Jackson advocate. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1939-current, 1956-05-05
Segregation Is Not Confined
To The South


the deep South Manhattan newspapers recently quoted
report by municipal planning board to Borough
President Hulan Jack:
eff our new buildings Tin Harem not to be
the racial ghettos of the future must within the next
five years make start in desegregating Harlem
This is of course backhanded concession that not
very much of start has yet been made toward de-
Segregating Harlem, where third of million Negroes
live, some in incredible squaor, in an rgidy and
purposefuy hemmed in by the white portions of the
community.
This is an example of the paradox of the North
that report attesting segregation in New York City
should be addressed to who in addition to being
the chief executive officer of Manhattan is also Ne
gro. Negroes go far in Manhattan; more often
they locked by social circumstances into the dis
NAL estate to which they were born.
The thing is generally true of the other
munites of the northern United States. Occasionally
Negro will emerge from the group to achieve distnc-
ton in law medicine, politics. sports entertainment
But for every who does, hundred thousand
remain at the foot of the ladder only rung two
up The Negro is making progress in the North. But
the progress gradual and the chief restraint is bias
that erodes only very slowly And the process of erosion
is interrupted from time to time by ugly outbreakngs
of racial vioencein the East in the Mideast in the
Midwest and the Far West New York, Chicago, Min
neapolis, the San Francisco Bay all these and
many have had their periodic eruptions of
prejudice in recent times
So there is clear-cut cleavage, say, along the
MasonDixon lne between prejudice and tolerance The
differences of degree, and times these diff
ferences, as between North and South slight. For
the South is making progress, in its way. ntegra
ton at the school level, is proceeding in Kentucky
West Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma Mary
land and Delaware; Arkansas has desegregated it's
State University; significantly STILL louisiana
North Carolina and Florida all approaching with
earnestness and responsibility the difficult task of
compliance with the Supreme Courts decisions.
Those DECISIONS themselves, temperate
than of the curbstone interpretations rendered
by Jealous laymen in their wake
They enunciated, so far public schools
cerned the simple American principle of equal rights.
At the same time they acknowledged that law
can be written to compel state of mind heart. This
tho tho
gradualness, in application of the principle
Now, if the latitude of the South is gagged on
the basis of the utterances of the vocal poll
tclans, rabbe rOusers and hotheads plausible
be made for despair in the matter of noncompliance
But if the attitude of the North" is assumed to
be indicated by the sporadic muggngs and window
smashngs and riots in these areas,
readily leap to the conclusion that there is hope
where, for ntegration.
We do not agree, certainly, with the often voiced
theory that desegegaton in the South is exclusively the
Souths own business injustice anywhere in the Unit
ed States has inevitable impact upon the whole nations
reputation and welfare
Still, have little patience with some of our
SNUG brethren in the North who point the finger of
shame at the South and ignore the bgotry that exists
in the next block. In fact, sometimes wonder if
there's anything wrong with the South that the muzz-
ing of few Southern politicians and Northern
Zealots wouldn't cure.
At any rate the solution of segregation will never
be found in indignant carping and angry recrminaton
The shril arguments among those who presume
to speak for the people either side of the subject
waged the mute bodies of those for whom the
problem is direct and personal The theory is noisly
gued more less private matter between the pro-
fessiona debaters, and any dim light that is shed
help that is given the people themselves is mainly
cidental.
The people of the North can help most, we believe,
by cleaning up their mess-and this process might
well begin with general soul searching to discover what
residues of prejudice remain there. When Harlem has
been desegregated when Negroes have been welcomed
neighbors in the pleasant suburbs of New York and
Chicago, when Chinese and Filpinos have been made
to feel at home in San Franciscos Sea Cliff and Pa
cifc Heights there will be time enough to point finger
at the South.
In the meantime would suggest that those best
qualified to handle the situation in the South the
millions of thoughtful moderate Souherners who both
perceive the inevabty of justice for ALL and realize
the massveness and deicacy of the task of securing
such justice in all the circumstances.
No observer has any moral right to interfere
less his interference aims ntegently at constructive