, all federal matching funds worth $1.8 million or more a year in the per diem pay from $12 to $20 and let them for medical care for old age assistance future. This means only Hermann Hospital get it 140 days during a regular session beneficiaries will be cut off. A state wel- in Houston at present. It would be relieved instead of only 120 days as now. fare department spokesman says if No. 3 of about $330,000 a year taxes; local offi- 10 would increase terms of members of doesn't pass eventually medical payments cials in Houston are not opposed. the Texas House of Representatives to the aged will all have to be cut off. 8 would require judges to retire at 75 or from two to four years. Only four states, Sen. Richter says failure to pass amend- such earlier age, not under 70, as the Alabama, Louisiana, Maryland, and Mis- ment 3 means "the death" of medical and legislature may prescribe. It would create sissippi, now have four-year terms for nursing home care for needy Texas old the state judicial qualifications commission: members of their lower legislative cham- people. The amendment would end the two civil appeals justices and two district ber. ❑ Texas citizenship requirement for aid and judges, all four appointed by the Texas require only that recipients be U.S. citi- Supreme Court ; two lawyers of ten years' October 29, 1965 J. on by next Jan. 31. The judges' turgidly- worded statement obviously meant that if you want to vote next year in Texas you Political Intelligence had better pay your poll tax. Jan. 31 is the deadline for doing so. Gov. Connally has bought a 14-acre tract on Lake McQueeney, adding this V Enactment of the first legislation for other important Great Society legislation, to his rapidly burgeoning land holdings. the Trinity River development formed and the President's wire said: "Jim Wright Texas AFL-CIO News, which a year a good backdrop as more than 4,000 per- has worked constructively for the people and a half ago said a poll among its sons paid $10 a head to attend the appre- of his district, state, nation, and all free members showed 56% of them would vote ciation dinner for Cong. Jim Wright in men of the world to achieve better under- for Connally for a second term, says that Fort Worth last weekend. An aide had standing of our common problems. We are in a new poll of members in metropolitan hinted in advance Wright might not run justly proud of his 17 years of public serv- areas, 69% said they would vote for "any- for the U.S. Senate, thus stirring up (as ice." Until Johnson sends a similar wire to one" running against Connally, while only his statement may have been intended to someplace Atty. Gen. Waggoner Carr is 23% said they probably would vote for do) Wright's supporters for the dinner. speaking, it can be assumed that he is for Connally. On the basis of this poll one Then Les Carpenter, obviously writing on Wright for the Senate. could conclude that Connally booted it the basis of a not-for-attribution interview Sen. Ralph Yarborough attended and with union members when he led out with Wright, flatly announced in his col- congratulated Wright on his legislative against repeal of 14-B. umn that Wright will run for the Senate. service. Also among the significant per- V So far the race for attorney general sons at the head table was Hank Brown, between Secretary of State Crawford President Johnson—recuperating at his president of the Texas AFL-CIO. Wires Martin and State Sen. Franklin Spears has ranch—sent a significantly warm wire: came from Vice President Humphrey, Gov. been an argument over whom-Connally- "There is nothing I would like better than John Connally, and Sen. John Tower. to be with Jim -Wright and my other loves-best. At the State Fair, Martin said friends at the dinner," Johnson said. He gt The three U.S. judges hearing the fed- if Spears thought Connally would vote for congratulated Wright for the Trinity River eral lawsuit challenging the Texas poll him, he'd lose his bet. Spears said all he'd tax—Judges Spears, Thornberry, and legislation and for being floor leader for said was he hoped the governor would vote , Brown—issued a statement saying that an for him since he'd supported the governor's 12 The Texas Observer appeal of their verdict could not be ruled legislative program. Martin endorsed the four-year term, but Spears opposed it on grounds that the absence of a limit on terms provides "too much unbridled power. No man should want it or should have it." V More than 100 attended the Hidalgo County PASO meeting as Cruz Alaniz, AMERICAN INCOME city commissioner of Alamo, was chosen chairman to replace Leo J. Leo, who ad- vises us he resigned because his city of La Joya (of which he's mayor) is spon- LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY soring a neighborhood youth project which is taking up his time. Albert Fuentes, Jr., state PASO president, was present at this meeting and made a rousing speech. OF INDIANA V Sen. Galloway Calhoun, Tyler, who otherwise must fight for his State Senate seat with Sen. Jack Strong, Long- view, is touring the state sounding out prospects for the attorney general's race. Underwriters of the American Income Labor Secy. of State Crawford Martin and Sen. Franklin Spears, San Antonio, have an- nounced; if Calhoun ran he and Martin would draw votes from the more conserva- Disability Policy tive segthents of the electorate. fro Atty. Gen. Waggoner Carr, running for the U.S. Senate, told the Dallas Times- Herald he is "avoiding any discussions of issues or platforms until early next year" because of pending lawsuits on redistrict- Executive Offices: ing and the poll tax. "We want to get these

, P.O. Box 208 Since 1866 Waco, Texas The Place in Austin GOOD FOOD Bernard Rapoport, President GOOD BEER 1607 San Jacinto OR 7-4171

• out of the way before we begin any politi- cal action at all," he said. Response to his announcement for the Senate has been "almost overwhelming," Carr was quoted. K Opal fettet korn Chtis Dixie V State Sen. Don Kennard, Fort Worth, is most pleased with the 1,100 people who turned out at a luncheon in his honor. Kennard will run for Cong. Jim Wright's a9aingt aneOtenents a0 10 seat in Washington. The dinner in Ken- nard's honor was attended by Lt. Gov. P.O. Box 1356 Preston Smith, Carr, Speaker Ben Barnes, Austin, Texas and other state oficials; the President, Gov. Phone GR 6-8240 John Connally and Wright sent words of Dear Friend: praise. State senators present included Schwartz, Creighton, Hightower, Spears, The constitutional amendments election on Tuesday, November 2, 1965, will Rogers, Hazlewood, Word, Blanchard, and critically affect the future of our state. You and I have engaged in many a poli- Hall. tical fight and convention battle together but none more important than V The son of insuranceman-conservative this struggle to defeat Amendment Four and Ten which propose a four-year term Carr Collins, James Collins, is a likely without safeguards for the governor and other state officials. candidate for Congress in the western dis- trict in Dallas also being eyed by Cong.-at- As Senator Yarborough has said, "such a proposal might have merit in a real large Joe Pool. Pool says he'll probably an- two-party State with a strong party out of power watch-dogging a Governor's nounce about Jan. 1. . . . Sen. Walter acts, or in a State with a limit on the number of terms a Governor might serve. Richter, Gonzales, is discouraged about run- But this pending proposal has absolutely no such safeguards. It is a 100% give- ning for Congress. He told the Observer away of a people's power to control their own government." it would take a lot of money and he didn't Additionally, in a statewide TV broadcast in February 1962 Governor Connally know if he could get it without making indicated his own concern over such a power concentration and actually advocated commitments, which he wouldn't make. a constitutional amendment limiting the term of a governor in Texas to two con- Jon Ford quotes him in the Express that secutive two year terms. (Amendment 4 has no such limitation in even the four he would need $40,000 and has "no angels." year term). He's effectively squeezed out of the State Senate race by redistricting. Sens. Bill Pat- At that time, Connally said: "Such a Governor will completely dominate every man, Ganado, and Culp Krueger, El Campo, Board, Commission and Authority in the state . . . dominate in the sense that he are likely to run against each other for the will have appointed at least once every single member of each Board and I am new 18th district in which Richter is also unalterably opposed to that in principle because the last thing that Texas needs an incumbent senator. . . . Robert Harvey, is one man rule." (Dallas Morning News, February 16, 1962.) Houston businessman and liberal, an- nounced he will run for Congress, but But now we find the current chairman of the SDEC and certain special interest didn't say in which district. Liberals Bob groups expediently making an all-out effort to secure the adoption of this danger- Eckhardt and Bill Kilgarlin are already ous, unlimited four year term amendment. Even the Governor, who would be the running in two districts and a liberal first personal benificiary of such a change, has ancelled his trip to the Far East wouldn't have much chance in the third mainly to rather gracelessly campaign for hiS own four year term. district of Harris County. Walt Mansell, The point is—that all citizens believing in democracy and opposed to "one man the Houston Chronicle's political reporter, rule" have a real job to do. Activate the political workers in your community. Do says D.A. Frank Briscoe is "nearly certain" all you can to get out the vote to defeat Amendments 4 and 10. Please, if you are to run in that conservative congressional able, send contributions for radio and TV spots. Make every one of these last few district and may be opposed by Rep. Paul days count. Properly aroused, the people can win this battle for Texas by defeat- Floyd.. . . Rep. John Alaniz, San Antonio, ing 4 and 10 on Tuesday, November 2nd. is running for county commissioner, he an- nounced. . . . The name of Dallas lawyer Sincerely, Irving Goldberg has been added to that of D.A. Henry Wade in connection with the open federal judgeship in Dallas. . . . Mrs. John Connally is quoted on a Dallas News women's page admitting she "probably Chris Dixie would be very pleased" if one of her sons entered politics. John, 19, is a college sopho- P.S. If you can use a flyer for distribution in your community, please call me, more; Mark is 10. . . . Dan Blocker, TV star with a yen for Texas politics about A/C 512, GR 6-8240.'If I am not in, please leave your name and telephone number 1970, will be 1966 Texas cancer crusade and we will call you back. chairman. He attended the Wright dinner. Make checks out to "Citizens Committee" . . . and call your friends . . . our V Houston voters Nov. 20 decide friends, now. whether to finance a hospital district that's been turned down four times-before. Civic leaders are trying hard .for this one. The mayor's election the same day will bring to an end a somewhat acrimonious contest between Louie Welch, the incum- bent, and ex-mayor Lewis Cutrer. V Sherman Miles, legislative director of VOTE "720" Texas AFL-CIO, will become na- tional COPE representative for Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, and Mis- souri. Lyman Jones, state labor's PR man, Oft aineOpneftts 10 72co 2, has gone to California. 965 V Sen. Yarborough voted for cloture, Sen. Tower against it, as the Senate (Pd. Adv.) refused 47-45 to cut off debate on 14-B, i/ Tower's re-election continues to be the meaning the right-to-work provision will Tower Whacks Birchers No. 1 Republican objective next year, be retained until next year. But then, ac- pog Sen. John Tower has in effect declared with no other serious statewide race con- cording to Cong. Graham Purcell, Wichita himself an open enemy of the John templated. GOP Senate Majority Leader Falls, its passage by the Senate is likely. Birch Society. This fact has considerable Dirksen speaks for Tower Oct. 31 in Mid- Tower didn't get to deliver his long oration political significance of unpredictable pro- land; Richard Nixon in Dallas Nov. 4; and against repeal because the Senate Demo- portions. Barry Goldwater in San Antonio Nov. 5 crats threw in the towel, but it was put (at $250 a plate). into the Congressional Record anyway Tower told newsmen at a Republican (four pages of it). Hank Brown, state meeting in El Paso, "I believe the John goof Sen. Wayne Morse, Oregon, slipped in labor president, is quoted that "It appears Birch Society is a liability to the conserva- charging Gov. Connally with responsi- the administration has done all it can" tive cause. I think they tend to be too bility for low wages along the border, say- about repealing 14-B this year. exclusive and accept certain premises that ing they were in textile mills. Connally I don't accept and a lot of people don't said Morse "is never concerned with nor vor Only four Texas congressmen, Burle- accept." restrained by the facts." Roy Evans, Texas son, Dowdy, Fisher, and Teague, held Even greater finality of import is con- labor's No. 2 man, agreed with Morse, say- out against presidential pressure and voted tained in remarks attributed to Tower in ing his only mistake was saying textile the San Antonio Express Oct. 19. The Ex- instead of garment factories. Morse re- against the highway beautification bill the peated his charge then, saying garment President wanted passed ("for Lady Bird," press said Tower, contacted in Houston, said: "The point I'm trying to make is that factories. Tower defended Connally in his some pundits said) before he went to the while they [Birchers] are patriotically dispute, as he has taken to doing the last hospital for his operation. . . . Cong. de la motivated, they arrive at a lot of conclus- few months every time the governor is Garza and Mahon voted against the final ions that can't be substantiated. People attacked on a federal matter. ("I don't know how long this will keep up," he said compromise farm bill. . . . The final law who want to effectively fight a trend good-humoredly in El Paso.) The Re- _ on federal funds for HemisFair includes toward socialism should disassociate them- selves from the society." publican senator was quoted in a Rosen- $125,000, half that asked. berg speech opposing a central federal i/r Tower is going to Vietnam at govern- 14 The Texas Observer educational policy and favoring a compact ment expense No. 20. At El Paso he of the states, which he said "our governor" condemned demonstrators against the war is for. EUR OPE as "reprehensible." In his address there An unregimented trip stressing Individual he said the U.S. should consider more use freedom. Low cost yet covers all the usual of Chiang Kai-Shek's troops in Vietnam. The Nov. 6 Meeting plus places other tours miss. Unless the Tower recently visited with Madame standard tour is a "must" for you, discover Chiang in Washington. Tower has endorsed Four speakers for the statewide meet- this unique tour before you go to Europe. ing of the Texas liberals were announced EUROPE SUMMER TOURS a NATO for the Pacific to contain Asian 255 Sequoia, Dept. J—Pasadena. California Communism and to involve more Asian Monday by Chris Dixie, temporary chair- troops in that endeavor. man of the Texas Organization of Liberal Democrats — Clarence Laws, Southwest regional director of the NAACP, and Rev. William B. Oliver, Beaumont, both on the SPLIT RAIL INN civil rights movement; Dr. Clifton Mc- MARTIN ELFANT Clesky, professor of government at the 217 South Lamar University of Houston, on the condition of Sun Life of Canada state government ; Dr. Joe Nogee, professor Austin of government at the University of Texas, 1001 Century Building on the UN and disarmament; and Ronnie Dugger, the Observer editor, on foreign policy. There will be other speakers also, Where Union Houston, Texas Dixie said. Originally pessimistic about attendance, Men Meet CA 4-0686 Dixie said Monday he now expects "a very good attendance," with plans in the making for the chartering of buses from San An- tonio and Austin, a report of many plan- ning to attend from Dallas, and communi- SUBSCRIBE cations from liberals in "far West Texas Garner & Smith Bookstore and far East Texas." OR RENEW The gathering begins "lounge-style" Fri- 2116 Guadalupe day evening, Nov. 5, in a room on the mez- THE TEXAS OBSERVER zanine of the Rice where there will be re- GR 7-9725 Austin, Texas 504 West 24th Street freshments, talk, and, if those who show Austin 5, Texas up that night wish, a meeting, Dixie said. The formal meeting is to be held all the RATTLESNAKES, J. Frank Dobie Enclosed is $5.00 for a one- next day at the Rice. year subscription to the Observer First Editimi. $5.00 post-paid Dixie said he has it in mind that panels for: be formed by the forthcoming organization Name in areas of liberals' interests to maintain THE TEXAS RANGERS, Walter continuing study and to report back to sub- Address sequent meetings. He hoped resolutions Prescott Webb would not be advanced Nov. 6 in areas City, State requiring extensive study. Foreword by Lyndon B. Johnson This is a renewal. "We are going to announce that the whole foreign policy area is not any longer $10.00 post-paid 11] This is a new subscription. a taboo area that we are not supposed to have opinions about," Dixie said. Li find ten lawyers who practice before a sick or lazy judge who have the courage to accuse him publicly. The remedy for a no, our pusillanimous profession is not to make it subject to even more intimidation! There is another remedy the lawyers Having thoroughly reconsidered our po- We agree that something should be done don't mention, since some of them want it sition last issue on Amendment No. 8, about sick or lazy judges—(dishonest ones abolished. The voters can refuse to re-elect which would let a nine-man commission can be indicted)—but we already have two a sick or lazy judge. investigate district and appellate judges methods of removing judges, by legislative We are told that since the State Bar and in secret and then recommend in public trial and two-thirds vote of the legislature, the judiciary are all-out for this amend- that they be fired, we are convinced that or by trial before the Texas Supreme Court. ment, we should be awed and say Yes our earlier hesitation in recommending a The latter method does not apply to appel- Your Honor. A "suggested speech" for "8" "no" vote was not well founded. We should late judges, but it could be extended to put out by the State Bar closes with the not have hesitated. cover them easily. Why didn't the judicial mannikin-speaker asking, "For, if the 1. The commission would be made up of reformers take this route? They give the judges of Texas are for it, who shall be four judges appointed by the Texas Su- incredible argument that you just can't against it?" The people. ❑ preme Court and five other members ap- pointed by the board of directors of the State Bar (two members) and the gover- nor (three). We all know the State Bar is basically conservative and has much poli- ..7wo 2)ctikei 4 tics in it. A 5-4 majority of this board could easily be politically conservative, especially since the Supreme Court itself The Tyler Morning Telegram editorial- "Then there is the problem of excessive is also a political backwater and has be- ized Oct. 15 against a four-year term for power. For example, a governor serving come very conservative. Texas governors, saying in part:- two terms under the four-year system This new commission could frighten al- "While the idea for a four-year term would have the privilege of appointing a most any judge into retirement by threat- has considerable merit, it has been our majority of members on many state boards ening to investigate him in secret. The contention that such a plan also should and commissions. Appointees owing their threatened judge would surely know that include a non-succession clause. Eight positions to a single official are naturally the very fact he was so challenged would years is too long for one man to control subject to his influence and control. ruin him if it was made public, as it would the state's government, whoever the man "We would remind also that a dangerous be if the 5-4 majority of the commission may be. . . . weakness in Amendment 4 is its failure to voted to recommend to the Supreme Court "Today, Tyler is scheduled to welcome include any limitation upon the number that he be fired or retired. Gov. Connally to the Rose Festival. of terms a Texas governor is allowed to 2. This would not be enough reason for "Now serving his second two-year term, serve. opposing "8" if the grounds for removal Gov. Connally would have a total of eight "House members, of course, are supposed had been strictly worded. The amendment years in the state's top office if he should to be closer to the people than members of says that any judge may be removed from win a four-year term in the next election. the Senate. . . . The cause of good govern- office "for willful or persistent conduct, We believe Gov. Connally has been an ef- ment would be hurt if a member of the which is clearly inconsistent with the prop- fective state leader, and we also firmly House could go so long without having to er performance of his said duties or casts believe that no man should hold the gov- come back to the people with his successes public discredit upon the judiciary or ad- ernor's office for eight years. and his failures, his strengths and his ministration of justice." What is "public "Quoting Rep. Hollowell: weaknesses." ❑ discredit," the vague idea of unpopularity " 'I am opposed to any one man serving or public displeasure, doing in this pro- more than two two-year terms as governor, posal? And what is the meaning of "ad- and if the four-year term for the gover- ministration of justice" in that wording? norship is approved, we will have a one- If a judge repeatedly rebukes his fellow man rule in Texas.' Urgently for 3 judges for trends in their decisions favor- "To. our mind, the situation could not ing big insurance companies, for instance, be stated better. or severely criticizes recent decisions of "In another area, the proposed four-year We abridge an editorial from the Alamo the U.S. Supreme Court, as he has a right term amendment recently has drawn the Messenger of San Antonio, which is "single- to do; if he unearths corruption among fel- support and endorsement of the State shotting" for amendment three in the Nov. low judges and persists in investigating it; Democratic Executive Committee. 2 election: or if he "willfully" hands down a ruling "Since the committee is considered the We deliberately single out Propdsition 3 severely condemning law enforcement offi- voice of Governor Connally, this statement simply because it relates to the poor. All cials who have abused a citizen's rights— is about as surprising as the answer would Christians have a very special responsi- could not he be accused of conduct incon- be should one ask a Kellogg Company offi- bility to them, individually and socially. sistent with "said duties" (which ones, the cial what his favorite breakfast food might Others can wage their own campaigns, but amendment never did "said") or of having be." the cause of the poor has no champion at cast "public discredit upon the judiciary or the ballot box unless it is found in the com- administration of justice"? 4 munity of men who believe that each is his 3. In our system, the separation of pow- In the course of opposing both amend- brother's keeper. ers into the legislative, the judiciary, and ments four and ten for four-year terms, [The amendment] authorizes the state the executive is fundamental. What is the the Beaumont Enterprise editorialized Oct. legislature to participate fully in joint governor doing here, appointing three 21 state-federal programs for assistance to members of a superboard over the Texas "Long terms of office tend to alienate the needy of our state—the aged, the blind, judiciary? Let it be not denied that with the public official from those who elected the totally disabled, and children deprived the power to hold investigations and then him. He loses touch with his constituents of parental support. make all of the evidence and findings pub- and becomes less responsive to the needs Among other things, the amendment lic, these nine men would have tremendous and desires of the people. In contrast, a would permit the legislature to increase power over the judiciary. If the amend- campaign every two years carries the of- from 16 to 18 the age of dependent children ment passes it should be challenged on ficial straight back to the grass roots, who may be eligible to receive public as- grounds of federal constitutionality be- where he soon learns what the public cause of this factor. thinks of the job he is doing. October 29, 1965 15 sistance. This will encourage these children MANI'MP4h1#••••••~NMINMINM••••••••••••••••#••••••••••~4~~#* to stay in school rather than drop out and seek jobs to support themselves and their relatives at 16 when assistance is stopped, as at present. The eligibility age for this Dialogue type of assistance would be as high as 21 for those continuing in school to that N##•••+141###•#••••••••••••••#I•4•#I'• age. Texas is the only state which cuts off ,D4NND4•••••••••••4•••••••IP'•44'#••••••• assistance to dependent children at age 16. Amendment 6 Is Needed due process. The court may freely reject The proposal would also authorize the any commission recommendation. legislature to extend the present old age The Observer has overlooked matters of The whole procedure involves action by assistance program to senior non-citizens vital concern to the welfare of Texas in 18 persons, of whom 13 are fellow-judges who have lived in this country for 25 years. failing to endorse constitutional amend- of the accused (nine Supreme Court jus- At present, and regardless of the depths ment six, to provide a student loan fund tices and four judges on the commission). of their poverty, aged persons cannot re- program [see editorial last issue]. Many This, I believe you will agree, is fair to the ceive old age assistance unless they are students are attending college at a severe accused judge. citizens by birth or naturalization. This is financial cost to themselves and their ekceedingly important to a small group of families. An estimate of "typical essential 3_ Your reference to the description of the needy aged in Texas. Most of those who student expenses," covering only bare misconduct omits some pretty important would benefit are of. Mexican origin. Be- expenses, by the Texas Cmsn. on Higher words, such as "willful or persistent." The cause of advanced age and language or Education in 1964-'65 (nine months) was wording is no more vague than many in- educational deficiencies, the naturalization $1,040. For poor families the cost of. a stances elsewhere in the Constitution, such process is too much for them. Yet, they student's living away from home is a as "due process of law." In the case of have lived among us for 25 years—some tremendous burden, and the loss of income impeachment, lawyers tell me, the Con- much longer—they have worked and con- the student could have been making can stitution itself provides no definition at all of misconduct. tributed to the economy, usually at low cause severe hardship. For the student, wages which prohibited any accumulation the strain of keeping up with classwork Harvey Payne, Austin, Texas. of savings; they have paid their share of and holding down a heavy job is tremend- taxes, and their citizen sons have served ous. It's no wonder that 30 to 50% of the What Schizophrenia Is and even now serve in the military forces highly able high school graduates do not go to college! . . . Like many others, Dr. Louis Galam- of the nation. Above all, they are our fel- bos [in "The Schizophrenia of Texas Lib- low human beings. They get just as hungry, I agree with you about the need for erals," Obs. Sept. 17] has committed a just as cold, and suffer the indignities of federal scholarship funds, but I am only glaring malapropism which is unfortunate- poverty just as deeply, as if they were too aware of the present needs of students ly the keel image of his article. Schizo- citizens. Texas is among only four states for college money now. If the loan program phrenic patients do not exhibit and never that deny assistance to the otherwise quali- passes, it will provide funds for at least have exhibited "split personality" or a "di- fied non-citizen aged who have lived in this 11.5% of the state's college students in vision of intelligence." • . . What Dr. Gal- country for long periods of time. We are 1966. At the present only 2% are receiving ambos and many others are referring to . . . the only state bordering on Mexico which any kind of scholarship aid from the state; is actually the syndrome of "multiple per- does so. the mean-average assistance is about $100 sonalities," a very rare condition thought We do sincerely hope that Texas will be a year. In addition about $5 million, by the behavioral sciences not to be patho- big enough in heart to prove it cares for its mostly National Defense Education Act genically related to schizophrenia. In con- poor and for its unfortunate. loan money, is now being distributed, and trast, the schizophrenic patient exhibits a THE ALAMO MESSENGER there are additional funds from private syndrome of mental dysfunction charac- 16 The Texas Observer sources, but even so the financial contri- terized by autistic behavior, difficulty In butions are small and inadequate. relating to others emotionally, disrupted The purpose of using a loan fund rather \ thought processes, frequently including than scholarships is to help stretch the hallucinations and delusions, and extreme education dollar as far as possible. There ambivaletice in acting. . . . —J. S. Hoch- would be a maximum interest rate of 4%. man, senior student, Baylor College of I hope every citizen will, seriously consider Medicine. the needs of the students and vote for amendment six! Appreciations Jamie Byrne, administrative assistant to Roses for Mae Tuggle! After six years the student president, Students' Assn., Uni- of messing around with literature at U.T. versity of Texas, Austin, Tex. and the poor Texas liberals, I must say that your poetess is the greatest.—Mrs. A. B. Amendment 8 Safe and Fair Clayton, 1507 Northwood, Austin, Tex. In connection with your remarks about My five dollars enclosed. I have already amendment eight [Obs. Oct. 15], you might received my money's worth from Franklin consider : Jones' most informative and entertaining account of the trip last summer.—Virginia 1. The functions of the Texas Supreme L. Ragsdale, PO Box 732, San Andreas, Court and proposed judicial qualifications Cal. commission could hardly involve the po- •itical views of the members as "conserva- Your story by Mr. Greg Olds in the Sept. tive" or "liberal." And this, I believe, is 17 issue on Mathis was excellent—both well the conclusion of the Texas AFL-CIO, written and to my knowledge close to the which has endorsed the amendment. facts.—Skipper Lay, 1407 Bentwood Rd., Austin. 2. The only function of the commission is that of investigation and recommenda- The Astrodome piece by Larry McMur- tion. The Supreme Court alone has the try was superb. He toured the Dome with power to remove a judge for misconduct a combined sense of revelation and isola- or retire him for disability against his tion, and his comments were both accurate will—and this only after a hearing with and humorous. He was truthful . . .—Bob every conceivable protection in the way of Bonazzi, 6102 Sherwood, Houston.