Southern Accommodations

I spent an August week traveling in the Middle South—Washington, Virginia, North Carolina —on an itinerary dictated in part by the presence of two Europe-resident young grandchildren. I found on getting back North that random observations and impressions coalesced into a pattern, incomplete and rather vague, but coherent enough to define a change since my last visit, three years ago. Let me set down some specifics.

Item. In Petersburg, Va. we visited the large Brown & Williamson plant that churns out 100 million (or maybe it’s billion) Viceroys, Raleighs, and Kools every day. Its work force was thoroughly integrated with blacks working not under but alongside whites. Those huge machines are exacting masters, needing constant watching and tending, at which black and white cooperated cheerfully and competently. The guides were both black and white; the young black woman who handled us was good-looking, literate, and confident.

JB

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James Burnham

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I spent an August week traveling in the Middle South—Washington, Virginia, North Carolina —on an itinerary dictated in part by the presence of two Europe-resident young grandchildren. I found on getting back North that random observations and impressions coalesced into a pattern, incomplete and rather vague, but coherent enough to define a change since my last visit, three years ago. Let me set down some specifics.

Item. In Petersburg, Va. we visited the large Brown & Williamson plant that churns out 100 million (or maybe it’s billion) Viceroys, Raleighs, and Kools every day. Its work force was thoroughly integrated with blacks working not under but alongside whites. Those huge machines are exacting masters, needing constant watching and tending, at which black and white cooperated cheerfully and competently. The guides were both black and white; the young black woman who handled us was good-looking, literate, and confident.