Page Eighf

SCARLET AND BLACK

Friday. May lb, was

 

Report From Your Local Carpetbagger

By CHARLES F. CLEAVER
Professor of English

Since the earlier days ol Reconstinc-
tion, it has been customary lor us Car-
petbaggers to report back, periodical-
ly, to the eleemosynary institutions in
the North from which we derive our
spiritual support. This report can be
brief, Earlier theoreticians of this
movement, such as Sumner, Stevens
and Julian, understood that it would not
be complete until the whole fabric of
this society were reconstructed. They
were unsuccessful during their lives

and, after two months, I have been un—
nuccessiul, too.

NOT CHEERFUL

It would be possible to be more cheer-
ful it i reported on certain things I have
seen. The neighborhood I live in is
pleasant, middle-class, rather well in-
tegrated, and free of “For Sale” Signsi
My daughter's 7th grade class is bal-
anced 5on1 — for the present. More-
liouse College is the best I have ever
seen, it you use one fair measure ~<
that is, if you look at; the acaderinlo
skills of freshmen and seniors, and
measuring the amazing improvement.
Atlanta itself has forced me to rear-
range my Yankee stereotypes l have
heard several times that poor people in
the country around here no longer talk
to one another of heading north to New
york or Chicago — they now say, we‘ll
go, when we can, to Atlanta or Houston,

Encouragement about the state or
Reconstruction must end about there.
'Atlanta, mostly, is still segregated and
discriminatory. Integrated housing or
schooling is very rare. Morehouse is
splendid by the standard I have men-
tioned, and very good by any standard,
but one’s excitement about the skills of
the seniors is dampened by noticing
how many students fall out along the

way. Furthermore, the lower education-
al standards of the entire South, black
or white, elementary through graduate
school. affects the quality of like here
in every way. Compare TV films of the
Georgia and Iowa legislatures in action,
and the latter looks like Conservations
among the Virtuous Pagans in that book
you have read. Many Atlantans have
laudable ambitions about Culture, and
have built a grand building to house it
in. But it houses second-rate paintings
by lirst rate painters, and opened its
season of the drama with a vehicle star‘-
ring June Havoc. As I say, though. it's
better than I had expected.

COUNTRYSIDE BLEAK

Then, however, there's the rest or
the South. Take a road out of town, and
at the edge or it e ZAP! — it becomes
Georgia, just like that. Red soil and
scrubby lobiollylng pines; dirty, sullen,
gabrslation attendants whose hands
might wield a murderous chain; and,
in restaurants, the whiny, daffy voices
of Daughters or the Confederacy citat-
tering on about the Nigras.

As I say, We not been able to change
those things. r'request that I not be re-
called to Grinnell just yet, however. All
I’ve Contributed t0 the Reconstruction of
the South is 325 towards an academic
building, but the business or being here
has contributed somewhat to the re-
oonstruction of me. Let me give some
examples.

A pious homily may sometimes be
heard during certain social situations,
as when a professor visits a maiden
aunt: “Oh, yes, it’s lovely work —~ I
learn more from the students than they
learn from me," Now, it I were forced
to scrutinize this common saying in the
bright sunlight of truth I would be
forced to say that it doesn‘t always
hold up as a revelation of unalloyed
fact. It’s true of my work here, how-
ever. I would feel obliged to avert my

 

What's So Special About
King's Food Host U.S.A.?

Let’s

Call It

Atmosphere . . .

We believe ihei dining out should be a
totally pleasant experience. So we provide
bright. attractive surroundings and quality
background music. And. horn ihe car serv-
ice shes ouisicie to the china and silver-
were inside. every King's location ir kept
scrupulously clean.

BEYMER‘S

King's Food Host USA.

eyes when cashing my paycheck it it
weren't for the fact that it’s only fed<
eral money, and not tuition money,

WORD MEANING CLARIFIED

Among other things, I have learned
some new meanings lor words. A dlc<
tiunary or American English ought to
list all meanings ol words in our cul—
ture. but it doesn't. All Grinnell readers
could supply definitions that a black
American might Suggest ior such words
and phrases as ”law and order," “the
liberal tradition,” and “American his
tut’y." Here are some harder ones “7
and onehali percent interest" means
“we were only kidding about black capi-
tulism." “Morley" means “everything,"
or so a group of students agreed one
evening; an aging white professor
might explain to a white student that
this is not so, since that student has lots
more gonig for him; does he deliver
the same kindly sermon to a black stu~
dent? “Birth Control” means “a con-
splracy among white people who have
noticed our high birth rate" (I don't
vouch for the objective accuracy oi
these meanings — only the subjective).
‘(Famiiyw' ipit's defined as an arrange<
hient [or the protection of the vulnerable
young, what will a black parent say to
his children about this definition?

LEARNS MUCH

The Atlanta University Center has ad~
Vanced my education in another way,
as well. r think about social change
down here in a less categorical way. A
student warned me before I came that
these were Negro colleges, not black
colleges. Sure enough, Martin Luther
King, Jr., and his Christian ideas about
winning change, are very much alive in
his alma mater. But so is W.E.Bi Du-
bois, who muttered inaudibly, when it
came his turn to open faculty meeting
with prayers. Sure enough, the More-
house College newspaper complains,
that many at the students seem hell-
bent for the bourgeoisie; but do they
make it really clear to us that green
power is not a help? This being an in-
stitution Di higher learning, it husbands
a very Wide range or opinions and goals,
including a good many that are hard to
classiiy by sect or party, Also, it be-
gins to seem to me impossible to ac
cept the abrogation by certain sects or
the word ”militant." I have discovered
nothing patsy about many or the SCLC
leaders I have heard, and would ad-
vise nobody to be in any hurry to de-

clare that outfit dead. Some older teach.
ers here point out, among many other
things, that old students or Dubois
learned many decades ago that black is
beautii‘ul. I find that heroes come in
many shapes and forms 1 hadn't rec-
ognized, but otherwise, needless to Say,
I don't judge. 1 don't have much prac<
tice in running a revolution, and many
people here, very young and very old.
do.

Some kinds of conversations joln these
motions. Many older pmiesors came
here when liberal Yankee institutions
were at the opinion that Harvard or
Chicago Pli.D’s didn’t quite qualify them
for employment. Now these same instiv
’tutions are oiiering them outlandish
wages, and the men concerned are de-
veloping an uproarious folklore of puts
downs — who did you turn down last:
week, and [or how much? They stay
here not just because they are bitter,
and not usually because they’re sepa-
rutisls, but because they can communi-
cate their skills to more of their
brothers, i guess that leaves a place
like Grinnell pretty much where Prm
lessor Harding. of this Center, says we
should bet largely dependent upon ex<
changes until the supply of black
Phil's improves, and at least reflec<
tlve about our temptations to take up
piracy. (Morehouse, incidentally, is in
about the same shape Grinnell is: its
students want more black professors,

too.)
RECRUITING IRONY

Here‘s another conversion that join:
disparate voices: isn't it ironic that
places like Emory and Duke, that:
wouldn’t let a Negro ”darken” their,
doors rive years ago. or even places
like Harvard and Cornell University
who happened onto virtue only slightly
enriier (and then almost always virtue
lay in spotting the agility of a halfback)
are getting astronomical grants irom
tho Feds and irorn the toundatlons for
seeking out. and matriculating a small
number of black students, while €014
leges like these that have been at the
work for a century, on precarious and
pitiful budgets, and with astounding suc-
cess with large numbers of students, get
peanuts? and at the same time are hurt
badly in their own recruiting?

i’m not sure how much you Yankees
up there are lousing up our Recon-
struction down here. If any major breaks
through occur here though, 1']! report
again, airmail,

 

“Not All That Men Desire Do They Obtain"

wHousman

| with to .xpieii my gratitude to "tore student: who volunteered to dry it
the ilugpoi. with one tor me during th. courso ot . week. I never asked them
why they we.» doing what they were doing, a; they did not ask me. or tome
actions it i: Micro and important to tooth. in skuiinaiion from the deer.

Small hmnmi a: well .i great deserva their do. ma ot glory. and in l
cito lhs names or those who participated in the adioni Th. hours — (mm b a.m.
to early evening — won. long; tho tempuiaiui. wit uncn bitter cold; and isms.
timer it rained out no one tailed to come upon his reitsppuiuisd hour.

LYNN ADAMS
SUZANNE aowelzs
DAVID DECKER
CONSTANCE Ei'iICSON

HARRY FULTON
LLOYD GERSON
JANET LANDIS

ClNDr PAULSON

MARY PFISTER
ELEONORE SPlEGEL
DONALD STUMP
SHARON VANDERJAGT

Acknowledgement is do. others as weilt rims. who brought cup: or waiert
those so the «at; at Building: umi Grounds who worked to ropair the acts at
vandalism done to the flagpole and or haiyards: those who wniie letters at en-
auragement (all tits lull.“ were at this kindl; those who name to talk and stayed
past :uriosi'ty'. than who smiled pleasantly .na said "Hello" is they pissed. and
who glanced upward in some kmii of curious respect is. the ting; thorn who
smiled wtyiy and with ironic understanding: those who looked partly askallco and

peiily in gentle bewilderment.

To those who sworn as me and vilified me i tender my pity,- many who
never ieumi iint that “communication" and "riiiiogu." which int-y have said
they longed tor, but those who swine and walked away resenttuily ion rush union
or mind and spirit. If they change and wish in talk, i shall. at coins. ml a.

ways. in available.

“I Lell‘ . . . For As Good A Reason Asl We-niI . . . "

_.Thoreau

JOHN CROSSETT