St. Augustine Demonstrator Finds Northern Students Participation Valuable Only If It Develops Commitment

"We want to get you hooked on us" was the blunt challenge that greeted us five from Harvard (William Becker DivSch, William Whitney GSAS, Michael Boyd '66, Soheil Zendeh '65, and myself) upon our arrival in St Augustine, March 31. Hosca Williams, a Negro integrationist leader with boundless energy and a broad smile was briefing us on the local situation. Although the demonstrations during the preceding week had succeeded in integrating only one or two restaurants and a church, the persistence of local Negroes and about thirty New England white chaplains and students had at least made an impression on the police force of the heavily segregated city. Just that morning, armed with electric "cattle prods" and police dogs, the law had arrested nearly 150 children who had entered a posh hotel dining room asking to be served. A spirited old lady named Mrs. Peabody had also been arrested. With the publicity of these two events Hosea hoped to draw more support from the outside. However, local segregation was proving tough to crack. What little we Negro and white demonstrators achieved here would be a minor advance in the struggle for integration. What we white students contributed, moreover, was useful at the moment, but would lose its significance in the long run if we didn't follow up with more and more participation. "We want to get you hooked on our Negro problem" returned Hosea with his challenge. The efficacy of white student participation lies in its sustained effort.

Kim W. Atkinson '65 participated in the recent demonstrations in St. Augustine, where he spent a day and a half in jail.

Not Just 'Experience'

Hosea's statements touched on an essential moral aspect that prospective student demonstrators should be concerned with. One should not regard civil rights demonstrations as an "Experience"; just one or two participations are worse than not acting at all. As Northerners we are open to the charge of irresponsibility: we can leave the scene of action and resume our normal lives without being subject to the after-effects as the local Negroes are. For instance, Negroes comprise only 25% of St Augustine's population, and are mostly dependent on local white employment.

It is common practice to retaliate economically against Negro demonstrators by firing them. Since the demonstrations had been organized to coincide with Easter, and we students were missing no classes, we were especially prone to this charge of moral irresponsibility. To prove that we were not there on a "college weekend", many of us fasted while in jail, and some overstayed their school recess.

On the other hand, our "Northernness" is an advantage for working in the South. There are presumably many white Southerners who do not oppose integration but who are unwilling to speak their mind for fear of local economic and social retaliation. We Northerners can assert ourselves in their place, immune to this type of reaction.

Encouragement Required

The St Augustine Negroes needed a lot of encouragement before they would commit themselves actively. The older generation was reluctant to jeopardize jobs by going to jail, and hesitated to allow the children to miss school to demonstrate. Hosea reached them by appealing to their children. Do the old folks want their children to experience the same deprivations? The old folks had lived their lives--now let the youngsters assert themselves in the world that would soon be theirs. To insure a future of freedom, all Negroes must rise to the cause. With these arguments and his colloquial humor, Hosea elicited adult support and allayed parental anxiety. And at a church rally Hosea drew hearty applause by pointing out that a lot rests on the integration movement: a free world depends on a free America, and America can't be a free country until the subjugation of the Negro is ended. He concluded optimistically, "With God and the American government on our side, how can we lose?"

Coercion Employed

A justifiable cause for caution among the Negroes has been the militant conservatism of St Augustine, where the John Birch Society is said to be strongly entrenched. Economic control of the Negro is gained by firing demonstrators. When the standard wage for domestics is $18 per forty-hour week (even a local judge democratically adheres to this norm), and few jobs open to Negroes pay more, it is hard for a Negro woman to make the decision to demonstrate. A certain political control is also attempted: before registering, Negro voters are asked "Do you enjoy your civil rights?" The expected answer is clear. News suppression is more effective. A reporter for WGBH was jailed for "inciting to riot" the children demonstrating at the hotel dining room, when he was discovered to be recording on tape police action in rounding up the children with dogs and cattle prods. St Augustine segregation becomes a ridiculous fetish in the instance of one experience of the group with Mrs. Peabody and Mrs. Burgess. At one restaurant the waitress evidently did not realize that Mrs. Burgess was Negro, so the group was pleasantly served. Toward the end of the meal Mrs. Peabody remarked to the waitress how glad she was that the management did not discriminate, and pointed Mrs. Burgess out to the surprised woman. The manager was hastily summoned, and requested their immediate departure, saying the meal was on the house.

Retaliation Reversed

Next year St Augustine will celebrate its quadri-centennial, and hopes Congress will appropriate several hundred thousand dollars to support the festivities in honor of America's oldest city. One effect of the widely publicized demonstrations may be opposition to the appropriation, an economic retaliation this time inflicted on the whites. In jail, a group of demonstrators devised a coloring book to be distributed as part of the festal campaign, call Profiles in Color. Under illustrations of various phases of St Augustine history, captions might read: "See the demonstration leaders, color them pink; see the northern students, color them green; see the sheriff, color his neck red; see the judge, color him shady..."

Few Tangible Effects

The tangible effects of the demonstration are few, and the white student may wonder if his trek south has indeed been more than an unusual experience. If it is a single attempt, then it has been worthless. If it is the beginning of an active commitment, then the contribution has been valuable. Influencing the southern whites will obviously be a long process with dubious results. Official integration is only the first step in overcoming the material and spiritual effects of generations of prejudice. The harder task will be to enlist southern participation in this cause. As in any social revolution, such a change will be most effective only when it has a local motivation, and is not imposed.

One of the white leaders of the St Augustine attempt, the Reverend William Coffin of Yale, said at a rally "caring is the greatest thing"--and only caring enough to act will make victory possible. The importance of caring was brought home to me during a sit-in at an expensive motel restaurant. As our group quietly sisted on being served, many of the white patrons gave us an impartial stare. Their blank unconcern was a major reason for our failure, and always will be. Yes, caring is the only thing.