THE SOUTHERN PATRIOT Neighbors Ask the President: Book
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---------- The Southern Vol. 26, No. 1 PATRI0T January, 1968 Published by the Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF), Louisville, Ky. Revolt~ Repression Blaek and White Divided At Grautbling College Laurel Strike Is Broken (By Staff Correspondent) "Students at Grambling College go on, in large numbers, to (Editor's Note: A 'tecent strike in Laurel, Miss., between Local 5-443 of the Inter a graduate school called Professional Football." national Woodworkers of America (IWA) and the Masonite Co-rporation points up what -Esquire Magazine trade-union experts in the South have been saying for some time:-that industries in Prologue them to Take bite-size mouthfuls the region plan to use divisions between white and black workers in a new way. Grambling College, La., is yet and Break bread before eating. (For several generations the owners of land and indust?·y have kept political and economic control another of those black colleges Girls may not wear slacks; men may not wear beards and must by getting w hite w orkers to believe they had an identity of interest with the owners because of the that resemble plantations:-pat colo1· of their skin. A t the same time, black workers w ere pushed to the lowest rung of t he ladder. ronizingly protected by white keep their shirts tucked in. overseers, an administration be Magazines and reference books (Today, because of the new strength of black people and their movement for freedom, employers can longing to another era, academic are kept under glass at the li no longer keep them down. So the employe1·s now try to convince black worke1·s that they will do better standards too low to trouble ~ost brary, presumably because the by going along with management 1·ather than with the white workers. high-school sophomores. students might damage them. Strolling couples found holding (The 1·esult is the same:-a division w hich benefits nobody but the e.mployer. The Laurel strike is Students are treated like chil hands are told by a black matron, typical because it also involves the questi on of auto·m.atic mach·ines' replacing people; it also involves dren; every aspect of their lives "That is not nice." Afro haircuts the continued moving of mo1·e industries into the South. is supervised. Large signs hang are frowned upon and a student (Robe1·t Z ellner, directo1· of gmss-t·oots o1·ganizin_g work (GROW) for the Southern Conference in the dining hall, admonishing who cuts class three times gets Educational Fund (SCE F), and Jack Minnis, SCEF research director, went to Laurel several times an "F." during the strike. -Hostile Students If the school suffers aca (Robert Analavage, assistant edito1· of The Southern Pat?-iot, went with them. His article tells the demically (it lost its accredita story f?·om the standpoint of both the black and white workers. It is hoped that this analysis will help Are Won Over tion this year) it excels in all of us to unde?"stand the necessity for black-white 1mity in the st?"uggle fo?" econmnic and political de sports. Often, it has been called mocracy in America.) By Peace Tour a "beef factory" for the pro football leagues; indeed, only By ROBERT ANALAVAGE fusal to do work not included in workers at the lowest cost. The By NANCY HODES (Assistant Editor) Notre Dame (with a student their job descriptions. experts suggested that the plant GREENSBORO, N.C.-Hostile, body six times larger) has LAUREL, Miss. -The strike But it began a long time before be totally reorganized, with auto sometimes violent, students greet more players in the pro leagues formally began in April, 1967, that. It began when Masonite mation the eventual goal. Masonite calls its operation ed our peace tour at several than Grambling, whose student when a shop steward was fired brought in a team of efficiency North Carolina colleges. But their population is 4,200. by a foreman. The steward was experts to determine how to make here the largest hardboard plant behavior was so bad that other backing two workers in their re- the most profits with the fewest in the world; it produces a The president of the school, students and teachers were shock $250,000 weekly payroll for the Laurel Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones, is ed, and many came to our meet area. The company and the local, largest also the baseball coach, and the ings-so some good situations in Mississippi, have had bitter struggles dean of men is the football coach. came out of the bad ones. over the years, but nothing to rival this Reason enough for students to one. I spent a month traveling in refer to their yearbook as a hard the state for SCEF, along with back edition of Sports Illustrated. This- time the local, considered the Tom Gardner, Lyn Wells and most militant in the state and possibly Bruce Smith of the Southern Stu The Revolt in the South, saw the actions of the dent Organizing C o m m i t t e e - company as the opening of an effort "Awaken black brothers and (SSOC). Here are some of the to destroy the local completely. It did sisters! I t doesn't make sense highlights of the third SCEF not hesitate to strike once it felt its for a person in college to live like SSOC peace tour: interest threatened. a man in the Ghetto. Yes, a At AP.palachian State, in Ghetto in the black belt of The strikers set up mass picket lines Boone, we had a mob scene. A Mississippi or even Viet Nam!" and refused to allow anyone, including crowd surrounded our literature - The In[01-mers •·' management personnel, inside the plant. table, shouting very crude re Hulse Hayes, a lawyer from the firm of marks, and finally ripping up our Much as a ghetto rebellion the late anti-union Senator Robert Taft, literature and throwing it at us. shatters the peaceful facade went to court for Masonite, seeking an built on a city's apathy, so are After discussion with the injunction against the union's activities. the order and tranquility of a Dean, we agreed to leave cam A lower-court judge upheld the strik pus temporarily, as the atmo college shattered when its stu ers' right to picket peacefully, so Hayes dents rise in revolt. A group of sphere was not conducive to appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Grambling students calling them rational discussion. The group Court. outside had at this point begun selves The Informers began to During the court proceedings the local to sing, "My Country 'Tis of hold discussions on what was argued that it had been pushed into the Thee," and we walked out into wrong with their school; through strike and so was unable to give the re a shouting mob of about 400 mass distribution of circulars quired ten days' notice before striking. people. they invited all students to take The local subpoenaed documents and part in a dialogue on how the exposed Masonite's reorganization plan. As we walked through the stu wrongs could be corrected. dents, Lyn and I didn't feel that The documents also showed that the we should leave like that, with Miss Gale Daggs, one of The company had hired Wackenhut guards out talking to some of the peo Informers, says: "If you want 10 days before the strike began. ple in the crowd. Lyn asked a to keep people down and op lta~~~G:;!~~J~ These guards come f rom t he same prof how he accounted for this pressed, don't let them get edu Ui~~l';;~~~ private detective agency used by Gover- kind of behavior. He stared at us cated and, most important, never GUN-TOTING WACKENHUT GUARDS patrolled Masonite's nor Claude Kirk to police the state of with disgust for a while and said, let them have a dialogue." Laurel plant during the seven-month strike (photos by Bob Florida. finally, "Patriotism, t hat's all, (Continued on page 8) Analavage). (Continued on pa ge 4) patriotism." As I got into the car I asked a boy in the crowd why he would Another SCEF-Case in Supre"'-e Court not talk to us. He had lovely blue (By Staff Correspondent) voided the sedition law. (Excerpts from this remarkable and historic eyes but t he hatred in them as LEXINGTON, Ky.-Last September three federal judges put opinion are on Page 3.) he stared silently was ugly. I seized SCEF documents in the hands of Thomas Ratliff for safekeep On that same day, Ratliff and the McSurelys got summonses from asked him a couple more times ing. a subcommittee headed by Senator McClellan of Arkansas. They were why he wouldn't talk, a nd he Last month the U.S. Government admitted in open court that copies told to bring the seized documents to a hearing in Washington. pushed me into the car, saying of some of the papers were given to a U.S. Senate investigator while McClellan claimed the papers would show that SCEF, SNCC, and "get the hell out of here". As we in Ratliff's care. other human-rights organizations were connected with ghetto upris drove off, someone thrust his Ratliff is the prosecutor who raided t'he home of Alan and Mar ings. Attorneys for SCEF and the McSurelys told the three federal hand in the window at Tom, and garet McSurely, SCEF workers in Pike County; carried away their judges that it would be illegal to turn over to McClellan any material someone smeared spittle over the papers; and put them in jail.