Newspapers / The Carolinian (Raleigh, N.C.) / March 7, 1964, edition 1 / Page 4
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THE RALEIGH. N. C., SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 1984 4 Editorial Viewpoint The shortest verse tn the Bible is "Jews wept.” The tragic note In this story, the Gospel record has carefully preserved. How we wish it might have also told us what occurred on the night af ter the chronic old grumbler was healed. Did Jesus stop suddenly in the middle of the supper, and set down his cup, while a broad smile spread Civil Rights Bill: Hope For Passage In a sense the passage of the proposed Civil Rights Bill would make us our “Brother's Keeper.” The Southern enemies of the bill ob ject to it on the grounds that it will make the Federal Government every brother’s keeper in the matter of racial discrimination. It must have occurred to the segregationists —they are intelligent—that in a Democracy the Federal Government is made up of duly elected members which represent the broad cross sections of American public opinion. The hill was passed in the House of Representa tives by a vote of 290 to 130. It would appear that the collective conscience of America has finally been jarred into an awareness that ra ' rial discrimination is an offense against both God and man. Os course many may say that since the time of Cain, “man has sadly failed in the obliga --tion of brotherhood.” This is quite true, but **wic of the marks of civilization, as opposed to primeval barbarism, is that governments have been instituted by mankind, among other things, to prevent justice. This is seen clearly when we note that the governments of the Southern states never voluntarily enact legis lation to facilitate freedom and justice—par ticularly for the Negro citizen. Usually they must be compelled to award rights to the black man. ( Modern-day murderers like Cain in the Bi ble are brought before the bar of justice for their offenses against the collective conscience rof the nation. The Bible which records the Capital Punishment Must Go The practice of capital punishment for cer tain criminal offense lias outlived its usefulness as a crime deterrent device. The progressive thinker of our people urges the abolishment of Cf ,»ital punishment. V.\ think that state officials should appoint commissions to study the role and scope of capital punishment in our penal system to find out if we should retain or preserve the death sentence as ‘‘a deterrent to crime." That is why wc need a study by commissions in order to destroy this myth. Prison officials of the old school say that they know what they are talking about when they urge the continuance of capital punish ment. We might also suppose that these offici als know what they are talking about. But. in the case of capital punishment, statistics prove that they apeak purely from bias and preju dice. Those Individuals who have studied this problem know that the death penalty, by means of the electric chair or gas chamber or hanging, is not a deterrent to crime. It is solely a delusion. We are happy to say that the majority of the civilised nations of the world, and a dozen states in the nation and territorities, have abol ished the death penalty, either, by law or by practice. And in these countries and states, the incidence of capital crimes is generally lower than where the death penalty is still in effect. Right at this moment, the State of Florida is studying the question of capital punishment, most of Florida's prison officials, however, want the state to retain capital punishment. State Penal Director Louis Wainwright, while Political Appeal To Ignorance Tt wmj that In this country we arc getting nur values all mixed up. A man murders our beloved President, and we send his widow $35,- 000 and glamorize her in every possihle way. On the other hand, a fine Negro man is shot down like a dog in the gutter. He had no more ■ * of a chance to defend himself than our late President. The murderer has been apprehend ed. tned and all but freed because of a "hung jury." t But. after all. the man had a black face, and that made a real difference especially in Mississippi. A jury just couldn’t condemn a white man for a mistake like that Maybe Governor Ross Barnett might not like it if they did. The black man in Mississippi left a widow also, and some little children. But we haven’t ••heard of any bank accounts being set up In their name. Mrs. Evers not only had the wrong . color face, but the wasn't glamorous and Medgar Evers Case: Values Mixed » •It b regrettable, but It is true that politicians ** -tnake use of emotional appeal to the electorate of thousands erf people. In a small town, a can date might get 2,000 or 3,000 more votes this way. The Intelligent person has seen various mu fdcipal and state administrations sacrificing everything for reelection; but as time goes on. “If would appear that we haven’t seen "nothin* yit.” The all-important question in the minds of - Koneet, intelligent people is. "Just how far will politicians go in seeking reelection?", all the while, seemingly, permitting the honest, effici ent operation of a government bog down. It is a aad commentary when candidates for office will stoop to almost anything to smear the character and intergity of their op- JriE NEGRO PRESS—believe that America can best had the wtvia away from racial and national antagonisms when it accords tc every mar regardless ot race, color or creed, hie human and hgal rights. Hating no man tearing no man -the Negro Press strive to help every man on the firm be- Uai that all man are hurt at Uhg as anyone w held back. WORDS OF WORSHIP across his face? If be did the disciples were prob ably puzzled—they were so often puasled—but surely we have the reverent right to guess what was in his mind, as he pictured the home-com ing of that cured old man. On that evening, Jesus must heve laughed. story of Cain’s brutal murder of an innocent brother also states, "Whosoever hateth his bro ther is a murderer.” (I John 3:15). We are extremely happy that at long last our lethargic national conscience has been suf ficiently aroused to demand legislation against this equally heinous offense. But our Southern legislators have vowed to obstruct the bill’s passage with “their beloved filibuster”—even in the procedure wastes the taxpayer’s money. We hope that the passage of the bill will be an oebasion for great rejoicing (rather than a time for lament) that the conscience of the American people has at last decided that ra cial discrimination and hatred fall into the same category as other equally nasty crimes against human beings. We are proud of the 290 legislators who have risen to the occasion and accepted the re sponsibility of implementing what out of com mon decency, if not out of Christian charity, should have been done 150 years ago. We must all remember that the Almighty set going on this earth an experiment—which A mericans call democracy—committeed to the idea that man can be made perfect and superi or over circumstance. The race must be fed and clothed and housed and transported. Every one of us has the unrequired obligation to do all that we can to make the experiment suceed. A word of praise is due all legislators who have committed themselves to the task of creating a legal atmosphere for the growth and development of human dignity. urging retention of capital punishment, did make one tentative- gesture toward compro mise. If Florida abolished the death penalty, he said, it should be retained for persons kill ing law enforcement officers, prison guards or inmates. We all will agree, to be sure, that Director Wain wright’s suggestion merits continuing study. Fact of the matter ii that Florida may have to abolish the death penalty by degrees. Now most of us have noted some flaws in the capital punishment system, including the man ner by which the sentence is passed. We sug gest that there be a reversal of policy in the present system whereby the death penalty is mandatory upon conviction in capital cases unless the jury recommends mercy. It should be the other way round. Bible readers know that it is too easy now for a jury—like Pontius Pilate in the Case of Jesus Christ—just to wash its hands of the question of life or death, simply by doing no thing. The law should require affirmative ac tion by the jury to impose the death sentence, and not leave the burden upon the shoulders of the judge. If the question of guilt or innocence were first determined and then after a cooling-off period of at least 24 hours, the jury would be compelled to decide upon the sentence. If this is done, it would be an important step toward the administration of justice. > We must not be blind to new ideas about cri minal punishment. We are living in a nuclear age, and yet we are employing a criminal sys tem apropos for the period of the Thirteen A merican Colonies. warm. Beside*, black people don't need money and food for their children. During the Four Daya, all citizens prayed for the late President and saluted the same flag. It seemed that we had begun to think sa luting the flag a bit "crony" until President Kennedy made us proud to be Americans. But now we are glamorizing the widow of the President's accused assassin Mrs. Os wald. Another man murdered the alleged as sassin of the President, and wt probably will let him go free, too. in a court of law at a fu ture date. Just as Mr. Beckwith will go free in Mississippi. In the Dallas incident, the wife of a slain policeman has received several hundred thous ands of dollars given her by the public. But what about the Negro wife and mother, Mrs. Medgar Evers? We have our values all mixed up. What would it take for us to regain them? ponents. They can do this very well when they appeal to the emotions and ignorance of the electorate. Then it seems as if the welfare of the city, state, and nation will be dammed, having been the beneficiary of ignorance in ac tion. Unless the American people are the bene ficiary of an honest, efficient administration in Washington and state capttols. before long it will be too late to arrest our toboggan ride to disgrace, ruination and oblivion. Let us pray to God that the people will wake up and put to rout this crowd of deceitful politicians who exist only for the next election. It is very strange thatjso many people are not interested in participating in government in order to make it better. Just For Fan BY MARCUS H. BOULWARS INTERNSHIP TRIP Well, on Monday (March 3), I shall be off on a second trip vis iting three speech correction ma jors who are doing their practice teaching in Gainesville, Fla., and Tampa, Fla., respectively. I will stay in Gainesville two days and spend two days in Tampa. In Gainesville, the su pervising teacher serves ten schools in Alachua County. In Tampa, the speech correctionist gives remedial instruction to pu pils at five schools. Since I have no secretary, I generally close the Speech and Hearing Clinic while I am away. In this way, I can keep track of our electronic equipment. While our five interns are away on the field, I have a few cases of students needing speech correction. Tor example, one col lege junior has a minor articula tory defect, craracterized by substitution of the (F) sound for the (TH) in the medial and final positions in the word. MARITAL CUSTOMS: King Mtesa of Uganda. Africa, is re puted to have had the largest harem in the world. A little more than 7,000 wives were in his household. Boy, oh boy, there OXLY IX AMERICA BY HARRY GOLDEN BOOKS AN ORDINARY CORRUPTION This is a nation which col lectively has trouble reading comic strips, let alone master ing books. Yet collectively we have taken more books to court with every Intent of putting them In fall than all of eu rope put together. We will tolerate anything more or leas, in a television commercial but if a book says some of the same things it a lerte into Immediate action the Purity Committee and the sher iff, who say they must save the community. The only salvation books have had In America Is the fact that most judges can read. In variably Judges have read the book against which charges have been preferred and deter mined whether or not the book constitutes literature. Litera ti ut is exempt from obcenity laws by virtue of the author’s motive. The oourts have ruled that literature seeks to arouse the aesthetic attention not pru rien Interest. Setting precedent for this, of course, was Judge John M. Woolsey's ruling In favor of James Joyce’s novel “Ulysses” delivered in 1933. "According ly.’’ ruled Judge Woolsey. “U --lysees Is a sincere and honest book and I think the criticisms of It are entirely disposed of by Its rationale.” Later on. In 1957, Justice Brennan of the United States Supreme Court ruled that ob scenity Is th which is utterly without redeeming social value. Editorial Opinions Here are excerpts from edi torials compiled by the Asso ciated Negro Press appearing In some of the nation's leading y dally newspapers on subjects of current Interest to our readers: TROUBLE IN AFRICA THE EVENING BULLETIN. Philadelphia It Is difficult to find s pat tern In the disquieting events which have been talcing place In the Congo. In Zanzibar, and In Tanganyika. Kenya and U gada In recent days. The revolt In the Congo's Kwllu Providence, which has resulted In the harrasement and murder of American mis sionaries and others, and which seams to be spreading to neigh boring provinces, is definitely Communist-Inspired and led. The leader of the rebels, Pierre Mulele, only recently returned from indoctrination In Red China. The revolution In Zanzibar, which resulted In the shift of power from the Arab minority to the black majority was also Communist-promoted, though the discontent was there for the Communists to play upon. The troop mutinies in Tan gayika. Kenya and Uganda, so expeditioumaly and effectively quelled by the British at the request ol the African leaders of those nations, may cr may not have been a direct result of Communist agitation. The events of the past week have merely demonstrated what was well known already— the serious Instability of ail the newly independent African na tions. The big question is: what do the NATO nations i includ ing the United States) do about it? Is NATO willing to accept a Communist Africa? If It isn't, it s beginning to look as though it will take more than wishful thinking to prevent it. CHICAGO’S POLICY RACKET SUN TIMES. Chicago The cache of more than three-quarters ol a million dol lars found In a house on the South Side is evidence of the dept and spread of gambling m and around Chicago. The occu pant of the house was. accord ing to police reports, a "policy wheel" operator. ■ Policy and its sister game, numbers, are the gambling games oc the poor, in both games a bet can be made for small sums, a nickle or a dime. The winnings, if one should win, are high—about 500 to The odds against winning wasn't any possible way ha could commit adultery. OLDER WIVES: Moat men want younges wives than their age, but yet many of the world's most distinguished leaders wera wedded to wives older than themselves. Shakespeare’s wife was eight years older than he; Disraeli’s wife was his senior by 15 years; Empress Josephine was older than Napoleon; Queen Ca therine of Aragon was older than King Henry VIH; Mary Stuart was older than Francis II of France; Jenny Lind was older than her husband, and the wife of Warren G. Harding, ths late President of the United States, was his elder. Well, Mr. Cornyard is not Im pressed; he wants for a wife a sweet young thing in her teens. I wouldn’t advise you to taka Friend Cornyard as an exam ple, because he breaks the rules of the game and oftime loses. * GOOD SENSE: The best pa trons of beauty shops are not single girls out to get their man but married women evidently trying to hold their husbands. Beauty-shop operators say that married women are their bast and most frequent perilous. Now we have a new prece dent. Judge J. Erwin Shapiro of New York, sitting on the Queens State Supreme Court, recently ruled for 25 books charged with pornography. The Justice Indeed agreed the books were smutty and pornographic, that the author’s impulses were shameful and prurient but on that account they were not wihout social value. There were people who needed this sub-lit erature. Ruled Judge Shapario. the people who need these books are “ . . . those who, be cause of lack of education, ths meanness of their social exis tence or mental Insufficiency cannot cope with anything bet ter.” The books were coarse but so Is much of our civilization. Including bikinis. This recent ruling has stirred some protests among legal and judicial circles. It l«* n rulimr which d -...... UM. 4444,444. But I am somewhat in agree ment with it. Books of a cer tain nature should be banned, it is argued, because they cor rupt, such corruption, of course, admitting a radius as wide as a shotgun’s blast, according to most prosecutors. To which the oourts agree but add that ordi nary everyday living admits an even wider corruption with an even more penetrating blast. Admittedly, this Is not moral logic of a rigid and undeviating reason but It Is certainly prac tical advice. If the police chiefs will spend less time chasing suspected books, perhaps they will be able to reduce the trag ic number of fatalities. are astronomical. No one knows how much money Is spent g&mblling on policy and numbers. Some Idea of how much Is spent can be gathered from estimates police department that here are 20 or more policy wheels controlled by organized crime In this area. There are another 10 to 15 policy wheels that are termed "wildcat." that Is. not controlled or operated by or ganized crime because they are not Important or not profitable enough to bother with. The house where the fortune was dlscoevred was the site erf one such wildcat operation. THE POST-TRIBUNE. Oary, Ind. When we have published news reports at time* about the lush profits to be made by operators of “policy” wheels and other gambling enterprises, some of our readers have believed us guilty of exaggeration. A nickel and dime business like policy, or like the slot ma chine racket, couldn’t produce such fantastic "earnings" for the operators, they would say. It was silly to talk, they d ar gue. that such sums might be used for buying protection for politicians, or that control of the rackets was a prize worth the price of murder. The most bizarre story in a long time is being revealed In neighboring Chicago right now, however. Lawrence Wakefield suffered a heart attack recently in a modest residence where he had been a star boarder for 25 years. Police accompanied a fire department Inhalator squad to the house. They found policy tickets, and then a cash horde. Wakefield died, but an inquiry into the cash went a head. " Police found money “every where but on the ceiling." they said. It took seven officers nearly 24 hours to count It all —a final tally of $753,223 But can anyone question the power of such money to cor rupt, to buy protection and pol iticians—whether on the South Side of Chicago or In Gary, tod? CHURCH TO BLAME FOR RACISM THE NEWS. Miami Elimination of racial dieertm -1 nation Is quite properly a mat ter of concern to the churches The National Board of the Methodist Church has taken a worthy stand when it urge* that all paatoas and church of- •I oM J2' t ~i* l '"** ifS Gordon B. Hancock ’s BETWEEN THE LINES DEGREES ALONE NOT ANSWER The spread and depth of education among Ne groes is one of the more hopeful signs of the times. With inspiring and uplifting frequency v.t rend lr. the columns of the Negro press of the conferring of graduate degrees upon Negroes by the great universities of the country. Fifty years ago the Master’s degree was quite a notable achievement among aspiring Negroes In the field of scholarly pursuits: today Fh. D’s are being won by Negroes in almost every field of scholarly endeavqr. Very seldom we take up a Negro newspaper without reeding of some studious Negro having earned his Doctor's degree. This is as It should be, for a Great Tomorrow lies immediately ahead and great will be the demand for those of high est preparation. But as we noted in this column many weeks ago that we must not equate degrees and great scholarship. Negroes today are suffer ing from lack of great scholars. Higher degrees are coming with an encouraging frequency but scholars are emerging with a disoouraging slow ness. Who Is to take the place of great old W. E. B. Dußots who lately passed on? How many Car ter Woodsons in embryo do we find around the country? How many E. Franklin Fraziers do we have in the making at present? Let us scan the field for another Charles S. Johnson and another Abram Harris so recently passed and the outlook Is far from roseate. Not so long ago the race was awed by a Negro with a Ph.D. degree and now the Pittsburgh Courier of recent date carried an ac count of one Zwandula, an African who Is cur rently pursuing his third Ph. D. degree having already won two, one from the University of Mos cow and another from Oxford In economics and law respectively with studies in the universities of Paris, Cairo and Lisbon. It Is said that at the Universities of Paris and Cairo he ranked second In his class scholastically: at Lisbon, third and at Oxford, fourth. What is perhaps most startling. Zwandula is only 29 years of age. When men like Zwandula are sprinkled over Africa and more of the degreed Negroes of ISSUES: GOOD AND BAD BY P. L. PRATTIS For AVP Timas have indeed, changed—and tastes as well. Time was when one didn’t need muh education from the cradle to the grave. Youngsters might quit school at the age erf twelve, “go out into the world” and become self-made men. Our ancestors, black and white, spumed the education which high schools and colleges were prepared to give. From grammar school these hardy youngsters of another day enrolled in the School of Hard Knocks. They asked nothing better. Avwrill Harri man's father, with no more than a sixth grade education, became one of the wealthiest Ameri cans of his time. In thoee days, men were proud to be able to boast that they did not need the crutch of edu cation to make their way through life. Only one of the men in President McKinley's first cabinet was a college graduate, the Secretary of the Navy. The others had credentials from the Sfchool of Hard Knocks. They felt no embarrassment In the presence of Mr Long, the navy* secretary. As a matter of fact, they felt they had something Mr. Long did not have, the ability to make K on their own. The father of Mrs. Eisenhower ran away from home at the age of thirteen. He obtained a Job as water boy for a railroad crew. He never did go back home, but at the age of 37. he was wealthy enough to RETIRE. Some of the greatest men the United States has ever known were the school “drop-outs" of yesteryear. They were not intel lectuals. They used muscle and mother’s wit. Very few of the early successful industrialists were college trained. The foregoing to not meant to imply that you don’t need a high school or college education to day. The times have charged. The Horatio Algers become fewer and fewer. It is regretaWe that parents, twenty years ago, oould not see this local church membership open to *2l. regardless of raoe. In addition, the board asked that the right of minorities to stage peaceful demonstrations be affirmed. The Inevitable America become Infatuated with the beckonini opportunities in emerging Africa, Africa is golnj to be one of the great powers of the world of to ii* _», What Africa Is dreaming today will be a reality tomorrow when more Zwandulas arise %pid- go forth conquering and to conquer. The more this writer studies what Is going on In Africa today, and think of the dreams of Marcus Garvey of yesterday, whom America’s leading Negroes in too great numbers and notice laughed to soom, he Is convinced that Garvey had something and lived ahead of his times. Like many other great men he looked Over the ahodlder of his times and was gainsaid and derided, bat subsequent develop ments vindicated them even as Garvey is being vindicated. * One of our ablest Negro Americans In making little of Garvey called him a “little fat. black, ugly man.” But more and more time is vindicating the contentions and teachings of this same “little fat, black, ugly, man." Disparaging descriptions count for little when a seer and prophet with great vision comes on the scene. Zwandula s many degrees from many univers ities is but a prelude to a very very Important question about the origin of these degrees that are coming as from an assembly line. Whites are more and more seeking two Doctrates. And now ’comes Zwandula seeking his third. Tomorrow's questions will be, Do you have da* grees? How many? What are they? And lasUy, but becoming more Important, Whw* 3id jua get them? .Universities that issue eren Ph. D. degrees In too great profusion will become suspect abong universities which have greater caution in their standards and in the long run the question will be not what degrees one has but who Is one with the degree? Who has the degree Is far more Im portant than the degree itself. A degreed man without character is not the answer. The measure of a man is not his mind but his heart! Somehow or other room must be made for Jesus in our great educational scheme of things. Such observation at a time like this sounds like Garyevism. change coming. It would liave been helpful If they could have forseen the oncoming automa tion which was to call for less and less brawn and more and more brain. This is particularly true so far as Negroes are concerned. The machines have taken over the old jobs which were “generously” set aside for them. They were usually hot and dirty jobs nobody else wanted. The machines did not reject those Jobs. Vo cational guidance counselors in the schools 25 years ago were extremely hard put to give good and fair guidance to Negro pupils. Only the meanest jobs were available to them and these did not require an education. In this, a more salu brious era for the prepared Negro, one finds too few of them prepared. The reason is because hun dreds of thousands of young Negroes in an ear lier day have had to throw up their hands in dis gust an exclaim: “What's the use!” There is a “use” today. It must be recognize ’ that if education was not a paramount facte seventy-five years ago, it is today. This is a nev day in a new world and those who conclude that they are going to try to make it through the world of yesterday will quickly find out that world exist' no longer. Education is a primary necessity for the Negro of today and of the future. Negroes have been proud to boast ors their bodies, thri physical prowess wherever given a chance f prove themselves. But brains and »hiii are re quired today. This fact cannot be overlooked. In an earlier day. when mo there thought ths education in the three R'6 was enough, th“ scrubbed their knockles off to get the means to keep their youngsters in school. But the stand ards then were not what they are today and it i c much more Important to obtain the best possible education toady than it was then. Qualified Ne groes should be kept in the nrhngl jMtkl helped where necessary. not alone in advocating s pol icy of desegregated churches. Some other denominations have accepted worshippers without regard to race. However, church organim- Mona on tfas whole have been lax in advocating the principle of equal right*. Perhaps If the churches had exerted stronger leadership such racial equality legislation as the pending civil rights bill would be ■ary.
The Carolinian (Raleigh, N.C.)
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March 7, 1964, edition 1
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