Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 10 October 1964 — Page 10

Page 10

Editorials

'certainly the nationalism of which HATRED AND VANITY ARE THE GOVERNING TRAITS NAS BECOME IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY A PLANETARY NUISANCE." VAN "YCK BROOKS

New adventures in schooling "If you expect a nation to be ignorant and free, you will expect what never was and never will be." — THOMAS JEFFERSON. * * * This fall the board of education of New York City initiated several educational innovations which promise to improve the quality of schooling for the city's one million children in public schools. The innoYations range from courses fo teach teachers about the history of the Negro in the entire life of the nation to an experiment to saturate ten schools with educational services in an attempt to close the cultural gap between slum area children and middle class children. Most of the features of the new program are concerned with improving integrated education, and per se, they have aroused little controversy. Among steps initiated, are: The establishment in thirty-four schools of about 100 pre-kindergarten classes. These courses or classes are for children of the "culturally deprived" group or element of the populace. The purpose of such classes is to expose the children to the experiences middle class children normally find at home, so the deprived youngsters will not feel bewildered when they start their . . schooling. Forty thousand teachers in the city's public school system have received publications enabling them to know more, and teach more about minority group peoples. One of these publications is, "The Negro in American History." Now considered the key to all educational progress, continued emphasis on improved reading is being stressed in the program. A staff of more than 930 special reading teachers who serve the elementary schools, for the first time will include library teachers. And the number of teachers of vocal and instrumental music in the elementary schools has been increased by more than 130 per cent. Seemingly, the great city of New York is beginning exploration of the great challenge of schooling for useful lives of millions of "culturally deprived" children abiding in underprivileged surroundings - - with the idea of instituting proper schooling in all areas. Exploring the challenge in recent months, U.S. Commissioner of Education, Francis Keppel, emphasized that substandard schools are the wrong schools for children of poverty, or’the underprivileged. Such children need the very best of schools, Dr. Keppel asserted. All people boasting of the glories of our way of life, at the same time are confronted by knowledge of the moral or spiritual blight taking its rise within the habitations of a vast group of "culturally deprived" or underprivileged people over our entire land. The issue or problem poses a grave query - - can we preserve or sustain hopes or aspirations of a free and noble people, without building moral and spiritual vigors from the bottom of our social structure? Concluding, we contemplate there can be full freedom only when all of the people of our vast land have opportunity for schooliag to the full extent of their ability to learn. This must be followed by the opportunity to employ their learning in the creation of exemplary values for themselves and to the credit of our way of life.

Editorial opinions The Nation’s press THE TRIBUNE, Philadelphia Figures published last week by the Board of Public Education of Philadelphia show that the Negro school poplaution is 53 percent of all children enrolled in public schools. This is a factor which should concern responsible leaders of both races in the city. If you look at the percentage by schools—elementary, junior, senior high and vocational—you will notice a considerable difference between the percentage in junior high schools and the percentage in senior high schools. It would appear from this difference in percentage, that the pupils begin to drop out before entering senior high school, in addition to dropping out after enrolling in senior high school. The percentage in vocational schools is encouraging, provided of course that the vocations being pursued are going to be useful in an increasingly automated world. In any discussion of this problem or in any attempt to remedy it, the parent is frankly at the core of the matter. Children must be urged, inspired, encouraged, motivated by parents. Unfortunately, too many of today's parents are to a large extent the prodoct Of post-war unemployment and the inferior education which they received, South and North. The parents will have to be reached, in an effort to get them to see the need for their offspring taking advantage of the opportunity to secure an education to prepare them for the future. Here is a ready-made opportunity for leaders, social workers, churches, fraternal organizations and other civic groups to pool their resources and tackle a basic problem. Unless this is done, there will be no "kingdom" over which to battle as to who will be the "greatest in the kingdom."

Negro Press Creed united States of America con best lead the world away from racial and national antagonism when it accords every man, regardless of race, color or creed, his human and legal rights. Hating no man, fearing no man, the Negro Press strives to help every man in the firm belief that all are hurt so long as any one is held back.

rift

VOICE FROM THE GALLERY

SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON

Salvation for sinners

(LARGER LESSON: I Timothy 1:12; 2:15. LESSON PRINT: I Tim. 1:12-17; 2:1-7. MOTTO TEXT: I Tim. 1:15. TIME: 65 A.D. PLACE: Rome.) * * * Some years ago, a faithful minister went with the sainted Dr. W. Z. Thomas and me to northern Indiana to assist us in organizing a new mission in that section of the state. He asked two deacons of his church to assist him by keeping his teachers meeting going. The first replied: “What do you think we got you here for Doc. That’s my day off from work at the factory and I’m off too from everything.” The other said: “Just don’t tell thftm you are going away Doctor. I’ll get my old worn out Bible and do my best.” The aim of our lesson today is to be grateful that we have been saved from hell’s door, that we have a ministry in this life and that we can develop some simple skills for fulfilling our ministry. 1. So Let All Give Thanks I Tim. 1:12-13 2. What A Great Salvation I Tim. 1:14-17 3. The Proper Attitude Toward Christ I Timothy 2:1-7 SO LET US GIVE THANKS: Let us take Phillip’s translation of this verse and look at the beauty of this translation. “I am deeply grateful to Jesus Christ (to whom I owe all that I have accomplished) for trusting me enough !<;o appoint me to His ministry despite the fact that I have previously blasphemed His name, persecuted His church and damaged His cause. I believe He is merciful to me because what I did was ignorant and without faith.” He (Phillip) was grateful for being redeemed from the life he had formerly lived. He gave no credit to himself for his 30 years achievements— having then established more churches (probably 45) than any missionary of his day.But it all belonged to God who “trusted” him to be a preacher or minister. This word ministry is a very broad term, much broader than merely a preacher. Are you a nurse? You are trusted to administer the gospel with healing hands. Are you a teacher? You are in the ministry of guidance as a mother, particularly with golden words. If you are a worker in the Missionary Society, you are appointed of the Lord on a mission of visitation to go ye into the next block and teach all nations. Whether your pastor, superintendent o r president thought to appoint you or not, find your ministry and thank God for it. WHAT A GREAT SALVATION: Paul stressed that his young helpers should have more knowledge of what salvation meant first to himself and then to those we might come in contact with. Let us look at some of those words which express his warm awareness of God. “Sinners, of whom I am chief . . . (verse 15).” Paul was always repentant and aware of his own shortcomings. Paul regarded himself ns the worst man in the world. He knew what was said of others but he was somewhat in doubt since meeting and seeing his height and his own shortcoming, he felt he was chief of sinners. Do you feel that way? “That Christ came into the world to save sinners (veise 16, Luke 19:10).” Paul here catches the mes-

REV. J. T. HIGHBAUGH sage of Jesus as to His mission to save sinners, to rescue the perishing. Truly, the poet caught it in this hymn. Rescue the perishing, care for the dying Snatch them from pity From sin and the grave Weep o’er the erring ones Lift up the fallen Tell them of Jesus The mighty to save. “Grace was exceedingly abundant to me (verse 14, Titus 3:4-7). God poured out kindness, goodness, forgiveness, all through Jesus Christ . . . with faith (verse 14, Heb. 11:1).” “Love (John 3:16, verse 14).” “I obtained mercy first (verse).” This is Christian experience, first that Jesus Christ might show worth all long suttering as a pattern to them who shall hereafter to life everlasting (verse 16).” “Glory forever, (verse 17).” This last was that we might reveal Christ by our suffering to His glory. W. A. Williams says it thusly: I saw the martyr at the stake. The flames could not his courage shake. Nor death his soul appall, I asked him whence his strength was giv’n. He looked triumphantly to heaven, And answered, “Christ is all.” Truly if we be a witness for Christ and a worker we should know the plan of salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord. PROPER ATTITUDE TOWARD CHRIST AND GOVERNMENT: What a plea for governors and kings! He believeth that government was necessary that we might live a quiet life as free of war as possible with evil men in authority. He lets us know that even these men should be prayed tor if they are not saved. Thus, he must have believed that God intervened in history tor mankind’s good and worked for the good of them

who loved the Lord. He had no belief in salvation by government or governors. For he believed that the cause of all salvation was the one mediator and that He was to be heralded by preachers, missionaries and teachers. He thought of the truth as being in Christ and not in government. Can I drop this sacred warning, that in 1960, we who reminded anyone of the preservation of our principle of the separation of church and state, were counted as bigots. But after two and a half years with the Peace Core and four years with Foreign Aid, we have committed many teachers and workers in foreign countries' to foster the Catholic Church’s schools through the worker, maybe Protestant, and even here at home the Great Kentucky Baptist Association (white) almost voted to accept, government aid to its school and hospital financing. Can you imagine it? The loyalties are essentials that we keep separate church and state in our American elections. Yate’s poem tells the spirit of our battle I think. On ev’ry hand the foe we find Drawn up in dread array. Let tents of ease be left behind And onward to the fray; Salvation’s helmet on each head, With truth all girt about, The earth shall tremble ’neath our tread, And echo with our shout.

PATRONIZE RECORDER ADVERTISERS

White backlash not just a southern thing

The words “white blacklash” conjure up in the minds of most Negroes and liberals the picture of “Red neck” white Southerners who are addicted to white supremacy in a dogmatic fashion. While such a person will tend to oppose any Negro aspirations for first class status in American society, he is not alone in the group of Goldwater supporters who damn the Supreme Court decisions favoring democracy without regard to color. There are many thousands of whites in the North as well as in the South at every social economic level who are rabid devotees of the theory of white superiority. They are employers, public officials, police officers, school administrators and teachers as well as skilled craftsmen and business men. The figure can be further expanded to include the vas j o rit y of white Americans, regardless of religious profession, educational attainment, political party affiliation or social outlook. There are millions o f whites who d a are victims of KAM»U.i the disease of superiority thinking who vocally espouse the cause of civil rights and who belong to liberal groups such as the Civil Liberties Union, the B’nai B’rith and other such radically liberal groups. Many of these persons have persuaded themselves that they are devoid of race prejudice when by many of the acts of their daily lives they play the same role as the bigot as far as the Negro is concerned. Many of those whites who support open occupancy in housing, live in racially exclusive suburbs and belong to

By ANDREW RAMSEY churches which have moved because Negroes have moved into the neighborhood. The members of the mostly white liberal groups which are fighting for the enlargement of democratic practice rarely belong to such organizations as the NAACP or CORE although these organizations do not discriminate against whites. Many white ministers and religious leaders who attend conventions and either offer or support resolutions against religious racial segregation, belong to lily-white congregations and most of them lack either the courage or the sincerity to propose that their •congregations become interracial. The idea that every white man is superior to every Negro is so much a part of the average white man or woman that any white man regardless of education or calling seems to feel that he can advise Negroes on how to go about the business of improving his lot in America. Negro civil rights workers are often annoyed by the unsolicited advice of some white persons to the effect that “you people are going about this business the wrong way” or “don’t you think that you are pushing hard.” The giver of the advice may be a salesman with a high school education talking to a Negro Ph.D., or he may be a public school administrator talking to a Negro teacher, or applicant or parent or he may be a high public official or the holder of a high rank in his political party. Even fair minded whites often find it difficult to put in other than traditional “Negro jobs.” And speaking of jobs and Negroes, the pupils at Attucks, Shortridge and Harry E. Wood High Schools have the chance to see what jobs the construction industry metes out to Negroes. The plumbing contractors

at the three schools where alterations are being made, assign Negro laborers to do the rough and dirty work for the lily-white plumbing crews. The same goes for the masonry contractors and the electric contractors The school board itself maintains the same categorizing of jobs in its building and grounds department. The difficulty that Negroes have in joining craft unions lets one know that the white superority thinking is dominant in the labor movement, the great egalitarian force in American life. The reluctance of school officials to abolish de factor segregation and teacher discrimination based on race is due not so much to the fact that they can’t find a solution as to the fact that they are partisans to white superior thinking. Even the whites who make a great display of their liberality and of their emancipation from racism, retire from their interracial activities to an all white world. Many white Catholics who work or worship in predominantly Negro parishes regard themselves as missionaries committed to the job of recruiting members in the greatest untapped source in America. Most of these whites will not have the label white back lash attached to them, and many of them will, for other than civil rights reasons, vote against Goldwaterism. They are nevertheless the ones to watch as the civil rights revolution proceeds, for they are giving aid and comfort to the enemy and in many instances, they are the enemy. Fortunately there are whites who are genuinely committed to interracial justice, and to them the column wishes to apologize for this seeming wholesale condemnation of whites. It is regrettable that the apology does not and cannot extend to the majority of so-called decent whites.

ALTER CALL

They follow afar off

By EMORY G. DAVIS. D.D. One of the disparities in the social revolution going on in these United States today is the wide gap between religious leadership on the part of the clergy and religious fellowship on the part of the laity. . It is evident that the ministry feels the pressure of the demands for social and racial justice, and being true to their call, they launch out to affirm their faith and calling in deeds of social reform— marching in picket lines, staging demonstrations, drafting petitions, yea, even suffering violence, abuse humiliation, giving their lives for that which they now believe to be just. There is some fellowship on the part of the laity the ministry attempts to lead but generally, like Simon Peter during Christ’s trial, the laity “follows afar off.” Three recent events point most decidedly to this fact. In Southern New Jersey, Roman Catholic laymen were surveyed on their feelings about civil rights. The results of the poll shows how far the laity is behind leadership: Do you approve of the passage of the recent civil rights bill: Yes, 406; no. 396. Do you believe Negroes today are trying to gain too

Things Ton Should Know

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1834-1903 ... A.M.E. Bishop born in salem,mo..a GRADUATE OF DICKINSON COLLEGE AND A STUDENT AT HALLE.GERMANY HE TAUGHT THEOLOGICAL HISTORY AT DREW THEOtOGICAL SEMINARY. MADISON, N.J. /IN 1873HE BECAME THEIR PRESIDENT/IN 1880—A BISHOP./ WRITER OF MANY TEXTS^HIS OUTSTANDING SCHOLARSHIP WON GREAT AWARDS FOR THECOLLEGE./ IN WD OUT OF THE CHURCH —HE FOUGHT BRA/ELY FOR NEGRO RIGHTS!

By EMORY G. DAVIS, D.D. for NPI much too soon? Yes, 521; no,

257.

Do you feel the civil rights bill in any way lessens the rights of white Americans ? Yes, 456; no, 328. Do you believe Church leaders should take a stand in favor cf particular civil rights causes such as integrated housing? Yes, 306; no, 471. Meanwhile in South Carolina, 87 of that State’s 795 Methodist churches cut off funds to Wofford college in Spartanburg, because the school desegregated this fall, admitting an 18-year-old Negro boy—This, in spite of the Methodist’s stand on integration taken at their General conference in April. In California, where a failhousing law is being hotly debated, with most religious leaders opposing a petition on the November ballot that would bring about a repeal of that State’s present fair housing law, a Methodist church group in Los Gatos has been maintaining a “failhousing referral service” quietly assisting persons who wished to rent or buy housing on a non-discriminatory basis. When this program hit the press, the church was deluged with condemnatory phone calls and letters. The church also suffered a $10,000 loss in pledges to its annual budget canvass and attendance dropped. The church commistion on Christian Social Concerns was challenged by the board, getting a very slim vote of confidence, 21-16. Needless to say this disparity in what ought be a firm and committed thrust against social injustice is found in white churches. I suspect that similar disparities are found in Negro churches in other social mat-

ters.

A few weeks ago I heard of two or three Methodist churches whose members made periodic visits to allwhite Methodist churches and to the homes of the white members. They were doing this in preparation for the merging of the Negro and white Methodist conferences in the Chicago area. This seems like something that other Negro denominations could do regularly to aid in the increase of com- j munication between races and ■ churches. There is no justifiable reason for the existence of such separateness between Negro and white churchmen. All integration cannot be achieved by fiat of law alone, but much of it must be accomplished by ■ religio-social inter-relations. Behold another altar—THE ALTAR OF INTERCHURCH, INTER-RACIAL FELLOWSHIP. Not just on Race Relations Sunday, but throughout the year, Sundays

and week days, that Negro and white may both discover they believe in and worship the same God, our Father.

Voice of the people Questions lock of interest in Negro History To the Editor: Many years ago I heard the superintendent of a prison tell the Negro residents there that no people can lean back in pride unless they know the fine things about their forebears. We have once asked that we remember that there are nine school buildings in our city that are by name memorials to members of our race. We should like now for all to recall that in one of the newest of racial histories, “Great Negroes Past and Present,” published by AfroAm Publishing Co., there is listed under the division of “Business Pioneers” the name of Madame C. J. Walker - - a washer-woman who became a manufacturer and a millionaire. She is credited with the founding in Africa of an academy for girls and bequeathing to it $100,000. Many of us personally remember Madam Walker as a pleasant, kindly person interested in those less fortunate than herself and showing true nobility in that she was aware that she must be always learning from others. In some parts of our country, school boards are providing for all pupils courses in Negro History- Are We interested in such? Months ago. Dean Paul Moore, then pastor of Christ Cathedral on the Circle, sugguested this to a committee headed by Mrs. Ralph Coble, president of our local school board, but until now no action has been taken on that recommendation. Who cares? Harriet C. Kelley 1401 S. State

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