The Petal paper. [volume] (Petal, Miss.) 1953-19??, 1960-06-02
Teacher Says


ly must be given equal oppor-
tunity; thereafter equality is
Judged by their performance.
Perhaps this seems terribly OBJ
vious. Yet it is a fact that 1T
comes as a shaft of illumination
to most college students. More
over, it soon pinpoints the key
question involved within the seq
regation problem, namely, whe-
Their the Negro is or is not intrin-
sically equal to the white. Oddly
enough, many Southerners seem
reluctant to discuss this question
openly, possibly because they
sense that, according to the ans
wer given, the whole fabric OF
moral justification for segrega-
ton stands or falls. In the Con-
temporary Issues course the ques-
ton is quickly flushed into the
open, and for a couple of weeks
it is holly disputed from every
conceivable angle.
But Are Negroes Equal?
From the outset it is clear that,
broadly speaking, the Southern
answer to the question is in the
negative. The Negro, it is felt Gre
CARELESS of how seldom it is said),
is not intrinsically equal to the
white. Harry S. Ashmore, the
courageous executive editor OF
the Arkansas Gazette" calls this
"the first truth in the dilemma OF
race relations" and quotes Ho-
ward Odum, the famous student
of Southern mores: 'It was OF the
utmost importance that Southern
ers face the plain assumption
that they did not appraise the
Negro as the same sort OF human
being they themselves are"
State College students reveal
this assumption in a hundred
ways, ranging from the most alb
surd superstitions (for example
the belief that Negroes feel rela-
lively little pain when injured
to propositions still moot for ex-
ample the claim that, even when
economic and social background
is uniform, Negroes do not per-
form as we'll on intelligence tests,
on the average, as do whites.) A
good deal of time spent differen-
tiating between points of ''lnferl-
ority" which are clearly the re-
suit of inferior environmental cir
cumstances, and those which, II
in deed they exist, might be rea-
sonably thought to be innate.
Many of the former can easily
be seen to be the results OF seq
regation rather than reasons for
it.
Further time is consumed in an
effort to distinguish between
public and private rights. This
question, of course, is crucial to
the current demonstrations at the
chain stores; and the traditional
Southern position is that private
ly owned stores and restaurants
are private facilities.
What Is Private?
AS property, to be sure, they
are; but student discussions bring
out sharply that in function they
are public establishments, IN
business to serve the public, and
afforded special privileges in tax
alton and police protection pre-
cisely because they are public
facilities. The notion that the
proprietor has a moral right TO
refuse service to certain custom
ers according to his whlms ana
preiudices would hardly make
sense if it were interpreted on
some basis other than skin color
- if a certain store, for instance,
refused to serve redheads, or peo-
pie over six feet tall. Underlying
the custom of discrimination a.
gainst Negroes in service faclll-
ties is the same old goblin, the
assumption of Negro inferlorlty
A mans home is his castle, ana
there he is free to exercise MS
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