Lexington (MS) Advertiser, by Hazel Brannon Smith

"Is the future hopeless?"

This is a question now being asked more and more on the campus of the University of Mississippi by faculty members, disappointed and unhappy because of the failure of the administration to discipline and mete out proper punishment to a hardcore of student offenders who have kept the campus in a turmoil since the entrance of James Meredith as a student. The overall effect of these incidents on the campus is a serious loss of respect and prestige for the University and everyone connected with it.

Informed sources report that 25 or 30 faculty members will resign at the end of the year. Some have already done so. Many others are considering such action.

Eight out of eleven persons in the chemistry department are reported to be planning to leave, which would virtually wreck the department. The whole classics and art departments are similarly affected. The Provost has already resigned, to accept a position with the Bank of America in San Francisco, and the Director of Institutional Research is leaving February 1 to fill the post of Academic Dean at Memphis State University.

Regardless of what reasons are publicly given for the resignations of these faculty members and administrative officers, the loss to the University is real and serious. They will be extremely hard to replace. They represent some of the best qualified people connected with the University.

One source stated that even if stopped now, the attrition of personnel is such that it will take ten years to get back to the place the University occupied two or three years ago.

"The University is doomed for a generation, I'm afraid," another said.

It is a matter of record the University has been losing some of its best faculty members since 1957. Job opportunities have increased everywhere in these United States and there is a serious shortage of well trained professors in almost all fields. Starting salaries at these other institutions are from $4,000 up more than they earn at Ole Miss and other state colleges in Mississippi.

At a time when other states have been doing all within their power to attract and hold qualified teaching personnel, here in Mississippi they have been subjected to a continuing campaign of carping criticism by a pressure group and certain by now well known individuals, who have done everything within their power to destroy the University as such and mold it in their own image.

During this past academic year the bitter fruits of their efforts have been readily apparent in the brainwashed attitudes of some few students, like the cowardly and disgusting Rebel Underground, and the adults who have inspired and conspired with them.

Whether we realize it or not, the University of Mississippi stands today like a large mirror in which is reflected the entire state and all its people, as the nation and the world sees us.

Our state has been and is being judged by the events which transpire at Ole Miss. As the University goes, so goes Mississippi. We will stand or fall in direct proportion to the way problems at the institution are solved, or resolved. Other state institutions of higher learning will be judged accordingly.

The future belongs to those who prepare for it—and without a superior system of public education, especially higher education, there will be no future to speak of in Mississippi. We will be doomed.

Modern industry, on which our future depends, is keyed to personnel possessing the highest knowledge and scientific skills. These are obtainable only through education and training and research conducted almost entirely in graduate schools of the highest rank. It is no accident that virtually all of the highly scientific electronic industries are going to California and Massachusetts. The research programs in top ranking MIT and the University at Berkeley have consistently paced the nation.

Important industry will not go where educational facilities are not fully adequate or superior—nor is its highly trained personnel willing to work in a negative, closed society.

The cloak of conformity and indoctrination which the Citizens' Council of Mississippi would like to force upon our colleges (as well as our churches and other facets of life) would put them in a straitjacket and stifle and suffocate them just as surely as they would kill the creativity and character of citizens dedicated to seeking the truth in our halls of learning. Without real academic freedom, there can be no university or institution of higher learning.

The threat presently posed to the University of Mississippi in the loss of personnel is real. It should be met by the leaders of Mississippi who do not wish to see the state drained of its most competent teachers, a forerunner of equally serious losses in other fields and professions.

Those citizens who have the welfare of our state at heart, especially members of our state college board, would do well to meet this situation with both candor and resolve. They can do so by letting the entire world know this thing of letting political hacks and demagogues run the state's colleges is past—and by making it clear to the University's dedicated Chancellor and faculty that it is backing them up firmly in their efforts to make Ole Miss what a real University should be.

Otherwise there may not be a University.

Mississippi's future may well depend on it.

It is not moral or just that any man should live in fear, or be compelled to sleep with a loaded gun by his bedside.

Holmes County Deputy Sheriff Andrew P. Smith's action in arresting a 58-year-old Negro farmer, Hartman Turnbow, for fire bombing his own home has come as a numbing shock to the people of Holmes County. 

It is a grave disservice to our county and all our people in these days of increasing racial tension and strife. White and Negro citizens of Holmes County alike simply could not believe that something like this could happen in our county, that a man and his wife and 16-year-old daughter could be routed from sleep in the small hours of the morning and be forced to flee their home literally in terror, only to be shot at by intruders outside—then to have the head of the family jailed the same day for doing the dastardly deed by an officer sworn to uphold the law and protect all citizens. 

The only evidence presented against the aged Negro man at the preliminary hearing was testimony given by Deputy Smith and that was only an ac-count of the bombing and shooting incident, as reported by Turnbow, to him. Mr. Smith added his own opinions and suppositions, as did County Attorney Pat M. Barrett, who prosecuted the case. As a result the man was bound over under $500 bond for action by the Holmes County Grand Jury in October. 

Mr. Barrett, who said he was "not a demolition expert" nevertheless told the Court that "It just couldn't have happened. There is no way on God's earth for that situation over there to have happened like he said it happened." 

Four other Negroes, who had been arrested the same day in connection with the same case, were released for lack of evidence. Not one shred of evidence was presented against them. But they had been held in jail five days and five nights. 

This kind of conduct on the part of our highest elected peace officer has done serious injury to relations between the races in Holmes County—where we must be able to live in peace and harmony, or not live at all. 

It is distressing that no statement has come from Mr. Smith saying that he is continuing his investigation. Perhaps he is. We hope so. 

But irreparable damage has been clone, and let no one doubt it. 

We have always taken pride in being able to manage our affairs ourselves. When we become derelict in our duty and do not faithfully execute our obligations, we may rest assured it will he done for us. 

FBI agents and U.S. Justice officials have already made an exhaustive investigation of this bombing and shooting incident. 

A suit has already been filed against Deputy Smith, Mr. Barrett and the District Attorney, stating these Negroes were arrested on false and baseless charges, "which were in effect an effort to coerce and intimidate Negro citizens of Holmes County and get them to cease voter registration activity. 

The Federal suit asks for a permanent injunction to prohibit these officers from interfering with voter registration activities, including the prosecution of the charges now filed against Turnbow, who attempted to register to vote here April 9, and Robert Moses, director of SNCC, a voter registration project. 

This kind of situation would never have come about in Holmes County if we had honestly dis-charged our duties and obligations as citizens in the past; if we had demanded that all citizens be accorded equal treatment and protection under the law. This we have not done. 

But if we think the present situation is serious, as indeed it is, we should take a long, hard look at the future. 

It can, and probably will, get infinitely worse—unless we have the necessary character and guts to do something about it—and change the things that need to be changed. 

The shocking, hate-inspired murder of Medgar Evers, Mississippi field secretary of the NAACP, is not only a reprehensible crime against the laws of God and man. It was a vicious and dastardly act endangering the personal safety and well being of every citizen, white and Negro, in Jackson and throughout the state, and poses a serious threat to future race relations. 

The criminal should be found and punished to the fullest extent of the law. 

When the unknown assailant took a position under cover of night near the victim's home and cut him down with a high powered rifle, he did not kill a civil rights movement, as he may have supposed. He did kill a man who was a living symbol of the freedom that Mississippi Negroes are determined to achieve. 

But far from killing the freedom movement in Mississippi, the perpetrator of the crime only made certain it will he increased tenfold. New leaders will arise to take Evers' place—and they will not be as moderate in their views, or as patient, reasonable and understanding of the white man's position and views. 

This murder was committed by an ignorant product of our sick, hate-filled society. Thus far it has been only a segment of our white community that has succumbed to hate. God help us when the Negro starts hating in Mississippi. 

It is imperative that each of us examine our own heart and conscience and determine what part we have played, either in things done or left undone, in acts of commission or omission, in creating a society which permits a man to be murdered because of his desire to be free and equal under the law—a man who fought Hitlerism in Germany for all our freedom. 

Time is running out for us here in the Magnolia State. People of good will must act now if we are to avert total disaster in the entire field of human relations.

Mayor Allen Thompson will surely recognize the urgent necessity of establishing immediately a bi-racial committee to try to achieve some degree of real understanding before it is too late—indeed, if it Is not already. 

There must be a special place in hell for anyone who bombs a church. 

"I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven." 

This was the memory selection from the Sunday School lesson on "The Love that Forgives" studied by four young Negro girls in their church on Sixteenth Street in Birmingham last Sunday morning. 

But they did not live long enough to put that lesson into practice. 

Before the hour was over their bodies had been blown to bits. 

Outside the church, amid the noise and confusion, the pastor and another minister got on police megaphones, began to pray: 

"Our Father, who art in heaven..." 

The throng is admonished: "Go home and pray for the men who did this evil deed. We must have love in our hearts for these men." 

How many times can the other cheek be turned? Before the world catches on fire? 

Where are the good people of our native Alabama? 

And the Deep South? 

Those who profess Christianity? 

What has happened to the faith, love, understanding, tolerance and happiness we used to know? 

Where is our honor and integrity? Our humanity? 

Who is to blame? 

There is enough to be shared by all. 

Governor Wallace created the atmosphere in which violence and bloodshed was inevitable. 

As the elected lender of Alabama, he failed his people, led them in the wrong direction. Instead of respecting court orders, which he was legally and morally bound to do, he deliberately defied them and encouraged others by his lawless example to do the same. 

In a press conference in Baltimore, Governor Wallace virtually invited the bombing. He emphasized that no per-sons had been hurt in the 21 bombings before that date, indicating it was "strange" indeed the FBI had been un-able to make a single arrest. 

This time the bombers made no such "mistake." Four children were killed, scores injured, and two additional children were killed in the wave of the violence that followed the bombing of the church. 

Yes, Governor Wallace's is the major portion of the blame. 

But there are so many others—the ministers who failed to preach, the teachers who failed to teach, the editors who failed to write, the lawyers and judges who failed to instruct in the law, the business and professional men and women who were too busy to care, the politicians who, like generations of politicians for nearly 100 years in the South, have tried to maintain the status quo for their own selfish purposes. 

And the plain, white, informed citizen who knew what was about to happen, but failed to speak out, to let others know. Either through apathy, fear, or just plain cowardice. 

The same thing that happened in Birmingham is going to happen elsewhere, including Mississippi. 

Perhaps we should say ESPECIALLY IN MISSISSIPPI. 

Unless something is done now to prevent it. 

This fact lies heavily on the mind end conscience of every informed Mississippian—and by "informed" we mean those who know true conditions in our state. 

Our people now are immobilized by fear. 

But if we love our state and want her to endure we must cast off that fear and work for a better life for all Mississippians. 

We must, in the words of the late William Faulkner: 

"Never be afraid to raise our voice for honesty and truth and compassion, against injustice and lying and greed." 

And if, as individuals we can do this, as Bill Faulkner said, we can change the Earth, including Mississippi, and make it a better place for all.