Word Against Deed

In balmy Boca Raton last week, Florida's sunshine-spirited Governor LeRoy Collins found another opportunity to ladle out the easy-does-it philosophy that carried him to the chairmanship of the Southern Governors' Conference and a national reputation as one of the South's staunchest moderates. Collins urged convention-gathered members of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association to "develop and defend a public atmosphere free of racial fears and bigotry." Declared he earnestly: the South must stop fighting the Supreme Court, discard the idea of massive resistance, "seize the opportunity to clear the emotional atmosphere and undertake our rightful responsibilities."

Three days later the Washington Post and Times Herald was quick to fire the customary salute: "It takes moral and political courage of a high order to talk in these blunt, realistic terms to people who have been nurtured on the pap of white supremacy." But matched against performance, LeRoy Collins' words were wearing thin. Unlike four other "Confederate" states, i.e., North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Arkansas, Florida still has no Negro children in white schools. Collins has proposed no plans to admit them, gradually or otherwise. And, under Collins-approved legislation, Florida schools can be closed down in "emergencies" or any time that the Federal Government should send in federal troops. LeRoy Collins' moderation has begun to look more and more like the protective coloring of a good politician who has discovered the magic combination for winning friends in the North and offending precious few in the South.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.