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• ' ,;,. _r Jo1·~ 1 ~~@~W Emory Universit Vol. 48, No. 8 Pcitie/6; }Jt. t. /(i1t9 lltte1td ~~e }Jteeti1t9 . CHANIN Dykes High School is located in northwest Atlanta at the corneli of Powers Ferry and Jett Roads across from Chastain Park. The fact of its location is insignificant as is the fact of its existence except that the institution serves to provide needed educational facilities to the immediate surrounding area. What is significant is the fact that few Negroes attend the school. Of course the reason for this is that very f ew Negroes live in the neighborhood serviced ,b y Dykes. Thus the imp'Ortant point is that very few Negroes live on the northside of Atla nta- in the social area known to r eaders of the hate sheet, the Northside News, as THE NORTHSIDE. Now it is not suggested that any person should particularly want to live in that area or to partake of its so-ca lled benefits : debutantes, snobbery and other pleasantries. But it is a very beautiful neighborhood with rolling lawns, la rge estat es, much green and, thanks to fine influence with the city, well-paved streets. In fact, the best possible in city services, in school, in all the things that go to make for gra-cious living are provided t'o the needy residehts living there. Need a t elephone installed, be right out, none of this cr ap about party-lines. Garbag e collect ed r egularly and streets, even the most out of the way ones, cleaned with little dela y. Yes, on the northside lives the wealth of Atlanta. The decision makers are there-the presidents of the companies, the senior partners ·o f the law firms, t h e doctors who claim that status brought by Piedmont Hospital. This is "Driving Club" land. And there are no Negroes. Read the social pag es of the Atlanta newspapers: no Negroes ever have parties, g et ma rried, or give •b irth to children. In fact n'One of this goes on a nywher e but the n orthside-if one trusts these newspaper s. Meanwhile the Biltmore Hotel was the host last week to the annual meeting o.f the .Southern Regional Council. At the banquet last Thursday t he people mixed-eolored and white, gentile and J ew. There were northsiders there. Seve ral weeks earlier the Regency Hot el was the site of the annual meet ing of t he S-outhern Christian Leadership Conference. Sidney Poitier, Mrs. Rosa Parks, and Dr . Marti n Luther Kin:g lead t he dignitaries. Mayor Allen was among t hem. And there were many northsiders t here. These annual meetings are important for two r easons. They indicate that there are those among the leadership of Atlanta who do not hold the normal views of the northside. These are the people who have been instrumental in developing the policies and pr ogr ams that have given Atlanta the progressive image that it has t oday and who have elected or seen to the elec- tion of the proper persons to carry out the policies and programs. The annual meetings also would indicate that the organizations sponsoring the meetings exist. The fact that the SRC and the SCLC still exis"; is a comment on our time. It is not that they should have been wiped out by W;ives of Southern bigotry, but that there is still a need for their continuation. The comment is this: 1) it has been 12 years since 1954 and the Brown decision; 2) it has been over 100 years since the end of the r evolt of the Southern states; 3) it has been almost 200 yea rs since these words were written"We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal. . . ." The facts are these: in Atlanta, schools a r e still segregated in fact; Negroes must live in one particular section 'Of town; no major law firm has yet to hire a Negro lawyer; no major company has hired Neg ro executives, the jobs left open to Negroes a re menial a nd low paying for the most part; no social club will accept Negroes as members; Negro neighborhoods are on the bottom in city services and assista nce pr ovided by private companies; schools in these neig hborhoods are the oldest and most crowded ; in the slums landlords and loan sharks prey upon the ignora nce created by white big otry and d·o so unregulated by the law; for the most pa rt pure racism governs the sale of houses and the r ental of apartments in the better areas of Atlanta preventing a Negro's moving there even if he wanted to and on and on and on. P erhaps this situation makes the point mor e clearly : in the Commerce Building , home of the organization that develo,p ed and stands for " For ward Atlanta"--the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, is locat ed the Commerce Club to which no Negro is welcome as a guest or member, not even the Assistant Secretary of Commer ce. Atlanta has begun to take the faltering steps to t reat all its citizens as the minimum demanded by huma n decency-a s human beings. Yet before the smugness settles too deeply in t hese homes on t he northside where not much is seen beyond the c·ount ry club, t hese people, who. see the resolut ion of the problems of Detroit and Los Angeles and New York and At lanta as better police protection, should recognize what lip service to progress really means. It means nothing. And to·o much depends on immediate action to be satisfied with it. The change that will come will not come overnight, but as one Southerner, Judge Wisdom of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, commented in the Jefferson County case: The clock has ticked the last t ick for tokenism and dela:>: in the na eed" �