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607 Meridian St.
W. Lafayette, Ind. 47906
April 26, 1969
Julian Bond
Georgia State Legislature
Dear Mr. Bond,
I expect you get lots of/fan mail, and probably your secretary makes airplanes out of it. I hope she sails this piece into your office.
I heard you speaking on the Purdue campus and thought your speech the finest public one I had personally heard, outside of a few teachers' lessons. Fine enough, in fact, that it might profit you to know the few criticisms I have to offer of it.
The major one is that when a white woman student asked you what might be done in the way of helping slum clearance, you answered her only that she should not be working in black slums (the inference being that some people wouldn't want her in their slums). However it is not good to say "something should be done, and you are not qualified to do it." (it makes a person feel uselessly guilty.) If you have a program for some people, it should not be one which shuts the door in other people's faces. If you think she can do no good in black areas, offer some alternative. White females (males too, no doubt) often feel sold by the system, and it is not any more encouraging for them to note that they are out of place everywhere, than it is for black people. (Alternatively, you could have xxxxxx answered the question by referring only to what black people could do, without specifically excluding her as a white person. Or you could have admitted ignorance as to what she could do.)
The second is of an implied criticism you made of doctors and lawyers, when you spoke. Though admittedly some doctors and lawyers are money grabbing, that is no reason to brand the whole breed. I have known a few (admittedly too few) who did better and more honest work than ought to have to be expected of anybody.
The third is of a joke you made concerning Mr. Nixon, (not the Cleveland one, which is fine), when you said that when he spoke he said "I have two arms, two legs, and two faces." Though Mr. Nixon does leave that impression, that particular joke come dangerously close to rabble-rousing, and should have been avoided, even at the cost of losing some followers. (Rabble, once roused, tends to keep falling.)
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Something esle, whien is not partieulary a crticism, but rather a suggestien, is that it would be a good idea slum areas. It might be popular on both sides of the fence, and aslo helpful.
However, everything being relative [?! I have servieus doubts about that. How much 'philo have you studied? Perhaps not enough?], yours was a finer talk than most. I wish you well in your career.
Yours truly,
Janet Abel