The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn A Charade Called Southern Politics IT was way back in 1954—nine long years ago—that the Supreme Court handed down its historic decision against racial...
...That day was a watershed in this nation's racial struggle...
...These thoughts stood out in my mind in particularly bold relief on June 11, the day that Vivian J. Malone and James A. Hood became the first Negro students to enter the University of Alabama...
...But one fact stands out above all: For a politician to win office in the South he must do everything he can to earn a large anti-Negro following...
...Four times the Governor said no...
...It was also a day on which Alabama's Governor George C. Wallace confronted President Kennedy and the power of the United States Government...
...Looking back over the years since 1954, one cannot help thinking that a good deal of time has been wasted in useless activity...
...Facing him stood Nicholas DeB...
...Katzenbach, a U.S...
...Wallace was amply warned that any attempt to go ahead with his plan of barring the two Negro students would constitute a crime...
...He bore out his promise and stood physically—though, as it turned out, not effectively—in the doorway of the school's registration hall...
...I suppose that, in a sense, homage should be paid to the Governor...
...Wallace's actions show that this is still so...
...For, among other things, it marked the first time in our nation's history when there was at least a measure of integration in every state in the union, however slight it may be in some...
...Many newspapers and prominent politicians continue to treat the Supreme Court as if it were a group of foreigners trying to establish their authority in a country to which they themselves do not actually belong...
...But in general life has just gone bumbling along, and there has been no change really worth talking about...
...Then he told Wallace: "From the outset, Governor, all of us have known that the final chapter of this history will be the admission of these students...
...In the end, to be sure, the Deputy Attorney General proved quite correct, and there is little reason to believe that the Governor did not know all along that this would be the case...
...Wallace was doing little more than playing a charade called Southern politics...
...Deputy Attorney General...
...In some areas, the reactionary element has been so conspicuous that it seems that the country has gone backward rather than forward...
...But the Governor went ahead with it anyway...
...The country—for this often applies as much in the North as in the South—remains divided along racial lines...
...He did, after all, prevent the outbreak of violence at the University...
...Katzenbach patiently explained the Government's position...
...On the day that the two Negro students were supposed to register, Wallace threw a cordon of State Police around the campus...
...THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn A Charade Called Southern Politics IT was way back in 1954—nine long years ago—that the Supreme Court handed down its historic decision against racial segregation in the public schools...
...True, here and there segregation has ended or diminished...
...During his campaign for governor, Wallace had promised that he would stand physically and effectively at the door to the University of Alabama to prevent the registration of any Negroes to his State's school...
...Judged by the scant improvement in the situation of Negro students in public schools, nine years have been squandered...
...Violence, of course, has been disturbingly common...
...In fact, the opposition to integration has been so generally successful throughout the South and the Border States that it sometimes seems as if nothing has greatly changed since the days of the war that freed the slaves...
...Since that time, as everyone knows, the application ot this decision has been hindered in many ways by the local authorities and the lower courts...
...At one point, he made a rather longish speech explaining that the Tenth Amendment provides that all matters not covered by the Constitution of the United States are left to the states themselves to decide upon, and that the Federal Government had no authority to meddle with state schools...
...Segregation remains the norm, and the position and opportunities for the Negro have improved hardly at all...
...It only proves that we have, indeed, a long way to go...
...Four times Katzenbach asked the Governor to allow the students to enter...
Vol. 46 • July 1963 • No. 14
