Away from Hate

Blacks in the South have made greater strides than in the rest of the country and are more hopeful of the future. For this historic breakthrough, blacks themselves are primarily responsible. In the face of intense white resistance, their struggle for equality was bitter, costly and ultimately triumphant. But whites too have profited from the change. They have been liberated from an obsessive preoccupation with an unjust system of discrimination; they can now turn to more constructive projects.

In an attempt to forestall federal efforts to integrate the South, whites used to argue that they "understood" blacks better than Northerners did. That rationalization was partly true because the fate of blacks and whites has been entwined since the start of slavery. Even when they were most at odds, they often lived in close proximity and fraternized casually. Once the barriers of segregation came down, it became apparent that whites and blacks had more in common in the South than they did in the North. "There was an understanding between the two peoples," says Terry Sanford, president of Duke University. "Human relations always existed, and the other side was made up of people, not just an unknown mass."

Economically, blacks still lag considerably behind whites, but they are catching up. In 1959 the median income of Southern black families was 46% of that of white families; in 1974 it was 56%. The totals: $6,730 for black families, $12,050 for whites.The black middle class is rapidly expanding, especially in the booming cities. Some black neighborhoods, such as Birmingham's Briarmont and Atlanta's Southwest, have all the amenities and status of upper-middle-class white residential areas.

The rural picture is not so bright. More than 50% of the 866,000 rural black families are living below the official poverty line ($5,500 for a family of four). As agricultural jobs continue to dry up, unskilled blacks are being forced off the land. Some drift into the shabby single-family shacks in the ghettos of Southern cities; others travel to the denser ghettos of the North.

Yet even in some of the most economically backward of Southern counties, there is a sense of renewal because of increasing black participation in community life. The voices of hatred have not all been stilled. But they have been muted; when they speak at all, it is in whispers and innuendo, rather than the full-throated bigotry of earlier times. And blacks can now talk back: the dialogue is conducted between equals. Says Vernon Jordan, executive director of the National Urban League: "I would rather do business with a converted Southerner than a Northern liberal. The Northern liberal is basically paternalistic. You feel he is always looking down on you. But the Southern white man who gets converted to the cause--why, he would die for you."

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