Bleak December

The national boycott of Christmas proposed by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference is the most ambitious attempt to engage the nation's sympathy yet considered by Negro leaders. They apparently fear that, without an incessant and continued civil rights offensive, the enthusiasm of the Washington march will dissipate into faint murmurs of individual protest. In their fears they are probably justified. In their recommendations, however, they have moved to an entirely inappropriate extreme which would only alienate the community respect they have so deservedly gained.

The boycott of gifts at Christmas would certainly not be the effective economic weapon the Negro leaders claim it to be. They seem to have forgotten the very methods they have employed so successfully in the past. Selective boycotts, aimed at business which are still discriminatory, serve to isolate and to pressure recalcitrant segregationists. An indiscriminate boycott of all stores throughout the nation would only force together bigots and liberal minded businessmen into one bitterly-wrapped Christmas package. The steps that many farsighted businesses have already taken would seem totally unnoticed.

A boycott of Christmas as a moral weapon is even more inappropriate. Those who have sympathized with the civil rights movement would be torn between their children and their convictions. Children themselves would hardly understand a cause which deprived them of their toys for the sake of Negro victims in a distant Southern city. The altruistic spirit of Christmas would be trod under by a confused and contrived attempt at creating support and wearing down opponents.