ON CIVIL DISORDERS

Ouida and I have been reading our copy of Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, and we can’t say that it is an enjoyable experience. It is tragic that our nation faces such peril that such a report is necessary, and yet that such a step could be taken by a troubled people is evidence that we yet have some sanity left. President Johnson appointed the Commission in July of 1967, following the riots that wracked a number of our major cities, asking that they study the causes and cures, and make recommendations to him. The Commission’s report covers over 600 pages, and it should be read (at least a summary of it) by every person who is interested in the future of our nation.

My wife and I thought it noteworthy that the President chose the kind of people he did—eleven well-established and politically-moderate leaders from both politics and business. There were no Stokeley Carmichaels or Rap Browns, not even any Martin Luther Kings or James Baldwins selected. There were two Negroes, Senator Edward Brooke and Roy Wilkins of the NAACP, but these men represent interracial moderation, not radical militance. There was even a police chief from Georgia on the Commission!

Those close to the Commission’s work report that the Georgia policeman surprised other members of the board with his acute sensitivity and compassionate approach to the problems.

It was hardly the type group from which we would expect any suggestions for sweeping changes or any recommendations that we break new social ground. And yet the results were such as we would have expected from radical militants or ultra-liberal intellectuals.

It is something like having a general in the White House during the threat of a war. The most hawkish often prove to be the most dovish!

It is to our nation’s credit that an objective report like this can be made by its own people, its own leaders. Perhaps we can remain free so long as we search for all the facts as this report has done. Ouida was especially impressed that busy men like the mayor of New York and the president of the United Steel workers would give so much of their time to this study. At one time they went through 24 full days of executive sessions, from 9 a.m. till 10 p.m., working out what they should report to the President and the nation relative to their findings. Don’t you think we should at least read it?

When I read of such sacrifices and such concern for our deeper social ills on the part of outsiders, the apathy of my own brethren in reference to suffering humanity troubled me even more. The concerns of this Report were the concerns of our Lord. We are most like Christ when we are giving ourselves to lifting up the fallen, and making men whole. Jesus gives the abundant life to men. When one reads this Report and sees for himself what is going on at his own doorstep, he realizes that the abundant life is far, far away for millions of Americans in slums and ghettos. Jesus would be concerned, and we are hardly his church if we do not have a mission to such anguished souls.

The most ominous aspect of the Report is the conclusion that “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal” It makes ugly reading—the awful truth that our nation is indeed tragically divided. To us believers the truth is even more dreadful: a divided church in a divided nation. Part of the answer to the problem of a divided church may be for believers everywhere to join hands in the task of uniting mankind.

The Commission says the major need is to generate new will, such as the will to have less ourselves so that others may have more, to tax ourselves to the extent necessary to meet the vital needs of our nation. Again we emphasize the encouraging fact that this comes from a Commission that is politically and economically conservative and moderate.

There are of course specific recommendations, such as the creation of two million new jobs over the next three years. It calls for an end to de facto segregation through substantial federal aid, and dramatic improvement of schools serving disadvantaged children. It asks that the nation establish uniform welfare standards, at least as high as “the poverty level”, with the federal government assuming at least 90 percent of total payments. Not least is the request for six million units of decent housing for low-income people.

The Commission found no one or two causes for the riots, but a cluster of causes: unemployment, lack of education, poverty, exploitation, insecurity, feelings of inferiority, disease, etc. But the essence of it all is wrapped up in this charge: “What white Americans have never fully understood—but what the Negro can never forget—is that white society is deeply implicated in the ghetto. White institutions created it, white institutions maintain it, and white society condones it.”

The Report goes on to strip us of some of our delusions about the riots, some that we probably prefer to believe, such as the notion that they were a conspiracy, by the Communists or somebody. The riots were spontaneous and voluntary, growing out of the impossible conditions clearly outlined in the Report.

All of this should be a challenge to the faith of us all. Our Lord came to a world enslaved and impoverished by Rome. Ours is a nation suffering from the injustices of white supremacy, prejudice, and apathy. He brought wholeness to men, and in doing this he fed them as well as taught them. If we have his Spirit in us, we too must bring wholeness to the impoverished of our nation. This is why the gospel of Christ always has been and always will be a social gospel.—the Editor