Introduction

This report is written and published as the strike and accompanying Negro protest — the old civil rights movement still alive — in Memphis continues. Perhaps by the time this report reaches the reader, the strike and turmoil will have been settled. This is to be wished — but only if the settlement is honorable, if it reaches honestly to the issues, from the surface economic ones to the deep-lying ones of human dignity. Otherwise — as in the past in Memphis and all too many other southern and American locales — the time of danger and of disaster will have only been postponed, with an ever-increasing store of anger and loss of faith. There is the real possibility, too, that the situation in Memphis may have deteriorated into violence and repression. If so, this report can only contribute to the record, so badly misread and misunderstood in America, of how such tragedy comes about, and of how it might be averted. In simplest terms, avoiding such tragedy was in Memphis and across America merely a matter of government and society living up to their responsibilities to all citizens.

There have been at work through the time of tension in Memphis forces and influences for positive and intelligent action meeting the highest obligations of society and government. Such forces and influences come from both races of men in Memphis. It remains a problem in all of American life how such positive people and institutions might be supported and encouraged. It is toward that end, primarily, that this report is submitted.