RACES: Armageddon to Go

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Two thousand students from the Georgia Institute of Technology stormed through Atlanta one night last week, whooping up and down Peachtree Street, pushing aside troopers who tried to bar their way, and generally raising hell. At the State Capitol, the boys pulled fire hoses from their racks, adorned the sculpt head of Civil War Hero John Gordon with an ashcan. A dozen effigies of Governor Marvin Griffin were hanged and burned during the students' march, which culminated in a 2 a.m. riot in front of the governor's mansion.

Earlier in the day, the governor had incurred their wrath by a pinhead act: he asked the State Board of Regents to forbid the athletic teams of the university system of Georgia (e.g., Georgia Tech, the University of Georgia) from participating in games against any team with Negro players, or even playing in any stadium where unsegregated audiences breathed the same air.

"The South stands at Armageddon," brayed Griffin to the regents. "The battle is joined. We cannot make the slightest concession to the enemy in this dark and lamentable hour of struggle. There is no more difference in compromising the integrity of race on the playing field than in doing so in the classrooms. One break in the dike and the relentless seas will rush in and destroy us."*

The governor had a specific game in mind: Georgia Tech had contracted to play the University of Pittsburgh in New Orleans' Sugar Bowl on Jan. 2. Pitt has been selling its block of tickets on a desegregated basis, and Bobby Grier, a Pitt reserve fullback, is a Negro.

Many Southern leaders and editorialists scornfully denounced Griffin's action. George Harris, president of the Georgia Tech student body, sent a telegram to the Pitt student body, apologizing for Griffin's action: "We are looking forward to seeing your entire team and student body at the Sugar Bowl." A spokesman for the governor indicated that he was having some second thoughts about the Sugar Bowl game. One of Georgia Tech's regents predicted that the board would back Griffin and adopt for future seasons a rule against playing under unsegregated conditions. But the 1956 Sugar Bowl game would be played as scheduled, "just this once."

The Citizens' Council

There was an orderly meeting of solid Mississippi citizens in Jackson (pop. 117,000) one day last week. Present in the city auditorium were 2,000 planters and small businessmen, 40 state legislators, Congressman John Bell Williams and Governor Hugh White. They were well-dressed people of the sort found at Rotary meetings or dancing at the country club. This was the first statewide meeting of the Mississippi Association of Citizens' Councils. They were addressed by U.S. Senator James Oliver Eastland. His subject: school desegregation. Said he: