New York Amsterdam News — 1963-00-00391

■’•dart 1» » N. Y. AMSTERDAM NEWS, S«t., Jane 1, 1H» NBWVORK Amsterdam Netos C. B. POWELL President & Editor P. M. H. Savory, Secy-Treat. - J. L. Hicks, Executive Editor W. C. Beat. CompCrotor. K A. Wall. AdverttatM Director. K. M CirculaUoa Director; J. H. Walter. City Editor; j. W. Wada. ClaaaUtod D. Stoppard. Brooklyn Uanakar. Published weekly by the Powell-Savory Corporation at 2340 Eighth Ave., N. Y. Telephone ACademy 2-7800. Brooklyn office, 1251 Bedford Avenue. Telephone ULster 7-2500. autocripttaa ralaa; 1 year (7.«* — • moa . M M Salute To Unity Thirty one separate states of Africa have met in an unusual conference in Addis Ababa and ham­ mered out the rough outline of a blueprint that could have a decided effect on the destiny of the world to come. These 31 African heads of state represent the winds of change of our time. Their aim was to pull together a loose organiza­ tion of African states that can be brought tighter together as the needs demand. As was to be expecte<C~there were many dif­ ferent views as to how this should be done. Prime Minister Nkrumah of Ghana worked from the direct action point of view while Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia appealed for moderation. In entertaining these two extreme points of view, members of the 31 African states simply proved that they like all the rest of us have their differences too. The important thing here is that all the leaders of these states clearly see the need for a closer unity, and all of them realize that the closer they come together now the greater will be their power in Africa today and in the world, tomorrow. We wish them well! No Progress One of the amazing truths to come out of the current tense race relations situation is the fact that somany white people know so very little about the actual wants and desires of the Negro. And because of this, all too often we have well meaning white people expressing shock and be­ wilderment over Negro reaction to actions which they have taken and which they believe to be right, but which turn out to be the opposite of what Negroes actually wanted. A classic error of this type was made last week by a prominent New York daily newspaper which sought in an editorial to help along the Negro cause. The editorial concerned itself with the civil rights demonstrations then going on in Cambridge, Maryland. It highly praised a Circuit Judge who formed a committee of whites who sat down in a conference with the sit-iners. : The editorial went on to say: “What did the Negro want”? “All they want Is to be allowed to send their children to the nearest school, to spend their money at restaurants and other business establishments of their choosing, to work at jobs they can do and to buy homes they can afford. “What they ask” said the circuit Judge When the meeting was over, “is not only reasonable, but what they ought to have.” A statement so simple, so just and so true. The Negroes agreed to halt their demonstrations while Judge Henry’s committee attempts to spread the gospel to the rest of the town. “Is there a better way to settle such a conflict.” Now note the word “settle” in the last sentence above. This is the big mistake of the white man. Read the editorial again. What has been settled here? The only “settlement” that we can see here is that the Negroes have called off their demonstrations and the Cambridge community has “settled” back down to the status quo, which means that the Negroes who started the demonstrations are right back where they were before they started. We would be more than happy if we could get over to our white sympathizers that Negroes no longer consider a matter “settled” merely because white people agree to settle down and talk to them about it. If the non-violent movement has taught the Negro nothing else, it has taught him that he is in his strongest bargaining position with the white bigot at that precise moment when he fills up the jails and thereby demonstrates to the white bigot that he no longer is afraid of him and his un­ constitutional laws. We say to the friendly daily newspaper “there is a better way to settle such a conflict.” And that way is to have both Negroes and whites immediately start living up to the laws of the land. If this is done we won't need any demonstrations or the conferences that invariably follow. Keep It Sunday's Memorial Parade, Here . waa )>■* hinaaoi in sponsored by the a. the b gge. t n the 369th Veterans’ Association history of Harlem. We Get The Message! AWhiie Christian Answers the Muslims * By FATHER W.’J. McPEAK Adam Clayton Powell recently paid tribute to the * Black Supremicists and Jackie Robinson in refuting Adam’s position in an open lettei in the Amsterdam News, was careful to qualify his condemnation by re­ ferring to his friendliness toward Malcolm X, the 1 N Y. chief of the Black Muslims. Along This Way Shook - Up Southerners By ROT WILKINS has Two types of Southern white peo- no change in our policy whatso- ple are being shaken up by the new ever” and “there will be no change mood and militancy of the Negro, the die-hards whose policy has been to stand pat and the “mod- erates” whose policy give a token inch or two. *•- in our policy.” Even so, uncertainty (if not a changes. Georgia has changed and Alabama elements (outside of Bull Connor and Governor Wallace) are discussing changes. But Mayor change in plan) has developed in Thompson sifs tight. This attitude cannot stand, of course. It has to give in to the march of history. The days of the Mississippi plantation think­ ing on Negroes are not long. Mayor Thompson will see the changes well within his lifetime and it could be before next Christmas. Thompson’s mind, for he been to Mayor .. although we are going to said, “ have turbulent times, when all of the agitatioft is over, maybe next ye/J, maybe the next, but some day . .Referring to Birmingham, Alabama, but not by name, the The nineteenth century near- Mayor said: ”... all of us have been greatly worried about the ter- slavery thinking and operating of some Southern politicians and com­ rible trouble in some of our neigh­ munities has been exposed in shock­ boring' Southern states.” ing fashion by Birmingham, Bull Connor, Governor Wallace and Gov­ ernor Ross Barnett. The clinchers in the argument were the police dogs and the fire hoses coupled with Connor’s crude contempt. Birmingham and Governor George C. Wallace of Alabama are in the spotlight as examples of the stand pat school, but an even better illustration of that This is the kind of thinking which group is to be found blocks the Negro of the 1960s, in Mayor Allen Thompson of Jack son, Mississippi. Mayor Thompson’s frustrates him and drives him to ac- television speech to this city May tion—not talk—to secure his rights. 13 is a classic example of the type Mayor Thompson sees the old order of white Southern mind that is being challenged and toppled all muddying up the Negro-wfiite prob- around him. He saw what happened at Oxford. He knows that Negro lem of the Sixties. In a 17-minute speech the Mayor students in Jackson have been declared three times specifically arrested for using the “white” li- and several times generally that brary and Negro children have been there would be no change in the arrested for sitting on way Jackson would deal with Ne- benches. groes, i.e., segregation forever. He Next door in Louisiana there have said, “we’re going to continue our been some changes and next door way of doing things” and “there is in Arkansas there have been more The Kennedys were shocked, church leaders and members were dismayed and Negro citizens, with­ out exception, were outraged. The result will be that the Thompson white” park type of mind will be washed away. Change will come. Dixie will never be the same again; it will be better, for both white and colored South­ - erners. WILKINS Pulse Of New York’s Public The Amsterdam Newt welcomes letters on either tide of any subfect. It Is preferred that letters not exceed 250 words end must Sr signed. Names will be withheld on reguest. No letters can be returned. All must b« addressed to the Kdltor. bound for Man- groes la the south should be given half a chance to prove themselves, after all they are entitled to that much. bus in Alabama or Mississippi. I also wondered how long the whites think Negroes need to prove themselves? Gloria Nance An Idea Air: A* a Negro, I waa atruck by the geniua of the lay-out of the front page of the NY Herald Ifoune of April 3, a copy of which is attached. ft would truly bo a Ruthlaad Road, hattan, 1 was confronted with the usual congealed condition of standing room only. A woman passenger to my right was read­ ing a morning tabloid newspaper. Aa I glanced over her khoulder, I observed she waa perusing the headline atory of the day—the Birmingham situation. As I cent gesture on the part of the NY Amsterdam News, were it to reproduce on Its front page, the front page of the April Tribune, In reduced form, of course, pointing out the inspired and eloquent message: the con­ trast between Russia's attempts to conquer outer space, while one of America's chief preoc­ cupations is to perpetuate the Negro’s status as one of the lowest dregs of humankind. stood next to her X thought within myself, I wonder what her views are towards this situation. And just as though by some form of mental telepathy she had read my thoughts, I was soon to get her opinion on this vital matter As the train approached the Nevins Street station, she turned to me and remarked, “It Just | isn’t our day for getting a seat Yo?..may’ ? COU,rs.el_e^*^°ra2€ today”, to which I replied with the theme by pointing up the a smile, I agree with you. At deplorable waste of talent __ "J this point she folded her paper herent In- America’s away. Then began continued and away stultification of the Negro at the her lament—that she would have ballot bos, in the school. In to stand all the way to 42nd housing, in employment, in ac­ St. this morning. I could not cess to places of public accom help but think of the late Wil­ mndation, and so on ad inf in liam Moore who began to walk This stultification, of a'.l the way for the freedom of Itum. course, Is reflected in America s; others, hut who never completed lack lustre showing in cold war. I his walk, because he was set Victor <5. Thomas upon and killed by hate mongers. Brooklyn, N. Y.j Then came her second com­ Subway Talk Sir: To some people the morn­ ing of May 13, 1983 might have been Just another Monday mon- plaint. The mail would be ex­ tremely heavy this morning it would be such a task. Then as if to pat hetself on the back, she commented rather proudly, but that's one of the jobs Of a comment wal, and merely the beginning of *<:’*tary- My wor^ week. But to me tru* • I pointed out to her the fact that we have proven ourselves for centuries and centuries and it la ample time now that we be afforded full class citizen­ ship and be regarded and re­ spected as men and women, just ae any other race. She replied, “well I think there is plenty for everyone in the south”. They should give the Negro good jobs and the right to vote etc. etc. within his own community of course. I informed her that we are aiming for full class citiz­ enship all over the United States and will not settle for some rights as she implied. She embarked on the usual excuse that whites offer, that there is no discrimination in New York. I quickly reminded her that discrimination does ex­ ist here, but was handled in a more polite way, but when an­ alyzed it was the same as if It occurred in Alabama or Mis sisslppi To defend her statement sne started to cite examples of Ne­ gro women who were employed in the textile industry in which she worked. However, she inter- rupted herself to Inquire as to which field I was in. Upon 'n- formlng her that I was in the Business Development and Pub­ lic Relations Department of Bank Leumi Le-Israel, Israel's oldest and largest commercial bank at 60 Wall Street, she wore a rather shocked expression cn her face, as she stated, you don't mean the Bank of Israel? Disgraceful Action 6ir: la these days of revived militancy and ever-widening spir­ it of self dignity displayed, in the main, by our southern Negro citizens, it is with deep shame that I read in the Sunday Times of the disgraceful actions by the Philadelphia NAACP officials, ev­ idently Christians, when they or dered Negro citizens of the Mus­ lim faith out of a picket line which was protesting the treat­ ment of Negroes in Birmingham The same issue carried a story of pickets of a conservative Holly­ wood Negro society (euphemism tor brainwashed, white Negroes who are completely devoid of self respect) who paraded in front of the Ix»s Angeles Court House where 14 Negro Citizens are on trial with placards disparaging Muslims. These pitiful, misled persons, products of a while oriented pub­ lic education, white press, and a double standard religious faith, unfortunately may represent a large segment of middle class Negroes, but Just as the loyal, youthful black American citizens of the south are leading their elders out of the wilderness, the children of these NAACP officials will soon discover-the truth and undo the harm or their misguid­ ed parents. Mi. Stewart St. Albans 33, N. Y. The attitude of these Negro leaders lends weight to the prophecy of C. Eric Lincoln made in his excellent book,” “The Muslims in America” published in 1961 by the Beacon Press, "it is said Malcolm X, minister of the large Tem­ ple 7 and Muhammed’s chief lieuten­ ant, is in a position to decide the elec­ tion of .U.S. Representative A. C. Powell’s successor when and if Powell decides to retire,” (page 18). •» KZ of - Mr. Lincoln also states (pg 108) “—only Billy Gra- ham has attracted and converted rhore people in re-”'' cent years than has Elijah Muhammed, Messenger , "Z of Allah.” - // Judging from the frequency of Malcolm X’s ap-,r, pearances on TV panels and his newspaper coverage, recently-the Black Muslim’s are also gaining prestige and attention from the fuzzy minded liberals in white // (so called) society, Before this Muslim adulation goes too far I think I it is time to take a hard realistic look at the insulting J caricature of both white and non-Muslim blacks u a that the Muslims are foisting upon the public. I address my analysis primarily to the same au- dience the Black Muslims appeal to—the mass of the colored people. It In their fundamental goodness and fairness I hope for an equal hearing. It is not my purpose to deny or defend the existing, pervasive prejudice and discrimi­ nation in American society. As a final preliminary , note, to give the devil his due, I agree with the one , positive strong point in' Muslim teaching — they ad-\‘ vocate self acceptance, self respect — unity discipline ' and cooperative enterprise on the part of the colored t people. Yet it is my contention that the Black Muslims,,, are a seditious, blasphemous, anti-American anti Christian conspiracy destined to disillusion their fol­ lowers, disgrace the colored people and disrupt dem-__ ocratic society. It I The prophet Muhammed’s solution for all th£_ deep and varied problems of the colored people of the U.S. is the establishment of an independent Black Nation within the confines of the USA. He is purposefully vague on just how this will be accomplished, for there are laws against sedition and* treason, but the implications are clear, (Muhammed) “He speaks Knowingly about an impending Battle of Armageddon and. has promised that the Negroes - will soon gain control of NYC — and that white rulq; . ,q in the US will be overthrown by 1970. What will happen to the white man? The Muslims " say forebodingly — “annihilation not torture—” It is consoling to know the end will be swift, the, (t wise and civilized Muslims eschew anything as prirn-,„I > w itive and savage as torture. 0 ° ’ ii JCi Muhammed suggested at the Muslim Convert * tion of 1960 — “let us separate ourselves from them* and live in 4 or 5 states in America, or leave the coun». try all together. •q ‘Nine or ten states would be enough” says he (pg 95 BMINA*Lincoln) Malcolm X is more ambitious, When asked where or how this Black Nation will be established “Malcolm X often twists his ques­ tioners” Those Who say don’t know, and those who know aren’t saying.” Dr. Lincoln thinks that “It is doubtful 4 whether any except the top leadership know exactly, „ what the Movements political aspirations are or„ why.” (pg. 94) Dr. Lincoln implies that he thinksj that Muhammad and his chief lieutenant, Malcolm, n- X have a realistic plan and location in mind. I donX„ believe that even these Leaders have any such thing..- -- They are deliberately making a blatantly false /e a A appeal to childish minds — “Do what Daddy says** now and I’ll' give you a big surprise” Dr. Lincoln'K H rrf goes on to say, “The characteristic mood of the Mus-r, lim laity is simply a blind faith—a complete confid-r encc in Elijah Muhammad, “who has a plan for all,, of us and is considered “well nigh infallible.” (pg. 94) The enormity of this fraud and the total impossi­ bility of fulfilling their fantastic promises — combined-' with the unshakable conviction of their followers that “Muhammad knows” and will produce — thim indicates to me only one thing - - - the enormity rf* Negro suffering and despair in our society. Things^ are really desperate when such a cure is adopted so many. First I would like to state, as objectively^ and sincerely as I can, what the Muslims would hav»‘ you believe is the Mature of the white man, and also" describe their concept of the non-Muslim American-” Negro and contrast these images with the truth. Sec­ ondly I will state my religious convictions in coth'- trast with theirs. Third, 1 would like to present a few1 thoughts on slavery, the Arab Nation, or Islam, iff contrast to the democratic form of government in thF' United States. « Fourth I would like to present their solution to the- present problems of Negroes in America and what think is the more rational solution. In conclusion I,« will unburden myself of a few words of criticism j directed to the colored people and to tht whitcu (To Be Contlgned) because well after all H was a brand new Monday, full 4 As the train of hopes and challenges. And because of Its continued growth — this was the fifth parade — the sponsors now announce that they plan to take It downtown to Fifth Avenue next year. roared through the tunnel she exclaimed, “H is really terrible what's happening there has never been a Monday Birmingham”. I told her it was quite a distressing thing, May IS, 1963 before. The one but with the help of able leaders challenge uppermost in my mind the Negro people were now rMag was the way in which the people We sincerely hope they change their minds. It up and demanding what Is right­ of my race were responding to fully theirs, and to attain is a Harlem originated idea, a Harlem parade—and the racial issue in Birmingham. goal M was necessary for (hem Alabama, umjer the able leader­ should remain so. If they wish the whole eity to to risk their livei, perhaps evan ship of Rev. Martin Luther King to sacrifice their lives and evsn see what type of wonderful celebration they can and others. And then there was the hope that since President1 morp shed their blood sponsor In Harlem, let the city come to Harlem. Kennedy had intervened in the At this point she reminded me Just BS WC go downtown to Fifth Avenue to see SOT .situation, he would do all possible that the Jewish people have been the stairs and town the Bank, I t0 curtail a11 acts sabotage persecuted, and have always had many DOTOdM by the handful of extremists J to fight for their freedom. Shel thought to myself, how wouldl itr VvC say let Harlem keep this parade. It is ours. I As I boarded an IRT train at then said she felt thaLahe Ne-ishe react to me In a train or) And then as the train entered the Wall St. eta tion, I glanced out the window and said, "oh yes, the Bank of Israel, 1 must thlaSe'avi yOU BOW this is my station. I do hope you get S seat before 42nd Street and I also hope we meet agatn, 1 should like to con­ tinue this conversation with you.” As I ascended walked towards i » n .i «’__ ... . . The Greatest Sir: (Mr. Robinson) I read your article in the Amsterdam News, and believe me you are the greatest. Would you please do me a great big favor and send me an autograph? I'll ap­ preciate it very much and please sign It to Ann F.leager you. FI, appreciate that. Ann Eleagcr 653 Mountain Dr. So. Orange, N.J? h- Untitled Document file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/Administrator/Desktop/hello.html2/18/2007 11:01:03 AMThomas M. Tryniski 309 South 4th Street Fulton New York 13069 www.fultonhistory.com