Jackson advocate., 1963-05-18
ALook Toward Birmingham And
The Leaders OF Miss. Negroes
o my people, they who
lead thee cause thee to
err and stray from the
way of thy path-The Bible

In the then wide reflection from the mass Ne
gro demonstration then going on in Birmingham,
which subsequently erupted into the sadest most
tragic, and far reaching incidents in contemporary
southern history as it relates to Negro life the
NAACP staged a Mass Meeting in Clarksdae
Mississippi last Thursday, followed by statewide
rally in Jackson Sunday in observance of the Ninth
Anniversary of the y. S. Supreme Court decision
outlaWlng segregation in the nations public schools
Topmost among number of top NAACP ma
tlonal officers listed as speakers on the Carksdae
Mass Meeting Program National President Ar
thur Spingarn, who is white; Roy Wilkins Nation
al Executive Secretary; and Bishop Stephen C.
Spottswood, prelate of the AMEAZion Church, Ma
tional Chairman of the Board of Directors
According to published reports from the Clarks-
dale Mass Meeting Bishop Spottswood, in his
speech urged Mississippi Negroes to be ready to
die to obtain their rights, in what we see as a
flagrant and deliberate call to Negroes in the state
to resort to violence and boodshed despite the in
juntion, bearing with greatest weight upon the
holders of high and holy office, contained in the
promise, blessed are the peace makers.
Frankly we look upon all the political prelates
and preachers who have forsakened Christ's
gelcal call to go preach the Gospel to preach civil
rights, did the great Italian poet Dante who in
his great poem the Inferno, found the political
Popes and Prelates confined to the lowest rounds
of Hades. In the light Of Dantes findings, we
doubt if the Reverend Brother King, Shuttlesworth,
Alternately and SpottswoOd, despite their efforts to
impress the Negro masses with great erudition,
have ever read the poet Dantes great poem If they
did, all evidence lead to the conclusion that they
failed to grasp it's meaning, have become blind
ed by popular applause and the pentitude of per-
sonal emoluments.
Just about the same time that the Birming-
ham demonstrations were at their heights, but
crashing inevitably to the sad and tragic finale,
Jet Magazine published a statement repeatedly
from Aaron Henry, President of the Mississippi
State Conferene of NAACP Branches to the eff
feet that he was letting white people know that is
they started a fight Negroes are ready to fight
back
Here is another stupid and inept call to Ne
groes to resort to violence and bloodshed, and the
first question that every Negro in the state should
ask himself is,-fight back with what; with pop
bottles, brick bats, swtchblade knives, and clubs,
which is about all that is in the hands Of avail
able to, the vast majority.
The stupidity of Henry's statement can be JUS
titled only upon reaching the conclusion that he has
become. starry-eyed crusader, having visions of
vast horde of delta Negroes being called to the
banks of some lake, bayou, running stream, by
some great power, to have few get on their knees
and lap water like dogs, did the Israelites and
thus receive power to stand against rifles pistols,
machine guns, tanks. airplanes, and plentiful
unition, all under the cotrol of white people,
With these and the threats coming from the
Mass meeting in Jackson Sunday, despite the over
whelming evidence of all put complete failure and
Illustration in Birmingham, the question immed-
lately arises, are Negroes being led or misled
OnQer Cne influence OF q leadership composed Oh
individuals and organizations, with here and there
a sprinking of twentieth century carpet -baggers,
who disdain the leveling process of time, giving
time the name of gradualism, word which they
with contempt while seeking to accomplish by
sudden revolution what at it's best come only
through time and the consolidating process of evo-
luton, assert that the Mississippi Negro in
particular and the American Negro in general is
being mised; and unless we as Negroes ourselves
find a way to change the present course we will
find perhaps to late that we are being led into an
era of long suffering and sorrow.
We have this final word to the masses of Ne
groes in Mississippi, which is our major concern.
Booker T. Washington was the greatest, wisest, and
most able Negro to live in the United States since
the signing OF the Emancipation proclamation;
When out of his deep understanding of the need
for friendly relationship and understanding between
Negroes and white people in the south he estab-
fishing the institution and career that brought him
world renown, he was also being criticized and