Have you ever heard of the Golden Vertical Negro Plan? It was a proposal put forward many years ago by publisher – humorist Harry Golden in which he suggested that no one in the south minded "standing" with Negroes. It was just that they would not "sit" with them. Golden suggested facetiously that since this was the case, the authorities should simply remove the sitting facilities in all those places the Negroes wished to integrate. I was interested to see in hundreds of places throughout the south the Golden Vertical Negro Plan has been adopted and that integration under these circumstances has been accomplished with very little trouble. Aren't we humans a strange breed? Another story came out of the south recently that amused me. A southern Governor invited several leading Negro politicians to his inauguration. A few days later the Governor heard from a group of indignant legislators who wanted to know why the Governor had extended his invitation to Negroes. The Governor explained that while black and white would "mingle" at the inauguration, "no part of the ceremonies would be conducted indoors". Believe it or not the delegation of irate segregationists went away satisfied. A policy based on this kind of logic must surely go down to defeat forever.
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