St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1952-08-01
RoWon's Book Is
Living Experience
For The Reader
SOUTH or FREEDOM
BY corl 7. Rowan
Alfred knoPf 1852
BY shelton b. Granger

| BAApiAlSdA ohSNSll dIll a ldSlc VI q
living experience for the reader.
Carl Rowan took this piece out of
the ordinary class by an accom-
plishment that is possible only be-
cause of the personal projection
of himself in relation to the con-
diuons reported.
The simplicity of style and the
emotional directness portrayed
through the choice of events re-
ported and the interpretive COM
ments attached are the pro-
ducts of a unified personal and
professional life.
This, in large part, is the core
of the Importance of this writing
during these times of racial
chauvinism and chicanery in the
midst of southern white preoc-
cupation with the suicidal caste
system that once served as the
South's main prop.
AS a report, there is at present
not other writing as filled with
current information on the status
of the tottering white supremists.
Rowan, as a skilled newspaper
reporter, was able to offer, in con-
densed form, picture of the So
Geological impact and psychology
cal force or recent legislative pre-
cedents such as those affecting
the Negro in higher education in
the South.
The United States Supreme
Court decisions involving Mrs.
Ada Sipuel Fisher and Mr.. C. w.
McLaurin, for example, were dis
cussed by clearly citing the legal
questions and relating the decis-
ions skillfully to the mildly rev.
dictionary social changes they
made possible. Such items are
given the reader succinctly,
automatically and with a verbal
symmetry designed to capture
and maintain full reader interest.
Also as a report, there is at
present no other up-to-date &C
count of events and trends on the
southern scene that establishes
beyond doubt the schizoid charac-
ter of American attitudes toward
race.
The inner contradictions of
white society's attitudes toward
Negroes and the ambivalent re-
actions of Negroes to the confused
southern white are made clear to
the reader as Mr.. Rowan relates
experiences in various localities.
Many of us working daily in
the field of race relations have
heard southern Negroes exclaim,
upon being confronted with the
more subtle forms of northern
race discrimination, Back home,
we at least know what we cannot
do"
If Rowan's story of the differ
ent standards for the Negroes
place" in neighboring localities of
the South doesn't spell fins for
such black arguments for white
supremacy, many of us are en-
gagged in a hopeless cause for a
hopeless peolpe.
The same bleak outlook will
hold if, after reading the authors
Interpretation of some southern
Negro blood suckers living on de-
Cayed black ghettoes, some sci
eCt" Negroes stin insist that a
system is good if it produces an
occasional black millionaire.
AS a biographical sketch, as
well as in other ways, SOUTH OF
FREEDOM shows the folly of the
argument that local solutions ex-
| Clusively should be applied to
racial problems. Rowan was born
in McMinnville, Tenn, and his
value to society might have been
lost in that small southern town.
Undoubtedly, many more such
persons have lived and died in the
dust of the McMinnvilles. Rowan
may have too had it not been for
tn sake of the pressures of nor
thenr attitudes on the United
States Navy. This was an import
ant key to freedom. 1t was
moulded north Of freedom. People
North and South are compelled
to regard this implied message.
1t will serve as a reminder to
the northern Negro that a little
piece of him is along the railways
Of Rowan's journey. It will awak-
en- the northern white man to the
fact that racial prejudice may
kill others who seek to add to the
strength Of American democracy.
What is done in Mississippi may
happen in Minnesota.
The reader cannot avoid being
taken through an experience in
living; an experience of confusion,
hatred, hope and ultimately faith.
The absence of an answer" chills
the reader in the latter portions
Of the book.
In this regard, Rowan shows
confusion, rejecting the confu-
sion Of the times as well as the
confusion imposed by the force of
personal experience.
The reader is put in the uncom-
Portable pasition of asking himself
| IL education al,na Iac,{aI,t;rx .