Day of the Demagogues

Bryant Bowles, head of the race-baiting National Association for the Advancement of White People, was riding high last week, and neither rain, nor police, nor dark of night appeared to keep him from his self-appointed rounds. When he flew into Delaware from Washington, D.C., he was promptly arrested by order of Governor J. Caleb Boggs for conspiring to violate the state's school-attendance laws. But within four hours he was out on bail again, free to stir up trouble.

At the airport, some 5,000 people were on hand to greet him--and just about the same 5.000 were still there when he returned from the police. "Some people," cried Bowles triumphantly, "have had the honor of being arrested by privates, some by corporals, some even by captains. But I've had the honor of being arrested by the governor." As the crowd cheered and horns honked, Bowles launched into his harangue. He referred sneeringly to "departed" U.S. Supreme Court Justice Jackson, then tore into Delaware's Attorney General H. Albert Young, who is trying to revoke the N.A.A.W.P.'s charter. Young's real name, announced Bowles dramatically, is actually Hyman Yanowitz.

Next night at Lincoln, he played the same tune again. But he charged that since "Attorney General Hyman Albert Yanowitz. alias H. Albert Young," had never changed his name legally, he should be forced to resign. Finally, Bowles declared that he would welcome the support of Negroes who "sincerely" believed in segregation. But Negroes would attend N.A.A.W.P. meetings only on a segregated basis: "The only thing we'll do together is to pledge allegiance to the flag."

Though Attorney General Young refused to comment on Bowles's attack (his Jewish background was known in his 1950 campaign), he proved that he was no man to back down from a fight. When the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People brought suit in behalf of ten Negro students who were barred from the white Milford, Del. high school (TIME, Oct. 11), Young appeared in court to back up the N.A.A.C.P. "Here," said he. "are ten children who were attending school without incident. Why were they taken out?" Young's answer: "Mob rule."

After hearing the arguments of Young and the N.A.A.C.P., Delaware's Vice Chancellor William Marvel ruled that the ten Negroes "have a clear and legal right" to attend the Milford school. But that decision was obviously not the end of the affair. At week's end, Milford's white citizens were beginning to mutter again, and Bryant Bowles was still around to keep them aroused. "When the Negroes walk in," said he. "the whites will walk out."

Though so far the noisiest of the lot, the N.A.A.W.P. is not the only group fighting desegregation. Others and their creeds: P: The National Association for the Advancement and Protection of the Majority of the White People, chartered in Georgia last June, claims it will fight "any and all legal actions brought to destroy segregation laws between the White Race and the Colored Race." Among its founders: Dr. Marvin Head, onetime Chief Klansman of Griffin, Ga.

P: The National Association for the Preservation of the White Race, organized last July, is headed by Augusta, Ga. Store Owner Jack Dempsey, a former Grand Dragon of the K.K.K. The N.A.P.W.R.'s credo: "Negro blood destroyed the civilization of Egypt, India, Phoenicia, Carthage. Greece and Rome." Now Russia wants to destroy the U.S. by prodding "us to accept 16 million Negroes as social equals . . . Every American who by word or deed helps Russia further this plan of race destruction is a traitor to kind and country."

P: The American States' Rights Association of Birmingham, Ala. said: "Segregation is the basis of our civilization. It is the only insurance against racial mongrelization."

P: Florida States' Rights, chartered in August, claims a membership of 4,000. Said its state secretary, Ruth V. Armstrong: "I can't have my son or daughter dancing on a dance floor or swimming in a pool with somebody as black as the ace of spades and with a skull three inches thick."

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