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By THOMAS W. MERRIGAN AMHERST — It was a case of the moderator challenging his panelists last night as TV producer’ David’ Susskind took issue with four young people discussed the civil rights move ment in the south. Panel members offered a first hand account of beatings, mur ders and harassment experi enced as they attempted to help southern Negros register to vote last summer. Until Susskind took offense at what he consid ered inferences by his partici pants, it was an ordinary reci tation of the hardships of civil rights workers. Harlem school teacher Luther Seabrook told Susskind he would like to live in Susskind's apartment building but he can't move out of Harlem because white people tell him he can't. And he doubted that Susskind would want to move to Harlem. Would Welcome Negro The TV personality replied ,of course he wouldn’t want to ‘move to Harlem or some oth er sections of New York be cause he is trying to improve ‘himself and his family. But, he said he would welcome Sea brook as a neighbor because he is intelligent and would be a better one than some of the neighbors he has now. “I am tired of asking you to be my patron saint,” said Sea brook, referring to the Negro’s having to rely on the white, man for a break in life. ‘I'd love to be a moderator ion TV or President of the United States,” Seabrook re marked in a mild retaliation to ‘Susskind’s indignance over criti slam of the white liberal. _ Susskind charged the civil rights -people’s indictment of the white liberal is through “frustration over your own leadership’’. Seabrook maintained that civil rights’ leadership is ‘‘too timid....too responsible’. The active ‘civil rightists in the front lines do not want to wait until next year or 20 years from now for equality, they want it now, declared Seabrook. _ “I want to be your brother, or your brother-in-law,” de clared Seabrook. “You can’t be my brother-in law,” quipped Susskind, ‘“‘my sister is married”’. This was another in a series of Distinguished Visitors Pro grams and it attracted “more than 2,500, mostly UM students, to the Student Union. On the panel with Susskind were David Gelfand, 20-year old Brandeis University junior; Ja cob Blum, Yale sophomore; Seabrook, a junior high school teacher in East Harlem, and Anne Moody, 23,a native of Centerville, Miss., now working in New York. Miss Moody and Seabrook are Negroes and it was with Sea brook that Susskind debated. Susskind, whose diction, per sonality and TV polish enabled him to do an effective job as moderator, hinted early in the discussion some of his own sen timents about the civil rights movement. He asked the pan elists if they were not hurting their cause and inflaming south erners as they mixed color lines socially and had Beatnik-type individuals working for them. Village Approach “After all,” he commented, “they don’t know our Green ‘wich Village approach to life.” Just because someone wears a beard‘does not mean he does not have charity and compas sion for his fellow man, ”re plied student Gelfand. The big moment came when, late in the program, Seabrook made the point that there’ is more hypocrisy in the north -over -civil--rights.He--said-- he ‘witput” round geveral. hundred’ dollars last night, from the stu dent audience to fight the civil rights cause but he doubted that this would be’ possible if he were doing it to move next door to someone in this section of the country. In the south, said Miss Moody, everything is “black and white’. She meant discrimina tion and prejudices there are obvious and few people try to hide them. Up north, however, the whites are more subtle, ‘she indicated, unset a ed in Peas pena trator to’ panelist As he * took umbrage over’ what ‘ he de scribed as unfounded: attacks on white liberals, then they are in the north or south. White liberals, it was stated, are sym pathetic to the Negro cause but, it was also suggested, they are really not so liberal when it comes to a real test of their sincerity. “Stop Riots” Susskind called upon civil rights people to stop ‘‘the juve nile riots in the street’. He was speaking of “hoodlum riots” in Harlem that had noth ing to do with the civil rights effort in the true sense. “If we had as many white liberals as we say we have, this civil rights question would have been smoothed over years ago, said Miss Moody, who re ported she dares not return to Centerville, Miss.. . because of her civil rights ‘work there. “But we need you,’ Miss Moody said as she cited the importance of support for her cause. All four participants testified to the terror and violence in flicted upon northerners and others who attempted to help the Negroes become registered as voters in the south. They told how even the authorities in the south offered little or no protection against beatings, how the FBI agents were only half hearted in their investigation of murders and attacks and how the thousands of Negroes who were registered were unable to vote because of a legal obstacle thrown in their way. Hoover’s Charge The panelists were critical of the FBI. Miss Moody said’ she’ saw FBI agents watch the po lice pummel a rightist worker under the pretext of his resist ing arrest. They discussed FBI Dir. J. Edgar Hoover's calling Dr. Martin Luther King, noted Negro leader, a “liar’’,. Sea brook felt this was the same as marking him for a bullet someday. Susskind said this shows the human weakness of Hoover. “That God-like wreath sur rounding him is gone.. ..he is mortal,” declared ‘Susskind. The panelists agreed that in spite of the difficulties in the south they have made inroads in the fight for equality. And, stressed Seabrook, ‘if equality can finally be secured in Mis sissippi, then he is not worried about other sections of the country. The audience asked many questions and seemed to show no prejudices. ‘They applauded the moderator and his panelists as they made what sounded like logical arguments for their own viewpoints.
Newspaper Details
Greenfield Recorder Gazette
Greenfield, Massachusetts, US
Thu, Dec 03, 1964
Page 8
Full Page
Clipped by
Leigh A.
USA 08 Jul 2026
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