Volume 4, Number 10 · June 17, 1965
Montgomery Jail
By Emma Claude Coburn
In response to Notes From a Montgomery Jail
(May 6, 1965)
To the Editors:
"Notes From a Montgomery Jail" is neither artistic nor moral. I cannot understand your printing of such exhibitionism. Did John Bart Gerald have to go all the way to Montgomery in order to see for himself what kinds of low-life are put in jails? Did he expect to find Montgomery's elite in the county jail? Someone should have warned him about the element which he was likely to encounter there. Or does he mean to imply that Montgomery criminals are more criminal than those in any other jail?
The whole piece is full of irony, but most ironic of all is his statement, "I am a Christian." If he really thinks he is, then God save us from any religion that compels such snobs to go slumming.
Emma Claude Coburn
Montgomery, Alabama