The Petal paper. [volume] (Petal, Miss.) 1953-19??, 1960-04-07
jones ~. Dobbs Discusses
dime STORES AND DIGNITY

CuSbOIlIS, tll6y live ny tHCIl Will
cut being aware of them. There
is therefore at least this gain in
the present situation; many a
white has been made aware of a
privilege he didn't realize he had,
and he may begin to question his
right to it.
In two or three instances, the
sit-in demonstrations have been
made in public Libraries; and
some friends of the students have
raised the question as to whether
the public library should not have
been the entire focus of the chal-
lenge. It is true that the public
library, being supported at least
in part by public funds, is a log
ical point of attack for citizens
challenging their exclusion from
the use of public services; it is
true also that demand like this,
apparently motivated by the de-
sire for intellectual advancement,
would seem to most people more
praiseworthy-though they them
selves might not practice it-than
the desire to eat at cheap and
convenient place. But probably
most students could more easily
be moved to challenge their ex-
cIusion from one store counter
among fifty than from an entire
building devoted to Intellectual
advancement. Students are also
human.
The appeal of the variety store
demonstrations lies just here: that
while Negroes are cordially in
vited to trade at forty nine coun-
tiers, they are forbidden to trade
at the fiftieth, just across n e
aisle. This is both injury and IN
suit. In making their challenge
here, however, the students have
aroused deep, though shadowy,
opposition among the whites; eat
ing together, the two races Will
be indulging in almost the ultl-
mate intimacy. 1t may be absurd
that the ghost Of the tribe should
hover over the lunch counter OF
a modern Cervantes to laugh us
be a matter for scornful laughter
that whites should expect to buy
aristocratic privileges for dime.
But people are like that. We need
a medern Cervantes to laugh us
out of our absurdlty.
Though the police OF the cities
involved have not IN every IN
stance acted professionally, there
is much to commend in their ham
ding of a new and difficult sit
uation. AS to the legal rights OF
the students in these demonstra-
tons, this is a matter that Will
have to be settled by the courts.
The white South, hoWever-that
is, the Southern power structure
faces a complex problem IN
handling this new kind OF protest.
Police forces are interested in the
maintenance of law and order.
For historical reasons, this means
in the South primarily the main
tenance of Order-an order more
customary than legal. Further
more, Southern order rests gen.
orally upon one assumption: the
Negro on the bottom, the white
on top. This was the settlement
made during the last quarter OF
the nineteenth century; as re-
CARDS the position of whites and
Negroes relative to one another,
it was the same as the slavery
settlement. Whatever is done TO
shake the order based upon this
assumption is by definition dis
orderly In region where words
are powerful, even protest
against it is disorderly. Such a
protest, the Southern authorities
will continually inform the peo-
pie, may cause the reaction OF
violence-may develop into vio-
lence, they say--as the threaten
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