Atlanta Daily World

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

A friend of mine received a letter from a young mother in a nearby city. Below, I am sharing some of it with you.

"I was graduated from X-College there in Atlanta '47. That same Summer I began working as an elementary school teacher. I taught for three terms and a quarter. I married during that time, which I regret very much...While on maternity leave my husband lost his mind, for the second time. I had to leave him. The baby and I went back to Dad and Mother. They are keeping her while I work. Dan isn't any too well, and I need to be near him. Because of that I am now living on the premises, working for a white woman. She is very nice to me. But, of course, I am not at all satisfied. The fact is, right now I am very discouraged. Do not misunderstand me however, I am not too proud to do this type of work. At least it is honest. Only that I have a college education and was trained for something very different. I simply cannot make myself satisfied doing domestic work...

I am getting desperate. I've been very ill myself recently. For two weeks last summer I was confined to the hospital. I almost worried myself to death...You must understand. I need someone's help. I need advice. Please help me."

There is a story to the effect that another young woman gave birth to a little babe, in a far away manger. a long, long time ago. Her husband had tried in vain to seek proper shelter for his spouse. Successive raps at door posts brought no results. At the village Inn they were met with the oft repeated "No room."

Some one has said that the innkeeper was moved with compassion when the husband told him that the wife was "heavy with child." Thus the generous innkeeper told the husband of the stall under one end of the inn. It was there we are told that God played Santa Claus to mankind.

Wise men from the East came to pay their respects. An Angelic Choir sang "Peace on Earth, to Men Goodwill." They announced to the Shepherds on a Judean plain the birth of the Christ child. The Shepherds forthwith left their sheep and went off in quest of the Messianic Prince..

So runs the beautiful, yet sentimental account of the first Christmas.

Last week-end while motoring along the recently completed highway from Hapeville to Columbus Georgia. I was thumbed just inside of Hapeville by a young white man. I stopped. After a few questions and a onceover I opened the door for this sophomore student at Georgia Tech. He was going home to Manchester.

It was not difficult for him to converse with me. I told him of the Tech professor who was kind enough to use a certain church that I was interested in as a class project. I told him how enthusiastic the students were. To begin with the instructor brought them out to the services one Sunday morning. Then later many of them returned on their own. At the end of the period I was asked to serve as one of the "jurors" to grade the designs.

As a resident of Manchester he knew James Peters, of Georgia political prominence. His father was County Tax-Collector. Besides, he was a deacon of the Baptist church. The son had lived in Washington, D. C., Florida and points north. He was attending Tech as a Naval trainee.

We talked of world conditions, politics and local events. I asked if he cared to comment on the matter of race-relations in the South. To which he replied: Well, I don't know if I have thought too much about it. Certainly not as much as you have. in that you are a Negro. I have sat with Negroes on buses and street cars in the North. It made no difference there. I don't see that it should make any here in the South."

Suddenly a school bus stopped in front of us. All traffic stopped according to Georgia law. Out stepped a little Negro girl. She slowly crossed over to the other side. Something inside of me sang for joy.

"That's a sign of progress." I remarked, "It was not always that Negro children in Georgia rode to school."

I reminded him that as a young student of the South, he was blessed with power, privilege. and position. As an engineer I hoped that he would use his abilities to help build a better world. A world where all men would enjoy the blessings of liberty.

"My father," he said, "is a member of the Kiwanis Club. Each Christmas he is in charge of distributing baskets to the poor, underprivileged. I always accompany him. I know of anything that I enjoy more, or is more satisfying to me that to see the smiles on the faces of those people who receive those baskets. I look forward eagerly to that experience each Christmas."

At Manchester I extended my hand, he took it ,a hearty hand shake followed. He thanked me for the ride. Immediately, I thought of a quotation on the walls of Talladega College's Library:

"That which I saved I lost,
That which I gave I have."

What is the meaning of Christmas? A young mother, a college graduate, desperate, despondent, discouraged, working as a domestic. Groveland, Florida; Cicero, Illinois: DeKalb County, Georgia; Memphis Tennessee. White men in control of a world that is populated with a majority of colored people. This is Christmas 1951.