The Petal paper. [volume] (Petal, Miss.) 1953-19??, 1959-10-22
THURSDAY, OCTOBER %, 1859

y
ern white man dares not let that
Negroes children learn their
ABCs in the same classroom with
the children of the white lives he
saved or defended.
Simply. Equal
Now the Supreme Court has
defined exactly what it meant by
what it said: that by equality"
it meant, simply, equality, with
out qualifying or conditional adj
jectives: not "seperate but
equal" nor equally separate"
but simply, equal; and now the
Mississippi voices are talking of
something which does not even
exist any more.
In the first half of the nine
teenth century, before slavery
was abolished by law in the Unit
ed States, Thomas Jefferson and
Abraham Lincoln both held that
the Negro was not yet competent
for equality.
That was more than ninety
years ago, and nobody can say
whether their opinions would be
different now or not. a
But assume that they would
not have changed their belief, and
that that opinion is right. Assume
that the Negro is still not compe-
tent for equality, which is some
thing which neither he nor the
white man knows until we try it.
But we do know that, with the
support of the federal govern
ment, the Negro is going to gain
the right to try and see if he is
fit or not for equality. And if
the Southern white man cannot
trust him with something as mild
as equality, what is the Southern
white man going to do when he
has power-the power of his own
fifteen millions of unanimity
backed by the federal govern
ment-when the only check on
that power will be that federal
| government which is already the
Negroes ally?
In 1849, Senator John c. Cal
houn made his address in favor
of secession if the Wilmot Pro-
viso was ever adopted. On Octo-
Der II of that year, Senator JEFF
ferson Davis wrote public letter
to the South, saying:
The generation which avoids
! its responsibilities on this sub
| ject sows the wind and leaves
the whirlwind as a harvest to its
children. Let us get together and
build manufactures, enter upon
industrial pursuits, and prepare
for our own self-sustenance
At that time the Constitution
| guaranteed the Negro as property
along with all other property, and
Senator Calhoun and Senator
Davis had the then undisputed
validity of States Rights to back
their position. Now the Constitu-
ton guarantees the Negro equal
right to equality, and the. States
Rights which the Mississippi
voices are talking about do not
exist any more. We-Mississippi
sold our states rights back to
the federal government when we
accepted the first cotton price
support subsidy twenty years ago.
Our economy is not agricultural
any longer. Our economy is the
federal government. We no long
er farm in Mississippi cotton
fields. We farm now in Washing
ton corridors and Congressional
committee rooms.
We - the South - didn't heed
Senator Davis words then But
we had better do it now. If we
are to watch our native land
wrecked and ruined twice in less
than a hundred years over the
Negro question, let. us be sure
this time that we know where we
are going aterward
There are many voices in Mis-
sissippi. There is that of one of
our United States Senators, who,
although he is not speaking for
the United States Senate and
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