The Ohio Daily Express

Chicago Judges Snub Judge Waring

CHICAGO (ANP)- South Carolina's fighting Judge J. Waties Waring was treated like poison ivy by Chicago's 101 judges here last week.

Every judge residing in Cook County was given a special invitation to attend a luncheon honoring the man who banned the all-white primary in South Carolina.

Not a single one showed up.

Among the absent were the city's two Negro municipal court judges.

Judge Waring took the snub good-naturedly. "It's much worse back home." he chuckled. "Not a single white neighbor, including relatives, or fellow judge, has visited my home in Charleston since the all-white primary was banned." he mused.

However, the cold shoulder treatment embarrassed leaders of the Cook County Bar association which embraces the city's Negro lawyers' - and the local Chapter of the National Lawyers' guild.

The two groups sponsored the luncheon. Judge Waring is a prominent member of the guild.

"We gave this luncheon to show this great man that he does have friends and supporters among members of his profession in the North," said Atty. Sidney A. Jones Jr., president of the Negro bar group. Atty. Jones said a few judges had written "nice letters" explaining why they could not make the luncheon, but he couldn't explain the rest. "All I know is they were invited, and the affair was given in a down-town hotel, which should have made it convenient for some of them to attend," he added.

Regardless, 200 leading Negro and white lawyers went on with the luncheon and heard the Dixie progressive blast the "gradual" approach to the race question.

Later, he addressed 1,000 on Chicago's Southside at Tabernacle Baptist church, where he was introduced by Urban league Secretary Sidney Williams, a fellow South Carolinian.

The 69-year-old judge told his Negro audience "segregation never will be broken down through lectures and sermons," and that "Negroes in the north could do more to help us in the Southland."

"I believe in force." he stressed. "Not necessarily the force of bayonets and machine guns, but the force of every court in the land, the Federal government, the executive power of the President of the United States, the force of law enforcement authorities and the collective force of all right thinking people."

"In fact, I have decided to postpone my vacation until after the primary election to make sure my court order is carried out," he revealed.

South Carolina elections face contempt of court charges if they do not permit Negroes to register and vote in the Democratic primary next week.

As to judges who permit racism to hand down their decisions, the man from South Carolina had this to say: "Any judge influenced by race prejudice, religious hate or racial superiority is a traitor to the U. S. Constitution, a traitor to his country, and a traitor to human decency."

That statement brought thunderous applause from the audience.

Chicago judges have been accused of Dixie-like prejudices in handing down decisions involving racial flareups on the Southside housing front over the past four years.

Both the jurist and his wife said they did not see themselves as martyrs, but that they understood in advance that progressive the South cannot be made without some sacrifice.