Race, class, and politics; The Negro in America

I speak of it as concern in many writings with the description and understanding of Negro civil rights organizations and their relation to other organizations. He has dealt skillfully with the attempts made by the Communist Party to influence the end up ICP and to turn it to its own purposes and he has dealt skillfully with the many ways in which and ICP has countered and defeated these efforts in 1951. His book The nigger in the Communist Party here in 93 64. His race and radicalism was published. He is also with his wife done a book on the Little Rock crisis and the monograph on minority groups an intergroup relations in the San Francisco Bay area. He's currently a professor of sociology at Sacramento said college and will be leaving the next year for Southern Illinois University. I'm very pleased to present Professor Wilson record. This morning I want to talk about race class politics and. I will. And to emphasize as perhaps it's not necessary that there are all

in American. Political life very closely related. It is difficult to make a clear and consistent distinction between the three of the three in any given instance. However. I think it is but it is possible to spell out some aspects other historic on on of their current relationships and. Placed in perspective the history of the negro as his experience in America. Had been affected by race and class and politics. This I think will enable us to get a somewhat clearer perspective on what is going on at the present time. What has gone on particularly during the past decade and what problems that are continuing to become intensified during the decade ahead. For some to think trees in America from the beginning of slavery until the Civil War negroes were

an issue but hardly an independent force in American politics. It is true that some negroes were free and that Selma did have the franchise that some did participate in the political process. However the Great Book of Negroes in the United States during this some 200 years interval were swayed who lacked not only political rights but lacked as well on Ottoman human rights which though of all players Ghana and perhaps more fortunate circumstance got taken for granted as a matter of birth. Keep in mind that the slavery system as the develop in the United States was one of the most monstrous if not the most

monstrous slavery system that the world has ever known. And that one aspect of that was the dinar who Flav's off any opportunity to participate in the determination of their own destiny and the knowledge of any opportunity to give a concrete expression in the form of politics to group interest. Lincoln may have might have been able to have challenged slavery sooner if he had been able to provide a place for the free negro. He was quiet and served up until the time of the issuance of the amount of bacon Proclamation after just what he should do and what the national policy should be with respect to slavery and with

respect to the slave who would be freed. With the ending of the system. Lincoln did not become. The Great Emancipator until he had failed miserably as the great colonisers who wanted to remove the possible negroes from the United States are in some way segregate them physically even though he was willing to end the slavery system. The negro. Slavery was an issue that could not be resolved short of war and long not resolved by the war. Because the place of Negro American life as been an issue since that time. It is being resolved I think and it is being resolved through the growing participation of negroes in the political process. For the past hundred years Negroes have been both an issue and a force in organized

political life in this country. It can be anticipated that they will remain so for the next century to. Orate long as distinctions based on race thoughtfully defined have a bearing on the behavior of Negroes and whites in their relation to each other and have a bearing on the kind of socialization process through which they go but shaped a particular personality and identities that they develop. The measure. Of negro as an issue. And as a participant can be saying in the newspaper coverage now. As a Compared to newspaper coverage of race relations and particularly negro white relations 40 or 50 years ago. We give you an example. A number of years ago I undertook some research on the

universal Negro Improvement or what has been known more popularly as the Garvey movement. I was using among other sources the New York Times and I wanted to find out what had occurred at a trial. At which Marcus Garvey the leader of the organization was charged with fraud in connection with the promotion of a steamship company which in turn was to develop a three way triage between negroes in America Africa and the Latin American countries. And which was also to be used eventually tomb transport Negroes to Africa. Once they had been able to obtain a homeland and that caught.

The guard he was not guilty of fraud. Unfortunately he acted as his own attorney and refused to take the advice of legal counsel which of course had provided. He proceeded to have all the court and jury as if he were making one of his very inflammatory and very affected by the way for aeration harm. If one sets a well result he was convicted given several years prison sentence and then with parole and deported to Jamaica. While on the day Garvey was convicted the New York Times ran for the day following Garvey's conviction. The New York Times ran about four column inches over in the home guard section. Can you imagine can you imagine how much treatment would be given illogic Mohammed. Are Malcolm X today by The New York Times

not on the New York Times but the mass media of all kinds. If they were indicted or tried or convicted of a serious offense this is only a measure of how much change has taken place. No doubt such an event would make headlines all over the country. Even in New York. Or look at the attention given to race relations and particularly they upsurge of Negro protest such as is found in Look magazine or in Time magazine which last year named Martin Luther King by the way man of the year. Or look at the very many special publications that are now being issued that have to do solely with race relations. For example the monthly publication the southern school when you are concerned only with a reporting of what is happening in the integration picture in the southern schools. Or look at the race

relations law or order issued quarterly. It weighs about three pounds per issue and contains a vast amount of information concerning the relationship of race relations to law to administration Ed.. So Also it might be worth noting that since January of this year. This in my own count and I suspect it's not a very accurate one. Erring on the side of smallness rather than largely by my own counter has been an average of one major book per week on race relations published in January of this year and they are continuing to roll off the press at about that same rate. Even those who pretend to be expert in the field have great difficulty not only in reading what is being published but even remembering what is being published and what ought to be read.

And what ought to be avoided. This is a measure I think of the degree to which race relations has become a public issue and indicative of the widespread concern that a wide number of publics have with the matter and the implications change immigration relations for a whole group or whole range Oppy people who will be affected one way or another because to transform to transform race relations in the United States is to transform the nature of the fight itself. We're witnessing now the negro bid for equality in the political arena as well as his forceful and imaginative use all political power already attained. Martin Luther King Roy Wilkins a Philip Randolph James Farmer a lodger Mohammed

Malcolm X and a host of other Negro leaders are political men and are using political methods and political organizations and their goals are I think fairly political in character. Also organizations with which we have historically of sloth evaded certain limited means as well as certain restricted goals are themselves taking on a more pronounced political character and broadening their methods to include. Political means. On a more systematic scale for example the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People concerned. Primarily with a youth is off the court for the establishment of certain principles of equality with respect to General participation in American life the National Urban League

which was initially a welfare and self-help type of organization the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with impetus on religion for The Nation of Islam with its simple to follow on religion and separatists all of these organizations are definitely at this time and will continue to be political in character. And I might say increasingly political and character they seek to use politics for issues or racial or public. They are not private and not second. Never before in America were negro thought politically conscious so keenly aware not only of their right but also of their obligation perhaps of the necessity. Of using their political resources for reshaping public policies and securing a just measure

facade is good things for themselves and for their children. Rosa Parks of Montgomery Alabama gave expression to that determination when she refused to move to the negro affection segregated. And what ensued thereafter you are course aware off namely the Montgomery Bus Boycott the emergence of Martin Luther King. Yes Babbage one of the sort of Christian Leadership Conference. So but what she did and she was not an altogether exceptional exceptional one. What she did other negroes by the phone. Have been doing since that time from the bottom up as well as from the top down Negroes have become politically involved. And having tasted both a sacrifices and the

benefits that come from political involvement they're not likely it seems to me to turn back. Now this new political power was not suddenly found it did not come as a gift from benevolent white folks eager to accord full political participation to all of that. This power was one one in the same manner as other groups that have aspired to have a voice in public affairs. I want the right to do so. This power was won through hard struggle in the courts at the registration headquarters at the polling places in the streets and in some cases in the jails

and the prisons in the chain gangs and also in the schools and in the churches. The South real tragedy was not that the Negro got the franchise temporarily but that it was taken from him. Just at the time as DuBois as pointed out when political power was being used to uplift not only the downtrodden Exley but also the downtrodden who are white and where that political power had the potential of transforming the south to a progressive instead of a racist and reactionary.

For. Those who are critical of the resume the slowness with which some negro organizations are presently moving in the political arena might remember that the negro political experience was aborted. It has been rather short. And before there could be affective political involvement it was necessary to modify the judicial and the legislative arrangements so that minimal political involvement would be possible so that the state itself could be removed as the instrument for the systematic exclusion of the Negro from day determination of public policy. The right to exist takes precedence over the

conditions of contract in the struggles of negroes and watch no less than in both of labor and match. Here we might draw if we have the time some significant parallel between what occurred in the labor movement in the 130 days as labor sought the right to organize. And what is occurring and civil rights movement at the present time as Negroes seek the right to organize and to vote and to bargain in the process of politics. True the negro political power has not yet been won in full measure. Certainly what has happened what is happening now in the south is indicative not only of the violent resistance which will be made to the efforts of Negroes to acquire. A minimum of political voice but. Indicative

also of the strong hold which tradition emotion and habit have upon those who although they can see the necessity of change and somehow not accept emotionally the implications. And so they strike back blindly sometimes violently and the instrument of murder is not outside their heart. Many difficult struggles still lie ahead. So far as establishing the right of the Negro to participate in politics and I don't mean merely in voting but to participate in other forms of political organization and action especially when it be difficult and in states such as Alabama Mississippi Georgia and South Carolina outside the South for the most part there is no problem on the right of the Negro to vote.

The problem may be in organizing and developing an effective negro electorate but the legal right the practical right itself is not at issue. The right to vote itself must be established effectively in the south. However before the youth is of politics such as we ordinarily think of them in political Park in terms of political parties can be made response. This is poorly recognized by civil rights organizations who say the removal of barriers on the one hand and political education of negroes on the other is primary objective. And curiously enough or perhaps not so curiously one sees a combination a demand for change in laws that will legally make possible a right of the Negro to vote. On one hand and political education being conducted by civil

rights organizations on the other. Voter registration drives are as much a part of ongoing activity as sit in New Orleans and other forms of direct action. And they interest that has developed among rank and file negroes in political participation has had I think a very healthy effect on the overall political scene certainly has been a stimulus to other negroes who might have been hostile or even indifferent to political action to come along to have a new look and to themselves become involved in political organization and in the use of political resources. Those who deplore so-called extremism of Negro movements in recent years might well ask them for it. Where would the struggle forsook for citizenship be today if militant Negro

leaders and organizations and even the more moderate ones if they had not taken the steps that they did to organize and to direct the negro's political potential would Senator Russell or Senator Goldwater have voted for the civil rights bill if negroes had been less militant would Governor Wallace have opened the University of Alabama to negroes. If the NWA CPA had closed shop or had at least not struggled to reopen shop after having been outlawed in Alabama would horrible fall with and I can after this one. What almost all of us have integrated the Little Rock school. If Daisy Bates had been more quiet spoken.

Will the Congress of the United States have imposed cloture in the Senate. In the absence of strong demands from organized Negro is that a minimal bill will be passed. I think the answer to all these questions and similar ones must be a categorical no. And if the political system had been more responsive to the just demands of me growth then the so-called extremism which so many people deplore might might not have developed. What should impress the theory of is not how militant or fanatic negro have been in the political arena but rather how restrained and responsible and light of their long and bitter experience and the emergence in recent years of new threats

to group well-being and progress. Certainly this was what impressed Eric Sevareid and his now famous article the era of Negro passion. And it must impress others as well as they grasp as you're trying to do here. Yeah enormity of the negro deprivation and the faithfulness of the struggle to enter into and to remain in the mainstream of American life. I must say often and I'm a little tart. Well I'm a little tired of the self right just an observation by self-satisfied a non-involved liberal of the so-called

extremist on both sides. Meaning. Possibly. The NWA sapient corps on the one hand and the John Birch Society on the other. The implication being that somewhere there is a nice middle ground. Well since when has it been extreme to past to pressure forth that a friendship and the moral and legal guarantees of the Constitution of the finality in which we live. I can't help but be reminded of the editor roles that appear frequently in my Sacramento newspaper the Sacramento Union which delights in saying that the Democratic Party has the

Young Democrats and the Americans for Democratic Action and that this is really no worse than the Republicans having the John Birch Society and the Minutemen of America. Not only is this rather questionable substantive material and. Rather cockeyed logic but the way the editor of the Union writes editorial would make you English teachers wince and scream I'm sure. But this is essentially what it said. The new militancy in politics among Negroes is not a momentary Upchurch let me emphasize this dust into decline as emotions are received and as. Normalcy returns there can be no normalcy. The situation is too dynamic and there is no turning back the clock

and those who are insisting that the pace be slowed or even halted for a time out no real alternative to offer. Perhaps only the alternative all more waiting and more holy and all the latter. The negro has plenty of the former he has none. He's tired of waiting jet Huntley's suggestion that the END UP Lacie be withdraw itself from the Southern Education scene so that the moderate elements could work out fair solutions. I was more than anything else it seems to me a measure on how little Not only he but many others understood the negro the Southern whites and the crucial place that education occupies and race relations at

the present time and the continuing involvement of race and politics as they bear on race relations. I'm not a determinist. The future is not guaranteed but nothing is more certain. Than that Negroes will acquire and use more effectively the political resources on which every other racial and ethnic minority have tried to secure for itself minimal participation in public life and the improvement of group welfare. What negroes and Puerto Rico guns and Mexicans are now doing at last is what you and Irish and Italians and POWs and others have done before. The momentary success of the George Wallace of Alabama. Or Richard Richard Russell of Georgia or of the Barry Goldwater of Arizona

could not obscure this basic long term long term trend. Nor should counter movement such as the White Citizens Council in the south or the pro stagger geisha n'est real estate organizations for example in California deceive us by their loud and sometimes violent opposition to equal rights which means at this stage of our lives. Had experienced not long ago of a well intentioned white neighbor who asked if I would invite her two children to my home the next time I had Negro guests and I was rather taken aback by this. Not that I minded inviting. Children are adults that are

Negroes or wifes or what have you. When she explained that her children who were 10 and 12 respectively had lived in California all their lives and that she and her husband were also a native Californian who had never been outside the boundaries of the state. But she said her children had never met a Negro and that. She and her husband also would like to be invited since they had each other. Well I don't know how many of you have had the same experience

but the fact is that there has been a deep cough to put it even mildly between negroes and as this gulf of separation is narrow and as white encountered negroes they are going to find that. They are in many ways many many ways no different from other people. They're going to find also that many of their ideas such as they were. About Negroes were far from happy. This does not mean that. Negroes will be angels and it's about time we stop demanding that the Negro be angels before they be a core part of the elementary rights of citizenship. Many whites see the emergence of negroes in their demand as a threat to their hard won

middle class status. Certainly some of the most the 50 most opponents of school integration are those track on third generation immigrants than them who have profited most from the free and open educational system that has existed for those all of the proper meaning pale skin color I mean local groups that have sprung up to hold public school integration fear not so much the decline in the quality of schooling although this is the father behind which prejudice breaks out the loss of status assaulted with both rage and class. Some better balanced perspective on the past their own past as well as that of Negro would be desirable to offset the fears and myths and half truths which many are so eager to believe because it is so essential for their own sense of status that they believe even that which is half truth

are which may not even be true at all. Not long ago. The Jewish neighbor of mine a middle class professional liberal politically a member of the CDC and very active in it. Expressed a great fear that I would sell my house to a negro something I had offered to do. And I have even that actively thought that if they didn't challenge me directly with this. But he did drop the number of Hampshire to neighbors and they didn't challenge me either except again by talking to other neighbors.

Well. I asked why my Jewish neighbor. Oh you'd been in America. He's third generation is parents rich grandparents migrated from East Europe Eastern Europe and through education have managed to progressive stanchly up the filter of economic ladder. He said to me you know I said to the neighbors you know if you sell your house to do one negro you can't tell how many more might move then. And I was tempted to say well if you sell your house to

one and he didn't say Negro he said nigger and I was tempted to say if you start a house to one god no time anymore going live then look this thing operates several ways. And unfortunately unfortunately much of the day the resentment their opposition to. Wiping off duty for Negroes comes from the descendants of immigrant groups in Feltham. Who have managed to succeed in a free and open society at least free open for white people. So we must role recognise that there is some tremendous of a great deal of emphasis happen placed up on Day anti-Semitism that one finds among Negroes. And there's plenty of it but not a great deal has been placed upon the anti negro anthem that one finds among you or among among Poles or among the Titans are among a number of other recent

event of recent immigrants. Well we've been speaking of negroes as they were all alike. They are in some significant respects but there are many differences as well. There are for example among negro differences based on income and educational rather than from occupation on religion skin color or ancestry and length of residence in the community. Negroes are certainly aware of the extinctions and both like to have you are familiar with negro communities are aware of them as well. And certainly the behavior including the political behavior of darker skinned poorly educated unskilled Negro is significantly different from that of the highly educated professional who lives in. I don't figger gaited middle class community. These distinctions these differences for me are real way need not however obscure the fact that. New growth in recent years all across they class on

color spectrum or spectrum have been very much concerned with politics I have found agreement on minimal agreement on certain objectives as well as mean full theologist of course. I've always had a difficult time along with others of differentiating between behavior of Negroes that is a consequence of race factors and those that are a function of class differences and certainly in popular thinking. There is a great deal of confusion. There is of course the in the United States a strong dimension to the class dimension politics. However because of social mobility and widespread regional and religious and ethnic differences political parties have been have not been class parties and date European power. Minute differences are resolved within parties generally speaking however the conservatives have found the Republican Party to their liking and the progressive along with

the Southern reactionaries have reached a modus vivendi in the Democratic Party. However the internal struggle going on within the Republican party today especially with respect to civil rights indicates a serious split which may not necessarily be healthy either for Negroes are for the Democratic Party itself. In the long run my point in any of it is that Negroes are in politics to stay and will be closely involved in the improv party as well as the Inner Party struggles for office and for power. Hopefully the only growth as well as wide will find neither of the existing party Ziggs acceptable and who insist on the third or fourth grouping that will hold out for some fundamental changes or at least will remain non-committed critics of an order that may become all too complacent and all too satisfied with what you're all abandoned for many and perhaps poverty and after system for the

racially rejected and the poverty stricken. And we are seeing to the limits on politics as usual in the struggle for civil rights in the South and elsewhere. Political action let me emphasize can take many forms. And voting is only one off. Politics may deal our politics as you may deal only with superficial issues. The filling of offices the disbursement of patronage the advancement of America group interest not with the interest of the public and not with basic moral principles which find implementation through politics. If Negroes are to be brought within the framework of the party system that system must be able to meet their minimal me which are not necessarily economic although that is one of the needs but also social and psychological involving not only a full

stomach and a secure job but involving as well human rights and human dignity. For many decades in the Gulf were strong followers of the Republican Party although it had at the close of the reconstruction turned negroes back to their former masters. Not until 1936 was there a strong affection of negroes from the party of Lincoln during the thousand nine hundred fifty five. There were some signs that the negro was returning to the Republican fold as indicated and a proportion of the Negro vote going to Eisenhower in 1952 and again in one thousand fifty six. Perhaps that drift would have continued had the Republicans in the 1960s taken a more affirmative stance on the civil rights issues and not their front running count. Do that for president. I spout a think you ate a racist and a segregationist program to speak of

state's rights nowadays in terms of race relations is to speak of continued segregation the very fact that the party would take us seriously as it hands the senator from Arizona and might even may even nominate him for the presidency again but underscore the negro this in Chatman with the party of Lincoln and with the philosophies that have emerged as the official position of the Republican Party which for so many years for so many years held a lot of negroes on the basis of its having been instrumental in the freeing of slaves. It must be remembered that during a long and dreary interval from the close of the Civil War until the New Deal and World War Two the number of Negro participating in politics actively was extremely small. The great mass of negroes lack the opportunity and the education and the organization and hands were excluded by law or by

custom or by inertia. Also no national administration disposed to take the initiative on the only goal right. During this interval the great leader. The Great Leader Woodrow Wilson. While the racist and segregation and whatever else he did he did more than anyone else between Grant and Hoover to keep the Negro down and the shopping done during the past 30 years however Negroes have participated increasingly in politics and this is reflected in many way the number and portion of Negro voters the kinds of legislation and acted and offense a devotee of courts and administrative agencies to the negro's plight and to his demands. The quest for education is not only a means for the tools of the trade but also for the means for political

involvement and the determination of public policy. The slow development of Negro political participation is understandable if one gives due weight to the systematic efforts of whites not only in the south but elsewhere to keep the Negro any subordinate place so other in opposition to Negro Education has been based in no small part on an appreciation of its political implication. What is to be feared more by the Southern demagogue than a literate Negro population that is politically conscious and eager to find expression. Remember Tom Watson of Georgia. Call the police and build him. Been Tillman of South Carolina. Also Tom Heflin of Alabama and more recently Jean Talmage of Georgia uncommon it Smith of South Carolina and Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi all off

base their appeal and their careers on blind and fearful racist and blind and fearful racism is no longer possible. When you have. A large articulate negro electorate participating in the making of public decisions and in the selection of public the behavior of the Negro in politics is not significantly different than that of other participants and the extension of the franchise the election of more Negro to office the general equals the equalization of political opportunities. It's not likely to produce any drastic transformation and vague patterns of government and politics. Negro political leaders are not significantly different for example from others I don't see why we should demand that they somehow exhibit greater virtues than though it was asked by a presumably superior wife.

Now Adam Clayton prolly true enough either as a preacher. He's no angel. He's only a preacher. And a congressman. And a congressman. But I submit that his behavior is not significantly different from that of most other members of Congress who participate in the political system as it has developed up until now. And again it might be well if if Adam Clayton Powell really did have a halo and that he could be affected in politics and never get to the Halo tarnished or even knocked askew but this is not likely to happen either to him or to anyone else who is seeking congressional office today imposter last class not deplore the low level or presumably low level of Negro political leaders without also thing that this tip.

This is. Not. Significantly above or below they level of political morality that one finds in the country as a whole and a matter of fact this is actually a testimony to how much do how much Negroes have learned from the Irish and the Italian the Portlandia. And the Boston Irishman particular. So. And it well. Today in politics however with all that being said negroes are likely to have some specific and immediate concerns that are particularly pressing that go beyond merely securing office and retaining picked first and foremost is their desire to participate fully in the life of the nation and the community and to be accorded the rights and responsibilities and I emphasize the responsibility because nothing is more insulting to a human being than to assert his

inability to take responsibility. They want to be accorded the rights and responsibilities that are the rights and the obligations of others of this mean civil rights and more civil rights. And this by the way is a concern of all Negroes across the class line because all must feel the brunt and almost pay the price of the denial of basic civil rights. Second the Negro is concerned with economic issues not high taxes as are people in white suburbia but primarily the problems of jobs of income of employment and other related problems of welfare and economic independence and security. This is understandably so in light of the heavy unemployment and the rather bleak outlook for the

future. For many a dog meat again this tends to affect only growth if not directly then certainly indirectly and it is a job that can be relieved or a solution that can be worked out only by government. And for this political organization action are necessary. And here I'm not talking about piecemeal measures such as have been proposed by local and state governments. I'm not even talking about the measures that have recently been suggested as federal policy. What I have in mind is something much much more substantial a vast heavily thought that I didn't fully control program that would reach into every area of the United States and deal with the harsh realities of unemployment which

bears particularly heavy on Negroes. And if this is a national problem it is not a local problem. It is not a state problem and nothing less than a massive programme with federal support and federal control. It's going to be affected. I don't know if. The editor of The Tribune is as aware of anything being said here that he will no doubt come out with a strong editorial proving beyond any shadow of a doubt that the open public school system is more than adequate to meet the needs of Negroes and that a well third negro concern with education especially in view of the technological revolution of the postwar decade but a concern that has a special flavor of its own because of the relatively low educational spending of negro the group and of the growing need to acquire education in

order not only to get ahead but even to keep up. That cannot be provided by public agencies without effect the political action being taken by any group. Much of course depends upon what is done at the local level. I don't mean to imply that federal agencies can undertake the full task but one cannot help but be disturbed by they poor efforts made so far the ineffective measure taken by such cities as Oakland and San Francisco to deal with the problem of the education of the so-called so-called poetry really deprived forth negroes are concerned have a more direct voice in the process of government and how more of their members appointed to important offices elected to post at all levels of government and brought into full

partnership in the national and the nation's political organization so that they are members of the family rather than helpers in the kitchen who are permitted to have a few crumbs between elections. Fifth negroes are developing a much broader conception of politics on the youth of political power. It is they know as including much more than participation in formal political organizations and in securing and exercising the right to vote. It is dream of a many sided process that include many forms of organization and action and these new forms they are disposed to use and to use militantly if the traditional methods of politics do not produce some quick and effective result fixed negroes are developing many new leaders all of whom are I think Chile all of whom are thankfully political mayhem and the successful ones are the ones who. I've been able to capture the imagination and direct the energy of our

heretofore politically inarticulate and frequently ignored Negroes at the grassroots to appeal to rank and file and to build organizations that can withstand the counter movements that are bound to develop the old leaders. I've had to change with upon our be bypassed and man like Roy Wilkins and I. Philip Randolph and Whitney Young are good examples of stablish Negro leaders adapting to new demands and new circumstances and building or continuing viable organizations and light on new challenges. And you probably know this I think is one of the really remarkable thing about Negro organizations and Negro politics in the past 10 years. Seventh. Class distinctions among Negroes are not a strong thing to me as they want to work and have to struggle for full citizenship and economic security proceeds.

Many of the older distinctions will be toned down are smoothed over for the negro middle class is not secure enough to move away from those in the Northeast Reuter who can use their leadership and the lower strata in the long run through political and other means to improve their lot and themselves and can rise to a higher level of dignity and citizenship. The new militancy among the growth in politics should be welcomed by all those who see the democratic process as the involvement of all that are in the determination of their own destiny and the fall and continuous participation of citizens in defining and shaping public policies the quality of American life I think will be improved and its politics will be improved not lowered by further participation of Negroes. I'm only in the south but across the nation and

wants political power Me growth has been used to reduce or eliminate racial barriers. Hopefully it will be used to prevent the rise of a sharp class distinctions that would separate our society into two nations. The rich and the poor. I have and I have not. Hopefully too it will be used the in the pursuit of other goals that promise that promise to make our society one that can continue to embody the idea of freedom and of equality. However complex it's technological and its political operators may become. If the present moment is one of concern that the Negro has been following excluded from politics and that he struggled to participate in the years ahead is a difficult one.

It should also be a moment of rejoicing that at long last the outcast and the downtrodden are on the move and moving quicker than we think. And sure then it seems in to for political action. If I were a Baptist and a preacher I would conclude by saying Glory hallelujah. But in time a professor and one of his pagan I will only say a polite. Man and more power to the negro in politics. Thank you for. On the. Totem. Pole.

Yes. Well in the first place the uniform a communist in the United States were actively involved in the civil rights movement. This would be only a very small percentage of the total number of participants. Let's keep that in mind first. Simply because the number of active communists in the United States Britain time is only a few thousand at most. Secondly keep in mind also that only a relatively small portion of. Even a minute number of communists are likely to be participating in civil rights organizations. For a number of reasons for a number of reasons. One is one is that many of the participants and civil rights organizations are younger people. And during the past two decades during the past decade in particular a Communist Party has failed really to have much of an appeal to younger people

Negro are applied in the United States. Consequently they have not been able to replenish the ranks so to speak. They have not been able to recruit younger people with a lot of energy and dedication to put into the civil rights movement. Another thing to keep in mind is that in in some organizations a very systematic effort has been made to exclude such communist as do attempt to infiltrate the organization WCP for example is very systematically. Exploding communist that developed some fairly effective techniques for their identification and for at least if not excluding them directly oscillating them within the organization and seeing that they do not occupy any significant positions of leadership. One other thing I would say and that is that J Edgar Hoover statement was a very broad and general statement that anyone I think could who knows that there are civil rights

movement in the United States and if they're also from communist could have said namely that communist will try to become involved in a great many protest movements of one kind or another. And the number and the degree of involvement it's name to me is really really quite insignificant. And if the Communist Party and all communists in the United States were to be more to be done away with tomorrow there would not be one significant variation in the kind or the amount of Negro protest and civil rights activities not mama not one. This doesn't mean that the organizations don't have to be alert to crew efforts at infiltration. Not only by Congress but by others as well who have quite good quite different motives that are quite different object

grade lower class next year. I don't. Want. You. To. Know I. Think historically there has been a an association between lightness of skin and general economic and social advantage among Negroes. This goes back it has some very deep historical roots. It goes back to the fact that. During the slavery system the offspring of. Planters who had. White platters and whites generally white male generally who had free access to Negro Women gave better treatment do they. The children of those union than dead. Who are lighter skinned than they did to those born. Of. Negro parents this led to all kinds of social and

economic advantages even within day slavery system. For example people tended to be favored for housework tended to be favored for the hunt for the for the skilled jobs throughout the darker skinned negro tended to be kept up in the in the lowly a very mean occupation and this in turn gave rise to. At least to a degree not to it is not the same degree as in many other countries but to a degree. A small relatively small lighter skinned advantaged and Negro brood undisturbed over into the even down to the present time. I think color distinctions among the growth are declining very significantly and I don't think we're going to see nearly as many made in the years ahead as were were made even up until quite recently. One reason for this. One reason for this is that not what has happened here in the United States but what has happened in and

Africa in particular has darker skinned people who have achieved political independence and are now on the profits of trying to establish a viable national state also. Also it gets a change in our. The result of a bit of a change in and the negroes do. All this on passion. And in his view. Of himself. As a result. And I don't think God if I have to. If I have to answer they the question you really posed. Do blondes have more fun. I think I think maybe shape rather than color is the most important thing. Goodness me. Normal. Stuff. For someone. That has.

Nothing. To do with. White society. Maybe you believe me to greet you. Oh God. Oh my oh my god. Goal for a. Big. Group of people struggling with God you see having. Self appreciation be all of the stuff for here. Well we saw we got a wrong start. If one of the things it's going to happen in the years ahead is that the Negro is going to have some voice and writing his own history. The days all Southern. Style. Deep fat fried history of the negro. Is. Over and. We are going to see I think a more balanced kind of treatment of the negro past.

Not only are they negro passed than in the United States but of the negro past in Africa as well. And I would call your attention to the fact that just recently a committee of very distinguished historians. By no means an. Ardent civil riders are left wingers are. What have you. But even for professors of history at the University of California. Issued a very critical analysis law of the treatment of the negro and textbooks in in California. And. I think this is a rewriting of history. And I don't say rewriting for a purpose but at least other than the purpose of trying to present a more balanced and I could picture is going to be a definite way in which whites can begin to get a negro too because negro frequently

get it is what found it not from what I think both are going to get a different view which will be I think you're a a kind of salvation for whites if it is a if you assume if you assume that that salvation lies in the direction of increased knowledge and the application of knowledge to the determination of public policy. The other thing I would mention and and this is only one example of what is going on. The other thing I would mention is the tremendous price the tremendous power that the South in particular has paid and will continue to pay for its races. In almost any statistic that you care to pick up on the level of education the level of living the quality of culture and whatnot will indicate the very very low status of the Southern states. And it's not

by accident that they are this low. It's not that they were economically disadvantaged from the time but part of what their racism. Which has consume so much so much of the energy the white tomato been given for better purposes may be free. That energy may be turned to other direction isn't it a commentary in that a commentary on Southern food body in particular and many other states too. Should that for the last 10 years the greatest resources off of the south its intellectual resources and particularly the resources all of its schools of long and of the legal profession has been given. Has been given to keeping the negro in the ditch

education. And although Booker T Washington is not one of my favorite historical figures he did make an observation I believe that one could not keep the Negro down unless he got down there too. And that's exactly what the stuff he's done. And yeah if Southerners can't see this then maybe they're maybe their legal talents for example that have been used as they have been to prevent integration. Maybe they can then be used to to uplift not the Negro but the whole society and maybe in the process of doing them the white lawyers well uplift themselves on their profession and maybe measure up a few of the ideals which they so frequently play.