Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California • 17

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January 271980 ivr. V.r' 7 K-r' v--- v- -i 1 1- i 1 V-' 'I-''-: Vi fjr-" 1" I lk! V-V. jpy i On 1, I960, four young college studentssat (town at a segregated lunch counter and touched off a BfCnrig Wabb IMM taM hUMMiUHl 1 GREENSBORO, N.C Frinklln McCalift three aoknow their lather Is one of the civil rights moveritajpi heroes, they still cant figure out why, Thqrve seen the iotos showing how, SO years ago this Feb. 1, McCahi and three other blade college freshmen begin a sit-in at a Wool worth's lanch. counter that triggered the student protest movement W.tr But McCain says his children still cannot conceive why anyone ever had to do what he and the others did: demand the same service given whites.

They absolutely refuse to believe something like that happened, because people Just dont do that now (refuse service), said McCain, now a group leader for Celanese Fibers Marketing Co. in Charlotte. Ive got no credibility whatsoever. For McCain, that generation gap points out the most Important success of the sit-ins. Two decades the sit-ins shocked Southerners, because in many places blacks simply did not eat with whites.

Now McCains children cannot see how it was ever any other way. Further evidence of the change will occur Feb. 1, when McCain and the three other onetime North Carolina students David; Richmond, Joseph McNeil and Jibrell Kazan (then known as Ezell Blair Jr.) return to the Woolworths counter for a memorial breakfast Theyve been Invited back by lifool worths. Later that day, the four will appear at dedication ceremonies for state- and city-sponsored markers near the store. Other cities claim to be the siteof the first sit-in, but Greensboro people says theirs is the one that counts.

From four the first day, there were 2S the second, 70 the third and so many on the fourth day some students began a sit-in at the Kress counter across the street Within two months, sit-ins had spread to 54 cities in nine states. In addition, the sit-ins drew to North Carolina the Rev. Martin Luther King helping Urn rejuvenate a civil rights campaign that had languished since the Montgomery, bus boycott of 1954-55. They brought into prominence James Farmer, head of CORE (Congress for Racial Equality) and like King an electrifying speaker. Over the years the protests also made famous such names as Julian Bond of Atlanta and the Rev.

Jesse Jackson, once student body president at William H. Chafe, a Duke University historian, calls the sit-ins the catalyst that triggered a decade of America would never be the tame once students discovered the power of direct-action protest, and others followed their example." As one early participant told a reporter HiLyears ago: that dime store was the birthplace of a whirlwind. Many things made the sit-ins special. By asking for service at the lunch counters, the students showed how businesses sought black patronage in part of. the store but refused it in another.

It was a After two decades, the four who sat in at Woolworths are invited back as guests moral and economic absurdity, but it was so accepted nobody until the students ever become famous challenging it Borrowing from Gandhi and King, the students employed an effective form of non-yiolent civil, disobedience. Their attention to wearing good clothes and being courteous defused arguments of black- inferiority especially when white racists poured ketchup on them or extinguished cigarettes in their hair. Their student status also was new, said Eugene Pfaff, a Greensboro librarian and co-chairman of the group running the commemoration. For the first time, "an' articulate generation of college-age students were demanding their rights under the he said. Locale also helped.

Greensboro prided itself on being a leader of the New South, where moderation and conciliation reigned. Its school board resolved to support the Supreme Courts desegregation decision the day after it came out in 1954 even though complete integration didnt occur for.another 17 years. And then there was something inside the four students, McCain said. I dont like to say its providence, but I think the probability of four people getting together like that again is almost nil, he said. Thats the key: we had similar interests and similar commitments.

And he added when you're 17 years old, there arent many things you're afraid of. Joseph McNeil, another of the', four original protesters, questioned whether fate meant for them to start the sit-ins. "It was going to happen eventually, said now a stockbroker in Fayetteville. It would certainly be presumptuous to say it wouldnt have happened if we hadn't have been there. McCain said he has matured since those heady days when, Just out of high school, he started a movement He and the others never tried to be a big part of the protests, but he does know he played an important part I do get sort of an eerie feeling every time I sit down in a restaurant he said.

floods may mean DeKa dlsasto By Fred 0 arret son THbma ItogtoMl AStfn Wkr A domino effect of levee collapses and flooding, may spread across the below-sea-lev-el farm islands of the Sacramen-to-San Joaquin' Delta from the brand new 9-mile-long lake that abruptly appeared in the middle of the Delta on "Jan. 18. Contra Costa County Supervisor Eric Hasseltine warns that' the flooding of Webb Tract and Holland Tract "Islands may be only the first of a series of dike collapses that may turn the Delta into a lake, 80 miles, long, stretching from the city of Isle-ton southward to the California Aqueduct pumping plant at Clifton Court Forebay. Meanwhile, late Saturday, predicted high North winds failed to Holland will probably absorb much wave energy for the next few months until they are worn down, or strengthened with mil: lions of dollars worth of rock rip-' rap. The most dangerously, threatened islands in.

the Delta tioday are Bouldln and Venice, which lie directly east of the 700-footwide levee break that inundated Webb Tract There is nothing to stop, or even slow down, the. west-to-east prevailing winds sweeping across the newly-created Webb Tract Lake toward Potato' Slough (the channel between Bouldin and Venice). Webb Tract has become, in effect a giant blunderbuss pointing right at the Bouldin and Venice dikes. If the. dikes are breached, 20-foot-below-sea-level covered minutes fill recommended to the Pentagon that Webb TVact, 5,490 acres, and Holland Tract, 4,225 acres, be reclaimed as dry land instead of being abandoned to become Cirmanent boating' and fishing kes like Franks Tract, a below-sea-level farm island that flooded in 1938.

Many smaller Delta islands were abandoned after flooding in earlier years, including' Big Break, Sherman Lake, Fay Island, West bland, Venice Cut, Mandeville Cut and Donlon Island. The destruction of Webb and. Holland means' a direct produce loss of more than 82 million per year, but the actual economic' loss is more than 815 million per year because of the multlplyer effect on truckers, bankers, shippers, equipment suppliers, exporters, salespeople and others whose Jobs are tied, at least partly, to the agriculture al economy. Here is an island-by-island, thumbnail description of the main islands of Contra Costa; County's and some adjacent Inlands in the below-sea-level farm world? Webb Tract An isolated, 5,490 acre island, with about a dozen ownerships, on which were RtOMSTA Sub if MM sweep across the flooded area, raising the hopes of crews working to shore up remaining dikes there, according to Bill the island basins would state flood project specialist in with flood water in an hour. Sacramento.

Helms said the high winds might havevtimrned up strong waves tousault the tops of dikes, at jnigh tide. Saturdays high tide was 7-7 feet at Rio Vista where it reached 9.6 feet when Webb and Holland Tracts were inundated. A state dredge and six 15-man the of the Islands would be with water within The other seriously threatened Islands are Veale Tract, Island and Orwood Island, dikes would be exposed if mi Bethel. Tract cut through soft Inside dike at flooded Tract State and local have beeirworking the morning afterthe flood strengthen this dike. jpeFremery said there were many calves still nursing when the island flooded, and the bovine Instinct of a mother cow to return to the place- where she was last nursing a lost calf apparently triggered the mass suicide, that ranchers, witnessed 19 when 100 cows stampeded into the snow-melt flood waters drowned.

-Bloated bodies could be seen list week floating along the dike iithe newly-created lake. 'The Island also had the largest CKss A pheasant farm in California, raising birds for a private-cliib whose members hunted on tl)f; island. The pheasant fanner hauled away 1,000 birds before thq. flood rolled in and cut the -top of the cages to let 1,200 more escape, but most birds apparently died in the cages. I Bradford Island Another isolated island, reachable only by ferry boat from Jersey Island.

It is bounded by San Joaquin River, Fishermans Cut and False River. Unlike most Delta which teqd to be tiny kingdoms run by one man or a few families, Bradford Island has SO to 50 growers, DeFremery said. Most of the Bradford growers are weekend 1 farmers who liveinBay Area cities and till, afew acres of lev-, only a matter of titine perhaps a few days before Veale Tract: and Palm Tract are flooded. Hotchkiss Tract A lowland -east of Oakley, adjacent to Dutch Slough, that contains two dairies. I.

About 90 percent of the land Is used for cattle. Roads to the resort community, of Bethel Island and-Jersey Island traverse diked flood-plains on Hotchkiss Tract A flood here would not only cut the roads to Bethel Island but also the only road to Jersey Island and the ferry serving Bradford Island, Webb Tract and Ue Franks Tract Island. See DELT Page B-3 Palm whose waves the Holland officials since to Farmers in the flood-threat, ened below-sea-level Islands around the Contra Costa County portion, of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta raise a rich conuK copia of corn, grapes, asparagus, alfalfa, milo, barley, Vheat, grapes, sugar beets, cows and sunflowers. This is prime agricultural land, said Jack DeFremery, Contra Costa County Agriculture Commissioner. loss of more than 10,000 acres (mi Webb, and Holland) is going to have an ef-.

feet on the economy. Local officials of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have ii' i i -i 1 i 4 i i raised each year about 15,000 tons -of: barley, and farmers also, raise, field, wheat worth more than 81 mil- corn- mil- barley and wheat, Agricultural Commissioner some of. which, is exported to 'DeFremery said the wheat was Russian and Japan. State records to export markets in Stockton and atleast part of wheat was destined for Russia as part of the grain exports that -President Garter cut off with his Afghanistan embargo order.

of the field corn was sold as cattle feed. The Island was also a popular hunting area and included aheasant and duck dub used by Kaiser. Industries" executives. The island, in one of the deep-' est portions of the Delta peat soil deposits, is bounded by the San Joaquin River, Fishermans Cut, False River and Franks Tract State Aquatic Recreation Area, garden crops. Both large and dating back to 1930 show the island has never flooded.

Veale Tract A lowland more than 10 feet below sea el where the mainland dips down into the Delta peat basin east of Knightsen. It is bounded on the north and east by Rock Slough and Indian Slough. It consists primarly of pasture land, alfalfa field crops. The Veale Tract levees have, been weakened by high water invading beaver burrows, and state officials directing the massive effort to strengthen the Rock. Sloiigh levee fear that if waves on Holland Tract smash through the Rock Slough levee it will be TrtbtMM QrapWt bf Fnak I crews labored to strengthen sur vicing Webb Tract, dikes and three other crews were reinforc- lng dikes at the east end of Brad- ford Inland.

Helms said no new leaks were reported Saturday. Until the Jan.18 flooding most of the Delta -waterways were twisting channels where the wind, didnt have much opportunity to whip up large waves. Now there is a Jetch miles long where the wind can generate ocean-sized waves to undermine and erode the soft The old levees on Webb and mMwr By Lot Havlns Collapse of Webb Tract and Holland Tract dikes on Jan. 18 created a nine-mile long lake in middle of the Delta (dark area). Big wind-driven waves rolling out of this new lake threaten to smash down dikes around neighboring below-sea-level Islands.

Most seriously threatened Islanda are shaded. gamesWrffo Maw training 4,1 Webb flooded in. 1950 but' was reclaimed. -y Holland Tract Holland 1 Tract, 4,225 acres of peat soil bounded by Sandmound Slough, Franks Tract, Holland Cut and Rock Slough. About 75 percent of the land grew corn, barley and -wheat Bud Basolo and another ranch-; er estimate they lost about 1,000 head of 'cattle in the flood, including 30 breeding stock beefalo (a cross between cows and buffalo) which Baselo said were worth 8 10,000 each.

DeFremery said the cows were worth about 8700 apiece and the calves about 100 each. 1 between commanders of a submarine and a destroyer to a simulated battle between two fleets. Information is being assembled and programmed to allow the computer to stage "everything from a one-on-one kind lof. training procedure to a battle that would range across a whole, ocean said Jim Furlong, public information director for the company. To play with the compute, offlccrs-ln-training will have access to any of 44 computer terminals through color video screens that they would be using to move the ships around and gain information, Furlong said.

Games will be overseen by an who will watch what all sides are doing The umpire also could make the fight tougher for either side. V. It will allow the umpire, for instance, to increase the accura- cy of missiles that are sent toward ships of one side br the other, or to decrease their accuracy. Furlong said. The Navy is Investing millions to produce what could be the ultimate electronic game.

An El Segundo firm recently won a 813.6 million contract to build a computer on which the Navy will play games war games. Cries of He sank my battleship! could ring frequently through the halls of the Naval War College in Newport, R.L, after technicians from Computer Sciences Corp. install the hardware at the end of a two-year design construction phase. The machine represents the latest in combat training for Navy officers, officials Said. It will be used to teach tactics and strategy and to develop new techniques for naval warfare.

Although Navy and Defense Department officials were hesitant to disclose details of the war game system, a spokesman for the manufacturer described it as a very complex system a very large one that will allow the Navy to use it for anything foom aiel i i ir -rrT -r Ai-.