Although no one talks about it openly, some residents are said to fear an influx of Negro visitors to the park. Several days after the Selectmen passed the ruling against the dedication, the town attorney, William P. Murtagh, decided that the move would be an infringement of the right of assembly and that the question of the park would be settled at a later date. He also wrote that he believed the establishment of the park violated some zoning ordinances. On hand this afternoon to give the dedicatory address was Julian Bond, the first Negro to be elected to the Georgia House of Representatives since Reconstruction days. The Georgia legislator also decried violence in this country and enumerated several examples.
Violence is socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor.
Walter Wilson, a Berkshire real estate man who donated the land for the park, said the plaque would not be placed on the boulder until opposition has died away. We pit the chairs out this morning and we'll take them away after the ceremony.