The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, May 01, 1959, Page Page Two, Image 3
ExuudnatonA Schdu
Final examn tions are fast approaching, I
and I'm sure most of us have seen the exam t
schedule; probably, however, not too many i
are satisfied with it. How did those in charge i
ever conceive of the schedule which they
have released?
Many of us registered at the beginning of
the semester with the intention of getting
our classes spaced as consecutively as pos
sible, and usually this has worked out so
that our examination would be equally dis
persed throughout the examination period.
This semester, however, the schedule has
been arranged, as all of us know, so that
all eight o'clock class examinations occur on
the first day, followed by nine o'clock class
examinations the next day, examinations
for all 10 o'clock classes the following day,
and so on.
Unfortunately, with examinations sched
uled In this manner, all of us who have
classes consecutively must take examina
tions consecutively, and in this way many
students have all of their examinations
within a period of about three days.
The administration-or whoever organ
ized the schedule-should have realized that
this places the student at a psychological
disadvantage. Having to face one examina
tion after another in such rapid succession
is bound to make many ill-at-ease and thus
prevent them from doing their best in each
individual course.
Some may say that no one should wait
until the last few days and hope to cram
Russ Burns . . .
The Old Regim
Housing Hassl
In the early days of February, ventiveness, and
smug headlines within this paper The Housing Offic
announced another in the long sought revenge as
line of Housing Office "atroci- statements like:
ties" which :have pushed this "We can not
office to the very brink of falling tolerate this vand
into public disdain. telephones will not
Telephones had been ripped any of these build
from the walls of certain dorms can find the indivi
by some of Carolina's children in responsible for
order to satisfy idle curiosity, in- phones out. .Ofi
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
LastWtek'stArrike:
KildTolerateekvn
Dear Sir: out thes acttha
Last wek, i the Seen,Hear fnd teupervit
andSpoen n Cmpu" clum, rifesporbe closely
oude rrec to stsyilcuote nw plac,nese ut.lr.
ma Cner(ast Uniesity dor rivaly
our ofd thefrene tt sae kd th at anewa
now dead, thrown against a brick ae' epnil
wall by the children of some oftin,adIwl
the veterans living in University "BL!
Terrace Apartments.AnitmybI
Nothing can be done to give syta ' no
life to these innocent animals, Iloeails
but erhps hisleter illpoi t Willfamta
Membe of Asocitriflegmore Prsely
Feaned Jnuar 80.1008 witlaoe Ethese chldei
firt dior."Te ameoc" . pblsdrmit or h
theUnvesit o Sut Caolnawek,e idstha wag (ar
yea ecep o liidysan duin earen'tronsibl
The oinios exressd iolunls, and lete wi
aecesril toseof"Te Gmeocksayb thaImeenekd
noteeetluteanendrseen. T. Ih loedi anma
bubtease this letter ill pointeiead.
MANGIG EITRWING..FOR..A.GREATER.
ADETSNGVERSGT R.OF..OUTH..CAR.....
FEA nded EDITOR...,....,.w.h.Rober.E..ot.G...a
REPORTiERS: ofavidt Caldnawel, aen M darbbng
Car exceno Mlarthda Gatn Catillasn
kin, Emily Mthen "Th arloek. "TeKe Gree=h
reest hen Eicoar, Bill SHetewrt, arar et Pco
USIESS oSTAFte TnoendRose, Bobb illiato s, wit
G uy Srrinyletesreevd
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ADVEIS N MAAGuER, S......................
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de Too Condensed
or exams; I agree wholeheartedly. But
ven if a student does not have to cram, he
ihould be given enough time to calm down
tfter one exam before facing another.
Maybe some of you feel that it is silly to
:omplain about the exam schedule. Maybe
Pome of you will be glad to take them and
Ket everything finished. But I feel sure that
nany of you-most of you-would rather
)e given more time, and feel that with more
ime, you would have a better opportunity
*o end up the semester with better grades
)n your courses.
Supposedly, this new system was devised
>ecause of discontent with the exam sched
Ale which has been in use during past
;emesters. I for one feel that the schedule
ias been very well-organized every semester
since I have been at Carolina. Never Irave
:he students been so rushed through finals
is they are bound to be this semester.
Unfortunately, it is too late now to devise
i more suitable schedule for this semester,
)ut maybe next semester someone will
levise some system which will be suitable
to more of the student body.
In conclusion, we would like to say that
Lhe attempt to set up a better schedule this
iemester is appreciated because we know
Lhat someone had the student in mind, but
we realize that unless we as students ex
press our feelings, there is no way in which
anyone can tell whether or not the schedule
is satisfactory.
a Overthrown:
le Has Hope
pocketbooks. And thus the situation was
e immediately settled . . . in the mind of the
xemplified by Housing Office.
and will not Isolated Dictatorship
alism. These The phones stayed out, the
be replaced in children played on, and the Of
ings until we fice continued its policy of iso
luals who are lated dictatorship. Not one effort
ipping these was made to reconcile the trou
ble with the students. In short,
the Housing Office hated the
* student; the student hated the
Housing Office.
S A wise man once said, "Treat
a person like a child and he will
behave like a child. Treat him
these parents like an adult and he will begin
elr children a to take on responsibility."
In the first The old regime Housing Of
i have no bus- fice tried the former treatment
nd the girl's and got childish responses. The
will say that old regime has been overthrown.
mund 4 or 5) What can the future hold in
for their ac- store?
say in return, Hopcfully, we foresee a change
hat some will of heart.
dball- Housing Efforts
M4. Kitching Word was passed down that
the disconnected telephones would
be replaced through the efforts
of Housing. Already this decree
FfL1ihas been formulated into action.
New telephones now adorn the
walls of previously "quiet"
A dorms.
But this replacement is only
- a a a physical offering; is there any
tu~ 1thing being done to better
-: et Housing-student relations?
Housing Director Joe Barnes
essesexpressed the wish for coordina
tion with the Student Council
,Y MJSHOE the pulse of Carolina. He has
erald Floyd offered to listen to the student's
on Rutledge housing problem rather than con
Anne Valley tinually gripe of Housing's own
irol Watson problems as was done In the past.
Hlousing-Student Understanding
. Ed Spar With this better Housing
..Bill Bates student understanding being
Larry May promoted by Mr. Barnes, a great
mnas Bryant opportunity for building a better
eies Bradley Carolina is seen. Now the thing
eles Behling left Is for the students to res
tyTusae pond with their approval and ap
~ Trusdale preoiation in 'hopes that this line
Bill Dun of thinking may be continued.
3aa Krb, Give your support of Housing's
Bil PetemA- favorable programs. Voice your
opinions at "harmful" decrees.
gy Withers, Keep your eyes open for the mali
cious children who tamper with
Anthony E. telephones.
Do your share of carrying the
lay Woolfe, responsibiuity of keeping Cairo
lina decent and maybe this school
ack Morris. can regain some of the harmony
ier, Harriet stupidly squandered by the olJd
Housing Onuic
it 4.
I know he's lazy, but yo
Ellis Boatmon . .
"The Tra<
Poplarville is a small, sleepy
Mississippi town of some 2,500
souls. It was once a backward
rural section, but returns from
timber, cattle, and tung oil have
brought prosperity to Poplar
ville, which lies about 100 miles
south of Jackson, the state capi
tal.
Nothing of any excitement ever
happened in Poplarville. Its
most colorful citizen is now de
ceased. Theodore G. Bilbo, Mis
sissippi's strongest voice for
white supremacy for many years
in the U. 'S. Senate, called Pop
larville his 'home and is buried
just south of the town at Juniper
Grove.
The town is composed of sev
eral "main" streets, is the site
of the fast-growing Pearl River
Junior College, has numerous
places of business, countless
churches, a small hospital, the
county courthouse, and a jail. It
was at this jail that something
at long last did happen in Poplar
ville.
On the evening of Saturday,
April 25, gun-wielding terrorists
-faces masked and hands gloved,
stormed the unguarded jail at
the county-seat of Pearl River,
forcibly abducted a Negro pri
soner from the jail, threw him
in a waiting automobile and dis
appeared into the dark and
wooded hills of southern Missis
sippi.
The prisoner was Mack Charles
Parker, age 23, a truck driver
in Poplarville. He had been
charged with criminally assault
ing a white woman at nearby
Petal, Miss.
His trial was to begin on Mon
day, and with the weight of
evidence heavy against 'him, he
would doubtless have been found
guilty, and possibly sentenced to
death at the state's gas dhamber
in Jackson.
.Article's Purpose
It is not the purpose of this
article to discuss the nature of
his crime. Nor is it our desire
to speculate whether Parker was
guilty or innocent. That would
have been decided if he had ever
been permitted to stand trial.
However, despite the fact that
he was a citizen of the United
States, 'he was not given the op
portunity to lay claim tio this
privilege, for he has doubtless
been the victim of a lynching
mob; the fourth such incident
in Mississippi since 1955.
The attackers numbered pos
sibly 15 or 20 men. Whether they
were from Poplarville, Missis
sippi, or nearby Louisiana is un
known. They had no trouble en
tering the county jail, as It was
not being guarded by Sheriff W.
0. Moody or any of his deputies.
"I Didn't Do It"
They crowded into Parker's
cell hitting him with a gun,
sticks, and finally with a garbage
can. Shouts of "Why did you
do it?" filled the air, as Parker
feebly replied, "I didn't do it."'
But the reply was lost amid the
shouts of the mob, and they
proceeded to drag the prisoner
from his cell.
F91loir prisoners related the
attackers dragged Parker down
the jal steps by the heels, his
head bumping from steel tread
to steel tread of the stairs. The
last seen of him was the bloody
'handprint he left in a vain at
tempt to grasp at the doorstep.
It was in the predawn hours of
the 'Sabbath day when the Negro
was thrown into an automobile
and then swallowed up in ihe
thickness of a swampy Missis
sippi scene. His fate is already
known to most people. His
chances of survival are non
4011W I
r))
1ve got to admit he's the best engin
gedy Of PC
Immediate Response
The response was so immediate
that most Southerners were left
aghast at the efficient manner
in which the Federal Bureau of
Investigation works. For Chief
J. Edgar Hoover dispatched over
16 agents into the area, many of
them coming from nearby New
Orleans.
These F.B.I. men were joined
by a score of local deputies, state
highway patrolmen, and volun
teers, as the race against time
began in an effort to locate
Parker and his attackers-known
only to be somewhere "out there"
in the red clay hills of Pearl
River County.
Governor J. P. Coleman, who
will soon be leaving the Executive
Mansion, expressed horror at the
crime, and assured the nation the
mob would be prosecuted as mur
derers. He added, "I never ex
pected the day this would happen
in Mississippi again."
Kidnapping Criticism
Representative William Col
mer and Circuit Judge Tom
Brady, both strong segregation
advocates, criticized the kid
napping in public statements, and
the "Jackson Daily News," an
outspoken supporter of segrega
tion, said such an act cannot be
justified.
Sheriff Moody, whose beha
viour in leaving the jail un
guarded ds open to speculation,
remarked, "When the crime oc
curred, feeling was high, but it
had been very quiet lately, and I
didn't dream such a thing would
happen. You don't expect these
things any more."
But "these things" do continue
to happen, and it causes all peo
ple who call themselves Ameri
cans, and followers of some code
of religious conduct, to stop and
wonder df we are letting someone
make .hypocrites of us and brand
us as liars 'before a world that
still feels the United States is
the oasis of freedom> hope, and
Ohristianity in a desert of god
less, purpose-less communism.
Apathetic Citizens
As F.B.I. agents and State
Patrolmen searched the streams,
marshes and the muddy and
tangled lowlands of south Mis
sissippi and neighboring Louis
iana, they found many of the
citizens of Poplarville apathetic,
saying, "Parker got what was
coming to him."
T,he county-seat of Pearl River
made every effort to shy away
from the international publicity
it had received, but Poplarville
was finding out what so many
other parts of our Republic are
learning to be true: that the
world 'has grown small, and that
vital issues such as lynching
effect all men everywhere.
The news from Poplarvrille,
Miss, will be received in Bang
kok, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Moscow,
Berlin, Cairo, and Tehran in a
matter of hours.
Doubtless the mob did not
realize their crime would be
transmitted by wire and word-of
mouth throughout the nation, and
particularly to the countries
behind the "Iron curtain."
Soviet Russia takes great de
light In using such Instances as
the Poplarville tragedy as proof
postive that democracy will not
work and that many Americans
are liars when they talk about
how the 'Christian religion has
made them better men, and
taught tihem how to live with any
man, regardless of race, creed,
or color.
A Shrinking World
One thing we must learn Is
that no 'longer what we do In
our "own little hometown" con
cerns na and no ne els. Ter
t
t
t
t
t
Cering student we've got.
plarville"
world-community is shrinking
daily and the backyard of one
nation touches that of another. T
Parker himself has been lost in i
the publicity of what has hap- t
pened. He is an unfortunate i
victim, as have been many before I
(him.
The assault victim picked t
Parker out of a lineup and "said i
,he looked like the man who as- I
saulted her." W-hether he was
the perpetrator of one of man- I
kind's most hidious crimes will t
forever be unknown.
Whether an innocent man was
torn to pieces because he was a
Negro will likewise never be
solved.
Greater Part of Damage
U. S. Attorney General Wil
liani P. Rogers has conferred
daily with President Eisenhower,
and the chief executive has
promised the full cooperation of
the F.B.I. .in an effort to track
down the guilty. But the greater
part of the damage has already I
been done.
The world has heard of Pop
larville despite efforts of the
tung-oil community to remain in
isolation. The free world has
been forced to blush again and
to apologize for the rashness of
some 15 or 20 men; the Soviet
bloc can swell their chests, for
tyranny has scored a triumph.
How serious are we going to
take this business of being an
American? How serious are we
going to live in a nation "under
God dedicated to a new precept
of freedom?" Are we going to
give every man his deserved trial,
and with sonme semblance of jus
tice attached to it?
Teachings of Christ
A re wve going to absorb some
of those 2,000 years of the teach
ings of Christ, and apply them to
our lives, or only on Sunday
morning when we grace the door
of a church? Our answers to
these questions are vital.
It's a frantic battle of mind
and wvords we are wvaging with
Soviet Russia. It's a battle for
the loyalty and the soul of every
man and woman in the world.
Whether we win or not -- and
thus survive - so often depends
on "little things."
The tragedy of Poplarville is
actually more than the inhuman
actions of a mob; it is more than
the miscarriage of justice, and It 1
is more than a bad blot on good 1
race relations.
The tragedy of Poplarville is :
a weakening in the chain that
binds the nations of the free
world together in a common cause
dedicated to the principles of -
human dignity, individualism, l
dlemocracy, and the teachings of
a simple Nazarene carpenter who
came "that they might have life 1
and have it more abundantly."
Anthony E. Brown
Progress
At Carolina
Now Evident
For the past several months
here have been numerous ar
icles and columns written on the
ack of spirit and Industry among
tudents at Carolina. Now, at the
nd of the regular academic year,
ve think it only fair to review
he progress that has occurred
Lnd is occurring at the present
ime.
Perhaps the most outstanding
ivent of the past year was the
iniversally publicized SEATO
,onference, planned and present
d by the. University's Interna
ional Relations Department.
This successful meeting not
inly gave the IRC a high com
nendation of merit, but it raised
he University to international
>rominence in the field of world
liplomacy and politics.
Artists' Series
Another event of importance
kas been the Artists Series in
tituted last fall by our Student '
lody President Fred LeClercq
md others.
The performances have been
net with wide approval and
vould have been better only if
here were a more suitable at
nosphere than the gymnasium
'or their presentation.
At any rate attendance at
hese functions well justified the
ntroduction of the series, and
,e look forward to another year
)f cultural influence with the
)erformances planned for the fu
;Vre.
Dramatic Arts
It is with some pride that we
riew the rise in interest of the
Iramatic arts on the Carolina
,ampus. Attendance at the three
)lays presented by the Univer
;ity Players has been gratifying,
md growth in the active member
;hip of the Players is at an all
;ime high.
It is hoped that in time this
)rganization will reach a position
f prominence on canipus, and
;hat students who are interested
n dramatic production, whether
It be acting or stage crew work,
will lend their talents to what is
)bviously the most well handled
cIramatic group in the local area.
Space Age
Last week the campus wit
niessed a very well planned space
ge symposium led by military,
industrial, and govemnmental ex
perts in specific fields. The dis
plays of rockets and machinery
nece.ssary for our defense was
indeed inspiring.
It is a definite part of our edu
ration to become awvare of the
problems we face militarily and
to see wvhat we are doing to
preserve wvorldl peace.
There have been many other
leeds and events in the past year
that have raised the positionz o
the University both academically
ad culturally, and of course
there have been occurrences that
were not so constructive.
A Better Community
It is our contention, however,
that the good has vastly exceeded
the not-so-good and that Carolina
is a better community as a re
sult of the 1958-59 academic year.
In the near future wve will see
the comp)letion of our newv library
ad women's dormitory. We hope
to have more student freedoms
which wvill b)e handled with ma
turity by the citizens of the Caro
lia Community.
With intelligence and fore
ight, we, the students of the
University of South Carolina, can
raise the standards of social tol
erance and educational excellence
which the South as a whole so
)>adly needs.
With a great deal of perserver
ance and hard work, we can erase
the ignominious platitudes of
nritics such as H1. L. Mencken.
skinny d..... the n-a.