The Augusta Courier

STRICTLY PERSONAL
By ROY V. HARRIS

Well, the Atlanta newspapers are out after me. It does my ego good to know that my blows against race mixing and the interbreeding of the white and Negro races has become effective enough to draw their attention.

The Atlanta newspapers usually take after public figures who oppose their policies and expose them to the world. They have a habit of digging into the closets and dragging out all the skeletons they can find. If they can find any scandal, or any crookedness whatever, they expose it to the world.

I hope they can't find anything in my forty-year record that will be any worse than the charges they have made against me during the last week.

In their opinion they have made some awfully bad accusations against me.

On Tuesday morning, January 26, 1960, they opened up with a front-page analysis of Roy Harris by Mr. Charlie "Poo", THE ATLANTA JOURNAL'S political writer.

They made two grave charges against me.

1. They say that I am riding the segregation tiger.
2. They say that I am running for governor.

Now, these are serious offenses in their sight and they probably think that they have charged me with two of the most heinous crimes in the whole category of crimes.

But, so long as they can't dig up any scandals worse than this, I will be satisfied.

It is true that I am riding the segregation tiger. I am no recent convert. I have been riding this tiger since I can remember.

In addition, we started THE AUGUSTA COURIER in 1947 in order to give the segregation forces in this state a voice and to give us the means of taking our side of the question to the people of Georgia.

Since that time, every issue of the Courier has been a blast for the segregated way of life. We have tried to point out to the people the evils of integration. We have tried to show the people that forced race mixing is unconstitutional and illegal, that the federal government's efforts in this direction are an invasion of the rights of the various states.

We have tried to prove to the people that integration means interbreeding. We have tried to show you that there is no way you can integrate two races without interbreeding.

If you wanted to integrate a black angus with a white-faced hereford, there would be only one way that it could be done. It would be necessary to breed one of the animals to the other.

That is true. That's the situation today.

You can only integrate the races by interbreeding them.

We have tried to show to both the white and the colored people in the South, that living under our pattern of segregation, which has always existed together in the same community in a state of peace and harmony and without disastrous results to both races.

In doing this, we have pointed to the examples found in the experience of the South and we have pointed out to you the terrible conditions that exist in the great cities of the nation where race mixing has been attempted.

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For our stand on this issue, we have no apology.

Now, they attempt to discredit my motives.

These hyenas who work for the Atlanta papers sell their talents to the newspapers. They write for a living. They get paid for it.

Consequently, they can't understand why anybody would crusade for segregation unless he had ulterior motives.

It isn't possible for them to believe that individuals may be sincere and that they may have no ulterior motives in standing up for the right.

For twelve years now I have edited THE AUGUSTA COURIER and we have never been able to make it break even. It has cost me and my associates money. There is not a soul who helps edit and prepare THE AUGUSTA COURIER who receives a nickel's pay for his work.

Not a single one of us has ever received a dime in twelve long years.

In addition to that, it has cost several thousands dollars a year for my associates and me to keep it going.

In addition, I have been all over the South speaking to the people about this problem. In most instances, I have paid my own expenses.

In the State of Georgia, I have paid my own expenses. No organization has contributed.

Even though I am President of the States' Rights Council, I have never received a penny's pay for serving in that capacity, nor has the council ever paid one expense account for me.

The only time I have permitted any of my expenses to be paid anywhere is when I have gone out of the state, upon invitation, I have permitted the organizations inviting me to pay the hotel bill and transportation.

Now, these hyenas can't understand a person like me.

They know that we have lost money on THE AUGUSTA COURIER.

They know that I have paid my own expenses in my travels.

They have dug into that and found it to be true.

Now, under these circumstances, there is only one way they can reflect upon my motives or my purpose and that is to say that I am a candidate for governor.

Now, since 1946, I have not been a candidate for anything. I have never told anybody that I was a candidate for governor at any time nor that I wanted to run for governor at any time.

As a matter of fact, I much prefer to be in the background and to continue to do what I am doing than to be governor.

I had much rather support a vigorous young man who is willing to carry on this fight than to be governor myself.

But I will tell these hyenas one thing: If we do not have the right kind of a candidate with a good chance of victory in the Governor's race then I may be a candidate.

If I do, it will be for one reason and one reason only. That reason is that I have reached the conclusion that we need a more dedicated, harder-hitting leader in this fight than the ones who offer themselves.

I know that I have one qualification for leadership in this fight.

When I start crusading, these hyenas howl.

Let these hyenas keep on with their brainwashing attempts to force the interbreeding of the whites and Negroes in this state and then I may decide to become a candidate for governor.

You can rest assured of one thing: If I don't run, you will know that there is a candidate in the race who will never yield, who will never surrender and who will fight the interbreeding of the races to the last, final ditch and that he will have the intelligence and the courage to stand up against these hyenas.

Now, on Wednesday, January 20, 1960, THE ATLANTA JOURNAL carried a cartoon entitled, "Where To, Little White Sambo?" and they have a little fat, bald man with a cigar in his mouth riding a tiger named "segregation".

They have me holding an umbrella to keep the sun off my bald head and on the umbrella the cartoonist placed this language:

"Views That Put Vandiver And Talmadge In The Shade".

Now, I don't see why my views put Vandiver and Talmadge in the shade.

They have always held to the same views that I hold to. Both of them have run for office expressing the same views that I now express.

I haven't changed my views and I have no reason to believe that either Vandiver or Talmadge has changed his views.

Now, I know why this sudden, biased, prejudiced and malicious attack has been made upon me.

Some of these hirelings of the Atlanta newspapers, who have sold their talents, have been telling their bosses that Talmadge and Vandiver permit a little teeny-weeny bit of "token" integration in Atlanta. When the legislature met, they were jolted back on their haunches. Vandiver said never and so far, Talmadge is backing him.

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Now, they are in a predicament. Their bosses are asking them how come Talmadge and Vandiver haven't backed down.

The grapevine in Atlanta tells me that I am their alibi.

They say that I have put Vandiver and Talmadge on the spot and they can't afford to back down since I have put them on the spot.

Now, here is how Mr. Charlie "Poo" put it in THE ATLANTA JOURNAL when he analyzes me:

"He thus would take his voice, raspy and almost on the shrill side when he really gets to preaching, and with it rally to him all those Georgians who remain firm for come-what-may segregation.

'He has drawn the line for this, saving of the Peters letter its releasing was none of his doings, but since it is out, the letter may serve a purpose: That is, the separation of the men from the boys on the segregation issue."

"Mr. Harris has already demonstrated this in his line, by throwing lusty swings at such political powers as Gov. S. Ernest Vandiver and Sen. Herman E. Talmadge."

"To Gov. Vandiver, he suggested the firing of Mr. Peters, chairman of the State Board of Education, for expressing the belief that 'some form

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of integration is inevitable.' He also has proposed that the governor call in all of his department heads and aides and find out how they stand.

"He likewise has shrewdly maneuvered the governor into the position of having to name him to the State Board of Regents. If he didn't now, it would be made to appear Gov. Vandiver has 'weakened' on segregation.

"About Senator Talmadge, he has pronounced that as long as the senator remains staunch for segregation he has nothing to fear, nothing to fear from Ellis Arnall, anybody, or Roy V. Harris."

Now, I don't know where Charlie gets the idea that I have been throwing "lusty swings" at either Governor Vandiver or Herman Talmadge. It looks to me like Charlie is trying to split the three of us.

But so far, there is no split.

It is true that I have suggested that if I were governor, I would get me a chairman of the board of education that would stand up and fight for my policies.

It is not true that I have "shrewdly maneuvered the governor into the position of having to name" me to the Board of Regents.

I have never asked the governor to appoint me to the Board of Regents and I would not do so. I am delighted to know that he has announced that he will appoint me, however.

But, if for any reason, he doesn't want to name me, that's his business and he is at perfect liberty to do as he pleases.

Now, it is true that in answering Mr. Peters' charge that Herman Talmadge was in danger of being defeated to the United States Senate because of this race mixing issue, I stated that as long as Talmadge stood solidly for segregation, as he always stood, that he has nothing to fear from Ellis Arnall or anybody else.

I still stick to that statement.

So, they seem to be after me and if they have go to be after me, I am proud of the fact that they indict me for riding the segregation tiger and for being a candidate for governor.

I am riding the segregation tiger, but I am not a candidate for governor.

But, if these hyenas keep on, I may mount that tiger and may ride him into the governor's office!