
          In This Issue
                  By Chaney, Betty NorwoodBetty Norwood Chaney
          Vol. 2, No. 4, 1980, pp. 2
          
          We are as wrought with opinion and reflection in this our first
issue of the new year as we may heve been bereft of it last time. In
December we did not carry our usual "Soapbox" opinion piece. As
publisher Steve Suitts explained at that time, it was "not that we
lack opinions," but rather "there are tiimes when events should be
told, analyzed and then left for reflection." This is not one of those
times. This issue is plentiful in both opinion and reflection.
          The Law Project states its positions explicitly in "Soapbox": "The
Georgia penitentiary system is a crime. It brutalizes people, gives
graduate instruction in crime and is seriously dangerous to your
health." Responding to the possibility that the Georgia General
Assembly next session may institute mandatory sentencing, the Project
makes its stand clear. Mandatory sentencing is not the answer to
crime
          In Mississippi an event was analyzed by civil_rights activists
drawn from all over the country in a converence in Jackson
recently. it was a symposium on "Freedom Summer 1964" and it brought
many of the volunteers in that summer's activities 15 year ago back
together for an assessment of that historic time. It prompted two
Mississippi writers to reflect on the significance of that summer and
on the racial progress in Mississippi and the country since that
time.  Southern_Changes runs these two articles
as companion pieces this month. 
          Gordon D. Gibson pastor and community leader, looks at some of the
"irony of change" that came about as a result of that summer. Most
participants agreed that little had changed in the daily conditions of
life for the poor. Still, Gibson feels the facts that a generation was
radicalized, a host of movements was inspired and peopled and a
political party was changed must be reckoned with when assessing that
period.
          Jackson State College professor Ivory Phillips uses the small town
of Rosedale as a case study in racial progress in Mississippi. He
points to some of the paradoxes abounding in the state today and finds
that they add a sober perspective to the much lauded claimof racial
progress in Mississippi
          In Florida a group of community organizations known as the Florida
Black Agenda Coalition has come together to try to identify the issues
and the programs that will impact upoon the minorities communities in
the 1980s. The coalition has adopted a complete agenda of items
ranging from local police action to U.S. policy toward Haitian
refugees.It plans to publish its agenda and confront candidates on all
levels with proposals.
          From Virginia we have a report on the Ku Klux Klan activities
there. It seems that the Klan got the idea of holding a "recruiting
rally" aimed at the military in Virginia Beach. A coalition was formed
to counter the Klan's activities. Phil Wilayto chronicles the evens
surroundng an October 5 rally and demonstration. The most important
lesson that the coalition learned from its experiences of fighting the
Klan in Virginia according to one participant, is that "you can't rely
on the government to stop the Klan."
          Poor Southerners learned recently that they can't rely on their
congressmen to represent their best interests. Our department piece on
Southern Politics this month shows that roughly seven out of 10
Representatives from the 11 Southern_states voted against a bill to
increase present welfare payments. In a similar vein, a report
released by the Southern_Regional_Council in November revealed that
depsite 1977 legislation almost 40 percent of poor Southerners do not
receive food stamps.
          In another department piece good new for the poor finally comes
from Atlanta where a community food bank has been set up to distribute
salvageable foodstuffs to feed hungry people
          All in all the bad news for poor Southerners unfortunately
outweighed the good in this issue. But the fact that coalitions
continue to form to confront the bad is some good news in itself
        
