St. Paul recorder., 1960-09-02

in that it is cold and calculated
from hungry mouths; it would
withhold milk from crying babes;
it would fly into the face OF the
teachings of the lowly Nazarene.
No doubt the arch designers of
this wicked conspiracy are men,
bers of the church.
We solemnly wonder what the
ministers of the churches in Fay
cite County preach about on Sun
day. While Russia is building forts
at our very gate, our great nation
is being afflicted with Fayette
County, Tennessee, and its ramp
ant race prejudice.
1t all goes to show how great
and, imminent is our danger. Will
our country wake up before it is
too late, or shall we let Fayette
County-ism destroy us?
What makes the drama more
dramatic is how the Negroes Of
Fayette County are meeting the
raw meanness of the prejudiced
whites with raw courage.
Not only did Negroes register
in impressive numbers but they
went to the polls and voted. Here
we have the raw courage of Ne
groes meeting the raw meanness
of whites and the courage of the
Negroes makes more disgraceful
a bold attempt to starve the Negro
into submission.
We have Negroes here and
there and everywhere receiving
medals for this and that and
more glory to them; but what
we need are medals for those
courageous Negroes down In
Fayette Country Tennessee.
They are heaping condemnation
upon millions of voteless Negroes
throughout the country who could
vote but who will not. Jesus Christ
said on one occasion to the unbe-
lieving Jews The men of Nineveh
will rise up and condemn this gen.
Grafton, because they repented at
the preaching of Jonah and behold
a greater than Jonah is here"
And so the hard-pressed Negroes
of Fayette County Tennessee will
stand at the judgment bar of the
Twentieth Century and heap de-
rision upon the voteless Negro who
stands idle in the market-place
when the political fields are white
unto harvest.
Raw meanness is revolving. Raw
courage is inspiring. Raw meanness
is a plague and curse to our count
ry; raw courage is blessing that
will extend to unborn generations.
Raw meanness is a danger to our
much beset nation but raw courage
is its hope and stay.
When the writer's of another
generation write the sagas Of the
century they will tell about the
courage of the Negroes of Fayette
County Tennessee who went hun
cry to the ballot box to refute the
implication that they are second
rate citizens of a nation for which
their fellow racemen poured out
their lifes blood.
1t Is not enough for Negroes
everywhere TO admire and glory
in the raw courage of the belle
aguered Negroes in Fayette
Country Tennessee, such courage
can only be rewarded by the
determination of Negroes every
"hCHt W tIlulhNo lhCiE kIOab
stand for their rights and re-
sponsibilities of full citizenship.
Much of the good that has come
to Negroes came as a result of the
suffering of sympathetic whites,
even our emancipation. But the
time is at hand when Negroes must
learn to suffer for their own de-
liverance from an Egypt of bond
age designed by the Pharaohs of
race prejudice
1t is not how we'll and how much
whites have suffered for Negroes
that counts, but how well and how
much Negroes can suffer for their
own cause. When Negroes meet
raw meanness with raw courage
they are pointing the way to better
things.
1t is just as well for Negroes to
understand that we are entering
the suffering stage of our fight for