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NAACP newsletters, Fort Madison Branch, Fort Madison, Iowa, 1967
Page 004
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- 4 - ATTENTION! WRITE YOUR CONGRESSMEN IN WASHINGTON,....TODAY, urging them to pass the Civil Rights Bill # H. R. 2516. Since the bill will be presented for Senate Action, in the very near future, it is important that we let Senators Jack Miller and Bourke Hickenlooper know that we are interested in seeing how they vote in regards to the threat of filibuster in connection with this bill. Also, because they are in Congress to act as representatives of the people of Iowa, let them know that you will be watching TO SEE HOW THEY VOTED. It provides stiff penalties for using force or threats to interfere with the rights of Negroes to vote, attend public schools, serve on juries, use public accommodations, or engage in other specific activities. WRITE TODAY! "In Vietnam, General Westmoreland informs that he can't recall an instance in which a white soldier during the heat of battle jumps into a foxhole and jumps right out again because it happens to be occupied by a black GI." - - Whitney Young, Executive Director of the Urban League So often, when one is involved in discussions regarding race, they are confronted with explaining the differences which apply to the Negro as an immigrant in comparison with the white immigrant. Following are excerpts from a speech by James C. Davis, a native of Des Moines, Iowa, who now heads the Cleveland Bar Association. "...The white immigrants who came to this country came either as parts of family units or through the influence of family members who had preceded them. In either event, they inherited and brought with them the family unit and the family organization which had been developed over centuries before their arrival... The Negro's original introduction in this country, through the medium of slavery was completely destructive of the family unit. This has inhibited the Negro's normal advancement from his beginnings in this country. Today it is one of the principal reasons for the chaos which exists in the Negro ghettos... One of the great distinctions between the Negro immigrants as a group and the various groups of white immigrants...(and I emphasize that every white resident of the United States is an immigrant), is to be found in their understanding or lack of understanding the value and necessity for education. In the main, white immigrants, though many were uneducated and perhaps illiterate, were keenly aware of the advantages of education for their children. Even though they many have had no education themselves, their own experience taught them that education was the door to opportunity. ...The final difference between the Negro immigrant and his white counterpart is, of course, the difference in the color of their skins. The white immigrant had no need for governmental or other outside assistance to qualify him either for a job or a place to live. The anonymity of his white skin gave him free access to whatever job his skills, education and personality permitted him to hold and to whatever housing accommodation his resources permitted him to enjoy. Not so with the Negro... The combination of massive immigration, absence of the family unit, lack of strong church leadership, inadequate education and lack of decent housing facilities has produced a totally different situation in the Negro community than that which ever existed in the white immigrant communities. It has created a climate in which the Negro cannot solve his own problems until the climate is changed... The white community must understand these facts. It must realize that the problem facing the Negro immigrant is quite different than that which confronted the white immigrant..." -taken from the Des Moines Register, November 8, 1967 "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." JOIN THE NAACP - FREEDOM IS NOT FREE University of Iowa Libraries. Iowa Women's Archives
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- 4 - ATTENTION! WRITE YOUR CONGRESSMEN IN WASHINGTON,....TODAY, urging them to pass the Civil Rights Bill # H. R. 2516. Since the bill will be presented for Senate Action, in the very near future, it is important that we let Senators Jack Miller and Bourke Hickenlooper know that we are interested in seeing how they vote in regards to the threat of filibuster in connection with this bill. Also, because they are in Congress to act as representatives of the people of Iowa, let them know that you will be watching TO SEE HOW THEY VOTED. It provides stiff penalties for using force or threats to interfere with the rights of Negroes to vote, attend public schools, serve on juries, use public accommodations, or engage in other specific activities. WRITE TODAY! "In Vietnam, General Westmoreland informs that he can't recall an instance in which a white soldier during the heat of battle jumps into a foxhole and jumps right out again because it happens to be occupied by a black GI." - - Whitney Young, Executive Director of the Urban League So often, when one is involved in discussions regarding race, they are confronted with explaining the differences which apply to the Negro as an immigrant in comparison with the white immigrant. Following are excerpts from a speech by James C. Davis, a native of Des Moines, Iowa, who now heads the Cleveland Bar Association. "...The white immigrants who came to this country came either as parts of family units or through the influence of family members who had preceded them. In either event, they inherited and brought with them the family unit and the family organization which had been developed over centuries before their arrival... The Negro's original introduction in this country, through the medium of slavery was completely destructive of the family unit. This has inhibited the Negro's normal advancement from his beginnings in this country. Today it is one of the principal reasons for the chaos which exists in the Negro ghettos... One of the great distinctions between the Negro immigrants as a group and the various groups of white immigrants...(and I emphasize that every white resident of the United States is an immigrant), is to be found in their understanding or lack of understanding the value and necessity for education. In the main, white immigrants, though many were uneducated and perhaps illiterate, were keenly aware of the advantages of education for their children. Even though they many have had no education themselves, their own experience taught them that education was the door to opportunity. ...The final difference between the Negro immigrant and his white counterpart is, of course, the difference in the color of their skins. The white immigrant had no need for governmental or other outside assistance to qualify him either for a job or a place to live. The anonymity of his white skin gave him free access to whatever job his skills, education and personality permitted him to hold and to whatever housing accommodation his resources permitted him to enjoy. Not so with the Negro... The combination of massive immigration, absence of the family unit, lack of strong church leadership, inadequate education and lack of decent housing facilities has produced a totally different situation in the Negro community than that which ever existed in the white immigrant communities. It has created a climate in which the Negro cannot solve his own problems until the climate is changed... The white community must understand these facts. It must realize that the problem facing the Negro immigrant is quite different than that which confronted the white immigrant..." -taken from the Des Moines Register, November 8, 1967 "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." JOIN THE NAACP - FREEDOM IS NOT FREE University of Iowa Libraries. Iowa Women's Archives
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