Two Professors Support Faculty Views on South

Two Faculty members yesterday repudiated a southern Nieman Fellow's charge that Harvard professors frequently indulge in unjust and frivolous criticism of "the deep problems of the South."

"Southern journalists always talk about the need for greater understanding," Kenneth S. Lynn '45, associate professor of English and an expert on Southern literature, commented last night. "But the real evil of race relations never gets into the papers."

He recalled witnessing instances of "gratuitous persecution" by Southern whites and suggested that "the distortions to which Southern newspapermen object rightly are a reflection of the news blackout their papers are helping to maintain."

Replying to the contention of John Hamilton, Nieman Fellow from Virginia, that "too many members of the Faculty have felt obligated to tell anti-South jokes," Lynn said, "I'm not aware that there are any such jokes told."

Neveltheless, he declared, "Adverse jokes about the South would have a symbolic truth in them."

"Jokes about the South, or the North, or the West--why not? I don't see why anyone should get upset about it," Donald H. Fleming, professor of History, remarked. "I don't know whether or not I was the intended target of the criticism, but I'm not above having a fair go at the South occasionally."

Fleming, who teaches a course in American Intellectual History, pointed out that he is himself a Southerner, from Maryland. "And I'm ready to admit there are some things wrong in the South."

Speculating about the opinions of other Faculty members, Fleming commented, "I wouldn't be astonished if a group of intellectuals were skeptical about the situation in the South." He noted, however, that "the subject can become tiresome, of course. Some professors may fall into this trap."