The New "New South" - Page 4

Article in the George Washington University Magazinelegislators and school directors are being elected, often with help from white voters, all across the South. Achieving racial justice remains the task of first priority for the South. Its religious, political and educational resources must be fully committed, or needless suffering will continue to create tensions and ill will. The slowing down of the movement toward equality in some places is doubtless due to reaction against the excesses of militants on the campuses and, to a lesser extent, in the streets, but the white majority cannot afford to change the priorities - granted that the ending of violence and maintenance of order are also matters of great urgency. The suppression of crime must not be confused with repression of the valid aspirations of our fellow men. An increasing number of white Southerners are aware of this. Two specific activities illustrate the point - one by an important religious body, the Southern Baptist Convention, and the other by a self-constituted bipartisan and biracial group of Southerners, the Southern Committee on Political Ethics (SCOPE), interested in, among other things, securing full political rights of minorities. The writer is currently serving as chairman of this Committee and has the support of such influential Southerners as former Congressman Frank Smith of Mississippi, and Carl Elliott of Alabama; newspaper publishers Hodding Carter, Jr., of Greenville, Mississippi; H. B. Patterson of Little Rock, Arkansas; and others, including educators, labor leaders and businessmen. The Baptist exertions in the race field are designed to exhibit the same concern shown by other denominations in comparable work and proceed under a clear mandate of the 1968 Convention of the eleven million member denomination. An item of special interest to George Washington alumni is the establish­ment of the Ecumenical Institute at Wake Forest University, a Baptist in­stitution, as was GW originally under the name of Columbian College. Wake Forest was founded by one of Colum­bian College's early graduates, Samuel Wait, for whom the Wake Forest chapel is named. The Institute is dedi­cated to building bridges of under­standing, and its founders believe that one by-product of its work will be The suppression of crime must not be confused with repression of the valid aspirations of our fellow men. improved communications between the races. Millions of sensitive Southern white voters are profoundly disturbed by the subtle (and not so subtle) racist appeals of some of the region's politicians. They are found primarily in the ranks of the Wallace party organization which represents a substantial movement. The Wallace followers seek to exploit the dissatisfaction arising from the strategy of the militants, white and black, and this puts a brake upon the struggles for economic and social change so essential to the improvement of the condition of the South's poor. As the non-South well-wishers, who in my opinion are legion, seek effective ways to help us, they should particularly recognize the plight of our rural poor. Hunger is an ever present reality for millions of Americans, 40 per cent of whom are in Southern states. The plight of the South's victims among children is particularly poignant. It is at the point of impingement of hunger on the South's poor that we find the greatest awareness of common suffering and an identification of interest between white and Negro. Even if dullness of spirit and unkindness of attitude among some within the white community should outweigh good will, we can predict that the races will come together for united attacks against social evils. Recognition of a common humanity makes it inevitable - or the American experiment fails. As communication improves, a larger number of the white community will be aware of the basic expectations of the black community. It will become apparent that if all discrimination were miraculously abolished and complete economic equality suddenly achieved, the matter of first importance to the black man, acknowledgement of his human dignity, would stand out ... let white Southerners remember that the quiet and peace were at a dreadful cost. in boldest terms as the unfinished business. If present tensions and the outbreaks of violence seem to place too great a strain upon the Southern community and cause a yearning for the serene days of segregation, disfranchisement and black subservience, let white Southerners remember that the quiet and peace were at a dreadful cost. It is better that we be conscious of the Negro's wounds, though it casts away the amenities that made life pleasanter for us. Rebelliousness is visible. That is all to the good. Let us ask only that, in keeping with the constitutional concept of a continuing non-violent revolution, it be kept free from lawlessness, for that way the ends of justice can be more quickly served and the wounds be completely healed. As the white South changes there are also substantial changes in the Negro community. One example, pointed to by the black opponents of violence and excessive action, has to do with public criticism. In the early stages of the civil rights struggles, there was a sort of tacit understanding that no Negro would publicly condemn another Negro - the appearance of complete unity was regarded as too precious an asset to be lightly discarded. That has changed - very noticeably. This change is obviously wholesome. No white friend can counsel as effectively for improved techniques in the continuing struggle as those within the black society. The cleavages now appear, and since the militant forces contain white recruits just as the moderate forces now include black adherents, the moral elements are emerging in clearer perspective. The stability that can be attained only by justice and decency may appear first in the South, and the region may well contribute good examples and wise guidance for the nation, revealing as an empty charge the statement sometimes heard in the distressed central cities that the migration of the South's poor is the sole cause of ghetto troubles. The hope of accelerated change is therefore partially in the vision and compassion of Washington's political powers and partially in the South's sense of the new inter-relationship of races and regions. Our hope seems justified, but time is running, if not running out