The Petal paper. [volume] (Petal, Miss.) 1953-19??, 1956-09-13
Dr.. Benjdmin E. Mays Talk On -
The Moral Aspects Of Segregation

it involves a member of the group imposing seq
regation The segregated has no rights that the
Segregation is bound to respect.
The chief sin of segregation is the distortion
of human personality. 1t damages the soul of both
the segregator and the segregated, 1t gives the
segregated feeling of inherent inferiority which
IS not based on facts, and it gives the segregator
a feeling of superiority which is not based on facts
1t is difficult to know who is damaged more the
segregated or the segregator.
1t is false accusation to say that Negroes hail
the May H. 1854 Decision of the Supreme Court
because they mant to mingle socially with white
people. Negroes want segregation abolished be-
cause they want the legal stigma of nferiority re-
moved and because they do not believe that equal
ty of educational opportunities be completely
achieved in a society where the law brands a
group inferior. When Negro rides in Pullman
unsegregated he does it not because he wants to
ride with white people. He may or may not en-
gage in conversations with white person. He
wants good accommodations. When he eats in an
unsegregated diner on the train, he goes because
he is hungry and not because he wants to eat with
white people He goes to the diner not even to
mingle with Negroes but to get something to eat
But as he eats and rides he wants no badge of in
feriorty pinned on his back He wants to eat and
ride with dignity. No Negro clothed in his right
mind believes that his social status will be enhanc-
ed just because he associates with white people
1t is also a false accusation to say that Negroes
are insisting that segregated schools must be
abolished today or tomorrow, simultaneously all
the place. AS far as l know no Negro leader
has ever advocated that, and they have not even
said when desegregation is to be finished Job
They do say that the Supreme Court is the high
est law of the land and should respect that law
Negro leaders do say that each local community
Hrin fOc h.
community, calmly sit down and plan ways and
means not how they can crcumvent the decision
but how they implement it and plan to-
gether when and where they will start. They will
be able to start sooner in some places than in
others and move faster in some places than in
others but begin the process in good faith and with
good intent To deliberately scheme to deliberate
ly plan through nefarous methods, through vlo-
lence, boycott and threats to nullfy the Decision
of the highest law in the land is not only immoral
but it encourages disregard for all laws which
we do not like.
We meet the moral issue again To write into
constitutions things that we do not intend to
carry out is an immoral act think am right
when / say that most of our states, certainly
of them, say in their constitutions ''seperate
but equal" But YOU know as well as do that on
the whole the gulf of inequality in education
widened with the years. There was no serious at
tempt desire in this country to provide Neg
roes with educational opportunities equal to those
for whites. The great surge to equaiZe educational
opportunities for Negroes did not begin until after
1853 when Murray Won his suit to enter the law
school of the University of Maryland 1t is also
clear that the millions poured into Negro edu-
cation in the last 20 years were appropriated not
SO much because it right but in endeavor
to maintain Segregation.
We brought this situation upon ourselves. We
here in the South have said all along that we be-
ieve in segregation but equal segregation. In 1896
in the Louisiana case, Plessy versus Ferguson, the
United States Supreme Cuort confirmed the doc
trine separate but equal But from 1896 to 1885
there was practically nothing done toequa1. When
Murray won his case in 1885, weknew we had to
move toward equalization. Since 1885 many suits
have been won
1t would have been mighty fine thing if we
had obeyed the Supreme Court in 1896 and equal
lied educational opportunities for Negroes. If we
had done that the problem would have been solved
because gradually the seperate school system
would have been abolished and we would have
been saved from the agony and fear of this hour
We didn't obey the Supreme Court in 1896 and we
do not want to obey it
Let me say again that the May IT, 1854, De
cison of the Supreme Court is effort to abolish
great evil through orderly processes And we
are morally ODugateQ TO implement the decision
or modify the federal constitution and say plainly
that this constitution meant for white people
and not for Negroes and that the Declaration of
independence created mostly by the mind of the
great southerner, Thomas Jefferson, was meant
for white people and not Negroes. Tell the world
honestly that do not believe that part of the
Declaration of Independence which says in essence
that all men are created equal, that they are en-
dowed by their creator with certain inalienabe
rights, that among these life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness.
We are morally obligated to abolish legalized
segregation in America reinterpret the Christian
Gospel, the Old and New Testaments, and make
the Gospel say that the noble principles of Juda-
ism and Christianity not applicable to colored
peoples and Negroes. Tell the world honestly and
plainly that the Fatherhood of God and the Broth
erhood Of Man cannot work where the colored
races involved. We morally obligated to
move toward irr7'e71onting the Decision in the
deep south or lose our moral leadership in the
world. If we do not do it. we must play the role
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