March 18, 1965

Negroes Wrong For Right Reasons

American negroes are wrong for the right reasons in their struggle for civil rights.

They are wrong for resorting to violence and intimidation to obtain their constitutional right to vote, work, and study without discrimination.

In my opinion, negroes have gone beyond their legitimate grievances and now are testing their new-found political power for preferential treatment.

It isn't enough that the Alabama negroes have finally won the right to register and vote. They are kept on the streets to "dramatize" the national struggle for social and economic as well as legal rights.

During the last two weeks, for example, when a handful of Selma, Ala., negro citizens and a multitude of outside negroes and sympathetic whites made a big to-do about marching on the state capitol, only 26 negroes went to the local election board to register.

There can be little doubt that the states of the old Confederacy have systematically prevented the negro from voting. Even now, those states are complying with Federal court orders only reluctantly — but they are obeying.

It is understandable that the petty harassments of election board officials in the south should gall abused negroes. However, this is the time to "go an extra mile" with the oppressor as recommended by Christ. To reply to insults in kind reinforces the antagonists. The smart thing for negroes to do would be to grit their teeth, endure patiently and vote the rascals out at the next election.

There are really three struggles going on amongst negroes:

• For civil rights in the south.
• For social rights in the north.
• For political power throughout the U.S.

The civil rights battle in the south deserves support, recognizing the real problems of turning into the political stream a flood of poor and uneducated voters. Regardless of the injustice, it has been impractical until recent years to tackle the final problems of assimilating former slaves into a society based on property ownership.

I used to be critical of the politicians and clergy for ignoring the evils of discrimination for the past century and then rushing in when the cause became popular and near success. Perhaps, however, the politicians and clergy realized instinctively that they would have been tilting windmills until the negroes achieved political awareness and developed a determination to see the battle through.

A degree of militancy was necessary IN THE SOUTH, I must admit. Southerners are still very much conscious of their defeat in the Civil War and the rapacious rule subsequently of northern carpet baggers. This highly emotional factor is one which northern liberals fail to appreciate. It takes more than sweet reason to smooth away prejudices born of bitter experience.

In addition, the southern white is faced with the likelihood that he will become a political minority and his property taxed to death by poor negroes. I personally feel this is an exaggerated possibility, but an organized effort to "punish" the white southerner can not be dismissed lightly.

The struggle in the northern states is way off base. In Cleveland, Akron, New York, Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia and other metropolitan areas, negroes suffer no legal discrimination. They register and vote easily, attend racially mixed schools, sit where they please on busses, swim at public pools, attend public entertainments.

Yes, there is "de facto segregation" for negroes as there is for all men in a free society. In all candor it must be said that the marked difference in the color of skin is a physical barrier. It makes the negroes' struggle for equality a little more difficult than it was for the Irish, Poles, Italians and other formerly discriminated racial groups.

Discrimination still suffered by the northern negro can be wiped out by individual effort and achievement.

AS A GROUP, negroes are not welcome in certain neighborhoods, clubs and gathering places because many of them do not conduct themselves as ladies and gentlemen. They are involved — percentage wise — in more crimes of violence and dishonesty than are other ethnic groups.

AS INDIVIDUALS, there are many thousands of fine negroes making outstanding contributions to their race and their communities. I am proud to know several of them. As their number increases, so will discrimination decrease.

The gracious, law-abiding and hard-working negro who is striving to rise above class — as all of our ancestors had to do, and as many whites are trying today — gets most of my sympathy. He hasn't quite made the grade to the top, yet he is a fine person ridiculed as an "Uncle Tom" by those of his race he has outdistanced.

Complicating the southern and northern struggles is that for leadership of the potent negro power bloc. The Freedom Movement, Congress of Racial Equality, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Black Muslims, and Black Nationalists — just to mention a few — vie for control of the negro group.

Great wealth and influence will come to that person or clique that can gain complete domination of a close-knit racial group. Favors and hand outs will flow to negroes if they vote blindly as their leaders tell them.

Present jealousies keep the various negro leaders at odds with each other. They strive for publicity and recognition in order to win the loyalty of their followers. As a result, the negro has been led into some trivial and self-defeating antics — sit-ins at the White House, marches on white southern churches, lie-downs in front of bull dozers and school boycotts being just a few examples.

In the end, I am confident justice will prevail, and the civil rights guaranteed under our wise Constitution will be enjoyed by all Americans regardless of the color of their skin.

Author: Lindsey Williams