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FREEDOMWAYS        THIRD QUARTER 1966

rate is increasing greatly among my people. We listened to segments of the white community tell us to "lift ourselves up by our own bootstraps." How is this possible when we have no boot? If the racists in the power structure had not cheated us out of our "mule and 40 acres" we would have a boot. Increasing numbers of Negros are losing motivation for the field of education. They are asking, why go to school when there are no jobs because of automation?

One of the simple cold realities is that in our urban society the average white high school dropout earns, in a year, more than a Negro college graduate does in a year. Some of our minds are drifting back to the days after Reconstruction when we were very honestly told that the white man does not want us to be educated. When a nation is concerned with education, desegregation of schools is never a question, only education. When a nation is concerned with education, federal guidelines are not necessary, only education. When a nation is concerned with education there will be no double shifts in our schools due to over-crowdedness while the white children enjoy comfort and have enough to spare; there will be no $2.40 per Negro child and $9.00 per white child, only education. The white man must realize that there can never be an educational system comparable to other leading nations of the world as long as we have dual school systems. The white man is the author and the architect of segregation and discrimination, naturally his children will fare better in this inhuman system.

jobs
We have listened to the white people who tell us we are shiftless, lazy, and don't want to work. Some of us have crossed over the bridge by making use of the inadequate educational facilities available. Many corporations have hired two or three Negros and say they don't discriminate. However, often they were so light-skinned that no one knew they were there. Now big business is making sure that everyone knows they have Negroes, by hiring those who are obviously Negroes. These Negroes may earn up to $30,000 annually but the number that exceeds this sum is few. With all the years of formal training required to become a lawyer, our lawyers' practices must be limited to a few criminal cases and civil suits because industry does not afford them an opportunity to compete for the large salaries. 
Only a few white people in this country realize that a Negro doctor can save their lives if he is on an integrated hospital staff. When we

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-02-09 13:01:37