"The Vertical Negro Plan" by Harry Golden (1958)

 

Harry Golden was an American-Jewish journalist who self published "The Carolina Israelite" in Charlotte, N.C. during the years preceding the iconic lunch counter demonstrations.

That he did so in a state which has been named "Klansville, USA" due to its having 100 counties, each of which was home to a KKK Klavern, is a testimony to his  wit and candor.

This short piece, published in 1956 and then included in his 1958 compilation "Only in America", is an example of his influence on the Civil Rights Movement. As a Jew he saw the racial struggle of African-Americans as inextricably linked to Anti-Semitism.

Twice dynamited in his residence in Charlotte, which also served as home to his self published newspaper, he survived the tumultuous years of the struggle for racial equality. He died peacefully at home in 1981, respected in both the North and South for his  stand against bigotry.

A few days ago I posted his essay on "The Merchant of Venice" titled "Teaching Shylock."  Not many took the time to read it. It is brilliant in its insight. Here is his much shorter "Vertical Negro Plan."

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"One of the factors involved in North Carolina’s tremendous industrial growth and economic prosperity is the fact that the South, voluntarily, has all but eliminated VERTICAL SEGREGATION. The tremendous buying power of the twelve million Negroes in the South has been based wholly on the absence of racial segregation. The white and Negro stand at the same grocery and supermarket counters; deposit money at the same bank teller’s window; pay phone and light bills to the same clerk; walk through the same dime and department stores, and stand at the same drugstore counters.

It is only when the Negro “sets” that the fur begins to fly.

Now, since we are not even thinking about restoring VERTICAL SEGREGATION, I think my plan would not only comply with the Supreme Court decision, but would maintain “sitting-down” segregation. Now here is the GOLDEN VERTICAL NEGRO PLAN. Instead of all those complicated proposals, all the next [state Legislature] session needs to do is pass one small amendment which would provide only desks in all the public schools of our state — no seats.

The desks should be those standing-up jobs, like the old fashioned bookkeeping desk. Since no one in the South pays the slightest attention to a VERTICAL NEGRO, this will completely solve our problem. And it is not such a terrible inconvenience for young people to stand up during their classroom studies. In fact, this may be a blessing in disguise. They are not learning to read sitting down, anyway; maybe standing up will help. This will save more millions of dollars in the cost of our remedial English course when the kids enter college. In whatever direction you look with the GOLDEN VERTICAL NEGRO PLAN, you save millions of dollars, to say nothing of eliminating forever any danger to our public education system upon which rests the destiny, hopes, and happiness of this society."

Golden, Harry. Only In America, World Publishing Company, Cleveland and NY: 1958, p. 121-122.

"Carolina Israelite" by Kimberly Marlowe Hartnett (2015)

I was first introduced to the writings of Harry Golden by Leonard Herman when I was 15 years old. He was the father of one of my friends when I was growing up in Brooklyn. Come to think of it, he also was the first person to expose me to Isaac Singer’s wonderful short stories. Years later; something like 40; I went to live in Charlotte, N.C. where Mr. Golden is somewhat of a legend; if only for the fact that he lived through the Civil Rights Movement here while writing about it like a liberal Jew from New York.

His home/office on Elizabeth Avenue was even burnt down in reaction to something he printed in his self-published newspaper the “Carolina Israelite” which is the tile of this book. The authors’ mother actually worked for Mr. Golden for a brief period in the 1940’s and uses the title in the way Mr. Golden meant it. It wasn’t the title of the paper as much as it was a description of Mr. Golden himself; he was the Carolina Israelite; roaming the wilderness of North Carolina espousing his views on racial and social equality, much as the Israelites roamed the desert for 40 years in search of a home.

The author does a wonderful job of chronicling the life of this enigmatic man; including his years in New York where he rose from the Lower East side selling newspapers on the corners, to engaging in some very astute stock market swindles which landed him in jail for a time. It was after his stint in prison that he began to roam, looking for a new start somewhere. For some reason he chose Charlotte, North Carolina as the place to transform himself.

As a spokesman for African-Americans he penned the controversial, and hysterically funny piece of satire called “The Vertical Negro Plan”, in which he solves the whole lunch counter seating problem which was then engulfing North Carolina by simply recommending that all seats be removed from restaurants and schools, as the only time black and white people seemed to have problems concerned seating arrangements; even on buses. Make ‘em all stand.

His friendships’ with some of the most influential men of his time are well chronicled, and the author does a great job of reviewing those relationships and even how some of them came about. His habit was to add a famous person’s name to his subscription list and then mention that they were subscribers, thus enhancing his own stature. Shades of his Wall Street days come to mind here. Surprisingly, most of those he befriended in this way actually did become friends with him. The Kennedy’s, both Bob and Jack; Carl Sandburg, who also lived in North Carolina; Adlai Stevenson; even Billy Graham all were proud to count him among their friends.

As far as Jewish-American relations go, Mr. Golden was not idle in that theater of operation. His most stunning piece of work; at least in my eyes; is his essay “Teaching Shylock”, in which he shows the reader how the “Merchant of Venice” and its portrayal of Shylock were not anti-Semitic at all. In fact Shakespeare has lampooned the Christian aristocracy in such a subtle way that people have been reading that play all wrong for 500 years. This is some accomplishment and I urge you strongly to read that piece. I will include a link to it at the end of this review.

In short, this is a wonderful book, long overdue, about one of the most underrated and unappreciated writers in American literature. It is only in the past 20 years that he has begun to be recognized as such. Lenny Herman was way ahead of the curve when he introduced me to the works of this wonderful man of letters.

Here is a link to the “Teaching Shylock” piece, which I really hope you will take the time to read.  If you are a Shakespearean scholar, or just a humble Jew like me, this piece will simply blow you away.

http://robertwilliamsofbrooklyn.blogspot.com/2014/05/teaching-shylock-by-harry-golden-1961.html

And for a review of “For 2 Cents Plain” use this link;

http://robertwilliamsofbrooklyn.blogspot.com/2009/05/for-2-cents-plain-by-harry-golden.html

For 2 Cents Plain by Harry Golden

There is an exhibit in the Library at University of North Carolina Charlotte on the life and writings of Harry Golden, an author first introduced to me by the father of a friend when I was about 16. Mr. Herman had several volumes of Jewish American humor and Harry Goldens "For Two Cents Plain" was among them.

In 1940 Harry Golden arrived in Charlotte, North Carolina and shortly thereafter he began to publish a 16 page monthly newspaper called The Carolina Israelite. This was no small feat in the Jim Crow South of the day. The name of the paper alone was instantly controversial, as were the subjects of his articles, which ran the gamut from satire of race segregation to the still sensitive subject of Anti Semitism and inter marraige.

One of his most remembered articles is the Vertical Negro Plan, in which he notes that since whites and blacks are not permitted by law to be seated next to one another, and since this was causing so much trouble at lunch counters across the South- why not simply remove the stools and let everyone stand together? This would violate no law and the problem of segregation would be solved.

But he had a more serious side too. He could evaluate and eviserate with a surgeons skill, as evidenced in his famous (at least to me) "Teaching Shylock." This interpretation of Shakespeare's work stands, in my mind, as the final word on what the Bard was intending when he wrote "The Merchant of Venice."

His books are at once insightful, thought provoking and in some instances just plain funny.For those who have never read Harry Golden, this is a chance to look at some writing, done by a lone journalist (typesetting and all advertisements included)who wrote and self published in the style of O. Henry. His stand against bigotry and ignorance will be with us for a long, long time.