Jackson advocate. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1939-current, 1948-01-10

inadequate schools for negroes
one located in a lodge building,
| the other in a church. Nor can
we dismiss the fact that we per-
cent of our farm owners are neg
roes and that all Of them pay
the 2 percent sales tax from
which is created the bulk Of our
school budget.
We of the South must COM
prehend that ignorance, poverty,
illiteracy, disease and criminali-
ty are costly factors in our So
ciety. It makes no difference
what race contributes more to
these community evils. Many
white person has died from dis
eases spread by negroes-and vice
versa. We must rise above our
prejudices and recognize that the
means of over coming these LA
bilities through a constructive sys
tenn of public school training.
Seldom does a day pass but
that some outsiders hurl offensive
jibes at us concerning Southern
statistical tail-dragging. They de-
cry our high ration of illiteracy is
only two per cent and that it
is the negro illiteracy of 11.8 per
cent which soils our escutcheon.-
Then we argue that the problem
of white education is one of
negro education. Actually it is
the reverse. The problem of neg
70 education is white education.
Manq a southerners are fast
comprehending the fact that the
economy of the negroes directly
affects the economy of the white
people and that together they
form the economy of the common
wealth. Oddly enough there are
two contradictory influences at
work in this field today. Altruis-
tic leaders seek improved negro
educational facilities because Of
unselfish interest in humanity.
other leaders, less altruistic, and
more selfish minded, recognize
that the standard of white en-
joyment is sorely involved in this
task of negro education.
This is not an easy problem to
solve. Educational coasts are
high. To exceed our school fac
ilities to include the 207,752
educable negroes not in school
and to provide adequate facilities
for the 269,4O5 negroes who are
in school, would wreck our le-
gislative budget. Nevertheless this
is the problem and it will never
be met until our people com
merce thinking honestly about it.
There are some individuals
within the nation who hold to
the idea that negroes are wards
of the state and that government
owes an obligation to negro edu-
cation as is administered to the
Indians. But many Southerners
resent the though of federal aid
for negroes-and many Mississi-
ppians fear it. But before any
of these angels of the problem
can be approached there must be
a recognition of the problem as
a whole its impact upon white
civilization throughout the south,
and willingness to do something
about it.
Today through crime, disease,
inferior farming methods, low
standards of production in gener-
| al, we are paying more than the
| necessary budgetary requirements
to successfully sope with the pro-
blem. No state can attain it's ul-
innate destiny when one half of
its people are held in ignorance.
When asked the reason for his
achievements great scientist re-
piled, I'm standing on the should
ers of giants" He thus referred
to the associates who worked
with him.
Are we content to stand upon
the shoulders of dwarfs?
Get angry it we must, when
outsiders prick our pride; cor
denim their meddling, if we will,
but the obligation is our no mat
ter how unwilling we may be
to open our eyes in the south.
Blind prejudice will keep us
blind-and keep us down. This
is the great problem of Mississ-
ippi and the south Bday.
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IL TROIlNIIp pEAIIrv