CITIES: Oasis of Tolerance

In many a Deep South city, a mayor who addresses Negro gatherings as "Ladies and Gentlemen," who puts Negroes on the police force and orders the Parks Department to let Negroes play golf on municipal courses, could be listed as a potential political suicide. Atlanta's Mayor William Berry Hartsfield has done all these things—and many more like them. He ordered city employees to use "Dear Mr. Jones" instead of "Dear Jim" in answering letters from Negroes. In 1951 he approved of a national convention of the National Association for the Advancement of...