Jackson advocate. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1939-current, 1951-05-19
The Time Isn't Right

For good while we have been wanting to say some
thing the subject = THE TIME ISN'T RIGHT - that
old and out clche, still being used to stop efforts
the part of others to improve the lot of the MISSISSIPPI
p Negro and the Negroes of the rest of the South
well to dampen the efforts of Negroes themselves to
do the things that they best do for themselves the
effort toward gaining the status OF first class citizen
ship.
While we were thinking, editorial
in Color Magazine which says with perhaps greater
clarity what would have attempted to say the sub
ject. The Color Magazine editorial is as follows:
Negroes being told, Hold back the time isn't
ripe.
Millions of times around the world men have heard
the statement the time isn't ripe 1t isn't ripe for this
it isn't ripe for that.
England said the time wasn't ripe to give India her
freedom The South says the time isn't ripe to treat the
Negro with equality The British says the time isn't ripe
to give the Irish self-government.
Many feel the time isn't ripe to give women
equal pay for the same work.
We must wait many years to let Negroes stay in a
decent hotel We must put off for ages the electng of
Negro Sheriff or Governor The time isn't ripe for
coored man to become Supreme Court Justice or even
President of the United States.
There are lot of people who feel that men must
wait thousand years before this or that can happen
These often the fearful wailngs of defeatst pho-
sophy
The conservatives feel that new things. strange
things and radical changes cannot and will take place
III their time They think the world will explode things
don't keep on they The conservatives live more
in the Yesterdays the radicals more in the tomorrow
While the reaists live in the to-day
The ultra-conservatves may believe that conditions
but they feel that the time is never ripe to
change present conditions They say wait Don't rock the
boat somebody will get wet
Although the old has it's virtue and is never to be
Sneered at and though the be wrong conserva-
tves feel that the old STYLE the old method the old wav
is the right They feel that it's waste of time to try
to change old and established customs They will not
shoot even when they the white of the enemys
eyes They will not attack caste They slow to attack
entrenched power privilege They will fire shot
against the foe until half his soldiers are shot down
They shy away from speaking against segregation They
Will not push the church compel it to attack wrong
loo often they threaten GUST their minister if he is
courageous enough to speak out against sereotypes or
time worn custom, wrong though they may be-
The radical, the creative the real leader, is lust as
mtolerant against stand -patism.
Those who would change the world who would rioht
wrongs, and usher in era say the time isn't ripe
to put up with discrimination and social Injustice Even
III the face OF they say the time rpe to tolerate
inadequate wages high rents the home front even
though their boys may be dying the battle front
The ripe time seldom comes for conservatives: it is
present for crusaders
There are three times to do everything-vour time
my time and the right time No matter whatever time is
chosen those who believe in their cause must fight for
their convictions Although timing is important in the
worlds work, the time must never come to sit idle and
let wrong and injustice go unchallenged
Let those who would change the world for better
remember that it takes work to rpen fruit Unless the
bees, the birds and the winds the pollen from flow
er to flower and unless the rains fall and the SIN shines
a seed would never rpen.
Time gets ripe like fruit does and that's when
someone applies cultivation and brings on light heat and
moisture that cause it to ripen Otherwise green annie
would hang tree forever and civilization itself would
become a Stagnant ceSSpoO