The Lexington advertiser. [volume] (Lexington, Miss.) 1904-1985, 1948-09-09
Negro Editor Sees The South

Davis Lee, a Negro, publishes the Newark Telegram al
of its kind in the country, having nearly 100000 readers II
JUN Lee Lee ( q Northern-born Negro and a short time ago he
grew suspicious of the preachments of agitators concerning racla
relations in the South. He decided to do a bit OF investing per
sive article on the editorial page. Some excerpts which reflect
his objective approach to the problem are as follows:
81 have just returned from an extensive tour of the Sontn'
In addition to meeting and talking with our agents ana dstr Iou
tors who get our newspapers out to more than 100000 readers
in the South, 1 met both Negroes and Whites in the urban and
rural centers.
Because of these personal observations, studies and con-
facts, I feel that / can speak with some degree of authority; l
am certainly in a better position to voice an opinion tnan tne
bases his opinions on the South from the distorted stories he reads
in the Negro press and in the Daily Worker.
1.-THE racial lines in the South are so clearly drawn and de,
fined there can be no confusion. When I am in Virginia or South
Carolina l don't wonder if | will be served if walk INTO a
to several right here in New Jersey where we have a clvll-rights
law, and have been refused service.
"The Whites in the South stay with their own and the
Negroes likewise. This one fact has been the economic salvation
of the Negro in the South: Atlanta, Ga, compares favorably with
millions of dollars worth of business. All of the Negro business
city in C Georgia. This is also true in South Carolina and Virginia:
New Jersey today boasts of more c1vl-rlghts Legislation
than any other State in the Union, and State government itself
practices more discrimination than Virginia, North Carolina, or
Georgia. New Jersey employs one Negro in the motor vehicle de-
mo matter what a Negro wants to do, he can do it in the
South. In spartanburg, S. G, Ernest Collins, a young fgu Negro rts.t Gpe-
grocery store, has several busses, runs a large farm and a ngnt
I'M. Collins couldn't do all that in New Jersey or New
York. The only bus line operated by Negroes is in the South. The
hundred. If a Negro in New Jersey or New York had the money
and attempted to obtain a franchise to operate a line he would
not only be turned down, but he would be lucky if he didn't get
a bullet in the back.
The attitude of the Southerners toward our race is a natu-
raj psychological reaction and aftermath of the Civil war. Negro
es were the properties of these people.
Certainly you would not expect the South to forget this
in rs 0 even a hundred and fifty years. That feeling has passed
from one generation to another, but is not one of hatred for the
Negro. The South just doesn't believe that the Negro has grown
up. No section of the country has made more progress in find
ing a workable solution to the Negro problem than the South.
Naturally Southerners are resentful when the North attempts
to ram a Civil-Rights program down their threats.
"The entire race program in America is wrong. Our ap-
proach is wrong. We expend adj our energies, and spend millions
of dollars trying to convince White people that we are as good
as they are, that we are equal. Joe Louis is not looked upon as a
Negro, but the greatest fighter of all time, loved and admired
by Whites in South Carolina as much as by those in Michigan.
He convinced the world, not by propaganda and agitation, but
by demonstration.
Our fight for recognition, justice, Civil Rights and
to the world by our living standards, our conduct, our ability and
intelligence that we are the equal of any man, and when we shall
have done this the entire world, including the South, will accept
us on our terms. Our present program of threats and agitation
makes enemies out of our friends
The findings of Publisher Lee are just what any wel-in-
formed Southerner, white or colored, has known all along. The
only difference is that Publisher Lee has chosen to state plainly
facts which agitation distorts, and which any Negro leader of less
er standing could not declare without subjecting himself to viu-
peration and charges of being "a white mans Negro"
Both White and Colored people of the Nation must come
to understand, and quickly, that much of the agitation attempt
ing to break up their friendship and cordial relations is inspired
by New Jersans at home and abroad who have no interest whatever
economic base and to higher economic base and to higher STAN
dards of living for both races.
From Jackson Daily News