The Nation: New Chairman in Dixie

Once, when told that a Jew had been elected lord mayor of Dublin, so the sto ry goes, baseball's unique Yogi Berra replied: "Only in America could such a thing happen." Well, something equally wondrous did happen in America last week: a black was named chairman of the Southern Governors' Conference.

He is Melvin H. Evans, 56, of the Vir gin Islands, a former physician and a Republican who was appointed to of fice by President Nixon before winning the islands' first gubernatorial election in 1970.

Evans accepted the gavel that was graciously offered by the outgoing chair man, George Wallace, who would...

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