NEGRO FREEDOM FIGHTERS FACE WHITE RACISTS
By Evelyn ‘Sell
The Sonate filibuster on the civil-rights bill drones on while the civilerights battle lines harden, The political manouvers in Washington are designed to fit the needs of an election year, Groupings within both capitalist parties are supporting the bill in order to capture the very important Negro vote. The Southern Dixicorats. in the Senate are putting up a sham battle to impress the racists back home, They don't have to worry about the Negro vote beoause most Southern Negroes are denied access to the ballot box,
Both the Democrats and. Republicans are trying to please every~ body, friends and foes of civil rights alike. The politicians are succeeding in pleasing very few because the longer the civil-rights struggle oontinues the more impatient the contending forces become,
The slow pace of concrete victorics in equal opportunities in . jobs, education and housing is driving the Negro revolt into mass demonstrations and civil disobedience campaigns, The rising tide of Negro pressure is hardening the reactions of the racist counter~ revolution, Heirs of conturies of anti-Negro propaganda, racistminded whites, including a regrettable number of workers, turn on the Negro as & convenient scapegoat for all the problems created by a capitalist. system in crisis,
On March 13 some 15,000 white parents, opposed to the integration of New York public schools, picketed City Hall, Small riots broke out in Cleveland during January when white parents opposed a Board of Education move. to transfer Negro children to schools in white neighborhoods,
In defiance of the Catholic church's support to the civilrights bill, a Catholic lay group distributed 100,000 copies of a leaflet attacking the legislation as "a huge and ma jor step toward the Establishment in America, . . ofa TOTALITARIAN POLICE STATE," [Emphasis in original. ]
: The most recent oxample of the decp-seated prejudices in the North was the rclatively large vote gained by Alabama's Governor
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Wallace in the Wisconsin presidential primary, April 7. The primary olection is designed to choose delegates to the Democratic and — Republican national conventions to be held this summer,
Governor Wallace campaigned in the South on the slogan: "Sogregation now, . segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." He ontcred the Wisconsin primary in order to provide a "focus of. protest" against civil-rights legislation and activity. He surprised hims olf. and the oxperts with his sucecss, .
His goal was to capture 10% of the Democratic vote. He polled 24%, His greatest support came from a strong Democratic workingclass district in Milwaukee.
Negro leaders are under Constant pressure from their whito liberal "friends" to placate the white racists, to slow down, take it easy, be contont with small, gradual gains, On several occasions now the respectable leaders have acceded to these pressures,
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People [NAACP], the Congress on Racial Equality [CORE], and the Urban League refused to support the second New York City school boycott, Although it was successful (267,000 children stayed home from. school),.it did not match the first boycott when almost half a million participated,
“A march on the state gapital of Florida on March 28 was reduced when tho NAACP loaders refused to go along with CORE leaders! domands that the procession march on the state house. The protest march, decimated by the dissension, included only 1,500 persons who walked to a baseball ficld where a rally was held,
When the Group on Advanced Leadership [GOAL] scheduled a mecting for Malcolm X in a Detroit church, local ministers tried to canool the meeting on the grounds that Malcolm ‘would just stir up strife. and trouble," GOAL went to court to sceure their right to hold the meeting.
‘Malcolm outraged all respectable leaders when he called on Negroes to organize rifle clubs to protect themselves from racist attacks, Senator Lausche reported to the U.S.Senate that some rifle clubs wore alrcady being organized,
The Now York police commissioner blasted Malcolm as "tprospons sible," Malcolm replicd, "The greatest compliment anyone can pay me is to say I'm irresponsible, because by responsible they mean Nogroes who are responsible to white authorities -- Negro Uncle Toms. iy
The responsible Negro leaders arc calling for prayor vigils, letter-writing campaigns and persuasion to end the Senate filibuster. Meanwhile, the participants in the day-to-day civil-rights demonstrations are stepping up their civil-disobedience activities as their method of pressuring Congress to pass the civil-rights bill, Marches,
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lie-ins at construction sites, sleep~ins at state legislatures, sitdowns at the site of the Worldts Fair in New York City <« these are the methods of the Negro Freedom Fighters in the streets.
All signs point to a major confrontation between these Freedom Fighters and the racist counterrevolutionists in the coming months. The question being posed more and more sharply every day is: Which side are you on? Civil-rights supporters must answer that question not with words but with deeds,