| Show Civil Rights v Illinois Group Trades Words in for A By SUZI From Christian Students Movement Bulletin president of the Visitation and Aid Society in Joliet and if this ever comes up at one of the I'll be most happy to tell the ladies that I am well acquainted with the Sign the I don't think I will could I give you girls a candy believe Negroes deserve every opportunity and equality in the world but I don't want to live next door to you come Perhaps you could explain this petition and proposed bill to us and we could talk it I'm Thank These and similar responses were delivered by the residents of one of Illinois' upper class neighborhoods on April a comparatively small group of students from the College of St. Francis were the The action itself occurred quite by Following an inquiry on an entire Young Christian Students meeting was devoted to discussion on a variety of possible The entire group felt that the action derived from the inquiry should surpass the noble often merely words and ideas on the problem which had evolved from weeks of We received word that an Open Occupancy Bill was to be presented the Illinois legislature on May 8 of this and that signed circulated by members of all religious denominations and were to accompany the proposed The idea and solution was before we had merely to accept and Here was the perfect opportunity to to to We were not being asked to partake in a ride a freedom bus into the depths of or even picket a we were merely to ring a door present the proposed bill which guarantees open occupancy to and simply ask if the resident wished to sign the Yet somehow it wasn't quite that out of nowhere other than human questions questions which those noble words often Would our families accept and support our Were we capable of presenting the material with knowledge and maturity to combat our Did we possess the composure to present unemotionally our beliefs as well as explain the But most important of did we have the courage to be and even be sworn at for partaking in such a April 7 found us knocking on introducing ourselves as students and explaining the bill and petition as groundwork for What we met at those doors and in those living rooms was a cross- i section of No book in the world is capable of interpreting human nature as vividly as the expressions and words which mirrored the desire to act but more often reflected fear and As we had we were told You don't know how these people I work with them and believe I without any specific indication on our the bill signified only one thing to many of these faces in their Cliche after cliche about flashy cars parked in front of de- j creasing property the results of inter as colored i boys would naturally take to white girls if they lived in the same j These weren't people who rejected law and Quite the for a good number of them were upholders and defenders e.g. prominent businessmen and of these very ideals America holds so Nor were they people who rejected How apparent as the don't believe the government has anything to do with accompanied by a refusal to sign the petition came from behind a Roman collar within the rectory of the area's largest Catholic church the same church where a good many of these same people worship their God during the week and every These that we questioned were the better a group who by their extreme security were capable of acting justly without fear of enormous yet these were the the the eyes and souls which said yes with conviction but far more said no with and |
