Newspapers / The Carolina Times (Durham, … / April 27, 1968, edition 1 / Page 10
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2B -THE CAROLINA TIMES SATURDAY, APIUL 27, 1968 The American BY DR. G. M. TUCKER, ' ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OLD TESTAMENT DUKE UNIVERSITY CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK Now we say that these vio lent conflicts In the past and the one we are presently en in were inevitable and necessary. Maybe they were. But when we have said that, we n>ay be able to understand how Black Power spokesmen sre saying that the Negro's freedom will not be achieved without violence. Rational men ~must respond that civil disor ders ate fruitless, that they will not achieve freedom. But some Negroes are saying that this is not the question. They would rather die than go on this way. "Violence is as American as American as Cherry pie." No one knows that better than the the American Negro. The his tory of the Negro in America is a bloody chronicle of vio lence. Over three hundred years ago, the first Negroes were brought to these shores in chains. For two centuries! they were bought and sold like animals. Children were sepa rated from their parents-vio lently-- and wives from their husbands. The first steps to wards their freedom were tak en in blood. The great Ameri can experiment almost floun dered on this issue a century ago. And then for a century more the Negro has been sub jected often to intimidation and not infrequently to mob violence. And a recent con gressional committee reported that even today the Ku Klux Klan remains "a vehicle of death, d est ruction and fear." Listen to this advertisement which appeared in a newspaper in the early 1800's: "Fifty dollars reward.-- Ran away from the subscriber, his Negro man Paul adore, commonly called Paul. I understand Gen. R. Y. Hayne has purchased his wife and children from H. L Pickney, Esq. and has them on his plantation at Goose creek, where, no doubt, the fellow is frequently lurking" (Du Bois, 11-12) Or again: "Fifty dollars re ward - Ran away from the sub scriber, a Negro girl named Maria. She is of a copper color, between 13 and 14 years of age - bareheaded and barefooted. She is small for her age-very sprightly and very likely. She stated she was going to see her mother at Maysville." (Ibid) The Negro in America knows and remembers that he was a slave. This is a part of his history which he has to live with. Violence and pain. But now, for the first time, the shoe is on the other foot. So we hear again the words of Hosea, addressed to us: "They have sown the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind." (8:7) We have planted the seeds of this violence for three hundred years and have no right to be surprised thst they are now full grown. When we chronicle the his tory of violence in America we have touched only one as- " pect of the cause for the riots. The other side of the story is the present plight of poverty striken Negroes in our society, whether they live in the slums of the large cities or in the Purefoy's Photography Natural Color Black and White (Commercial Wedding - Family Photos Proms - Danees and Groups CALL: DAY 682-2913, WEEKEND 682-7316 shacktowns of community af ter community, It is almost im possible for noit of us who are whit* to comprehend the agony of these men and wo men and children. Few writers have been able to put into words that pain and suffering better than the Negro novelist James Baldwin. In one of his short stories written iq 1958, one of his looks out the win dow of a tenement upon the mass of humanity and dirty buildings and garbage cans and says: "All that hatred down there. . .all avenue apart." This in 1958! Or in another story a Negro tells of returning by boat to New York: "A big, sandy-haired man held his daughter on his shoulders, showing her the Statue of Li berty. I would never know what this statue meant to others, she had always been an ugly joke for me." Or again, the same character gives his view of the small Southern town where he grew up; "It's a terrible town, anyway, the whole thing looks as though it's built around a jailhouse. There's a room in the court house, a room where they beat you up." This is the way Ame rica has looked to Negroes for generations." This feeling is produced by "iffi and breadth of white prejudice with which the Ne gro has to live. George Lin coln Rockwell, the head of the American Nazi party until his recent murder, was asked last year how many people in this country agreed with him. He admitted that his organization was small, but relt it had wide spread support. He said: "When the time comes, mil lions of Americans will fight with me under the sign of the swastika." As he put it, "Every nigger hater is a Nazi at heart." ! Sad but true. And the Negro has had to bear this hatred. v This hatred and more subtle forms of havq led'to the conditions of Ame rican slums today: Inferior education, unemployment, un deremployment, squalid hous ing conditions. In short, they hare cut off the Negro's hope. So the contemporary causes of the riots are the prejudice and injustice which the poverty -striken Negro has experienced. As William Sloan Coffin, Jr., repeated recently, "There are no revolts without revolting conditions." No one who has walked through the slums of our cities can deny that these revolting conditions exist. To walk through these slums is to see, as the prophets say, the Cace of the poor trampled in the dust. What caused the riots? I am suggesting that the biblical tradition gives an explanation . which is borne out by an exa | mi nation of the facts: Our his tory of violence, especially to ward the Negro and our fail f ur* to deal justly with the Ne- I gro have caught up with us. | History is handing us its bill. I To be sure, there are other | factors to be mentioned, but i the roots are deep in our his l' tory and our present situation, j So there we have the pro blem, and an explanation from ' the prophets supported by the I facts of our history. Where do | we go from there? It there tny way to stem the rising tide of violence? We have not seen the last of the riots, as events of this week have made clear. All that we have said in bo way condones violence, nor does it even excuse it. But it implies that if we expect to prevent its recurrence we must address ourselves urgently to the roots of it, the conditions of American cities produced by racism. And here it, where our Christian duty and our national aelf-lnterest intersect: injustice to the savings of Jesus that we are to love our neigh bor as ourselves, the biblical tradition cries out that we be concerned about our neighbor, especially the poor and op pressed. And hear this paraphrase of one ot tne text appointed for reading this Passion Sunday: The blood of Christ purifies your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. This says to me that those who have heard the Gospel are free. The bonds of the old guilt can be broken; we can make a new beginning. While 300 years of injustice cannot be forgotten, it can be overcome. Assuming that we as free Christian citizens want to do something, here are a few sug gestions: First, each one must deve lop some real awareness of the depth of the problem. One needs to become sensitive, as Car as possible, to what it feels like to be poor and to be a Negro. This means contact with Negroes and Negro com munities is essential. A minis ter in Watt* had a program to help sensitive people come to the problems. Groups of mid dle class white church people come into that slum commu nity and he simply sends them SAFEN \THAN SORRY-/ PROVIDE PROTECTION WITH AUTO INSURANCE Have you compared your rates and bene fits On auto insurance with other companies? Before you renew or check with us. Com pare our low rates. CONSULT US ABOUT OUR INSTALLMENT PAYMENT PLAN Union Insurance & Realty Co. •414 AY ITT* VILL ■ ST. PHONE M2-11SS GORDON'S GIN $2.30 FC f $3.65 PINT 4 /SQT. GMMHS J » S E IOMDOMDHT JT FI GLM IT M 1 wsiiin o T Boiiito i* mc USA BY -I// R I !N( MSTHHK COMPANY IIMITCD V JV" M mi>n »t» J«H»IY J MM HUTMI Willi MfTlim fMH SUM. |0 PtOOf • MKOOtt NT GM CO. U(.. UNO. 14. out to walk down the streets and to the stores to buy a tew things. Then they know first hand what a slum smells like and know for themselves that the poor do pay more for In ferior goods. r -Second, the church must begin to be the church with reference to racial equality. Eleven o'clock Sunday morn ing is still the most segregated hour of the week. So many people are asking themselves: Is the church the most culture bound Institution in the coun try? Is the institution charged with furthering the love of God and of neighbor? Martin Lu ther Ki.«g has said, "In the midst of blatant injustices in flicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churchmen stand on the sideline and mouth pious irrelevancies sanc timonious trivialities." If he speaks harshly and strongly about the role of the church, remember that he speaks as a churchman, out of love and concern, and out of a confidence that the church can take the leadership in this struggle. Third, we as individuals and as Christians can work in our own backyard. Your communi ty is where you live, if even for & year, or four years. The large problem of injustice boils down to the sum total of thou sands of little injustices In every town and city of our country. We as citizens can speak out to those with poli tical and non-discrimination in education. All these needs exist In Durham. Fourth and finally, those who are aware of the serious ness of the problem must call for radical re-direction of na- tional goals. We are spending our national wealth and energy on war and space. But when I speak of re-direction of na tional goals, I am not speaking of money alone, but of the best use of all our resources. Solutions to the problems of the poor will not take shape until we apply massive amounts of creative energy to these problems. We can afford to do it. We cannot afford not to do it. The present crisis de mands it. Justice demands it. And the Christian gospel de mands it. AP's Board Pays Tribute To Daniels NEW YORK -The board of directors of The Associated Press paid tribute Monday to Frank A. Daniels, president of The News and Observer in Ra leigh, N. C, who is retiring from the board. The text of a resolution rt#d at the annual meeting follows: Be it known by all. . .that the board of directors of The Asso ciated Press hereby records its appreciation of the services of Frank A. Daniels, president of the Raleigh News and Observer and a member of this board since April of 1964. Initially elected to fill a va cancy created by the death of Millard Cope, he was reelected in 1965 for a three-year term. In line with an apparent 1968 trend in other electoral contests, Mr. Daniels this year notified the nominating committee that he did not choose to run for the third term for which he was eligible. A tough - minded newspaper executive, bank director "and student of government tax prob lems, Frank Daniels brought to The Associated Press board, as oHnd (Ojienha Friday & April 26-27 wi ON DISPLAY RCA Color TV ond JrfflftfejfiLHi , o 4-woy antenna will be given away at thii new Gulf Station SECOND PRIZE FREE for children * by parents 3 i l^^^ui« ->>* Gla»»»«-o four-pack of booutiful auto "- *-' * .-?3j '■-£? * *'" h* '° lu i * d with every purthoM of uvtn or MORI gallon! el m ' ... • Ba«olin« at this tervice station during the opening days. 489-&632 FIKES GULF SERVICE """ Comer S. Roxboro & Cornwallis Rd. Durham, N. C. jßiv |V I 4 w SHI ■ ! ■ 17f j. Iw j J I?|Ji 11 7 M ■ HIH v |r if?Vl|l| ■ ■■■ |m y» ! } aMMm B : 'w 3^B ■PP&f:. Sit- 'lffH BHp* '-' ' • - '■ *for* kk— ASSIGNMENT— Chester Thom as, Gulf Oil Corporation Plant man Foreman at the company's Arlington, Texas, Distribution Center, and J. L. Tosh, Section he has to others, that spirit of self-determination and independ ence so characteristic of his home state of North Carolina. His was the valued voice that frequently strengthened deliber ation by saying "no!" and ask ing "why?". His fellow board members will miss Mr. Daniels' coherent strength at our formal sessions and his quiet affability during social gatherings. We regret this decision to retire and express to him our thanks for his attentive service, his imparted wisdom and his freely-given friendship. The U.S. Army Reserve teaches skills to build careers T Head, go over a day's work for Thomas' crew. Thomas, who ' has been with Gulf for'lQ years, j is responsible for overseeing j FREE TOM'S „ Omhoub isrf?f mWMiMG. ' • '//' X& /I TMI! IIIK>9TCLMNINa Now 3 Convenient * fcS.O. W * Location* I"" VN 1 Dtiuxt Your ctothes look bat ' I E3I cui'otc ter lon g er - Color! 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The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.)
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April 27, 1968, edition 1
10
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