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One Mayor94Let•*Not Support The Loafersby TOM TIEDEaddition to food and keep, we have to goTALLADEGA, Ala. — J. B. McKinney out and hire a lawyer each and every Jr., 28, is, he says, as “goddamn angry” time they’re picked up from the gut-as any other young, progressive, anti-es- ters.tablishment do-gooder in the country.The mayor shakes his head. “I'm allAs first-term mayor of this isolated for Wallace on things like this. I believesettlement (pop. 18,000) outside Birming- in protecting everybody’s rights, but Iham, he inherited a $280,000 community don’t feel we should rob from the work-debt, a deteriorating downtown business ing man to support the loafers. That’sdistrict, an inadequate tax base, stag- George McGovern’s thinking. He wantsnated economic opportunities, poorly to penalize the eight-to-five people of thistrained police, entire neighborhoods of county to prop up the welfare rolls,shamefully neglected black citizens and Well, I can’t go along with that. I don’ta municipal mentality that balked at think many people can.”even the suggestion of reviewing local priorities.There are other reasons for McKinney’s admiration. The Wallace Bureaucracy, he concludes, has gone sentiment for a tough national defense,as example. Or the Wallace insistencewrongSo it is that Mayor McKinney, as one that school busing for the sake of in-of 3,000 regular delegates to the Demo- tegration is wrong. But suffice it to saycratic National Convention, will this that J. B. McKinney leans to Wallace be-week begin a small personal crusade to cause Wallace leans to the majority,“get this country going again from the “The governor has done a great job intop on down.” When Alabama's 37 dele- Alabama working for the majority of thegates are polled, J. B. McKinney will people — and the idea in Alabama, as itstand up for America and shout loud and is in every other state in the nation, isclear for George Corley Wallace. George Corley Wallace?that the majority rules.”McKIXNEY’S LANGUAGE, as he gets“Yes sir,” says the mayor, “he’s my into the subject of societal reform. ’ sounds ever more tough and severe. Likeman.JOHN BOWLING McKinney’s belief in Wallace himself. Yet the mayor’s rhetor -George Wallace seems a curiosity, ic is worse than his bite. He doesn't de-McKinney, with his shock of John Kenne- fine majority, for instance, as white,dy hair, his youthful enthusiasm for po- middle and uppercLass, but rather aslitical action, his demonstrated concern those Americans of whatever color whofor “all good citizens, both black and work hard, live clean and obey thewhite,” would appear the philosophical rules.and generational antithesis to the past-And when it comes to administering50, once admitted segregationist, 10-year for this majority, McKinney is a soft ingovernor of Alabama. Yet, for it all, there is an alliance. And the associationstead of hard liner. Always a member of the dominant society himself, he never-dramatically illustrates Wallace’s in- theless, in eight months as Talladegacreasing pull on diverse peoples in Amer- mayor, has spent considerable energy onica.the minorities. He says 80 per cent of the To be sure, part of Mayor McKinney’s public works done during his adminis-allegiance to Governor Wallace is per- tration has been concentrated in blacksonal; Wallace has been a friend of areas, he says there are twice as manyMcKinneyblacks on the police force as when heDemocratic organizer) for years, and took office. “I don’t say that when ayoungerstatehousePart of the allegiance mav also bedence;politicosis a black man gets a ticket here I’m gonnatear it up. But I do say that I’m going to pru- treat his ticket the same as a whitejust man’s — I’m going to fine both of them.”by The mayor’s brief administration hastart, met with mixed sentiment in Talladega.McKinney likes Wallace because he There are those in town who, becausethinks like Wallace. He believes the McKinney was a Wallace person, felt the“plain talking” Wallace approach to young man would continue business asexperiencetheb wolf are, school the country needsFor instanceGeorgeis before, with maybe a newr frill or two.This has proved as inaccurate as the na-in tional opinion that Wallace people are allbe wide at the waist and thick in the head.getting some of these insane SupremeRight nowr, looking at the DemocraticCourt decisions. Like this latest one that convention, McKinney finds no dis-forces cities to hire public defenders for agreement with George Wallace. He andall arrested people facing jail sentences, at least 25 fellow' Alabama delegatesHere we are in Talladega, and every oth- plan'to stick with Wallace “to the bitterer towm, going broke fast, and we have to end.” And, indeed, the end looks to beney to bitter. Privately, Mayor McKinney concedes that George McGovern will win theit now. nomination. “And if he does, I’ll comesidents back here to Talladega, and work like ato be good Democrat, a good citizen should.Every But on election day in November, I thinktaxdrunkY you my jail semipermanenttherethem. Every booze up and maybe I’ll just go fishing.”wre have to arrest them again. Now, in(Newspaper Enterprise Assn.)f
Newspaper Details
Hoffman Estates Herald
Hoffman Estates, Illinois, US
Tue, Jul 11, 1972
Page 15
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USA 15 Jul 2019
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