The sermon was heavy conservative politics. The minister, preaching some-

times in a monotonic chant, spoke against people with long hair and mod clothes. In the past this same man has preached against the VISTA project. He then told the story of the Dutch boy who put his finger in the dike; the preacher said that the United States was about to burst wide open and that everyone should put his finger in the dike. Wild. Then, speaking figuratively, he said that God would make us drive our new cars straight and on the right side of the road.

They took two collections. I put some money in the first one and refused to put anything in the second one. After the second one, a man sat at a table right up front and counted the money, gave people change, and finally reported the amount collected. All the while-this process took at least as long as the sermon-the choir hummed hymns and the preacher read form the Bible. After the money was counted, a man got up and said you had to give money to have God come into your hear. I think the comment was directed at me.

They have a new church building. Money goes to pay that preacher even when many of the church members do not have enough to eat. Black ministers around here are usually quite well-off, in marked contrast to those who contribute each Sunday toward paying their salaries. The church in this county is holding the people back. It is basically a conservative political force. Pray instead of getting out and working in the elections. The church here is an opiate.

VI

Not much is being done to really change things in Wilcox County. There were elections this year, but no blacks won. The only result that might be called a victory was that a white sheriff who has murdered blacks was replaced with a white sheriff who has only beaten blacks. There was a complete slate of black candidates for the school board. But most of them withdrew from the race before the election-for reasons known but unknown. Of those who stayed in the face, none were elected.

Funny things happen in elections in Wilcox. Dead white people vote for white candidates. Illiterate voters are not allowed to take people into the booths with them to read the ballots. And sample ballots are not given our to blacks.

Voter registration is no longer the basic problem. There are now other dynamics in the election process which prevent the county's great black majority from voting for its own benefit First, many of the "respected" black leaders in the county are Uncle Toms. They are probably allowed to hold their positions exactly because they oppress and misdirect their own people. Second, many black people still vote the way their land-owner tells them to vote. Third, Wilcox County is a dry county with a thriving moonshine business. Incumbent white officeholders need only to threaten to bust the moonshine business during their lame-duck period if they are not reelected. Blacks and whites alike depend on moonshine for constimption and profit. So this type of threat is quite effective.

Then there is a VISTA project in the county. Too many of the VISTA volunteers whom I knew were lazy and uncommitted. For those who are committed, I have only the greatest admiration. But even these are rendered ineffectual by the system in which they must work. The Nixon administration has cut back the VISTA project in the county by fifty per cent and has forbidden VISTA to do anything in politics. This has had the effect of reducing their efforts to what some volunteers have aptly called a "band-aid strategy." They can teach kindergarten, but they cannot work to change the power structure. Consequently, a kindergarten with which a volunteer has worked for a year may pass on to a first-grade teacher who is an alcoholic and who will ruin all of the progress made so far. This very example was the case with one volunteer whom I knew well. VISTA may do some great things for a relatively small number of individuals. But it's not allowed to attack the real sources of overwhelming problems.

Finally, there is a mission project run by the Presbyterian Church. Unfortunately, this program is incompetently run and very possibly corrupt. The minister running the program is black and has four cars, a beautiful new home in Selma, and a black servant. He spends little time in Wilcox County and really remains apart from the people he is supposed to be helping. Much evidence indicates that he and some black school principals are working together for their own personal benefit. For example, some principals were paid three times over for school lunches this summer-once by the federal government, once by the church, and once by the children themselves who had to pay 15c for breakfast and 20c for lunch, as little as their families could afford it.

Poverty programs seem to be a profitable business for those who administer them.

Yes, things have improved in the deep South. Two years ago black people couldn't walk on the main street in Camden, the county seat of Wilcox County. Now they can. This is the level to which progress has been made.

Tonight it is beautiful here. Crickets squeaking, frogs croaking. Fresh air. Dew. Every night a mocking bird roosts in the tree outside my window and singe. Tonight a nearly full moon rises, pink-orange, over the forest. It is easy to see how people could become attached to this part of the earth. It is so verdant and fertile and teeming with life.