Arizona sun., 1960-12-29

T Il find almost no desire for up
lifting of the mind, a white librar.
ian serving in predominantly
Negro district, opined. "Oh. yes
children get only the books e
quired for. school lessons. After
that, the kids and the adults seek
only books that are ON the best
seller" lists. A very few call for the
classics and other works h a
might stimulate creative thinking.
The female librarian, who served
in the same library when the
neighborhood was all-white, EN-
phasized that the reading patterns
were no different between white
and Negroes.
Maybe, she added wistfully
''They might call me a frustrated
old lady, yet when people talk a
bout progress, about advancement
| view such things from a cultural
level; not from the number of high
school diplomas or from weekly
wages.
In Nashville, home grounds o 1
Fisk University, Meharry Medical
School and Tennessee A. and T
College. college student leadership
has demonstrated that high cultur'
al standards, combined with fore
sighted militancy, can successfully
utilize the tremendous weapon O Il
economic boycott to gain equality
and respect. This was aptly illus
trated during the first of n
series of Southern sit-in demonstra.
tiOnS.
On the other hand, the hard
pressed citizen-farmers of Fayette
County, Tennessee are the victims
of the economic boycott in reverse.
Because they dared to exercise
their voting rights, white mer-
chants and businessmen cut Oft
their daily bread and evicted them.
The Federal government is pre-
sently planning prosecution of at
least IS whites allegedly involved
in the nefarious acts.
BY and large, the plight of the
Fayette County folks is. the most
pitiful and unsuccessful of tn e
scores of episodes in border states
where Negroes attempt to assert
their moral as well as legal rights.
Since the November elections
when some 9 million Negroes voted
deciSively in local and national E.
lections, they have been proudly
flexing their political muscles.
From here on, Negroes can be ex-
pected to take full advantage OF
this significant strength to climb to
higher goals. Again, Nashville can
take a bow, for they have elected
two Negroes to the City Council
and one to the School Board, gain
ing louder voices in municipal af-
fairs.
While Nashville develops depth
race conscious, college trained
leadership, Memphis is bent on
training its youth in businesses and
vocations, content = for the time
being = to forego sit-ins, desegre-
cation actions and other moves for
social equality. When they consider
the time ripe, Memphis Negroes
will be heard from, presumably
backed by a strong economic force.
Some places, like this town OF
Easton, haven't demonstrated any
patterns of protest. A
wholesome atmosphere here h a S
kept white and Negro citizens on
an even keel, simply because ira
dition laid the groundwork Schools
were integrated here nearly two
years ago, and only one incident
an otherwise harmonious
beginning of mixed classrooms.
In this area where both Freder-
ok Douglass and Harriet Tubman,
heroine of the anti-slavery Under
ground Railroad, once lived an d
where many Negroes were fre e
nen long before the Emancipation
Proclamation, life goes on as it has
or over a century.
Looking back in retrospect over