St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1963-07-25
Mobile. AIo., Works
For RocioI Peace
Adjusts To Chonce

| ~ AN~a S~S
Adjusts To Change
the Mobile Register carried a pic
ture Of two Negro participants in
a GuB-area Negro golf tourna-
ment held at the course.
Lunch Counter Pioneers"
Last year, in unpubhcized meet
ings with white leaders and mer-
chants, Negroes lined up support
for lunch counter desegregation of
10 downtown stores and in a shop
ping center. Selected pairs Of Ne
gro pioneers" arrived daily at the
counters, at first during off hours.
Five plain-clothes policemen were
on hand at each location, but the
three-week acclimation period was
uneventful. One downtown chain
store manager was told by his
superiors to expect the 5% drop
in lunch counter trade he said was
experienced in other Southern
cities. It never came.
To be sure, many racial bars
remain in Mobile. Negroes and
whites are still forbidden to par
ttcpate in mixed play at the city
golf course, and Negro golfers
have separate locker facilities.
Restaurants, theaters and drinking
fountains are segregated. A we'll
to-do Negro physician complains
his race is completely cut off
from the cultural life Of the COM
munity."
But Mobile Negroes themselves
agree that they have achieved
many gains in recent years. MO
bile is a much better place for Ne
groes to live than any other city
in Alabama" says a Negro lawyer
here.
How did Mobile get that way?
Local historians say one import
ant influence has been the city's
heritage from its early French and
Spanish settlers, who were a rela-
lively tolerant lot. Eighteenth
century maps show the residences
Of whites and Negroes side by side
Ia situation that persists on some
Mobile streets today.
Another moderating influence
has been the Catholic Church,
whose communicates comprise 20%
of Mobiles residents. Although
local parochial schools remain seq
regated, Negro Catholics have long
attended church where they pleas
ed. Spring Hill College, a Catholic
liberal arts institution here and
the oldest college in the satte, de-
segregated in 1854 and has gradu-
ated more than two dozen Negroes
since then.
Medical Society Drops Bar
Several important community
organizations in Mobile have long
had Negro board members. Among
them are the local Girl Scouts
Council, the Young Women's Chris
tan Association. In June the Medi-
cal Society Of Mobile County voted
for the first time to accept apple
atoms from Negro physicians.
A diversified economy ranging
from paper manufacturing to ship
building to Brookley Air Force
Base with its 10000 civilian work
ers has produced a large body Of
well-paid Negro wage earners
Nearly all Mobiles 1000 dock
workers are Negroes, and In GER
tain trades Negroes here enjoy
opportunities closed to their race
in many other communities. Since
its founding in 1900, about a quar-
ter Of the membership of the Brick.
layers Unions Local No 2 has
been Negro. Socially we're differ,
ent, but on the job we're together,
says o. L. Mason, Jr., white bus,
mess agent for the local.
As Birmingham showed, how,
ever, good incomes alone won't
prevent racial tension II there Il
no communication between thu
I races. But communication between
Negro leaders and their whit
lcounterparts has been continuous
in Mobile. Says an executive Of 4
supermarhet chain headquartereC
here: We've kept the lines o
communication open. That's tn
important thing" Leading whit
businessmen - including the 81
permarket official, q railroad pres
ident, a bank president and a drul
chain executive - have played ke.
| roles in the behind-the-scenes ne
gotiations that have led to Negr
gains here.
Recently the Mobile City Com
! mission set up formal machiner.
: for conducting such inter-racia
negotiations. It appointed a nine
member Special Advisory Commits
sion to handle day-to-day racia
problems and a 27-member Specia
! Advisory Committee to help form
I llate broad policies In racial mat
ters. Both groups are one-thir
;, Negro, giving the Negroes repre-
sentation In proportion to thea
iii a.