University of Virginia Library

On The Threshold

Ever since the 1954 Brown decision when
the Supreme Court ruled that the Plessy v.
Fergusson doctrine of "separate but equal"
was no longer adequate for public schools, the
South and, indeed, the whole country has
been torn with racial strife. Cities have been
burned; lives have been lost; needless injuries
have been visited upon a whole race of
oppressed peoples. In the northern industrial
corridor the result has been an increased
polarization of the races both physically and
psychologically.

The South as a whole due to geographical
and economic realities has thus far been spared
the complete dividing wall separating blacks
and whites. Outside the South the black man
has been thrust into a strange and often
hostile environment almost like that which
confronts the foreign immigrant. It is in the
South that he has his heritage, as bitter as it
might be. Yale historian C. Vann Woodward
has written that despite the racial division
that has long characterized the South, the
black and white are historically dependent
upon each other there.

Since the destinies of black and white are
inextricably intertwined in the South, neither
race can afford the thorns of hate that still
divide them in some quarters. The fruits that
could be reaped for both races through
cooperation and understanding are many;
tragedy will only result from continued
division and mutual distrust. Certainly no one
could gleefully forget the repression of blacks
in the South ever since their arrival there, but
we do admonish that section for still
stumbling and bumbling over racial
roadblocks when the opportunities for model
progress are in the offing.

The problems that face our steel and
concrete cities with skyrocketing populations
are staggering: crippling strikes, health
problems, industrial pollution, racial tension,
and crushing poverty. Just ordinary tasks like
going to and from work every day become in
the great metropolitan areas in the Northeast
a major city problem. These troubled areas,
strangling on their own populations and
scanty planning, have problems of such
complexity due to their size that incredible
monetary and cultural resources would have
to be spent to make significant progress.

The South, due to its relative lack of
expansion, does not today face these
problems on such a mammoth scale. In other
words, the South has a chance to avoid some
of the pitfalls that are currently plaguing our
biggest cities, but there will not be much
time. Urban centers in the southern quarter of
the nation which showed startling growth
both in population and in industrial
expansion in the 1970 census will not have
too much time to take steps to start to arrest
the bulk of these "city killers."

The future of the South could be bright
for all citizens living there, if only the strands
of racial nexus are severed. If petty racial
prejudice still characterizes the heart of the
Southerner, as it has done in last summer's
busing controversy, the goals that could have
been reached will be foolishly dashed.