MRS. SMITH'S SPEECH Your Honor, Mayor Lee, Oliver Smith, Publisher of Advocate Register: Mr. Binns, Honored Guest Speaker, Mistress of Ceremonies, Friends and Neighbors: I am lost for words to express my heartfelt and deepest appreciation for the honor you have seen fit to bestow upon me. You, who have worked with me in our community; in fact in the City of Portland 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 becoming more aware of the part we as Negros have contributed to the Culture of America. 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 reason 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 Portland because it is my home. All cities are who live in an active world. People who realize the situation existing around them and do not turn aside from what they know 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 somewhat 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 equal 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 capacities in which they differ from us and respect chem 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 bro-thers 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. made up of many communities and in our EDWIN C. BERRY observation in the 34 years we have watched Portland grow. Portland is like IS SPEAKER most all our American cities with a crosssection of Americans who have been at- Edwin C. Berry, Executive Secretary, tracted to it until now only a small per- Urban League of Portland, w:is the princentage of the total populat~n are native- c:::,leyspkeakerBat thhe NAnAnualCMeeStingd of born. However, it is not an old City. As t e a ima ranc · .A. .P. un ay, you know, we have just celebrated the February 25 · Berry ur_ged the members Portland Centennial. I like Portland be- of N.A.A.C.P. to contmue the battle to cause it is a City with integrity and charac- ~bolish secoi:id class citizenshi_p. He said, ter. We have been called Puritannical be- , . We muSt fight thi~ battl,~ with courage, cause we have not allowed an open city mtegrtty and mtelligence - with an entrenched underworld organized "Our work must be pushed with more gambling and vice. It is a good City to I vigor than in the past. There are those rear children and the public schools are ;,vho ~onstandy say 'This :s ~ot t?e time'; excellent. We have made some progress 111 You re pushmg too fast; You 11 make racial problems and in equalizing oppor- more enemies than friends'. Of them, I tunities for all citizens. We have made say, they are either uttering weasel words mistakes by being late in discovering the or are grossly misinformed. This is the problems around us, but not too late to do I time to make_democracy work. This is the something about them. We know neither a I time to abo!1sh second class _c1t1ze~sh1p. Nation or a City can live in the past. We This 1s the tune to tell the white ma1onty 20 only once along a given path of time to get off my neck and permit my children and we can only face in one direction- , to grow up free and unencumbered beforward. cause of his membership in a racial I love People, that is why whenever group." there came an opportunity for me to work Berry warned the members against comfor or with anyone that was trying to do munist influence and infiltration. He said, a job in the community for the betterment "Communism is making a great bid for of people I never refused. No matter how Negro support directly and in a veiled manner through front organizations. Bonafide race relations' organizations must be aware of this and must resist it. Communists 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 citizens 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 relations; by continuing to practice racial discrimination; and in short, by doing everything about race relations that the Communists said they would do. "We must continue 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 ideology. "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 kno:!_V we're working, and democratic living for non-white citizens is coming closer and closer everyday. We, in the intergroup organizations in Portland, know the way to defeat Communism is to perform the democratic job forthrightly and first." The average rural Sunday school in the South has 2 women and 1 man to teach the 31 pupils present. Over twice as many people attend the preaching services as the Sunday school. The preacher 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 subscribers is our goaL This minimum will just cover printing, postage. Other services are volunteer and non-profit. great the sacrifice ... and I can truly say 1,--------------------------------------, it has paid off in the tribute you are showing me tonight. I love people Strong of I heart that have not let themselves become engulfed in passing wavs which obscure the current progress of a communitypeople who see the wrong ::ind weakness of their city chat are evident only to those REMEMBER MARTINSVILLE SEVEN? To stop LEGAL lynching. come to public meeting on WILLIE McGEE case. FREE - NO ADMISSION CHARGE - Monday, March L, 1951. 8 P.M. A.M.E. ZION CHURCH-2007 N . WILLIAM AVE. Auspices Portland Civil Rights Congress-P. 0. Box 8088 Pd. Adv.
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