Television: The Whammy on Mammy

"Brainwashing!" cried Florida's Representative Donald Ray Matthews last week on the floor of the House. "Disgraceful!" roared his fellow Floridian, Representative Robert Sikes. The Congressmen echoed the outrage of the Stephen Foster Memorial Commission of Florida (state song: Swanee River) on learning that the nation's TV and radio networks have put Foster's lyrics in tune with the race-conscious times by banning such words as "darkies," "mammy" and "massa." From Tallahassee, Governor LeRoy Collins cracked: "Let's not put the whammy on mammy." On the other hand, the networks' practice was defended as "good taste" by...

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