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University Daily Kansan Monday, Sept. 16, 1963
We'll Wait--For Now
The germs of what will develop into the Daily Kansan's editorial policy on civil rights will be found in the editorial feature below. Exactly where the Kansan will stand on specific points has not been determined, largely because the report of the Human Rights Committee of the All Student Council has not been released.
The report is to be based on answers to questions asked of a mathematically-selected sample of the student body. If the HRC has done its job well, the report should contain a great deal of information about what needs to be done to improve the condition of civil rights at KU. The report should be carefully weighed by every KU student.
ONE BASIC PRINCIPLE of the Kansan should be obvious. The Kansan will oppose all discrimination on the basis of race, color or creed, and support all reasonable proposals to end discrimination. It is the only moral stand possible.
But the Kansan has no desire to march thundering and trumpeting into the fray, loudly proclaiming the ideals of non-discrimination and
equal rights. Those principles are familiar by now, and the hoped-for day of a free and open society has been called for by eloquent voices for years.
The final goal is still a long way off, but we cannot bring it closer by shouting about it.
WHAT DOES CONCERN the Kansan is what can be done now, at KU, to eliminate discrimination. Perhaps we can bring the day of a free society closer by working step by step, and it is these steps with which the Kansan will be concerned.
However, steps cannot be decided upon until the existing situation is made clear. Perhaps total elimination of prejudice and discrimination at KU is only a semester or a year away. Or perhaps there is a long fight ahead. Unfortunately, the latter is more probable.
But in any case, the HRC report is necessary before action can be taken. The Kansan, therefore, will wait and see—for now.
Blaine King
BOOK REVIEWS
STARS FELL ON ALABAMA, by Carl Carmer (American Century, $1.75).
Carl Carmer is best known as the folk chronicler of New York state. But this non-fictional work, which appeared in the midthirties, is about the deep South, about a state which Carmer reveals to us as an enchanted land.
"Moons, red with the dust of barren hills, thin pine trunks barring horizons, festering swamps, restless yellow rivers, are all part of a feeling—a strange certainty that above and around them hovers enchantment—an emanation of malevolence that threatens to destroy men through dark ways of its own."
He describes the people of Alabama, the conjur' women, the Negroes of the canebrakes, the people involved in lynchings and barn dances, duels and love potions. It is a fascinating group of legends and stories. In a kind of appendix, Carmer lists fiddlers' tunes, quilt patterns, describes all-day singing, mountain superstitions, Negro superstitions, and more stories of those Georgia folk—Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox.
THE LAST ADAM, by James Gould Cozzens (Harvest, $1.25).
This is early-day Cozzens, somewhat idyllic in tone, set in a small town, which is an arena Cozzens seems to understand. It is a well-written, absorbing, meaningful tale.
Though the story of a town it also is the story of a doctor, Dr. Bull (and old-time moviegoers may recall that "The Last Adam" furnished the basis for the Will Rogers film of 1933, "Doctor Bull"). Dramatic conflict is light, for this is chiefly a story of interrelationships within a New England village.
Race Reason Rushee Not Invited To Pledge
By Blaine King
Marvin Reed is not the first man to go through fraternity rush without receiving an invitation to pledge. It happens to many.
Sometimes a man is not bid, in the jargon of rush, because of a poor high school academic record. But Marvin was in the top five in a class of 194 from a Kansas City high school, where he was a member of the science, mathematics and physics clubs.
Sometimes a man is passed over because the fraternity men find him hard to get to know, or because he cannot carry on a good conversation. But Marvin has an out-going personality, and can discuss intelligently a wide range of topics.
Why wasn't he asked to pledge?
MARVIN REED is a Negro.
He is the first of his race, according to Donald Alderson, Dean of Men, to go all the way through rush week, although Negroes have registered for rush before.
Marvin almost did not go through rush. He planned, even before rush week, to pledge Alpha Phi Alpha, one of the two Negro fraternities at KU, but wanted to go through rush week to see more of the houses. (He has since pledged Alpha Phi Alpha.)
"That way there wouldn't be so many blank faces when school started," he said.
But when he signed up to visit Alpha Phi Alpha during first day of rush, he learned that the two Negro fraternities never participate in rush week. He decided to drop out of rush.
One of the fraternity men in the Kansas Union, where fraternities meet the rushees for the first rush date, called Dean Alderson. Alderson talked to Marvin, encouraging him to stay in rush.
WOULD HE HAVE joined a white fraternity if he had been bid?
ty and a Negro fraternity had asked him to pledge?
"If they wanted me to pledge, and if I liked them, yes."
"in there was a choice. I would go to the one I liked the best."
What if both a white fraterni-
On what would an evaluation of the fraternities be based?
"On the individuals in the fraternity."
HOW ABOUT social affairs?
"There are some social affairs I wouldn't fit into. I suppose that would make a difference in what I would decide."
You mean you would feel uncomfortable in a situation, such as an exchange function between a fraternity and a sorority, where you might well be the only Negro?
"That would depend on the whites."
DID YOU FEEL uncomfortable in any of the fraternities you visited?
"No."
Should fraternities integrate?
"If they want to. Everyone has a choice about what he wants to do."
Then fraternities should not be forced to integrate?
"No, they should not. Fraternities don't have to take a white they don't want. Why should Negroes be given special privileges?"
"DISCRIMINATION ON the basis of color is unfair, but fraternities have the right to do it. Discrimination because of color is not fair,but it isn't against the rules."
But if the choice is made on color alone?
At least one fraternity man said the only reason his fraternity did not consider extending a bid to Marvin was because of race, and that, Meeks said, is wrong. He feels strongly that such discrimination is not only unfair, but is against the rules.
One of Marvin's fraternity brothers disagrees with that last point. He is Cordell Meeks, Kansas City senior who is a member of the Human Rights Committee of the All-Student Council.
with, even though they also might feel that men have the right to be morally wrong in this case if they want to.
In the first place, Meeks said discrimination because of color is morally wrong. a position most people at KU would agree
MEEKS SAYS NO. Men have the right to be morally wrong only when their being wrong does not interfere with another man's rights.
While men should have freedom of association, Meeks says, that freedom does not extend to basing association on race. That represents an infringement on the rights of others.
Therefore, Meeks says, fraternities or any private or public groups do not have the legal right to consider race when choosing members.
More important than legal considerations, which must be settled by the courts anyway, is why fraternities don't want to integrate. That could be settled by the students.
HOW PREVALENT these men are is not known yet, because the results of a survey made last year by the Human Rights Committee have not been released. Those results should be released this week.
No matter how wrong or illogical those men may be such people do exist in KU fraternities and dormitories, and they must be reckoned with. Other men in the same fraternities as such men are reluctant to pledge a Negro, because of the friction it would cause within the fraternity.
From many a long conversation with fraternity men, two factors emerge. First, of course, is that some fraternity men just do not like Negroes.
The other reason fraternity men are reluctant to integrate is because they are afraid their fraternity will be down-graded socially, or will be hurt in rush.
How justified that fear is is not certain either, but the fear is real. In essence what fraternity men say is this:
IF MY FRATERNITY integrates, and is the only one to do so, it will be almost impossible for my house to get social functions with dormitory floors or
sororities, and many girls will refuse to come to our parties, or date our men.
Besides, if only a few girls begin "cutting" our house, whatever reputation we have will suffer. And next rush week, we suffer because of it.
Why, then, should 60 or 80 men be asked to lay their fraternity on the line for one man? The ideals are fine, but we are interested in survival too.
Because no fraternity at KU has integrated, no one knows for sure what would happen to the fraternity which first broke the color line. Perhaps, as some have suggested, fraternities and other private organizations are blowing their fears out of proportion to the actual situation.
BUT IT DOES not seem fair to condemn out of hand a group of individuals who are acting to protect themselves. If integration is a goal, something satisfactory to both sides must be worked out.
Why should fraternities integrate at all?
To Cordell Meeks, the problem is not integration, but nondiscrimination. In other words, integration per se is not the important goal.
"Whether the races mingle or not doesn't matter," Meeks said. "What does matter is that there
not be any discrimination if the races want to mingle, so long as all human beings are treated as human beings."
The distinction is a fine one. Integration throughout the country is important, and if the hoped-for goal of social and economic equality is achieved, extensive integration, or mingling, is inevitable. And it is important that the races be granted equal opportunity in all public matters. That trend was given a big boost by the 1954 Supreme Court decision on school segregation, and has been backed up by later decisions.
BUT SIMPLY MANDATING that the races shall mingle will not solve the much larger and much more important problem of discrimination.
With that in mind, it would seem that forcing private clubs, private homes or fraternities to integrate should not be the prime goal. Creating an atmosphere where that integration can take place is important.
Perhaps Marvin Reed helped take the first step toward creating that atmosphere. One barrier is down, at least, and apparently most of the men in the fraternities Marvin visited were willing to treat him for what he is—an intelligent human being.
Dailij 17änsan
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