The Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1931-1952, 1948-07-21
THE BELL TOLLS
BY LEONARD H. BELL

lynching of law, honor and JUS
tice blackens the shields of South
Carolina and Georgia. What is
our Department of Justice doing
about It?
Most of the evils begging the
world today are chargeable to un-
scrupulous. great power politi-
clans. They provoked a war that
has made a charnel house of a
large part of the world. They
seem headed straight toward a
third World War that, with re-
leased atomic energy, may destroy
mankind. With this fearful pros
pect darkening every horizon, the
voice of the politician is loud in
the land denouncing the Negro
as unfit and stirring racial discord
for the purpose of keeping him
self in office.
But star shines in the gloom
of this hour and in its shining we
listen to words from the Eternal
City that hold the hope of the
world: Into the hands of Amer
lea, so young. so sturdy. SO glori-
Gus, God has placed the destinies
of afflicted humanity. Armed with
the arms of spirit and heart we
must stand united against the
wanton weapons of war, tyranny,
hatred and greed. The griefs of
the worlds bereaved and the
graves of their martyred dead
will be sealed with tranquility and
the glory of Gods peace"
These are words for mankind
to ponder. The idea of outlawing
the Negro and denying him his
constitutional rights did not origi-
nate with the Confederate SOL
diers whose rich blood dyed great
fields from 81 to '65. 1t found
Judgement in the minds of cum
ming politicians who came into
power and after battle flags were
furJed over the Lost Cause and
has been used to hold the South
to a one-party system that has re-
tarded its progress and violated
the tenets of pure democracy.
The charge of Negro inferiority
| is not supported by history. Re-
ligion and science concur in the
conclusion that there is no supe-
rior-that all men are members
of one family, and that in the i'm
portant physical traits of brain,
heart, lungs and nervous system,
men everywhere are alikei AS a
famous scientist, Frank Boas, ex-
plains 1t, "If we were to select the
most intelligent. imaginative, en-
ergetic, emotionally stable third
of all mankind, all races would
be represented. The differences
that develop between the races
Throughout the passing ages result
from differences in education and
opportunity. In affirming that
all men are descended from a
common ancestor. science sup
ports the religious philosophy of
the brotherhood of man! Science
reveals that the size of a mans
brain has no relation to its pow
ers. Idiots have been found to
possess some of the largest brains.
while one OF the smallest ever
credited to man was the brain of
a great Italian genius, Dante.
History records that a negroid
people were among the earliest
/ inhabitants of Southwestern Eu-
rope and that civilization likely
came down the Nile from Negro
land to Egypt. In the Middle
Ages three Negro kingdoms.
Chana, Mallestine and Songhai,
We'd with European civilization of
that day. Nine hundred years
ago, a Negro university in Tim
buktu was exchanging professors
with important educational insti-
tutions all over the world. Ahmed
Bahia, black scholar, who had
massed library of 1900 volumes,
wept on the way to his execution
because he had not been spared
to accumulate a larger library.
While boastful Nordics were set
ting up stone affairs in dense for
ests, darkest Africa" was hold
ing aloft the torch of culture.
The claimed superiority of one
race over another having been
completely demolished by both
science and religion, 1t seems al
most incredible that white politi-
clans of our United States would
hold to the myth in a losing argu-
ment for white primaries by
which Colored people are to be
suppressed and denied their con-
stitutional right of the ballot.
Thomas Jefferson long ago
warned the ages to come that the
roots of the great tree of liberty
must now and then be nourished
by the rich blood of men and
women who love freedom better
than they love life. Through two
world wars the roots of the tree
of Liberty have been nourished
by the rich blood of black men
fighting under the flag of a coun-
try that denies them the rights of