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University Daily Kansan Tuesday, March 24, 1964
Dignity and Indignance:
March 21, 1964
KU, Saturday, March 21, 1964, the second day of spring. There was to be a civil rights appeal for ending exclusion from fraternities and sororities on the basis of skin color. People would be affected, including myself. Then, I wasn't sure how.
Time to assemble was set for 12:30 in the union parking lot.
Close to 100 Negroes and whites gathered. Brief speeches were made by two CRCC leaders—one Negro, one white. It was to be a day of meaningful protest, they said. There was to be no violence. Marchers were to keep orderly ranks. You are here as individuals, said one, to act as a group because of the individual convictions to which each in his own way has arrived.
THE SUN WAS bright, but the March wind carried a token chill from the winter just past.
The marchers fell into line as planned . . two by two, headed for the Sigma Nu house on Emery Road.
The men wore suit and tie. The women wore dresses. Only an 18-month-old boy named Tony, the son of one of the marchers, was not dressed so. He gurgled in wonder, then fell asleep in the arms of a friend; he wasn't responsible for his world, at least for awhile.
Spot interviews with 30 of the marchers showed that most were from Kansas or Missouri. A few were from across the country—New Orleans, Boston, San Francisco, Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Several were foreign students. The average grade point was between 1:6 and 1.7.
AS THE LINE stretched along Jayhawk Blvd., with the marchers singing occasionally, it was greeted by hundreds of on-looking faces. Mostly friendly faces, curious faces, a few hostile faces.
There was a 15-minute walk, warm, and pleasant with conversation. At the end, on the lawn of a fraternity house on the hill over Emery Road a group of men huddled. When the line passed beneath, they hooted and broke into the chorus of Dixie. "Look away . . . look away."
It made me glad I had picked up a sign. It was not a day for neutrality.
The chorus on the hill broke into an uneasy and self-conscious laughter. They looked to each other, presumably for reassurance.
IN TERMS OF numbers, the jibes from above were not representative. A basketball game went uninterrupted on the Sigma Nu basketball court. Many stayed in their rooms. Many stood quietly on the slope in their Saturday sweat-shirts and cut-off jeans and chatted with friends. But because of the silence of the many on the slope, the grotesque behavior of the few dominated:
There was a large black labrador dog with a leonine head. A man had a stick which he would throw towards the pickets, and the dog would run barking to fetch it.
There were several cars displaying confederate flags which careened past at high speed. From the window of one car a large dixie flag was held aloft by a man wearing a big stetson. He yelled, and was answered by a chorus of cheers from a group of 30 or 40 on the hill.
From the second floor window of a fraternity house someone played a tape-recording of gun-fire, then a tape of "Dixie" again turned up so loud as to carry over the entire area.
THERE WERE other insults. They came from people who, essentially, were little different from the people marching.
The 100 in the street, as picketers, appeared invulnerable. They had purpose, bestdefined in one sentence by George Ragsdale Negro CRCC chairman, in a statement made Friday to the press:
"We hope that by exhibiting our concern we will arouse the student body, the school administration, state officials, and the public to the extent that someone will take positive action."
An officer of Sigma Nu came down to talk with some of the CRCC leaders and reporters. He talked of conventions, caucuses, committees—what he saw as the realities of removing discriminatory clauses in fraternity constitutions.
The marchers, he said, did not understand. The Sigma Nu's had tried before to have the clause removed by the national organization. They were still trying, he said. Their motion to have the "white" clause reconsidered, said the officer, stressing that he was speaking as an individual and not as a fraternity representative, would be blocked from the agenda by the dominating Southern elements of the national.
THE PUBLICITY created by the picket would alert the Southerners.
Several fraternity men gathered around nodding assent. Yes, this "show of concern" was not necessary. Someone above yelled, "Buy them tickets to Africa." A fraternity man in the circle looked up and winced.
The march lasted two hours. The curious, the friendly, the hostile drove past and looked on. They had been given something to think about on a warm Saturday afternoon besides golf and tennis, dates and books. The picket line swelled a little as new people joined in. The heckling subsided.
March 21, 1964, KU, the second day of spring.
Shriver Commands Poverty War
By Rick Mabbutt
President Lyndon B. Johnson declared open war on poverty in America last week with the establishment of a new executive agency, the Office of Economic Opportunities, which will be headed by Sargent Shriver.
The anti-poverty program, as the President outlined it to Congress, centers on a job corps reminiscent of the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s.
The $962_{1/2}$-million-dollar plan also provides for a Peace Corps-styled body of 3,000 to 5,000 volunteers who will work in various phases of the battle against poverty.
Some 100,000 young men, draft rejects and school dropouts, will work on conservation projects and be given special job training and work experience.
Although the poverty war occupied the top news spot of the week another Johnson message to Congress received much attention. On Thursday the President asked Congress for $3.4 billion in foreign aid to help "build a world in which
the weak can walk without fear."
Canal Crisis Clouded
THE PRESIDENT WAS REPORTED as being brusque and cool to most of the Latin American ambassadors at a Monday meeting of the Alliance for Progress. Observers feel that Johnson wishes to avoid any appearance of negotiating with a "pistol at his head." At the end of the week he said in a statement that "We are prepared to review every issue which now divides us..."
On Monday President Johnson contradicted the statement and declared that there had been "no meeting of minds." On Wednesday the OAS commission decided to abandon mediation efforts, saying their efforts had been "frustrated."
Internationally, Latin America was prominent in the week's news. Confusion reigned over the U.S.-Panama dispute over the Canal Zone. Such confusion started last Sunday when a special commission of the Organization of American States announced, in effect, that the dispute seemed settled.
Not content with France's influence in Europe and Asia Gen. Charles de Gaulle was in Mexico last week on a trip that was heralded as the "start of a drive to extend French influence through Latin America."
The island of Cyprus was quieter last week as tension between Greek and Turkish Cypriots lessened. The reason for the new calm seemed to be the arrival of the Canadian troops, part of a U.N. police force. However, over the weekend tension increased as the two factions began to maneuver for control of a vital highway on the island.
Calm on Cyprus Ends
Delays in the formation of the peace force have left the way open for renewed strife.
A week-long series of bloody riots between Hindus and Moslems took more than 100 lives, most of them Hindu, in central India. The mutual hatred of the two religious groups which occupy India is centuries old.
PRIME MINISTER NEHRU told the Indian Parliament that Indian troops would cross the cease-fire
(Continued on page 3)
"Pardon Me, Did You Knock?"
Dialogue Coaching Change Rumors Damage Basketball Plans
Dick Harp said in late January he was pondering whether to make this year his last as head basketball coach at KU.
THE LAST WE HEARD, Harp still had not decided his plans. Some people were expecting a decision at the end of the 1963-64 basketball season—a fairly successful one for Harp considering the Jayhawkers finished in a tie for third place in the Big Eight Conference.
Since the first inkling that the past season might be Harp's last, rumors have ranged from the probable to the unbelievable to the fantastic.
The point is—and it's one that merits immediate attention—that this apparent indecision and the deluge of rumors is hurting KU's basketball program—and, perhaps, the entire KU athletic program.
THIS IS THE TIME of year when high school players are being sought for Jayhawker teams of the future. We can sympathize with the high school prospect who wonders for whom he'll be playing in college.
That pretty well sums up our feelings. We have a hunch Harp will stay on at least for next season. He no doubt would gain great satisfaction from coaching the team next year's promises to be or the outstanding player George Unseld promises to be.
In view of this indication's adverse effect on recruiting alone, the chancellor, the KU Athletic Board, the athletic director or someone should act immediately. We think Harp should say whether he intends to continue as KU's basketball coach or enter some other field, such as work with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes with which he is actively connected.
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN if Harp decided to quit? Well, according to the various rumors, it'd be this way:
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- That Ralph Miller, coach of Wichita's Missouri Valley Conference championship team, would replace Harp. (A statement from the chairman of the Board of Regents has indicated this might not be possible, however.)
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- That Walt Shublom, coach of Wyandotte's state high school championship team, will replace Harp.
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