The Augusta Courier

STRICTLY PERSONAL
By ROY V. HARRIS

The school teachers of Georgia should not panic, if and when an atomic explosion comes in the Atlanta school system in the fall of 1960.

Being school teachers, they undoubtedly know something of Georgia and Southern history.

If they do know any history, they know that this is the second time in the last hundred years that an effort has been made to reconstruct the social order in the South.

The first time was during the period of Reconstruction. That time the forces employed against us were even greater than those of the present day and time.

During the first period of Reconstruction, the following were used:

1. They had, and used, the whole Union Army.

2. They were backed by Acts of Congress as the law of the land.

3. They had the federal judges and the federal marshals then as now.

4. They used economic pressure and applied starvation to the people of the South.

5. They had scalawag, carpetbag and Negro governments in all the states of the South. They had control of the local offices and the local police.

Despite all of these forces and the continual agitation of the radicals in the nation's capital, our forefathers neither surrendered nor submitted.

They resisted in every way their ingenuity could devise. They carried on a cold war. They simply refused to recognize the Acts of Congress.

They were determined to get rid of the carpetbag governments, the federal judges, the federal troops and the Acts of Congress. They didn't quit until they made a clean sweep of all these objectives.

Therefore, the first question which we must decide today is whether we are going to submit, surrender and bow to this second effort to reconstruct our social order.

Thinking people today know, as they knew a hundred years ago, that the mixing of the Negro and white races meant the destruction of the white race and the white man's civilization and of the South itself. Every nation which has tried mixing with the Negroes has destroyed itself, its civilization and its greatness.

Last week we saw that the Negro contributed nothing to the intellectual or moral development of the Egyptians. Yet, when he mixed his blood with the Egyptians, he destroyed the greatness of ancient Egypt.

Now, our forefathers of nearly a century ago had the moral character and the intestinal fortitude to stand up and fight. They fought and they won. We are determined today to stand as our forefathers did and resist and fight as they did. We are determined that our efforts this time will be successful as were their efforts in the first period of Reconstruction.

Now the fight may get hot at times. No great battle has ever been won without sacrifice and this one won't be won without sacrifice. If we seek shelters of safety, then the enemy will take over.

A lot of quislings surrendered to Hitler's Nazis and their march into the various countries in Europe during the period of the Second World War. They figured that it would be better to surrender and cooperate than it would to stand and fight.

A lot of these quislings learned a bitter lesson at a later date.

The people of several nations have surrendered to the Communists rather than resist and fight. They were seeking security. They were seeking safety. They believed that there was no other choice.

Many of these same people have faced the firing squad since. Most of them have lived to bitterly regret their efforts to eliminate any inconvenience, any sacrifice and to avoid a conflict.

Now, we can surrender to the enemy, but if so, we will reap terrible destruction afterward.

Now, let's see what would happen in Atlanta if we surrender.

There would be integration in the schools along the border lines where the Negro and white residential areas overlap. In the event they were mixed the whites would move out and the Negroes would take over.

That's been the pattern in every great city in the nation to this day.

Integration destroys the school as it is integrated.

But we can forget about a surrender for the time being. Neither the legislature, nor the governor, is going to yield-not in the slightest. Neither the legislature nor the governor will compromise on this issue.

Both know that integration means the destruction of the school system.

If we want public schools in this country, we must have segregated schools.

In the first place, in the event the schools in Atlanta are integrated immediately put them in a private school. Even Ralph McGill and Jack Tarver, with the Atlanta newspapers, have already placed their children in private schools.

TIME magazine, in writing about Atlanta in its issue of December 14, 1959, said that many parents are already ignoring public schools.

TIME said:

"This year the city's 21 Roman Catholic schools, all segregated, have suddenly swollen past saturation point with 7,132 students. The seven independent schools, also segregated, are doing their best business in history with 3,500 students; two new lower-grade independent schools are off to such flying starts that each will soon blossom into secondary schools. As crisis approaches, Atlanta's non-public schools are entering a golden age. For public schools, the taste is slightly coppery."

People would move from areas where their children are required to attend integrated schools and soon the school would be nothing but a Negro school.

But during this transition period, rape, murder and beatings would be common in the school houses and on the school grounds. It would be necessary for every school to have policemen standing in the corridors and in the hallways in order to prevent these things from happening.

Murder, rapes and beatings have taken place in practically every school where real integration has been practiced.

So, integration means the destruction of the public school system and the destruction of the white race itself.

Tom Waring, of the Charleston NEWS & COURIER, says that race mixing would inevitably lead to the development of two classes of people.

The first would be the mixed breeds. The second would be the white people who, on account of their wealth and position, would be able to avoid race mixing. He says that this latter class would be the ruling class on account of their superior intelligence and qualifications.

Tom is probably right in certain phases of this process. But there has come a time in every country that's tried it that all classes became involved and there was a complete amalgamation.

Now, let's get down to Atlanta specifically.

The school board proposes to integrate one grade a year, beginning with the twelfth grade.

If they start with the twelfth grade, that hits Henry Grady High School right between the eyes. Henry Grady isn't far from Ponce de Leon Avenue where the Negroes have taken over, up to that point.

Henry Grady is the biggest white high school in Atlanta and it is probably not over five or six blocks from a Negro section.

The school board would probably try to get by with sticking a few Negroes in the twelfth grade in Henry Grady High School. If this happened, the governor would either undoubtedly close Henry Grady by itself or else close all the public schools in the City of Atlanta. If he closed Grady then probably the Negroes would get back into their schools and the whites in the Grady area would be transported into other high schools and fed into them.

That's about what would happen if Grady were integrated next September.

Now, if the governor should see fit to close all the public schools in the City of Atlanta there would be a different situation.

In that event, there would be only one answer and that is for the people of the City of Atlanta to make a concerted drive to reopen the schools by the Negroes and whites both agreeing to stay where they belong.

This would be the case in Atlanta today if Ralph McGill and "Abandon HOPE, Inc.", and the P-TA's, and the remarkable breed of preachers they have in Atlanta, would use as much influence and as much pressure on the Negroes to stay in their schools as they are applying to the white people to force them to accept race mixing.

These wildcat groups are saying it's integration or no schools at all.

When and if the governor closes all the schools in the city, if this same crowd will start telling the Negroes that it is segregated schools or no schools at all, then we can solve the problem without any difficulty.

It is a strange thing that all over Georgia the white people are telling the Negroes that they must stay in their own schools or there will be no schools at all, except in Atlanta.

In Atlanta, these wildcatters are saying mix or have no schools at all.

Consequently, the Negroes are making no effort in any other part of the state, save Atlanta.

It looks like it is going to be necessary to close every school in Atlanta to force these radicals in Atlanta to get on the right side of this issue. When the schools are all closed, it is my prediction that they will get on the right side and they will be opened up again with the Negroes going to their schools and the whites going to theirs, on a voluntary basis within a two weeks' period.

The governor has already promised that during all these times the school teachers will be getting their pay right on.

If the schools are ever closed, it is undoubtedly true that many more private schools will spring up in Atlanta and probably the state will make grants to the school children to pay their tuition.

But regardless of what happens, there is no reason for panic. There may be a temporary interruption in some one school, or all of the schools, in Atlanta. But nobody is against public education.

We are all in favor of public education and it is a pity that the wildcatters have selected the public schools as the battleground in this fight to force the amalgamation of the races.

We are going to win this fight. We are determined to win it and we are determined not to stop until it is won. We can't hope to win it without some inconvenience and some sacrifice.

Nevertheless, there is no reason for panic and if we will all sit pat with a determination that we will not submit to degradation and ruin, we will win.

We should follow the advice of a great editor of THE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, Henry W. Grady, when he said:

"What then is the duty of the South? Simply this: To maintain the political as well as the social integrity of the White race, and to appeal to the world for patience and justice."