The Negro in the South: III

When the Emmett Till case first became news in Mississippi, the whole state was aroused against the crime, and anxious to see justice done. But the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (along with Life magazine and other Northern journals which referred to "lynching") obscured the issues so completely that the white people of the state retreated to their old position of distrust of the North and to white supremacy. The cause of better racial relations was deeply harmed. Another instance in which the NAACP seems to have hurt itself here was by its recent protest over a decision by Federal Judge Marion Boyd involving segregated universities in Tennessee.

Boyd decreed that Memphis State University--and thus other state schools--would have to admit Negroes on a gradual basis by grade levels. He delivered a stair-step ruling which will enable Negroes to attend the graduate school in this coming half term; to enter as seniors in the fall of 1956; and to enroll as juniors, sophomores, and freshmen in successive years.

The case was protested. But to the surprise of almost everyone it was not criticized by angry Southerners but by NAACP lawyers. This was the first official gradual- desegregation order, and the NAACP said it would protest because it feared Boyd's ruling might be used as a precedent throughout the South. Yet the order struck most observers here as completely in keeping with the Supreme Court's idea for implementation of its decree-- a ruling tempered and fitted to the particular circumstances of the area.

In contrast to the NAACP's handling of both the Till case and Boyd's decision was the reaction of two social workers, Dr. David Minter and Gene Cox, in another case widely publicized here. Minter and Cox were ordered to leave Holmes County by a mass meeting of the Citizens' Council because they worked for integration. The first action the two men took, however, was to call up every New York and Washington religious and political group which might protest and tell it not to say anything for the present.

Minter and Cox wanted to remain in Holmes County and continue their missionary work at their cooperative farm there. Both felt that time might show the local citizenry its mistake, and that they could still run their project. If a nationwide protest arose, however, as could easily happen if Northerners clamored, it would only serve to drive the townspeople together and make them even more hostile to the missionary work.

To this day Minter and Cox have not left. Their plans are not yet permanent, but they are hoping that a reversal of opinion will turn the town in their favor. A few respected local friends in the meantime are talking to people, trying to explain the plan of the cooperative farm and the type of work Minter and Cox are doing.

In order to understand how Southerners feel about race relations one must imagine himself born into a heritage of white supremacy and seeming Negro shiftlessness. This attitude, which is reinforced by everything one sees and hears in Mississippi, can be altered by only one method--improved education. Unfortunately, not only the public schools but both universities here are state-supported and thus committed to segregation in practice and theory. With these facts in mind, the NAACP, although entitled to emotionalism, should be prepared to accept its consequences.