Did You Know?

February 11, 1968
Plainfield

Did You Know?

Not long ago, a Detroit reporter described an interview with a black man, a corporation executive, who, far from being a militant activist in the Ghetto, was one of the top men in a large firm. Affluent enough to have just returned from a European trip with a collection of paintings, by any measurements in our money-business-status culture, he'd “made it.” But tacked on the wall in his luxurious apartment was a small photograph picturing the back of a Negro man who had been savagely lashed. Behind the photograph was the printed explanation that the man had committed a minor infraction in a Louisiana plantation and received 49 lashes with a cat-o-nine-tails. The Negro executive explained, "I look at that every morning before I leave for downtown. It reminds me of who I work for. I never want to allow myself to be lulled into forgetting who 'the man' really is." (NY POST, 9/26/67)

Most (all) of you here are "the man"—the White culture which has maintained the patterns of slavery, shocking cruelty, repression, discrimination, segregation, enforced poverty, deprivation of rights. Did you know that?

In order to make a point about the Negro today, I want to make observations from Negro history. I hope most of you are well enough informed so that the historical references will be known to you. There is little evidence anywhere I can observe that many positive things are happening or planned which will get at the causes of riots. I guess that it not inflammatory to predict that there will be riots. The riots will be suppressed; law and order will prevail after turmoil and trouble and tragedy; the National Guard will be much better trained in controlling rebellions. However, unless there is more understanding of what the past has created an until gigantic efforts are made to remedy the ills created by the whole slavery pattern and its consequences, then the revolts will continue, not as spontaneous eruptions but as guerrilla warfare. Riot control without rightful remedies for the ills in the social order will ensure only the most futile future for this complexity we call America. And everything good and promising about the U.S. will either be drowned in blood or suffocated by totalitarian repression. If that's too alarmist a statement it is not nearly as removed from reality as to ignore blithely the sore problems of the cities. Did you know that?

Did you know that Africa was not a continent of savage cannibals for whom slavery to Whites was an improvement? There were many cultures in Africa, some primitive, but some highly organized.

When Europe was just emerging from the "Dark Ages," there were cultures and kingdoms in Africa at least on a par with European standards. (THE GLORIOUS AGE IN AFRICA). A French historian, whose HISTORY OF AFRICAN CIVILIZATION has never been fully translated into English, wrote this:

“When they (the first European navigators of the end of the Middle Ages) arrived in the Gulf of Guinea and landed at Vaida, the captains were astonished to find streets well cared for, bordered for several leagues in length by two rows of trees; for many days they passed through a country of magnificent fields, a country inhabited by men clad in brilliant costumes, the stuff of which they had woven themselves! More to the South in the kingdom of Congo, a swarming crowd dressed in silk and velvet; great states well-ordered, and even to the smallest details, powerful sovereigns, rich industries – civilized to the marrow of their bones. And the condition of the countries on the eastern coast – Mozambique, for example – was quite the same.”

Quoted by W.E.B. DuBois, THE WORLD AND AFRICA, p. 79; Leo Frobenius, HISTOIRE de la CIVILIZATION AFRICAINE

Even in the more primitive societies the family structures were ordered, formalized, and codes of behavior regulated. The slavery system, which disrupted families, included the kidnapping of children, the forced separation of husbands and wives as they were shipped on the slave ships to the West Indies and the U.S. These were actions just as cruel and arbitrary as if slavers invaded our town today and made off with whom they pleased, your husband, wife, or child, for example.

But in spite of the existence in Africa of such stable cultures and societies, did you know that slave traders from Europe and their financial backers tried to explain away the inhumane traffic by seeking support from Christian religious principles? The first slavers were Portuguese sea-traders; and Prince Henry the Navigator was given a one-fifth share of the proceeds of the sale of 235 African men and women in 1444, the year of the beginning of the African slave traffic.

A writer of that time wrote about the "great pleasure" with which the pious Regent reflected upon the salvation of those souls that before were lost and were now saved – through slavery. Some rationalizers found biblical authority for enslaving Africans by quoting the curse Noah put on Canaan after the flood (that his descendants should be eternally subject to the other races of the world). Two papal bulls later gave the Portuguese exclusive slave trading rights and sanctioned the enslavement and baptism of all captive Negroes. (See SINS OF THE FATHERS, p. 9)

But you probably know, or can easily guess, that quick and easy profits were the real reason for the slave trade,which between 1660 and 1710 alone saw over two million slaves imported by British Colonies.

James Pope Henessey describes the financial effect of the profitable slave trade in Liverpool:

• “In the years 1783 to 1793, the net profit to Liverpool was almost 3 million pounds on 303,737 slaves – ₤300,000 per year.


• Increased the fortunes of the principal adventurers and contributing to the support of the majority of the inhabitants.


• 10 merchant houses of major [importance] engaged in the slave trade; 349 lesser concerns.


• Small vessels taking up to 100 slaves were outfitted by minor syndicates, including attorneys, drapers, ropemakers, grocers, chandlers, barbers, tailors, [all] investing fractions of money, 1/8, 1/16, etc.


• In 1790 it was estimated that abolition of the slave trade would cost Liverpool over ₤7.5 million. Liverpool merchants formed the most highly organized opposition to the Abolition movement led by Bishop Wilberforce.


• What vain pretense of liberty can infatuate people into so much licentiousness as to assert a trade is unlawful which custom immemorial and acts of Parliament, have ratified and given sanction to?"

Oh that English rhetoric. But did you know that proper New England was enriched by by the slave trade – and those New Englanders were as well off from slave profits as they were hypocrites about religion0

Negro slavery was never as extensive in New England as the South – no economic need (plantation need) for slaves. Yet in 1687 hardly a Boston household of any consequence did not own slaves. New Englanders were busy with the Triangular Trade – slave ships out of New England ports were known as “rum boats.” With rum they bought slaves on the African coast; brought them to the West Indies, usually, where they sold the slaves and bought molasses which they took back to N.E. to be made into rum. In 1750 there were 63 rum distilleries in Massachusetts alone and another 30 in Rhode Island. Of the New England ports, Newport was the most active and the old mansions (and old money) of Newport are the consequence of rum and slaves as well as whale oil. Most of the slaving captains of Newport were members of the Fellowship Club, the rules of which forbade gambling, drinking, quarreling and swearing – a high moral tone in Puritan terms – but slave trading was not among the prohibitions.

James de Wolfe, for example, married a daughter [of] one of the distinguished families of slave traders. Several of their eight sons went into the slave trade. James de Wolfe was found guilty of murder, of throwing a Negro woman slave into the sea, but had left the State at the time of the verdict and was not punished. Later in life James de Wolfe was elected to the U. S. Senate, living to a distinguished old age.

If you read the history of the African so brutally enslaved, so throughly libeled about his African cultural heritage, you may be touched with amazement about the falsehoods we have generally believed. The myth of the happy slave on the plantation, for example. Rot. Subject to every brutality thinkable, no family life permitted to become stable, no education permitted. Just one more example – there was considerable debate among the planters whether it was better to work a slave to death in five or seven years or permit him a little more food and rest so as to work him for many more years. The argument had nothing to do with humane motives; [rather, it was] just an economic study of the price of slaves in relationship with their maintenance.

In showing you these snapshots of history, I have two motives. First, I hope these of you who like to read history will not overlook the opportunity to read in the field of African history and the history of the Negro in America. Material much more free from the stereotyped prejudices is becoming increasingly available. Second, I believe we should recognize the impact today of that history with its roots in the inhumane institution of slavery and its fruit in the restless reach of the disadvantaged for a fair share of the America they helped create and enrich. We should admit this history and its consequences. Admit it, not to feel guilt-ridden, a destructive feeling at best, but to become more responsible in act and attitude. (And in the observations to follow, I am indebted considerably to Philip Hauser, a sociologist from the University of Chicago, for the two major points.)

In my view, and his, a prime recognition is that the massive efforts needed to make a substantial gain in the solution of related problems are not being made. I’m in no way reflecting on the work many of you are doing in the community. Every effort helps.

Nevertheless, much more is needed, and sooner than we care to admit. Poverty and prejudice produce rebellions in a nation whose dominant characteristic is affluence and whose principle boast is freedom. When persons are denied equality of opportunity to overcome both poverty and the penalties of centuries of discrimination in such a society, then of course trouble will bubble, and sooner or later, overflow.

How [to] overcome poverty? By money of course. In the poverty areas, and particularly among Negro men, the unemployment rate is much higher than the national level. Furthermore, many of the available jobs are at the menial level, with no opportunity to climb the ladder of higher pay and greater responsibility. Just as would be the case with you under the same circumstances, the motivation to struggle from rags to riches is not very strong, particularly when the Horatio Alger myth has never existed for the great majority of Negroes.

So provide jobs. At wage levels which do something positive for a man's dignity and a woman's dignity and a man's pride and a woman's pride. Obviously, private industry cannot finance this. National investment in jobs of dignity, good pay and career opportunity are essential. Projects such as Career Opportunity, locally, demonstrate that when there is authentic opportunity for positions with good pay and work more challenging than menial jobs, people will respond. So the government can help industry train men for jobs – and the jobs must exist.

Because our system of municipal, county, and state governments no longer fits the urban metropolitan sprawl, the spectacular action necessary to provide decent jobs for all must now be the responsibility of the Federal Government, at least for the funds. Of course, action is more creative, direct, and administered better at levels closer to the people. The larger the bureaucracy, the more the machinery creaks and grinds. Admitted.

Yet the demands of our time will not wait until we recognize the need and take the action necessary to reorganize the levels of government closest to us. So if we are to act positively, then we must seek to make the Federal Government responsive to the great need to deal at a realistic financial level with the task of decent jobs. In some instances it may require the payment of wage differentials between good levels and what private industry can pay as wages while training persons for productive, respected jobs. In other instances, (to use a phrase that is frequently heard these days, the "government must become the employer of last resort." Projects could be manned by persons who would be trained.

Would It be expensive? Yes. But poverty could be eliminated at a cost far less than we now pay for the Vietnam War. Even if the war in Vietnam could be justified, should not the war on poverty at home carry higher priority? Very few persons protest the billions in the Defense budget to pay for the alleged fight for freedom for the people of Vietnam, who never asked us to come and tear them up for such cause. The thought occurred to me that if somehow we could attribute unemployment, wretched housing, inferior education in our cities, etc., to the Communists, all sorts of money would then be available to fight the war on poverty. The way for a foreign nation to get unlimited financing from the U.S. is to let the word get around that the Communists are about to take over. Maybe this gambit would work at home.

In any event, one solves poverty by money. In the long view, much more planning [and] education are needed, not to speak of greater understanding of the different nature of our changing economy where automatic machinery will require fewer and fewer workers to produce needed goods.

But Washington will not take poverty seriously unless the Executive branch and the Congress believe that the people of the nation want the problem of poverty solved and the cities cooled by positive programs, not by police, military weapons, and barricades. The President and the Congress won't believe you take the war on poverty seriously unless you let them know that you do. In terms of taxes, the legislators must know that you are willing to consider the tax cost of saving the cities and saving America. The returns may prove it to be the soundest investment which could be made.

One thing more that is implied by history and current events. American must make real what Hauser calls the "symbols of acceptance."

The Black man must know that his money, if he has the sufficient amount can buy a home wherever he wants. The common talk is that Plainfield will eventually be all Black, surrounded like a noose by all-White suburbs. Actually, according to the planning firm Raymond and May, hired by the city, the White population by 1980 will have remained relatively stable, although Black population will increase. Whereas 22% of Plainfield is now non-white, 40% will be in 1980, according to the projection.

If you are a constituent or friend of this Church, the chances are about 50% that you live in an all-white suburb, or nearly so. Do you have a responsibility to pull your weight in taking a stand on open housing? Yes, the State has a law against discrimination. It will work when we work at making it effective.

What do you do? It might simply be an unequivocal, plain comment at the cocktail party that you will welcome any new neighbor, whether black, white green or whatever.

What do you do? It might mean getting on record again about a belief in open housing – not only in the vague world generally, but your community and neighborhood in particular.

What do you do? It might mean letting the realtor know that all his clumsy circumlocutions do not hide the fact that he believes his profits depend on closed housing. You might let him know it if you believe that the future of this country depends on fair and equal treatment – that the symbols of acceptance must be clearly shown.

Because when you do something about these symbols of acceptance you are facing up positively to what Dick Gregory means when he says,

“Just think if my daddy had been killed in 1942, that means I would have gone 25 years without a daddy. And now, in 1966, the same German that would have killed my daddy during WW II can come to America and live someplace I can’t live. ... He don't need no fair housing bill to live anywhere he wants to live. Why do I need a fair housing bill to live anywhere I want to live? You see, its the insults.” (Christian Science Monitor, 1/27/68)

Did you know that the Negro in America is beginning to search out the rich cultural roots of his African heritage? That he is becoming increasingly aware of what his involuntary slave labors contributed to the large financial structures of affluence in Western Civilization? The harvest of bitterness will grow larger with fury unless we come to grips with poverty and insults, and correct them.

Dick Gregory’s closing words in his book, THE SHADOW THAT SCARES ME, are appropriate: “If America does not solve her social problems in the next five years, the problems will solve America.” (But he wrote that line before last Summer's riots. The time may well be less.)