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Who Wants Integration?
Why
Do Negroes Want Integration?
By
Charles L. Allen
Atlanta Constitution
(January
2, 1957)
The past two days I have listed reasons why some white
people insist on segregation. From my mail and observation I
find there are some Negroes who insist on integration. Why do
they want integration? I am sure I do not have the full answer
and perhaps some of my readers will give me further lights. But
it seems to me they want integration because:
(1) They resent the restrictions that segregation imposes
on them. A Negro bishop illustrated it thusly: A baby will sit
on your lap happily. But if you place your hand on its head and
hold it firmly, the baby immediately will begin to struggle to
get free. It isn't that the baby expects to go anywhere; it
justs doesn't want to be held down.
Negroes have written me they prefer to live in Negro
communities, but do not like to be told they cannot live
elsewhere if they so desired; that they prefer their own
churches and schools but do not like to be barred from other
churches and schools merely because of their race; that they
prefer their own social functions but do not want to be told
they are not welcome in any society. If given the freedom of
choice they would still choose their own people, but they do not
want the freedom to choose.
(2) Some Negroes want integration because they have not
fared too well under segregation. They feel that jobs should be
filled on a basis of ability, training, willingness to work,
etc., and not on the basis of race. That 'separate but equal
facilities' is more talk than truth and that their educational,
economic and cultural opportunities are grossly unequal. They do
not think it right for one of their children to be forced to
leave the state of its birth in order to study medicine, law and
make other preparations for life. They feel that if two people
pay the same fare for a bus ride, then they ought to have the
same right to sit where they desire in the bus. Under
segregation they feel their race has been forced to live in the
poorest houses, standing back until the white people have taken
the best.
(3) Some Negroes oppose segregation because they believe
it presupposes inferiority and they strongly believe they are
not inferior. That given equal opportunities in an integrated
society, they will be equal to the white man in every respect.
(4) Contrasted to the above, and this will cause
argument, some Negroes want integration because they do feel the
black man is inferior and they want to escape from their own
race.
But whatever the reasons for and/or against either
segregation or integration, we will never solve this--the
greatest social problem of our time--except in an atmosphere of
good will, calm reasoning, a willingness on the part of each
race to understand and sympathize with the other, and above all,
without the grace of God in our hearts.
Tomorrow we will look at reasons why some white people
want integration.
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Super Rich: A Guide to Having it All
By Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons knows firsthand that
wealth is rooted in much more than the
stock
market. True wealth has more to do with
what's in your heart than what's in your
wallet. Using this knowledge, Simmons
became one of America's shrewdest
entrepreneurs, achieving a level of
success that most investors only dream
about. No matter how much material gain
he accumulated, he never stopped lending
a hand to those less fortunate. In
Super Rich, Simmons uses his rare
blend of spiritual savvy and
street-smart wisdom to offer a new
definition of wealth-and share timeless
principles for developing an unshakable
sense of self that can weather any
financial storm. As Simmons says, "Happy
can make you money, but money can't make
you happy." |
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The New Jim Crow
Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness
By Michele Alexander
Contrary to the
rosy picture of race embodied in Barack
Obama's political success and Oprah
Winfrey's financial success, legal
scholar Alexander argues vigorously and
persuasively that [w]e have not ended
racial caste in America; we have merely
redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial
segregation has been replaced by mass
incarceration as a system of social
control (More African Americans are
under correctional control today... than
were enslaved in 1850). Alexander
reviews American racial history from the
colonies to the Clinton administration,
delineating its transformation into the
war on drugs. She offers an acute
analysis of the effect of this mass
incarceration upon former inmates who
will be discriminated against, legally,
for the rest of their lives, denied
employment, housing, education, and
public benefits. Most provocatively, she
reveals how both the move toward
colorblindness and affirmative action
may blur our vision of injustice: most
Americans know and don't know the truth
about mass incarceration—but her
carefully researched, deeply engaging,
and thoroughly readable book should
change that.—Publishers
Weekly |
 |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
* * * * *
Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
1950
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
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2000
____ 2005
Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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posted 22 June 2008
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