SOUTHERN WAY OF LIFE

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I do not agree with the viewpoint of John Rorer in his article about the Mississippi Project, but I feel the editors of the CRIMSON might show a little more intelligence if they were to try understanding some of his observations rather than passing the whole article off as "a segregationist's viewpoint," and including that needless disclaimer. It is this very attitude among the liberal northern civil rights workers that is only increasing rather than alleviating the misunderstanding between northerners and southern whites.

Has it never occurred to the civil rights workers that true equality and freedom of opportunity for southern Negroes will never be achieved until the majority of the white southern community realizes not only the necessity but the rightness of the goal? The way to bring about this understanding is NOT to jam it down their throats. Sure, I am as idealistic as the Project workers, and feel that segregation and other injustices are wrong. But is the aim of the civil rights movement to flaunt our superior moral understanding in the face of the long-standing traditions of the South? It seems to me rather that the aim is to bring about peaceful and equal relations between whites and Negroes in the South and elsewhere in the country. This is not done by sending hundreds of young, uninformed, unshaven, self-confident, disrespectful zealots into the South to force the whites into submission.

I do not know if Mr. Rorer is a segregationist or not--he does not say he is. But the Harvard civil rights workers might learn from his article of the deep-seated sincerity with which the Southerners have tried to maintain their way of life as well as the honest wishes of the majority of Southerners to work carefully towards improving race relations. In order to overcome this cultural inertia without creating either a bloodbath or a slackening in the progress, the sincere positive intentions of many Southerners should be carefully nurtured, using a little psychology and politeness. The flood of propaganda printed in the CRIMSON and elsewhere seems only designed to convince the workers before they have ever been to the South that all southern whites are closed-minded, bigoted, evil, die-hard segregationists. It is no wonder the immature students are disrespectful and believe that the only way to accomplish their ends is through force rather than cooperation.

There have been many quieter, more mature and responsible organizations and projects working toward improving race relations in the country--the PBH Miles College program is just one example known to the Harvard community. If the civil rights projects undertaken by our campus liberals are going to be effective, more of the workers will have to read and think about the issues mentioned by Mr. Rorer--not laugh at them. The CRIMSON would better have met its responsibility by discussing some of these issues rather than wasting space elsewhere in the issue with that ridiculous disclaimer (we all know where you stand) and the space-filler about the four flavors of serving ladies. Clark R. Chapman '66