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BLACK PHYSICIAN 
GOODLETT
achieve some semblance of power, so that they are spoken of as "wealthy black people," exist and have their being because of "permissive power," the sufferance of the white business establishment which without warning could remove the mantle of power that cloaks any black American. Think for a moment of any alleged "black business:" insurance, banking, property, merchandising, the hotel industry; and see if it is not threatened by the same fate visited upon that "powerful" black politician, Adam Clayton Powell, who not so many months ago became Exhibit A of the concept of "permissive" black power, dependent upon the whims of a capricious white majority.
the present status of black Americans
It might be well to describe, in this the 100th year of crypto-freedom since the Emancipation Prolcamation, the present status of Black citizens in the United States of America. We are estimated at ten or eleven percent of a population in excess of 200 million people. We are the world's second largest collection of black people within a national boundary, variously estimated at from twenty-two to twenty-four million, second only to Nigeria with her estimated population in excess of thirty-six million. Because our share of an $875 billion American gross national product is estimated at $45 billion (only $5 billion less than the gross national product of Great Britain), we are the richest aggregation of black folk on the face of the earth. While our population is one and a half times that of the Dominion of Canada, our share of the gross national product is three times that of Canada's annual income. We are the most highly educated group of black people in the world; with nearly 400,00 young people attending institutions of higher learning, proportionately our higher education rivals that of Great Britain. Our cadre of professional people-particularly over 6,000 physicians-makes us the most advanced group of black people in terms of medical services, any place on earth. There are more black institutions of higher learning here than in any other black nation. If we were a united people, we would represent a substantial entity in population, education and wealth to be dealt with.
Compared to the circumstances of many black and white nations in Europe, Africa, and Latin America, we represent the vanguard in material benefits through man's industrial, creative, and scientific genius. However, compared with other groups in America, above all the white majority, we find that even though freed from the shackles
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---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-02-15 20:37:10