QUIET REVOLUTION IN MIAMI

...The new public junior college has Negroes on its faculty as well as in its student body...

...There are many reasons for the relatively quiet reaction in Miami...

...Out of this gathering in April, 1963, came a strongly worded, widely-publicized statement of conscience signed by many outstanding clergymen in Dade County...

...with the ugly evidence of racial violence in other places in the headlines...

...Public housing, under an expanded program, helps some, but not enough...

...Rather reluctantly at times, many hotels and restaurants on the Miami side of Bis-cayne Bay have had to keep in step to meet the competition...

...Teaching and administrative staffs are being integrated where possible...

...The fact that convictions were secured, a rare achievement in Southern bombing cases, is one reason why Miami has made generally peaceful progress in race relations in the past two years...

...All of this has come about with a minimum of public protest, and with a maximum of private effort...

...Free access to public accommodations provides another interesting success story...

...More recently, brief and peaceful sit-ins directed by the Congress of Racial Equality have brought integration to most of the downtown area's lunchrooms and theaters...

...One of her most candid and influential civic leaders, John B. Turner, recent past president of the Dade County Chamber of Commerce, put it this way: "Tourists don't take vacations where there is bloodshed...

...Also, Miami is making tremendous efforts to attract new industry in an effort to diversify its economy...

...These advantages set it head and shoulders above other bi-racial committees formed in Dixie by the executive act of mayors, pressured by the stress of demonstrations and violence...

...Visitors comment that they see no evidence of trouble in Miami, no demonstrations, no riots...

...Negro bus drivers were hired for the first time on the county-owned bus line...

...A group of rightist citizens sat in on county council meetings while the ordinance for the establishment of the CRB was being discussed and protested every action taken to create the Board...

...Augustine, and other Dixie communities, as well as trouble spots north and west, have suffered frightening violence over the past few years, Miami, on the surface at least, has been tranquil during much of this period...

...In Miami, as in some other communities, not only a good conscience but the delights of economic prosperity call for fair treatment of the Negro...

...Lack of Negro employment has been another major concern...

...The same man and the vice president of the States Rights Party were given jail sentences for their part in the bombing of the home of Don Shoemaker, editor of The Miami Herald, who had supported the CRB...

...Perhaps the most significant struggles still lie ahead for the eighteen Board members...

...This ordinance emphasizes the use of conciliation, persuasion, cooperation, and voluntary action as tools in the fields of school integration, public accommodation, public and private employment, and housing...

...The area cannot, economically, afford violence...

...With the community's moral forces speaking out clearly...

...A timely warning lies in the experience of Little Rock, where in the year following its crisis over school integration, not one new plant located in that city, and its population decreased...

...Most Negro leaders are saying, more firmly than ever, "Now...

...Five thousand of the 38,000 Negro students enrolled in public schools are attending formerly white schools...

...They make their views known through pressure on municipal council meetings, in strongly worded letters to the newspapers, and in attempts to influence school board policies...

...A quality education program is upgrading the quality of all schools...

...In past Miami history, this latter situation has provided the spark to set aflame the fires of violence...

...Realistically-planned vocational training to help Negroes qualify for better jobs has been lacking...

...The John Birch Society is active, as are anti-U.N...

...But any overall view would show that Miami, compared to other Southern communities, is moving toward civil rights objectives at a hopeful pace...

...At the present time, action to integrate housing is high on CORE's priority list...

...But Miami's is not a fairy story...

...Even so, the taste of the progress experienced in Miami whets the Negro's appetite for more...

...It called upon "all citizens and the elected officials of our community to recognize with us the importance and urgency of arriving at decisions which will promptly put into effect the remedies so necessary and imperative at this time" to assure the dignity of all men...

...The powerful Miami Herald, through its editor, Don Shoemaker, has repeatedly praised the CRB...

...His editor, William Baggs, highly respected by both whites and Negroes, serves as a member of the Board...

...The housing problems of Negroes, who constitute about fifteen per cent of the area population, are formidable...

...ing resource in the Miami community over the past dozen years has been a small but dedicated group of residents, of both races and of all major religions...

...Augustine failed to recognize this dollar value on tranquility...

...This Board, with jurisdiction over the twenty-six municipalities which comprise Dade County, is the second of its kind to be organized in the South by ordinance, complete with operating funds and a professional staff...

...As chairman of the sessions, he gave the prestige of his office to the meeting...

...Catholic parochial schools and colleges have been integrated for more than five years...

...Exercising their local freedom, interested groups and individuals in Dade County worked hard to sell the county commissioners on the desirability of establishing the Community Relations Board...

...Within a week after the Board's establishment, and after a series of conferences between Board members and government officials, Miami City Manager Melvin Reese and then County Manager Irving MacNayr took major steps to right long standing discrimination in public employment...

...Of the present population of more than one million, half did not live here ten years ago...

...special emphasis is given to predominantly Negro schools to ease the academic transition to integrated schools...

...In 1952, aroused by a series of nationally publicized bombings in the area, a number of concerned citizens formed the Dade County Council of Community Relations to deal with local race problems...

...In addition, the financial contributions from this county to the state treasury far exceed the amounts returned to Dade County from Tallahassee...

...Miami would find its hotels empty...

...The Council has not always succeeded, but it has made progress...

...The latter are usually last resorts rather than constructive programs aimed at lasting results...

...True, some private builders have erected improved housing, but in Miami, as in most of the rest of the nation, the need greatly exceeds the supply...

...In Miami Beach, in an effort to attract profitable national and regional conventions, which more and more frequently have Negroes in attendance, most public facilities, including hotels, dining rooms, pools, and night clubs, have now been desegregated for about five years...

...In its short life, the Community Relations Board has accomplished a great deal...

...Where attempts have been made to eliminate the run-down shacks crowded one upon another on postage stamp lots, too often they have been replaced by privately constructed multi-dwelling concrete monsters charging higher rents, with greater population density and therefore less space, less privacy, and less outdoor play area...

...Paul Walker, president of Richards Department Store, recently reported that his store has hired two Negroes to be trained as buyers...

...What business will move into an area of racial unrest...

...And Ralph Renick, popular news commentator for television station WTVJ, has made favorable editorial remarks on several occasions about the Board and has spoken constructively on racial issues generally...

...Therefore, although some state leaders may disagree with community relations activities in Miami, they, too, recognize that racial peace is vital to increased tourism and industrial development, the sources that keep the state treasury replenished...

...Until recently, job opportunities were extremely meager, limited almost exclusively to manual labor and domestic service...

...New Miamians brought this non-aggressive outlook with them...

...But the most valuable peace-makELAINE R. SAMET is a faculty member of the University of Miami who has been close to the struggle for civil rights in that community...

...It has diverted several demonstrations from the streets to the conference table, where constructive agreements have been reached...

...In the fall of 1962, members of a far-right organization, the Florida States Rights Party, Inc., were arrested in connection with a series of bombings and bomb threats against supporters of integration and were prosecuted...

...He has said publicly that if he could find more qualified Negroes for executive positions, he would be pleased to hire them...

...A major national food chain employed Negro cashiers for the first time in this part of the country, after key personnel had attended a series of conferences of business leaders called by the fair employment committee of the CRB...

...this is not the end of a beautiful tale with a magic formula for instant justice...

...for others, far too rapid...

...and with the backing of the local news media, the elected commissioners of Dade County were moved to vote for the ordinance creating the Community Relations Board...

...One reason is that Dade County had enjoyed home rule and a strong metropolitan county government for seven years, so that some freedom from state control is possible...

...So far, the strongest resource for effective persuasion has been the prestige of the Board members and those citizens serving on the subcommittees...

...Tourism is an important part of the answer...

...Why did the "Pork Choppers," those powerful Florida politicians backing racist and rightist views, permit renegade Dade County to move toward racial justice, in sharp contrast to the typical segregationist reaction in rural areas of the state...

...Yet this vast influx of vacationers is decisively instrumental in keeping Miami's racial revolution from erupting into violence, and in assuring its continued success...

...The University of Miami, the largest private college in the area, voluntarily opened its doors to Negro students...

...Quiet Revolution in Miami by ELAINE R. SAMET TT'ive million tourists who visited ¦*• Miami, Florida, last year are probably unaware of the part they played in the Negro revolution that was—and is—taking place in Dade County (greater Miami...

...More than fifty of 206 schools in the county are now integrated...

...Negro sales people are beginning to appear in department stores...

...Pictures of police with snarling dogs or cattle prods, pursuing civil rights demonstrators along Miami's hotel-lined Collins Avenue, do not glare on television screens...

...At the present time the Board can neither subpoena witnesses nor compel attendance at meetings...

...And they are right, for this is the least obvious, least publicized racial protest movement in the South and perhaps in the nation, though at the same time one of the most productive...

...Until recently, at least, these northern areas had not been accustomed to the use of violence as a means of dealing with racial problems...

...Birmingham can have violence and open the steel mills the next day...

...About half of the recently-arrived residents have come from Northeastern and Midwestern urban centers...

...How skillfully the CRB can accomplish this delicate feat of timing and balance, and continue to make progress in league with citizens of good will and courage, will help determine the popularity of Miami as one of the more popular playgrounds of the nation...

...Labor unions, vocational educators, private industry, and government employers share the guilt...

...Jack Kassewitz, chief editorial writer for the Miami News, a native of Fitzgerald, Georgia, points out: ". . . our biggest part was in not overplaying minor incidents which could have added fuel . . . Where papers shirked their responsibility, trouble has been great...

...The program is working...

...each sign of progress helps to build a more confident, more united, and freer community...

...Another explanation for the peaceful nature of civil rights activities in Miami is found in the make-up of its population...

...Not only was it passed with only one dissenting vote, but the commission approved as Board members highly respected, capable community leaders whose integrity is above reproach and who are committed to an educational and action program...

...They meet regularly and perform quietly, but effectively, amid pressures from those who fear they will do too much and those who fear they will do too little...

...These elements for an explosive situation simmer not far beneath the seemingly quiet surface...

...The police force, which formerly had employed Negroes only in Negro precincts, was desegregated, and a Negro traffic officer now stands on downtown Flagler Street, a symbol of changing times...

...With every news report of racial trouble exploding elsewhere, Miami citizens are reminded by the mass media of their Community Relations Board, of their foresight in taking constructive action as a preventive against conflict, of their civic responsibility in keeping racial peace through mediation and conciliation...

...This is not to say that harassment has been lacking, but seldom has it prevented progress...

...forces...

...Most of the Negro high schools are to be phased out within three years...

...The newspapers and radio and television stations have continued to act as responsible sources of information on racial issues...

...as a result, last summer her motels were operating at only ten to fifteen per cent capacity, instead of a normal ninety-five per cent, after racists unleashed violence against civil rights marchers and wade-ins...

...While Birmingham, Jackson, St...

...So it goes...

...As governor, he was keenly aware of the pressures from urban centers, led by Dade County, to keep the schools open even in the face of inevitable desegregation...

...Urban renewal, a long-range solution to blight, is at this moment in Miami's history contributing to the housing problem for the many Negroes living in the central core of the city, the target for redevelopment...

...It took courage for such elected officials to go on record in support of a measure to implement desegregation —a nasty word in Southern politics, even in Miami...

...The fact of CRB's existence as an arm of government, and the community standing of its members, gives courage to public and private agencies and business firms to act according to their conscience and common sense...

...Largely through its efforts the public schools have been desegregated without major trauma...

...Several years ago, efforts by Negroes to expand their housing boundaries resulted in a rash of bombings in Miami residential areas...

...with the economic power structure well aware of the potential financial disaster inherent in racial disorder...

...On the other hand, Dade's plan had been carefully worked out over a period of three years...

...Such groups sometimes hamper progress in race relations but have been unable to stop it...

...As a result, the Pupil Assignment Law was enacted which permitted a community to desegregate its schools if it wished, but allowed others to refrain from doing so until pressured by the courts...

...The county hospital, whose segregated facilities and treatment had long been a sore point with the Negro community, began to desegregate at a rapid pace...

...Goldwa-ter support (equated in the South with anti-civil rights policies) has been strong in the area...

...Although Dade County boasts of one of the best race relations records in the South, it is still no Eden to the Negroes in the slum ghettos, among the worst in the nation...

...Because of a lack of open occupancy housing patterns, new ghettos will develop as central city slums are cleared and their Negro tenants are forced to move where they can, which means to new or existing Negro neighborhoods—or to the fringes of white areas...

...One convicted member received two concurrent sentences of six years each for the illegal possession and transportation of explosives, and for the attempted bombing of a synagogue...

...The enabling ordinance, written by capable local attorneys who volunteered their services, resulted from the study of similar laws proven successful and constitutional in other communities...

...The communications media responded to this moral appeal by giving the fullest possible coverage to the statement...

...Most significant is the strengthening of the lines of communication by offering an official channel through which to operate, thereby generating an atmosphere of progress, control, hope, and pride...

...To keep communication among these groups from fading out, a Community Relations Board (CRB) was created in 1963 as an official arm of the county government...

...Nor does unanimity of opinion on race relations activities now prevail in Dade County...

...As a result of lawsuits brought by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People as early as 1955, public beaches, swimming pools, golf courses, and other tax-supported facilities have been integrated...

...For more than a decade, sometimes in groups, sometimes in lonely struggle, these citizens have sought to maintain and to strengthen the slender lines of communication between the races, the first essential for averting disharmony and racial violence...

...It grew out of the National Conference on Religion and Race, held in January, 1963, in Chicago...

...Total public school enrollment, white and non-white, is 190,000...

...Although from time to time the voices of a local minister, a rabbi, the Community Relations Council, or a religious organization were raised on behalf of freedom for the Negro, the catalyst for the organized activity which fostered the Community Relations Board came from outside Miami...

...Fortunately, in the years following the 1954 Supreme Court decision on school desegregation, Florida had a moderate governor in LeRoy Collins, who now heads the U.S...

...It is the job of the CRB to set the pace that brings the best and most enduring results...

...Greatly impressed with the reports of the Chicago conference, Bishop Coleman F. Carroll, of the South Florida Catholic Diocese, decided to call for a Miami version of the national meeting...

...There 669 delegates, representing the major faiths, convened to confront together "our most serious domestic evil," racial injustice, and to make recommendations for action in individual communities...

...Its name is seldom seen in the round-ups of civil rights news in the national press...

...However, a public accommodations ordinance now being revised to coincide with the provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 will grant greater power to the CRB and will establish penalties for non-compliance...

...Among residents of both races are those who want equality for all minorities as of yesterday...

...As Reverend Theodore Gibson, president of the Miami NAACP, states, "The Board has kept the top on the powder keg...

...Block-busting tactics by unethical realtors are creating tension in some fringe neighborhoods...

...Some whites say "Never," and some say "Tomorrow...

...For some, the rate of progress toward a more democratic community is still too slow...

...Community Relations Service...