
          In This Issue
                  By Suitts, SteveSteve Suitts
          Vol. 2, No. 3, 1979, pp. 2
          
          While admittedly too simple, much of the Southern life is still a
saga about those two old notions of equality born in public policy
during the first brief Reconstruction: the vote and forty acres and a
mule. Our December issue brings us up to date on both themes.
          Since local and state elections were held in the last twomonths in
Mississippi, Birmingham and Atlanta, several authors tell of the
political issues and people of those political races. In Ron Casey's
story of the historic election of a Black mayor in Birmingham, we are
told that the election pitted the very best and worst symbols of race
relations with one another. Black Councilman Dick Arrington won
perhaps because Birmingham is still a divided city, willing by 51
percent to make changes.
          We have a piece on the Mississippi elections were the political
changes are catching up with what has been the facts of life in
Mississippi for several years. The meaning and final effects of these
changes are not entirely clear; nonetheless, new faces and new hopes
are now in office. Also, Boyd Lewis provides us with a brief gothic
commentary on the elections in Atlanta.
          In all these pieces there are signs of political progress, not born
so much out of rapidly changing attitudes among the races although
some of those changes have surely occured. It is change brought by
changing populations, shifting political alliances and compromises,
and perhaps the political choices afforded to Southerners at the
polls. Fifteen years after the major civil_rights legislation passed
Congress, most of us have been seasoned too much by disappointments to
offer any clear statement about the economic and social opportuity and
potential which will be seized through these elections. Still, on the
whole, these are pleasing signs.
          While giving some modern surroundings, the issues of economic
opportunity and self-help in the Deep South are rooted inthe history
of slavery and the once promised freedom of "forty acres and a mule."
Bob Anderson writes with the gift of experience about the
accomplishments of organizations in the Delta of Mississippi offering
poor Blacks a chance for economic wellbeing. In a companion piece, Bob
also expands the dimentions of his article by presenting a broader
view of what is happening in the changing struggle for equal rights in
the rural South.
          Ginny Looney and Duna Norton also contribute to this theme by
challenging the prevailing a notion that  big farms are needed for the
nation's food production for the economic survival of surrounding
communities. In an intriguing twenty-county study in Alabama, the
authors not only challenge the assumption that big farms are best but
also make the case for the prosperity of rural life may well depend
upon Black and White small farmers.
          Our department pieces also correspond with our general concerns in
this issue by covering the Southern votes on limits to campaign
expenses for Congressional races, unemployment in the South, and a day
to honor Rosa Parks in Atlanta.
          With the tragic events in Greensboro in Novemeber we report on
quesions that linger in the aftermath of the worst racial violence in
this decade.
          Perhaps symbolically, this last issue of 1979 does not offer a
clear opinion piece which we usually not in our "Soapbox"
department. It is not that we lack opinions — indeed few who
know us would venture such an explanation. There is, however, a time
when events should be told, analyzed, and then simply left for
reflection. As we end this year and foresee another when politics will
give us a president to lead the nation and a new census will ascertain
our economic and social status, our coverage of political and economic
changes is done with the hope that in the new decade there will be a
newnewed commitment by many to both reflection and action on the
central issues about which opinions have been plentiful and progress
has been short.
        
