They feel that you have been one of the most effective witnesses that has ever appeared before this Commerce Committee. They are very much impressed with your facility of expression and with the clarity of your thoughts.

It has been a very exhilarating and satisfying experience for me and, I know, for the members of this committee, who congratulate you and thank you for coming.

Senator COTTON. Mr. Secretary

(Applause).

Senator COTTON. Mr. Secretary, on behalf of the minority, I would like to say to you I was the colleague who whispered that in his ear; and I meant it.

Senator THURMOND. Mr. Chairman, I want to say I had a few more questions, but I have covered, I think, most of the areas I had in mind, and I shall not ask the Secretary to return.

I do want to make this observation: That I see, as usual, the audience here is packed with civil righters and left wingers, and the outburst that just occurred is not only in violation of the rules, but indicates the pressure that is being brought to pass an unconstitutional civil rights bill.

Senator PASTORE. Witnesses tomorrow will be Mayor Frank Morris of Salisbury, Md., and Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr., of Atlanta. The hearing will be held in this room, room 318, at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning.

Until that time, the committee stands in recess.

(Whereupon, at 12:05 p.m., the committee was recessed, to reconvene at 10 a.m., July 11, 1963.)

CIVIL RIGHTS-PUBLIC ACCOMMODATIONS

THURSDAY, JULY 11, 1963

U.S. SENATE,

COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE.
Washington, D.C.

The committee reconvened at 10:10 a.m. in the caucus room, Old Senate Office Building, Hon. Warren G. Magnuson (chairman of the committee) presiding.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order.

We are pleased this morning to have the Honorable Frank Morris with us, the mayor of Salisbury, Md. Mayor Morris accompanied by Mr. John Webb, chairman of the Salisbury Biracial Committee, and Rev. Charles Mack, who is a member of the committee.

Our colleague and member of the committee, the distinguished Senator from Maryland, is also here. I am sure that he would like to introduce the members to the committee.

Senator BEALL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is a pleasure to introduce Mayor Morris, of Salisbury, Mr. Webb, and Reverend Mack. Mr. Webb is chairman of the biracial committee, and Reverend Mack is a member of the committee. I think Mr. Webb will speak for the committee and the mayor.

The CHAIRMAN. We are glad to have you all here, gentlemen. I notice that the statement will not be the personal statement necessarily from the mayor, but this is a statement of the biracial committee.

STATEMENT OF HON. FRANK H. MORRIS, MAYOR OF THE CITY OF SALISBURY, MD.; ACCOMPANIED BY JOHN W. T. WEBB, ATTORNEY AND CHAIRMAN OF THE BIRACIAL COMMITTEE; AND REV. CHARLES H. MACK, PASTOR OF ST. JAMES A.M.E. CHURCH AND MEMBER OF THE BIRACIAL COMMITTEE

Mr. MORRIS. We have a dual statement. The first part of it is more or less a history we would like to present by Mr. Webb. And then I have a statement at the end concerning my own personal views.

The CHAIRMAN. That will be fine. We will hear first from Mr. Webb, and then we will be glad to hear from you.

Mr. WEBB. Naturally Salisbury is proud to have been asked to appear before this distinguished committee on a problem so critical to our Nation. We of Salisbury are also proud of what our community has accomplished in the field of race relations. We hope that our experiences can aid you in your deliberations, and other communities that share the same perplexing problems.

At the same time all of us in Salisbury recognize that we have at most made only a beginning, and that a long hard road lies still ahead.

We have not achieved as much as we would like to have achieved up to now in solving racial problems and there is effort ahead that dismays the strongest. But we are confident that we have built in Salisbury an honest and a solid foundation of mutual confidence and cooperation between the races, and that further progress will be easier and more rapid because of that base.

We understand that the committee is interested in exactly what Salisbury has achieved so far. In order to understand this, the committee should know a little of our background. Metropolitan Salisbury is a community of about 25,000 people in the predominantly rural section of Maryland known as the Eastern Shore. Of this population about 30 percent is Negro. It is tidewater southern in its traditions and in its customs, although Salisbury is the principal business center of its area, and has some industry. Until the very recent past, the community had deeply rooted and historic segregation in the conventional southern mold.

An interracial commission was appointed by the mayor of Salisbury, predecessor of Mayor Morris, in September 1960. It became countywide in its responsibility in January 1962. Shortly prior to its appointment, the principal downtown lunch counters had agreed to serve on a nondiscriminatory basis. There were some integrated churches, and some integration of employment in isolated instances. But to all intents and purposes, the lines of segregation seemed hard and fast when coordinated work began on racial problems.

The commission was, and is, composed of responsible leaders of all the segments of the community, both Negro and white. At its first meeting, it established as its objective, the genuine and bona fide integration of the community, and since then the commission and community have consistently worked toward that objective. In composition, the commission is biracial, bipartisan, and completely independent and autonomous. It has had the unswerving support of the political authorities, especially Mayor Morris, but without any attempt to control. The program has also had the backing of practically every organization-business, charitable, and religious, Negro and white. There has been a coordinated community effort.

As of the present moment, two and a half years later, all the major eating establishments in Salisbury serve any patron without discrimination, and have so served for more than 2 years. Generally, the small eating places also serve both white and Negro, but, quite frankly, our time and manpower are limited and consequently we have never run a check on every dispenser of food to find his policy. Our limited checks indicate that most have fallen into line with the major restaurants voluntarily, and, when we have gotten a report on discrimination, we have always to date been able to get the proprietor to adopt a nondiscriminatory policy. There is not an absolutely clean slate, however. We have a known holdout, not a restaurant in the accepted sense and probably not included in the scope of your bill, on which we are still working, and there have been minor departures from total integration which the commission has temporarily condoned, for practical reasons not here material, and which are now ended.

In the field of lodging, every hotel and motel accepts any lodger without discrimination. This is applicable to the pools at the motels well. This policy has been in effect for more than a year.

Entertainment is not as complete. Both major theaters seat without discrimination, but one second-run house did not on our last check. We are working to open bowling alleys. The only place for indoor athletic events and other public affairs seats without discrimination, but this is county owned and has so seated since it was opened a few years ago.

In the shops, Negro customers have been accorded the same treatment as whites at least since the last war.

This is a résumé of the Salisbury situation which would appear to be affected by the bill which the committee is considering. Let me briefly complete the picture. In the area of voting, the Negro has had the franchise for many years. The schools are controlled by the county board of education. In September 1962, five of seven elementary schools were affirmatively integrated in all six grades-in other words, Negro children living in the particular school district and in those grades were assigned by the board to the school, and out of an all-Negro school in the predominantly Negro area. Additional schools and grades will be integrated in similar fashion this fall. These are steps in a phased program which will result ultimately in complete integration of all schools.

Commission studies resulted in the formation of a committee by the mayor which will recommend a policy for provision of decent low-cost housing. The commission has been working since last fall toward establishing a nondiscriminatory policy of hiring and promotion throughout the community. The major retail stores put on Negro sales personnel before Christmas, and this has now been followed by all the supermarkets. Now other major stores have either followed suit or are trying to find qualified Negroes to hire. The commission now has pledges also from almost every other major employer in the community along the same line. It will not be easy to put Negro and white on an identical basis for hiring and promotion at every level, but we think we have made the major breakthrough.

Your counsel has asked the effect of all this on community stability and on business progress.

As far as the community is concerned, certainly there are whites who think the program has moved too fast, and some who do not want it at all. Obviously also, there are Negroes who think it should have moved faster. We all are agreed, however, that peaceful progress is both more fruitful and more permanent. We therefore have tried to move with care, so that white racists can find no appealing cause. This seeming caution could have been a cause for complaint by the Negro community, but the Negroes, and their leaders, have shown great understanding and trust.

As a result of this, which I like to call responsible leadership, Salisbury has not had any demonstrations or any racial incidents of any consequence at all, and I think that Salisbury today, from both the white and Negro point of view, is remarkably stable in its racial situation, especially considering the highly publicized violence that has taken place in other places.

I am not saying that Salisbury can be confident of its ability to avoid strife forever, because like every community, Salisbury has its share of hot heads and malcontents, or immature and unthinking, both white and Negro, and potential demagogs or rascals to arouse them.