Atlanta Daily World

SPORTS OF THE WORLD
BY MARION E. JACKSON

The Liberty Bowl was conceived as a symbol of freedom. It is being played in Philadelphia, Pa., which is extolled as the City of Brotherly Love. Through the years, since the thirteen Original States, the Quaker City has treasured the concept of independence, individual rights, the Bill of Rights and our Constitution. So it is puzzling that backers of the post-season classic to be inaugurated there would select the University of Alabama to play Penn State. Are memories so short that the shameful treatment of Autherine Lucy on the Crimson Tide campus is so quickly forgotten?

Infamy had one of its most glorious days, when the University of Alabama, was the scene of frenzied mobs, who drove away the first Negro woman ever to enroll there. The grim headlines and the leering photographs of enraged fanatics still shock the senses because of the depravity viewed on the faces of the screaming pack, who cursed and stoned her. That Miss Lucy was a Woman of little consequence to the mob, and we saw her almost as a modern day Liza fleeing merciless Simon Legrees. The bestiality and savagery of the attack on the young woman was one of the most shameful incidents in the annals of education.

We recall this infamous story to cite a resolution of the Philadelphia Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which passed resolution Dec. a protesting bringing the University of Alabama to play in the Liberty Bowl.

In a letter to University of Alabama President John M. Gallalee the NAACP noted: "Many of our group feel that we would be remiss in our duty if we did not file a protest against the bringing of the University of Alabama's football team to the city to participate in the Liberty Bowl classic. This institution represents one of the four remaining state universities which bar the enrollment of Negroes.

"The presence of this institution also brings to mind the undemocratic treatment accorded Miss Autherine Lucy some few years ago when she unsuccessfully tried to become a part of its student body. We trust that officials of the Liberty Bowl in future years will give thought and consideration to teams which they request to participate in this classic."

The NAACP resolution reads in part:

WHEREAS factual history records that the Liberty Bell derived its name and was first recognized as a symbolic device when adherents of the antislavery movement in America adopted the naming 1839 from the biblical quotation above, and

WHEREAS the Liberty Bell stands as our most cherished symbol of HUMAN Liberty and freedom thus revealing Philadelphia as the CRADLE of human liberty in these UNITED STATES; and

WHEREAS certain local persons have, through implication capitalized upon and commercialized the symbolic meaning of the Liberty Bell through the promotion of the Liberty Bowl football classic at Philadelphia's Municipal Stadium, and

WHEREAS these same persons have desecrated this symbol and its meaning by selecting as one of the contestants for its first game the notorious University of Alabama, and

WHEREAS the Same institution, by its treatment of Autherine Lucy less than four short years ago in 1956, stimulated the growth of white citizens councils in the state of Alabama and contributed directly to the corrosion and corruption of the climate in which the same state of Alabama, through its courts, fined the NAACP the staggering sum of $100,000, and

WHEREAS the foregoing makes it abundantly clear that the principle of "human liberty for all men regardless of race, creed or color", is wholly inconsistent with the actions of the University of Alabama; and

WHEREAS It Is urgent that we of this Branch act without hesitation or delay in this critical instant, not only because of the merits of the issue involved, but also to serve as a definite expression of reassurance to our brothers in the south that we in the north have not forgotten their heroic struggles in the continuing fight for liberty and justice for all the citizens of this country, nor have we deserted them. Now be it therefore

RESOLVED that the Philadelphia Branch NAACP vigorously protests the selection of the University of Alabama as a participant in the Liberty Bowl football game described above, and does hereby condemn the promoters of this event for causing glory, prestige, and wealth to be conferred upon this infamous institution in cynical disregard for the grief and suffering of a large segment of the population in this connection.