The Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1931-1952, 1946-11-06
Walls of Hate Crumbling
cone of the Women" in the
Christian Science Monitor)

J
| am a Georgian. My state has
just elected Eugene Talmadge for
the fourth time as governor. He
will take office in January, and
will serve for the next four years.
Because Talmadge is a demago-
que who appeals to the old pref
udices of people and stirs their
passions to hatred, every enlight-
ened liberal in the nation feels
sorry for us in Georgia. We have
abandoned the path of Congress,
they think, and gone wandering
off into the bypaths that lead to
the swamps of medieyalism.
But we ourselves do not des-
pair. It is true that we have
fought, with every resources at
our command this battle against
bigotry, and We have lost. We
must now plan a new strategy
and draw our battle lines again.
But, even in defeat, we who
have battled so long can see pro-
gress. The very fact that 100000
Negroes voted for the first time
in white primary is a step to-
ward the goal of real democracy
for our people. 1t is also true that
five Negroes have been tragically
murdered since the day of voting,
including the terrible Walton coun-
ty massacre. But it is also true
that thousands of white people
over our state saw for the first
time, at their local courthouses,
Negroes, lined up in quiet and
orderly rows, having a voice in
their government. These white
people remembered that this was
part of what enlightened human
beings crusaded for and millions
died for in the war, the right of
people to govern themselves with
freedom and dignity and decency.
The untoward incidents where
friction was encountered made
the headlines. But the thousands
of little communities where white
and black both spoke their pre-
ference in government, in peace
and dignity. made a deeper i'm
preston on many Georgians.
We have seen race against race
in this political campaign. We
have seen men, kindly and gen
erous-hearted in their ordinary
intercourse with Que another,
made to hate other human beings.
And we know now that it is not
to start speaking for dem
ocracy and human decency to vot-
ers just before an election. We
must start in the nursery and
the kindergarten and the first
grade. We must make our young
peoples groups in the churches
forums for the discussion of bro
therhood in terms of its practical
to the community, and
not just as a tired old platitude
or a vague generality that does
not even glitter any more.
We who believe these things |
are now, in many cases, silenced |
so far as speaking about them
in public is concerned. We are |
not afraid for ourselves, and we
are not towards. But many of us
have families to support, and we
are economically vulnerable to the
darts of the dictator
But we work quietly still. We
enlist women in the ranks Of
interested not in
activity for some
acquisitive interest, but interested
only in free and enlightened gov.
eminent. We convert one here,
another there. Our ranks grow
slowly, but effectively. A word
over the bridge table, an idea
in a church group, a discussion
at a home gathering-all these
avenues are still open to us who
carry on the quiet crusade for
democracy and decency, and ag-
ainst dictatorship, whether it be
in Europe or in Georgia,