The Petal paper. [volume] (Petal, Miss.) 1953-19??, 1960-01-21


could fit i'm ejust as well. The
white girlg too, extends wistful
smiles at the Negro and one often
wonders how the evening after
the show is9spentai az
2. "You must know that race
mixing is prohibited by the Laws
of Moses on which our civiliza-
ton is founded. 9yed
8. "You have good show most
of the time, however we South
ern people do not approve of the
build-up and praise you shower
on colored people, particularly
colored :. women. Such adjec-
tives as great, charming /,
fabulous, etc. insult the entire
TV audience, especially in n e
South, where the races try to
keep to themselves E. Wouldn't
it be far better and in keeping
with good taste to let colored or
Negro men praise their women
and white men praise theirs? l
was a daily listener to Dave Gar
roway's program until he en-
praced the Negro race far out of
reason and thereby disguised me
so much I could not tolerate it
any longer -. An occasional ap-
pearance of a Negro person does
not offend SO long as he has
something to offer by way of en-
tertainment. It is this glowing
praise that we detest. Mr.. Sulli-
van has lost many of his regular
listeners simply by his love for
the black man. as he flaunts be-
fore all who watch No wonder
the Negro is SO hard to live in
the same locality with. He thinks
he is superior now because big
shots like Allen, GarroWay and
Sullivan embrace him publicly"
About half the letters made
scant reference to the facts (real
or imagined Of the Wilson case,
but were more in the nature OF
personal attacks based on erron-
eous assumptions. Example: Il
was certainly surprised to note
that you openly condone the acts
of armed robbery, rape and beat
ing of an eighty-year old lody.'
The phrase snigger-lover" was
common Can accusation, by the
way, to which I plead complete
ly guilty. l am not only a niger
lover, i am. also a Kike-lover, a
Mick-lover, a. Wop-lover, a Chink
lover, Yankee-lover, A Rebel
lover, and a-lover of various 9TH
er sorts, in accordance with the
crystal clear instruction of Christ.
The only thing I am ashamed Of
in this regard is that l do far
less effective job of loving my
fellow-man than I should) An
other group Of letters mirrored
the peculiar assumption that
whether my feelings were jus
titled or not, had no right to
speak out publicly on an issue of
this sort. Arguments in support
of this contention were of vari-
Gus sorts. One Atlanta man put it
this way: why don't you keep
your Jewish nose OUT of South
ern affairs?" / am not clear as to
whether this correspondent
would consider it proper for only
EMIL e noses to intrude into
Southern affairs but in any event
his logic calls to mind the answer
George M. Cohan once gave to
a hotel manager who refused him
lodging: "You thought | WI S
Jewish. / thought you were a
gentleman! It seems we were
both mistaken Va; x
Four writers believed / had no
right to voice an opinion on this
matter simply because ! live IN
the North. Illogical as this view
point may seem when dispassion-
ately considered against the back
ground of history and the Chris.
tan ethic, / ann convinced that
the number of .Southerns who
hold it is larger than the wise
might hope. f~ Sas