CONFERENCE WITH ROY WILKINS 353

black in Baltimore City, Somerset County too. Everybody recognizes
that government is the art of the possible, the great exponent of which
now sits in our White House, but we also recognize that when prob-
lems become acute we give them special recognition and attention. I
took the Governor's invitation to mean that he was inclined to recog-
nize this as a problem which requires special attention. It was not
designed for this conference to bring out concrete representation as
to what should be done in the State of Maryland. I don't pose to be
an expert. I leave that to Mrs. Mitchell. She is an expert on every
furrow and cranny in the State of Maryland. This conference means
simply that the Governor felt that with all the stresses and strains
and pressures on him on other problems, and recognizing what comes
out must be the art of the possible, he still wanted to give this special
attention and special recognition. What will come out of it I don't
know. It could be either that the Governor or the Legislature, or the
business community, or financial community, or the farming com-
munity, or a dozen other specialized groups will bring their pressures
to bear to minimize the gains. I don't regard that as any indictment
of Governor Agnew's intentions in this matter.

QUESTION: Mr. Wilkins, some of the younger civil rights organiza-
tions seem to be disowning white membership. Is this a bad develop-
ment?

MR. WILKINS:

I don't want to comment on their determinations. I only want to
say that the NAACP started out as an interracial organization in 1909
and expects to continue as one. We don't think that freedom is "black
freedom" or freedom is "white freedom. " We think that freedom be-
longs to everybody, and everybody who believes this should fight for
it.

QUESTION: Would it be better if all of them were interracial?
MR. WILKINS:

Here again, I don't want to pass judgment on someone else's policy.
They had a meeting, they adopted a rule, and they said that this is
the rule for the people in the room. They voted 322 or 92 to 6 or 52 to
1, or whatever was there, and said this is our policy. I just feel that
our policy, the NAACP policy, is the best policy. Our policy is inter-
racial activity in a multiracial society. How can you proceed in a
multiracial society on a racial basis? This is sort of self-defeating.