Southern Humiliation

Southerners generally resent any Federal infringement on their State-right to solve their own problems: they have also been prone to leave those problems unsolved. Last week an extraordinary meeting took place in Atlanta, Ga. Its purpose: to prod Southerners into airing some of their dirty linen before the Federal Government steps in and washes it for them.

The meeting was called by the Committee of Editors and Writers of the South in anticipation of Congress' reviving the anti-poll tax bill. The conferees--eight of the 51 were Negroes--were against the poll tax, deprecated other Southern devices for depriving the Negro of his Constitutional right to vote. The editors and writers mingled affably and called each other "Mr." with an ease that surprised both races.

Some of the highlights:

P:Writer George S. Mitchell, Southern director of the C.I.O.-P.A.C., told how a white woman in a small Virginia town encouraged "white supremacy" and discouraged Negro would-be voters from registering by making the registration booth the parlor of her home in an all-white district while a husky husband and a large dog looked on.

P:Author Harnett Kane of New Orleans told of Louisiana elections held in white bars or bordellos, which no Negro dared enter. He recalled Huey Long's remark after the Legislature repealed Louisiana's poll tax in 1934: "The white primary will take care of the nigger."

P:Of the findings in general, Louisville Courier-Journal's Publisher Mark Ethridge concluded: "A complete denial of the democratic process and a complete humiliation of all people who profess any faith in democracy."

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