The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1958-11-28
The Supreme Courts Arrogance

was actually determined to violate
the white mans right to freedom
of association?
In any case the crux of this
issue would seem obvious: social
status has to be earned. Or, to put
it another way, equality of associa-
ton has to be mutually agreed to
and mutually desired. 1t cannot be
achieved by legal fiat. Personally
l feel only affection for the Negro
But there are facts that have to
be faced. Any man with two eyes
in his head can observe a Negro
settlement in the Congo, can study
the pure-blooded Africa n in his
native habitat as he exists when
left on his own resources, can COM
pare this settlement with London
or Paris, and can draw his own
conclusions regarding relative
levels of character and intelligence
or that combination of character
and intelligence which is civiliza-
ton. Finally he can inquire as to
the number of pure-blooded blacks
who have made contributions to
great literature or engineering or
medicine or philosophy or abstract
science. Ct do not include singing
or athletics as these are not pri-
marily matters of character and
intelligence.) Nor is there any
validity to the argument that the
Negro "hasn't been given a
chance" We were all in caves or
trees originally. The progress
which the pure-blooded black has
made when left to himself, with a
minimum of white help or him
drance, genetically or otherwise,
can be measured today in the
Congo.
Lord Bryce, a distinguished and
impartial foreign observer, pre-
sented the situation accurately in
his American Commonwealth when
he wrote in 1880:
"History is a record of the
progress toward civilization OF
races originally barbarous. But
that progress has in all cases been
slow and gradual Utterly dis
similar is the case of the African
Negro, caught UP in and whirled
along with the swift movement of
the American democracy. In it we
have a singular juxtaposition of
the most primitive and the most
recent, the most rudimentary and
the most highly developed, types
of culture A body of savages
is violently carried across the
ocean and set to work as slaves
on the plantations of masters who
are three OF four thousands years
in advance of them in mental ca
pacity and moral force Sud-
denly, even more suddenly than
they were torn from Africa, they
find themselves not only free, but
made full citizens and active MEM
bers of the most popular govern
ment the world has seen, treated
as fit to bear an equal part in
ruling, not only themselves, but
also their recent masters"
One does not not telescope three
or four thousand years into the 70
years since Bryce wrote. One may
change the terms of the problem
by mixed breeding, but if ever
there was matter that ought to
be left to local option it would
seem to be the decision as to when
the mixture has produced an ac-
ceptable amalgam in the schools
And see no reason for penalizing
locality that does not choose to
mix.
l would emphatically support
improvement of education in Ne
gro schools, if and where it is in.
ferior. Equality of opportunity
and equality before the law, wher
not strained to cover other situa.
tions, are acceptable ideals be-
cause they provide the chance tt
earn and to progress-and conse.
quently should be enforced By
legal fiat as far as is humanity
possible. But equality of associa.
ton, which desegregation in South
ern schools involves, presuppose:
a status which in the South the
average Negro has not earned TX
force it upon the Southern white
will, / think, meet with as mucl
opposition as the prohibition
] amendment encountered in the we
q na1ISn