Advocate Register_1951-03-09

MRS. SMITH'S SPEECH Your Honor, Mayor Lee, Oliver Smith, Publisher of Advocate Register: Mr. Binns, Honored Guest Speaker, M istress of Cere– monies, Friends and Neighbors: I am lost for words to express my heart– felt and deepest appreciation for the hon– or you have seen fit to bestow upon me. You, who hav,e worked with me in our community; in fact in the City of Port– land are the rightful ones to evaluate the things I have done and confer this great honor of Negro First Citizen upon me. Just having finished celebrating Negro History Week; for which so many White groups, such as U.C.L.A. as well as others held Negro History Programs are becom– ing more aware of the part we as Negros have contributed to the Culture of Amer– ica. No right thinking Negro could not help from being proud that he is a Negro. At this time it would not be fair to you if I did not try to explain to you the rea– son or the inner-drive that has compelled me to go on through the years, even if sometimes, seemingly, my efforts were in vain. I have three reasons. I love God, I love people, I love Portland. I will talk about them in reverse order. I love , Port– land because it is my home. All cities are made up of many communities and in our observation in the 34 years we have watched .Portland grow. Portland is like most all our American cities with a cross– section of Americans who have been at– tracted to it until now only a small per– centage of the total population are native– born. However, it is not an old City. As you know, we have just celebrated the Portland Centennial. I like Portland be– cause it is a City with integrity and charac– ter. We have been called Puritannical be– cause we have not allowed an open city with an entrenched underworld organized gambling and vice. It is a good City to rear children and the public schools are excellent. We have made some progress in racial problems and in equalizing oppor– tunities for all citizens. We have made mistakes by being late .in discovering the problems around us, but not too late to do something about them. We know neither a Nation or a City can live in the past. We go only once along a given path of time and we can only face in one direction– forward. I love People, that is why whenever there came an opportunity for me to work for or with anyone that was trying to do a job in the community for the betterment of people I never refused. No matter how great the sacrifice ... and I can truly say it has paid off in the tribute you are show– ing me tonight. I love people strong of heart that have not let themselves become engulfed in passing wavs which obscure the current progress of a community – people who see the wrong and weakness of their city that are evident only to those who live in an active world. People who realize the situation existing around them and do not turn aside from what they k~ow should be done. Love of God stimulates a large portion of my innerdrive. Our Bible tells us that all men are created equal. However, we know it would have to be defined some– what when we say men are created equal. We mean equal in the sight of God, whose eyes are infinite. It is obvious that all men are not created equa~ in gifts, in size, in shape, in weight, in color, the same as all other things God has created-flowers, birds, and animals. Sorry to say, men are not equal in opportunities provided for them by social situations in which they live, but we can admire a person for ca– pacities in which they differ from us and respect them for their infinite worth in the site of God, who is not respecter of person; and who has said all men are brothers. That is why we have to work at trying to love our brother as ourself, or love the infinite qualities of God in our brothers by closing our eyes to everything but the good in them, then even in the seemingly meanest persons we can· excuse their behaviour toward us. EDWIN C. BERRY IS SPEAKER Edwin C. Berry, Executive Secretary, Urban League of Portland, was the prin– ciple speaker at the Annual- Meeting of the Yakima Branch N.A.A.C.P. Sunday, February 25. Berry urged the members of N.A.A.C.P. to continue the battle to abolish second class citizenship. He said, "We must fight this battle with courage, integrity and intelligence". "Our work must be pushed with more vigor than in the past. There are those who constantly say 'This is not the time'; 'You're pushing too fast'; 'You'll make more enemies than friends'. Of them, I say, they are either uttering weasel words or are grossly misinformed. This is the time to make democracy work. This is the time to abolish second class citizenship. This is the time to tell the white majority to get off my neck and permit my children to grow up free and unencumbered be– cause of his membership in a racial group. " Berry warned the members against com– munist influence and infiltration. He said, "Communism is making a great bid for Negro support directly and in a veiled manner through front organizations. Bon– afide race relations' organizations must be aware of this and must resist it. Commu– nists want to use Negroes and interracial organizations for their own ends; and in most instances they plant the kiss of death on all of the organizations with which they identify themselves." The speaker told the group to resist Communist encroachment but not to get so busy witch-hunting and fighting against Communism that it had no time or energy left to fight for its own program. Berry accused the majority of white citi– zens in most American communities of giving aid and comfort to the communists and their program by refusing to carry out a constructive program of race rela– tions; by continuing to practice racial dis– crimination; and in short, by doing every– thing about race relations that the Com– munists said they would do. "We must cpntinue and intensify the battle against bigotry. We must fight our battle within the framework of American democracy and according to democratic rules. We must recognize that bigotry is every bit as dangerous to the American way of life as any foreign political ideol– ogy. "In Portland, the Communists have made little headway in duping Negroes. The reason - we're making headway. We're hitting the problems of bigotry hard. Prominent whites, as well as Negroes are working. The job in Portland is by no means finished, and I do not wish to leave any faulty impression. But we are working and the people know we're working, and democratic living for non-white citize11s is coming closer and closer everyday. We, in the intergroup organizations in Port– land, know the way to defeat Communism is to perform the democratic _job forth– rightly and f!irst." The average rural Sunday school in the South has 2 women and 1 man to teach the 31 pupils present. Over twic;e as many people attend the preaching services as the Sunday school. The prea~her talks about "Salvation" and "gets the people ready for Glory." In the Sunday school Bible knowledge is stressed and daily Christian living is emphasized. This paper of independent thought may be continued by four ( 4) subscribers per day ( 6 days) for 52 weeks. 1248 subscrib– ers is our goal. This minimum will just cover print!ing, postage. Other services are volunteer and non-profit. ' REMEMBER MARTINSVILLE SEVEN? To stop LEGAL lynching, come to public meeting on WILLIE McGEE case. FREE- NO ADMISSION CHARGE- Monday, March 12, 1951, 8 P.M. A .M.E. ZION CHURCH-2007 N. WILLIAMS AVE. ' Auspices Portland Civil Rights Congress-P. 0. Box 8088 Pd.Adv.