Not Doing You Like You Done Us

Among his first official acts, the new mayor of Fayette, Miss., repealed the Delta town's segregationist ordinances. Mayor Charles Evers, 46, the first black mayor of a racially mixed Mississippi town since Reconstruction, had no trouble getting the bill through the town council. All five of its members are black, voted into office on Evers' coattails.

Fulfilling his campaign promise of a biracial government, Evers searched for whites to help fill a few vacant positions. Every white official save the fire chief had quit rather than serve under a black administration, though Evers was able to enlist a white policeman. Mostly, the town's whites, who account for one-third of Fayette's 1,600 citizens, grimly ignored the new regime. Says Marie Farr Walker, editor of the weekly Fayette Chronicle: "People do a lot of talking among themselves, but that's about all."

White Brothers. During his inaugural address to a crowd of 2,000, Evers spelled out his own attitude toward the whites. "However you may feel about our white brothers," he said, "we got to understand one thing: he just doesn't know any better. We're not going to do you like you done us, white folks. We just gonna make damn sure you don't do us no more."

Even the whites had to admit that the black government was bringing a new vitality to the sleepy town. A city cleanup campaign was immediately launched, particularly in neglected black neighborhoods. Evers also made it clear that he was going to be a law-and-order mayor. Among his responsibilities is to serve as police justice, which gives clout to Evers' inaugural promise that there would be "no more clownin', and cursin' and disrespectin' people in the streets." Last week he fined a white from Louisiana $25 for reckless driving; a local black paid $150 and served five days for "exhibiting a deadly weapon in a threatening manner."

Guns were, however, very much in evidence at Evers' inauguration. At the inaugural ball in nearby Natchez--apparently the first integrated dance in that city's history--black deputies were joined by FBI agents, local police and firemen, while two National Guard units were on alert. As it turned out, the only excesses in Natchez that night were the profits of local bars, which saw only one color in the Evers celebration--green.

Well Connected. Indeed, Evers brought overnight fame to the area. Messages of congratulation came from President Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Edmund Muskie, Eugene McCarthy and many other national figures. Though he could not be there himself, New York Governor Rockefeller provided a jet to carry Evers' admirers southward. Former Attorney Genera.' Ramsey Clark came. So did Civil Rights Leaders Whitney Young and Juliar, Bond, and a delegation of film and TV stars. Leontyne Price was on hand to sing The Star-Spangled Banner.

The turnout was a reminder to Fayette's white citizens that Evers is in an unusual position to bring new employers to the job-starved area. An effective civil rights leader for many years, he is well connected in Washington and with Northern liberal businessmen. Evers' predecessor attracted no federal aid and spent only $16.90 in 1968 to lure industry. By contrast, Evers has already raised $80,000 (of $110,000) to lay the necessary groundwork to accommodate a textile plant with an initial payroll of $250,000. He also counts as "almost certain" a cannery and a plastics plant.

Meanwhile, Evers will have to find some way to run the town. The previous administration, he discovered on taking office, had overspent its budget, leaving Fayette to exist out of pocket through September.

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