|
to the philosopher-king that Plato dreamed
about centuries ago. But he was also a
child of his culture influenced by the
pseudo-scientific and amoral philosophy
that recognized slavery.
In his notes he portrayed the Negro as
an inferior human being. Yet out of Jeffer-
son came the majestic words that all men
are created equal. However, in the culture
of that time, these words meant all white
men. But in his heart he knew that slavery
was wrong, and that it degraded the white
man's mind and soul as well as the Negro.
In his NOTES ON VIRGINIA he wrote "In-
deed, I trouble for my country when I re-
flect that God is just and that his justice
cannot sleep forever. The Almighty has
no attribute which can take sides with us
in such a contest."
And in 1820 he wrote "But the momen-
tous question, slavery, like a firebell in the
night awakened me and filled me with ter-
ror. I considered it at once as the knell of
the Union. I regret that I am now to die in
the belief that the useless sacrifice of them-
selves by the generation of 1776 to acquire
self-government and happiness to their
country is to be thrown away by the un-
wise and unworthy passion of their sons,
and that my only consolation is to be that
I live not to weep over it." He did not live
to weep over it for what he prophesied
happened. The tragic rending of a nation
occurred in a civil war over man's inhu-
manity to man and the disaster that al-
ways follows from it.
And in another period Abraham Lincoln
was basically honest and willing to admit
his confusions, but he saw that the nation
could not exist half-slave and half-free.
But yet on occasion he rationalized. Re-
sponding to the culture of his time, he
wrote of the physical differences between
the black and the white, and made it clear
that he felt that there was a racial su-
periority by virtue of skin color.
Now, morally Lincoln was against sla-
very but he was unable to act in accord-
ance with his conscience because of the
culture in which he lived. And he said if
we could first know whither we are tend-
ing, we could better judge what to do.
Fortunately for the nation he could see
whither we were tending. When he issued
the Emancipation Proclamation which took
effect January 1, 1863, he said "In giving
freedom to the free, we free ourselves".
But this ambivalence has continued for
more than 100 years and a continued in-
doctrination of Americans has separated
the people according to the mythically su-
|
perior qualities of men by virtue of skin
colors. That separation has continued, sanc-
tioned by the State, while we evoked as the
national ideal the democratic concept of
equality.
So that although we passed the 13th
Amendment of 1865 and the Civil Rights
Act of 1866 and the 14th Amendment in
1868 and the 14th Amendment in 1870 and
the Civil Rights Act of 1875, we continued
to vacillate back and forth. The black
codes took the place of slavery and the Ku
Klux Klan began to rise and the Supreme
Court in the civil rights cases in 1880 in-
validated the Civil Rights Act. By 1900 the
twenty-three Negro United States Con-
gressmen and the two Negro United States
Senators had disappeared from the halls of
Congress and racial segregation took the
place of slavery.
Now I come from a heritage of white
and colored citizens who came together in
1909 to form the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People during
a period of race riots in this country and
following the Springfield Race riots in the
Illinois town of Abraham Lincoln's birth.
The formation of this organization reaf-
firmed that we can work through the
framework of our constitution and demo-
cratic government to right ancient wrongs
and to insure equal protection of the law
to all citizens. So we worked through the
courts beginning in 1915 with the invalida-
tion of the grandfather clause in voting
and in 1917 with the invalidation by the
Supreme Court of racial segregation or-
dinances and housing. We also engaged in
the long struggle to secure federal anti-
lynching legislation and although it was
not successful, the educational effect and
the awaking of the moral conscience in
America resulted in the decrease of
lynching.
And in Maryland in 1935 when Judge
Henderson was an assistant attorney gen-
eral, the Court of Appeals of Maryland had
the courage to set a precedent for equal
educational opportunities by opening the
University of Maryland Law School to all
citizens, including qualifying Negro citizens.
This State in 1938 invalidated the state
legislature's dual standards of teacher-pay.
Negroes in this State, according to state
law, could receive only half the salary re-
ceived by white teachers. Through its courts
and the leadership of men of good will,
Maryland abolished this practice and set
a precedent for the nation.
We believe that we can achieve the ideals
of our founding fathers which have sounded
|
