North Carolina Newspapers

{ THB CAROLINA TDUy SATURDAY, OCT. 15, HM RASCALITY IN RALEIGH Attorney General W. B. Rodman is either confused, a rascal, or the hopeless captive of reactionary Kastem Caro lina interests who are bent on keeping political control of the state regardless of law and order. Mr. Rodnum's ap pearance before the silk glov ed hate group calling it self DUPEC (Diu-ham United Political Educational Coun cil) in Durham recently re- vetded him as spokesman for Luther B. Hodges, that help less and hopeless occupant of the Governor’s office. Ckunmenting on a local morning newspaper’s alleged distortion of Hodges’ remarks that a local option plan in the schools would possibly result in racial integration, the at torney gener^ said, “1 am authorized by the governor to say that ‘The idea is designed primarily to permit com munities that, some times in the future, may be faced with an integration problem as a result of a court order or oth erwise, to close their public schools if they wish and to try other methods of educating their children. The plan would, of course, as any local plan must, leave the choice to the local community at tempting to deal with the problem.” At about the same time the attorney general was discuss ing with DUPEC the state’s official position of “voluntary segregation,” Governor Hod ges’ lily-white Advisory Com mission on Elducation, report ed, among other things, the commission was “studying abolition of the public schook and the organization of pri vate schools, perhaps by local option in specially troubled communities.” Moreover, the report went on, “We are giv ing study to steps to take to implement voluntary racial separation and implement the 1953 statute relative to the assignment of pupils to schools by local option.” Speaking again at a press comerence in Raleigh on his “personal views,” the attor ney general said, “It would be tragic to abolish the public school system. How ever, as a press associa tion dispatch stated, the state’s formerly “official” po sition of maintaining the pub lic schools at all costs seem ed to be shifting to a “local option” plan that would en courage abolition of schools in areas adversely affected by court orders to mtegrate the races. In the light of this confus ion and obvious intention to ignore the ruling of the Su preme Court, TIME mag azine’s grade of “C-” for the state seems extravagant. Of course, white and Megro cit izens must remember that the state’s position is being shaped by politicans who think they are building their wooden political fences with planks of prejudice. And, it must not be forgotten that Colonel Tom Pearsall of Rocky Mount is apparently the man that Luther B. Hod ges, the millionaire indus trialist, who wants to be governor in his own right, is following. Mr. Pearsall is a political realist and living in the prejudice-ridden eastern part of the state, he knows that the majority of the voters will buy a juicy polti- cal campaign with the old cry of “iMegro, Negro” as bait. The real tragedy of North Carolina today is not the in fluential positions of the WU- liam Rodmans, the Tom Pearsidls and the Luther Hodgeses. The state’s real tragedy lies with the blind ness of the people who make such men’s political existence possible. Not all North Caro lina citizens are blindly fol lowing These Terrible Three. Perhaps it would be unrealis tic to expect the voice of “Sweetness and Light that is typfield in Playwright Paul Green to sway the white peo ple of our state. But, it would seem that the views of Editor Jonathan Daniels of Raleigh, no fireball liberal, might pre vail Abolishing the public schools said Editor Daniels in Hartsville, S. C., last week “is the most tragic proposal ever made in a presumably intelligent land.” And said Mr. Daniels further, the pro posal “is something beyond secession from the imion.- What they urge is secession from civilization... Any man who proposes that the South solve its great problems by greater ignorance is a great fool or thinks you are a great er one . . . We will not better escape our troubles in ignor ance. More than anythwg else we need more education, not less.” The word^ of Mr. Daniels are sane and intelligent. They also speak for the future. May God give Messrs. Rod man, Hodges, and Pearsall the courage and the simple decency to heed their mean ing. possessing the liquor for the purp^ of sale. lliis newspaper has never in its 31 year old history con doned lawlessness. On the other hand we have fought police brutality and imlav^ul search and seizure with ev ery ounce of our energy. It is still too early to positively affix the blame for the unfor tunate incident of last Satur day, but there are enough known extenuating circum stances to raise some ques tions which the Carolina Times would like to have an swered. We cannot understand how two state troopers found time last week during the height of a record wave of traffic fatalities (45 in nine days) to busy themselves with bun dle-carrying pedestrians. In Wake County alone there have been 45 road fatalities this year. The source of the officer’s power to search pedestrians without a warrant is also not clear. Apparently it was not WAS NATIONAL NEWSPAPER WEEK A SUCCESS! Next to the United States Church, the United States daily newspaper is a candi date for the most segregated institution in the country. Without apology to the pre vailing customs, mores and pet prejudices of Caucasian Americans of mixed blood, this is true because, imlike the Sunday-go-to meeting, self - proclaimed Christsians who mouth their pious plati tudes once a week on the Sabbath, the daily press in fluences the thought and be havior of nifen of all faiths, little faith, and no faith. If a statistical recoimting of the number of editorials, open ho«ises,~news stories and advertising lineage as well as and television time, bespeaks success, the spon sors of National Newspaper Wc^ are justified in their grandiloquent claims of suc cess. But if being truly “nation al” in the sense of reflecting the aspirations of the repre sentative segments of “na tional” groups was a factor in the judging, then the week was ah abysmal failure. Its failure, of course, was rooted in the perspective of the spon sors whose philosophy of the news is daily reflected in their prejudice-ridden pages, in their slanted accounts and often no-accounts of Negro life and achievement — in their failure of day-t&aday coverage of personal news of Negro citizens as human be ings, Americans of the 14th- amendment variety. Actually, U. S.. daily news- pai)€rs admittedly benefitting from the boost to circulation, of a total Ne^o buying pow er of $15 billion, brazenly re fuse to give American Ne groes a fair return in their advertising and circulation dollar. Recent events stemming in various ways from Supreme Court orders to integrate the public schools have apparent ly inspired numerous South ern sponsored lily white groups to impose economic sanctipns against Negroes. The sanctions aspect may be partly new, but the news treatment of Negroes in the daily white press is simply “old soup warmed over.” The U. S. press in general, until comparatively recently, and the ^uthem press wi& few exceptions, seem system atically to try to perpetuate the image of the Negro as criminal, as intellectually and culturally inferior to all peo- plcs cverywhCTe, and na tional group of parasites. If National Newspaper Week ever is to become wor thy of its name, it must, first of all, concede the basic hu manity of the Negro as a hu man being in the U. S. of the 20th century. OIL PROGRESS WEEK It seems that nowadays al most every organization and cause has a “week” of its own. Right now it’s Oil Progress Week, v^ich runs from Octo ber 9 through 15. This seems an appropriate time for us to recall the revolution which petroleum brought into our lives. The word “progress” is well used. America’s com petitive oil businesses — there are more than 42,000 of them — are even now chang ing our way of life. The American petroleum indus try, which produces about half the world’s oil, not only is basic to our national eco nomy and defense, but has introduced us to a hosrt)f pro ducts which have enriched our standard of living. Our homes are oil-heajed, our cars are petroleum-pow ered, and we feel the benefits of petroleum on our farms and in countless large and small pursuits of our daily lives. Take the Summer we just struggled through. It may have been hot, but it was a lot more pleasant for many of us than it might have been, thanks to the new synthetic fibers developed through petrochemistry. From cos metics to sausage-skins, liter ally thousands of our every day products are petroleum- based. The industry’s scien tists says they can develop 500,000 compounds from pe troleum, and they hope to boost that total to a million in the foreseeable futvire. Plastics, insecticides, synthe tic rubber — a seemingly end less list of magic compounds — Ijave contributed to our health, well-being, and com fort. Only^a highly competitive, progressive, tmd free industry can produce such wonders — or even have the incentive to do so. The tremendous con tributions that America’s oil has made to our civilization during less than a century of the industry’s existence are stirring testimony to the vi tality and vision characteris tic of a free'people. Oil men and the 163 million Americans whom they serve have good reason to be ^ud during this year’s Oil Prog ress Week. RIOT IN RALEIGH’U A wire press service re ported that a crowd of ap proximately 500 Negroes mobbed two highway patrol men last Saturday night who were In the act of arresting a Negro man who was carding a bundle of tax paid whiskey. The report stated that of ficer J. O. Carter and D. W. Williams were dispatched to the area to investigate com plaints of the Pool Road re sidents that motorists were racing on the highway. The officers stated that they saw a man who was later identified as Henry Goodson, carrying a bundle under his arm. 'They admitted that they searched the pedestrian and found him to be carrjring a quantity of tax paid whiskey and booked him on charges of clear to the Negroes who were assembled at the Pool Road night spot either. From all indications the conduct of the officers initi ated the unfortunate chain of events which followed the ar rest of Goodson, and if the behavior of the crowd reach ed a riotous pitch it could well have resulted from the unprofessional and unwar ranted exhibition of author ity by the patrolmen. It is also difficult for the Times to accept ABC Officer W. B. Keith’s statement that the night spot “is the worst in the eastern part of the county.” Why hasn’t he clos ed it? Why was the owner permitted to sell beer if the reputation of the tavern was dangerous and unsavory? As unfortunate as the in cident was, it might still be a blessing in disguise. It might serve to tell us what our highway patrolmen are doing while the slaught^ on the Wghways is at an all-time high of five per day. Life. Is Like That BY H. ALBERT SMITH THOV TOO, BRUTUS SATURDAY U. ALBEKT SMITH M. E. J0HN80N PvblUMd Enrr fcturday by tk* UHITTO FUBLiSHXM. IneorporatMl.at Sl> I. Patttcnw Bt. Bnterad a* mamA dam oaHnr «t tka Po«t Of Am ■« Durham. North CaivUiia ante lha Act of liarA >. im. L. E. AUSTIN, PHblUMT CLATHAN A. BOSS, Kditor Editor OCT. IS, 1955 Maaactayr Bdlto fttoeM Manacc D. A. HAMMOND. IS. AdvertWnf Mgr. JESSE COnELD Clrcalatton Manajfer No (uarantaa of publication of unaoUdtad mata- rlaL Lattara to tha adltor for publication muat ba alcnad and confined to SOO word*. Subacriptlon Rataa; lOe par oopr, Mz noBtha, taM; Omm Taar. $»M (ITataio Couatrlaa, HM Vnitad It gives me deep pleasure at this time to acknowledge re ceipt of communications ex pressing interest in this col umn and a couple of reminders that the cuffs of Uncle Sam’s pants are not entirely free from the mud of imperialism, not to mention his shoes. The reminder came in con nection with a statement I made two weeks ago relative to the unbridled imperialistic ambitions of the so-called three gangster nations— Ger many, Japan and It^ly. At the time, I inferred that England and France were not to be counted with the three nations mentioned as “fiave-Nots” and with reference to the United States wrote; Atlhough the U. S. had no imperiaUstic am bitions or plans, we found great satisfaction in a steadily increasing population.” The assertion was made in connection with the emphasis nations were placing, shortly before the. outbreak of the last World War, on a quantitive in crease in population regar^ess as to its spiritual and moral quality. In making that statement, I was not totally unaware of the tell-tale signs . on Uncle Sam’s shoes and the cuffs of his pants and that all along he had a nice little game of eco nomic imperialism going on. At least, I gathered such from some of the sources of infor- matioh I had cohtacFed. But r did mean to indicate that we were not out on a vicious cam paign of conquest, taking over the lands of other people, de vastating their territories and leaving them without a ves tige of iK>litical sovereignty. In fact, we did not have to do it that way—the way Hitler, Musolini and Hirohito went about it—in the period during which they were active. We had taken ours, or. most of it before their day, starting with the snatching of nearly a whole continent from the hai>- less Indians and acquiring other territ(»ies by force of arms. And, whereas, we do not' claim any direct marching orv ders from Jehovah and tliat he helped us by parting waters and shaking down walls in; miraculous fashion to facili tate those conquests, we do a “heap” of boasting about the righteous Intentions of the founding fathers and how God blessed oiur arms which is equivalent to saying that all which we did was the actuali zation of his purpose. During the closing period of the last war, I heard a group of white men discussing and cuss ing Japan for going to war with the United States. The group dispersed and one of them, a lawyer, sided up to me and asked me what I thought about the matter. I told him that it was my belief that had America been in Japan’s place she would have done just what Japan did with the possible exception of the aneak attack on Pearl Harbor; and, that;. I was not leaving out. I have had no reason in the decade since to change my mind. By that I mean to say fur ther that if our country had been a “have-not” nation of limited territory and expand' ing population, and shut off from the great reservoirs of natural resources, I am not so sure we would have been as non-militaristic as we were at the time, or as idealistic as we seemingly are today. Some years ago, I knew a man who reputedly stole a little fortune, cached it, ser ved time in prison, and then came out to enjoy it md to live as an “holiest” man imtil he died. This reminds me of the mitfderous, blood-and- thunder gangster who, after he has gotten his, turns “respec table.” Tills individual pattern of behavior often becomes that of men en masse. And such are nations. Along with the reminder,^ I mentioned at the outset, a book was sent here with the suggestion to check it with re gard to American imperialism. And, also, from out of the state came some clippings wliich in themselves constitut ed a reminder. I quote from one of the clip pings, a statement supposedly made by the late Major Gene ral Smedley Butler (U.S. M.C. Ret.) in 1935. “I spent thirty-tliree years in active service as a member of our country's most agile military force-the Marine Corps. I served in all commis sioned ranks from second lieu tenant to major-general. And during that period I spent most of my time being a iiigh-class muscle-man for big business, for WaU Street, and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism... “Thus I helped to make Mexico, and especially Tam pico safe for Amerltan oil in terests in 1914. I helped make Hayti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in...I helped purify Nicaragua for the - ist^national banking house of Browif Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought Ught to the Dominican Republic for the American Sugar interest in 1916. I helped make Honduras “right” for American fruit companies in 1903.' In China in 1937 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way un- molestec^. “During those years, I had as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. I was rewarded with honors, medals, promotions. Looking back on it, I feel I might have given A1 Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate in three cities. We Ma rines operated In tiiree conti nents.” Well, General Butler un doubtedly knew what he was talking about; and, if he did, the afore mentioned cuffs of Uncle Sam’s pants and his boots, too, stand badly in need of cleaning. 'They Question Our Right h World Leaderdiip' Wf /v.A'S- T-. Spiritual Insight “I Am With You” BY REVEREND HAROLD ROLAND Pastor, Mount Gilead Baptist Church "Thfi foolish took their lamps... they took no oil with them. “Matt. 25:3. It is tragic to face a great moment unprepared. The Mas ter in this beautiful, grapiiic parable reminds us of the heart-rending pathos of such careless Indifference to the uti lization of our God-given op portunities. O that we could learn the folly of wasting time the precious stuff of life. The careless are caught out with lamps without oil. How easily are we made the victims of slothfulness. How many have squandered the precious stuff of youth and wer^ finally caught on the highway of Ifie with “Lamps Withotft t3il.” Then down the highway of life a big moment with a great opportunity came along and they were unready, for there tliey were with lamps without oil. Their lamps lacked the oil of training and preparation. I have seen It happen to young sters. When it happens, it is very sad indeed. The big mo ment came. There is the op portunity of a lifetime. But there the youth stands with a lamp without the oil of know ledge. How regretful it is to see an individual standing in the midst of disappointment because he or she had lamps without oil. How did Itj hap pen? They wasted and Squan dered their God-given otnpor- tunltles. — In the very midst of the big moment they had “Lamps Without Oil”. They had locked themselves in the deep freeze of unpreparedness. Life with the big opportunity passed them by. We all have gifts from God. For God’s sake let’s use them. You may not be a genius. There are few geniuses. Grit and pluck added to what God has given you will give you the victory. Polish and use tile weapons you have at hand. Stop crying about what you lack. Use What You Have! I know a young man who had ordinary gifts; but with hard work, he has made a great success in his choiKn field. Why would you face life un prepared now or any other time? Why go out with lamps withDut- oil? Try to drive a car without gas and oil and you won’t get very far. I tried it thlsl Summer against the ad vice of my wife and I did not get/very far. I got stranded on high way near Philadelphia eleven thirty one Sunday night. You will not reach your goal if you try to make it with “Lamps Without Oil." Doors will be shut in your face If you try to make it with lamps without oil. Those with oil went in; but those who had no oil had the Door Shut In Their Faces. Let us not be caught unprepared. How sad and tragic it is to have to face a great moment with a great opportunity,. a crisis or the final caU of the Bridegroom with Lamps With out OH. Let not these tragic words be said of you... “While they went to buy...those that were ready went in...And The Door Was Shut...” To Speak Strongly a . . 9y Carter Braxton "I feel that I have a right to speak, and to sjxak strongly” —Frederick Douglass This is the first of a series pf aritcles, the purpose of which is to contribute to the destruc tion of a myth cerated by the whtte supremacists. Very briefly, this myth, dbsplte the many forms it takes, may be summed up in the statement that the Negroes are a natural ly inferior people. We are now at a turning point in the his tory of our country and the LITTLE (IN THE) RED SCHOOL HOUSB f Private SCHOOLS AND CoeutSiaiim foes of equal rights for the Ne gro people are definitely and fatally on the defensive, de spite violent and punishing counter-attacks. At such a time I feel that to reproduce old arguments against a dying myth gives them a newer and more practical significance. The history of the struggles of the Negro people for their rights is rich in lessons for those who love liberty and de mocracy everywhere. But, no where Is there greater need to leam these lessons than right here at home in the United States of America. This is a need primarily of the Negro people; but, as I hope to show in this series of articles, there are also lessons to be learned by the great majority of the white people as to just who their best friends and worst enemies are. ‘ This series wlU cover suc cessively eight different pe riods in the history of the Ne gro people in oUr country. Each article will be based up on a document or documents from a given period, contain ing the exact language of Ne groes fighting for freedom. The texts of these documents can be found in “A Documen tary History of the Negro Peo ple in the United States, edited by Herbert Aptheker.” This is a wonderful source-book for every student of Negro history and constitutes a first-class weapon in the struggle for truth. And now to my task: The first documents take us through the period preceeding and during the Revolutionary War. A common myth sup posedly proving Negro in feriority concerns family rela tions. I remember as a ilttle boy hearing my grandfather, the aon of • slave-holdar, ny that one must never examine too closely the family morality 'Oi^ the Negro people. (After I grew up 1 found out what a lecturer he wasi) Yet from the very beginning the Negro slaves themselves were aware o^ the evil effects of slavery upon family relations. Witness this quotation from a petition for freedom by Negro slaves to the Governor of Massachusetts hi 1774: Thus we are deprived of everything that hath a tenden cy to make life even tolerable, the endearing ties of husband and wife we are strangers to for we are no longer husband and wife than our masters or mistresses tliinks proper...Our children are also taken from us by force^ and sent many miles from'us where we sel dom or ever see them again there to be made slaves of for life. There are two lessons which we may leam from thiir'quota- tion; (1) The institution of slavery and the white slave holders were historically re sponsible for loosening tha family ties of the Negro peo ple, and, (2) The Negro people themselves saw most clearly and struggled against this de grading and dehumanizing ef fect. It occurs to me that the kindest and most charitable answer to the slanderer of the Negro people might be as fol lows; Yes, it is possible that the institutions of slavery and segregation have had certain evil effects upon the Ne^ro people. By the way, who waa responsible for these institu tions? I hope that our spiriti will become aroused as this serlM carries us close to the priaeai.