The Tribune. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1951-19??, 1954-12-18

FACING RACIAL MTEGRATION REALISTICALLY

~AA~N'O AusVsnA> NshOduA1tVN NEAlAO1IvHLLI
Seven months have passed since the United States
Supreme Court handed down it's decision declaring seq
regaon In public schools unconstitutional So great was
the import of the declaration that the whole nation from
New York to the Golden Gates of California and from
the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico shocked While
teeming numbers became hysterica with jubiation on
the other hand there were many who were over
come with fear of nothing but fear itself" Now that
We nave mad time to quiet and bring ourselves
BACK to EARTH we would do well to the Courts de-
cision on racial integraton realistically.
1t is time for both racial groups to sit down and
face the facts involved in ntegraton To face this prob
lem realistically it must be agreed that the years of
TINS unAmerican practice have built between the two
races great WALL separating the two groups like foes
ouahgey TO say these two groups have accepted their
designated Places not in foes but on Friendly
oasis When the opposite group vigorously opposes any
change OF this old established pattern it is not because
ne is foe of his darker neghbor, but because deep
down IN his heart he thinks that he has the right to
tinue the pattern set by his forefathers
There is an urgent need today of a deep insight
.o 'hese atttudes and unconscious acceptance of
dtoned thought channels Each group needs to be aeed
to the harmful effect of prejudiced thinking
AS an illustration of this fact us take the white
oouherner IN his general attitude toward the Negro
you are the maid butler connected with his
household his charge and responsibility
Inc entlre household accepts integral part of
the family but with reservations They have been taught
that Mary" is good maid, but that being Negro
automatically makes her inferior to themselves If she
either
that she has white blood in her veins or that she is an
exceptional creature.
Recently well meaning white expressed the
opinion that c. c. Spaung Negro founder of the largest
Negro insurance company in America should be put into
a musuem, because a business genius he is freak
in the Negro The inference there was that Mr.
Spauldng is the rare exception and not the rule
The Negro minister, for instance, however well
thought Of prepared, is generally accorded the title
parson, while his white colleague is respectfully adj
dressed as Reverend" Doctor or Mister"
white the office recentlv and
asked to use the avatory When she returned to the
'front.' she expressed and again her surprise
of the cleanliness of the facilities Small wonder Has
she not been taught that all Negroes are uncean and
untidy?
Now let us take ourselves We too have been con-
ditoned We have been taught to think of the white
man as SUPERIOR and ourselves inferior We have been
conditioned to that kind of thinking not only by men,
bers of the opposite but by those of own-in
many instances by parents. 1t is known fact that
Negro and white children have played together until they
were in their teens, and then the Negro children have
been instructed to call their white paymates Mister"
or Miss White restrooms for white ladies'"
coored-are for colored women This is conditioned
thinking and herein lies difficulties Such thinking
is of course, erroneous but nevertheless it is reality
AS faulty it is, it be erased from our minds
night
Negroes of this present generation have never known
other position in our American way Of life than
that Of segregated pattern Court legislation alone can
change those attitudes prevalent in both racial
groups. Any action taken by either group or any law
making body before public sentiment created in favor
OF the change will be Intellectual Education and concrete
application Of Christianity the panacea
For while, it looked though the Supreme Court
would rJe with an iron hand in this matter Church
groups began to endorse the Courts action School a-
thores began migrating the in various schools
and everything appeared to be going according to plan
Then the public began to manifest rs disapproval Of
IF fbo bc4L ~