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University Daily Kansan Monday, Sept. 30, 19
We March to Fate Abreast
A little more than two weeks ago, James Solomon, Robert Anderson and Henri Monteith became the first Negro students to be enrolled in the University of South Carolina.
On Sept. 13, the Gamecock, the university newspaper, devoted the top half of its front page to pictures of the enrollment. The lines under the pictures ended: "It's all quiet, and that's the big part of the story."
The Gamecock also published two editorials, one long and one short, setting forth how the paper's editors, and probably many Southerners, feel about integration in the South. Those editorials are printed below. "We March To Fate Abreast" was the title of the longer editorial.
Integration, feared but expected, has finally become a reality on our campus this semester. The desegregation process is one which can not be stopped—it is a pill we must swallow and accept with the courage, wisdom, and dignity traditional to South Carolina. We know that legal resistance can not be overcome, and that physical resistance will be met by Federal force. The lesson of Sept. 30, 1962, in Oxford, Miss., has taught us that we can not yield to violence and disorder, for we do not want our University to become a bloody battleground of armed troops or our State to become disgraced in the eyes of the nation and the world. We have but one alternative—obedience to the law—the Supreme Court decision stands.
While we believe it is essential to obey the laws of this land in order to preserve our democracy, we also believe we have the right to take issue with the laws which we follow. As the law commanding the desegregation of our institution should be obeyed, so should the basic rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of speech. If we grant to certain individuals their constitutional rights, we can not deny these rights to others.
WE HAVE MADE it clear that we should, at all costs, obey the laws of our land; however, we feel free and compelled to state that we are opposed to the integration of the University of South Carolina at this time, not because of prejudice or because of a desire to perpetuate racial segregation, but because we feel it is in the best interests of both races.
It seems to us that it is senseless to integrate the races without any true moral purpose, yet it is in this direction we are being compelled to follow. Before we can attain, or should attain, integration, there must be an unconscious willingness among both races toward acceptance. Such a state, however, does not exist in South Carolina at this time, and it is for this reason that we oppose the desegregation of our campus this fall.
"It is at the bottom of life that we must begin, and not at the top," stated Booker T. Washington in his autobiography "Up From Slavery." The eminent Negro educator of the 19th century went on to say, "Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities." Washington had great faith in both the white and Negro races and in the South; he felt that integration might eventually evolve when the Negro race proved itself of such indispensable value that the white race would feel the presence of the Negro was necessary to the happiness and well-being of the South. "No man who continues to add something to the material, intellectual, and moral well-being of the place in which he lives is long left without proper reward," Washington said.
We stand unequivocally with Mr. Washington, one of the great leaders of his people, in encouraging the Negro to secure his rights through constant striving and hard work, and proving his worth, rather than by means of artificially forcing his acceptance.
OUR UNIVERSITY is not yet prepared for integration. If a Negro must enter the doors of our institution without the willingness of the whites, can this be considered a forward step in race relations? In the end, all that can be achieved by the admission of Negroes in this manner is to deepen racial animosities and suspicions. On the other hand, when the University opens its doors to Negroes, not as the result of federal laws, but as the result of seeking students of merit, without regard to race, this, and only this, will be a measure of progress in understanding. The ideal of freedom from prejudice is
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We Are Human
Since the famous 1954 Supreme Court decision, we have been faced with the problem of whether a state has the right to allow racial discrimination within its borders, and whether or not the Federal government has the right to find these discriminations wrong, according to our constitution.
Legally, all citizens of this country have their rights granted by our constitution. The question of who settles this problem has not been decided upon, as yet. The really important problem is whether forced integration will be of any benefit to persons who have been discriminated against.
We all are prejudiced about certain things—no matter how slight the degree. This is very evident when we remember that we were raised by human beings, taught what human beings have said and done—with all the weakness, color, and emotion so characteristic of our species. Laws influence our thoughts and actions. But so do our emotions. Which is stronger? I would choose the latter, since man is still an emotional being, on the whole.
Not only does the majority discriminate in any given
situation, but the minority, too. There is discrimination within all societies in every country on this earth. There are organizations in this country pushing for the elimination of discrimination for their own race, but not others. This discrimination doesn't help solve the problem. Two wrongs never make a right.
Physical integration, especially if it is forced against the majority in control, will never lead to better understanding of the problem. It will hinder true social integration and acceptance, which is what all minorities are truly seeking. A minority group has to be wanted for its worth to be really integrated into a society controlled by the majority.
We must give Negroes education and the chance to better their entire race before we all dare to attempt real integration. This is the only answer to the problem now, but there will be others as time goes on.
We must not face this problem with only sorrow in our hearts for the prejudice we have, but rather with hope that someday we might find our country and world truly in the hands of logic—with today's prejudice lessened a little more.
fine in theory, but difficult sometimes to practice. By artificially enforcing physical integration, we only impede the progress of genuine integration.
It is often difficult for people in various sections of the nation to comprehend the struggle that is taking place in the South today. It is a struggle of both the white and Negro races toward erasing racial misconceptions and fears that have existed over many years. The road from slavery is long and discouraging, but it is a road the American Negro must walk, step by step, if he is to someday reach the ideal of equality. There are no short cuts on this road to equality, neither God nor government can create them; they can only make the road less difficult to travel.
THE FALL OF 1963 will go on record as more than just another academic semester at our University—it will serve as an index of and a challenge to the student body. While we oppose integration at this time, feeling that it is not in the best interests of either race, we must face reality with rationality and comply with the laws of our nation. The lesson of Oxford, Miss., has taught us that not only is mob rule imprudent, but it will solve no problems, only create larger ones. It is often hard to obey laws which interfere with our domestic problems, which we know and can handle better, but, perhaps, this is the price we must pay for democracy.
We march to fate abreast.
We marsh to late abreast. And close as sin and suffering joined Oppressor with oppressed; The laws of changeless justice bind
"We Must Face The Ugly Fact That, Step By Step,
This Country May Be Led Down
The Road To Peace"
Dailu Hansan
111 Flint Hall
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$3 a semester or $5 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon
during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays, University
holidays, and examination periods. Second postage paid at Lawrence,
Kansas.
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the Miller Managing Editor
Terry Ostmeyer, Trudy Meserve, Jackie Stern, Rose Osborne, Assistant
Managing Editors; Kay Jarvis, City Editor; Linda Machin, Society Editor;
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Managing Editor
Blaine King
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
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Mgr.
That's not strange, because I believe when two students meet they are two new friends. Their sentiments and thoughts are the same.
I want to say to the directors, the teachers, and above all to the students: "Thanks, thanks a lot and we hope to see you again in Colombia, where you will have your home."
I have no words to tell you of the University of Kansas of our gratitude for the kindness given the Colombian students group. It was the first time in this tour that we have had our own home in the United States. KU was our family.
The People Say...
Ignacio Coral Quintero Colombian Student
Adiós y gracias.
BOOK REVIEWS
THE LOVED ONE, by Evelyn Waugh (Vintage, $1.25).
Drive through Los Angeles, particularly Hollywood, and you'll see why "The Loved One" is high on the list of satirical tales of the madhouse region of America. It is a scathing approach to the funeral industry of southern California, and it is funny and frightening.
Waugh regards the book as a fanciful tale, but is it really? We see here the Whispering Glades funeral park outside Los Angeles, and a romance going on in this lovely setting. There also are funeral parks for animals. One reads this book and laughs so he won't cry.
THE FALL, by Albert Camus (Vintage, $1.65).
Short, simple, thoughtful and meaningful is the writing of Albert Camus, and "The Fall" may be his best work. It deals with the conscience of modern man in the face of evil, and it has much to say about values in society today.
Here is a long confession, made by a man in a bar in Amsterdam, who recalls his life as a lawyer in Paris, and of his realization of the essential non-innocence of man and the incapacity, therefore, of a man to judge others. This is a searching and shocking piece of work.