ustxtxb_obs_1963_09_06_50_00003-00000_000.pdf

Rev. William F. Danahy, a Catholic priest and the only white on the program, said the clergymen of Marshall have had meetings on integration and manifest “a moderate amount of good will and a tremendous amount of timidity.” A clergyman must lead against segregation, he said, for it is a moral problem. “We must expect that he lead in all moral thingswhether it’s racial segregation or stealing money, he must be against it.” J. T. Rosborough of the local Negro Progressive Voters’ League said 5,000 registered Negro voters are needed in the county. Rev. Holliday gave “my personal view as I see it, from a state level.” He said he would not “re-enter your community after and tell them how to run their affairs. “From your panel,” he said, “we feel that you have things well in hand.” Having alluded to a statement he said he had given the press that was then “probably going around the state,” Holliday asked for a glass of water and quipped, as he drank it, that it “kinda settles my nerve when I’m not sure what I’m going to say.” He turned to his own background, recalling that he was the first Negro appointed to the Fort Worth public library board, had served recently on the Tarrant County grand jury, and was a member of “the mayor’s committee” to make plans for Fort Worth. Speaking of his present ministry, he said, “I had no desire to enter the ministry. I always wanted to be rich. I’m in the worst line of work for that!” “I am humble about it, and as I return among you tonight I can share your wishes and your desires, but .. .” and thereupon he read from a text he had prepared. In this text he said progress had been made for Negroes in job opportunities. He said that many Negroes had been “slaves to traditions, habits, and laws that have circumvented our freedom.” Changes are here, he said, “And we have not been influenced or agitated by any outside in Editor and General Manager, Ronnie Dugger. Partner, Mrs. R. D. Randolph. Business Manager, Sarah Payne. Contributing Editors, Bill Brammer, Chandler Davidson, J. Frank Dobie, Larry Goodwyn, Franklin Jones, Lyman Jones, Jay Milner, Willie Morris, Charles Ramsdell, Roger Shattuck, Dan Strawn, Tom Sutherland, Charles Alan Wright. Staff Artist, Charles Erickson. Contributing Photographer, Russell Lee. Subscription Representatives: Austin, Mrs. Helen C. 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None of the other people who are associated fluences.” “So I say to you, from the state point of view, we must be sober, we must be rational about this thing, for the enduring good.” Holliday read from a public affairs pamphlet which advocated, in part, that desegregation leaders “invoke established symbols of law and authority.” Apparently amplifying this, Holliday said, “You take care of the majors, and the minors will fall in line.” “If we want our community to grow, and do not want it to be dictated from Washington and other places, then let’s do it well and at the local level,” he said. Reading again from the pamphlet, he said that no lay group should try to spell out a school board’s policy. Quoting someone else, he said, “In some areas we must enter the vestibule before we can get to the living room.” “Guard your economics,” he concluded. “Be sure you realize that the money you have will determine how far you will get in life; -and spend it wisely.” He was given a nice hand. Dr. Lamothe, closing the program, did ndt refer to his speech, but did say that he trusted that the crowd’s presence “means that you will support us in our endeavors.” In reporting this dramatic rally, the Marshall News-Messenger placed its story on page eight; did not report any of the remarks of the six NAACP speakers, or Rosborough ; reported only the remarks of Holliday; and stated flatly, “the rally in no way resembled gatherings in other cities which spurred mass demonstrations.” Two white reporters from the local paper had covered the rally. \(They, the priest, and the Observer reporter were the only Messenger story, apparently relying on Holliday’s hand-out, said he had said desegregationists should “keep Washington out of it”; that to achieve school desegregation, one principle is to “promote and support the school board policy”; and that with the enterprise shares this responsibility with him. Writers are responsible for their own work, but not for anything they have not themselves written, and in publishing them the editor does not necessarily imply that he agrees with them, because this is a journal of free voices. The Observer solicits articles, essays, and creative work of the shorter forms having to do in various ways with this area. The pay depends; at present it is token. Please enclose return postage. Unsigned articles are the editor’s. The Observer is published by Texas Observer Co., Ltd., biweekly from Austin, Texas. Entered as second-class matter April 26, 1937, at the Post Office at Austin, Texas, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Second class postage paid at Austin, Texas. Delivered postage prepaid $5.00 a year. Foreign rates on request. Single copies 25c; prices for ten or more for students, or bulk orders, on request. Editorial and Business Offices: ThQ, Texas Observer, 504 West 24th St., Austin 5, Texas. Telephone GR 7-0746. Change of Address: Please give old and new addresses v.nd allow three weeks. desegregation planners should agree “that this community is not going to tolerate the tactics of outside or local hoodlum agitators.” If Holliday said these things at the meeting, the Observer did not hear him. Another paragraph in the News-Messenger story was interesting: “One of Rev. Holliday’s strongest comments was, ‘We must enter the vestibule before we can reach the living room,’ apparently in reference to attempts for overnight integration.” Other Token Breaches Grade-a-year integration, beginning this month or, as at Marshall, next year, has gained spotty acceptance in East Texas. These are the first breaches in the area’s solid segregation. Where they have occurred without court order, the motives of white authorities seem to include desires to avoid being ordered to integrate more rapidly; to avoid Negro demonstrations; to accept the inevitable. Tyler schools begin grade-a-year integration this month. About a fourth of the 15,000 students are Negroes. Two public kindergartens have also been integrated. No lawsuit was filed in Tyler. A biracial committee is holding closed meetings there. Athens announced grade-a-year integration starting a year from now. This year Negro high school students will be permitted to take courses at the white high school, not offered at the Negro high. The school board stated, “public opinion in the local and surrounding communities now indicates acceptance of public school integration in a peaceful manner.” Lufkin school authorities are studying a proposal by Lufkin News editor W. R. Beaumier that integration be undertaken. Beaumier says the paper, the TV station and a radio station agreed not to publicize Negro demonstrations unless the police had to be called in; he said two restaurants recently integrated in Lufkin. Longview, ordered to integrate by Federal Judge Joe Sheehy, proposed integration next year, but Sheehy said no and ordered grade-a-year integration to begin this month. W. J. Durham, lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the order gave no relief to the plaintiffs, who are in junior and senior high school. Bryan was ordered to begin grade-a-year desegregation by Federal Judge Joe Ingraham of Houston. “We have the utmost respect for the law,” said Supt. Alton C. Bowen ; “We solicit the help and cooperation of all the people of Bryan in making the transition with dignity.” \(At College Station, six Negroes registered at Texas THE TEXAS OBSERVER A Journal of Free Voices Vol. 55, No. 20 7 September 6, 1963