The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-03-21


 gave the ancestors of the negro free
 passage paid by the sale of the. cargo, or
 at those whose homes and. fields furnished the unremunerated sphere of their toll, it must be admitted that the responsi- bility for their presence among us falls
 alike on England and America, and in
 America on the north no less than on the south. Their presence among us and their need make an appeal that must be felt and acknowledged by every heart that
 can be touched by tenderness, by every soul open to sympathy.
 What use does this constitution make of that opportunity? Twelve million voices like the sound of many waters none the less audible because uncon- sciously uttered called so pleadingly to the old ship of Zion; you are opposite the port, anchor Methodists, anchor. mil l lion and a half Methodists are among that multitude. our own included. on board that ship stood S03000 negro North ern. Methodists yet not a hand touched the halyards. Past the port sailed the ship. dropping but a feeble recommends l ton for "an equitable provision for | financial support" In season and out or season this southern voice called for recogniton@of that mass of 100000, and the sole response was thet echo of his own voice.
 ONE IN FORTY
 There can De no dOuDs or the SlHHCefltS of the majority of the commission to care for the colored membership of the Methodist Episcopal Church. No uues- ton of sincerity is raised, or can De raised: but sincerity is no test of truth.
 Does this constitution provide for the welfare of the negro? Of the l2Oo'"o negroes of them in independent self-gov- erning Methodist churches, this consti- tuition covers only the Sc3,000 negro mem | bers in the Methodist Episcopal Church. 1 If is interested in onebnly one. out of | forty negroes: for the remaining thirty | nine of the forty it does nothing, literally nothing The recommendation with when l the constitution closes goes no further than to suggest "an equitable provision for the financial support of the Colored | Methodist Church by setting apart de- | signated amount for work among colored people?"
 i This is but a recommendati tion, whose l orce is feeble whose result Will pos l ,;bly be but formal. But what is done ! for this one of the forty? He IS placed | ir the heart of the church and at the 1 same time shut off from his fellow negroes. His status is fixed, ana no success he may meet can increase the 1 .rouble-making privilege for which he has so strenuously contended, as no ! failure can diminish it. There he | stands fixed in the general conference, never less than thirty. never more than l eorty-two With generous provision for all his financial needs. with the 1 incentive to enthusiastic work abated, 1 if not destroyed with no room to de- l velop independence of character no i opportunity to cultivate race con l sciousness. no call to make his color l adge of honor, no bcckoning of pure ambition to largest service among ms 1 needy fellows, he is placed where he cannot grow; he can only slowly | dwindle. but never reach the vanishing roint He can. however. harm the | church of which he is an organic part l His, position is not pest for his white
 brothers; it is not best for him. He makes no nexus even with the other Methodsts of his race.
 1 Fifty years ago the Methodist Epis- oopal Church began it's work among | the negroes. That church intended to 1 he kind to him and was abundantly generous The negro would have been 1 less than human had he reflected this kindness or refused the alms-laden 1 hand held out to him What has been the result of fifty years of intended l Kindness and lavish generosity2
 l Let me quote the words uttered 1 four years ago by one of our com missioners. now an enthusiastic ad- vocate of this constitution: While l the older memories-ante-b -bellum com | | terness of war, the antagonisms of re construction-have lost much of their 1 vividness or else lie here and there l pocketed like stagnss Tt pools onlyt to l he ruffled now and then by vagrant l gusts of moldy wind out of the past.
 the immediate constructive achieve | ments of the Methodist Episcopal l Church for the uplift of the negro are vitally part of it's present thought land attitude. We become | acutely conscious that somehow the color line has cut its dividing way into the church of Christ that branch of it | that said with the emphasis of its his- l tory that there should be none. :. The American negro has shown an amazing power of adaptation and
 has moved forward to an astonishing degree. But this power of adaptation and this progress are far from mean ling .. that even in the church oi Christ he Is not still as one sitting by 1 the beautiful gate of the temple stretching forth begging hands. The Methodist Episcopal Church, South. ] set to themselves their own colored membership. organized them, and or dained their first bishops. and tie friendliness that has existed since, the multiplied opportunities for co-opera- ton without friction and without the occasion of arousing possible anta gon- isms have convinced the church that | what they did was really for the best Interests of both churches and both Traces"
 l Success though common measure. is not always the best measure. Use this measure on the negro work of the l Methodist Episcopal Church. with all the wealth and prestige of that church given \ to that work. and then on the independent l negro Methodist churches pinched by poverty. Read the results.
 l. So far al this constitution is concerned lit will promote irritation in the church and beyord withopt benefit to the neora in it's midst. He keeps the crutch he needs to discard if he is ever to come to personal and collective independence. At the same time he is given a position in the church that will inevitably rouse the suspicion and awaken the animosity of the people of the south. The civilization of that section of our country, the most numerous undiluted NAnglo-Saxon popula- tion in the world has been maintained only by racial laws constitutional legis- lative and municipal. Give it whatever name you please, racial instinct. blind conviction, dead past wise and states manlike provision and provision, there is Inc more fundamental fact to be found in -four being than that if the south is to maintain it's civilization racial separation lis a necessity. The south believes now, as it has ever believed. that intermar- riage of the races must be interdicted, that separate schools must be maintained, that separate accommodations must be provided. There is no such fact as dead past Every man is an omnibus in which
 all his ancestors ride though some may