New book on the historic sit-ins

              new book on the historic sit-ins
hsboro Daily News, Sunday, June 7, 1970
^JY WILLIAM D. SNIDER
Editor, Daily News & Record
Miles Wolff, Jr.,  son of the
I former executive news editor of
| this newspaper, has written a
remarkably perceptive book
abut the Greensboro lunch-
counter sit-ins of 10 years ago
(Lunch At The 5 & 10, Stein and
Day, $5.95).
Young Wolff, a graduate of
Johns Hopkins recently returned from military service,
chose the subject for his master's thesis at the University of
Virginia. Later he expanded it
into what he calls "a contemporary history."
Contemporary it is — today's
racial trauma may be at a
different stage but its essence is
much the same. And history it
is also — for Mr. Wolff has
probed beneath the surface to
I look at the people and issues in
| fascinating detail.
As an o n -s c e n e witness to
these events from a vantage
point as associate editor Of the
Daily News 10 years ago, I must
testify to the author's success in
catching both the feel  of the
| community  and  the  principal
I characters in the drama.
A Business City
Greensboro, as this young au-
Ithor describes it, is "a business
(city, controlled by businessman
. . Greensboro had its country
[clubs and debutante ball (significantly enough, not started until
1951), but it had little of the
I tradition of the Old South, other
j than its share of Southern hospi-
I tality and graciousness. And the
I influx of new people and tre-
1 mendous growth of the city gave
it more of the ai .lbsphere of the .
North than if a traditional
[ Southern town . . ."
Wolff goes on to acknowledge
that Greensboro "had many of
the Southern attitudes on race,
but  many  in  the  city prided
[themselves on their liberal
thinking and The New York
Times wrote during the sit-ins:
"The views of the white in this
traditionally moderate city of
120,000 are mixed and run from
what might be called Northern
liberal to Southern adamant.' "
Mr.   Wolff's   sketches  of  the
I people thrown suddenly into this
unexpected maelstrom reflect
their diverse views;   they pro-
jvide the book's drama.
The heroes, if any — in addition to the four black A&T freshmen who walked into Wool-
worth's on the first Monday of
February i960 and sat down at
the lunch counters — are two
I white   men  utterly  diverse  in
1 background and temperament.
.„ff«afifcMrei«s«
One is Ralph Johns, the erratic, big-hearted clothing store
proprietor who challenged the
black youths to take their stand.
Johns' role at the time was not
widely known. The Wolff book
pinpoints it in detail.
A leader's difficulties
The other is Edward R. Zane,
city councilman and top official
of Burlington Industries, who
| stepped in at a turbulent mo
Iment to provide courageous
[ leadership. Mr. Zane's role has
been widely publicized, but this
book relates in detail how valuable his services were. It also
illuminates the difficulties encountered by any traditional
leader when he attempts to
make the rigors of change more
bearable. ,
Wolff's book succeeds because
he expends great effort in examining the nuances of community
opinion and pressures. None of
his characters are wholly saints
or rogues; they are mostly people and the author has caught
them in their complexities and
frustrations.
In retrospect,-— and especially for the youth of today — it
seems unbelievable that 10 years
ago Greensboro restaurants and
variety store lunch counters
were unwilling to serve black
customers. Yet that was true all
over the South.
(Most white Greensburghers
have forgotten that only two
years earlier in 1958 the Guilford County Interracial Commission, in its 50th year, was ousted
from the Greensboro United
Fund after fund leaders decided
that some citizens were refusing
to contribute because they objected to the group. Out of an
annual budget of over $759,000,
the commission had asked for
$250.)
Why was the Southern custom
of segregated public accommodations so difficult to change?
The answers lie deep in the
white-black syndrome of the Old
South and undoubtedly they are
complicated.   But   in   hindsight
The counter revolution
historians will have difficulty
excusing the procrastination and
blindness of the white man —
yes, his callousness and lack of
sensitivity — toward the person-
hood of his brother.
The economic squeeze
Wolff shows that not until the
economic squeeze produced
painful results — not until the
black boycott exerted its pressure — did the variety stores
agree to come around. Their
argument was a familiar one
still in vogue whenever difficult
changes seem necessary: They
did not want to be in the vanguard of change; they feared
the impact of change upon their
businesses. The easiest solution
was to stand pat until the young
people (not so burdened down
by adult responsibilities) showed
the way.
The moral issue
Some community factions
were concerned about the moral
issue; but except for a handful
of leaders, very few whites fell
in line under that banner. (It is
interesting that Councilman
Zane's boss, the late J. Spencer
Love — a man of considerable
vision in many areas—sent him
a letter firmly backing his efforts: "Congratulations and
thanks on continuing to take the
leadership in the lunch counter
situation problem. Please consider me in reserve, and if there
is any way you know of that I
can be helpful let me know.")
Zane found himself exposed to
all manner of harassment from
Klan elements who immediately
entered the fray and made their
pressure felt. Only the resource
fulness of the dedicated Greensboro Police Department, under
its Chief Paul Calhoun, kept
diverse elements from exploding
on each other.
In many ways the behavior of
the police force reflected
Greensboro's inherent sense of
balance, even when the fire
grew hottest. The community
contained enough character and
common sense to see the moral
obtuseness of segregated lunch
counters operating side-by-side
with integrated merchandise .
counters. Against students protesting such manifestly obvious
injustice,, harsh repression or
even "business as usual"
could not long prevail. Because
there was enough worry about
the moral issue underneath the
economics, the vfour black students succeeded. Their movement spread like a forest fire
across the South.
History's lessons
So young Miles Wolff has given us an important piece of
contemporary history in our own
backyard — written while the
facts were still available and
with a steady hand and perceptive eye.
"Those who do not learn from
history," goes the old aphorism,
"are destined to repeat it."
Let those grappling with some |
of the currently heated issues
profit from the perspective of ]
the lunch counter sit-ins. There
are lessons enough here, 10
years later, for both whites and-
blacks — and especially for
those inclined to accept the privileges of their own position with
an uncritical eye.