Judge Sidney Jones Comments on Two Barred Olympians Judge Sidney A. Jones, Jr. — Judge — Circuit Court, Cook County, Illinois had this to say about the recently barred Olympians:
"However, it seems to me that any young person who has this feeling should not elect to represent the United States in international competition before the world.
"I sympathize with the two fine black Olympic Athletes — V1NCE MATTHEWS, and WAYNE COLLETT of the United States who won first and second place medals in the 400 meter race and during the presentation ceremonies failed to show proper respect for their country's flag and anthem. Their conduct was such that the International Olympic Committee banned them from other races in the 1972 Olympics and from all future Olympics.
"Personally, I suffered racial discrimination and insults as one who grew up in the State of Georgia and lived there until I was of age. I saw and experienced indignities, insults and discriminations that Vince Matthews and Wayne Collect never dreamed of, and cannot even imagine. But, in recent years, I have lived to see tremendous improvements in conditions in the South. Nevertheless, there is still much to be done to remove inequalities; and there is still much that young blacks have to complain and protest about.
"While this punishment appears severe, it is tragic that these exceptional young men, physically and mentally, have no apparent love or appreciation for their country's symbols. "It is a sad day for a country when two of its outstanding young citizens, products of its public schools and universities feel that the National Anthem is not meant for them because of their race. I feel deep sorrow for our country because it has treated its black minority in such a way that these young men are compelled to conclude that the National Anthem does not move or inspire them, nor merit their respect.
"However, I am moved when I see the flag go up and I feel deep sense of well-being when I hear the national anthem. This is my country. This is the only country I know. I refuse to be a "man without a country" I pledge to try to make this country right when it is not right. The words of the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag and the words of the National Anthem may be ideals to be reached rather than the expression of existing reality, but we can still recite them and sing them in that spirit."
A New Look at Man . . . "Ancestors Were Black" NEW YORK (UPI) — The way Dr. C. Loring Brace interprets anthropological evidence "the ancestors of all modern men were probably what in America today is called black." The interpretation was his part of a survey of "the state of the species," meaning homo sapiens. His part was to trace our origins. He got the assignment because he is an anthropologist — curator of physical anthropology at the University of Michigan. Brace's evidence consists of fossilized bones, some "hominid" or near-human, and fashioned stone chips used by very ancient manlike creatures as tools. Some "hominid" bones are believed to be about 4,000,000 years old. Reasoning from this evidence, Brace suggested that man had his origins in Africa over a period of at least 4,000,000 years and his original coloration was established through one of a number of "cultural adaptations" that permitted him to rise from an ape stage. This was the adaptation that allowed him to make his main living by hunting and devouring animals. Being a primate, he was relatively night-blind (primates, including man, are even now), and could hunt only by day. That was strenuous for a tropical animal and man "was faced with the problem of dissipating metabolically generated heat," Brace interpreted. Man solved it by evolving "the hairless human skin, richly endowed with sweat glands."
But the loss of a hairy coat exposed him "to the potentially damaging effect of the ultra-violet component of tropical sunlight. The obvious response was the development of "melanin," which is the natural protective pigment that makes skin black or near-black. This evolutionary process by natural selection, according to Brace's calculations, was completed a little less than 1,000,000 years ago. Anthropology is confused over what to call this creature. Brace called him "Pithecanthropine" man. "The conversion of this being into what is technically known as homo sapiens requires only the further expansion of the brain from the Pithecanthropine average of 1,000 cubic centimeters, which is actually within the range of modern variation, to the average today of 1,400 cubic centimeters," Brace said. "Fragmentary fossil evidence suggests that this transition had taken place by about 120,000 years ago." From the emergence of man in his Pithecanthropine and then in his Neanderthal form, "human evolution has been characterized by a series of reductions," Brace continued. "Whenever human ingenuity made life easier, there was a relaxation of the forces of selection, and these reductions followed. "More effective hunting techniques, and an eventual reduction in muscularity was the result." 5