2

THE COLLEGE NEWS

. Wednesday, March 23, 1960



THE COLLEGE NEWS -

FOUNDED IN 1914

Published weekly during the College Year (except during
Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter hoiidays, and during examina-
tion_-weeks)-in-tne-interest-of Bryn Mawr College’at the Ardmore
: Printing Company, Ardmore, Pa., and Bryn Mawr College.

The College News is fully protected by copyright. Nothing that appears
in it may be reprinted wholly or in part without permission of the Editor-in-Chief.

i ables

EDITORIAL BOARD

OTE BOP ean ere rer or eae re Marion Coen, ‘62
a re +++ Susan Nelson, ‘62
MI 5s oc Nes codec i ecebsaekedessboebedurus Ilsa, Brannon, ‘62
I ois cee re kis y ees sth lad cease ete Susan Szekley, ‘61
os cis eed cu eeshhacsvvavewieebetistveiwks Judy Stuart, ‘62
WPT NPN ca ciccccc cess cdccevedesscecbécesscuss Alison Baker, “‘62”



Integration: A Call For Action

The day before spring vacation and the loudest hum
on campus comes from the snapping of suitcases—it might
be hard to tell from looking around. that America is in a
state of revolution. In fact, a glance at a newspaper is need-
ed for word of the uprising which suddenly, quietly, irrevo-
sably has swept the nation.

Spearheaded by nine Negro students sitting-in at “an
Alabama lunch counter, the revolution for integration and
equal rights has been country and in a short time has gained astonishing momen-
tum. In,Northampton, New Haven, Cambridge and Pough-
keepsie it is being waged with unflagging enthusiasm; in
Nashville, Montgomery, and Raleigh with quiet, unshakable
courage.

The revolution sprang out of an old awareness of the
evils and inexpediences of segregation and the new realiza-
tion that its elimination is as much the responsibility of the
Northern student as the Southern governor. The under-
standing that. segregation is not only morally wrong but also
a threat to national security is neither new nor revolution-
ary; the understanding that integration is our problem and
aciton to effect it is our responsibility is both.

We have entered a new phase in dealing wtih an old
problem, and, whether we like it or not, there is no turning
back; the emphasis has been shifted from sympathy to
active support. No longer may we simply admire the tenacity
and courage of Negroes sitting-in at lunch counters, boycot-
ting buses, and attempting to get seats in decent schools.
Instead we must be prepared to take positive action, to cease
admiring and start emulating. This shift is not an easy
one to which to adjust: nonetheless, it has been irrevocably
made and, if we wish to consider ourselves either liberal or
just, we must be prepared to accept its implications. We
must be prepared to take action.

The sort of action taken and advocated by Northern
student movements ranges from group picket-lines. around
local Woolworths to indication by word of personal disap-
proval of restaurant discrimination. It may be writing let-
ters of support to students in southern colleges or contribut-
ing funds for subsidizing their often-necessary bail; a detail-
ed list of possibilities is given in the letter below.

Evidence of the rapidity with which students have re-
sponded to this shift to action prevents editorial comments
of this sort from being dismissed as mere arm-waving. Last
week a group of Philadelphia students picketeda Woolworth ;
this Thursday groups at Vassar, Smith, and Bennington did
the same (see page one for story). It is, of course, possible
and likely that strikes are not the most efficient means of
channeling collective energy for ending segregation: with a
little thinking a better one may very likely appear.

Tomorrow is spring vacation; the revolution is not op-
portune. Nonetheless, though any collective action is for
another two weeks impossible, individual projects (like the
ones described in the open letter below) are not. Besides,
we have good imaginations. The pause of spring vacation
may be all we need to come up with a means even more effect-
ive than the picket for communicating our state of mind and
helping to hasten the long overdue process of integration.

Chorus Seems “Tentative”

by Alison Baker mirable perfection, particularly in
Verdi’s Stabat Mater and Te! the men’s voices. The women’s

Deum are dramatic often to the voices tended to blend a little less

point of sensationalism. No mat- :
ter what reservations I may have smoothly than did the men’s, but

about the music, however, my main| they too held their pitch very well.
criticism of the Tri-College Chorus} My more specific criticism is a
performance with the Philadelphia| usual one since the bane of most
Orchestra was that they seemed|choruses, aside frdm precision
somewhat tentative in bringing out] and closely connected with it, is
the lush Italianate quality of the| dynamics. The Verdi pieces de-

pieces. . mand a tremendous range of con-



si ialaial tial

Frost Displays New England Versatility

“Well, let’s get to the heart of
the matter—whatever the matter
is,” began Robert Frost, informal- |
ly answering questions Monday,
evening at the Deanery. “I’m one
of those fellows you can ask any

question you want. Like a color-
ed servant, named Sam. His mas-
ter said ‘to the Devil; if you can |}
ask him anything he doesn’t know,
you can have him. The devil ask-
ed, ‘Do you like friend eggs?’ and :
Sam answered ‘Yes.’ Then, about ||
thirty years later, the Devil came
up to Sam when he was plowing in
the field, and asked him, ‘How?’
Sam said, ‘Fried.’

*You know it’s just’ come over
me I used to hear it said that there
is no such thing as an atheist.
Lately I’ve been running into lots |)
of them. Ome was under the
ground. He had a good tomb-|
stone, and it said, ‘humorist, jour-
nalist, atheist.’ I was talking to
five or six Russians who had.-al-
ready forgotten there was a God.
You see in me someone who’s seen
a lot of atheists. They believe too,
that there isn’t a God, just as i
believe there is a God.

“It came over me the other day
that I’ve been around a lot of peo-
ple who know poetry. I can always

lucky,

tell the difference between people ticle in the Saturday Review Mr.
Frost said, “I haven’t. read it;|They tear the bark off birches.

but I heard all about it. I don’t} Another of their defects is to come
care how many meanings they take| home with a travelogue,

who have been educated in poetry
and those who have been brought
up in it.

there’s some in as well.
“I heard a definition of a vigil Bepninns dh I thought the direc-

dent which said,
college graduate; he can only tell someone was showing off for me,
you what he knows in the order and he landed on his head. I said
in which he learned it.
said he’s lucky to know it any-|from someone else in the hospital.
way. That’s not true; he’s not/The big white birches are too brit-
It’s wit that makes good tle. I made a mistake in not tell-
conversation, not just wisdom.”

Asked about John Ciardi’s ar-| that are best.





| that from the poem if you read it

you can tell ations were specific enough, Once

Someone | to swing feet first. I had a letter

ing the kind. It is the silver birch

“You can always tell a tourist.

That’s

“I think the first poem I noticed |°Ut of a poem, as long as they | the worst kind of log.”

was “Three Blind Mice.” Rhyming | !eave me one in.
and singsong took over me very

In another question, Mr. Frost

“When I wrote ‘But I Have! was asked if he got the characters

early; it’s always hard for me to| Promises to Keep’ I just meant it|for his poems from reality. “If
care for free verse. I’m an insti-|like when you’re having a good|there’s something witty you meant
tutionalist; I like the institution| time, but you have a nine o’clock|to say and forgot, what do you do

of verse.

The weight of poetry | class. tomorrow. One critic said it| with it?

Put it in a novel. Char-

may be outside, but I’m interested | meant that life is lovely and dark,|acter is a composite composition.

in verse.

upbringing in poetry ought to in-|a free swinger.

clude—some education, ibut those|a little absurd, a litle wrong, but|movels or movies.
who are only taught set my teéth|-it~ doesn’t matter
There’s more learning} doing something new~in-a_mom-

on edge.

outside education, more wisdom | ent.”
outside philosophy, more religion



outside the church; but I hope! Mr. Frost answered, “You can get

_ |but I have to be getting to Heaven. | You know if you met the person
“As for poetry being taught, an| That’s stretching it a bit, but he’s|/you’d be a little disappointed.

‘Sometimes he’s} That’s why I don’t like illustrated
They ruin a
because | he’s| book,

“Don’t you eVer have an after-
image? When you spend a. whole

Asked how you swing birches,| day fishing or picking blueberries,



Continued on Page 4, Col. 4



Letters to the Editor: On Action for Integration





_ difficulties.



tm it-will_be.exactly in tune.

If music is as blatantly Roman-
tic as Verdi makes it, nothing is
left to the performer but to throw
himself wholeheartedly fimto its
quasi-operatic emotionalism,

Ormandy has no trouble in this,
and the orchestra, as usual, was
faultless in carrying out what he
initiated. The chorus, however,
seemed slightly academic and
shaky in its approach. It may be
that it is downright ungrateful of
me, sitting smugly as a listener,
to criticize the performance of a
piece which involves considerable

The Te Deum particularly, with
its double chorus and exposed cho-
rus and part solos, poses the deli-
cate problem of not losing pitch,

trasting dynamics, some of which
is written into the music itself by
thinning or thickening the instru-
mental and choral texture, but
much of which depends on the
chorus for fulfillment.

In the forte passages, usually
competing with full or almost full
orchestra, the Tri-College Chorus
was impressive enough to make the
listener believe that it really might
boast the 380 voices claimed for it
in the program. The contrastingly
soft passages tended either not to
be soft enough, or else to be soft
but badly blended and with impre-
cise entrances amd cutoffs. This
had some notable exceptions, .par-
ticularly in the opening chorus of
men in the Te Deum. :

Open Letter - EPIC

To the students of all American colleges:

The sit-downs of Negro students in southern
lunch counters have aroused lange-scale sympathy
movements, particularly among students, in many
parts of the country. We in Boston EPIC (Emer-
gency Public Integration Committee) are coordin-
ating the activities of campus committees at Har-
vard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston
University, and Brandeis University, plus non-cam-
pus groups opposed to discrimination, such as
NAACP and CORE. Since F. W. Woolworth is the
biggest chain store involved in the Southern sit-
downs, we are picketing Woolworth outlets. While
adhering to a strictly non-violent discipline on our
picket lines, we are asking people not to buy in
northern Woolworths’ until southern Woolworths
integrate.

This Saturday, we are expecting to place 400
pickets, most of them students, before ten stores.
Since the policies of southern Woolworth can be
changed by the national office in New York, we
know we have a chance of success. We intend to
continue and’ expand our picketing until Woolworth
changes its: policies. Then we will picket other stores
whose southern branches segregate.

Non-picketing activities on Boston campuses
include the circulation of petitions and the sale by
ad hoe student committees of postcards addressed
to New York Woolworth. The petitions, stating
that the signers will not patronize Woolworth until
it integrates in the South, have collected 7,000 sig-~
natures to date, Among the signers are Eleanor
Roosevelt, Arthur. Schlesinger, Oscar Handlin and
H. Stuart Hughes. In addition, Boston area students
have sent close to 1,000 postcirds to Woolworth.

We urge you to support the southern student
movement by:
1) Following the lead of Harvard University’s

student council in sending resolutions of sup-
port to Negro schools in the southern move-
ment; (the following is an incomplete list:
Hampton Inst., Hampton, Va.; Agric. and
Tech. College, Greensboro, N.C.; Shaw
_. University, Raleigh, N.C.; Fisk University,
Nashville, Tenn.; Alabama State College for
Negroes, Montgomery, Ala,; North Caro- :

bi



so th hen the orchestra co:



On the whole the necessary carve



the whole this succeeded with ad-

.was present in the chorus, but it
on Page 5, Col. 5






lina College; Durham, N.C.; Tuskegee Insti-
tute; Tuskegee, Ala.; Johnson C. Smith Uni-



versity, Charlotte, N.G.; Winston-Salem

ee

Teachers College, Winston-Salem, N.C.
2) Picketing your local Woolworth, if you have
one,
8) Sending postcards, letters, and petitions to:
Mr. E. F. Harrigan, vice-president
F. W. Woolworth and Co,
238 Broadway
New York, New York
Thank you for your cooperation,
Harvey Pressman, chairman, EPIC
333 Harvard Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Action in Bryn Mawr

To the Editor:
Everybody talks about segregation, but nobody ©

thinks about it! At Bryn Mawr, the emphasis is on

individuality, but somewhere we have lost sight of
the force of each individual. Every citizen is faced
with the problem of the present situation in the
South. This is particulary applicable to us because
it involves our fellow-students in Southern univer-
sities. Expelled, ostracized, physically humiliated,
ti.ey have stood up for their ideals with quiet
strength. We cannot stand with them—we do not
suffer, we are not praised. But if we raise our
voice it will be heard. Let’s stop our passive atti-
tude to this vital problem.

Mac Schoellkopf

Carol Duddy

s Kathe Livezey

Dear Editor:

While our fellow citizens in the South are mis-
treated for trying to defend their natural rights ‘as
human beings and citizens of the United States,
we at Bryn Mawr meander through our booky lives
unaware of and not caring about their struggle. In ~
seeking to be valued as individuals and not as mem-
bers of a minority race, these students are testing
the foundations of the democratic system. The
future of our country, and of free peoples every-
where depends upon the right of every individual
to vote, find employment and be accepted according
to his ability. ;

The very least that we here can do is raise our
heads from our books and look beyond our cloister-
ed lives to recognize the tremendot i

ich— are coping and to commend
them for their valor as they quietly but firmly fight
to secure their legitimate ends.

Bannon Marbut





ous problems. with.——-