The shooting and the rampage spurred considerable soul-searching in churches, synagogues and town meetings in this consciously well-intentioned community, but the response has also included an an ugly undercurrent of racism.

This was hard to tell; in lower classes there was, as Chai said, an ugly undercurrent of resentment and envy, and hostility.

There is an ugly undercurrent to this still baffling story.

The movie, which opens today nationwide, also exploits an ugly undercurrent of class warfare.

Ernest F. Ceder, the municipal historian, said the debate sometimes has ugly undercurrents.

There was an ugly undercurrent to it, like crows drawn to torment a single eagle.

The ugly undercurrent of this issue is race, tactfully avoided by local reporters but often discussed on the streets.

An ugly undercurrent of anti-Semitism has been a feature of East End life ever since.

Summing up for the defense yesterday, Mr. Dowd said he was troubled by what he called "an ugly undercurrent in this case" - innuendoes that "was it that serious, because it was a husband?"

Indeed, in this year of 1963, the civil rights struggle in the South is revealing America's ugliest undercurrents.