It was fall 1955 and I was beginning my senior year at Warren Easton Sen. High School in New Orleans. A new movie was to play at the huge Saenger Theater on Canal and North Basin Sts. I would be double dating with Tex Sanders, a tall, friendly guy, and someone with whom I bowled now and then. My date was someone I'd dated before, and was talking some to Mary Jane, a gal I did not know. The theater was packed, and when it ended, it seemed the vast audience let out a collective sigh of relief. Unlike the tv families, where each week the problems of the family were solved within a half hour, not counting the commercials. Perhaps the problems portrayed were not too serious, and the family is happy with the dad's solution. Yet, in this film, 3 families are portrayed, and none are anything like the tv's version of Father Know's Best, Ozzie and Harriet, et al. Sal Mineo's parents send him a check for his birthday, Natalie Wood's dad slaps her and calls her a whore; and James Dean's dad is hen-pecked, dominated by his wife while he wears the apron. The 3 try to form their alternate family for a night or 2. A rare critique of the family of the 50s.
As we all attended the same school, we saw each other after. Mary Jane was a pleasant your gal, and she was worried about me. She had heard I was pushing race-mixing, for example. She explained, that is communism, and I should talk to her dad who knew about the topic. He could set me aright. I did not realize, but her dad was Guy Banister. She elaborated, he had been a leader of the FBI in Chicago, and knew about the Communist ways of causing trouble. She wanted me to meet her father. After Chicago, Guy Banister had served as temporary Supt. of the New Orleans Police Dept. He then opened a detective agency.
It was possible her dad had already heard of me. During the summer of 1955 I had attended Pelican Boys State, sponsored by the American Legion. I had been elected to the Senate, and we were supposed to debate a proposed law in the Louisiana Legislature on our last day. The Legion was hoping the topic would be required ROTC in all public schools. I thought a more pressing issue was at hand and should be debated; I proposed the integration of the public schools of Louisiana. A fellow senator was aghast, and said my proposal should NOT be debated as I was the only person in favor of it. Suddenly, many other senators stood up and disagreed with my opponent. We decided to debate integration on the last day. How would the vote go? I had no idea. Nor did the pro-segregationist Legion, but they must have been sufficiently worried, so that they demanded we close the meeting before a vote could be held.
To satisfy Mary Jane, I went to her hope. Mr. Banister was sorting mail. I went to him, introduced myself, he grunted. There was no real dialog, but we both went through the motions to satisfy Mary Jane, who was a sweet, concerned you gal.
Onw forgets the turmoil stirred in the South following the 1954 Supreme Court decision overturning a precedent of over half a century, that separate and equal was the proper way to manage racial affairs. Segregation was actually older than that, but the Plessy decision had made it national policy. However, in 1954 syddebkt segregatuib was deemed unConstitutional. The new decision was seen as a threat to our way of life in the South; part of a Communist plot to cause trouble at home. In May 1955, to commemorate the Black Monday decision of 1954, most Easton students left the school to march downtown to show how they felt about Earl Warren's horrible decision. The state got time on the radio to educate the public on this major issue. Thus, the State Sovereignty Commission had expert witnesses expose the origins of the American Civil Liberties Union. Founded by a Communist during the era of WWI, it continued to this day as a trouble-making Commie front. At least 3-hours of radio time were devoted to this expose.
Some leaders of the American Legion were also leaders of LUAC, the Louisiana Un-American Activies Committee. In 1963, along with the newly elected DA of NO, Jim Garrison, they would raid the offices of the Southern Conference Education Fund, a pro-race mixing group. Strangely, LUAC did not go after an open Marxist who was then handing out pro-Castro panphlets, and even given an-hour-long interview on WDSU radio. Strange that LUAC was not interested in Lee Oswald! Oh, and the pro-Communist Oswald was getting the leaflets from the office of the staunch anti-Communist, Guy Banister. How strange!
MORE TO COME, HUGH MURRAY
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