The Omaha guide., 1939-07-29
by Dean Gordon r. Hancock
for AMP
The Great Scramble

land" for secrs and sages swarf
ed her plains and country sides
while philosophers walked he
streets in regiments. It remain
for the Historians Of the future I
give fitting designation 10 this our
day, when gradual S by thousands
are faring forth to try their for
tunes in a restless and uncertain
world. Opportunity WIS nevef
lrltr+ef and chances for dismal
Ia, U3e never noe ovslahe-min.
:. ~f..r LAM Is i~.eraiig swarm ne
with graduates whose hopes are
soon to take a terrible tumble.
Just a few years ago, | too was
facing the world VIII a sheepskin
in hand and resolved TO reform
and rearrange things in this world.
After 80 years of arduous toll and
ceasely trying, | cannot see one
den. | have made upon the world;
but the world has made many
dents on me. This WI be the sad
story of the majority of those so
~gleefully facing the world from
the eminence eff the graduation
platform of 1889. In a very short
-
time the work of denting will be-
gin and it is safe to say, that the
dents the world makes will far
outnumber and outweigh the
dents the current bumper CROP
of graduates makes. OF one thine
the current graduate may be GER
tain, and that is, ne faces a ter
rible scramble-scramble for bread
With Negroes, as perhaps no
with whites, our graduates hav
against them not only the handl-
cap of a complicated social an
economic order, but the furthel
handicap of color. The most mus
be made of this and James Grove
A b." will lend an immediate
helping hand. Believe Vt or not,
James Grove holds out the mos
immediate hope for the Negro
graduate. If he serves at all, l.
will be in some segregated eapa
city dominated by Mr.. Grow. The
scramble is no, and it RACES with
greatest severity around the school
room of the Jim Grove school. Inc
better prepared Negroes r crow
ing down Che Negroes on the low
err levels. One of the major ira
gedies Of the generation of this
forcing of men and women into
the classroom who have neither
the temperament o ap itude Tor
teaching. The Negro child is the
loser!
, Great is the scramble and while
we are loath to admit it segra-
cation relieves the scramble IN
stead of accentuating it, Frank.
" speaking. do Negroes wan
less segration or more OF II! by
aggregation we live and move and
how. a.r economic being, and wnen
we decry it, are we sincere or are
we just putting on" to be popu-
lar To blot out segregation WITH
out blotting out prejudice would
prove the Negroes ruin. The roo
OF our trouble is prejudice and
not segregation. Segregation is
n matter of law, but prejudice
Is a matter of culture, and Is
more deeply imbedded in the lie
of the nation. Supreme court de-
cisions may affect segregaSon'
but it does not reach the seat OF
trouble prejudice which is a
thing Of the heart and not OF tne
head.
What Marian Anderson is doing
is reaching the heart of America;
what the supreme court does
from time to time reaches the
head only. Herein lies the limi-
tations of things legal as they
pertain to race relations. 1t is
good to address VI efforts to
anaying symptoms, but it is well
to keep in mind that the trouble
lies deeper. Nobody would advise
letting the head of the typhoid
victim ache without remedy, but
nobody would advise giving all
attention to the aching head and
none to sanitation. Our major
attack is on the Jim Crow system
but to abolish this system without
abolishing prejudice would over
whelm the Negro. The overthrow
the Of the segregation system
without the overthrow of preju-
dice would increase the scramble
instead of relieving il.
The nrevious question. then be-