Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1960-06-17
BY DAN WAKEFIELD

There have been abortive efforts
to form a white Southern Fedora
ton Of Trade Unions." but lately
the talk Of that has given way TO
intensive and often successful ef-
forts Of Khan and Citizens Council
union members to take over ALL
CTo locals. i've seen cases where
they turned local union meetings
into Citizens Council meetings,"
the labor official said.
The Khan and the rabid, less ire
spectacle" Citizens Councils draw
much Of their support from the
white laboring class (Elston nd
wards, Imperial Wizard Of the
xxx, IL Q paint-sprayer in the
Atlanta Chevrolet plant and a
member Of the U.A.w. local there)
and in many places in the South
they have turned union locals al
most into branches Of the seq
regation groups. Efforts Of the
international unions to remedy the
situation have been Of little or
no avail. And most Of the skilled
craft unions In the deep Southern
states-particularly In the build
ing trades-are exclusively white.
The Carpenters Union in Montgom-
cry, for instance, Is all white.
The continuance of cheap labor
in the South, which rests 50 heavi-
ly on the system of segregation, is
one Of the major lures used to
bring in Northern industry. And
the absentee Northern owners
who control most of the industry
in Alabama as well as in other
Southern states-ask no questions
about labor practices and make no
attempt to interfere in the local
customs" of segregation. AS the
Alabama labor official summed up
their position: They sit in their
ivory towers in the North and their
hands are clean"
DefauIty OF Industry
Harold Fleming, director of the
Southern Regional Council with
headquarters In Atlanta, affirmed
that the Northern corporations
which are going into the South
have It within their power to
make q tremendous impact" on the
pattern Of segregation
For instance, Douglas Aircraft
recently opened a plant In Char
lotte, N. c., and went in with the
understanding from local leaders
that they would hire on a nom
discriminatory basis. Few cities
are likely to refuse the promise Of
a new industry that makes such
a stipulation. But the Douglas ex-
ample Is one Of a very few such
cases. For the most part" Mr..
Fleming said, the corporations
that come down here are interested
only in avoiding conflict"
That is an understandable de-
sire, but even the business strategy
for avoiding areas Of racial con-
flict is often based on a naive view
of the situation, Mr.. Fleming said.
Businessmen tend to pick spots
where everything is quiet" with
out seeming to realize that today's
quiet spot" may be tomorrow's
explosion. A business might have
chosen to set up a branch in Miss
issippi, for instance, rather than
in Little Rock during the school
trouble, on the grounds that all
was quiet in Mississippi No new
businesses came to Little Rock
during the school crisis; now that
1t is over, the Little Rock Chamber
Of Commerce leaders are trying to
attract new business with the line
that We've already had it here;
this is a safe spot to come"
The Second Secession
1t is sad that more Northern
corporations have not attempted
to take unemployment practices
with them when they open branch
Is in the South, for they are among
the few outsiders" who could
make any dent in the local South
ern segregation patterns. With the
exception Of labor unions in some
areas (this year, for instance. the
North Carolina State Labor Coun-
ell not only ruled against segrega-
ton In its locals, but made a pub
lie statement supporting the Ne
gro student sit-in demonstrations),
the involvement and the influence
Of outside forces in the Southern
crisis has been pitifully small. Yet
the Southern crisis" il, In the end, |
the American crisis.
In many places, especially Ala
bama and Mississippi, the die-hard |
segregationists have seeded again,
at least intellectually, from the
rest Of the country, and the at
tempt Of national organizations Of |
which they are a part of influence
their actions on segregation has
usually met with rebuff and with
drawa.. This has been the case