the white south:
a minority group .
t lie supr<»iiie court
ели
not bestow the
heritage of one race upon another
In a time when much is being said
about oppressed minorities, it is well
to remember that the white people of
the South arc a minority in the Na¬
tion. They are not an aggressive mi¬
nority. They do not seek to impose
their pattern of life upon the people
of other regions. They arc willing to
concede to other regions the degree
of freedom that they would like to
have to establish social arrangements,
not inconsistent with the basic law to
which they have assented, within their
own bounds. For at least a century
the South has struggled to retain the
degree of local autonomy to which it
feels entitled under the American sys¬
tem of government. This is not a purely
selfish struggle; the principle at issue
is important, the South thinks, to all
the diverse regions of the American
commonwealth.
For some years now the South has
been subjected to heavy pressure to
abandon its biracial social structure.
This pressure has been applied by the
Federal Government, which, in the
words of the Charlotte News (editorial
of November 26, 1955), has under¬
taken "a monumental project in the
field of social engineering"; by the
NAACP, which is determined to ex¬
ploit the Federal power to the utmost
in establishing relationships that are
obnoxious to the overwhelming ma¬
jority of the white people of the South;
by the northern press, which is almost
unanimous in its conviction that the
South should be prodded into accept¬
ing the ideas of other sections, be¬
cause, as the editor of Harper's Maga¬
zine, for example, believes, the white
people of the South don’t do any¬
thing without being prodded (Janu¬
ary 1956, p. 24); and by a small
group of white persons in the South,
who, chiefly on religious grounds, con¬
sider the biracial system to be a relic
of a benighted past.
In the course of this campaign many
intemperate things have been said and
done; things that were calculated to
infuriate the white South. The south¬
ern people have been called prejudiced,
unenlightened, undemocratic, and un¬
christian. These intemperate attacks
have evoked a number of intemper¬
ate responses from the less disciplined
members of the southern community.
The result is that a tremendous amount
of ill-will and resentment has been
generated, not only between blacks
and whites but between members of
the white race who hold different
views on this troublesome subject. If
this atmosphere continues, the issue
that has been forced upon the South
may find no acceptable solution in
our time. I am convinced that there
arc, among the white people of the
South, as many persons with a sense
of decency, with a love for fair deal¬
ing, and with an understanding of the
Christian teaching as are to be found
in any group of comparable size else¬
where in the country. These are the
people who in the end will have to
solve this problem. Their task is being
made much more difficult by their an¬
tagonists. who seem to regard them as
deficient in all the great qualities of
heart and mind.
The South recognizes the race prob¬
lems as one of the greatest magnitude.
It docs not regard it as arising simply
out of the prejudices of men of dif¬
ferent color. It considers race to be a
fact, just as sex is a fact. It is not
moved by this offhand assertion that
science can discover no difference
among races. It holds that there are
differences among races, that those
differences oonnot be eliminated ex-
TUh is an address of Dr.
С.
K. Brown of Davidson
College to tlie students of
that institution on March
I. 1956.
cept by amalgamation of blood, that
this is not desirable from the view¬
point of any race, and that if two
races are to live happily together in
the same region, each must know the
bounds within which it can function
without being offensive to the other.
Rules establishing such bounds arc to
be found in every society containing
discrete elements. Some of them arc
inviting only in custom; some are
expressed in the formal requirements
of law. The one can be just as com¬
pulsory as the other. Often customary
boundaries are colder and less human
than those that arc established in law,
for the reason that they appear to
depend more upon personal decision.
There is a grand impersonality about
the law that softens the impact of its
requirements.
Now, the Supreme Court has de¬
clared that the Southern States shall
no longer embody in their law the
boundaries that they have considered
it desirable to maintain between the
races. In the Brown case the Court
interpreted the legal requirement of
separate schools as a denial of the
right of Negroes to attend white
schools, although the law equally
denies the right of white children to
attend Negro schools. The South has
bitterly protested this decision as an
exercise of power that the Federal
Government docs not possess. It finds
no language in the Constitution to
justify such interference in the internal
affairs of the States. "Equal protec¬
tion of the law," upon which the Court
relied, covers the protection of person
and property against the depredations
of others. The phrase cannot be
stretched to include a right to be edu¬
cated side by side with other persons
who desire to be educated separately.
It is no instrument for forcing the as¬
sociation of persons against their will.
Under cover of the phrase, however,
the Court has ruled in effect that peo¬
ple have a vested interest in associat-
THE STATE. JULY 28. 1956
17