Jackson advocate., 1953-02-07

have to attain the Dignity of
Equality" is the unrestricted bal
lot. 1t is a blot on our American
Democracy that here in Mississip-
pi where we have nearly million
Negroes, we have less than 10000
qualified Negro voters. The great
est effort in our history must be
put forth to get our people quail
fled to vote. The greatest privilege
of a democracy is the power to
vote. We have a large number of
teachers here in Jackson standing
before Negro young people every
day, talking about good citizenship
who have never voted and who are
not registered voters. If you are
not a voter you are not good
citizen. A people who fail to vote
in a Democracy cannot realize the
Dignity of Equality. Therefore,
an all out fight on the part or our
leadership for the privilege of
casting an unrestricted ballot by
the masses of our people must be
made.
Third, we must have money. The
Negro in Mississippi handles an
awful lot of money but when the
Negroes money in Mississippi is
finally put in the profit column, it
is usually to the white mans ac-
count. We must remember that
while we are fighting to end racial
discrimination and segregation, we
are not fighting to lose our identity
as race of people. We must strive
and work as one of the units of
this great democracy. We must
support Negro businesses and
Negro organizations. Negroes in
Jackson should have one of the
best Banks in the Country right
here. You have enough Negro busi-
nesses here to support a good
Negro bank The average Negro
likes to spend his money with white
people. A struggling Negro grocer
can sell his sugar at the same price
that it is sold for at Kroger's and
his Negro neighbor thinks that
Kroger's sugar is little sweeter
and will walk by the Negroes gro
Gerry and walk six blocks to spend
his money with a white man. Negro
people in Mississippi are spending
several million dollars each year
into Insurance Companies whose
agents don't have enough respect
for you to take his hat off when
he comes into your home. When
Security Life and the Magnolia
Mutual, both Mississippi owned
and managed Negro Insurance
Comnanies offers the same securi-
ty. The economic security Of the
race is tied up in the Negroes sup
port of Negro business. 1t is Of no
encouragement to me that the re-
ligious songs that Negroes like
best are, "Take all this world but
give me Jesus" and "a tent or a
cottage-why should | care, they
are building a mansion for me over
there"
l challenge the great n egro
church today to a new crusade. For
ninety years now in Mississippi,
the average Negro preacher has
kept his peoples minds on the long
white robes, the golden slippers
and the mansions in the skies and
the diet of milk and honey. The
psychological effect of this type
of preaching has been that the
Negro is content to spend his
time here living in a cabin, poorly
clothed and poorly fed, satisfied
with any and all types of treat
ment, ever looking forward to the
golden slippers, the long white
robe, the milk and honey and the
mansion in the skies. While the
Kingdom of Heaven must be made
as realistic as possible today, the
Negro ministry must tell his peo-
pie that there is something for
him to do while he is waiting for
his wing measurements for his
journey to the mansions in the
sky. The Negro must be taught
that the same Bible which outlines
the diet and wearing apparel of
the Kingdom of Heaven, also, stat
es, that the "Earth's (of which Mis-
sissippi is a part of, is the Lords
and the fullness thereof. That the
gold and the silver is the Lords
and the cattle upon thousand hills
belong to the Lord. We Negroes
profess to have more religion than