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2. “Mule Sense” and the Mobs: February 3–5, 1956
- The University of Alabama Press
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chapter 2 “Mule Sense” and the Mobs February 3–5, 1956 These degrading incidents of mob violence in Alabama are a disgrace to the entire Union. Autherine Lucy’s entrance into The University of Alabama captured the attention of the state, the nation, and the world, so much so that local newspaper street sales leaped nearly 75 percent on the Thursday prior to her first day of class. “Tuscaloosa and the University of Alabama were in the eyes of the world this week as the Capstone registered its first Negro in history,” the Tuscaloosa Newsreported.Itwasaclaimthat—whilerepeatedsevenyearslaterwithGovernor George Wallace’s infamous stand in the schoolhouse door—remained accurate; much of the world was watching, and nobody dared blink. The small, south ern town with a population of just over 56,000 had been thrust into the international spotlight. Representatives from the London Express and the Daily Mail (both London-based papers) called regularly for details , offering a global perspective on an event many Tuscaloosans believed to be a local matter. Nevertheless, the Tuscaloosa News, and in particular, its moderate editor, Buford Boone, were more than happy to take full advantage of their rapt audience. “Mule Sense” and the Mobs 19 Born in Newnan, Georgia, in 1909, Boone began his newspaper career at theMaconTelegraph andNews beforeleaving tobecomepublisherof the Tuscaloosa News in 1947. Yet he took with him lessons he’d learned from his first paper,especiallythosetaughttohimbyMarkEthridgeandT.W.Anderson— two men who believed, much like Martin Luther King Jr., that character was more important than color. While shying away from the term liberal, Boone hardly minded being called a progressive, nor did he mind making his viewpoints clear, regardless of personal cost—a policy that failed to make him the most popu lar man in Tuscaloosa. Boone once remarked that the Tuscaloosa News held the unique honor—at least to his knowledge—of being the only newspaper in America “boycotted simultaneously by the Ku Klux Klan and the blacks.” While Boone had previously infiltrated and reported on local Klan meetings—proving a great embarrassment to the group—the entrance of Lucy was destined to become Boone’s first major test in reporting civil rights. As Autherine Lucy arrived for her 9:00 a.m. class Friday morning, the newspaper’s pressroom was already hard at work churning out its afternoon edition, including an editorial penned by Boone calling for peaceful desegregation . “Let us remind ourselves, again, that we are living in a period of transition ,” the editorial explained. “Attitudes of calmness, of reason are far better than emotional outbursts. Cross- burners haven’t the same standing as those who speak up openly and candidly. The court decisions have gone in favor of our friends and fellow citizens, the Negroes of the South. They are a fine and patient people.” Later, the editorial continued: “Never have we seen a time when an abundance of good ‘mule sense’ was needed worse,” Boone explained. “What is ‘mule sense?’ It is just one notch sounder than ‘horse sense.’ For when a horse gets in a tight spot, he is inclined to kick and struggle, oftentimes to his great injury. A mule waits patiently to be helped out of his tight spot, and he carries fewer scars.” It was a view Boone assumed would be welcomed by the moderate south erner—a call for an adjustment period. While the South had long argued for slower racial transitions—both in schools and society at large—it’s difficult to deduce whether this “not now, but later” approach was simply the region’s go- to stall tactic (a tiny carrotdangling on the end of a very long stick), or rather, a sincere pronouncement from a people struggling with change. Nevertheless, Boone’s call for an easing- in to equality was the precise an- [18.219.22.169] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 20:30 GMT) 20 The Mobs swer the moderates of Tuscaloosa most needed to hear. Boone undoubtedly viewed his suggestion for “mule sense” as a compromise—an attempt to placate segregationists and integrationists alike by inserting a timetable into the equation. Only one question remained: Who precisely was the mule? Was Boone calling for Lucy to wait patiently to be helped out of her tight spot? Or, far more likely, was he offering a clear directive to the town: Remain calm, do not act in haste; eventually, this too shall pass. % By 11:00 p.m. on Friday night—at the...