WHY YALE CHAPLAIN RODE: CHRISTIANS CAN'T BE OUTSIDE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000300020005-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 15, 1998
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: June 2, 1961
• Content Type: NSPR

who rode a Freedom bus stands by Guinea vilI
where he served in 1960 Operation Crossroa
CAMPUS RALLY SPEAKER. At pre-bus ride
meeting at Yale Coffin criticized southern
ministers for failing to support Freedom Ride
JUN 12 1961
)roved For Release :
01 R00030y YALE CHAPLAIN RODE:
CHRISTIANS CAN'T BE OUTSIDE CPYRGHr
The Reverend William Sloane Coffin Jr.,
36, nephew of the famous Protestant
theologian, Henry Sloane Coffin, is chap-
lain of Yale University. A World War 11
veteran, he is a member of the Peace Corps
Advisory Council. Last week he joined
three white theology professors and
three Negro students in taking a Freedom
Ride. They were arrested in Montgomery,
Ala. and later released on bail. Here is
his own story of why he took the trip.
by WILLIAM ~?.$-cL~OgN/E COFFIN Jr.
As told to LIFE Corresporfd4 Ronald Bailey
M any people in the South have criticized
the Freedom Riders as "outsiders"
.who went there to stir up trouble. But if
you're an American and a Christian you
can't be an outsider on racial discrimina-
tion, whether practiced in the North or in
the South. Discrimination has always been
immoral and now, as it undermines U.S.
foreign policy, it is a matter of national
concern, not of local mores. Here was a
group of fellow Americans striving for
rights that were legally and morally theirs.
As Christians and Americans we couldn't
not go on the Freedom Ride. On this issue
all Americans are insiders.
By joining the Freedom Riders we hoped
to dramatize the fact that this is not just a
student movement. We felt that our being
university educators might help encourage
the sea of silent moderates in the South
to raise their voices. Without doubt the
moderates have been derelict. I've heard it
said that 60% of white Southerners take
a neutral attitude on the race question.
But only the extremists are heard. As al-
ways, it has been the listless, not the law-
less, who are the deciding factor.
Before going south we attempted to re-
cruit several southern professors sym-
pathetic to integration, but they argued
BUS STATION TEST. Coffin smokes as he a its ervice with riders
at Montgomery bus depot. Alabama law forbi Is hites, Negroes to eat at
counter together but earlier group of riders w s s ved without incident.
that their participation would destroy their
long-range working relationships in the
South. We realize southern whites have
special problems, but we don't think time
is going to cure everything. Time is neu-
tral. What counts is how you use it. Since
the Supreme Court school desegregation
ruling in 1954 extremist whites have been
making more effective use of time than
the moderates. Now, when the Russians
are offering housing for African U.N. dele-
gates in New York, it is clear that time is
running out.
Many responsible people say we were
wrong for continuing our trip in the face
of Attorney General Kennedy's plea for a
"cooling-off period" and return to "nor-
malcy." But why should Negroes always
be asked to make the concessions? Every-
where that segregation is practiced nor-
malcy means continued injustice. A cool-
ing-off period will be effective only if it is
backed by the promise of a fairer future
for the Negro. Without this promise there
will only be more violence, since the mob
is given the determining vote.
We realize that President Kennedy will
be embarrassed abroad by these incidents
but, as the Reverend Ralph Abernathy put
it, "We Negroes have been embarrassed
all our lives." At least let's be clear about
what is embarrassing the President. Is it
the demand by Negroes that they be treat-
ed as equal citizens, or is it the refusal of
white extremists to grant them their con-
stitutional rights? I think the U.S. is going
to be continually embarrassed until it de-
segregates completely.
Al Capone used to say, "We don't want
no trouble." This is always the sentiment
of those who want peace at any price-so
long as they have the peace and someone
else pays the price.
Would we do it again? Yes. Every man
must do finally what he believes is right.
HAND OF THE LAW. Sheriff Mac Butler taps Coffin as one of riders to be
arrested for "breach of peace and unlawful assembly." Coffin and
six others who were arrested were released after posting $1,000 bond.
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RING OF PROTECTION. With bayonets fixed, Alabama
Guardsmen circle tus during reconnaissance stop made near
Mississippi borderto plan changing of guard. a
Ap
-00
ARREST IN JACKSON. Filing into police wagon, riders go to
jail after refusing to leave waiting room. Negroes and
whites rode to jail toqether but were put in segregated cells.
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LIFE on. the
Newsfronts
CPYRGHT
of the World
J. K. shoos
for Vienna,
via the moon
Before President Kennedy could walk
up to this week's Paris meeting with
Charles de Gaulle and the Vienna
summit with Nikita Khrushchev, he
had a vital-and delicate--task to
perform. Cuba and Laos had contrib-
uted to a growing impression abroad
of America floundering. Kennedy's
job was to rephrase a statement of
firm purpose without nullifying the
point of the summit with too much
belligerence. The means he chose
was an extraordinary State of the
Union message to a joint session of
Congress. In it he unfolded a far-
reaching, multi-billion package of
new and beefed-up programs for the
defense and expansion of "the free-
dom doctrine."
Billions
The biggest news in
the long list of pro-
for space, posals was a chal-
lenge to the nation
to underwrite "a clearly leading role
in space achievement which, in many
ways, may hold the key to our future
on earth." He noted that "we have
never made the national decisions or
marshaled the national resources for
leadership in the space field," and
proposed a program to put the U.S.
on the moon ahead, of Russia. The
initial outlay would be $7 to $9 bil-
LIFE lines
A DAM DAMNED
One of the most cherished dreams of
Soviet scientists is to make the weath-
er conform to the party line. In 1959
Engineer P. M. Borisov put forward
an ambitious plan to build a 46-mile
dam. across the Bering Strait between
Siberia and Alaska (LIFE, Nov. 14).
Powerful. pumps in`the dam would
pull cold water from the Arctic Ocean
into the Pacific. On the other side of
the pole, Borisov reasoned, this would
swell the currents flowing north from
the Atlantic and warm the icy shore
lines of the Arctic. Fortunately Com-
rade Borisov did not get his way. The
English journal Nature reports that
he has been under attack by his col-
league D. A. Drogaitzev, whose de-
tailed calculations indicate that
the dam would have very damning
years, but the eventual total might
reach $40 billion. "I believe we should
go to the moon," he said, but he
clearly left it to Congress and the
American people to think about his
proposition and to decide yea or nay
before undertaking such "a major
national commitment" over such a
long period of time.
Also with urgency he outlined half
a billion in new foreign aid propos-
als, and new appropriations for the
United States Information Agency to
combat a vast Communist propagan-
da assault already underway in Latin
America. He called for a strength-
ening of limited warfare capability
through. drastic reorganization of the
Army and its reserve divisions and
a strengthened Marine Corps. He
was more forthright than President
Eisenhower in facing the need for
a reorganized, vastly improved civil
defense program-"insurance for the
civilian, population." He proposed a
national census of possible existing
fallout shelters, requirements for shel-
ters in buildings constructed in fu-
ture with federal funds and such in-
centives as matching grants to get
shelters into as many other build-
ings as possible.
Challenge
As congressmen
were quick to point
to face out, the President
gave few specifics
on how to finance these vast under-
takings beyond a mention of clos-
ing tax loopholes, erasing the postal
consequences for the weather of the
entire northern hemisphere. Among
the side effects: the Sahara would
gradually move northward until it
settled across continental Europe-
including Russia.
TOP BRASS CLASS
"Can you communicate with your
engineers and scientists on technical
subjects without loss of meaning? Do
you delay decisions because you feel
a lack of confidence?" The Univer-
sity of California at Los Angeles thus
put its finger on a senior executive's
problem of keeping up with science,
as it set out to recruit top brass for
a six-week-long summer session cram
course in mathematics and modern
technical concepts. Classes will be
held in a plush country inn, complete
with golf course, tennis courts and
riding trails-and a telephone con-
nection so the boss can keep in touch.
a.ig-
way system on a pay-as-you-go basis.
The decision to pay the price and bear
the burden would be up to Congress.
But he had an important, healthy
warning for industry and labor
against "unjustified price and wage
increases" as the U.S. pulled out of its
recession. "These we cannot afford."
The big decision on space would
need some thinking through, but by
proposing it Kennedy had shown his
own willingness to face "the extraor-
dinary challenge . . . of extraordi-
nary times." The extraordinary times
are here and the President's resolve
was needed for the encounters with
DeGaulle and Khrushchev.
Without counting In the new Ken-
nedy increases, Washington analysts
got figuring the sizable effect the
present $42 billion annual defense
budget has on the U.S. body eco-
nomic. Roughly $21 billion goes for
procurement of goods and hardware,
over $15 billion of it among the 100
biggest corporations, and roughly
half that amount among a mere 10
companies, Almost half the contracts
are awarded on a cost-plus fixed-fee
basis, without competitive bids. The
$11 billion Defense Department pay-
roll supports over 3.5 million peo-
ple, including 990,000 civilians.
Additionally, an estimated 6.5 to
7.5 million people-10% of the en-
tire U.S. labor force-depends in one
way or another on defense spending
for its livelihood.
CATS IN THE CRYPT
In Melbourne, Anglican Dean Bar-
ton Babbage took official cognizance
of cats down under. In flickering
candlelight he opened up an after-
vespers espresso joint in the gloomy
crypt beneath Saint Paul's Cathe-
dral. "Any crazy cat," he said, "is
welcome to creep down to our crypt
for coffee and crumpets. Even squares
are welcome if they dig cathedral
coffeeville."
ZIP TRIP
Time was when the nation had months
to cherish a feat of aerial derring-do.
No more. Marking the 34th anniver-
sary of Charles Lindbergh's nonstop
331/2-hour flight from New York to
Paris, a Strategic Air Command B-58
jet went the route in 3 hours 19 min-
utes 41 seconds. Average speed: 1,050
mph. In the same week the rocket-
CPYRGHT
deed or bad deal?
While President Kennedy asked new
millions for defense, Cuban dictator
Fidel Castro made his own cynical
demand for tribute. Recalling that
Spain once swapped Napoleon's sol-
diers for pigs, he told a Cuban rally
"we will be a bit more refined. We
will. exchange imperialist soldiers for
tractors." Instead of Napoleon the
world recalled the Nazis' brutal offer
of Jews for trucks. But in the con-
fused aftermath of the Cuban defeat
the U.S. public found itself in an
unprecedented battle of conscience-
weighing its, own responsibility for
the fate of the prisoners against the
ugly prospect of knuckling under to
international blackmail.
Free men
When spontane-
ous offers of help
supported began reaching
Washington the
President decided to handle the awk-
ward situation through a private
citizens' committee, recruited Eleanor
Roosevelt, Walter Reuther and Mil-
ton Eisenhower to head the group.
The committee picked up Castro's
challenge, fired off a telegram offering
to raise the estimated $15 million
needed for 500 tractors "as proof
that free men will not desert those
who risked all for what they thought
was right." Castro dispatched 10 of
the prisoners to Washington to ne-
gotiate on behalf of the captured
1,200. Be also explained that the deal
was not an "exchange" but indemni-
fication for damages suffered in the
abortive April 17 invasion.
Blackmail
The sense of di-
lemma dampened
scorned any public out-
pouring of funds,
even though the President stepped
forward with a graceful statement
that "all who fight for freedom
particularly in this hemisphere-are
our brothers." Republican big guns,
more or less muzzled since the Cu-
ban fiasco, finally found a comfort-
able range. Senate and House G.O.P.
powered North American X-15 set a
record that made old-fashioned jets
feel like the Spirit of St. Louis: 3,370
mph or just short of a mile a second.
LAST RIGHTS
Along with a right to life and liberty,
a man should also have a right to
decide how he will be buried. Or so
believe thousands who, in the name
of "simplicity and dignity," are join-
ing the nonprofit "memorial associa-
tions," already thriving in Seattle,
New York, Cleveland, San Francisco
and Chicago. Members join the asso-
ciations by paying a small member-
ship fee and filling out forms which
declare their last wishes: cremation,
burial, post mortem, donation to
medical research, type of religious
service, music and so on.
Each member carries a wallet card
which specifies that burial instruc-
tions'are on file at the memorial asso-
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