Jackson advocate. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1939-current, 1961-07-08
Struggle For Decency
By JENKIN LLOYD JONES
Editor, Tulsa Tribune

Editor, Tulsa Tribune
THE RACE PROBLEM in the United States is not
going to be solved by gimet-eyed guardsmen, tough
deputy sheriffs torchwaving white trash Neither
will it be solved by emotional university chapains,
freedom riders, "st-nners" inflammatory orators
1t will be solved by people of good will who recognize
that there is problem. The extremists both sides
do such thing.
The white supremacists base their position on the
theory that the Negro is bioogicay inferior, homo
subsapens and therefore incapable of taking advant
age equality of opportunity The Negro is to be
treated kindly cared for employed in mental positions
suitable to his talents But neither the paror the
front office for him.
The White Badge OF Honor
This is comfortable position 1t justifies apar
theid and perpetual Jim Crowsm. It makes white
skin badge of honor 1t puts the stamp of holy self
righteousness upon keeping the Negro forever broom
pusher and picker. But the theory just isn't
any good. Skin color hair texture or nose and lip
morality anything else. To foredoom brown baby
to life under low ceiling in so-caled free society
doesn't make
The Neutrality-suspicious. recognize no problem,
either Their dogma is that there real differ
ences between the average black in America and
the average white man, than any deficiencies the Ne
groeS may appear to exhibit in conduct and perform
ance can be entirely laid to repression and lack of equal
opportunity and that if Indignation suddenly made
complete in every respect standards would be low
Negro Performance Standard
This is equally unreaistic. The Negro stndard of
Performance is low. Sex morals and family RESPONSE
IL
these conditions due to segregation doesn't explain
why they in countries like Haiti LIBERIA
and Ethiopia, long controlled entirely by Negroes
Furthermore, the Negro crime rate is high partc-
uary in crimes of passion and sudden anger Efforts
by Negro organizations to newspapers into sup
pressing racial Identification in crime Stories we have
always felt, produce bad Journalism, since that's the
first question the reader wants answered 1t is sad but
true, that knitting shooting in coored community
is less newsworthy than the crime in white
community. The reason is prevalence And this prev
alance will not become less through suppression of the
facts.
NEGRO LEADERSHIP in this country is getting
better rapidly. More and more young Negro profess
siona men and women becoming dedicated to the
rights, welfare and improvement of their own people,
We are seeing the effects of this in Tulsa The shut
fling, grinning white mans niger" with his comic
selfdepreciaton is vanishing and the annual outpour
ing of dignfied colored high school and college grad
yates is raising the tone
But Negro leadership is still far below its proper
level loo many Negro policy wheel kinks, who have
robbed their people shameessy vocal supporters of
Negro rights" Too many metropolitan Negro news
papers, which speak editoriay of the Negro dig
NIFTY deluge their readers with sex, sensationasm and
Phony charm dreambook and aphrodsiac ads. Too
many Negro politicians who pose the protectors of
their race, seem to model their behavior on Huan
Jack and Adam Clayton Powell Jr Those who preach
uphft should stop the down-push
For the Negroes role in America is tough enough
as 1t u.s. Here is the only place in the world where the
negro finds himself sizeable minority among Anglo
Saxon traditions of behavior and performance Among
the French the Negroes find such clash In the easy
and lax Portuguesetaian tradition of Brazil there is
no conflict But the AngloSaxon way of living and the
traditional Negro way of living have been poles apart
The rabld white supremacst cites this clash as proof
that Negroes bascaly inferior, cursed with low
mental horsepower and built-in responsibility.
Where, asks the white supremacist malciously,
was there ever great Negro civilization Where did
Negroes ever develop by themselves art architecture
engineering law, medicine, science paley
parable to those of other races"
Racial Morale Factor
But the civilization of Western Europe of which
proud didn't under until after the Roman
conquest of Britain and Gau. Prior to that Eng
fish, Germanc and Scandinavian ancestors more
advanced than the blacks of Tmbuctu And 1000 years
is but the snap of finger in the development of
No anhorpoost of reputation holds to the theory that
Negroes slightly subhuman
Yet the Negroes do lack something. Perhaps the
clue is in Freuds term i'd I'D" is defined as res
ervoir instructive human impulses" 1t is disci-
plne and moral factor built into many gen.
erations, that far deeper than family history
current environment.
THE PEASANT LOOKS UP at the crumblng castle
the hill and his i'd is strengthened by the memory
of past gores The child reads the ancient writings of
long ancestors and subconscousy he sets stand
ard for himself man is disciplined without knowing
it by the of his pride in what he sprang FROM
Every great noble and admired human being scatters
i'd seeds that will among future generations of his
people. The Negro is short i'd His history is brief
and cloudy His traditions vague. He doesn't have
much to live to. takes time to build esprit into
a people, particularly when relatives who were born
slaves are still living.
Yet this can change It is already changing. The
right to vote be exercised badly it is won but
it never be exercised well until it is won It is
ridiculous to permit man to ride through Mississippi