Arkansas State press., 1946-04-26

NoA'Nobo tiiet Wiotiibt, p9t otldplll
in making open demands on the
entrenched white minority. Look
at some of these "Whereases" en-
bodied in the resolutions making
up the petition;
Whereas the Negro is citi-
zen of the State of Mississippi,
and therefore citizen of the
United States;
Whereas, the Negro has always
striven to do his full duty as a
citizen, both in peace and in war,
to protect and defend this ma
ton,
Whereas, under the constitu-
ton of this country, all citizens
are entitled to equal benefits
from and protection of, the law
of the land;
Whereas, the Negro citizens
OF Mississippi are too often denied
the equal protection of the law
of this state;
Whereas, the Negroes of Mis-
slssippi receive only one tenth
of the educational benefits ac-
corded whites, and even less, in
many instances;
Whereas, the Negroes do 80
per cent of the farm work in
Mississippi, but less than five
per cent of the agricultural high
schools of Mississippi are devoted
to the training of the Negro
youth;
Whereas, there is an agrieul-
tural high school in practically
every county in this state for
whites, but only about three agri-
cultural high schools in Missis-
sippi for Negroes;
Whereas, the Negro and white
population in Mississippi is about
equal (the Council seems to be
leaning a bit here to establish
some point: Mississippi's Negroes
outnumber the whites, the ratio
being about 512 to I'D. CD vet
more than 500 has been invest
ed in Mississippi for higher edu-
cational facilities for whites to
every 81 that has been invested
by this state for higher education
of Negroes, white teachers are
paid about three times as much
as Negro teachers, and in some
parts of the state, four times as
much, though Mississippi was
called upon to send a Negro sol
der to the war every time a white
soldier was sent; Negro school
terms are much shorter than the
terms for whites, and worthwhile
rural Negro school houses as a
rule, non-existent."
Warming up to the subject, the
Council went on record as de-
handing full justice in the courts
OF Mississippi; repeal of the poll
tax law and all other "impedi-
ments to fair, untrammeled ex-
preston of the will of the people. "
We are citizens of Mississippi,
the petition states. I'VE love her
clay hills and fertile valleys, but
her discriminatory record in the
matter of the races has not been
such as to make hundreds of
thousands of Mississippians Justly
proud of many of Mississippi's
laws, nor the way they are only
too often discriminatory admin
istered. AS a result, Mississippi
is much the loser. Mississippi
stands to lose seevral hundred
thousand of her good Negro citi-
zens within the next few years
and why? Simply because they
feel that they can better their
condition in some other states.
II this is true, then there is some
thing wrong with Mississippi.
Why wait 70 rthe courts to be
asked to come into these mat
ters? Wouldn't il be infinitely
better for the state itself to han
die such things?'
Mississippi policy over the years
has been based on ignorance and
It's results. A favored few whites.
rolling in ill.gotten gains from
the labor of unpaid millions of
blacks, shuttle back and forth
between the beaches of Florida
virginia and California, leisurely
loaflng their lives away while an
underprivileged people is held in
bondage on pain of death, while
elected officials thumb their
noses at decency, respect of their
fellow men and at the world
defying one and all to do some.
thing about it.
The only way the chains can
be struck from the ankles of the