WBTV editorial: Hawkins and the YMCA

              To many people, Dr. R. A. Hawkins may seem to have a case in picketing
the Charlotte YMCA because he was refused membership in the health club.
The McCrorey YMCA, an excellent organization operated by Negroes and for
Negroes, gives the people of that race just about everything they could get
at an integrated Central Y.  The only real objection that Dr. Hawkins has,
therefore, is that this system represents the separate-but-equal principle
that Negro leaders are trying to get rid of.
But, althought he may have a case, Dr. Hawkins made no effort to adjust
his complaint by peaceful means.  All he did was to apply for membership in
the Health Club.  The application was submitted to the Board and was declined,
but the board offered to form a similar club at McCrorey Y.
Every YMCA is completely independent, and McCrorey is no exception.  It
has its own Board, elected by its own members, and nobody can tell it what
to do or how to run its organization.
When the board at Central suggested a health club at McCrorey for Dr.
Hawkins1 benefit, the McCrorey board declined.
Hawkins then had two courses open to him. One was to take up the matter
directly with the Central board. This he did not do. He did not appear personally, he did not write a letter, he did not even make a telephone call.
Or he could have approached the matter through the Mayor's Committee on
Racial Relations.  This committee has won national recognition for its success in settling racial differences in Charlotte.  Its services were open
to Dr. Hawkins, but he did not use them.
His action in picketing the YMCA, therefore, came without warning and
without any visible effort at compromise. This urge to man the barricades
rather than to reason together, will lose more friends for the Negro cause
than it makes,
Among Charlotte organizations, the YMCA has one of the best records for
race relations.  Long before the sit-ins at lunch counters and before the
Mayor's committee started work on that problem, Negroes could eat at the
YMCA, and it was the only downtown place where they could eat.
Most of the money coming from the United Appeal goes, not to Central Y,
but to McCrorey for its expansion program which will give it facilities comparable to those at Central.  The members of McCrorey and its Board of Directors are said to want it that way.
Dr. Hawkins may have a grievance, especially in light of the fact that
the YMCA receives United Appeal Funds given by the public at large.  But
the direct action he prefers is self-defeating when the means of conciliation are as available as they are in Charlotte.
EDITORIAL  BOARD	
Rupert Gillett, Editor • Alan H. Newcomb, Public Affairs Dir. • Charles H. Crutchfield, Pres.,
Jefferson Standard Broadcasting Company « Wallace J. Jorgenson, Vice Pres., Mgng. Dir., WBTV •
Paul B. Marion, Asst. Vice Pres., Mgng. Dir., WBT • J. William Quinn, Asst. Vice Pres., Mgng.
Dir., WBTW   •    Ervin T.  Melton,   News Mgr., WBT-WBTV.
The Jefferson Standard Broadcasting Company owns and operates WBT, WBT-FM, WBTV, Charlotte,
N. C.  •  WBTW, Florence, S. C.