MIXED RESPONSE TO NEW CIVIL-RIGHTS LAW IN U.S.
By Evelyn Sell
When President Johnson signed the civil-rights. bill before a nation-wide television audience July 2 leve of the holiday manking adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the subversive Continental Congress in 1776], he sought to make it a historic occasion as part of his presidential eleotion campaign propaganda. ‘My fellow citizens," he said, “we have come now to.a time of testing. We must not fail, . . This civil-rights. act is a challenge to all of us to go to work in our communities and our states, in our homes and in our hearts, to eliminate the last vestiges of injustice in'our beloved America,"
The new civil-rights law does strengthen legal rights in this field, The effectiveness of these rights would seem to hinge, however, on the resoluteness with which the freedom Fighters continue their battles from coast to coast, 7
A sampling of opinion indicates the varies response whioh the new legislation met with in different circles:
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Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton voiced the views of the liberal wing of the Republican party, [This was before Goldwater nailed their hides to the wall of his Arizona bunk house], "From 1940 until 1957," he said, "Lyndon Johnson voted with the Dixie Demo-
crats 100 per cent of the time, He voted six times against proposals to abolish the poll tax. . . twice against the anti-lynching laws... six times against proposals to bar discrimination in federal programs. . « twice in favor of segregation in the armed forces. . ,. and once in favor of perpetuating segregation in the District of Columbia.‘
A white waitress in a Morrison cafeteria, the South's largest cafeteria chain, asked, "May I help you?" She was addressing two Negro men who had previously been arrested for trying. to obtain service in the very same cafeteria.
The chain's president stated: “We're going to obey the law, There is no other way. We can't buck the federal government,'
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Sign in window of a Charlottesville, Virginia, restaurant which had been in business 27 years: "Closed to the public this 2nd day of July, 1964 at 6:57 p.m, Passage of the Civil Rights Bill forced us to take this unfortunate action."
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Members of the Fayetteville Restaurant Association in North Carolina announced: "We are loyal Americans and we will obey the law,
The sentiment was echoed by the directors of the: ‘Georgia Restaurant Association who said: "We have no alternative but to comply."
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"Get off my property," shouted Lester Maddox, restaurant owner in Atlanta, Georgia, when three Negro ministers drove up to his eating place. ls
"Get some ax handles for those customers," he directed as he waved his gun, kicked the side of the Negroes! | car and whacked the top of the oar with an ax handle,
After. the incident he told the ax-handle brigade. of 200 whites "Everybody turn in your handles so we'll have them for the next time, 4
Maddox said: "Itll use ax handles, 121 use guns, my fists, _my customers -- this property belongs to me,
Atlanta's Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr., commenting on the new ocivil-
rights law: ", . . now the Negro has the responsibility to be a courteous and law-abiding winner."
Instructions sent out by the Congress of Racial Equality ([CORE] to its Southern chapters: "Be ready to make a start -~ even though a modest one -- by July 4th, First of all, quickly survey your city to determine how many facilities of accommodation there are (i,e., restaurants, hotels, theaters, etc.). . . Second, try to determine which will be the least resistant, Place those first on the list. . . Where we cannot implement the bill by negotiation, we will again resort to the sit-in, stand-in and other demonstrations of this type,"
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A South Carolina hotel man, who wouldn't allow newspaper reporters to use his name: ". . . when the tests have died down, things won't be much different from the way they have been,"
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Detroit Free Press editorial, July 4: "'tProgress whets the appetite for more progress,! said Rev, King. But force is met with force, and if the integration leaders resort to force, to harassment, to stretohing the letter of the law to suit their convenience, they can expect the same tactics in return. ,
"Between the two extremes of the determined and the diehards, there is plenty.of room for. peaceful progress,"
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"I walked down the steps with three Negroes and people joered and booed us, We sat down and all of a sudden people picked up chairs and started to hit’ us over the head. I put my arms over my head to protect myself and took off my glasses. I got separated from the others. A white man covered my head with his body and led me out. He was hit by the crowd," A
The speaker here is 19-year-old Karen Haberman, a white student who attended a Georgia Independence Day rally with fellow members of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee [SNCC]. The featured speaker at the rally was Ross Barnett, former governor of. Mississippi, The organizer of the rally was a states rights group called the American Patriots, One of its leaders is Lester Maddox -~ the gun-waving, ax handle, brandishing restaurant owner already quoted,
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‘The Ku Klux Klan distributed leaflets in Mississippi urging
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whites "to stand back and to avoid conflict. . . these people want Mississippi placed under martial law."
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"tf Mississippi broke out in shootings or killings this sum mer do you think President Johnson should send in Federal troops to keep peace and order, or do you think local and state police should handle the situation?" asked the Harris survey, Of those interviewed aoross the nation, 71% favored sending in federal troops, 20% were against such action and 9% weren't sure. In the east, midwest — and west, almost 80% would favor such action.
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Negro newspaperman and author Louis Lomax: “Just after the civil rights bill passed the Senate both James Farmer and Martin Luther King, Jr., let it be known that they were readying squads of people to test enforcement of the new measure in various Southern cities, — a eo -
"The NAACP!s Roy Wilkins publicly chastised Farmer and King for engaging in a race toward militanoy for militancy's sake. . . For what it is worth, this is my view: Negroes should not rush into hotels, motels, and other previously all-white Southern establish~ . ments while the ink is still wet on the civil rights bill. Freedom does not come by law alone; it takes a solid degree of general acceptance. . .. It is a time for Negro statesmanship,"
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On the day the civil-rights bill was signed by President Johnson a closed session of the annual convention of CORE upheld the expulsion of Julius Hobson, head of the Washington chapter,
Hobson explained his expulsion in this way: "The Brooklyn CORE chapter was suspended for advocating the World's Fair stallin. We supported. the Brooklyn position. Our militancy has got us into trouble with the [financial] contributors to CORE. I'm speaking specifically of the big contributors. . . We want to be more militant," -
A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN POUJADE AND GOLDWATER
_ André Frossard, satirical. columnist of the Paris daily Le Figaro, discovered a number of reassuring differences