The Texas Observer OCT. 4, 1963

A Journal of Free Voices A Window to The South 25c

Letter from Selma, Alabama

Selma, Ala. called "the movement") says that only 200 vigilance committee was formed to watch Sept. 25, 1963 out of 14,000 Negroes who could be eligible out for abolitionists, to search "the houses Dear Readers : to vote are registered.* Such circumstances and boxes of slaves" for arms, and to You will pardon me for abandoning the mean in practical effect that Negroes execute "summary and instant punish- usual forms and writing you a letter. So have no political leverage; they have no ment" against disturbers of the institution much has been happening here this week, legitimatized power to improve their gen- of slavery. By 1860, Dallas County had so much speechmaking, scowling, singing, eral condition. 26,000 Negroes and 8,000 whites. There demonstrating, so many arrests, so much Early last summer a Snick worker was a three-story house in the town that faith and so much anger, I could not, in named Bernard Lafayette arrived here and could accommodate (as the book said) 400 the time left me before I mail this, hope began encouraging local Negroes to try to to 500 Negroes. There was a sitting room to put it into some customary form, and register as voters. Before this week, 14 downstairs where they were exhibited and if I could, an excess of details might pit mass meetings were held, with attendance bought, "field hands, women and children the truth. ranging between 300 and 600. Father Mau- of all ages, sizes, and qualities." This was It has just begun to drizzle out my win- rice Ouellet, S.S.E., a 37-year-old Catholic the Selma that has descended to the pres- --dow at the Y, drizzle in a whirling way- priest who is the only white who speaks ent day: stately, well kept mansions and I can see the light flecks of rain churning out on the liberal side of the race question lesser high-peaked homes, and stately re- in defiance of gravity, gray against the here, says Negroes have been denied the fusals to meet with 1963 Negroes to discuss darkened double-door of a house across the right to vote when they tried to register any of their demands. street—but otherwise these have been because they can't pass a written test. The bright early fall days since I arrived here Father, who has a Negro parish, says that Monday afternoon, in time for the first of DESCENDED ALSO, perhaps, he knows a Negro college graduate who from the traditions of committees of vigil- the Negroes' mass night meetings this took the test twice and failed both times. week at their First Baptist Church. Only ance is burly Dallas County Sheriff Jim (A spokesman for the segregationist com- Clark's "posse," a group of at least 60, Negroes—no whites—are demonstrating in munity, "the white power structure," says Selma. About 280 have been arrested, and and perhaps as many as 300 men, specially that whites have also failed it.) "One man, deputized, whom Clark has carried with more will be. The demonstrators' headquar- one vote" has become the Negroes' cry in ters, a Negro church, has been heavily him to Birmingham and Tuscaloosa to help Selma, as it is in other parts of the South quell racial disturbances, and who have patrolled and watched by police. (and even in South Africa). Beyond that, The civil rights movement in the South joined regular local, county, and state cops of course, Negroes here are contending for here this week in routing the unresisting is being managed, or supervised, by several better jobs, better pay, the right to eat in organizations, which seem to have divided Negro children and youths who have dem- any cafe, the removal of the signs, "White," onstrated in the streets since Tuesday. The up their localities of concern, one taking "Colored." these cities and towns, another, those. possemen wear helmets of various colors They are braving history. I just dropped Selma, Alabama, a black belt town 90 miles —yellow, green, red, white—and uniforms south of Birmingham that was founded in on the public library, where the Negroes contrived sometimes of khakis, sometimes have recently been permitted to check out forty years before the civil war, falls with- just of work clothes ; they have clubs and in the jurisdiction, if that is the word, of books, but where, rather than have the electric prod sticks to help them in their reading room integrated, it has been the Student Non-Violent Coordinating work. Committee, nick-named, (after the way closed. Therefore, when I needed a place The whites in this deep Dixie town seem to thumb through the histories of Selma, its initials might sound with a vowel,) to be almost solidly opposed to substantial "Snick." Shortly Snick's young, dedicated I was directed into the reading room only concessions to the Negroes. When Gov. workers here will be moving next door into to find tables with no chairs, except for George Wallace spoke here to the Citizens' rural Mississippi, but they are not likely a stool for the lowest shelves, which I drew Council this summer, 6,800 attended. to find, even there, a town much more up to a children's table. It was an odd ex- Mayor Heinz, a director of 26 civic-type perience, squatting there in a reading room Southern than this. organizations, a successful businessman, Selma has 28,000 citizens; whites are in with no chairs at the tables. The gentle and a polite, cautious man, is a model of ladies behind the front counter turned on the majority by just 300, according to traditional civic probity. It is his position Mayor Chris Heinz. The county is named the overhead light for me. I found, in one that Selma will not change its racial cus- Dallas, after the father of Polk's vice- of the histories, accounts of Selma news- toms; that the demonstrations are all the president, and has about 56,000 citizens, paper ads for runaway slaves (in 1827, work of outside agitators (whose crucial 56% Negro. Voter registration figures are for "JOHN, a tall slim black fellow, about role in events here is, of course, manifest) ; hard to come by here, but a Negro minis- 27 or 28 years of age; CISILY, John's wife, and that Selma whites do not hate Negroes. ter in the Selma movement (in the Negroes' about 21 years old; her complexion not He has refused to discuss concessions with "any Negro group." Sheriff Clark, who speeches, the civil rights revolution is very black ; ROBIN, a yellow fellow, tall and stout made; has a large foot and re- says the Kennedy boys have "sold out for *The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights pro- markable long great toes. I think the one Negro votes," calls sit-ins "communist-led vides, as of Sept. 27, this official information: on the left is the largest. He has a scar on and inspired" and will not sit with a bi- In Dallas County, Ala., 242 Negroes, or 1.7% of his left arm just above the wrist about racial committee. The business community the estimated 14,509 voting age Negroes, are registered to vote. Of 14,400 voting-age whites, the size of a quarter dollar, and is about has been heard from in a full-page ad can- 8,953, or 63%, are registered to vote.—Ed. 20 years of age . . ."). In 1835, a Selma didly warning Negroes that demonstrations may cause "reprisals" which hurt the in- fumigating fumes. Death? "I do think of towering rage, that it was "a birthmark nocent as well as the guilty. it," he said. "I don't want to die, I'll be up the side of his head." The Justice De- Father Ouellet tried to get white clergy- frank about that. But I could be killed in partment, represented here by one of the men to speak out. They would not meet a car, or an airplane. If I must die, let me 24 white lawyers in the civil rights divi- until the demonstrations had literally start- die involved in a struggle, and let my death sion and by the only Negro attorney in that ed, Monday a week ago, and when 30 of be .meaningful. . . . When you have a pur- division, is expected to sue the accused of- them did, only three, two other priests and pose, you sort of forget about that." ficial (not Clark) in a few days under fed- one minister, agreed with him that a state- There have been some charges of vio- eral civil rights statutes. ment should be issued. The Father says a lence. When students sat in at downtown Death has come up many times during group of eight prominent Selma whites, drug stores, it is alleged in an affidavit, the mass meetings of the Negroes. When liberals and moderates, got in touch with a 15-year-old girl was pushed off a stool he addressed them Monday night, Lewis him, but that when he asked them to com- and, as she lay on the floor temporarily told them that if it was necessary, let blood mit themselves to sit on a bi-racial com- unconscious, jabbed with an electric prod. flow in the streets; but let it be Negroes' mittee, they all refused, giving business A Negro boy in this same drug store was blood, he said, because it should be inno- reasons. hit over the head with a blunt object, and cent blood. Again and again speakers said A group of white city leaders called the six or seven stitches taken in his head; they are ready to die if they have to for Father in and advised him to leave town Father Ouellet says he saw him after his this cause. Wednesday night, a Snick for his own protection, even telling him head had been shaved and the stitches speaker asked the crowd of 500 if they that he might get killed. He says he has taken. It is not alleged that officials were were ready to die, and they broke into received abusive calls. Onde as he passed involved in these matters. If charges have strong applause. I suppose that this comes a group of whites on his way into the jail been filed, the fact hasn't been announced. up so much because a person cannot mar- to visit demonstrators, he was called, as One Snick worker, Worth Long, a quiet, shal his courage against a vague danger; he says, "an adjective, adjective nigger- somberly resigned young Negro, alleges he must get the worst that can happen lover." I asked the Father, an impressive that when he was being processed in jail firmly in mind, and then decide if he can man of clean-cut feature and quiet ways, last week, he was slapped as many as six risk it. what sustains him when he thinks about times with an open palm, and struck as his meeting sudden death. He said quietly, many as four times with a clenched fist, EXCEPT FOR SNICK WORK- "I feel it's the same thing as a soldier. He and his Snick co-worker, Rev. Benny Tuck- ERS, nearly all of the people jailed have feels that he might get killed. But he's a er, was locked in solitary and heckled. Long been schoolage Negro chlidren. (One white bad soldier if he runs. He's afraid, possibly. has what seemed to me plainly to be a youth was arrested for advancing on a Ne- But if I left, I would feel I had turned on black eye—a dark half moon under his gro meeting with a live snake, which a Ne- my own parishioners. If there's not some- right eye—but Sheriff Clark told me, in a gro man says he threw on him.) Monday thing you're willing to die for, you're not really living. I think that was Martin Lu- ther King said that. I think that's true." Announcing the Resistance

I ASKED this same question of two Negroes. One, Mrs. A. P. Boynton, a widow who is an insurance agent, is a leader in the movement, and a lady of a dignity and courage that seem uncon- scious. She says she keeps arms in her house, "definitely," and gets calls every morning and night during which the caller says nothing at all. Why does Mrs. Boynton run the risk? "I'm running this risk," she says, "because I'm an American citizen and because my grandfather fought in the war between the states, and died. . . . My great- uncle was Robert Smalls, who seized a ship that was on the Confederate side and took it to the Union. . . . My nephews, my cous- ins, and my brothers all contributed, and some of 'em fought in World War II. I feel that all of my people have made a contri- bution to make America what it is, and why shouldn't I make a contribution to what they fought and died for? My con- tribution will be small compared to what they did." John Lewis of Georgia is 23—a short Negro man with a head that seems large for his body, a catlike, disembodied way of walking, eyes straight ahead. He is na- tional chairman of Snick, and so militant that other speakers at the Washington march censored his speech as too harsh— mainly too harsh on Kennedy. In Mont- gomery, as a freedom rider, surrounded by about 3,000 whites, he was beaten and left lying on the street• unconscious for about 45 minutes, according to the local paper. /1,v, 4.s.t In Nashville he and others were locked in (se■-s- a store which was then shot through with " 7fs-- A-gr,Truel( 2 The Texas Observer night's mass meeting was the most intense, strations have been sporadically effective Negro church, with about 500 people in most enthusiastic rally I have ever been to; in border states, where pressures are not the church, the telephone rang in the it is not even rivaled in my memory except so monolithic and the penalties against church office behind the rostrum. The by some especially wild high school foot- racial dissenters are not so thorough; but press present, two photographers and I, ball rallies. The 800 to 1,000 Negroes there doubt is growing among some civil rights were called into the office. Prathia Hall, pledged with songs, cheers, prayers, and actionists that this method can prevail in an inspirational orator on Snick's staff, standing, screaming outbursts that they the Deep South. Some of them are begin- stood underneath the bare bulb in the of- Will not be moved. Tuesday, 130 youths ning to speculate that only the federal fice, her face wrought in tension and con- were arrested trying to march toward the government can, for instance, enforce "one centration. There had been a bomb threat, downtown. When about 100 of them were man, one vote" in Selma, Ala., and that she said. A young boy sat by the phone stopped a block from the church, they therefore new methods must be tried, not against the wall; if he had not been Negro, kneeled down on the sidewalk of a public in Selma, Ala., but in Washington, D.C. I think he would have been pale. I asked housing development and sang "Ain't They speak of lying down on the steps of him his name, and he managed to say that gonna let nobody turn me 'round" until the Capitol, and in front of the President's it was Samuel Williams, age 16. He said they were directed onto buses and taken car, so that Negroes can vote in the South. he had answered the phone, and a man to jail. Then the 60 or so troopers, sheriffs, For in the plain language of force, the had said, "I'm gonna blow the place up," police, and possemen chased, pushed, and Selma struggle, and the Southern struggle, and hung up. About five minutes ago. prodded scores of Negro spectators out is characteristically an unequal one: words of the yards of the public housing develop- and songs and prayers vs. guns and clubs The press notified, and asked not to do ment, and off of their own front porches, and electric prod sticks. As Negroes' ap- anything, in any event, that might cause into the living rooms of their homes. "Go peals to the consciences of whites—the the crowd to panic, the Snick people called on home!" an officer shouted at one group. ministers, the businessmen, the ordinary the police and the FBI, who surrounded A Negro woman sitting on the lawn said townsfolk—are rebuffed, and as the bomb- the church. The decision was made to go back, "We are home!" So a group of the ings continue in Birmingham, the glower- on with the meeting; the people in the officers and nossemen charged them, push- ings, in Selma, the tough young militants church were not told of the call. From my ing them and prodding them in their backs among the Negroes turn their thoughts to more than hundred pages of notes in Sel- until they were all inside their doors. Tues- other methods. They are serious about that ma, I will send you one more passage. Rev. day night, the rallying flagged some, just slogan, "We want our freedom, and we M. C. Cleveland, pastor of the church we 300 came, serious of demeanor and heavy want it now!" They are willing to die. were in, originally opposed the demonstra- of spirit; but as the evening progressed, There is, John Lewis said before he was tions and tried to get a bi-racial committee they relaxed, and began smiling; the arrested yesterday, a "breaking point." going, but he has become embittered and is speeches, the songs, and their solidarity "When you have situations like Birming- all-out with the movement now. Even as gave them heart again. Yesterday, Sheriff ham, it can spark things like this all over the police and the FBI were being tele- Clark went into their church and arrested the nation," he said. "The Negro masses phoned in the office behind him, Rev. two Snick workers on the rostrum, grab- are very angry at the present time. If we Cleveland read, from the Epistle of Paul bing them by the naps of their collars and cannot give them positive leadership, they the Apostle to the Philippians: • propelling them forcibly out of the church. will find some other method of arriving at . . . work out your own salvation with John Lewis led eleven Negro college the same ends. . . . They're trying as hard fear and trembling. For it is God which youths (from Selma College here) in a as possible to be disciplined to the philos- worketh in you both to will and to do of picketing of the courthouse for "One man, ophy of non-violence. But all of us involved his good pleasure. Do all things without one vote," and they were all arrested. in the civil rights movement recognize that ,murmurings and disputings; That ye may Dozens of students have been arrested for people can only take so much—there is a be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, truancy; some second offenders are being breaking point. . . . I hate to think about without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked sent to reform school. A Snick worker and the breaking point. . . . No one would really and perverse nation, among" whom ye shine two local adults have been sentenced to a win." as lights in the world. year each at hard labor on charges of R.D. contributing to the delinquency of minors. LAST NIGHT, between 8:10 In Selma it is illegal to parade without and 8:15 during the mass meeting at the October 4, 1963 3 a permit, and the city council denied the Negroes such a permit last Monday. There- fore, this ,week the Selma movement has THE TEXAS OBSERVER been a conscious exercise in Gandhian prin- A Journal of Free Voices ciples of civil disobedience, qualified only

by its leaders' appeals to the higher legal- Vol. 55, No. 22 700* October 4, 1963 ity of the constitutional guarantees of as- sembly and petition. Last night a Snick Editor and General Manager, Ronnie Dugger. with the enterprise shares this responsibility Partner, Mrs. R. D. Randolph. with him. Writers are responsible for their own speaker begged the adults to join the chil- work, but not for anything they have not them- dren in the jails (and prison camps, too, Business Manager, Sarah Payne. selves written, and in publishing them the edi- where some of them are now held). Just Contributing Editors, Bill Brammer, Chandler tor does not necessarily imply that he agrees Davidson, J. Frank Dobie, Larry Goodwyn, with them, because this is a journal of free 14 adults promised they would by raising Franklin Jones, Lyman Jones, Jay Milner, voices. their hands. They fear for their jobs, or do Willie Morris, Charles Ramsdell, Roger Shat- The Observer solicits articles, essays, and not want to for other reasons. They filed tuck, Dan Strawn, Tom Sutherland, Charles creative work of the shorter forms having to up front in large numbers, adults and chil- Alan Wright. do in various ways with this area. The pay Staff Artist, Charles Erickson. depends; at present it is token. Please enclose dren alike, to put dollar bills and coins in Contributing Photographer, Russell Lee. return postage. Unsigned articles are the edi- the collection baskets, but the number who Subscription Representatives: Austin, Mrs. tor's. are willing to go to jail, and are not already Helen C. Spear, 2615 Pecos, HO 5-1805; Dallas, The Observer is published by Texas Observer in it or released from it under probation Mrs. Cordye Hall, 5835 Ellsworth, TA 1-1205; Co., Ltd., biweekly from Austin, Texas. En- Fort Worth, Mrs. Jesse Baker, 3212 Greene St., tered as second-class matter April 26, 1937, at and dire threats oif imprisonment if they WA 7-2959; Houston, Mrs. Shirley Jay, 10306 the Post Office at Austin, Texas, under the Act demonstrate again, is decreasing, and there Cliffwood Dr., PA 3-8682; Lubbock, Doris Blais- of March 3, 1879. Second class postage paid at is some possibility that the demonstrations dell, 2515 24th St.; Midland, Eva Dennis, 4306 Austin, Texas. Delivered postage prepaid $5.00 Douglas, OX 4-2825; Rio Grande Valley, Mrs. a year. Foreign rates on request. Single copies will peter out, without changes in the ra- Jack Butler, 601 Houston, McAllen, MU 6-5675; 25c; prices for ten or more for students, or cial customs here. San Antonio, Mrs. Mae B. Tuggle, 531 Elm- bulk orders, on request. As they have, in some other cities and hurst, TA 2-7154; Tyler, Mrs. Erik Thomsen, Editorial and Business Offices: The Texas •towns. This is the truth that I wanted to 1209 So. Broadway, Tyler. Observer, 504 West 24th St., Austin 5, Texas. The editor has exclusive control over the edi- Telephone GR 7-0746. feel free to tell you, informally, as this torial policies and contents of the Observer. Change of Address: Please give old and new being a letter permits me to do. Demon- None of the other people who are associated addresses v.nd allow three weeks. Thought of Birmingham

Corpus Christi Persons in the Neighborhood" and pleaded Georgia Earnest Klipple not guilty. When she was accused of THE ONLY SOUND in the pinching, "choaking," biting, and afflicting cafeteria was the eerie cacophony of four "That is a helpful suggestion," I said, people in absentia, she said that she "could hundred children chewing and scraping somewhat .blurredly. I nodded• in the direc- not be troubled to see the afflicted thus battered forks against tin Army Surplus tion of another raised hand. tormented." She was hanged on 10 June, trays. No talking is allowed during the "Miz Klipple," the husky owner of the the first of the witches to be executed. noon meal. Suddenly the teacher who sat hand addressed me in a business-like way. Following is an excerpt from "The Tryal at the next table said to me, "It's coming." "I got a garden I got planted. I plant my of Susanna Martin," Susanna pleading not "What?" I asked in a whisper, for teach- own seeds in the flower bed. I could buy guilty. ers do not talk either. It sets a bad example. Howard some seeds." "Magistrate. Pray, what ails these Peo- "The Negroes are coming in," she said. A youngster who is rather too proud ple? The schools of our city have been inte- of himself for having ridden an Italian "Martin. I don't know. grated for more than ten years. It was not freighter from Venezuela to Corpus Christi "Magistrate. But what do you think ails news. rose and came to the desk. "I know my them? "Coming into our neighborhood," she father would be glad to take Howard to "Martin. I don't desire to spend my Judg- went on. "I saw a big Cadillac parked on the naval base," he boomed earnestly. ment upon it. the corner at that house for sale across A plump little girl who had brought her "Magistrate. Don't you think they are from the schoolhouse, and a big black Barbie doll and its entire wardrobe to bewitch'd? Negro was getting out of it and going in to school and had been playing with it in her "Martin. No, I do not think they are. look at the house." spare and not-so-spare moments said, "I'm "Magistrate. Tell us your Thoughts about I didn't say anything. never sad, but my mother is sometimes. them then. "It's not that I'm prejudiced," she ex- What she does is to get out her book of "Martin. No, my thoughts are my own, plained. "It's just that I'm thinking about reducing exercises and she starts taking when they are in, but when they are out my property values. They'll go down." exercises." they are anothers." I thought unexpectedly of Birmingham. At this point about 20 hands were up. Cotton Mather wrote: "Note, this Woman • • "If you have something you wish to say was one of the most impudent, scurrilous, to Howard," I said, "you may visit his wicked Creatures in the World. Yet when THE CHILDREN'S ASSIGN- desk and converse with him while we she was asked, what she had to say for her MENT was : Write five sentences telling continue with school business." self? Her chief Plea was, That she had lead something you learned on a trip. They lined up three or four at a time, a most virtuous and holy life." The smallest boy in class said in some very quietly. Some sat down beside him. In his chronicle of "The Tryal of G. B.," distress, "I didn't learn anything because I have no idea what they said, but at the Mather would not even write the name of I didn't go on a trip." end of the day I noticed Howard and a the Reverend George Burroughs. "Glad "Tell something you learned when you small brown-eyed girl leaving hand-in- should I have been, if I had never known visited your grandmother or your aunt," hand. The next morning he appeared at the the Name of this Man ; or never had oc- I said. door hand-in-hand with a blue-eyed one! casion to mention so much as the first He shook his head. "I didn't visit any- And I thought of Birmingham again. Letters of his Name. But the Government body," he said. • - • • • requiring some Account of his Trial to be "Tell what you learned when you went inserted in this book, it becomes me with downtown, when you got your school Y COUSIN wanted to join the all Obedience to submit unto the Order. shoes," I said. Daughters of the Colonial Wars, so she This G. B. was Indicted for Witch-craft. He "I never go downtown," he cried and looked up our family tree. When she got was accused by Nine Persons for extra- burst into violent weeping. "I am so miser- back to the 1600's, she discovered a witch ordinary Lifting, and such feats of able, so unhappy, and nobody ever plays hanging there. At first we used it for Strength as could not be done without with me," he wailed. He put his head down bridge table conversation, much as one a Diabolical Assistance. A Gun of about on his desk, sobbing loudly. "I wish I was bandies about the words : insane, crazy, seven foot Barrel, and so heavy that strong dead." mad. But I wanted to know more. Men could not steadily hold it - out with I could think of nothing appropriate to I read Cotton Mather's account of the both hands, he made nothing of taking say. The children were frozen, like when Salem witchcraft trials. Mather was the up behind the Lock, with but one hand, they play "Statue." They looked at me, son of the president of Harvard. He en- and holding it out like a Pistol, at Arms- pale, open-mouthed, silent, waiting. tered Harvard at the age of 12. For his end. G. B. in his Vindication, was so foolish At last I spoke. "I am trying to think of entire life he was a minister in Boston. He as to say, That an Indian was there, and something that will help Howard in his reported "The Tryal of Bridget Bishop at held it out at the same time. He had little trouble," I said. the Court of Oyer and Terminer, Held at to say. Only he gave in a paper to the The class breathed again. You could Salem, June 2, 1692." Bridget married three Jury: That there neither are nor ever were hear them. About three hands went up. times and was the mother of one child, kept Witches that made a Compact With the an inn and was "wont to deck her buxom Devil." The jury brought him in guilty. On "What did you wish to say?" I asked a August 19 George Burroughs was executed little girl. person in a black cap and a black hat, and a red paragon bodice bordered and looped at Witch-hill. "I just wanted to say," she said, "that I with different colours, which gave great Martha Corey was arrested on suspicion get sad, too, sometimes. When Mamma gets offence to the housewives who were clad of witchcraft. She was a pious woman who real mad at me and fusses, it makes me in cinder-grey or subfuse brown and - the attended church regularly. Her devoutness sad, and what I do is I go out in the yard ornament of a meek and quiet spirit." In was held against her, considered to be "a and pick up some little sticks under the her inn was a shovel-board for the enter- hypocritical mask of Christianity to hide tree in our yard and I dig little holes with tainment of the lodgers. Bridget had a her evil commerce with Satan." At her them. Sometimes my sister and I build "sharp tongue and heavy hand, as many an trial Magistrate Hathorne, who was Na- little houses with them." idle ostler and slattern servant knew." She thaniel Hawthorne's ancestor, said, "Tell 4 The Texas Observer was indicted for "Bewitching of several us what you know of this matter." Martha replied, "Why, I am a gospel blamed for the death of the two negro boys the governor, the brutal Birmingham police woman, and do you think I can have to do shot to death by white police and white and the mayor." with witchcraft, too?" teenagers on the street Sunday, for the gov- In the Midlothian Mirror, Editor Penn Here the children whom she was sup- ernor was the leader in flouting the law. Jones had thoughts along the same lines. posed to have afflicted (8, 10, and 11 years Now he offers a reward, but he doesn't Jones wrote: of age) said they could see a man whisper- mean it. There have been 22 bombings of "During the trial of Adolph Eichmann, ing in Martha's ear. He was invisible to the negro homes and churches in Alabama and we said all of us who had condoned segre- judges. not a single arrest made. The governor gation were guilty with Eichmann of killing Hathorne asked, "What did he [the does not want any arrests or convictions the Jews. Now, we are guilty of killing lit- Devil] say to you?" and that goes for the mayor who shed tle children at Church in Birmingham. "We must not believe all that these dis- crocodile tears. Now the Federal judge "The crimes grow more heinous as our tracted children say," said Martha Corey. wants to indict. Let him start by indicting silence continues." She resolutely declared her disbelief in witchcraft. Her husband, Giles, was so distressed at his wife's attitude that he spoke sharply to her, which circumstance was used against her. Realizing that he was sending his wife to - the gallows, he Birmingham "ceased abruptly and refused to utter another word." He was arrested for com- plicity in sorcery. When he declined to talk, he was stretched upon the stone floor of a Sunday Morning cell, and loaded with a mass of heavy iron daily increasing in weight until his life was slowly pressed from his body. Birmingham, Ala. helping me.' I went ahead and finished Bishop Francis Hutchinson used the Sunday morning a week after the Bir- fixin' it. Now why did that little boy feel records of the trials to write the account mingham bombing that killed four young like that? He'd been taught it in the home of Rebecca Nurse, a 70-year old woman, Negro girls, no services were held in the —he had to be." in poor health, and of upstanding char- Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Red-paint "Hatreh, hatreh, hatreh!" joined in the acter. "Her reputation for piety was so signs on the doors of the church said old man. "It's taught in the home. We've great, and for so many years had she been "Danger, Keep Out." The stained-glass got to teach love in the home. We got slums highly esteemed in the community, that windows, many of them broken, were . —they got slums. It was a white slum the jury brought in a verdict of Not Guilty, covered with sheets of transparent plastic; heart did, that!" he shouted across the whereupon the mob broke out into the by the side of the church, boards and debris street, shaking his crippled limb toward wildest clamour, yelling with horrid threats were still strewn about, and a new door where the steps had been blasted away. that they would pull the house about the made with fresh boards stood in the church Turning on Kendrick then, in a kind of judges' ears and tear the jurors to pieces. wall, high up above the ground, for the frenzy, the old. man pointed to his chest Benches were smashed, and missiles began steps were blasted away, and had not been and said, "You got to have love in your to be thrown. The acquittal was hurriedly rebuilt yet. Sawhorses directed street heart!" withdrawn and sentence of death speedily traffic around the side of the church. "You got me! You got me there," Ken- pronounced." The last Salem witch was A thin young man strode up and down drick said, and laughed. As police cars, hanged 22 September, 1692. the sidewalk across the street from this cars of Negroes, and cars of whites cruised I stopped reading, and I thought of scene. Negro, in slacks and light blue knit back and forth beside the church, he Birmingham. sports shirt, he may have been one of the gave an extempore sermon then, that we guards who are posted around Negro must love our enemies. He said he was in • • • churches in Birmingham now to try to the auditorium of the bombed church prevent more bombings. As he passed during the Sunday school service on the T HIS SUMMER I visited my behind me he muttered, "Awful, awful. topic, "the love that forgives," and had aunt in Birmingham. One Sunday the pas- Whoever did that didn't have love in him," himself risen to speak of the need for love. tor of her church announced from the and we fell into conversation there on the Something came through the window and pulpit: "I want all my congregation to sidewalk. His name is John Kendrick, he exploded, he remembers (despite police move as close to the front as possible. is 21, and he wants to be a minister. reports that the dynamie was planted under THEY are coming to our church to sit-in "I hope they catch 'em," he said. "I don't the steps). He says he was not shaken up today." think they should kill 'em. That's too good until he went outside, and saw the cars My aunt remained where she sat. for 'em. They should torture 'em—when blasted, and the windows broken, the girls A fellow-member passed by and said, they cool off, warm 'em up again. To teach coming out, and a head lying on the "Aren't you going to come up front?" 'em!" ground. Jesus can wash our feet, he said, "If my Savior were sitting here," re- He gestured to the ground before us, but not our bodies, for we have a spot in plied ,my aunt, "I believe that He would littered with discarded cigarette packages, us". -`rd-od can wash your feet, but you've not move." bottle caps, and scraps of paper. "You got to wash the rest of yourself, because take if you had two dogs here," he said. we're full of trash inside," he said. "Feed one of them bread and water, and the other one meat, and the one with I N A CAB proceeding toward Both Barrels meat will grow up stronger. Fill a mind the Sixth Avenue Baptist Church, another with hate, and it grows up full of hate." Birmingham church of Negroes, the legend- When Archer Fullingim, the editor and The- one-week anniversary of the bomb- ary anonymous cab driver, a white man, the printer of the Kountze News in East ing, 10:22 a.m., was approaching as an got to talking about Negro cab drivers. Texas, fired both barrels in his issue a exceedingly worn out and ragged old "You can't call them reckless. They don't week or two ago, he did not let his where- Negro man approached us. He wore a dirty make no mistakes," ,he said. "They stop. abouts cause his shotgun sights to quiver gray sweater under his coat, and his right Look right, Look left. Go on. Take their a flicker. Fired he: hand was crippled, its fingernails gro- own sweet time. Of course, you can't blame "The inflammatory statements of Gov- tesquely long. 'em for that. But it gets pretty nauseating." ernor Wallace of Alabama and his defiance "One time," Kendrick was saying, "I He turned the talk to "the racial war of the law of the land can be blamed for was helping a little white boy about four that's going on." the death of the four children in the Birm- or five get some wire out of the tire of his ingham negro church bombing.-He can be tricycle. He said, 'I don't want no Negro October 4, 1963 5 "Me, I ain't gonna do nothin' to kids," he distances in one day that it took us three principalities, against powers, against the said. "A man, I can fight him. I don't hurt months to travel. Driving over four lane rulers of darkness in the world, against no kid no way of no color. I got a kid of highways or flying from the municipal air- wickedness in high places. my own, and I know that if anybody did port you can make your way to the four Fight, my children, the good fight of anything to him, I wouldn't wait for the corners of the world in a matter of hours. faith against the evils of segregation. police, I'd go kill the son of a bitch. I That's wonderful. Gird your loins with truth, put on the won't do nothin' to no creed I don't want But Birmingham, as I look at you from breastplate of righteousness and take a done to me." afar, I wonder whether your moral and stand. When others are forsaking the way The Sixth Avenue church was filled. spiritual progress has been equal with your of the Lord and going over to the other Rev. John Porter, a 33-year-old native of scientific progress. You have allowed the side, stand where you are. When homes and Birmingham, telling them about a youth material means by which you live to be- churches are being bombed, stand where meeting, said that "We need not be afraid come more important than the spiritual you are. When leaders are being slain to come out. We must not be afraid, be- end for which you live. You have allowed with rifle shots in the night, stand where cause after all, God is with us. We in the your mentality to outrun your morality. you are. When the dogs are turned loose church are supposed to be fearless." Through your scientific genius you have and water hoses are brought to bear, stand "That's right!" voices said. This church succeeded in making the world a neigh- where you are! When little children are had been the scene of a mass funeral for borhood, but you have utterly failed to dying and men and women are weeping in victims of the bombing earlier in the week. make your city a brotherhood. So Birming- the streets, stand where you are, and the It was a big cave of a church, lit by ham, I urge you to place an even greater grace of God will give you victory. . . . three bare light globes and the Sunday emphasis on moral growth so that your Just before leaving, I must say to you, morning light filtering thiough the many material advances will not be in vain. as I said to the church at Corinth, that I lovely stained glass windows of geometric The Christian community is saddened still believe that love is the most durable designs. Paint had peeled off many places and shocked to hear of the death of six power in the world. . . . That which we around the walls. The lady organist was innocent children in your beloved Binning- should all seek after, is love, for God is reflected over her head in the mirror love. He who loves is a participant in the hanging above her, from the base of the being of God. He who hates does not know golden-colored pipes of the organ. The Him. choir was arrayed between her and the So my Christian brothers and sisters, preacher. Down front, on the magenta you may master the English language. tithing box, were written the words, in You may possess all of the eloquence of white, "Try God." articulate speech. But even if you speak Rev. Porter gave a special sermon, with the tongues of man and angels, and "Paul's Letter to the City of Birmingham." have not love, you are become as sounding It was interrupted just once, by a siren brass, or a tinkling cymbal. wailing somewhere in the city outside. You may have the gift of prophecy and He said: understand all mysteries. You may be it able to break into the storehouse of nature WE WOULD LIKE to share with and bring out many insights that men you an imaginary letter from the pen of never dreamed were there. You may the Apostle Paul. The postmark on the ascend to the heights of academic achieve- envelope reveals that it _ comes from the ment, so that you will have all knowledge. city of Ephesus, and upon opening the !Ai col You may boast of your great institutions letter we discover that it is written in ham. The evil system of segregation has of learning and the boundless extent of Greek rather than in English. At the top caused the dominant race to lose all sense your degress. But all of this amounts to of the page it says, 'Please read to your of humanity. ... Somebody in their mad absolutely nothing if you have not love. congregation as soon as possible, and then effort to prolong the evil system of separa- But even more, you may give your goods pass on to the other churches.' . . . And tion of the races has stepped over their to feed the poor. You may give great gifts here is the letter. bounds, and God, in His all wise provi- to charity. You may tower high in philan- I, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by dence,. is displeased. thropy. But if you have not love it means the will of God, to you who are in Birming- But let me hasten to remind you that it nothing. You may even give your body to ham, grace be unto you, and peace from is still your responsibility to conduct your- be burned, and die the death of a martyr. God our Father, through our Lord and selves as Christians. It is understandably Your spilt blood may be a symbol of honor Savior, Jesus Christ. hard to live as a Christian' in an unChris- for generations yet unborn, and thousands For many years I have longed to be tian society. I am told that some, who are may praise you as history's supreme hero. able to come and see you. . . . I am told angered by the dastardly act, are allowing But even so, if you have not love your that your beloved city nestles like a sleep- their hearts to become filled with hate. blood was shed in vain. ing lark amidst the foothills of the Blue Some are advocating that you retaliate Ridge mountains. And the natural deposits So it is, the greatest of all virtues is love. with guns, knives, and rocks. I know how It is here that we find the true meaning of coal, iron ore, and limestone are found you feel, but I can hear our Lord even now in unusual abundance, making it an in- of the Christian faith. This is at bottom the saying to Peter, Put up your sword, for he dustrial city second only to Pittsburgh. meaning of the cross. I can hear Him who lives by the sword will die by the saying Father forgive them, for they know The population of 600,000 people attending sword. 700 churches are only indicative, I am told, not what they're doing. When He was born, And be not deceived, God is not mocked; of the spiritual potential that is found in there were little children dying. When for whatsoever a man soweth that shall the city of steel. I am further thrilled to those six innocent children died I hoped, he also reap. hear of your great medical center which Maybe this is the beginning of a new day. has contributed to the curing of many The love of God may break through like dread plagues and diseases and thereby THIS IS NOT TO SAY, throw never before in Birmingham .. . prolonged lives and has made for greater up your hands and do nothing. This is Be always positive that there is no hate security and well-being. not to imply that, you are to be confined in your heart for any man. No matter how All of this is marvelous. You can do so to your knees in prayer. But be strong and he treats you, have love in your heart for many things in your city that we could courageous in the Lord and in the power him." not do in the Graeco-Roman cities of of His might. Put on the whole armor of V yesterday. In your age you can travel God, that ye may be able to stand against I ES, YES," Rev. Porter's con- the wiles of the devil. For you wrestle gregation responded to. Paul's letter to 6 The Texas Observer not against flesh and blood, but against Birmingham. R.D. Inside the Church at Plaquemine

gret several times that Farmer had not Plaquemine, La. Emmett Buell been turned over to the local police when Plaquemine, the seat of Iberville Parish, he was arrested for demonstrating. Five is a small town of about 7,500 located 17 A second appeal to white merchants to officers filed into the office, shook hands miles south of Baton Rouge, the state capi- confer with Negro leaders about job op- around, expressed determination to hold tal. Since last July local Negroes have been portunities was made by W. W. Harleaux, the line, and warned of the inherent perils pressing demands and demonstrations all head of the Iberville Industrial Voters' that lay in "giving anything to the nig- over the parish. The major points in their League. His open letter requested a meet- gers." They casually passed out tear gas list of grievances are formation of a bi- ing on a Sunday. Not a single merchant grenades and left for patrol duty. racial committee, integration of public fa- showed up. Kneel-ins were staged at nine We drove down Court Street to Freedom cilities, employment of Negroes in jobs white churches that day. "above the mop and broom level," desegre- Rock Church, where things were warming gation of the public schools, and incorpora- On Saturday, August 31, another Negro up with songs and chants. Although peo- tion of two Negro slum neighborhoods, march was stopped by combined state, ple were filing into the old wooden build- Seymourville and Du Pont Annex, into the city, and parish police. White onlookers ing in twos and threes, the crowd inside city of Plaquemine. The last demand is cheered and clapped as mounted police was very small as compared to the packed made in the hope of obtaining sewage fa- chased the Negroes back toward their chief throngs of a little more than a week before. cilities for the two blighted areas, which meeting place, Plymouth Rock Baptist Tolbert Harris, who had served 35 years are almost absorbed by the town. Church. in the U.S. Army, attaining the rank of The first of a long chain of events in The next day the Negroes marched in captain, was the first speaker. Harris had the Plaquemine fight began with letters a square of fifteen blocks. Back at the been arrested on a charge of throwing a sent to eleven prominent merchants by church, Negro leaders were served with brick at a state trooper during the August CORE task force worker Tolbert Harris. a restraining order issued in Baton Rouge 31 riot. He emphatically denies the charge, (CORE is the Congress of Racial Equality.) by Federal Judge E. Gordon West banning and his denial was the primary theme of any further demonstrations. Na- his speech. Wearing a T-shirt with the tional CORE figure James Farmer, words "Freedom Now" emblazoned across who had participated in several of the front, he told his followers that the the events of the past week and in white man had lied to them since slavery the first march that night, was days and was lying to them now. "You noticeably absent. The Negroes, must save America," he told them in a disregarding the order, marched a pronounced southern Louisiana accent. second time and were met by police "You must save the world." and broken up. Most of the crowd "You not asking for something that be- fled back to Plymouth Rock longs to the white ,man. You not begging Church and began hurling bricks [amens from the crowd]. They are lying and rioting. A pitched battle then on you—they lying on your children. They ensued for about 45 minutes in want to keep you so they can walk on you which the church, which had be- . . . so they can continue to spit on you. come a fort for the demonstrators, I fought for 35 years to straighten out the

••■ •.c.t.--ar was gassed and washed out with world and come back to find more slavery fire hoses. After the quelling of this in Louisiana than anywhere else in the The letters requested conferences with riot, the total number of prisoners num- world." Unless America recognized its merchants on the subject of employing bered close to 400, some of whom were im- dream of equality for all peoples, he told Negroes in jobs above menial levels. They prisoned in a sugar storage barn on the them, it meant destruction for all peoples were ignored. Iberville Parish Fairgrounds outside of the earth. Negroes began picketing the Food Town Plaquemine. Harris is a task force worker for CORE; Negro activity since then has been some- supermarket and West Brothers depart- he is not, he told us, the Negro in a UPI what subdued. Rallies to whip up flagging ment store in Plaquemine. When city ordi- photograph shown hurling a brick at a support and to institute economic boycotts nances were passed to prevent mass picket- state trooper during the riots. against white merchants have taken the ing and blocking entrances to stores, the Young minister Levert Taylor told the Negroes withdrew all but two pickets. place of demonstrations. ever-increasing crowd, "nothing can stop An attempt by several white CORE us." The pastor of Freedom Rock, J. W. members from Indiana University and ACCOMPANIED an Associ- Davis, vowed that "until every man can about 20 Negroes to desegregate the ated Press staff writer from Eaton Rouge be recognized as brothers, God our Holy Plaquemine free ferry led to the arrest of to cover a Negro night rally in September. Father, we will not stop until we get every- the entire group. Three days later 150 Ne- The meeting was to be held in Freedom thing we are entitled to. There are some groes and two whites marched on the Rock, until very recently Plymouth Rock, things you can't kill . . . you can't kill a courthouse in Plaquemine to protest the Baptist Church on Court Street. movement. God says march! [cheers and arrests. They were allowed to sing "We Our first stop after emerging from the thunderous applause]. When you knock one Shall Overcome" and pray on the sidewalk hot, sticky night was at the city hall, to of us off, somebody else is ready to die outside. sort of "check in" with the local police. [uproar and wild applause]. I have noth- Mounted state police with cattle prods Only a woman radio dispatcher and an ing to fear but fear itself. No one will kill and tear gas broke up a march of 800 Ne- off-duty patrolman were in the office this freedom movement [shouts of that's groes on the city hall after they had failed when we entered. Conversation rambled right] . . . no 'one, because Christ said, 'I to disperse as ordered. The next day sev- over the whereabouts of James Farmer have come.' We been suffering so long we eral demonstrators conducting sit-ins at and the possibility of future demonstra- know how to suffer!" Christ's crucifixion, four white cafes and a laundromat were . tions. The patrolman expressed sincere re- he told them, was one of "the greatest arrested. Sit-ins continued, and jails demonstrations." bulged in Plaquemine, Port Allen, and Emmett Buell is a young reporter. He is 1963 other small towns in the area. a student at L.S.U. in Baton Rouge. October 4, He urged the use of economic boycott estimated that Negroes comprised half the them what they were doing in the church. against the white merchants ("We been 18,900 people in the parish, that 2300 were Police approached and asked them to leave feeding these people!"). When the ban on registered before the drive began and that three times. One did, but the other refused demonstrations is lifted, he told them, "you approximately 2700 were on the rolls now. and was arrested, hustled off to the squad got to march, fight, and pray. We have A white CORE member, dressed in blue- car, and driven off. our bodies and we are willing to give our jeans and an old ragged shirt, reluctantly bodies for our freedom." responded to questions. He indicated per- The meeting broke up with "We Shall The church rocked on its foundation haps eight CORE members from the out- Overcome." Going back by the city hall on when the audience, now almost filling the side were present. our way out we met the police and the building, swayed, clapped, and stomped in A Negro demonstrator, one of those im- man they had arrested. unison to "Freedom . . . Freedom." People prisoned in a shed on the parish fair- "I pleaded with this fellow three times streamed in and out of the church; "We grounds, said that he had been held for 22 to move on," the police lieutenant told Shall Overcome" roared inside. days, not allowed visitors, forced to eat us. "The last time I said 'You are under spoiled food, given no bedding, and forced arrest.' Oh no,' he said, 'I'm leaving.' We MANY NEGROES interviewed to drink without cups, which were taken arrested him." by this writer, even those who were direct- away, he said, from several prisoners. "He ought to thank us," interjected ly concerned with a voter registration About 20 whites congregated on a corner another officer. "No telling what that gang drive initiated by CORE, did not have any two houses down the block. They dispersed of niggers would have done to 'him." idea of how many eligible Negroes there when ordered to leave by police. Two "These people just don't understand," were in Iberville Parish, nor how many whites, one apparently drunk, walked up the lieutenant said, "when we need them, were being registered. Dr. Tyson, 'a physi- and sat down on the church steps in the we'll ask for them. We got to keep the cian and one of the movement's leaders, midst of tense Negroes and began asking peace." An East Texas Journal

A gray cold Sunday. Two old Negro Leonard. A family of Negroes leaving Jacksonville.. Of a young sport letting men in gray clothes walking along a gray their truck with sacks over their shoulders, his fuzz grow into a beard I asked, "How feeder road with gray cotton sacks over into the cotton fields. In the shadow of far'zit to Marshall?" "Sixty six miles. No their shoulders, walking—where? the truck three children were adjusting . . . wait, it's fuhh-thur than that.—" He theirs. The boy five or six years old seemed called to a buddy outside the filling station Sign on an East Texas road: drowned by his. office, "How far is it to Marr-shal, Georgg- Athens 15 ih!" "Seventy seven miles," came the re- New York I thought of a card I'd seen the day be- 10 ply. "Ah thought so," the youngster said La Rue 11 fore under a glass counter in a cafe: "Help Integration — Take a Nigger Home to with a certain gentle swagger. * In a cafe in Emory, a Saturday after- Lunch." noon, a conversation: A scream rose from me. I head it after- I stop at a little shed of a cafe for a ham- "Don't pay him a bit a mind, thea ain't wards, and my head hurt then. burger, and I am acutely aware that there nothin' to him,." is no way for me to tell, if I go in, if it's "I been skeered of him all my life. You As you drive into Kaufman from Dallas, for Negroes or whites. Seeing a Negro next mean they ain't nothin' to 'im?" on the left, off the road, on the side of an door, I really wonder. Then I remember: "Thea ya are, ya get your rep built up, unpainted barn mired in three dismal in East Texas a white man knows it's a an' here comes somebody !—'at coffee's shacks, there is a faded sign : whites' cafe. He doesn't need any signs. hot!" Welcome to Kaufman It just is. Inside at a table, I see the whole Just outside the town blue and white A Good Place to Live South upside down: the way it must be slats have been shaped in a cross and say: It would make a picture, a New Yorker to a Negro, who knows the contrary, just G cartoon from life. as surely; just as remorselessly. It will E affect the taste of my hamburger. T —No, it didn't. Good hamburger. RIGHT WITH THE BRAZOS RIVER, the east- G erly limit of land that would have been The rotund oleanders are in bloom by 0 good cotton land in early times, may be the roadside. On some hill-pates, drouth D a lower dividing line between the South and has killed the trees. But the rivers flow. the West. On the western side of its broad Peaches are for sale, $2.50 a bushel, and -Scraps of conversation in another cafe: bottoms, the land rolls and pitches—it's watermelons. The corn stalks stand tall "If I've got a hobby it's sittin' down an' cattle country; eastward, it's flat and fer- and dead, hay-pallid, in the fields. Though listenin' at people when they don't know tile. there is no rain this hot late afternoon, I'm air." there is a fragment of the rainbow in the "They raise a lot a hellebulou over the Marquez (pop. 194). An unpainted shack eastern sky; it touches the horizon, but nigger situation." one side of the road, one room, a Negro vaguely, to the right of the road I travel. "They're not pressurin' us here. They woman on a chair on the porch tilted back It is much brighter, in woven themes of got a good high school. I don't know what against the wall. Across the road, a large green, yellow, and pink, a little higher they're raisin' hell about." billboard, "World Goal: Freedom From toward the heavens. "Come to tell me, Johnny, how come you Hunger. Support America's Overseas Relief lay down aside a nigger wench all night Agencies."—An ad sponsored by the out- A scene outside Henderson: a signless an' live with her an' can't sit down to door advertisers. They could have placed country club. Many cars. Golfers off with breakfast with her brother in the mornin'?" it a little further up the road. their carts. The swimming pool, surrounded Clamorous laughter. "Boy, I mean to by dressed white adults, watching their tell you, 'at shut him up once an' for all!" Past Buffalo (the names still Mexican, children swimming. Surely as the public Southwestern,) the forest begins to cling; pools are integrated, better off whites the highway becomes a track through it. will be leaving them to the Negroes and The Texas Observer the poor whites. To what extent will the well-off whites abandon the poor whites mission, Marshall," and a tatterdemalion stored this place two years ago, and who to work out their uncontested, crippling Negro man goes in. gather now in the resonant lobby to plan hates of the Negroes as best they can—or their next social, choosing between having cannot? Carthage: "Turner Laundry. Colored everyone bring in a covered dish, or having Only." A boy sells muscadine grapes in sil- just punch and cookies, to avoid too much ver buckets on the grass beneath a tree. expense. A light sprinkle from the sky of arched "Plain and fancy sewing." In one of the blue, sunlit white, and light-textured gray. The lady who took me to the museum of stores, a toothless old geezer, half drunk, The sharp scent of wet pine. At the base the town : "The Southerner was never noted asks the waitress where her boy friend is. of a stately pine grove that makes them for his foresight, you know. So we wouldn't Gone to Beaumont, she says. The geezer diminutive, a family of six whites has a give Gould the right of way. It was a case giggles and joshes her, "You can't tell what picnic supper, •careless of the cooling drops of Greek meeting Greek. He thought he he's up to! He might be with a nigger from the violent looking, but quite benign was big stuff, but he wasn't to us." In the woman. —Huh? —He might be with a museum, (plows, - dresses, carved wooden sky. nigger woman !" "He might be," she says. Now the shadows of the pines, oaks, wil- house joints, doctor's bags and pill rollers, "Sometimes he's lotsa places I don't want lows, and sweetgum, but mostly of the armoires, horseshoes, square nails, original pines, fall long across the sweetly rolling him to be." barb wire, 36-star U.S. flags, an iron piece highway, and flick over the car's hood and stamped "1774" on the bottom, saddle A watermelon stand, cool, enclosed by dashboard quick as wisps, yellow light fall- maker's bench, broad-ax, and on and on vine-covered lattices. The proprietor and ing backward. back into the musty vanished hours,) she a friend discuss what they've heard about showed me a presidential pardon from An- the Negro who was shot and killed by a drew Johnson. What had the miscreant Tatum: "Fishing Tackels." I could not deputy. A rumor he had slapped a white done? With a laugh she said, "He held a find the house of a white who once killed a position in the Confederacy. That was some Negro. A white boy in his teens, swinging crime." high on the porch swing, his bare feet The tour of the Excelsior was conducted drawn up beside him. Another white youth, by a gentle-speaking competent Southern maybe 18, lank, shinnied up a pole to the lady. The garden clubbers had exhumed the roof of a little highway grocery, hanging furniture from the rooms where it had there, arms dangling ("like a monkey"— been buried and put it back to practical how to resist the similarity?) What have use in rooms the tourists may now for a in a little town but chase they got to do fee defile. They abound in bedsteads of girls and lord it over the "niggers." I rid ?*ifk circassian walnut, and four-posters with laket Igo wonder, too, about the Tatum Methodist majestic canopies; tables and chairs and Church. A fine looking building. secretaries elaborately carved by master craftsmen in fruits, birds, and even chick- Crossing the milky-green Sabine River, woman in a store. As I leave the proprietor ens; fine chandeliers of sparkling glass; snags poking up above its stilly surface; calls to me, almost too late: "Come back richly colored lusters. In the grand ball- the rising trine of the crickets strangely and see us, neighbor." room of pressed tin, there is a French fire- arresting my flight through the wide, lush, place of alabaster and marble. Gracious overhead bottom—so that I sense it still J EFFERSON is the Old South living in the tradition of superiority, em- and hot in the dark—I think, with Tatum in formaldehyde. The town flourished as bodied in an oval mirror for the upper so near, of Emmitt Till. a port on the bayou until the bayou be- body and, underneath a marble primping And immediately—just before the turn- came unnavigable, just after the shipping board, "a petticoat mirror, where the slaves off that leads to Roseborough Springs—a interests of the town had snubbed the rail- could kneel down and adjust the lady's white boy, about the age of my own,, with road baron, Jay Gould. Therefore the town petticoats, if they were showing." Gentility an inverted bowl of auburn hair, as he died and has not had pressures on its peo- on display for the tourist trade. Festive gets out of a car by the road with a milk ple and its property to change with the occasions, and seated meals in the ball- jug in his hand, sees my car coming and times. It has become an authentic mauso- room; "parties in the courtyard in the waves madly at me with his other hand, leum of the Old South. spring and fall, when the weather's mild." that he has a paper in. I wave back to him. Consider the Excelsior. Here stayed On a good day the garden ladies get into Gould, Vanderbilt, Grant. Here are pre- their bluejeans and put the courtyard in And then walking toward Marshall the served their environments when they were order, "except for the actual mowing of same other side of the road, a scarecrow here. The long' porticoes, the black-painted the grass." figure of a Negro man (30? 60? who can iron grillwork, the unreadable grandfather tell zipping by?), wearing a cast-off coat, clock, the columns, the large courtyard THERE IS FERMENT among ragged at the sleeves, worn at the elbows. of red-brick walls and dripping iron foun- All this I see so quickly, in visually lucid the East Texas churches. These are reli- tain, its column supported by naiads, all gious people, in the main ; one can know instants, as the evening sun burns gold, a painted black; the dainty iron garden seats, disc of radiance at the horizon, appearing that when integration becomes a live issue perched on their tip-toes like young girls. in the churches, it is a live issue. I heard and reappearing when the trees clear. In In my room, the bed with the high the valleys of the trees the colors murmur. in Texarkana that the Baptist Chutch in carved headboard; the antique chairs, up- Gladewater had had a vote on integration holstered in puffy claret velvet; the mar- and voted no. That the same thing had Elysian Fields. At the entrance to the ble-topped table, its iron legs crossed at happened in a town near Texarkana. post office-store, a sign on a blackboard their knees; the great windows, their sills This morning I stopped for breakfast at says, "For Sale, 1 Mule, $85.00. As is where - almost to the floor, opening onto the ram- "Home Cooked Meals" in Kennard, between is. Call Jack Ware. Worth $100.00 if you bling second-story porch, slanting toward Nacogdoches and Crockett, and was imme- have high fences." Two Negro women the courtyard below for drainage of the diately involved, by proximity, in a highly stand at the counter, buying their staples rainwater; and on the sidetable beside me, upset discussion going on at any back, in from the white storelady. "Get your coal the little bric-a-brac of the genteel tradi- the next booth, between two men's voices. oil?" one of the Negroes asks the other. tiOn, a small plaster bust labeled "Mozart," "All right, then for you there are only On the dark shelves the flour and beans a Strauss medallion; nearby, crystal can- eight commandments, not ten, is that it?" lie in large sacks. And how about some dlesticks, and a coal-oil lamp; a violin the first voice said—a strident, assertive' Mild Scotch Red Rose Snuff? Or a Pepsi shell, fixed to the wall. —All the skin-thin voice, quivering the way one's own does Cola. . . . As I leave I see on the other side gentility and sentimentality not only of the when one feels affronted and decides to of the entrance an announcement, "Female Old South, but also of the ladies, oh, the workers, 18-40, Texas Employment Com- white ladies of the garden club who re- October 4, 1963 9 breing it out in the open. I could hear almost he was dead wrong. Wasn't he?" (The an- on, under the sycamores of the gigantic everything he said, but not much from the swer came.) "All right. Now you take 50 leaves, and the pecans, the nuts falling second voice, though he was back to back people down at the church might be dead prematurely into the gutter of the broad with me; he spoke in a hush, as though he wrong, too, but they're sincere." courthouse drivearound. did not want to be overheard. Second voice must have told first voice "He says," said first voice. ("he," I came he was biased, because first voice said Two whites telling a joke. A nigger needs to understand, being their preacher,) "we angrily: "You can't tell me I'mm biased! a white stallion for something, so he goes often use words the wrong way. Like you You can't tell me that! Because I'm to Kennedy, and then to Bobby. (For some can't have eternal life. You can only have thinkin' and open to reason and you won't reason,) when he goes back to the white everlasting life. E-ternal means from ever- listen to the other fella's argument! You man he has two donkeys. "Which just goes lasting to everlasting. You had a beginning, won't give him a chance! to show that when you send a damn nigger you was born, so you can't be eternal." "I think along your lines," he told sec- for a white stallion, he comes back with Second voice didn't get this. Passionately ond voice. "But I don't want to bust us into two jackasses." The other laughs a little, but not a har-de-har, and turns the conver- exasperated, first voice went over it for pieces! Now you take there are some Chris- him four or five times. "You had a begin- tian people who believe the Bible says all sation. The joke-teller is a farmer in denim blue, his grizzled face is full, his cheeks ning. Only God and the Lord can be eter- the way back that God meant the races to nal. You had a beginning as a man, and a be separate, and never meant the blacks especially are bloated. One cannot see spiritual beginning." to be the same. Some Christian people ac- through his face into him at all. tually believe that. Now what are you What were they arguing about? Sud- The Southern accent seems here a bi- gonna do with them? Roll over 'em?" denly I could divine it was Negroes. Sec- zarre survival, and occurs mostly in the They were rising to leave. Out the win- ond voice forgot himself and said audibly: women. The bailiff of the court inquired dow I saw them as they walked off to- "I don't understand. . Where does he of the secretary in the district clerk's of- gether. They wore the fatigue green over- get such a stand?" fice, a young blonde matron, neatly packed alls of filling station mechanics. Both were "Well, look, even if he got it from some- in a belted dress, of pleasing features and big, healthy men. First voice was tending body passin' through, even if he was a figure, where they could get a water pitch- to pudginess. Second voice had the lean, agitator!—" first voice rejoined. "Look : er, as he couldn't get into the jury room, muscular look that makes outsiders think when do you get down to your garage?" it being locked. of rednecks; but he was smiling as he and "Six." one," his friend walked back toward a station, "Well," she said, "ah could borrah "What if you got down at ten? That and she stretched out "one" as you might talking. would break your custom, wouldn't it? It'd a casual word in a religidus hymn. "Ah be your business, but it'd break your cus- could go get one, from mah mothuh an' tom. Now, what if a colored came to your Arbor. Shady Grove. Crockett. East dad." On "dad" her voice lilted upward garage, and you took him. That'd break Texas names. Edge. North Zulch._ Wood- again, as though in an importuning. your custom, wouldn't it. Well, customs are lake, Woodland, Woodlawn, Woodville. "Well, that's a good idea," said the bail- hard to break. You know we hate like the Concord, Old Boston, Ben Franklin, Ten- iff. "Meanwhile I'll go see if I can rustle up devil to do it—" nessee Colony. Long Branch, Big Sandy, some ice." She left the courthouse by the "But he'd accept one—" Myrtle Springs, Nickleberry. Redwater. door, and, clamping his cigar in his mouth, "Well, how could he? Look, if one came Coldspring. Fairlie. New London, Sebasto- he went up the stairs. and asked, and he wasn't just passin' pol, Zavalla, Carthage, Caledonia, Paris, through, we'd have to vote on him, Moscow, Kanawha. Pointblank. Independ- I went back to the courtroom a little wouldn't we? I think he's right, sayin' let's ence. too early: the clock over Vick's is ten min- thrash it out aforehand." utes fast. The sun was resting in a bower "But he'd accept one!" second voice said; Bryan. A little blonde waitress looking of leaves, sycamore overhead and the hor- and the bench we were sharing became very peeved. "I tell you, I've had a hard izon below, the sun was resting beside the agitated somewhat. morning." jail, as I went inside the courthouse. It is "How could he? He couldn't. Not until "What happened'?" a mild, quiet evening; a tranquility settled we voted. Now say 90% voted no. But you "Truckdriver runnin' my legs off." in me as I walked upstairs. Just three men want to bust us all up every which way "He did!" had gone back into the courtroom. In the into little pieces," first voice said. `I'd get half-way from the table an' hallway again, two lawyers talked quietly. "Look," first voice continued, "what if they'd keep callin' me back. I tell you, I As I started down the stairway I saw, the federal government came down to the got aggravated, an' I've been aggravated across through the opposite stairwell, in- courthouse and said we've got to let 'em ever since. I tell you, they aggravate you!" side the open door marked "District in the schools. What would we do?" Sec- Judge," Judge Looney Lindsey, resting his ond voice must have said something help- In a crowded cafe the proprie- hands on each side of a large book on a less, because first voice said, "That's right. Quitman. tor says to a new arrival, "Come on in set table, his shoulders crowed out from the I tell you, it's a problem. Now you take down. We've got more chairs in here than weight on his hands, reading. Beyond him, Peter. Do you think he was an upright wet year." through his windows, the leaves, softly lit, honest fella?" (The answer came.) "But Carter had oats. —That The green, steel-band benches, with the of the courthouse grounds. It was a por- 10 The Texas Observer curled bands at the end for hands to rest trait, a silhouette, of a peaceful judge, studying for a minute before court re- sumed. As I stepped down to the lobby, I The death penalty has been a gross failure. Beyond its horror and incivility, thought, "What a peaceful town. God I'd it has neither protected the innocent nor deterred the wicked. The recurrent like to live here!" and I saw then how they spectacle of publicly sanctioned killing has cheapened human life and dig- hated outsiders, and to have things dis- nity without the redeeming grace which comes from justice meted out turbed, and invaded by ideas and idealists. swiftly, evenly, humanely. "You can't go back again," I though of —Governor Edmund G. Brown to the California Legislature the sun; but I had come quickly, and it was still poised in the bower by the jail, bril- Texas Society To Abolish Capital Punishment liant orange in the embracing green, and so moving, so bright and gorgeous in this P. 0. Box 52222 mild evening, I thrilled; stood still, and Houston 52, Texas looked again; and again, thrilled. The time it took to jot this down the sun Annual Dues: $2.00 Contributing membership: $10.00 went down; the crickets turned themselves on. R.D. Statewide VIM MTH TO UNITED STATES SENATOR Ralph W. Yarborough PPE cDR -0) Austin Municipal Auditorium - 7:30 P.M., Saturday - Oct. 19, 1963 * * * FRIENDS OF RALPH YARBOROUGH * * *

WALTER HALL, CHAIRMAN * * MRS. R. D. RANDOLPH, CO-CHAIRMAN P. 0. BOX 198 AUSTIN, TEXAS 78762 tiou ate gt/Wite to join in honoring Texas' Senior United States Senator Ralph W. Yarborough and Mrs. Yarborough at dinner, 7:30 p.m., Saturday evening, October 19, 1963 in the Austin Municipal Auditorium, Austin, Texas. In the many years Senator Yarborough has maintained his steadfast stand for democracy in Texas, this will be the first time he has been honored by his many friends with a statewide appreciation dinner in our State Capital City. We are enclosing an Apprecia- tion Dinner registration form, CONTRIBUTOR DINNER TICKETS $12.50 Each which you may use in making SPONSOR DINNER TICKETS $100.00 Each- reservations for the dinner. If Sponsor tickets entitle the holder to a seat in the reserved section. you cannot be with us, you may use the form in making a con- PATRON DINNER TICKETS $1,000.00 Patron tickets entitle the holder to a reserved table for ten. tribution to help finance Senator Yarborough's weekly public serv- (Net proceeds of this Appreciation Dinner will be used to help finance Senator Yarborough's service radio and television reports to the people of Texas, as well as for ice radio and television reports weekly public political expenses.) to the people of Texas, as well as for political expenses. We know I accept your invitation to join in honoring Texas' Senior United States Senator that all of Senator Yarborough's Ralph W. Yarborough. Enclosed is my check in the amount of $ friends will want to be included payable to FRIENDS OF RALPH YARBOROUGH. in this gala Texas Salute. Con- tributors, even though they can- (:111 not) be able to attend the dinner. not attend the dinner, may if reservations for the dinner at $ they desire be listed in the dinner My check covers each; please mail me the tickets. program. (do ) We urge you to be with us for Please (do not) list my name in the dinner program as a contributor. this great event. We know it will be a night long remembered in Name the annals of Texas' history. Please Print R6lph Yarborough has served the Street address people of Texas with honor and distinction — we honor ourselves City Zone by honoring him the night of Please return this form with your check to FRIENDS OF RALPH YARBOROUGH, P.O. Box 198, Austin, October 19th. Texas 78762. tax. Crystal City did it," the Caller quoted him. "I think the issue is in serious jeop- ardy. I have not taken a position for or Political Intelligence against it, though," he added. Rep. George Hinson, Mineola moder- ate, whose district voted against re- Kennedy's Standing in Texas Oct. 18, Republicans' "installation rally" peal about 2-1, said "politics must take a v The Belden Poll said Kennedy has in Dallas, starring ex-Democrat Tom back seat on this issue" and announced he dropped from 71% approval in Texas James, a possible candidate for attorney would join a "statewide movement" to after the Cuban crisis to 50% now, (and general as a Republican in 1964. fight repeal of the poll tax. 42% disapproval,) while Gov. John Con- Oct. 19, Texas salute to Ralph Yarbor- roof Don Yarborough spoke to a rally in nally has risen from 54% approval last ough, mass rally, Austin, tickets $12.50 to Sinton on behalf of repeal, the most May to 61% now. Lyndon Johnson's ap- $1,000. Several U.S. senators are expected. important challenge for Texas in 100 years, proval percentage has dropped, Belden said, The large steering committee reads like an he said. Sen. Yarborough issued a press from 68% in Feb., 1962, (when Kennedy's honor roll from Yarborough's past cam- statement that he will step up his speech- was 76%,) to 50% now, the same as Ken- paigns; it conspicuously includes leaders of making for repeal. nedy's. Only 32% approve Bobby Kennedy, all four groups in the Democratic Coalition, Poll Tax Foes Organizing Belden said. On racial lines, the President as well as many Democrats who do not v Harris County Democrats held their gets 35% approval in Texas from Anglo- work with the Coalition. quarterly meeting, -700 attending, and Americans, 80% or so from Mexican- Oct. 19 also, Cong. Dick Bolling, liberal Americans, and 90% or so from Negroes, Democrat from Kansas City, addresses eve- heard Mrs. R. D. Randolph, former na- the poll of 1,000 voters indicated. ning rally in San Antonio sponsored by the tional committeewoman, warn that repeal is not in the bag, "the people who gave us goo Well before this poll appeared, Gov. Bexar County Democratic Women. ("Long the poll tax will do everything in their Connally said Kennedy's popularity in before they knew of Ralph's dinner," power to keep it." Chris Dixie, chairman Texas had declined because of the civil Maury Maverick, Jr., advises, "these wom- rights matter, but added that Eisenhower en contracted for Bolling, and they can't of the H.C.D., said that while silk-stocking precincts are paid up 80% on the poll tax, also suffered a decline after he sent troops turn back although it is the night of Oct. to Little Rock. 19.") and adult Negroes, 50%, whites in working frov It is significant that the poll above Nov. 9, statewide voting on abolition of and middle-class areas are paid up just omitted Ralph Yarborough. It is the the Texas poll tax, raising the state welfare 39%, so that the issue is "an economic is- sue, not a racial one." Don Yarborough de- Observer's information that, as of the lat- ceiling, and authorizing more veterans' clared that "we can't afford to lose." Dr. est poll on Texas being discussed by John- bonds and a public - employees' retirement son in Washington, Yarborough is now system for Jefferson County; in the tenth Clifton McCleskey, writer and professor, said that the poll tax provides only one enjoying 57% approval in Texas. congressional district, an election to re- fifth of 1% of the state's revenue but has fror Stories in Look, the Washington Star, place Cong. Homer Thornberry, Austin; in kept 50% of the people from the polls. and other national periodicals have Dallas, an election to replace two Demo- given rise to the idea nationally that Texas cratic state representatives who quit while fro A coalition of 18- organizations has formed in Dallas for repeal, lined up is likely to go Republican in 1964. Attempts the quitting was good. behind the League of Women Voters and to guess how Texas will go 13 months be- Nov. 21-22, visit of President Kennedy the AFL-CIO. fore the election have little or no value, to Texas. He's expected to drop in on a vg A dispatch from Washington quoted and seem to have failed to distinguish be- testimonial for Cong. Albert Thomas in tween Goldwater's unchallenged domina- Houston; will stop briefly in a few other Hank Brown, Texas AFL-CIO presi- dent, .that labor has a dozen people work- tion of the Texas Republicans, on the one Texas cities. hand, and the assertion that the Republi- ing for repeal and to register more voters. Officeholders and the Poll Tax In Texas, labor leaders have been taciturn cans, whoever they nominate, and however vo Connally swung back at those who Goldwater might continue to move toward on the details of their effort, but is is a • have doubted the zeal of his commit- prodigious one. integration if he was nominated, will beat ment to abolition of the Texas poll tax. Kennedy in Texas. At a press conference, he called on all The Connally-Coalition Feud The Fall Calendar Texans to help him repeal it. He said he v The appointment of Hamah King, Ne- vg Major events so far in the fall political will go on radio and TV on the subject and gro United Political Organization calendar in Texas: has written members of the State Demo- (UPO) leader, attorney for the Texas Em- Oct. 12, Senator Goldwater visits San cratic Executive Committee, urging them, ployment Cmsn. can be taken as an act of Antonio. he said, to campaign locally for repeal. He Connally's. Coy Turlington of Marshall, said he believes it is desirable that every chief counsel for the T.E.C., resigned in 12 The Texas Observer citizen vote, and he predicted "chaos" if protest, hinting it was not race but proto- the federal poll tax is repealed, and the col that upset him, but the T.E.C. released Texas one is not. He took another cut at a letter they got from Turlington in which SUBSCRIBE Cty. Cmsr. Albert Pena and bloc voting in he'd said his office was "stunned and OR RENEW a speech. shocked" by "such an addition" to the staff. 1, Vice President Johnson has been re- vf Connally said, before Kennedy's visit THE TEXAS OBSERVER ported offering to speak vigorously for to Texas was announced, that, when visiting Washington this week, he had no 504 West 24th Street poll tax repeal. The first public sign of this plans to invite Kennedy to Texas, but Austin 5, Texas was a speech he made last Sunday in Beau- mont : departing from his script, he ap- would tell him "we'd be delighted to have Enclosed is $5.00 for a one- him here." Connally said he "is going to pealed for the repeal of "this shame of year subscription to the Observer support the Democratic ticket." for : Texas, this poll tax," and said a man "shouldn't have to pay to cast his ballot PASO Still a Steaming Subject Name for the man who can order him to die." per Albert Fuentes, executive secretary of Address poo Lt. Gov. Preston Smith, whose non- PASO, is saying emphatically that he committal letter to the League of has no intention of running against Cong. City, State Women Voters on repeal was noted here Henry Gonzalez, San Antonio. Gonzalez last issue, said in Corpus Christi Texans 0 This is a renewal. has suspected that he was. Fuentes says may refuse to repeal. "Everywhere I have that personal feelings aside, Gonzalez is 0 This is a new subscription. gone, people who have talked to me have voting for the principles Fuentes believes expressed opposition to repealing the poll in, and he will support him because of this. . . . Lalo Solis of San Antonio is par- failing to send troops to Birmingham. two former governors and the Vice Presi- ticipating in plans to contest PASO chair- V Republican Rep. Charles Scoggins, dent of the United States." man Albert Pena's re-election as Bexar Corpus, called three Texas political JFK and Civil Rights County commissioner. figures, whom he named, "power hungry V Fuentes has been organizing PASO hoodlums." The Observer does not choose V The executive committee of the Young chapters in communities in a band to repeat the names. Democratic Clubs of Texas adopted a from San Antonio up to Fort Worth-Dallas. Who's Running for Which sizzling resolution against Connally and He says that the only communities in that for Kennedy on civil rights. We did not get band which have not got PASO activity V There is something repetitive about a copy right away—it passed Sept. 5 with started are Temple, Hillsboro, and Waxa- the way candidates come on strong about a ten-vote margin, and was not pub- hachie. PASO is represented as especially and then fade in the who'll-get-Yarborough licized. It says Connally has "seriously vigorous in Waco. In October, Fuentes will speculation. Lloyd Bentsen may be backing jeopardized his claim to Democratic Party be working to organize PASO chapters in off or swimming fast with an underwater leadership" by attacking the public accom- Yorktown, Kenedy, Yoakum, Cuero, and stroke, depending on which pundit you modations plan; the Young Democrats "are other towns in Southwest Texas. Pena re- prefer. Gordon McLendon, radio executive, in no way satisfied" with Connally's posi- portedly organized a 90-member chapter was announced by the Denton Record- tion on civil rights; and they reaffirm com- in Palacios. PASO will hold a statewide Chronicle, then said he'll probably decide plete support of JFK on his civil rights convention under its new constitution Dec. whether to run in the next month. He'd go program, "in its entirety." State Y.D. presi- 7 in Brownsville. as a conservative Democrat ; he was South- dent Andrew Shuval cast a reportedly re- p, In Georgetown, Fuentes recounts, a ern chairman of Young Industry for Eisen- luctant aye vote. PASO group of 68 members has been hower. Friends of rightist Robert Morris, V Belden published a poll of Anglo- formed, and the city fath'ers, who had not Dallas, say he'll announce, and Dr. Milton Americans only—he did not report on theretofore consulted Mexican-American Davis, a Republican, announced on Mon- the opinions of Latin-Americans or Ne- citizens much if any, have asked for day; Jack Cox says he'll decide by Thanks- groes—last Sunday on Kennedy's propos- PASO's support of a bond issue that was giving whether to run for anything. als. He reported, among the Anglo-Ameri- previously defeated. The previous issue V Talk now reaches the public prints cans, 75-18% opposition to the public ac- made no provisions for improvements in that Sen. Franklin Spears, San An- commodations law; 65-21% opposition to the Mexican-American sections, but the tonio, may run against Lt. Gov. Smith next denying federal funds to discriminators; current one provides for $178,000 worth of year, or Sen. Don Kennard, Fort Worth, 86-10% opposition to requiring federal hir- improvements for these sections, accord- may, with Spears taking on Atty. Gen. ing of Negroes; 56-33% opposition to re- ing to Martin Garcia, another PASO work- Waggoner Carr instead. Spears says he'd quiring unions to accept Negroes; and 54- er. The newborn PASO group in George- run as an independent, not as a slate man. 3,8% support for federal referees at voting town told the city fathers that they would Don Yarborough says there's a 50-50 places to protect Negroes' right to vote. take two weeks to decide what their posi- chance he'll take on Connally. . . . West Texas Chamber of Commerce op- tion would be on it. V As expected, Jake Pickle quit as em- posed the public accommodations proposal. V A state's motion that would have dis- ployer representative of the Texas V Rep. J. C. Whitfield, candidate for missed Crystal City Mayor Juan Cor- Employment Cmsn. and announced he will mayor of Houston, endorsed the public nejo's suit against Ranger Capt. Alfred run for Congress from the 10th district. accommodations law and a Houston bi- Allee accusing him of physically shaking He said he stands for "the most good for racial committee, said he would withdraw the mayor twice was denied. . . . Cornejo's the most people through common-sense if he is not endorsed by the Harris County political foes have no hope of forcing a new government." Texas AFL-CIO's newsletter Council of (Negro) Organizations. election this fall. . . . Dave Shapiro, who called him "Port Arthur Story Jake," after his alleged but denied part in putting to- V The Houston Informer, in an editorial worked for Sen. Yarborough, is administra- by Arthur DeWitty, said "we cannot tive assistant to Cornejo now. gether the notorious TV film on the Port Arthur strike for Gov. Allan Shivers. afford to let [Don Yarborough] down" V PASO held a huge rally-1,200 to after his all-out support of a public accom- 1,500, Valley papers reported—in Rio Pickle has worked for Lyndon Johnson and Price Daniel, also, and is a public relations modations law. Grande City, Starr County. Connally was V Sen. Yarborough condemned the Bir- blasted, Don Yarborough boosted. But "an- man. Rep. Jack Ritter, another announced candidate, said he would support President mingham church bombing as "the other Crystal City" would be unlikely work of the devil." Connally called it "a there, with the local leaders having no job Kennedy's tax cut. Creekmore Fath, Aus- protection. tin, said this week he has been being soli- October 4, 1963 13 V Important stories on Crystal City ap- cited to run, and it's under consideration. peared in the New York Times and V The Dallas Republicans have nomi- E U R O P E Look Magazine. The Times story was dis- nated two men, Jack Sampsell and Hughes Brown, for the two openings in An unregimented trip stressing individual tinctly friendly and pointed to constructive freedom. Low cost yet covers all the usual achievements of the Cornejo administra- the House of Representatives from Dallas. plus places other tours miss. Unless the tion. The Look story presented Cong. Hen- V Straws in the wind: Sam Kinch com- standard tour is a "must" for you, discover ry Gonzalez, San Antonio, as a moderate mented in the Fort Worth Star-Tele- this unique tour before you go to Europe. gram that if Lloyd Bentsen runs against EUROPE SUMMER TOURS alternative to militant PASO. Cornejo is 255 Sequoia, Dept. .7—Pasadena, California quoted that Jimmy Hoffa "is going to be Yarborough, "he will have the passive—if president someday, I suppose" and it is not the active—support of the present and hinted that Cornejo favors Rockefeller over Kennedy, as Hoffa presumably does. GLENDALE FUNERAL HOME Immediately, Cornejo wrote Look (sending the Observer a copy) that "I am a liberal 1015 Federal Road Democrat" who was for Kennedy in 1960 and will vote for the most liberal man in Houston 15 1964, whom he "seriously doubts" will be the GOP nominee. In a public statement, Phone: GL 3-6373 he said he would vote for candidates en- dorsed by PASO, the Zavala County Demo- cratic Coalition, and DRIVE, the Team- We Honor All Burial Insurance sters' political arm—apparently assuming that they will all endorse the same candi- Ed R. Watson—President dates. San Antonio Teamster leader Ray Shafer criticized President Kennedy for great tragedy" perpetrated by people Cong. John Young, Corpus, is safe now as the ticket, but you will be first in Texas; "crazed with hate. a new member of the House rules commit- and not even a senior senator can overcome tee. the power of such a promise made by the Washington Winds Other Morsels man who is now president. gof Reporters have learned Cong. Omar Congressional re-districting, heard in Johnson's most successful method of Burleson of Anson—in West Texas— federal court in Houston Sept. 23, is persuasion is a suppressed premise. Sup- is chairman of the 50-member Southerners' now expected to be court-ordered, leaving pressed premises do not usually find their caucus of congressmen who meet and make Connally the choice of appealing or calling way into political discussions, but I do not plans to scuttle most of Kennedy's legisla- a special session. Rep. Ben Atwell, Dallas, know of any other way to describe this. tive program. Burleson did vote for the the last Dallas Democrat in the House, and Johnson's suppressed premise is that he is Kennedy tax cut. Eight Texas congressmen Sen. Ralph Hall, Rockwall, called for a the most important thing: He calls you, or voted no—Alger, Foreman, Pool, Fisher, special session. caresses your ego, or stirs up your in- Mahon, Poage, Teague, -Wright. Yarbor- 1/ The Washington hearing on San An- securities, all to the end that you shall ough said he favors the cut, Tower is op- tonian John Stanford's alleged unreg- become very aware of his hot and ener- posed. Texas provided five- of the 18 no istered communist connection featured tes- getic self, and the wishes thereof. Ques- votes when the House passed, 335-18, a timony of two spies for the FBI who said tions' contexts are gradually seduced away, bill authorizing a federal program to com- Stanford was active in the party in vari- until the palpitating question has become, bat mental illness: Alger, Burleson, Dowdy, ous ways. Department of Public Safety "Johnson." The ethics of the power of the Foreman, Pool. Yarborough is supporting director Homer Garrison said the DPS has oil industry, the welfare of the people, the heavy cuts in foreign aid for affluent coun- a list of all communists in Texas and has traditions and future of the republic, all tries; Tower is supporting heavy cuts, pe- been watching them 15 years. Atty. Gen. such questions are melted in the 'molten riod; Jim Wright wants $200 million re- Waggoner Carr is waiting in the wings to clutch of his personality, until finally the stored for the Alliance for Progress. Les prosecute Stanford under Texas laws, when object of his attentions comes to feel that Carpenter reports from Washington that the U.S. gets through. Lyndon is what matters, after all, and that if he makes a liberal speech, liberals all must agree to what he really means when he makes it: "From here on, you belong Observations to me." Liberalism does not belong to Johnson, and never will; nor will any other public question. His liberalism now is nothing more than the duty of any progressive Lyndon and the Griffins Democrat, in his case a duty practiced Austin diluted his professed New Deal ideals rather late. He expects gratitude; this is It is necessary to question the idea that when he was a senator and the majority because he is not, in politics, a liberal, a Lyndon Johnson on the Kennedy ticket will leader. Because they think he has sold conservative, or anything else as much as help Kennedy carry Texas next year. The out to the liberals. Because they think he is a personalist; namely, a personalist Johnson-fixated national press credited he has become mighty rich while he has about himself. Gratitude is no stranger in Johnson with delivering Texas to Kennedy been in public office. Because they don't politics, and many people owe Johnson in 1960. It is a fact that until Eisenhower, like the TV monopoly he has had here. favors, for which, man to man, they are Texas voted Democratic as a matter of Because they take an assay of his character liable; that is the deal they have made, course; this has been a Democratic state. and find the nuggets glinting "selfish." and he and they understand it. Yet in the It is a fact that 926,653 Texans, 41.5%, Because, ruthlessly using his power, he first place, the electorate never owes a voted for an unknown Republican against has personally vented his penchant for ven- politician gratitude; it is he who is their Johnson in 1960. It is a fact that far from geance on them. Or because they have seen creature, not they, his. And in the next overwhelming Texas, Kennedy carried it his arrogance in private. place, for every person indebted to John- by 46,233 votes, a margin of one per, cent. Recently Johnson has been very liberal. son, there could be another person he This is usually blamed on anti-Catholicism; This can be accounted for in one of two has gigged and gutted, who remembers. A but pro-Johnsonism did not overpower ways. He has experienced a genuine change man cannot be mean and vengeful without Texans with limpening enthusiasm. Not at in his nature, and has decided to dedicate getting up the backs of his victims. Those all himself to the liberal conceptions of the backs either break, or stiffen. I know of It is commonplace experience of per- public good; he is repentant for the many some that have broken. I know of some that sons who move in Texas political circles sorry compromises he made against civil have stiffened. to encounter what we shall for the nonce rights, and he is an all-out militant. Or, In my mind, it is not at all certain that call the anti-Johnson attitude. It has many in the alternative explanation, he is just Johnson carried Texas for Kennedy. And variants and forms. People may be anti- like he always was, and scenting the winds for additional reasons, it is not at all sure Johnson because they think his 1948 Sen- of change in the midst of his own need to that he would help more than he would ate seat was stolen. Because they think he seem liberal so he can be president in 1968, hurt in 1964. he has switched to liberalism with the same i 4 The Texas Observer blithe unconcern for consistency which KENNEDY DOES NOT NEED he has demonstrated multiplied times Johnson in Texas to command the loyalties before. of Negro and Mexican-American voters. It is well known in Texas that Johnson's Nor does Kennedy need Johnson to com- rule in politics is "You're for me 100%, mand the loyalties of loyal Democrats, or Since 1866 and back me 100%, or you're against me." of economic liberals who usually vote Anyone who crosses him in public goes on Democratic. Johnson, - in becoming a me- The Place in Austin some list he keeps somewhere, perhaps in tooer of Kennedy in order to place himself in a position to get the 1968 nomination, . . . the students and the professors, his heart, and sooner or later pays. In some cases, this can be very subtle, this has not intensified liberals' enthusiasms the politicians and the lobbyists, dine for Kennedy; to contend that he has would or drink beer in rather unfamiliar exaction. In other cases, it can be very be contending that a play is more powerful proximity." Willie Morris in Harper's. crude and open. If you are a political jefe, your rival jefe's people get the jobs on the because a carbon copy of the manuscript 1607 San Jacinto federal contract. If Ralph Yarborough is has been typed. But this is not to deny trying to get you a federal job, Johnson that Johnson's liberal speeches contribute GR 7-4171 blocks it. For that was the deal that Ken- to the public support of Kennedy, in a nedy made with Johnson: I will be first on general way; they do, and are yeoman work that Johnson is doing. For one thing, and John H. Reagan, who will follow the them more. It is to be presumed that he they help persuade moderates to back course of his judgment and convictions. I has repaired them some with NASA, but Kennedy. do not believe that the people of Texas they still leak the pressures he pours into The rationale in Johnson's being placed want a sniveling satrap of a power-mad them. on the ticket in 1960 was that he could, politician as their senator. I don't and won't And now a third thing has happened. I being a proven compromiser on civil rights, fill that bill." did not understand it until the other night; help hold the South in line. And Texas. Now when Ralph got through saying nobody has understood it who has pub- Kennedy lost part of the South, and almost that, mighty were the alarums and cater- lished •what's going on. Tom Griffin has Texas; but in the slippery dynamics of waulings from Washington, and here- formed the "Old Frontier Democrats." politics no one should contend that John- abouts, also. Lyndon said he did no such of They are against Kennedy. Tom Griffin? son being on the ticket did not contribute a thing, and would have voted the way Isn't he the liberal who ran against old to the Democrats' victory. Now, however; Ralph has been voting on most issues, and John White? Isn't he that fellow who Johnson has alienated Southern racists, wants no fight with him. This—as Ralph risked Johnson's ire to testify in the State too; for he is backing Kennedy on civil and as Lyndon both know—remains to be Senate against the law that let Johnson rights. The case for Johnson on the ticket seen, say about next March, April, and run for senator and vice president at the devolves to a question of his popularity in May. same time? Couldn't be! He is one and the Texas. His value in the South is attenuated. same. But old Tom—he was with the Demo- Kennedy may feel he has an obligation crats of Texas; as county judge over in IS ANOTHER KIND of to put Johnson on the ticket. The Irish THERE Bastrop, he is the one who reminded John- disaffection from Johnson. He had great son of Herman Brown at a state conven- Mafia have always been cautious about power as majority leader and wielded it for committing their Irish honor to deals; but tion and after that couldn't even get to the benefit of his friends, including his rich be a delegate, though he was county judge, be that as it may, Kennedy will have the financial backers who were Republican in say on his vice presidency. It is not naive except that one year Johnson joined the everything but name and their friendship line-up to beat Shivers! Surely, that's not to assume that any events in Texas tending with Johnson. Some of these friends to cast doubt on Johnson's popularity in old Tom? The - same. And the truth of the thought, when they gave huge gobs of matter is, the Old Frontier Democrats are Texas will be studied by the Kennedys. money to the Johnson for president cam- They are very sensitive politicians. not anti-Kennedy in their genesis, they are paign in 1960, that they had assurances anti-Johnson. It can be said with some Such things have now begun to happen. from Johnson that he would not take the The first was Yarborough's Freeport assurance that if Johnson is not on the vice presidency, because of his Senate ticket next year, they will disband, and speech. This speech has not been widely power. Whether they did or not, he took quoted, except for a key phrase or two. most of them will go with Kennedy; spe- it, and they had had it. Johnson's lines cifically, Griffin will. I wish to quote just these paragraphs into the homes and offices of the big rich from it; for they illustrate something were damaged. His liberalism now damages October 4, 1963 15 about Yarborough's attitude toward John- son—that it is a very intense, very personal attitude, and that it contains a lot of memories: "A number of people have asked me how I was kept off the appropriations com- mittee when I was the senior senator ap- AMERICAN INCOME plying for it. This happened last year also. It happened in each instance after the lackeys and henchmen of a powerful Texas politician had lobbied with other senators LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY against me. . . ." Yarborough said, con- tinuing: "I did not go to the United States Senate with a ring in my nose, and nobody has OF INDIANA one in it now. None will be placed there. I went to the Senate by the will of the people of Texas to represent this state and nation on my own independent judgment, and so Underwriters of the American Income Labor long as I remain in the Senate, I will maintain that legislative integrity. "If the people want a ring-in-the-nose Disability Policy politician, to be somebody else's flunky, they cannot find him in me. I believe that the people of Texas want a senator in the tradition of Sam Houston, Thomas J. Rusk, Executive Offices:

College Subscribers P. 0. Box 208 Bookstores and newstands on the University of Texas Drag in Austin stock the Observer; it sells well. We do not have the Observer so placed Waco, Texas around other Texas colleges and uni- versities. Will readers who will under- take to establish such relationships with bookstores and newsstands around their own campuses please Bernard Rapoport, President write the Observer editor for informa- tion they will need to know to do this? We shall be obliged. (Adv.) Do they amount to much? One cannot per again at the national convention ; if between the rising forces of pro-Xennedy, say at this point. But Tom Griffin bears Connally is not beaned first by Don Yar- pro-civil rights liberalism in Texas, as a grudge. He has memories. He opposed borough. these are variously embodied in the Demo- Johnson publicly, and the years have And that is now a very lively question, cratic Coalition, and the falling forces of passed, and his back has not been broken, very lively, indeed. Connally was nomi- the Shivercrats, the Dixiecrats, the "Demo- but it has been sorely burdened; and now nated after all, as a result of receiving, for crats for Eisenhower" and the "Democrats it has stiffened. Griffins to the Greeks example, a majority of the Mexican-Ameri- for Nixon" whose slogans are already were fabulous animals, thought to have the can votes in San Antonio. Now he has hit shrouded by the mosses of memory, and wings of the eagle and the body and hind Albert Pena with a flying bat. Connally sag from the neglects of these present days. quarters of the lion. A griffin is roving was nominated as a result of receiving Connally made his choice ; he made pro- Texas now, and has been, three months. He many Negro votes that ordinarily go to the phetic the cover photograph we ran of him has found others, not many, but others, more liberal man. Now Cohnally has given hunting with Shivers and Ace Sales Taxer not big names, but others, and they are those voters the raspberry, opposing public Tom Sealy. All they will shoot are ducks, banded together. It is not a development accomodations. If the Republicans have and theirs will be a lonely banquet. any Kennedy person can welcome; it is a their heads up and nominate someone with Now Johnson has this same choice. He is dark event, a fearful thing, full of griev- even half-sane social attitudes and a liberal an arrogant man, a proud man, a vain man ; ance, injury, manly pride, and implacable position on race, and Connally does get re- let him read these words and fume and animosity. It has nothing to do, as far as I nominated, Connally can take one consola- cuss, as he has fumed and cussed so many can tell, with any other movement on the tion about November: he certainly won't times, when he has read words here. But he liberal side of Texas politics. None of the get that 97% bloc vote in that Dallas pre- is also a realistic man. He is a compro- liberals or labor people I know seem to cinct that Eugene Locke was bragging miser. And he nurtures in himself all the know anything about it. The griffins just about to UPO! No, he won't be embarassed sentiments and some of the substance of suddenly stopped roving the fields, licking by getting any more of those un-American liberalism. Let him muse on his friend their wounds, and came into the cities and bloc votes. John's difficulties now because John. did towns, cagily; they are here. not listen to what we were telling him; If Don Yarborough gets the guberna- John listened instead to Howard Rose, and torial nomination, Johnson will of course to Scotty Sayers, to the young gentleman THERE HAVE BEEN reports, have to work the state convention very surely most of our readers have heard of the dropsical right wing of the Texas hard to try to shape it in accordance with Democratic Party. them, that John Connally and Lyndon the suppressed premise of Johnson's politi- Johnson had an argument at the Johnson cal life, that Johnson's welfare is the point ranch some months back, and Wan John of all this straining and struggling in poli- ONE MUST FEEL SORRY for left in a huff. That this is the basis of the tics. He very well may. He has much Johnson. He would like to be loved, but is rift between them now. It is true that Con- patronage to offer, and access to the presi- not. He absorbed the personalist and venge- nally has moved right at the same time dent. He is liberal on race now, and on ful approaches to politics from the times Johnson has moved left, but I find the medicare, too; as much as he can be he advanced through; he did not invent rift implausible. More likely, they are thought reliable in his political stances, he this style, it was the one he found as he agreed on a double play, Connally short- has committed himself to Kennedy on these grew up. He has a legacy, in his thoroughly stopping the racial reaction against Ken- things, and this will have a bearing. earned reputation of opportunism and nedy quick enough to save his own renomi- Furthermore, if Johnson has played a yeo- compromising and the use of his power for nation, and then Johnson whipping the man role by making many speeches for the revenge, that he must find sorely trying ball over to Kennedy at second base in time abolition of the poll tax Nov. 9, as it is re- now as he seeks to establish himself as a_ for the second put-out. I venture to guess ported that he is intending to do, and the liberal of principle. No one should gainsay that Connally will be Johnson's shortstop- poll tax is then abolished, he will have a him, or any man, the right to redemption, that is, the right to be judged in the pres- 16 The Texas Observer fair claim on the credit for the conse- quences of this abolition, which may prob- ent, not in the past; but everyone should ably come to include Texas voting for refrain from the folly of believing in his Kennedy again. new liberalism until he has practiced it, and practiced it many times, when he does But the attitude of the state convention not himself stand to gain personally from toward Johnson after Don Yarborough's doing so. Let us hope he has many such op- nomination (if that is the situation that is portunities. Meanwhile, understanding his approaching) would turn also on whether personal problems of style, let us expect Johnson had helped Connally, and Lloyd very much of him now, at a time when Bentsen, if he runs against Ralph Yar- liberalism is not only demanded by prin- borough. Everyone knows how Johnson ciple, but is very much in his own interest. works: there is Cliff Carter putting out Will he prove to be as inflexible, as un- the word in Austin and around Bryan, and adaptable, as Connally? Or has he faced A. W. Moursund around Johnson City, and the fact that the tides of history have swept Byron Skelton in Temple, end John What's- over Texas, too, into the cities, even into His-Name in Houston, Raymond Buck in- the country, and that his vulnerabilities, Fort Worth—everyone knows about all which used not to be a real menace to his that. If the Johnson machine turns it on position and power, now are, because there for Connally and Bentsen, that would rami- are not enough people indebted to him to fy decisively into Johnson's standing at a keep back these tides, and his enemies are Don Yarborough "governor's convention." mounted on them, some of them perched in But if not, Johnson might be able to turn whatever barks opportunity has provided on his personalist politics at the conven- them. tion, and avert some other event packaged We shall know the answers to these for the special attention of the Irish Fafia, fierce questions of political reality by next Washington, D.C., Hq. Or, he might not. May. It is exciting that, just as Connally At the beginning of 1963, this newspaper really did have a choice last January, and started warning John Connally of the February, and March, but has not, any changes that are happening in Texas. Do more, Johnson really does have a choice you remember? It has been clear to Ob- this September, but may not by November, server readers for nine months that Con- and will not by May. The politics of change nally had a choice, and had to make it, moves fast, and takes no prisoners. R.D.