BEARING THE BLACK MAN'S BURDEN

Radio Record, 15 July 1938, Page 10

BEARING THE BLACK

MAN'S BURDEN

' Written for the

"Record"

by

WILL

GRAVE

Russian Professor at Noted

Negro College ‘Tells of The

Work Undertaken To Give

Coloured Races Economic

Ind ependence

In America

NHERE used ‘to be a saying that, though Americans would send missionaries to the negroes in Africa, they would not speak to _ the negro at the end of the alley. ' That bitter little commentary on American life will be completely forgotten if the dreams of the leaders at LeMoyne College in Memphis, U.S.A., are realised. LeMoyne College is a university college for negroes. Two of its students, John Byas and Charles Gilton, the song. of negro doctors, are now visiting this country to debate with New Zealand university student teams. One of their teachers, Professor Boris G. Alexander, a Russian by birth, travels with them. "THE first debate, "That Continued Work for Peace is impossible as well as Undesirable," the negroes taking the affirmative against a team from Auckland University College, was broadcast by the NBS on June 28. The second debate, "That the People of America Have Found rhe ‘Formula for Happiness," the negroes again taking the affirmative against Canterbury University College, will be broadcast on July 18 from 3YA,. During the tour, Professor Alexander, himself a radio ‘Speaker and commentator on foreign news from important American radio stations, ig giving a series of talks at the main national stations. ® Happiness? T seemed ironic that the race which had been shipped to * the new world in slavery should support the question "That the People of America Have Found the Formula for Happiness’; strange that the race. which is still not allowed to travel in Pullman sleeping compartments should speak of the happiness to be found in the United States. But, as Professor Alexander told me of what the negro was achieving in the new’ world, it began to seem less strange, almost comprehensible, , The negro, trained at institutions like LeMoyne College, is coming into his own. "With his athletes?" I. asked the professor. Wasn’t Joe Louis the world’s heavyweight boxing champion.’ Didn’t a black arrow-of a negro called Jesse Owen smash-records at the: last Olympic Games?

_ HE professor made an impatient movement with his hands. He was not interested in the negro as a human machine with immense physical powers. He was interested: in the negro as a man who had mental ability and spiritual qualities, equal to those of the white man. "That is what LeMoyne College sets out to prove," he said. "That the negro, given equal opportunity, will show equal development." With his fellow workers at LeMoyne, he set out to prove this in what seemed to me a subtle and striking manner. Contests of. a physical nature with other. colleges were not sought. Why? Presumably, though the professor did not say so, because the negro might have won by virtue of his great physical inheritance. And, certainly, because négro victories would have rankled in the bosoms of the defeated whites, who would have said, no doubt, ."Oh, yes, of course, in brute strength, what can you expect?’ QBVIOUSLY foreseeing this, LeMoyne College used ‘another.method. It deliberately chose one of the weapons of its opponents, -a weapon in: which it might not be so skilled, but the use of which would win it credit :in victory. LeMoyne chose one of the most delicate- weapons of. the intellect-the debate. Le Moyne took part in the first inter-racial debate south of the Mason-Dixon. line. In 1932, it made a trip to compete with eight other colleges, It debated with California in 1985, and since then. has debated with many famous American universities. The Oxford Union sent a debating team to the States in 1936, and LeMoyne was included in the tour. ‘The Anglo-Scottish Union team debated with the college. in 19387. Not Mentioned WHEN LeMoyne College began, it was’ never méntioncd in the American newspapers.at all.. Later, the new'spapers began to speak of it as LeMoyne Negro’ College. To-day, it is simply called LeMoyne College. It is winning its way to equal recognition, it is winning what it wants for negroes: Respect. OW the Russian professor became interested in the.welfare of negroes goes back a long way to the days of the Russian Revolution, when he bad to leave his country. He arrived at an internment camp at Poland, knowing three English phrases: "Yes"; "Please"; and "No plum pudding." There he met a Welshman, David. Griffiths, an agent for the British-American Relief Commission, and from. him. he learned English and Welsh. The professor had command of the French, German, Polish and Russian languages as well. Later he went to London, and from there to America. JN America he "talked his way through college," earning his living while he was studying for his degrees in International Law, by giving public lectures. After qualifying, be was given an appointment at LeMoyne College. To the Russian professor, there was no radical -difference between. the negroes and the white race. He went ‘to LeMoyne first just to make a living. He soon became yitally interested in the negroes’ progress. IVEN equal opporiunities, the negro ° will: show: equal development, the ‘professor said. "How?" .I asked. He gave examples.’ There was George Washington Carver, negro bidchemist. He had made 275 substances out of: ‘the: hoimely- ‘peanut, and 200 out of the sweet potato. ~He was one of two American

members of the Royal Society of Science. Edison had offered him 200,000 dollars and a free hand in research, to work in his laboratories. In medicine, the negro doctor Willianis had performed the first successful operation on the human heart. ; James Weldon Johnston wrote exquisite, poetry in the King’s English. Paul Robeson’s singing was known round: the world. In Memphis a negro, W. C. Handy, had been the originator of the "Blues," which swept the world, Three Stages TTHERE have been three stages in the attitude toward the negro in the States, says the professor. The first stage was to consider him a dumb animal. The second was'to pity him and give him charitable concessious, That did him no good, it accustomed. him to "hand-outs." The third stage had uow arrived, when all the negrophiles asked was equal advantages and equal privileges, so that the negro could develop into a valuable citizen. Ha basic problem, says the professor, is economic, In the south, the negro has held only positions that are servile. He has been bootshiner, liftman, servant.and cook. Naturally, he -has-not been able to win the white man’s respect, since he does this menial work. Individual negroes have won respect, but that is not enough. The negrophiles wafit more than respect for the %ccasional negro as an individual; they want respect for the negroes as a race. They believe he can never win this until he wins his economic freedom. The negroes themselves are partly to blame, , Close to the college, says the professor, is a little negro grocery store, It is nice, clean, au open store, | Across the road is a white chain-store, which sells its goods at a penny less. The negro customers go to. the white store instead of to the negro. They drag down the-economic status of the negro trader and deny him the volume of business that enable him to compete with the white men. .

When the negro is ill ‘with a- trifling coumplaint, he goes to a negro doctor: Wheo he has anything seriously wrong with him. he goes to a white doctor, {f he has a suit tor five or ten lollurs. he goes to a negro lawyer. If he has one for a substantial sum, be goes to the white lawyer. He has-not learned yet to patronise his own people. When he learns the yalue of race solidarity, bis economic improvement will follow. No more than the white man doves the negro want amalgamation of the two races, All he wants is equal opportunities. THAT the negro, left.to work. out his — own destiny, can live in responsibility and self-respect is proved by the all-negro community of Mound Bayou, in Mississippi. It is a small community,: but a, contented. one. It has its own judge. and town marshal; its. own stores, sawmill, gristmill and _ cotton gins. In the. centre. of -the

town stands a 115,000-dollar consolidated school with 800 pupils and 15 teachers, Its principal is a graduate of Tuskegee Institute. Pus community, recently deseribed in the "Survey Graphic," was founded 50 years ago by a remarkable negro, Isaiah I’. Montgomery, who had been a bhodyservant to Jefferson Davis. Believing that the greatest hope for the freed negro was a future on the land, Davis and his brother after the war sold the Davis plantation to their former slaves. For many years these negroes, led by Montgomery, managed the estate so successfully that it became the third largest cotton producer inthe south. Then the falling price of cotton ad legal troubles with the Davis heirs, who claimed: title to the land, forced the negroes to give it up. = New Lives Ts the late 80’s, the Yazoo and Mississippi Railroad, building a line from. Memphis to Vicksburg, obtained large

grants of public land from the State of Mississippi. Much of it was alluvial swamp, heavily forested, uninhabited. Naturally the railroad wanted to get people ov the Jand, — flearing of Isaiuh Montgomery’s success. at the Davis plantation, the railroad proposed to the ex-slave that he start a negro colony. Montgomery looked the land over and picked out 840 acres. UT of the dense forest. the black people hewed their homes.. More and more negroes came; more and more ‘land was bought, ‘To-day the ‘community covers 30;000 acres, farming everything from ‘cotton to corn. Behind these facts lies a significant truth. °. In Mound Bayou the negro lives in self-respect. There the negro is living a normal, human life. Impulses of helpfulness, co-operation, goodwill, and living at- peace with one’ 8 neighbours, find normal "expres‘s10n.