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4201 South Ocean Boulevard
Delray Beach, Florida
September 30, 1966
Mayor Ivan Allen
Atlanta, Georgia
Dear Sir:
Your remarks with refemmce to Mr. Lester Maddox’ nomination,
as televised on the Huntley-Brinkley Report Thursday night,
call for some sort of answer.
I cannot debate your characterization of Mr. Maddox as
"unqualified" because I am not as aware as you are of his
personal experience and qualities. But I am under the impression
that it is because he supports segregation of the races that
you stated his nomination was a victory for the forces of
prejudice and ignorance.
It is your equation of a belief in racial segregation with
“prejudice” and “ignorance” which is incorrect and insupportable.
Yes, of course some of the backers of Mr. Maddox were ignorant
and prejudiced (if you mean by the latter term tending to make
judgments with prior investigation of evidence); some backers
of "liberal"! candidates are equally uninformed and thoughtless.
In fact, the balance of power in Mr. Maddox' victory must have
resided in once respectable voters for “moderate” candidates.
I must with all good will suggest that it is a greater sign
of ignorance today to argue in favor of integration of Negro
and White races than to oppose it. The facts about the nature
of men, the physiological and mental differences between the
Negro and White races, and the historical evidence of the
differing capacities of those races for inventiveness and
the building and maintaining of advanced civilizations simply
do not support your viewpoint. A great amount of work in
genetics, anthropology, and other fields of research supporis,
on the contrary, a point of view which sees races as sometimes
markedly different in extremely important ways--not for purely
environmental reasons at all, but by virtue of heredity.
I am aware that for some years it has been fashionable to say
that races in fact don't really exist at all, and even if they
do there are no significant differences, and in any case whatever
differences appear to exist can be cleared away by a generation
or so of social mixing and education. This school of thought--
if it can be dignified with such an appellation--was more or
less originated by the anthropologist Boas and his students
without much factual support, and it was given impetus by the
strong reaction against "racism" following Hitler's defeat in
the Second World War. It is now accepted blindly by large numbers
of unquestioning people who would be justifiably shocked if
they knew the truth and its ramifications.
Here are a few of the books presenting facts which, if thoughtfully
considered, would lead to a change in many of our government's
racial policies--unless, of course, our government is motivated
by something other than genuine concern for truth and for the
wellbeing of our citizens.
J. C. Carothers. The African Mind in Health and Disease.
Carleton S. Coon. ,The Origin of Races.
Marcelle Geber. "Developpement psycho-moteur de l'enfant
africain," Coumier, UNESCO, Paris (January 1956),
VI 2 17-29.
Audrey M. Shuey. The Testing of Negro Intelligence.
Nathaniel Weyl. The Negro in American Civilization.
An older book, but one which still has a great deal of validity,
is Lothrop Stoddard's The Rising Tide of color,
Many pertinent articles will be found in "The Mankind Quarterly",
1 Darnaway St., Edinburgh 3, Scotland. Also in IAAEE Reprints,
The International Association for the Advancement of Ethnology
and Eugenics, Inc., P.O. Box 3495, Grand Central Station, New
York, N.Y. 10017. (One reprint of particular interest is “Social
Science Testimony in the Desegregation Cases--A Reply to Professor
Kenneth Clark," by Ernest van den Haag.)
Publications of the National Putnam Letters Committee, Suite
908, 1730 K St., N.W., Washington, D.C. are certainly worth study.
Though The Suicide of the West, by James Burnham, does not concern
itself primarily with racial matters, it is quite relevant to
the point I am trying to make.
There are many more materials easily accessible to anyone searching
for them in a university or large public library.
The men who, in print, oppose your views, Mayor Allen, are for
the most part at the opposite extreme from ignorant or prejudiced.
To assure you that I, for example, am not a babbling and unlettered
dunce, I must mention that I have an MA, have taught in universities
for eight years, have an IQ in the upper 1% of the population,
and am even considered reasonably goodnatured, kind to animals,
and even decent to other people. I am not motivated by hate,
fear of economic competition by less prosperous segments of the
population, nor by superstitious clinging to ancestral myths.
And I am getting very tired of being indirectly accused of
‘ignorance’ and lumped with the KKK by people who will not
take the trouble to reconsider their own prejudices.
If only one brave public figure such as yourself (and your
courage was amply demonstrated during the Atlanta riots) would
study the evidence and come out openly on the side of truth,
miracles could be worked in the revitalization of our confused
and saddened country.
I assume you will not have time to answer my letter, and
perhaps you will not even have time to read it, but if it
should be possible I would Be delighted to hear from you,
I would welcome references to readings which you feel support
viewpoints differing from mine.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
baa Bis
Fleming Lee Blitch
Delray Beach, Florida
September 30, 1966
Mayor Ivan Allen
Atlanta, Georgia
Dear Sir:
Your remarks with refemmce to Mr. Lester Maddox’ nomination,
as televised on the Huntley-Brinkley Report Thursday night,
call for some sort of answer.
I cannot debate your characterization of Mr. Maddox as
"unqualified" because I am not as aware as you are of his
personal experience and qualities. But I am under the impression
that it is because he supports segregation of the races that
you stated his nomination was a victory for the forces of
prejudice and ignorance.
It is your equation of a belief in racial segregation with
“prejudice” and “ignorance” which is incorrect and insupportable.
Yes, of course some of the backers of Mr. Maddox were ignorant
and prejudiced (if you mean by the latter term tending to make
judgments with prior investigation of evidence); some backers
of "liberal"! candidates are equally uninformed and thoughtless.
In fact, the balance of power in Mr. Maddox' victory must have
resided in once respectable voters for “moderate” candidates.
I must with all good will suggest that it is a greater sign
of ignorance today to argue in favor of integration of Negro
and White races than to oppose it. The facts about the nature
of men, the physiological and mental differences between the
Negro and White races, and the historical evidence of the
differing capacities of those races for inventiveness and
the building and maintaining of advanced civilizations simply
do not support your viewpoint. A great amount of work in
genetics, anthropology, and other fields of research supporis,
on the contrary, a point of view which sees races as sometimes
markedly different in extremely important ways--not for purely
environmental reasons at all, but by virtue of heredity.
I am aware that for some years it has been fashionable to say
that races in fact don't really exist at all, and even if they
do there are no significant differences, and in any case whatever
differences appear to exist can be cleared away by a generation
or so of social mixing and education. This school of thought--
if it can be dignified with such an appellation--was more or
less originated by the anthropologist Boas and his students
without much factual support, and it was given impetus by the
strong reaction against "racism" following Hitler's defeat in
the Second World War. It is now accepted blindly by large numbers
of unquestioning people who would be justifiably shocked if
they knew the truth and its ramifications.
Here are a few of the books presenting facts which, if thoughtfully
considered, would lead to a change in many of our government's
racial policies--unless, of course, our government is motivated
by something other than genuine concern for truth and for the
wellbeing of our citizens.
J. C. Carothers. The African Mind in Health and Disease.
Carleton S. Coon. ,The Origin of Races.
Marcelle Geber. "Developpement psycho-moteur de l'enfant
africain," Coumier, UNESCO, Paris (January 1956),
VI 2 17-29.
Audrey M. Shuey. The Testing of Negro Intelligence.
Nathaniel Weyl. The Negro in American Civilization.
An older book, but one which still has a great deal of validity,
is Lothrop Stoddard's The Rising Tide of color,
Many pertinent articles will be found in "The Mankind Quarterly",
1 Darnaway St., Edinburgh 3, Scotland. Also in IAAEE Reprints,
The International Association for the Advancement of Ethnology
and Eugenics, Inc., P.O. Box 3495, Grand Central Station, New
York, N.Y. 10017. (One reprint of particular interest is “Social
Science Testimony in the Desegregation Cases--A Reply to Professor
Kenneth Clark," by Ernest van den Haag.)
Publications of the National Putnam Letters Committee, Suite
908, 1730 K St., N.W., Washington, D.C. are certainly worth study.
Though The Suicide of the West, by James Burnham, does not concern
itself primarily with racial matters, it is quite relevant to
the point I am trying to make.
There are many more materials easily accessible to anyone searching
for them in a university or large public library.
The men who, in print, oppose your views, Mayor Allen, are for
the most part at the opposite extreme from ignorant or prejudiced.
To assure you that I, for example, am not a babbling and unlettered
dunce, I must mention that I have an MA, have taught in universities
for eight years, have an IQ in the upper 1% of the population,
and am even considered reasonably goodnatured, kind to animals,
and even decent to other people. I am not motivated by hate,
fear of economic competition by less prosperous segments of the
population, nor by superstitious clinging to ancestral myths.
And I am getting very tired of being indirectly accused of
‘ignorance’ and lumped with the KKK by people who will not
take the trouble to reconsider their own prejudices.
If only one brave public figure such as yourself (and your
courage was amply demonstrated during the Atlanta riots) would
study the evidence and come out openly on the side of truth,
miracles could be worked in the revitalization of our confused
and saddened country.
I assume you will not have time to answer my letter, and
perhaps you will not even have time to read it, but if it
should be possible I would Be delighted to hear from you,
I would welcome references to readings which you feel support
viewpoints differing from mine.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
baa Bis
Fleming Lee Blitch