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THE FEDERATION JOURNAL
Spring, 1958
THE FEDERATION JOURNAL
“Lifting as we climb”
Issued by
The N. C. Federation of Negro
Women’s Clubs
Editor: Mrs. Fannie T. Newsome
Rich Square
Contributing Editors
Mrs. Mocile Spellman Elizabeth City
Mrs. Norman Darden Wilson
Mrs. Alice Collins Smithfield
Mrs. V. T. Bishop Rich Square
Mrs. A. B. Byrd Rocky Mount
Mrs. L. V. Merrick Durham
Mrs. Edna Taylor Pinehurst
Johq R. Larkins Raleigh
Editor's Note
The spring issue of the Journal
is before you. The purpose of the
Journal is the dissimination of
events and information of interest
to club women of the Federation.
Members, individually or as
clubs or as districts, would render
a real service if they would send
in items of interest. This issue
comes to the registered club
women free, as did the fall issue.
Editorials
Living at One's Best in
the Community
To be a good citizen, one should
be well informed concerning pre
vailing conditions in his or her
community. Every citizen would
do well to know the community
boundaries, total population,
number of children of school age,
health conditions, adequacy of
public school, political conditions,
number and condition of
churches, constructive commu
nity agencies, destructive agen
cies, number of people unreached
by churches, amusement and rec
reation facilities, hospital, medi
cal and nursing facilities, etc.
Good citizenship should begin
at home. A good citizen is first
of all a good neighbor. A good
neighbor is not merely one who
attends to his or her own business
and refuses to be a troublemaker;
a good neighbor is one who
thinks ahead, looks ahead, plans
ahead for the welfare of those
who live about him. A good
neighbor is one who is willing to
sacrifice his own self interest for
the sake of others.
Each one gets out of his com
munity about what he puts into
it. If he is stingy, selfish, critical,
quarrelsome, the neighborhood
will be a sort of sounding board
which will echo back these at
titudes. If, on the other hand, a
man is generous, public-spirited,
cheerful, optimistic, the neigh
borhood will pay back in his own
coin. A good citizen is one who
leaves his or her community rich
er when he or she departs from
it.
The Christian spirit should
lead a citizen to desire to enrich
his community even more than to
enrich himself. What are you do
ing to enrich your community?
Every community has its enemies.
There are law-breakers, who have
little or no regard for the rights
of man or the laws of God. Then
vhere are the selfish and indif
ferent, who refuse to accept re
sponsibilities for anybody except
tnemselves, again, there are the
thoughtless, who are easily prey
ed upon by the selfish and wick
ed. And finally, there are the ig
norant and underprivileged who
do not know what to do nor how
to do it. A good citizen who loves
tne community will not shift all
the load to policemen and other
public authorities, but will regard
nimself as responsible for the en
forcement of tne law, the punish
ment of evil-doers, the eradica
tion of ignorance, the protection
of the week and helpless. All too
often we say, concerning these
things, “It is none of my busi
ness,” and then proceed to criti
cize those in authority for their
failure. We know full well that
officers of the law are almost
helpless unless they have the
backing and active cooperation of
the citizens of the community.
By our vote we put in office
those who are both to rule us
and to serve us. But our respon
sibility by no means ends with
the election of capable people to
public office. They need every
encouragement to do their duty.
With the best possible school
teachers employed, and the best
pastors secured, there is in every
community enough to be done to
keep everybody busy in some
worth-while task of service. There
are the immediate and urgent
responsibilities of looking after
the poor, the sick, the unfortu
nate. Then there are opportuni
ties for service in keeping the
neighborhood clean and beauti
ful. Again, there is an almost in
finite variety of service in acts of
neighborliness, providing recrea
tion for children and young peo
ple, in welcoming strangers, and
new-comers, in deeds of kindness
and friendliness, the doing of
which is its own reward.
What Is a Mother?
Little girls, it is said, are made
of sugar and spice and everything
nice. By the time all the sugar
and spice has worn off, they be
come mothers and all they have
left is everything nice, but that
lasts forever.
Mothers cook, clean, wash,
mend, dream, punish, wheedle,
improvise, cajole, and make
things go twice as far as a man
could. Children are what they
read to, listen for, play with,
watch over, think over, pray for,
worry with, do without because
of, and brag to the neighbors
about. A bobby pin and gummed
tape are Mother’s kit of tools; in
tuition is her college degree; and
a new hat is her Declaration of
Independence.
All mothers, from the Arctic
Circle to the Equator, have the
reputation of being wonderful
Religious
Emphasis
"True Faith"
Let us remind ourselves that a
doing Chiristian is more effective
than a saying Christian. Remem
ber Peter, how he said, “I will
never deny Thee Lord,” but when
the test came his actions belied
his words. One’s deeds should
harmonize with his words and
vice versa.
Many men and women are
lonely because some inward dis
organization of personality un
consciously makes them repel
others. Here again faith is the
answer, for true faith untangles
the mental processes and corrects
this disorganization. One of the
first things that faith does is to
make a man be honest with him
self. This is always as necessary
for the cure of maladies of the
personality as it is for the physical
ones. When you are ill and go to
a physician, you do not hide from
him anything necessary to a prop
er diagnosis and treatment. He
must have all the facts, honestly
laid before him. When we deal
with the mind, we must remem
ber that it has a strong tendency
to rationalize or excuse its own
faults. It seeks to invent reasons
why we are what we are rather
than to frankly face our faults,
and examine and seek to correct
them. Faith puts the light of rea
son on the problem. Then the in
dividual becomes able to receiv
ing the healing power of God.
Let this be the prayer of us all:
Teach us, good Lord, to serve
Thee as Thou deservest.
To give and not to count the cost;
To fight and not to heed the
wounds;
To toil and not to seek for rest;
To labor and not to ask for any
reward.
Save that of knowing that we do
Thy will.
cooks. The older we become and
the farther we wander, the more
convinced we are that nobody
anywhere can make quite as
good an apple pie (or jerked wal
rus goulash) as Mother.
Mothers are patient souls.
Lucky for all of us that a moth
er’s heart is as boundless as the
universe itself. Anyone else
would have scrubbed our ears,
dressed us in our Sunday best,
and sent us packing to the near
est orphans’ home after the first
two or three years of trying to
convert a small savage into a
civilized boy or girl.
All mothers are beautiful when
they are young — remember?
Then as the years turn into de
cades, Mother meets another man
besides Dad and this man is Old
Father Time. Her fresh beauty
changes after she and Old Father
Time get to be good friends.
See MOTHER, Page 5
Aggrey
Honored
Testimonial in honor of Mrs.
Rose Douglas Aggrey delivered
by J. R. Larkins, consultant.
North Carolina State Department
of Public Welfare, presented a
testimonial in the naming of the
building in honor of Mrs. Aggrey
at Morrison Training School, De
cember 15, 1957. We give it here
in part:
“We have assembled here today
to honor an outstanding and dis
tinguished citizen . . .”
Mr. Larkins continued his testi
monial by outlining the major
events in the significant life of
Mrs. Aggrey.
Mrs. W. T. Bost, ex-commission
er of State Board of Public Wel
fare stated:
“During my connection with
ihe State Department of Welfare,
I believe that you will agree that
we felt we could usually depend
upon the good judgment and wis
dom of Mrs. Rose D. Aggrey in
anything involving the Negro
youth of the state, a program
which we were mutually con
cerned. Having that support,
helped to determine the solution
of various problems confronting
us at the time.”
Dr. Ellen Winston, present
Commissioner, State Board of
Public Welfare states:
“Mrs. Rose D. Aggrey has made
an outstanding contribution to
the field of child welfare. For the
past several years she has worked
closely with the State Board of
Public Welfare in securing much
needed and improved facilities
for children.”
In naming a building for Mrs.
Aggrey, we are honoring a great
Christian leader, humanitarian,
educator and citizen. The honor
rebounds to the credit and sound
judgment of those who suggested
and approved her name for this
building.
When the Muse of Time shall
be asked to name the men and
women who have made great
contributions to the welfare of
human society and she dips her
pen into the golden sunlight and
writes in blazing letters across
the clear blue sky, I am sure that
the name of Mrs. Rose D. Aggrey
will be among this group.
It is with great pride and hu
mility that I name the new build
ing in honor of an individual who
has given over a half-century of
dedicated, sacrificial, and un
selfish service to all of the people
of North Carolina — Mrs. Rose
Douglass Aggrey.”