South Carolinian Speaker Asserts Radio Can Change Southern Ideas

Beneath South Carolina's appearance as "the last stronghold of the old South," changes are occurring that suggest a "general Southern growth," Mrs. Libby N. Alford, special events reporter for WCOS of Columbia, S.C., said in a speech to the Society for Minority Rights last night.

Although integration "as a symbol of something to come has yet to be seriously considered" in South Carolina, major inroads can be made against Southern problems by "mass media," Mrs. Alford suggested. Among these, she included the race problem, a lack of education, and economic troubles.

Radio is a particularly effective weapon, she asserted, since it can reach the numerous Southerners who cannot read, and who either cannot afford a television set or live beyond television broadcasting ranges.

Mrs. Alford cited several examples of successful radio campaigns. In Columbia, S.C., station WCOS commands about 43 per cent of the listening audience, while broadcasting programs on which Negroes can object to segregated schools.

The station openly campaigned for a Negro candidate for the state legislature. The station's manager "would have been lynched ten years ago" for similar activities, Mrs. Alford asserted.

By broadcasting "trivial" affairs in a simple manner "so that Southern people can understand," Mrs. Alford concluded, much can be done to "approach the problems that face the South."

At present, Mrs. Alford is a special student at Harvard. She is studying sociology, with particular emphasis on the theory of communications.

At its meeting, the Society decided to give grants of $200 from its treasury funds to the NAACP, $75 to both Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and to Fisk University in Tennessee, as well as numerous smaller gifts to organizations aimed at alleviating race problems.