Atlanta Daily World

PLUTOCRATS VERSUS DIXIE-CRATS
FOR (ANP)

The two great political conventions which met in Chicago and San Francisco are history now. The Democrats and Republicans have rehearsed their acts.

There was much talk with little new said; there was much ado, but little action. They went through the motion.

When I was a boy on the plantation in South Carolina, we lived near a German family named Hungerbein. My father, in saluting Mr. Hungerbein one morning, asked how the times Mr. Hungerbein replied that times were tight. Said my father, "A fellow would hardly think that times were tight about your home, for three times every day your whole clan gathers about the table and from the window seen to have a great time eating their three squares every day." Replied Mr. Hungerbein:

"Hancock, we are not eating but just going through the motion."

The Democratic and Republican conventions went through the motion at Chicago and San Francisco respectively. The Plutocrats dominated the San Francisco convention while the Democratic convention was dominated by the Dixiecrats believe it or not. When the dixiecrats had finished with the Democratic platform it was another scrap of paper. When we note that there was disappointment among the Dixiecrats over the platform as it pertained to civil rights, no wonder just what they really want. They won the Chicago convention with-

out and beyond a reasonable doubt.

If I had been a Dixiecrat, I would have jubilated over the civil rights "board," for certainly it could hardly be called a plank at all. It was rather a civil rights "scantling," worm-eaten and fragile. The Democrats were mealy-mouthed and subservient before the convention, when it came to the civil rights part of the platform.

On the other hand, the Republicans were over-cautious and had more sputter than speech. Of course: Vice-President Nixon hit the bull's eye with generalities but when it came to implementing the Supreme Court's decision, they had nothing to offer. The word "integration" was the word untouchable. But in this matter, now as always, what is said. as far less important than what is done. Negroes will forgive both Republicans and Democrats for what they did not say, if they will only come up with a program of implementation on civil rights matters. the South rules the roost!

If I were a Dixiecrat I would face my constituency this fall with full confidence and if there were any questions as to my record, I would point to Chicago.

On the civil rights issue, the Democrats quailed before the Dixiecrats. It all goes to show what a fight looms before Negroes throughout this nation. Negroes must yet learn the primary lesson of vote consciousness and job-consciousness and dollar-consciousness.

We are still impelled to ask with the lamented Walter White, "How far the Promised Land" Just how far depends largely upon how the Negro faces his own plight - for plight it is, believe it or not.

When the Supreme Court can be abused and disparaged and flouted and defied over its simple decision to implement the citizenship of the American Negro, we get some idea of the land yet to be won from the Canaanites of race prejudice in these United States. The Supreme Court merely says that even as the Negro is rushed to the front in times of war, so should he come to the front in times of peace to take his place at freedom's banquet. The Negro has bled and died for these rights, why not let him enjoy them instead of being rushed to the front in times of war and to the rear in times of peace?