The Michigan chronicle. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1936-current, 1944-03-11
WHO LEADS THE NEGRO7


q few observations which seemed to have escaped
many whites who assume that they understand the
so-called Negro problem. Recently there has been
a great deal of discussion on the subject OF Negro
leadership whether it is good or bad, intelligent or
IRRESPONSIBLE sane or insane 1t has been assumed In
some quarters that the present-day Negro leadership
is responsible for the current unrest among Negroes
which contributes to racial tensions. The TACT OF
discrimination in the everyday life of the N egro
American it is assumed, would not create this unrest
If these Negro leaders would stop "agitating."
These assumptions are half-truths which stem.
from inadequate knowledge of the forces at work
among the masses of Negro Americans and from
ignorance of what the rank and file Negro thinks
and feels First it should be stated that the Negro
people have reached today the highest cultural level
of their history in this country. The generation OF
Negroes who are fighting this war are intellectually
and culturaly far beyond the generation which
fought in World War /. In other words, there is
New Negro and this new Negro has lot Of new ideas
about this country and about everything and every
body in it. including himself. The secondclass status
which some Negro citizens of generation go
found at least tolerable, has gradually become in
tolerable today.
Traditionaly the so-called Negro leaders fall
into three categories those who sef-appointed,
those appointed by white opinion and those appointed
by the Negro people themselves. These classes are
not always rigid and there leaders who have
the respect and loyalty of both Negro and white
people. Now it is true that the Negro public will
accept in some measure all of these leaders without
protest, but the factor Of supreme Importance is
that the Negro masses will actually follow only those
leaders they have chosen. What is even more i'm
portant, the leader who is appointed by Negroes
themselves must do the will Of the or be dis
carded abruptly. In other words, the Negro people
watch their leaders with critical eye and unless the
leader does the job they want DONE he is cast aside
without delay or ceremony.
The intellectual level of the Negro people today
is higher resentment of discrimination is keener and
the resistance of the majority group to changes in
the race relations pattern has increased When these
irresistible forces in our society meet head-on one
of them must give in. The masses of Negro people
are determined that this resistance the part of
whites is the force which must give ground today.
The so-caled Negro leader who thinks otherwise
finds himself without any allegiance from the rank
and file Negro.
Some whites still believe that if by hook or crook
they can get few Negro leaders to approve an zap
peasement" program, the Negro masses would follow
their lead These whites simply do not know the
depths of antifascist thought and feeling among the
Negro people. Such leaders would be eliminated and
new ones would take their places overnight. Why
is this so? 1t must be remembered that every living
Negro is victim Of discrimination in some form
every day of his life and every one of them knows
almost from birth that such discrimination is NOR
ally wrong it violates the basic principles of this
democracy and it is sin before God. Thus the
only way Negro can become true leader in the
first place is to demonstrate his ability to do some
thing about this tyranny under which Negroes live.
And there are no sacred leaders who can maintain
the allegiance of the masses and at the same time
act independently of the will of the people.
Why are the Negro masses so determined? The
lies in the fact that the Negroes of America
have taken this business of democracy seriously.
Democracy to the Negro means freedom and equality
and there no people who want more to be free
than those who have known slavery. When the Ne
gro people told they fighting for the four
freedoms and that this was war of liberation for
all peoples the Negroes of America believed this to be
the truth and they prepared to make it come true
Beyond this, the Negro masses are convinced that
they are morally right in the struggle for freedom
and equality. Those who believe in white suprem-
acy," therefore, are wrong and they must be fought
by day and by night, eternally
n