St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1962-09-28

recent antics have helped the rest Of the country
to understand one thing more clearly. The problem
of the South is not the South continues to in
sist the Negro problem" 1t is the problem per-
sonified by EIssissippis Governor Ross Barnett
the problem Of the southerner in high social and
official places who spurns the responsibilities Of
such high position and behaves like an ilhterate
redneck.
So long as men like Barnett and Faubus can
become governors Of their states, long as the
courts can be manned by men Of similar ilk, and
long the southern counterparts of northern
civic leaders-editors, professional and business
people, educators, social workers-either go along
with their antics or lack the courage to speak up;
so long will the South have a problem Of egregious
proportions which viii continue to break out with
increasing frequency in the headlines Of the worlds
press and world public opinion.
Governor Barnett's performance in seeking to
bar the enrolment Of Negro American Miss
issippian at the University Of Mississippi has at
least the virtue Of putting nearly all facets Of the
problem of the South in very clear focus.
1. He seeks to deny a citizen of Mississippi and
the United States to publicly supported edu-
cational facilities on the basis Of the applicants
skin color This is outrage against decency and
humanity
2. He defies the law of the land This is an
full and orderly procedures cannot ignore.
3. He thumbs his nose at the courts, and defies
the judges to put him in Jail This is an invitation
which the judges cannot afford not to accept BY the
time this is in print we trust that appropriate
action will have been taken. If it is not we are sure
that any explanations from the officials responsible
for taking action will be examined with the most
concentrated attention by all thoughtful citizens
5. He appeals to, encourages and inflames the
lowest elements in Southern society The hoolgUns,
the gangsters the terrorists riding again. The
civic leadership and ethical conscience of large
areas of the south more firmly in the hands of
characters who would be promptly clapped in jail
if they brought their behavior patterns to state
This is the problem of the South. Decent people
everywhere at all times in history have been
up against the necessity to respond, with varying
requirements upon their courage, intelligence and
ingenuity to the challenges of such as Barnett
Human history is in big part the history of their
successes and failures.
Decent people are responding in the South. For
this fight is not in any fight of the Justice
Department or the Kennedy administration against
the Barnetts of country It is the fight Of de-
cent southerners backed up by our Justice Depart
ment and the other agencies Of government. Other
wise the effort would be without meaning and
without possible result.
In this fight, happy in the knowledge
that many if not most of the heroes are Negroes
because otherwise - again - the effort would be
without meaning.
On the basis Of this new and circumstantial
evidence involving Of those who were put to
death, the Minneapolis syndicated Tribune chortIes
that the liberals lie. defenders of civil rights)
stumbled into trap Of their own creation: that
they were too ready to defend a who held I'M
popular and extreme political opinions. The i'm
pcaton is clear that Kirk believes that such people
not entitled to the protection Of the Bill Of
Rights, that by embracing unpopular opinions they
sacrifice this right!
Such a position is indefensible. It is denial Of
the basic assumptions upon which humanity depends
everywhere in the world-for that freedom of the
person, the mind and the spirit which essential
to the full development of the human personality.
1t has sometimes been remarked that certain
groups in America, and especially Negroes, Jews
and recent immigrants, especially aggressive II
the defense Of their civil rights. This is true anC
the is that they have to be- 1t is for these
that the civil rights principles have been evolved
Unless they assert their rights the rights deat
letters. In the South the advocates of civil rights
up against various degrees Of official and non
official violence, today In the north at least
no authority, reputable otherwise, would agar
put his name to the papers and processes that sem
Sacco and Vanzeth to their deaths-unless, o.
course, the views Of the Tribune columnist Russell
Kirk should begin to prevail in the north.