Letters

Hannah Arendt’s Reflections

Editors:
In the Winter 1959 issue of DISSENT, Miss Hannah Arendt quotes in the preliminary statement to her article, “Reflections on Little Rock,” some remarks I made about Negroes being less interested in abolishing laws against miscegenation than in combatting segregation. The reader is referred to my article “Democracy and Desegregation” in The New Leader of April 13, 1958. But he will search in vain for these remarks or similar ones in my New Leader article.

She therewith provides the evidence of a scandalous abuse of the decencies of intellectual exchange.

Miss Arendt’s article was originally sent to me by the Editors of Commentary with a request to discuss the theme with special reference to her position. I consented, after much urging, because of the crucial importance of the subject. My article was set up in galleys and a copy sent to Miss Arendt. After she read my reply she withdrew her piece from Commentary. It is false to assert, as do the Editors of DISSENT, that “an earlier opportunity to print her views had been withdrawn.” Nor does Miss Arendt herself make this claim. Whatever the course of her ...