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Critical Cherokee. Not as far as Peggy's parents were concerned. Dean Rusk left the South, physically and otherwise, more than 30 years ago. His wife Virginia is from Seattle. Rusk has consistently stood up for civil rights, even while an Army captain in World War II, when he broke the color line at an officers' mess by bringing an OSS officer named Ralph Bunche to dine with him. Although his official role seldom requires it, he vigorously defends the legitimate aspirations of the Negro.
Peggy went to integrated public schools in Washington, though many of her father's colleagues live either in the white suburbs or else send their chil dren to private schools. Rusk's older son, David, 26, is a militant civil rights activist and staff member of the Urban League in Washington who has known his new brother-in-law for three years and calls him "a very fine fellow." (A second son, Richard, 21, attends Cornell University.) But there was a shortage of Rusks at the wedding. Dean Rusk's brother Parks, an Atlanta-Miami public relations man, Brother Roger and their sister Mary preferred to not talk about it. Said Parks's secretary: "He's very upset about it. None of the Rusk family attended, you know." Neither did any Smiths, except for the bridegroom's parents. Mrs. Rusk's clan turned up in force.
In North Georgia's Cherokee County (pop. 25,700), where many of Rusk's relatives still live, the reaction was tempered but unmistakably negative. "As far as I'm concerned," said Cousin Harold Rusk, 51, a feed and poultry dealer, "I'd rather people marry somebody of their own race." "But," he added, "that's their business." Cousin Ernest Stone, owner of a service station, was more emphatic: "I think he should've done something about it, not let it get this far. He should've prevented it." With the characteristic concern for manners over morals that typifies many Southern attitudes, some Cherokee residents were more disturbed over Rusk's rejection of the role of the indignant father than the fact of the marriage. "In the eyes of Georgians," said a local newspaper publisher, "he did a bad thing when he walked down the aisle and gave her away." Said another cousin: "It sounds as if it was all done with his knowledge."
No Routine Outrages. It was. The couple met four years ago, and their dating became steadier as time went by. Guy, a handsome, highbrowed, square-jawed young man, visited the Rusk house frequently, escorted Peggy to an occasional football game, took her bowling, and made no secret of his existence. Little notice was taken of the teenage romance, however, outside their circle of family and friends. For one thing, Rusk has always assiduously shielded his family from publicity. For another, Guy's complexion and features made many casual acquaintances think that he was perhaps Mediterranean rather than a Negro.