Newspapers / University of North Carolina … / May 1, 1956, edition 1 / Page 4
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Page 4 Chorlotte College, Charlotte, N. C. May, 1956 WHITE HEAT A murmur spreads throujih the nation. An(;ry thouRhts leap from person to person like a forest fire from dry pine to dry pine. In the hearts and minds of men exist fires far m o r e destructive than the flames of red that raj;e throuKh our national forests leaving only a charred Kiaveyard. They are best described by the color iron reaches as it turns into liquid white hell at 2,78() desrees Farenheit. N.A.A.C.P., prejudice, boycott, police, Southerner, Nepro, Lucy, Citizen’s Council, blood, violence, white, hlack — these incandescent words are tossed into the cauldron to boil and lick greedily at their retaining walls. The three witches dance happily and the specter of a long-unsolved problem rises before us. The United States is the home of twelve million of the world's one hundred and fifty million Negroes. Only about thirty or thirty-five percent of these twelve million are pure blooded Negroes. The rest are mixed white and Negro blood in varying proportions. Yet one of the problems of the United States is the fact that the races have not blended together as they have else where. A sharp line divides white and black. Many politicians have taken advantage of this difference to direct hatred from their own mistakes and from natural causes upon the Negro. Most of our folk lore, mythology, and religions pic ture black as the color of evil and dirt, while white is the color of pur ity and righteousness. In the past we closed our eyes to the problem in the hope that it would vanish like water from a desert. But the Negro will not vanish; he is con tributing more and more to our so ciety. Names like Louie Armstrong, Jackie Robinson, Ralph J. Bunche, and Booker T. Washington are as familiar as Coca-Cola to the aver age American. The Negro has always made his own way. About the time of Jo seph’s governing in Egypt, many Negroes held important positions in the Egyptian government. Many of the first slaves brought to .American soil were treated as in dentured servants. Several of these Negroes worked their way up from the stigma of being sold as slaves to the status of plantation owner with their own servants. One of these Negro plantation owners was known to have white servants. Ap proximately 5,000 Negroes fought on the American side during the Revolution. During the peak of slavery, there were many free Ne- gr-oes. Most of these bought their own freedom by w'orking for them selves during the Christmas season and summer layoff. In the South these free Negroes lived and worked in the larger towns where they were in competition with the poorer whites who hated them. After the Civil War, the Negro had to start with nothing but free dom, practically a Stone Age man in a world of increasing complex ity with no education or training to help him adjust to his new-found freedom. The South immediately set out to reduce both the Negro and the poor white to economic slavery in the share-cropping sys tems which is still in existence. Despite these handicaps the Ne groes are making steady progress in about every field they have en tered. Negro doctors, lawyers, poli ticians, teachers, actors, and sportsmen are known throughout the world as representatives of the American way of life. In theory the Negro is not op pressed, but in practice he is tied economically and legally. Labor unions place many obstacles in the way of his membership and classi fy him so that he is forced to per form the onerous tasks. Whenever a Negro enters one of our city buses he is forced to sit in the rear, an act similar to the servilit.v of bowing to a ruler. Most of our Southern states such as Alabama have set up such requirements as: poll tax, ability to read and write, property ownership, and proof of employment, all or any one of which serves to disqualify most Negro voters. The white man of course does only what he thinks is right, but a man can think only with the facts he has been taught. Man is not born human. He be comes human onl.v through educa tion. The young child wants the biggest slice of pie and his ice cream, now! His only code of ethics is whether or not it will bring pun ishment on him. Education shows him the future by teaching him the past. Education teaches him to ex amine, to know, to understand, and to love. The amount of knowledge pos sessed by the common man is un- I)aralleled in history. We find it incredible that four percent of our draftees are unable to pass the fourth grade level entrance exam; .vet education has not progressed far enough. We need more toler ance, love, and understanding. p]du- cation can do it, but it will take time. Force is never a lasting solu tion, and many good causes have been ruined by impetuous people. The formula for complete and eiual freedom for the Negro will require both time and understand ing. For the lack of one ingredient a cake may be ruined, so will the N.A.A.C.P. spoil its chances in the South if it does not hasten slowly. As one of our renowned speak ers once said, "No question is set tled until it is settled right.” Do YEAR'S ATTENDANCE ONE OF LARGEST This year’s attendance has been one of the largest which has been entered into Charlotte College in quite a few years. This shows that C.C. is becoming a familiar name around Charlotte and vicinity and that more people will be taking ad vantage of its facilities in the fu ture. C.C. was established to take the pressure off the larger colleges immediately after the Second World War. Because of all the vet erans coming out of the service the state had to form many smaller local colleges to be able to make room for all these men awaiting an education. After a few years when the vets began to slack en in number the enrollment here at the school and likewise in many of the other small junior colleges began to decrease rapidly in num ber. But last year and in the pres ent school year we have seen a great increase in students. At the fall quarter there were nearly three hundred persons en rolled in courses at C.C. This was about eighty over the previous year. Out of this total number there were about fifteen enrolled in the Distribution Program which was offered for the first time. There has usually been a great drop in the number of students after the first quarter of each school .vear, but this year at regis tration day the students kept flow ing through the doors to register. Let’s hope that this is a sign that C.C. will continue to maintain a large student body and will in crease its position as a community college. not think that if we create hell here on earth we are assured of heaven in the hereafter. The solu tion to the race problem is educa tion and time to acquire it. Power can move mountains, but we will have only a pile of rubble if we hasten. Only through gentleness can so large an object as a moun tain of prejudice be removed intact. To remove the mountain of preju dice we must apply power gently lest we send a thousand seeds of hate into the winds of time to grow into an impossible range of moun tains. Let us consider the problem as neither ethics or ethnics, but one of molding men to fit the character of our civilization. Let us mold men to believe in the truths that our soldiers have died for. It is not enough to “Hold these truths to be self evident”, we must make them so. If one would see where he is go ing, he must hasten slowly. HOW CHARLOTTE COLLEGE SEAL ORIGINATED We were thumbing through some old material the other day and we came across some familiar and in teresting sights which we thought would make an interesting column for all our readers. The material had to do with the Charlotte Col lege seal. The seal of Charlotte College is also the city seal. Now, we’ll see where it came from, what it means, and how it was adopted. The tree branch on the seal rep resents growth, which is very typ ical of Charlotte and its surround ing vicinity. This part is particular ly true of Charlotte College. The cap in the branch has liberty written on it. It represents the lib erty w'hich the early Mecklenburg- ers gained back in 1775 on May 20th, when a group of them signed the Mecklenburg Declaration of In dependence. The Hornet’s Nest, of course, is very familiar to all of us. It came from a statement which Cornwallis made during the Revolutionary War, when he said that Charlotte was a “veritable hornet’s nest”. The date on the seal, 1049, is the year in which Charlotte College be came independent of the Univer sity of North Carolina. From 194(i until 1949 it was the Charlotte Center of the University of North Carolina. This seal was adopted by Char lotte College as the official seal since we are a city-operated school. The seal may be seen on the C.C. handbook and also on the school newspaper. The date which the city adopted the seal was not included in the in formation. SIDE LINES A friend is someone you can always count on to count on you. * ❖ * Hardening of the heart ages peo ple more quickly than hardening of the arteries. >is You’re getting old when you see a girl who looks like someone you used to know and it turns out to be her daughter. * * * An after dinner speech is like a love letter. Ideally, you should begin by not knowing what you are going to say, and end by not knowing what you have said.
University of North Carolina at Charlotte Student Newspaper
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May 1, 1956, edition 1
4
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