The South: One Word Too Many

No one questions the right of a legislative body to sit in judgment on its own members. Usually, a legislator is removed from office or refused a seat because of corruption or malfeasance. Last week the Georgia house of representatives refused to seat one of its newly elected members for quite a different and unusual reason: his opposition to U.S. involvement in the Viet Nam war. While seven other Negroes—the first to sit in the Georgia house since 1907—were sworn in and seated, Julian Bond, 26, a handsome and articulate Atlanta Negro, was denied his seat by a 184...