North Carolina Newspapers

THE CAROLINA TliaS SATURDAY, JULY 21, 1»S« God Save Our White Children From Their Parents North Carolina sank to a new low in statesmanship and lack of leadership last week when its governor called two known secret meetings in this state for the suppc«ed briefing of legislators who will attend the special session of the Gen eral Assembly which he call ed for the purpose of passing legislation that will defy or drcumvent the U. S. Supreme Court ruling on segregation in public schools. Not only were all white and Negro citi zens of the state barred from both meetings, but all newspa per reporters as well. Accord ing to reliable reports, one of the meetings was held in a hunting lo^e with a well- stocked bar and surrounded by a barbed wire fence not too much unlike those used to safeguard military prisoners during World War II. As we understand it, mem bers of the State Advisory Commission were also invited to the two meetings hel din the woods wherfe they were expected to fall inline with Uoidges’ unholy sch^ne to save segregated schools in North ciuroUna. Twenty-five years from now, when our children look back on this tragedy in our state, they will bow their heads in shame at the asinine antics of their gov ernor and their forefathers. History is now writing a black chapter in North Carolina, a chapter which must and will be read just exactly as it is written. The chapter will read that its governor in the years 1955-56 had the opportunity to point the people to respect for the Constitution and Su preme Court of ^ his country but deliberately led them in a direction of disrespect and de fiance of both. It will read that instead of directing the people in respect for law and order, the governor of this state deliberately promoted a program to create hysteria, race hatred and animosity. No blacker chapter has ever been written in the history of a state, no governor has ever made a greater mess of his of fice, no greater tragedy in statesmanship has ever been recorded in the annals of A- merican history and no gover nor of a state has ever succed- ed so greatly in turning back the pages of history. The late Franklin D. Roose velt gave us the four freedoms and Governor Hodges and At torney General W. B. Rodman, in a black and unholy con spiracy which requiras secret meetmgs in the woods, have concocted the fifth freedom— THE FREEDOM TO BE IG NORANT. So, in eastern North Carolina and other be nighted sections of the state, those who have half-hearted ly supported education, those who have opposed every tax ation for its support now have the backing of the governor and attorney-general of the state to decide any and every situation affecting public schools “intolerable,” where by they have the freedom to keep their children out of school and let them grow in ignorance. God save the white children from their parents. Democracy cannot thrive or live on ignorance. That is why in eastern North Carolina there is less democracy and more race hatred than in oth er sections of the state. That is why Mississippi, Georgia and states of the deep South are cesspools of race hatred and deny even the elementary rights of democracy to Negro citizens. Likewise, there is no democracy where the gover nor or any other public offic ial resorts to transacting the people’s business in secrecy. Well .intelligent Negro citi zens of North Carolhia will have no part of this hellish scheme. We are of the opinion that the fair-minded and in telligent white people of the state, although outnumbered and silent for the present, are just as much opposed to it. We are also satisfied that if and when the time ever comes in this state or any section of it when the public schools as we now know them are closed, the white citizens of the state will suffer more than its Ne gro citizens. Negro students, teachers and parents in the very nature of the case are more adept at improvising teaching facili ties, studying in basements, churches, one - room school houses and second • handed books. Only recently has the state provided bus transporta tion on a state-wide basis for Negro children. So if worse comes to worse, we will fall back on our years of prepara tion for it in dilapidated school houses, inadequate fa cilities and other disadvantag es forced upon us by our white brethren. We vt^ill teach our children in barns, in basements, in sheds, in attics, in kitchens and on porches. We will teach them in the daytime and at night. We are not so far re moved from the pot-bellied stoves that pneumonia will overtake us because a class room is not steam-heated. With the better trained set of teachers in the state we can and will find a way. Our white bretheren in their an xiety to keep us in a state of second class citizenship have, unwittingly prepared us for this hour. The challenge which involves our struggle for decency and human digni ty will be met forthright. There will be no animosity, there will be no boasting, there will be no hatred, there will be no anger and before eternal God there will be no retreat. We will pursue our course calmly but with firm- esss in the f^eral courts and within other established frameworks of Democracy. The God of our fathers, who in past and sundry times has always come in on time, and the highest court in the land «ure on our side. We cannot lose. The victory may be slow in coming, it may be delayed and retarded by chicanery and evil men, but it will in the end be ouriB. in he Verdict |n The Virginia Case Like a bolt out of a clear blue sky comes the verdict of Federal Judge John Paul last wedc at Charlottesville, Vir ginia on the matter of integra tion in public schools of &at state .Judge Paul directed at torneys for the state of Vir ginia and the National Asso ciation for the Advancement of Colored People to prepare a joint decree ordering inte gration in Charlottesville pub lic schools by the fall term. The 72-year-old jurist told the estate and NAACP attor neys if they cannot agree, he will accept a decree drawn by the latter. Goose pimples must have popped out on the fore head of North Carolina’s gov ernor and attorney-general, both of whom are now engag ed in an abortive alliance and plan to hold the line in this state against abolishing segre gated schools. Not only did Judge Paul or der the decree issued but se verely criticized the state for its delay in complying with the U. S. Supreme Court’s ban on segregation in public schools. The action of Judge Paul ought to dampen the de termination of southerners that they can win in their fight to perpetuate segregated schools, but it wont.. "niere is no fool like an old southern fool on the question of segre gation. The fight will go on to the bitter end, with death playing on the side of right and finally eliminating, one by one, those who woul4. de stroy Democracy and Chris tianity in the South. Segregation is the old south erner’s god. He puts no other before him, not even his chil- den. He is willing to sacrifi- fice his church, home and his schools to maintain segrega tion because it is the only way by which he can continue to feel that he is superior. He simply must have some one to look down upon and kick around, ^e idea that any court or individual would take that right away sends him in to hysterics. Several days ago, Thurgood Marshall, noted NAACP at torney, stated that he doubt ed the superiority of any in dividual or group of indivi duals who would spend over a hundred thousand dollars of the taxpayers’ money to fight a case they are absolutely a- ware of in the beginning that they cannot win. With this we quite agree. White Foll(s' Business If and when a referendum on the several bills proposed by Governor Hodges against integration is held, we think Negro voters should have no part in it. The U. S. Supreme Court has spoken on the issue as well as lower federal courts and we see no reason for Ne gro citizens to take part in a referendum they have little or no chance of winning with in the slate when they have already won the equivalent in th§ federal courts. We think the greatest pro test Negro voters can lodge a- gainst the proposed legislation is that of absenting themsel ves from the ptolls if and when the referendum is held. ’The effort to pass any kind of leg islation to defy the U. S. Su preme Court and to disregard the Constitution of the United States is as purely “for white folks only” as that of handling snakes in their religious cere monies and we should let them have it to themselves. Whatever Negroes have cop led from the white naan’s re ligious ceremonies, he has id- ways drawn the line on hand ling snakes to get to heaven to keep him from going to hell or to prove his faith in God, Snake handling is white folks business and we should like wise let the referendum be their business lest we become victims of Its poisonous fangs. SATURDAY L. E. Austin .. Clatkan Ross JULY 21, 1956 ... Publisher M. E. Jo&nson ButineMs Manager Editor W. A.41cNmssEE „ Advertising Manager PublUhed Every Saturday l» the UNITJKD PUBLISHERS, Inc. at 436 E. Pettlcrew St. Fntered •« aecofid claM matter at the Poat Office at Durham, North Carolina under the Aci ol March 3, 1879. Nattooal Advertiidni RepreMDtatlve: Inter- tat« United No guarantee of publication of unsolicited material. Letten to the editor for pubUcatioB must be cigned and confined to 500 words. Subscription Rate*; 10c per copy; Six mraths, I2.0C; One Year, $S.OO (Foreign CeuntrlM, $4.00 p«r ymr.) FACING THE ISSUE By Dr. A. H. Oordon THE SOUTH AND LOST CAUSES Ever since the founding of this nation tke Southern leetion of it has been strongly advoca ting programs which have final ly ended as “Lest Causes.” In the struggle to adopt a Consti tution to serve as the basic law of the land, the South advocates the total disfranchisement of ttie Negroes, slave and free, while insisting that they tibunted as persons in arriving at popula tion statistics for representa tion in congress. The South won an apparent victory in that a provision was incorporated in the Constitution which virtually made the Negro three-fifths of a man. The “victory” here how ever proved to be Ulusory-a lost cause-in that a few years later as history goes, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the federal constitution made the “three-fifth compromise’’ null and void. Even b^ore the final failure of this first “Lost Cause", the South began defending the Second great Iiost Cause. The South precipatated the Civil War for the purpose of perpetu ating the evil institution of hu man slavery. Of course the South precipated the Civil it was fighting for slavery, ad vertising to the world ttot it was fighting for local self-go- vernment However, England and France the two great potential allies, saw through this sham and re fused to aid the South in this shameful effort to keep human beings in the status of animala. In spite of the fact that the best general of the time. Ro bert E. Lee, becanM a traitor to the country to help the South maintain slavery, the Civil War ended as the Second great Lost Cause of this section. With this great. "Lost Cause” went other smaller ones. Now the South is engaged in another traitorous civil war, al though this latest one is at pre sent a "cold war”. We refer, of course, to contemporary fight of the South to defeat the Supreme Court decision against segrega tion in public education. With out fear, we predict that the end of this nefarious “cold war” will be written in the history books as another, perhaps the final, “Lost Cause” of the South. Let us hope and pray that it is the last! An American's hnpressions OfTheUfeOfGhandi Editor’s Note: Beginning this week, the TIMES will carry a series of articles on the life of the late Indian spiritualist and leader, Mohandas K. Ghandi. The articles were prepared by Miss Mary Mills, a colonel in the U. S. Army nurses corps. Miss Mills has spent several years In Lebanon, where she has been assigned to a U.S. Mission. In her long years of ser vice in the Near East, generally considered as one of the few places on the globe where ideas from both hemispheres meet she has been attracted to the cus toms and ideas of peoples of the East. Beciiuse of exposure to currents of ideas from the East, she prepared this series on the life of Ghandi, perhaps the most articulate Easterner of our time and certainly one whose influ ence on the West has been by far the most profound. FOREWORD “The Light has gone out of our lives”, said Prime Minister Jewaharlal Nehru in an im promptu radio address upon the martyrdom of Gandhi; “there is darkness everywhere.” Could it be that Gandhi’s light ceased to shine since he was no longer with us in his puny buudle of flesh and bones? Correcting himself Nehru continued; “I was wrong, for the light that shone in this country was no ordinary light. The light that illumined this country for these many years will illumine this country for many years; and a thousand years'later, that light will be seen in thl? country, and the world will see it and it will give solace to innumerable hearts. For the light represented some thing more than the immediate present; it represented the living truth, reminding us of the right path, drawing us from error, taking this ancient country to freedom.” For one of Gandhi’s trusted disciples, often referred to' as one of the stories relating to Jesus’ relationship with the high-minded and heroic women who clustered about HIM dur ing his ministry in Palestine many centuries ago...when she heard the news she remarked; They Have Become One. Gandhi and God had now be come ONE. Gandhi had replied a few days before to a question from this disciple when she ask ed him if he would have the time to come for the opening ceremony of some of the work and to give it his blessing. Don’t think of my coming, and then as if speaking to himself, he ask ed “what Is the good of count ing on a corpse?” And now this prophetic reference had been fulfilled. Again the blood of an avatar Iwd flowed for the sal vation of mankind. 1869—1048 Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the Indian people, of India’s hard won struggle for indepen dence died at the hands of one of his fellow Hindi’s just before the beginning of prayers on Januaix 30, 1948. And yet the inspiration of his life and his spiritual teachings live on in the hearts and minds of the peo ple throughout the world. He lived to see the independence of his beloved India but like the prophet Moses was not permit ted to witness the birth of the Republic which took place on January 20, 1060. Gandhi was bom on October 2, 1869, in Porbandar, a small sea side village in western In dia. His father was an unletter ed man but was known, so far as geography Is concerned, for his impartiality in his immediate family and on the outside. He was devoted to his clan, truth ful, brave and courageous. The father was married to an unlettered Hindu girl and Gandhi was their fourth child. He always remembered his (Continued on Page Seven) INVITING THE UNDERTAKER- 4 ■* Ti/i Tfl« IH051* dangerous Curve in the worlel. apBaxnssfloaa I THEY T6UU M& VBR. pROpeerY vauub^ ^ WH6N IMTD^ ■ w Spiritual Insight “PRESERVING FOR THE REWARD” By REVEREND HAROLD ROLAND Pastor» Mount Gilead Baptist Church “Persevere until Cod gives you your reward...” II John 1:8. Through the ages perseverance has been a great Christian vir tue. The true believer has been steadfast amid the most trying conditions. Those who would live the good life in a world of evil must persevere. Those who would enjoy the blessed fruits of peace and righteousness must have this spiritual quality. Yes, those who would achieve life’s worthwhile goals must be able to endure. And above all, those who would receive the crown of righteousness must persevere and pass victorious through hardships, trials, insults, perse cution and suffering. John, therefore, out of his many struggles and battles of the Christian life rightly re minds us to...“Persevere until God gives you your reward.. The Christian should be re minded that his or her labors in the Lord are not in vain. An act of goodness Is never lost A stand for right is never in vain. Our battles for truth will be rewarded. Many times our struggles for righteousness seem wasted. The Devil will tempt you to believe that your labors are in vain. Hold on in the bat tle for righteousness and God will reward your efiorts. A note was found beside the body of a young man on the decisive bat tle of Gettysburg 8aying...‘Tell my father I died facing the enemy...” Hold high the banner. Fight on for Christ and his cause. Your labors are not in vain. God will reward you. John is saying hold your ground for God will reward you. John saw the reward and held his ground on Patmos. Stephen was steadfast amid the volley of stones that crushed him to death. Jeremiah held his ground in the mire of the dark dungeon. Gandtii saw the fruits of free dom as he held on amid suffer ings and imprisonments. Hold your ground too, for the reward of the righteous is sure. Flo rence Nightingale was misun derstood, discotuaged and blocked; but-God rewarded her in her great service of love and mercy... “Persevere until God gives you your reward...” The persevering Saint has the guarantee of CrOd’s glorious re ward. God will reward the faithful with peace and joy. And the final reward of the faittiful in Christ Jesus is the Crown^of a good TIfe...“Be thou faithful unto death and I’ll give thee a crown of life...” Capital Close Up . “The Boycott Is a Double-Edged Sword."—Thurgood Marshall -Probers Pick Crump’s Ax-Man On Saturday, July 7, Sub committee Chairman James C. Davis, of Georgia, announced the appointment of William E. Gerber of Memphis, to the D. C. School Integration Probe post rejected by Supreme Court foe Leander Peres of Louisiana. Gerber, Russlan-bom immi grant who became chief lieu tenant and ax-man for Mem phis’ corrupt Crump adminis tration, ruled for over two de cades over Shelby County, Ten nessee, (which includes Mem phis) as its attorney general, and has been credited with out- Crumping hi^ late boss. The story in the Washington 'Dally News, for July 9, by the Memphis Press-Scimitar’s Clark Porteous, a Nieman Fellow and veteran of 23 years on the Mem phis press, spelled out Gerber as a “belligerent tyi>e prosecu tor, usually successful and on some occasions so vindictive... that Ugher courts reversed his convictions,” ud as a political boss who played his politics so tough that even the Criun ma chine finally shelved him. "One Long Nightmare” Race leaders in Memphis support Porteous’ story and re fer to Gerber’s SO-'odd jrears U prosecuting attorney, there, as “one long nightmare for Ne groes.” They warn that the Da vis Committee Investigator is a “keen, conniving opportunist,” who “played Crump’s game and must be constantly watched." They cite Gerber as the Mem phis prosecutor' who killed off a meeting called for Sleeping Car Porter chief A. Philip Ran dolph, in October, 1843, when Gerber called in twenty Negeo leaders and warned t^t they “would be responsible,” if anything happtnad,” and polnt- BY CONSTANCB DANIEL ed out tliat Memphis papers al ready are carrying the story that Integration in the Federal City "has not been going too well”—hence the committee to Investigate school, integration. Thurgood Talks a Walk If we heard correctly, and we think that we did, Thurgood Marshall's committee-meeting walk-out at San Francisco, ta- ken in protest over attempts to stretch the Rights organization into the field of social and eco nomic programming, should be a warning bell to any earnest and sincere workers in the field of civil rights. It is our information that a 'resolution concerning housing was the point of conflict. If so, there have been many straws in the wind which started to blow at the housing “Press Confer ence” called at the Statler Ho tel, here, a year ago, by Urban League’s national director, Les Granger, a performance (we sat in), which did “Rights" ad vocates no credit and convinced few. There have been many straws since, including recent pronouncements on housing by Mrs. Roosevelt But anyone who, thereby, ex pected Thurgood to “straddle” a policy issue, as an NAACP official, here, suggested that he should have done on a’ boytott query, some weeks back—just didn’t know Thurgood. He Is a fighter who Inspires confidence because he always puts his brain before hia brawn. We believe tha^ he always will. Debt-Free Dedication The debt-free dedication, on July 8, of the new brick, glass- facade dormitory at Educator Nannie Helen Biuroughs’ Pro fessional School for Women, at Lincoln Heights, marked a new day in building financing by private institutions of learning diractad bgr Na«roM. ^ • r •i The building, designed and constructed by Negroes, was financed by the contributions of Negroes, and particularly by the Women’s Convention, Auxilary of the National Baptist Conven tion, Inc., wliich was also re sponsible for the purchase of the Magruder McDonald , mansion, now the Foreign Mission Re treat House, here. The valiant efforts of these women, and others, made it possible to dedi cate the 52-room, 200 thousand dollar dormitory, with its mo dem furnishings and facilities, completely free of debt. Hundreds of visitors witness ed the dormitory dedication wtiich marked the opening of a new building program at the school launched by mim Bur roughs nearly half a century ago, when she bought the hill side farm on the Capital’s out skirts, for six thousand dollars. The projected bidlding program will include a chapel, a library and a science building. Dr. Mordecai Wyatt Johnson, Howard University president, delivered the dedicatory ad dress—called the debt-free dedi cation “an achievement of ro bust world significance. Miss Burroughs, punctual as always, presided. Dr. Johnson, arriving nearly an hour late, spoke well Congraaswoman Frances Bolton; of Cleveland, w«s a platform guest. The school’s superbly trained choir rendered familiar hymns with spirit and interest. MdUVB I