Courier Times from Levittown, Pennsylvania • Page 8

Negro mayor in Mississippi has racial problems FAYETTE, Miss. (UPD Alter half a jear on tite job. Charles Kvers can tell vou how it is lo be the first Negro mayor of a biracial town in Mississippi, a rural iowii miie MU i isau'hez, has nearly three Negro residents for every white. can tell you many blacks don't want to take orders from blacks. And you risk being called a bigot if.

for community safely, you tell a black man and a white woman Ihcy can't remain city employees should they marry. Charles Evcrs doesn't drink and doesn't smoke. He is by no means holier-than-thou. But he hates guns and cursing in the streets. He loathes violence.

He thinks people should shod up and make something of themselves and he tends to shove them toward that. "If I was a mayor goin' around calling you honkies and pigs, and talkin' now that I'm mayor I'm gonna get back at you. and you killed my brolher. and I'm gonna get all of you then thai's the kmd of communilyjou'd have." ByH.D.QuIgg The iiwiur is a college man but lie declines to alter his speech and syntax from the way he heard it groxvmg up with his kid brother Medgar. neailv ihiee lus junior.

in rural Philadelphia, where they in an nlrt 'ih Hir- hqfl- He was a buMiieiS owner Chicago in when was ilam liom ambush. He took over job field director of the NAACP and led the civil rights demon si rat ion and colts, including a six-month bovcolt in that further crippled the painfully lame economy of this seat of the fourth poorest county in America A strong, tall, no-nonsense but affable nun. lie took office a lillle six months ago as of 1.600 mostly poor folks. 70 'per cent of them black. Historians will tell you they can find no ra-ord of a Negro being elected maor of a bi-racial town in Mississippi even Reconslt ut-lion da s.

Evers is a man of national stature, ac- Opinion Background FEBRUARY 11,1970 PAGE 7 quainled in places both elite and powerful. who drives to work in a pickup truck, some- vertical-stripe turtleneck sweater, as he was this day. He is Mississippi's national Democratic committeeman. a commanding but friendly and sociable personality, driving himself hard at age 47, and when he talks. people mostly generally listen, Recently his black police chief and his three fulkime policemen, one white, resigned.

The previous month, his city attorney, 28, white and mini-skirted, and one of his policemen, 28 and black. left office and got niairied. They said he fired them when he learned their marital intentions. He says they "terminated themselves." he. Evers was asked, having the problems typical of those of the mayor in any city and were his problems compounded by being a Negro? "I ant having the tame typical problems." he replied.

"But 1 think they are com- pountled by the lael ihal 1m a black man. For the simple reason that whiles just don believe we can do it and blacks don't trust us." How about a specific instance or two? "Well, my crackdown on speeding. Many blacks thought I should give them'a break. If they were driving SO miles an hour on a 25- mile and I don't give 'em no break. Sometimes I may warn them.

Like for profanity cursin' in the streets. 1 just don't allow that. If they curse here we fine them, black or white. We just don't have it. "White and black kids mostly used the streets for drag racm'.

No more of that. Before we got into office, young kids, black and white, would just stay out of school, sit around the streets all day. No one bothered them. Now we don't allow any student to stav out of school. "ff hp slav out, we'll bring them to the police station, go get their mother and father and find out whv.

And if we get twice, we'll lock them up. "There is no school compulsory law in this We TP 1h ritv whst is put them in jail and hold them trom the tune he's supposed to be in school until school's out." When was this city law. or ordinance, put in? "About the second month of my administration." We also have a no-gun order. We allow no guns in this town, in truck radcs or no other racks, fn or out of season, unless they keep niovin'. If a guy's goin' huntin', he keep goia'.

If it's after hunting season, he better have no gun in there. "Belore we came in, everyone in the town had a rifle, mostly had one in the rack of his truck. And every teen-ager had a pistol in his pocket. Just what was the police trouble about when the whole force resigned? "Well, you I'm very strict about doing your job. And I think maybe the chief felt thai we weie a Mile too hard on I think they felt we were a little rigid in our training." The man with the training regimen is Al- plionso Deal, a trim, lean Negro from the Philadelphia.

police force, who is for a year on a (10.000 grant and has the of public safely director. He supeivbes police and fire departments. "They claimed 1 was too hard," he says of the resigned policemen. "I guess it was loo much of a change. "1 objected to overweight, to smoking, and I wanted attention paid to dress, to snappy saluting, to over-fill training on record keeping, driving habits.

They had never taken fingerprints before, or pictures." OJiissie Nichols, one of those who quit, said Deal treated them "like dogs." But back lo the What's the status of the city attorney who left? We're kind of up in the air she said you fired her and you said ou didn't or something. "Well, here's my position. I'm not gonna back up on it. I gave her an alternative: If vou aie married vou ran't fare as mv ciU dltoinev and im puijceiiiciiL Simple as that. They chose lo be married." Did they get married and then you fired 'em? "No, no.

They left and went to Memphis, some place like that, and got married." And then you fired them? "No. never came back." In other you told if they chose to get married you'd fire them. "Now. you see. you fellows like I told somebody yesterday.

In to marry a white woman, in rural Mississippi, it's just like jumpin' into a lion's mouth. "Three years ago even now to look at a woman wrong is almost suicide. "You fellows know tins. And the country Mayor Charles Evers of Fayettc: "We're not gonna: tolerate any hatred we're not gonna tolerate any names being called." knows this. And for somebody to call me a all I said: 'Listen' I don't care about you getting married.

But don't -you're gonna jeopardize the whole "This would have been an armed camp here. man. We would have had to every polirrman we could find to guard and protect it. "And let's don't make the white man's prediction true: That all they want to do is marry our women. "I said: My first project as mayor of Fay- ctte ain't gonna be marn mg a white woman to a black man, and I mean that.

Now if you don't have no more tespect for the commun- ity and no more respect for your safety, and the rest of us, then if you get married you can't be city attorney and my city policeman--period'" You've got six months behind you now. what has been your hardest hurdle? "Like 1 "aid. zettinz people to accept me. "I think it's because of my attitude that I've taken and because I continue to say we're gonna build this community for all of our people and I'm gonna be everybody's mayor and we're not gonna tolerate any hatred being preached on the corner of the streets; we're not zonna tolerate any names being called. And there are wajs to stop it." Berry's World I V.

1 I Dear Abby; By Abigail Van Buren DEAR ABBY: I liAe a unusual problem: my molher-in- $: law loves me. My husband, my child and I are constantly show- ered with unnecessary and unsoli- cited gifts, barraged by two-or three phone calls each day, given helpful but unsolicited sugges- tions. advice, etc. It has been difficult to accept her "love offerings' 1 graciously since I feel that both my in-laws unconsciously want my husband and me lo be indebled to them forever. We both have high-paying jobs and aie financially independent.

but my husband is still so emo- $: tionally attached to his mother that he asks her to make his tal appointments for him. When we had our first child the gift-giving situation became even more pronounced, makes mv parents look unloving and stingy, which they certainly are not. I know that if this is the biggest problem I ever have I'll be lucky, Js but in the meantime. I would like your advice on how to tactfully handle this situation with Mom. DAUGHTER-IN-LAW DEAR DAUGHTER-IN-LAW: As I see it, you are victimized by generous in-laws who give ou: v'.

presents, and show their slant attention that they have not forgotten you. I donH know what is in need of unless it could be our inability to accept that which is undoubt- edly offered in good failh. DEAR ABBY: My husband and I are newlyweds and we aie both fond of pets. We have two dogs and three cats. (I had a poodle before we were marned and Jim had a German shepherd, and the cats are strays.

1 We are furnishing a small borne and I want a bright green carpet in the living room. Jim says, "No. anything but green. The pets will think it's grass and you know what will happen to the carpet." Is this true? I asked our vet and he just laughed, so now I'm asking you. LIKES PETS DEAR LIKES: I'd be inclined to faugft, loo.

A well-trained pet will respect a carpet, regardless of the color. But how one can presume to kntw v.tat inanal tMHfo beyoiio DEAR ABBY: lam still bum- ing from the letter a 19-year-old girl wrote to you saying she didn't think she should pav any room and board or help tier mother with the howsework. Abby, I completely agree with you. She should grow up. I am 23 years oM and in the United States Navy.

When I jto home on leave I pay room and board because I don't expect my parents to feed itw for 30 days. Their responsibility ended when joined the Navy. Iv Sf 1 WO We've GOT to get our image back to what it was wtffc Rudolph Valentino!" How about a spare IBM for backyard cookouts ByTedSchwart 'AKRON. Ohio With increasing space technology, our nation's once efficient missile system is becoming obsolete. This means that either older weapons must be relegated to some giant junkyard or peaceful uses must be found for them.

As a public service, I would like lo suggest some new uses which should greatly reduce the cost of replacement by making the outdated vehicles produce a profit. High-rise apartments could be made from each three-stage rocket. The units could' be so arranged that either one family lived in in each stage or a large family could rent all three levels. Smaller missiles with large warheads could be split into a single family unit with an efficiency at the top. Home owners who are fearful of crime on the streets could buy the smaller missiles for Biafrans don't need to fear a massacre EDITOR'S NOTE: As one of the better known African correspondents in the international press corps.

Bridget Bloom of the London Financial Times was allowed mure freedom of movement in former Biafra than most newsmen following Biafra's surrender to the Nigerian federal government last month. Here, she reports on relations between the Bialrans and the victorious federal troops. LAGOS, Nigeria Fears of genocide, massacre or widespread slaughter in the wake of the Biafra surrender have proved baseless in the first weeks since the end of the Nigerian civil war. In conversations wjlh Ibo officers and civilians in the first week of February, I heard of only one cabe where a federal soldier shot a civilian after the end of the war. The man refused to allow his car to be commandeered and was summarily executed.

There have no doubt been other incidents. But civilian complaints and they were legion in the firsl 10 days have been of molestation and looting, not of killings, An eve i'or detail By Bridget Bloom In the week immediately following Biafra's surrender, the evidence suggests that there was considerable lack of discipline among many of the front line units ot the third marine commando division hut good discipline among first division troops who held the line along the north of the enclave. More recently, the units of the third division have been brought under control Some soldiers have been shot. I saw two arrested and flogged for looting. Efforts are being made to garrison troops, although a major problem is that, particularly with the return of refugees to their homes, there are not nearly enough suitable buildings to be used as garrisons.

Discipline problems remain, although in general the situation seems to have improved. The major problem which besets the army now. as it does the Nigerian administration, is whether and how confidence can be rebuilt between the Ibos of Biafra and the rest of Nigeria. There are so many problems here it is difficult to know where to begin. At this state, even tentative conclusions are dangerous.

The public declarations made by the federal government since the end of the war been magnanimous. A general amnesty has been followed by a process of reinstating civil servants with jobs and salaries. Biafran army officers are being held in camps but are not being tried; their men have drifted almost without restriction back into civilian life. Most Ibos, however, are dazed, confused and in disarray. General Gowon's amnesty was openly criticized in some circles in Lagos last week.

As one young man said, "Some Ibos seem to think they can get their jobs back as though nothing had happened." A senior Nigerian official has already mentioned the danger of rebuilding the Biafran economy to the point where Biafra becomes "the Western Germany" in post-war years. The federal government will have to take these sort of sentiments carefully into account when it decides who were in terms of job reinstatement the misled, and who did the misleading. self-protection. They would fit in an average back yard, ready for firing in case of emergency, ff a man lived near a high crime area. for example, he could eliminate the pioblem by using a missile to wipe out the whole neighborhood.

All sales would be handled through licensed gun dealers and each potential purchaser would be checked to be certain no one with a criminal record could buy a missile. The missiles could be turned upside down and launched into the ground to create a high-speed earth digging device. One could provide a hole large enough for laying sexver pipe and underground cables for telephone and electric service. Several could be tied together and launched for building subway tunnels. If the missiles were hollowed out so that passenger seats could be installed, they could be used for supersonic transportation.

Of couse, they would be good only for one- way trips. And it might be necessary to develop a smoother landing system than the current method of dropping into the ocean when the fuel is exhausted." Advertising agencies might want to buy several of the missiles to carry their messages higher and faster and further out than ever before. Perhaps they could be launched near airports so that their flight would parallel that of a jet. Any message written on the side would be visible to the passengers in much the way a motorist sees a billboard. Long-range, high-speed mail deliveries could be made by missile.

Since the units are already aimed at major European and Asian cities, all the change necessary would be the replacement of a warhead with a mail sack. Finally, the missiles could be dismantled and made into kits. These could be used for training technicians by mail. Television sets are currently provided in kit form for men- learning electronics by mail. This same principle could be applied to the.

teaching of missile repair work by mail order. The units would be built one stage at a time and left in a student's back yard. In order to obtain his diploma, the student would fire the completed missile, and return the de-activated warhead to the school. If they hadn't deactivated it fully, it wasn't a good school anyway. Seven-year-old boy helps to trace his kidnaper By Pork NEW YORK (UPI) This is the story of how three amateur detectives a sharp- eyed 7-year-old boy, his persistent mother and an automobile expeit helped police catch a kidnaping suspect.

The mother and son have lo remain anonymous because the child was the kidnaper's victim and thai is something he should soon forget. The automobile expert is an engineer who tests the performance of cars for Consumers Union, a nonprofit organization providing information on consumer goods and services in its monthly "Consumer Reports." The little boy was riding his bicycle down a quiet street in a southwestern city one day Jasl fall when the kidnaper pulled him mlo a car and drove off. The kidnaper left him unattended for a moment about an'hour and a half later and the child managed to escape without serious injury. Doctors said it was important that the little boy forget the frightening experience as soon as possible. But the kidnaper still was at large and police needed thethiM's help in tricking him down.

Their only hope was to tracethe kidnaper's car. sote other witness to the tidnapinf, 10-year-old boy. told police the man was- driving a Renault. He said he had seen the in "big letters across the front" of the car. The younger boy didn't know the make but he told police it was a new foreign car, larger than a Volkswagen and smaller than his mother's Mercedes 200.

He described the inside of the car in minute detail the bucket seats and black upholstery patterned with small x's, the odd lock or hartdle under the vent window a "sort of rectangle with a round thing on it," the air conditioning unit in front of the passenger 1 scat with two small green plastic hoses attached. "We checked every Renault dealer in our area and every time we would show a Re- iMull lo our SOH Ite would open the tronl door and look at the passenger seal and say, 'No, this isn't the hltle boy's mother said. "So we went from Renault to Volvos to Japanese Dalsuns, everything we couW find. And we just about drove the chiW nut of his mini Every afternoon after school we would take him around to car dealers to look at cars and IK was unable to forget the kid- napim because he had to work with the police dtfe time." At the end of about two months, police had checked every lead and given up. But the lillle boy had a suggestion.

he said to me, 'would you like me lo draw you a picture of the the mother said. "Well, we all felt very stupid because this is what a first grader can probably do belter than anything arrf my sen has always been a good 1 The police took the drawings and started all over again but still no one could identify the car. "We were at the end of our rope and I thought we would just hive to wait and hope for a miracle. But then it occurred to me that Ihe people who would know more than anyone else about cars would be Consumers cr handle under the vent and went on a personal search, Shechan found not only the kiCJHlfid-lever mechanism exactly as the boy had drawn it but also the right upholstery and air conditioning unit in the right-sized car. "In short order, I got a call from Mr, Pfwlian ani hp je 3 marvelous artist and there is no question about the car it's a Toyota the mother said.

Within four days police had picked up a suspect. The child identified him and he is now awaiting trial. A look at the world By L.M. Boyd "NOW VOYAGER" Nobody, not even the ministry, yearns for the old order of as do the Hollywood moviemakers, that's clear. Did you see the actor Paul Henreid the other night? A director of TV shows now, he turned up in a cameo performance on one of his own, "Bracken's World." To demand just a little bit more of that old glory.

I think. Years ago in the film Voyager." Mr. Henreid lighted two cigarettes at once in his lips and handed one to his lady- friend, and Santa Monica mothers sought nil autograph for the collections of offspring. At this time, burning young men everywhere, who see in Mr. Henreid's face no memories, also light simultaneous cigarettes, as original as sin.

They hand them to kind and generous sweethearts whose delicate mouths are bruised. These girls don't remember Mr. Henreid's face either, unfortunately. Mostly because they are under the impression tbfe entire world began last Saturday night OPEN' QUESTION Why do person with life Insurance tend to live longer thai persons without it? FIND IT CURIOUS that more than 40 per cent of all the household, hammers, pliers, handsaws and screwdrivers sold in this country are purchased by women THE YOUNGER the father, the more likely his infant will be a boy. Why is this? indicate such.

MAIN REASON that women make better crane operator? than men certainly you knew that is women have better depth perception than men. NEVER FORGET IT You heard about GeJette Burgess, the humorist who wrote, "I never saw a purple cow," and so on. And yw heard about Jim Moran. the publicity ius. But did you hear about the time Moral met Burgess? In 1940 it was, in the lobby of New York City's Imperial Hotel, wbere gess Ihed.

Moran telephoned him, requesting bis prompt presence downstairs, chop chop. When Burgess showed up, Moraa taid, "Now you've seen one," and handed Mm the tether to an annoyed cow which be had painted an awful purple. In case yon still don't remember Moran, he was the fellow who sat on an ostrich egg for 19 days to promote "The Egg and 1." CUSTOMER SERVICE ((. "Is Raqvel Welch MeMcan?" A. AH I know is her real name was Taquel Tejada and she was ban in Chicago Q.

"DO METEORITES ever bit people?" A. Only one such case ol record. An S'-i-pound meteorite injured a woman in Sylacauga. back in 1IM when it smashed into the roof of her RAPID REPLY Yes sir. according to the longevity tables, moderate drinkers tend to live longer than abstainers.

Your questions and comments arc wd corned and wUl be used wherever pttslbk Please address your mail to L. ftt. McNaught Syndicate, E. 4M New York, N.Y., 1W17. m) on their recommendation," the mother said.

The mother wrote a Icftcr to the president of Consumers Union in New Rochelle, N. enclosing her son's drawings and i sample of green plastic air conditioning tubing he bad i ecogmzed in an auto supply store. The letter was handed over to three engineers in Consumers Union's automobile testing division and they went into a storming sesskm. Engineer Kevin Shechan thought he re- UK detail ante lock Questions and answers Q--Who was the youngest signer of the U.S. Constitution? A-Jooallwn Dayton at the age of 26.

Dayton, Ohio, is named for him. Q--Is it ture that skunks are not aggressive? A--If attacked, a skunk will first face the aggressor and stamp his forefeet. Then he rill lift his tail-all but the tip, If these two waning! are ignored, a skunk raises the tip of his tail, whirl) around and fires. Q-What is the structure of the 1 alphabet? A-The alphabet has 22 basic comotatti There are no in the. Hebrew laa guage.

Q-Hnw oM is the U.S. Military Acarfemj at West Point, N.Y.? A-Congreis authorized Its in 1902, givingiit strength and 10 cadets. it..