The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1956-08-23


segregation decision were reported
this week by Carold Welty, former
Bluffton area resident, who is visit
ing here after completing a social
study of the South in company of a
party of California church and social
workers.
Welty's group from B Berke1e y,
Calf, visited the South from July
% to August 4.
Making the trip from the west
coast in German Volkswagen bus,
the party included in addition to
Welty, the Rev. L. r. Bennett, for
mer vice president of the Montgom-
cry (Ala) Improvement associa-
ton; DR.. and Mrs. Cecil Thomas of
the University of California YMCA;
Emily Light, San Pablo school
teacher; Mrs. John Thomas, wife of
Berkeley psychiatrist; and Mel
Koch of the Berkeley YMCA.
The mixed group of negroes and
whites represented branches of the
Quakers, the YMCA and YWCA and
the Berkeley Albany Council of
Churches and the Fellowship of Rec
onciliation in the Frisco Bay Area.
Travel Difficulties
From the coast to Amarillo, Texas,
the group encountered no difficulty
in obtaining meals and accommoda-
tons, Welty said. But thereafter
members had to separate for meals
or eat picnic lunches along the road.
However, in Terrell, Texas, a negro
restaurant owner extended cordial
hospitality to the mixed group.
In Shreveport. La, the party was
refused lunch in the bus station res
taurant on the grounds that the cafe
was privately operated and did not
need to comply with terms of deseg-
regated interstate travel Here as
well as at all southern bus and rail
stations, facilities for negroes were
separate from those used by whites.
Some colored sections lacked lunch
rooms and air conditioning found in
the white sections, Mr.. Welty said.
Martin Luther King
AT Montgomery, Ala, the group
found fine accommodations near the
home of Martin Luther King who
had the Berkeley party as guests
several times.
The large yellow city buses are
still travelling much of their routes
without passengers as result of the
boycott by the negro people who
formed IS per cent of their clientele.
Mr.. Welty said that a bus driver
told him that two thirds of the driv-
ers had been laid off due to the boy
colt.
Brightly painted 1856 station wag-
ons operated by the Montgomery In-
provement association are much in
evidence. They bear the names of
churches whose GA ministers lead the
negroes. Several hundred drivers al
so lend their cars to a transportation
pool. White employers and sympa-
thizers also provide transportation,
Mr. Welty said
The Berkeley group attended a
White Citizens Council meeting at
Wetumpka, a few miles from the
state capitol Approximately 100 men
from county with population of
5000 attended the meeting. They de-
bated with Senator Sam Engelhardt
the three-way school system to be
voted upon August %. Admiral
Crommelin, president of the We
tumpka WCC defended segregated
schools while the senator argued in
favor of the three-way system.
New Type Negro
White people seem bewildered
over the rise of new type of negro
who does not conform to the fictitious
and contented Uncle Tom stero-
type" Mr.. Welty said.
Attitudes conflict so that even
Ace Carter of the Northern Alabama
WCC has sued Grover Hall, editor of
the Montgomery Advertiser for Ii
bel. The latter, who is also a defend
er of the status quo, minimizes the
bus protest and prints diatribes
against Northern meddlers and 'slob-
bering visionaries', Mr.. Welty re-
ports.
The former Bluffton man states
that another concern of the Mont
gomery Improvement Association is
the low number of negro voters who
register. Less than 10 per cent of
Alabama's negroes vote as result
of difficult registration, it is said.
Efforts of educated and liberal
people of both races center in the
Alabama Council of Human Rela-
TONS" Welty says. This organiza-
ton is an affiliate of the wider
Southern Regional Council. The Ber-
kelley group was highly impressed
with this organization, and its Chris
tan brotherhood.
I'm contrast with the varied cross
currents among the Alabama whites
is the unity of the Montgomery ne
groes. 1t was relatively easy to unite
the latter against injustice. 1t re-
mains to be seen how the protest can
move into reconciliation and general