
          In this Issue
                  By Suitts, SteveSteve Suitts
          Vol. 2, No. 7, 1980, pp. 2-3
          
          About this time of year in 1948 a simple, yet remarkable occurence
took place in Richmond, Virginia. A Black man named Oliver Hill was
elected to the City Council. In the next few years other political
breakthroughs occurred. In Nashville in 1951 a Black attorney,
Alexander Looby, was elected to the city's governing board and in late
1953 the prominent Black educator Rufus Clement began to serve on the
Atlanta school board.
          Of course, it was not until after 1965 with the passage of the
Voting Rights Act that more than 20 percent of the South's population
began to have more than a symbolic opportunity to exercise and
franchise and to help put Blacks into office
          In this issue and others to come this year, we will be looking
closely at the status of Southern politics and especially the
achievements, disappointments, and obstacles that Black voters
and Black officeholders face. Like some other rural and urban places
in the South, Richmond now has several Blacks on the city council and a
Black mayor. Yet the problems and limitations with which these
and other officials must function are considerable as they attempt to
translate political gains into real and specific social and economic
progress; moreover, in many Southern communities even basic political
gains have not yet been realized.
          To set the stage for this on-going theme, this month's  Southern Changes tells of both the immediate and
historic problems with which the poor of any color in the South must
live today. Veteran writer Wayne Greenhaw gives us a glimpse of the
lives of the poor, rural Blacks and Indians in south Alabama where the
myths about welfare recipients are tragically disproven. Probably
supported more by their own fierce sense of heritage and independence,
these Southerners are fighting for nothing more than survival. 
          Our managing editor, Janis Powell, also files a report on the
Protest for Survival, a ten day series of events last month when
groups across the South attempted to object loudly to the fact that
the poor were the major victims of the congressional efforts to
balance the budget. Also, we have a

soapbox piece which suggests that even when the federal government is
not cutting back its programs touching the lives of the poor, its
methods of measuring poverty to determine who will receive assistance
is a distortion of need and reality.
          Our two pieces on the political status of the South are case
studies of two communities not greatly different in social and
economic life. Both are located in the Black Belt of the South with
large Black populations, an agricultural past,and little present
industry. They differ perhaps most remarkably in their stage of
political development.
          From Dawson, Georgia, senior editor, Betty Chaney tells the story
of recent Black achievements to break the racial barriers of elected
office. We find here a sense of very real achievement and optimism on
the part of Blacks who are the first to hold elected office. Even in
"Terrible Terrell," one of the life-long dreams of many in the Black
community has finally come true.
          As our cover story illustrates, the political journey in Lowndnes
County, Alabama may be a sobering reminder of the difficulties that
communities continue to face even after the political system has begun
to change. A decade after Blacks began holding public office, Lowndes
County's Black and White officials find enormous economic and societal
barriers that continue to stymie rapid change. With a caring view for
detail and mood, Tom Gordon's writing demonstrates that the burden of
the past remains often the real limit for the future. Perhaps just as
disturbing, the alternatives available to Lowndnes County in moving
itself out of the poverty and racial conflict are clearly limited.
          Finally, Patrice Gaines-Carter reviews for us the controversy in
Florida over the McDuffie case where politics and the courts are being
tested as means of dealing with the issue of police/community
relations.
          When finished with this issue, you may have a sense of frustration,
puzzlement and perhaps even anger. At least these were some of my
first reactions. At the same time I gather from these reports and
perspectives some confirmation that the South retains a reservoir of
energy, faith and devotion offering a possibility that this region
may yet find and hold on to a better sense of community then has ever
been known or practiced on this soil.
        