IN ASYLUM AND OUT OF DANGER

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5306, 20 January 1947, Page 3

IN ASYLUM AND OUT OF DANGER

WOULD-BE NEGRO CANDIDATE •FOR CIVIL HO.NOURS. Because a Neg'ro ex-professor, Aurelius Scott, had a chance of beating 23 vOiite men for the job of coronet in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A., he ;has been hustled off _tq an asylurn. The police took- him — and his family helped because they believe that if he were elected "he'd pretty soon end up a corpse." It is a belief in the "Deep South" of the United States, where Avhite supremacy is unchallenged, that any Negro who puts up for pu'blic office must be crazy. So when Aurelius, who is 45, .put up for the coroner's job he was first P'Ut in gaol for the night and then whislced out of the State next day to a private institation. But his brother, Cornelius Scott, coloured neWspaper editor, of Atlanta, said: "Ah wanta tell the whole vvide world that Aurelius ain't mad, The family is just holding him in hospital. "The family thought it'd be a good idea if he had a lil' rest. "Cornelius doesn't think it is such a good idea, but we wanna get him out of this business. We just don't vhink it's healthy for him. "Mind, ah wouldn't like to say Aurelius ain't got the qualifications. No, sir. He's had a good education and he'd certainly rnake some coroner, but ah guess the opposition is just a lil' too tough — even for Aurelius." Said a police officer: ''Scott is not a lunatic yet — 'just slightly off balance. He can come back when he's better." His chance of being "better" before election day is thin. Voters will have chosen a white man for coroner then. Efforts had been made before by the followers of Eugene Talmadge, Georgia' s next Governor and Negrobaiter, to persuade Scott to withdraw.