Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 27 August 1955 — Page 10

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Welcome, P. A. W. Convention Delegates Two national conventions “in a row” give Indianapolis a chance to show real Hoosier hospitality and to underscore the phrase “no mean city ’ as our exclusive property, thanks to the eloquence of then Mayor Charles Bookwalter at the dedication of the present City Hall in July, 1909. Last week it was the convention of the National Alliance of Postal Employees; this week we welcome delegates here for the 45th annual sessions of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World. They converged upon the city by the hundreds via every medium of transportation and were welcomed by their hundreds of ‘‘Sister and Brother Saints of the Church” with true Christian enthusiasm. As the birthplace of PAW, Indianapolis occupies a position comparable to Rome for Roman Catholics,Canterbury for Anglicans, London for Methodists or Boston for the Christian Scientists. Christ Temple, meetingplace of the convention, is certainly the “M other Church” to the international body. The church members, living Christianity as well as preaching it, exert an influence for the good which in many instances far transcends their weight numerically. We are happy to know they are here, and we pray that the city will feel the influence of the church boly concentrated here for a week at the place of its founding.

School Integration Moving Along Here While the battle of school integration in the South ranges on all sides with fury, it is being accomplished here with admirable smoothness and lack of incident. It is, in fact, being accomplished with such quietness and efficiency that many people know little or nothing about it. It is being accepted as a matter of course, which is as it should be. To most people, for instance, it is just a matter of mild interest that two white teachers are being placed on the Attacks high school faculty, while five other high ' schools are getting their first Negro teachers. No storm of controversy is brewing,' and the school board itself is not making much of a fuss over it. Oddly enough, we think this comparative lack of interest is a healthy sign. When full integration is here, no more of an eyebrow will be raised over the hiring of a Negro where a white worked before, or vice versa, than the hiring of a redhead to take a position formerly held by a brunette. Which, again, is as it should be. Indianapolis is, of course, fortunate in having such a school superintendent as Herman L. Shibler. Not a soapbox orator or flag-waver. Dr. Shibler nevertheless continues to exhibit that positie type of leadership which knows where it is going and which consequently demands confident follow-ship. While the eager integrationists on the one hand might demand of him the impractionable, the segregationists, in many cases backed up by money and “power,” no doubt pillory him for the progressive stand he has already shown. Personal “on the inside” indicate that, if the school superintendent had his own way, full integration would already be here. It is the sincere hope of The Recorder that this fairminded young educator remain here long enough to finish the job of complete integration. He has made a laudable start.

“Dusky” Foreigners, Identify Yourselves One of these days, dark-hued visitors to this country will realize the extreme importance of identifying themselves as foreigners. Otherwise, how can they escape being mistaken—and consequently sometimes niistreated—as Negroes? India’s ambassador to this country, Gaganvihari Lallubhai Mehta, and his secretary, B. A. Rajagoplan, probably know it now. On Monday they were ushered into a “special” dining room at the Houston, Tex., airport from the public dining room because the restaurant supervisor “thought they were Negroes.” The supervisor, Mrs. Mary Alley, quoted Texas law to back up her moving of the distinguished visitors, en route to Mexico City from Washington by plane. Texas, quite expectedly, has a law forbidding the serving of Negroes and white people in the same room. Houston’s contract with the federal government, however, bans discrimination at the international airport where the incident occurred. According to the AP news report, “The ambassador and his secretary looked at each other, smiled and complied. They made no protest and followed Mrs. Alley into a small dinning room back of the cashier’s cage.” They could have learned something from a fellow countryman who visited Indianapolis a few years back. It seems the Indian, stopping at the downtown YMCA, after having been refused service at a nearby restaurant, realized that all he had to do was return to his room and don a colorful turban, then return to the restaurant. It worked. And the state department, concerned over possible international repercussions, might learn from the Indianapolis NAACP.. That august body, in “Naptown Nonsense” some time ago, hit upon the idea of arm bands to identify one class of people from another, when they couldn’t otherwise be discerned as those to be discriminated against. Arm bands, ceremoniously presented to overly-tanned visitors to this country upon arrival, could then identify them to doubting waitresses, bus driver, bartenders, theater ushers, etc. Complications would arise, of course, if we admitted— as any historian, anthropologist, ethnologist or any other informed person knows—that “black” blood flown through the weins of Indians and most other Asians, so we will join the general United States conspiracy and not bring it up, out of deference to the ignorance of Southerners—especially Texans.

BETWEEN THE LINES

By Dean Gordon Hancock (ANP) Our Foreign Policy Pays Off

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MW'*-

G. Hancock

“SHOW THE WORLD WE MEAN WHAT WE SAY”

MISCELLANEOUS MUSINGS

By T. C. Johnson \Nhaf Would You Have Done?

Reporting incidents such as the following may be of questionable value to many who are in a position to a large extent to avoid similar situations. It also is to be doubted that recording u n p 1 e a sant h a p p e nings can contribute much if anything to the more cordial race relations which m o r • and more people appear to be s e e k i ng. But explosive race clashes do take place T. C. Johnson constantly. They are important, sometimes resulting in individual or community tragedy. They ought not to be. But they are and deserve thoughtful consideration on the part of all who prefer peace and order to friction and chaos. Fortunately most people show a commendable restraint under trying circumstances apparently considering an offender too insignificant for notice and being determined to remain lady-like or gentlemanly, letting whoever will be an ignorant boor-unless he goes too far. RIGHTLY OR WRONGLY, fas you will), increasing numbers of people cannot or will not take wanton insults lying down. To that group belongs a very dark young woman of New' York City. Quite recently as she was getting aboard a Riverside bus a rather old white woman pushed her aside, stepping in

front of her and snarled: “This bus is not for niggers. Take the next one." Without answering, the colored woman got on the Riverside bus, sitting immediately next to the ill-mannered offender. An important - looking white man who saw the white woman’s acts and heard her provocative words sat opposite the woman scowlingat the colored woman, who wondered why he was so openly peeved at her. But a pleased expression replaced his hostile look when the colored .woman began to jab her enemy fn the stWfrXCir’ and side with her elbow. HE SMILINGLY BOWED his approval. The jabbing began at 57th street anJ was kept up until the end of the line at 163rd street. The performance so pleased the white man that he w-ent miles beyond his gettingoff place. Up to this point neither woman had said anything since entering the bus. But when the white woman started to leave, the colored woman brought her foot down on her opponents foot hard and held it there. The mischief maker being hurt and unable to move, dropped back in her seat, claiming: “I didn’t mean anv harm.” “Don’t try to tell me that,” was the quiet reply. “Where did you come from and how long have you been up here?

This is a civilized city." THE POOR white woman asked: “What are you going to do with me, since you won’t let me leave the bus? I shall be lost w'hen we reach the end of the line." “If you were nort so old I would slap your face. Doubtless you are sick. There is a hospital at 163rd street. You ought to go there and have your head examined. In your present condition you are not fit to be among normal people. "When you go back South, stay there. Serious harm will come to you if you remain here and try to continue your ignorant acts and words. Any human being is respected as such here. You apparently are not aware that slavery ended in the U.S.A. ninety year ago.” AFTER leaving the bus the sympathetic white man sooke to the colored woman. He said: “Congratulations, Miss. 1 should like to buy you a dish of ice cream." “I appreciate your interest," she answered, “but I do not want anything to eat, thank you." The man went on: “I frowned at you because at first I thought you without the intelligence or pluck to resent the woman’s contemptous behavior. You handled her perfectly.” “I hope she learned a lesson.”

Our foreign policy as enunciated and begun by Truman, is paying off. Once it was greatly to be feared that the communism of Rusia would run a similar course to the naziism of Germany and that in /the end,

the world would find itself doomed either to accept in full communism or face World

War III.

Hitler adopted the Roman concept of divide and rule that Britain has used so successfully for cen-

turies. Where as Britain used the concept . politically, IDtler adapted the concept militarily and with tremendous suc-

cess.

Country by country Hitler took over with his nazism and was bidding for the whole of Europe until England called his hand. Abetted by the United States, England rose up in its might, and together, these two countries led the successful revolt against Hitler and Hitlerism. Compelled to ally themselves with Russia in the fight against Hitlerism, they found themselves in curious company once the war was over. As soon as Russia w'as even partly recovered, Stalin took a leaf from Hitler’s Nazi book, and straightway set about subduing Europe. AND SO SUCCESSFUL were hLs strategems that he set about the conquest of the great continent of Asia. With China subdued, it once appeared that communism would sweep Asia and the world. But to the credit of the

United States it must be said that its President Harry Truman found the formula for stopping Stalin and his communism. It looked at first like a policy of buying friends who would not stay bought; but it was the only approach to the impending problem of stopping Stalinism. It consisted of giving economic aid in turn for military aid in stopping the onrushing tide of communism. And so the war in Korea was precipitated and it proved the stopping place for the military spread of communism. We would be remiss in our observation unless we emphasized that the military halt of communism does not mean its ideological termination. Our success thus far in stemming the tide of communism only means that we have time to regroup our forces for a final ideological stand against communism. THE WESTERN WORLD badly needed respite from communistic pressures so as to to have time for planning to meet Russia on ideological grounds as well as one the field of battle. The United States approach, through economic aid to hungry peoples of the world, has been eminently justified. The world has had a breathing spell and the more the world breaths freedom and thinks the majber through, the more the world is disinclined to accept communism and more inclined to accept democracy. It is quite possible and probable that the respite gained Ihrough our foreign policy may prove the determinant of war or peace. There are so many evidences that Russia really and trully wants to “talk turkey” in this matter of international relations.

Peaceful co-existence m a y v not prove to be an empty phrase. Instead it may have a meaning for history that coming generaitions will appreciate keenly and laud sincerely. The current respite in the hot and cold wars may have the ultimate meaning of a just and enduring peace. Although the nations are girding for atomic warfare, they do not have to fight such war for there is a more excellent way and the respite that has come through our foreign policy may help us to find that way. IRRESPECTIVE of what she means, Russia is inclined of late to talk with sense and there are so many evidences that Russia is just about as fearful of atom wariare as we and the rest of the world are. If Russia has the common sense we think she has, the fear of the atom bomb is mutual. This mutual fear of atom warfare may predispose the nations to peace; and it all stems from our foreign policy that gave the respite in which we could think things over, and the more we thought, and the more the Russians thought, we dismissed the notion of a war that might end in the destruction of mdnkjlid from the face of the earth. In other words the United States decision to fight in Korea might have been the show of force needed to restrain the Russians in their ambitions to take the world for communism; just as Hitler had planned to take it for Hitlerism. STATESMANSHIP in these United States is not a total loss! Our foreign policy inaugurated by Harry Truman is paying off grandly.

VOICE FROM THE GALLERY

By ANDREW W. RAMSEY

Public Needs Education To Smooth Path Of Integration

The greatest obstacle to .smooth transition to desgreatibn of the nation’s schools comes from the miseducation and ignorance of the public rather than the fulminations and activities of southern political demagogues and citizens councils. The ignorance and miseducation has little to do with the level o f schooling, the level of society, the occupation or the geographica 1 location of the , persons - poss e s s i n g them _ white person knows little about the Negro except w'hat he has learned from schoolbooks, newspapers, magazines, movies, television

A. W. Ramsey The average

Integration Vs. Negro Teachers To the Editor: When the board of education of Indiana decides, to integrate teachers, will that hurt our teachers? Will it leave a lot of teachers jobless? Today it depends on the parents. They should take more interest in the Parent-Ttech-ers associations. It also depends on the community and the state, that has broad control over affairs that mark our lives. People should understand the law and keep in mind that the courts administer justice. Citizens, making decision on the basis of personal experiences, cooperate in elections choosing office-holders. However, one should remember that justice comes from God, and one need not quarrel with his neighbor about injustice, for God’s law will find a way to clean the path of love and cooperation inherent in the American wav of life. Education is the highest degree of the universe. Te children in integrated schools are doing their part, “working together.” The Negro has not realized that parents are the foundation of the teachers, for without help of parents, teachers are lost. Today the Negro needs integration more than ever. I find many need economic integration. Some teachers are against integration because they fear loss of their jobs. In the long run, Indiana education will not be fair to the Negro teachers Alfred Corbitt.

7U>t TURNER ^THE REBEL'

ROOF THAT THERE WAS WIDESPREAD DISCONTENT AMONG NEGROES IN SLAVERY- HE LED A SLAVE REBELLION IN SOUTHAMPTON COUNTY, VA.IN 183)1 HIS BAND OF SIXTY SLAVES WITH STOLEN WEAPONS KILLED AND TERRORIZED FOR DAYS UNTIL TURNER WAS CAPTURED BY STATE MIUTIA! HE WAS THEN HANGED ALONG WITH TWENTY OF HIS BAND)

and the radio and practically every Negro knows that almost all that one can gain from these sources is a series of stereotypes none of which is complimentary to the Negro nor consonant with the facts. First of all there has grown up a myth that the Negro has had no past worthy of historical mention either in America or in his ancestral Africa. Historians have known better but they have been more faithful to white supremacy than to unbiased scholarship. In the second place the stereotypes which have been developed since the Civil War picture the Negro as an ignorant and childlike brute with whom no self-respecting civilized person would want to associate. So strongly drawn have been both the myth and the stereotypes that many so-called educated whites even with the facts before them choose to ignore the facts or to misinterpret them to fit into the picture of the Negro which they have gotten at their mother’s knees. * With the present level of schooling and the present development of the media of mass education in America, scholars and scientists know that to debunk the present misconceptions regarding the Negro can be done with a great deal more ease than it was a few years ago to sell the idea of vaccination against small pox or the idea of free public education for all American children. But the owners or the controllers of the media of mass communication either have a vested interest in segregation or they share the common ignorance of the Negro with the rest of the nation. WHATEVER the reason, the fact is that the very agencies which could most effectively be used to dispel the myth and destroy the stereotypes are the very ones which have either created them or kept them alive. For instance: rare indeed is the American daily newspaper which does not suppress or distort news about Negroes when that news is of a noncriminal nature and blow up crime news especially when the Negro is’ alleged to have committed a crime against a white person. By reading the daily press day after day the average American is likely to get the impression that Negroes are all criminals by nature, - Indianapolis daily newspapers are a notable exception. The Negro is presented on the stage, on the screen, over the radio and on television as a comical, illiterate and servile buffon w'ho is tolerated with more or less good humor by his kinlly master or mistress. THE WHOLE BUSINESS amounts to conditioning the response of the white man to

the Negro in much the same manner as the scientist con-: ditions laboratory' animals t o behave in ways foreign to their nature. Most school officials and some school board members know that the public can be educated to accept gracefully the new democratization of education but few do anything about it. In only a few communities have the school officials developed a program for preparing either the pupils, the teaching staff or the parents for integration of the schools. In most non-southern communities where segregation has been a custom, the school have gone about the business of desegregating the schools as though they were embarking upon an experiment which they could abandon at will. Except for; a little gerrymandering here and there, however, pupil integratioir has communities but teacher inbeen undertaken in most such tegration is quite another matter. Most school boards and superintendents have gingerly gone against the old taboo that Negroes and whites are never to be put into non-phys-ical competition. THEY HAVE PLACED Negx*o teachers generally in schools whose pupil ratio leaned toward Negroes and by granting transfers to both teachers and pupils (white) have in a very short time converted these schools into' practically all Negro schools. That pattern has been followed in Washington, D.C., Chicago, Illinois and Indianapolis, Indiana. Strict districting on a purely geographical basis and the assignment of teachers to schools without regard to the racial composition of the student bodies would prevent this wholesale displacement of school teaching and pupil personnel and speed the overall transition to an integrated system. A program to educate the teachers, the pupils and the parents on the basic facts of humanity and the contributions of minorities particularly the Negro would help greatly in integrating in spirit as well as in fact. THE LOCAL PRESS, radio and television stations and the churches and civic organizations could give valuable assistance to this program of education. .And Negro organizations should check the public 1 ibraries to see if it they contain books and periodicals by and about Negroes. OF COURSE the above suggestions are aimed only at school systems whose boards are trying to obey at least the letter of the law in desegrating the schools. For other cases a lawyer could offer better advice. In any case integration must come.