Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1944-12-01
PLAIN TALK
Are Negroes Mourning Death of
South Cardinals Cotton Ed Smith
By Dan Gardner

I'd give some 2 to l money
that there are quite a few Ne
grOes running around in the
South who are downright
sorry that old Cotton Ed
Smith is dead. And if rubber
mouth Rankin, or old Theodore Bill
DO suddenly keeled over and went
to tell the Devil what part of Hell
they want to inhabit, there'd be
many Negroes around who would
shed briny tears and screw up their
faces in sorrow and in detection.
1t is strange, but our people are
like that; for that matter, the trait
to kowtow to an oppressor or
those who hate their fellows-is
universal. Hitler is almost sure to be
mourned at his passing by some
Jews and Hirohito will be missed by
some whites. Negroes, however,
are highlighted by their race and
color and when they blubber and
sniffle over the death of an old
reprobate like Cotton Ed Smith,
their antics stand out like the pic
lures of them eating watermelons,
porkchops or picking cotton that
old Cotton Ed loved so well.
White Supremacists Well Backed
Cotton Ed, Bilbo, Rankin, Gene
Talmadge of Georgia, Tom Helm
of Alabama, Cole Blease, old man
Vardaman, Tom Connolly, Martin
Dies, Senator James o. Eastland
of Mississippi, Harry Byrd and
Carter Glass of Virginia, Burnet
R. Maybank of South Carolina, and
a long line of advocates of white
supremacy have solid support be-
hind them of the very Negroes they
keep in subsection and durance
vile. There are Negroes in the BALI
wicks of these white folk who make
careers out of Negro-baiting who
will kill one another at the nod
of the white men they worship so
blindly.
1t is from the ranks of such Ne
groes that the Uncle Toms are pro-
duced. 1t is from such members of
the race that come the vermin who
scrape the scramble at the first
whisper of the white men; who will
sell out the race at the drop of a
hat, and drop the hat, themselves.
1t is from such members of the
race that the biggest opposition
against a militant approach to our
problem develops.
Israelites Grumbled at Moses
Among the Children of Israel
taken out of bondage to Pharaoh
by Moses, there were many who
wanted to stay in slavery in Egypt
because they didn't have to think
for themselves and were assured of
certain comforts (yep, slavery did
provide certain advantages, if one
wanted to term such provisions as
such) that enslavement assured
them. When Lincoln issued the
Emancipation Proclamation, there
were many Negroes who didn't
want to be free, and who would
rather have passed out their lives
singing "Swanee River" and "Old
Black Joe" in front Of their cabins
along the Mississippi, safe in the
shadow of the white mans protec-
ton.
Today there are Negroes who
don't want really to be completely
free. In fact, they are afraid of
such freedom. 1t means putting
themselves on their own and there
is where doubt enters the picture.
Negroes haven't gained enough
confidence in themselves to take
hold Of their place in life. That is
a reason why Negroes ithscollege
degrees are found talking in de-
rogatory language about Liberia
and Ethiopia or of establishing a
national homeland in Africa along
the lines of the national Zionist
movement among the Jews. They
are scared of each other. They
would rather be "close to the white
man"
Says Negroes Can't Be Trusted
One prominent Negro Chicago
lawyer once told me that he never
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