MLK: The Negro and the Constitution

MLK: The Negro and the Constitution
By Kendall Clark


The Negro and the Constitution

   Negroes were first brought to America in 1620 when England legalized
   slavery both in England and the colonies and America; the
   institution grew and thrived for about 150 years upon the backs of
   these black men. The empire of King Cotton was built and the
   southland maintained a status of life and hospitality distinctly its
   own and not anywhere else.
   
   On January 1, 1863 the proclamation emancipating the slaves which
   had been decreed by President Lincoln in September took effect,
   millions of Negroes faced a rising sun of a new day begun. Did they
   have habits of thrift or principles of honesty and integrity? Only a
   few! For their teachings and duties had been but two activities,
   love of Master, right or wrong, good or bad, and loyalty to work.
   What was to be the place for such men in the reconstruction of the
   south?
   
   America gave its full pledge of freedom seventy-five years ago.
   Slavery has been a strange paradox in a nation founded on the
   principles that all men are created free and equal. Finally after
   tumult and war, the nation in 1865 took a new stand, freedom for all
   people. The new order was backed by amendments to the national
   constitution making it the fundamental law that thenceforth there
   should be no discrimination anywhere in the "land of the free" on
   account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.
   
   Black America still wears chains. The finest Negro is at the mercy
   of the meanest white man. Even winners of our highest honors face
   the class color bar. Look at a few of the paradoxes that mark daily
   life in America. Marian Anderson was barred from singing in the
   Constitution Hall, ironically enough, by the professional daughters
   of the very men who founded this nation for liberty and equality.
   But this tale had a different ending. The nation rose in protest,
   and gave a stunning rebuke to the Daughters of the American
   Revolution and a tremendous ovation to the artist, Marian Anderson,
   who sang in Washington on Easter Sunday and fittingly, before the
   Lincoln Memorial. Ranking cabinet members and a justice of the
   supreme court were seated about her. Seventy-five thousand people
   stood patiently for hours to hear a great artist at a historic
   moment. She sang as never before with tears in her eyes. When the
   words of "America" and "Nobody Knows De Trouble I Seen" rang out
   over that great gathering, there was a hush on thee sea of uplifted
   faces, black and white, and a new baptism of liberty, equality and
   fraternity. That was a touching tribute, but Miss Anderson may not
   as yet spend the night in any good hotel in America. Recently she
   was again signally honored by being given the Bok reward as the most
   distinguished resident of Philadelphia. Yet she cannot be served in
   many of the public restaurants of her home city, eveen after it has
   declared her to be its best citizen.
   
   So, with their right hand they raise to high places the great who
   have dark skins, and with their left, they slap us down to keep us
   in "our places." "Yes, America you have stripped me of my garments,
   you have robbed me of my precious endowment."
   
   We cannot have an enlightened democracy with one great group living
   in ignorance. We cannot have a healthy nation with one tenth of the
   people ill-nourished, sick, harboring germs of disease which
   recognize no color lines, obey no Jim Crow laws. We cannot have a
   nation orderly and sound with one group so ground down and thwarted
   that it is almost forced into unsocial attitudes and crime. We
   cannot be truly Christian people so long as we flaunt the central
   teachings of Jesus: brotherly love and the Golden Rule. We cannot
   come to full prosperity with one great group so ill-delayed that it
   cannot buy goods. So as we gird ourselves to defend democracy from
   foreign attack, let us see to it that increasingly at home we give
   fair play and free opportunity for all people
   
   Today thirteen million black sons and daughters of our forefathers
   continue the fight for the translation of the 13th, 14th, and 15th
   amendments from writing on the printed page to an actuality. We
   believe with them that "if freedom is good for any it is good for
   all," that we may conquer southern armies by the sword, but it is
   another thing to conquer southern hate, that if the franchise is
   given to Negroes, they will be vigilant and defend even with their
   arms, the ark of federal liberty from treason and destruction by her
   enemies.
   
   The spirit of Lincoln still lives; that spirit born of the teachings
   of the Nazarene, who promised mercy to the merciful, who lifted the
   lowly, strengthened the weak, ate with publicans, and made the
   captives free. In the light of this divine example, the doctrines of
   demagogues shiver in their chaff. Already closer understanding links
   Saxon and Freedman in mutual sympathy.
   
   America experiences a new birth of freedom in her sons and
   daughters; she incarnates the spirit of her martyred chief. Their
   loyalty is repledged; their devotion renewed to the work He left
   unfinished. My heart throbs anew in the hope that inspired by the
   example of Lincoln, imbued with the spirit of Christ, they will cast
   down the last barrier to perfect freedom. And I with my brother of
   blackest hue possessing at last my rightful heritage and holding my
   head erect, may stand beside the Saxon, a Negro, and yet a man!


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Posted on Monkeyfist at http://monkeyfist.com/articles/736