.ODI3NQ.ODI3NQ

-~-N . Hon Ma yor All e n: You a re being app l auded by every dec e nt A !re rican h e re in Dalla s . You hendled the s i tuati on perf ectly . P erhaps other ci t i e s will now ffi-tr..., Jtl u ~~ UJ~~aL - ~... ~ ~ .u(j _ d o the same T ~hs News. olaest business institution in Texas, ,pas establishetl 1n 1841 w hi le Texas was a. Republ1c j!!!I E. M. (Ted) Dealey Publi*er James M. Moroney Sr. Chairman ot the Board Joseph Mp Dealey President H. Ben Decherd Jr. Jose1>h A. Lubben Chairman. Executive Committea Execuilve Vice-President William C. Smellage Secretary James M. Moroney Jr. Vlce-Prfo.sldent and Treuuret.- Jack B. Krueger ManalllnK Editor Dlek West Editorial Editor FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1966 People e re blaming Ral ph McGill too The Trials of Atlanta UNTIL THIS week, the City of Atlanta had maintained a glowing reputation as one of the hardest-working communities in the building of interracial harmony and progress. Through the efforts and cooperation of whites _and Negroes, it established itself as a · model of peaceful integration, a model studied by other Southern communi• ties trying to solve their own racial problems. Then Stokely Carmichael came to town with his inflammatory sales pitch for "black power" and his rantings against "the white devils." And on Tuesday night, Carmichael'_s loudspeaker campaign came to fruition with the rioting of a mob. This mob attacked the mayor, who tried to rea· son with its members. It attacked the

i>olicemen who tried to restore order.

But it did more-it attacked tbc con•cept Atlanta has r Ar>-• ntc:lt, the con·- - ,,.~ ctJc:tC real comp ·se and cooperation can achieve a spirit in which all races can work together to build a .· ~etter city. tried to follow, it would serve us well to look deeper into the events of the current week. There is more to the story than the headlined activities of Carmichael's SNCC barnstormers or of the hundreds of young rioters. We should note that thei:e were Negro as well as white leaders who t ried, at the risk of their safety, to quell the violence. There were Negro as well as white policemen who skillfully restored order before the riot turned into a bloodbath. And, perhaps most important, the Negro Atlantans, local civil-rights leaders and ministers, were the ones who organized a door-to-door campaign the following day to counter Carmichael's efforts to turn the city into a battleground. J. 1 IN SHORT, in Atlanta, there is a durable fabric of society, a fabric that has been woven of both white and black threads through the years of cooperation. The efforts of these years have not been as dramatic or as wellpublicized as the riot, but in the final analysis t hey should prove to be more THIS WAS perhaps the greatest lasting in their results. carnage that the mob did. Now other These results of the work of men ~ city fathers may be tempted to shrug of good will will not be destroyed their shoulders and say: "What's the overnight by men of Carmichael's . use? Atlanta has done as much as any stripe. Rational Atlantans of both ··~city in the South to make cooperative races cannot stand by and see their integration work, and look what hap- community torn asunder, because pened." those of both races know that they Dallas citizens in particular may have a stake in its future. same a be discouraged by Atlanta's experiThe Rev. Samuel Williams, presi- you lik ence, for the two cities are very much dent of the. Atlanta chapter of the fights. alike in their populations, in their NAACP, summed it up most succinctAside economies and in their attempts to ly when he declared: . cial no build through interracial cooperation. "Atlanta is not by far a perfect other But before we decide to abandon city but it is too great to be destroyed the path that Dallas and Atlanta have by simpleminded bigotry." 0 0 ers, groups increase �