PAGE TWO
THE SOULER
The Souler Staff
Editor-in-Chief Hazel Mack
Co-Editor Margaret Tucker
News Editor Maulana Armed
Sports Editor Leroy Morris
Copy Editor Faye Switzer
Lay-Out Editor Ivory Rice
Photographer Danny Terry
Artists Glenn White,
Robert Johnson
Advisors Mattie Havner,
Shedrick Adams
Time For A Change
Why do we always have to stick
to the same design? I don’t want to
be a stereotyped imbecile. I want
to be original — unconfined by any
trite rules. I want to work the way
I want to work; I want to move
freely.
Life for me is in the present and
future — not the unchangeable
past. Besides, the people of the
past dictated the past. They shaped
their own little world. The shape
of my future will be of my own
makings.
These are the sentiments of
Howard Roark. Only a year be
fore graduation from Stanton Insti
tute of Technology he was expell
ed. Why? Because he dared to ad
venture into the absurd, that which
no man could comprehend, other
than himself.
Henry Cameron, the dynamic
builder of the Danan Building of
New York City had been the last
word in architecture for more than
twenty years. Some called him
crazy. Why? Because he built pur
posefully, disregarding the rules
set forth by the old masters.
Surely Ayn Rand is wise. Who
else could have perceived in 1943
the events to occur in the next
twenty-five years? These occur-
ances live today in the Fountain
head.
Ellsworth M. Toohey — what
goals could she possibly hope to
attain. How is she related to Gail
Wynard? What did she have to do
with Howard Roark; what did he
have to do with her?
Ayn Rand knows the answer to
these questions and many more.
You’ll know the answers too if
you read The Fountainhead by
Ayn Rand. This book is truly a
landmark in excellent literature.
—Margaret Tucker
NOVEMBER, 1968
FROM THE SOUL
LOOK FOR
“Tom” of the Month
Is It Really Black Power, Baby?
N.Y.B.A. Convention
Are You Black or Negro?
IN THE DECEMBER EDI’HON
OF THE SOULER.
Of Black Male
Leadership
Many young adults are concern
ed about the problems of male
leadership among the Blacks of
today. These young people question
the causes and want to know what
they can do to alleviate this
phenomena.
In response to an article pub
lished in the September 15th edi
tion of the Winston-Salem Journal
and Sentinel, many of these young
adults expressed their views and
sentiments of the situation. The
following two essays are from stu
dents who have elaborated on this
subject of Black male leadership.
Can The Blacks Overcome
Their Feminine Mystique?
The general conclusion of dis
cussion by a group of five promi
nent Negro women in the article
Blacks Must Overcome Their
Own ‘Feminine Mystique’ ” by
Lisa Hammel is that the Negro
race has a feminine mystique
which it must overcome.
I feel that the Negro race needs
to overcome this mystique, but
it will be a long and difficult task.
Every Negro does not agree with
the conclusion that our race is
feminine and many are not will
ing to help the Black man rise. On
a whole, the Negro race must ac
cept this problem before a begin
ning to overcome this feminine
mystique can start.
I also agree with the article’s
discussion that the Black woman
can help her race by assisting the
Black man to take a more active
part in the white world. She needs
to bring her Black brother to her
side and rebuild his masculinity.
Many questions come to my mind
when I think of solving this prob
lem. Can the Black woman give
her mate the support he needs?
Will Negroes, on the whole, recog
nize this “feminine mystique” and
work towards overcoming it? How
strong is the feeling of “my
brother's keeper” in the Negro
race? These are only a few ques
tions that I believe will confront
Negroes in pursuing complete de
struction of their “feminine mysti
que”. Shall we ever overcome?
—Pamela Campbell
Blacks Must Overcome Their
Own “Feminine Mystique”
‘Blacks Must Overcome Their
Own ‘Feminine Mystique’ ” is only
another link in the chain to mak
ing the Black male feel inferior
to his white counterparts. Is it
possible for any person to perform
a hundred per cent if he possesses
a damaged ego? BlaGk males have
never been praised for their ad
vancements, only reminded of their
desire not to advance.
The material for this article was
On Thinking Black
N.Y.B.A. members have come
to the realization that there are
some sisters and brothers among
us who would and could “think
Black” if they only knew how. Be
fore we welcome any of these
Negroes into the Black community,
they must be “deniggerized”. They
must undergo certain psycho-phy
sical changes. This is to say that
total awareness of mind, body,
and spirit is essential.
The sole pre-requisite of being
Black is an understanding of the
de-humanization process which
took place over the centuries. We,
the captive, non-self-governing
American born Africans, have en
dured slavery under indescribably,
inhuman cruelties. We have been
forced to give unrequited labor
for centuries.
In 1863, we received a so-called
emancipation, only to find our
selves again under the rule of our
former slave masters. The Four
teenth Amendment to the Constitu
tion imposed a quasi citizenship
upon us without our knowledge,
without our consent, without even
a plebiscite — a violation of our
human rights only two years after
we were “freed”. This Fourteenth
Amendment imposed upon us this
unsolicited, unlawful citizenship
through such fraudulent acts as the
poll tax, grandfather clause, and
the property clause — all unlaw
fully imposed upon us citizenship
filled with taxes and military ser
vices while stripping us of the full
benefits of citizenship.
The subsequent century since this
unjust imposition upon us has been
one replete with violence, torture,
rape, terror, lynchings, intimida
tion, and outright theft of our in
ventions, properties, and national
identity. The injury against us is
irreparable being unequalled in the
annals of history, wherein we
were changed from the African in
to the “Negro”. During the process
of this enslavement, we were de
nied all knowledge of self, culture,
heritage, inheritance and lineage.
This first and uppermost step is
called awareness. There are two
others to be continued in the next
issue.
—Maulana Armed
widely collected so that it would
further place the Black male under
his white counterparts and Black
females. The author interviewed
the middle class Black woman who
was in a professional field, not
the average Black woman.
It was the Black male that open
ed up the doors. We, the Black
males are the backbone of this
land of opportunity — for the
whites.
—Stevon Stewart
Jim Crow's Funeral
By Langston Hughes
“I wish there was some way of
dying without dying,” said Simple,
“of getting rid of the bad things
that afflicts men, keeping the
good — and still being alive. For
instant, my old Aunt Lucy had
arthritis, which made her kind of
snappy at times, but she was a
good soul, one of the best. Now
if the arthritis would have just
died, instead of her, that would
have been like it should be. Look
at President Roosevelt — if what
ailed him could have died, but
not him the world might have
been different today.”
“In other words,” I said, “you
mean if the ills of the flesh could
pass on, but not the good people
who have them, it would be a fine
thing. Your fallacy there is that
not all people are good to begin
with. Some are ill — and evil,
too.”
“It is the bad in them that I
wish would die,” said Simple. “If
I were a judge I would not put
nobody to death. I would just sen
tence the bad in them to die.”
“Unfortunately, mankind has de
vised no sure-fire way to separate
the evil from man, or man from
evil. The theory of capital punish
ment is that if the whole man is
put to death, the evil will go with
him — his particular evil, that is.
It is a kind of legal assassination.
But the trouble is that the patterns
of evil are not individual, they are
social. They spread among a great
many people. Electrocute one mur
derer today, but someone else is
committing murder some other
place at that very moment. Killing
a man doesn’t kill the form of
the crime. It just kills him. What
we need to do is get at the basic
roots of evil, just as a physician
tries to get at the roots of disease.”
That is what I mean,” said
Simple. “It is the sick root that
should go, not the whole green
tree.”
Of course, there are arguments
on both sides,” I said. “Sometimes
the illness has spread from the
root to the whole green tree, as
you put it. So the leaves are no
longer green, but withered and
dry, and the branches have no
sap in them, in which case some
say you might as well cut the tree
down.”
I really started out talking
about people being sick, not trees,
not murder, not evil. Just plain
old backache, headache, stomach
ache sick — which is what removes
more people from this world than
an electric chair. I am wishing,
for instant, that I will never get
nothing that will make me sick
enough to die.”
In that case, you would just
die of old age. Everybody dies of
(Continued on Page Four)