New Note in Dixie

Way, way down in the land of cotton, two attractive Governors last week delivered their inaugural addresses and, in a pleasant departure from the past, they weren't just whistling Dixie.

"Fact of the Land." For South Carolina's Donald S. Russell, 56, the tone had been set by outgoing Governor Ernest F. Hollings. Said Rollings in his farewell appearance before the state legislature: "We have all argued that the Supreme Court [desegregation] decision of 1954 is not the law of the land. But everyone must agree that it is the fact of the land . . . If and when every legal remedy has been exhausted, this general assembly must make clear South Carolina's choice, a government by laws rather than a government of men." The legislators gave Hollings a hearty round of standing applause.

On inauguration day, Russell promised to "give all our people the opportunity they truly deserve," pledged that "we shall work out our problems peaceably, according to our standards of justice and decency." Later, for the first time in memory, Negroes were invited to mix with whites in a buffet reception on the lawn of the governor's mansion. Several hundred showed up.

In Georgia, newly elected Governor Carl Sanders, 37, promised "new and greater opportunities for all." Though committed to "maintain Georgia's traditional separation," Sanders has also warned that "violence in any form will not be tolerated," vowed that "we shall apply as the test of our progress not whether we add to those who have much but whether we provide larger opportunities for those who have little." That same night State Senator Leroy R. Johnson, 34, the first Negro elected to the Georgia state senate in 93 years, attended the Governor's inaugural ball.

Old Threats. Only in Alabama was the usual segregationist tirade heard. There, incoming Governor George C. Wallace, 43, who has pledged to "stand in the schoolhouse door" if necessary to prevent integration, cried: "I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." Wearing two sets of underwear (he insisted they were "Confederate suits," not union suits) beneath his clothes to guard against the Yankee-like cold snap, Wallace threatened a Dixiecrat rebellion. Said he: "We intend to carry our fight for freedom across this nation, wielding the balance of power we know we possess in the Southland . . . We, not the insipid bloc voters of some sections, will determine in the next election who shall sit in the White House of these United States."

But even in Alabama, Wallace's stand was not unanimously endorsed. Newly elected Lieutenant Governor James B. Allen, although a segregationist, has made it plain that he does not intend to back Wallace in defying the U.S. And Attorney General Richmond Flowers, in his inaugural statement, looked ahead to pending Negro applications to the University of Alabama. Said he: "Alabama's soul will soon be laid bare before the world. God grant that we may not be ashamed of it."

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