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Editorial
October 20, 1956
The Miami Times
Miami, Dade County, Florida
What is this article about?
Editorial by Dean Gordon B. Hancock warns of southern states' legislative threats to dismantle the NAACP, likening it to anti-labor efforts, and emphasizes the ballot as the essential weapon for African American civil rights advancement against congressional obstruction by figures like Senator Eastland.
Merged-components note: Overlapping and continuous text in 'Between The Lines' editorial by Dean Gordon B. Hancock; likely parsing duplication, merged into single component.
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Between The Lines
OUR LAST RESORT
The current threat to destroy the NAACP, root and branch, in many of the southern states is a very real one. If the threat is consummated, it means a further postponement of the day when we shall walk the Promised Land of first-class citizenship in this country. If we lose the fighting influence of the NAACP. we lose our mightiest weapon to be fashioned since Emancipation for liberation of the race. The might of the weapon may be judged by the efforts to crush it utterly!
The NAACP is to the Negro what the labor union is to the laboring man, it is his strength and fighting arm. The NAACP is a form of collective bargaining which saves the situation where individual bargaining is impossible or risky. Just as there have been serious efforts to break the back of labor by breaking the power of collective bargaining through anti-labor legislation such as the Taft-Hartley Law. so the current anti-NAACP legislation. actually accomplished or is in the offering. is designed to emasculate the program the NAACP has so ingeniously inaugurated in the legal approach.
It is the time that our best men and minds get together in a huddle and find, the way out. There is a way. It takes no prophet to understand what is going to happen if the other southern states follow Alabama which passed a law recently that the NAACP must post a registration of $500 for the state organization charter. a $100 fee for each organizer and a five dollar fee for $2 collected for membership. This means in the last analysis the studied effort to tax the NAACP out of existence. Of course, what the Supreme Court of the United States will decide in the premise is still another matter.
The southerners of the Old South have always found a way to do what they wanted done.
They are tough! But there is still left with the Negro race a mighty valiant weapon and that is the ballot. Thanks be. that before the NAACP was threatened. it secured unto us the right of suffrage and if this valiant and effective weapon is not used to the fullest. the fault and shame will be ours. And it is heart-breaking to note the Negro's too general indifference to live luxuriously. but when it comes to going to the ballot box they display an indifference that is deplorable and startling. Whether the NAACP survives the current threats and attacks or whether it succumbs. the Negro still has the ballot which he secured through the NAACP's help.
Recently two southerners' running for office were debating the advantages of a democratic victory in November. A democratic victory would mean the retention of the chairmanships by southerners of the 22 of 34 committees in Congress. The debate further revealed that nine of the 15 standing committees of the Senate are headed by southerners as are 13 of the 19 standing committees of the House.
When these committees are headed by reactionaries like Senator Eastland of Mississippi, we know that this means interminable obstruction to anything that remotely favors the Negro's advance.
Senator Eastland's chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee did more than any other one thing to kill civil rights legislation in the Congress just closed.
Eastland not only stymied the civil rights legislation by a species delaying circumvention, but he returned to the South and boasted of his success in throttling the civil rights attempt. Some of Eastland's success at throttling the civil rights program can be traced to many other causes; but a great deal of the success has, depended upon the Negro's indifference to the ballot within his reach.
We are not going to get entry into the Promised Land of full-fledged citizenship in this country until we become as vote-conscious as we are car-conscious. A fine record for pretty cars and a poor record for casting an intelligent ballot is not going to help our cause. The NAACP was one resort; but the ballot is the last resort. With one of the finest arrays of Negro-phobes in Congress over, unless the Negro pays more attention to the powers and possibilities of the ballot we are still a long way from the Promised Land!
Dean Gordon B. Hancock
OUR LAST RESORT
The current threat to destroy the NAACP, root and branch, in many of the southern states is a very real one. If the threat is consummated, it means a further postponement of the day when we shall walk the Promised Land of first-class citizenship in this country. If we lose the fighting influence of the NAACP. we lose our mightiest weapon to be fashioned since Emancipation for liberation of the race. The might of the weapon may be judged by the efforts to crush it utterly!
The NAACP is to the Negro what the labor union is to the laboring man, it is his strength and fighting arm. The NAACP is a form of collective bargaining which saves the situation where individual bargaining is impossible or risky. Just as there have been serious efforts to break the back of labor by breaking the power of collective bargaining through anti-labor legislation such as the Taft-Hartley Law. so the current anti-NAACP legislation. actually accomplished or is in the offering. is designed to emasculate the program the NAACP has so ingeniously inaugurated in the legal approach.
It is the time that our best men and minds get together in a huddle and find, the way out. There is a way. It takes no prophet to understand what is going to happen if the other southern states follow Alabama which passed a law recently that the NAACP must post a registration of $500 for the state organization charter. a $100 fee for each organizer and a five dollar fee for $2 collected for membership. This means in the last analysis the studied effort to tax the NAACP out of existence. Of course, what the Supreme Court of the United States will decide in the premise is still another matter.
The southerners of the Old South have always found a way to do what they wanted done.
They are tough! But there is still left with the Negro race a mighty valiant weapon and that is the ballot. Thanks be. that before the NAACP was threatened. it secured unto us the right of suffrage and if this valiant and effective weapon is not used to the fullest. the fault and shame will be ours. And it is heart-breaking to note the Negro's too general indifference to live luxuriously. but when it comes to going to the ballot box they display an indifference that is deplorable and startling. Whether the NAACP survives the current threats and attacks or whether it succumbs. the Negro still has the ballot which he secured through the NAACP's help.
Recently two southerners' running for office were debating the advantages of a democratic victory in November. A democratic victory would mean the retention of the chairmanships by southerners of the 22 of 34 committees in Congress. The debate further revealed that nine of the 15 standing committees of the Senate are headed by southerners as are 13 of the 19 standing committees of the House.
When these committees are headed by reactionaries like Senator Eastland of Mississippi, we know that this means interminable obstruction to anything that remotely favors the Negro's advance.
Senator Eastland's chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee did more than any other one thing to kill civil rights legislation in the Congress just closed.
Eastland not only stymied the civil rights legislation by a species delaying circumvention, but he returned to the South and boasted of his success in throttling the civil rights attempt. Some of Eastland's success at throttling the civil rights program can be traced to many other causes; but a great deal of the success has, depended upon the Negro's indifference to the ballot within his reach.
We are not going to get entry into the Promised Land of full-fledged citizenship in this country until we become as vote-conscious as we are car-conscious. A fine record for pretty cars and a poor record for casting an intelligent ballot is not going to help our cause. The NAACP was one resort; but the ballot is the last resort. With one of the finest arrays of Negro-phobes in Congress over, unless the Negro pays more attention to the powers and possibilities of the ballot we are still a long way from the Promised Land!
Dean Gordon B. Hancock
What sub-type of article is it?
Suffrage
Social Reform
Legal Reform
What keywords are associated?
Naacp Threats
Civil Rights
Voting Importance
Southern Obstruction
Senator Eastland
Ballot Power
African American Suffrage
What entities or persons were involved?
Naacp
Senator Eastland
Alabama
Southern States
Congress Committees
Taft Hartley Law
Editorial Details
Primary Topic
Threats To Naacp And Urgency Of Using The Ballot For Civil Rights
Stance / Tone
Urgent Exhortation To Vote Against Southern Obstruction
Key Figures
Naacp
Senator Eastland
Alabama
Southern States
Congress Committees
Taft Hartley Law
Key Arguments
Threats To Destroy Naacp Via Legislation Will Delay First Class Citizenship
Naacp Is Essential Fighting Arm Like Labor Unions
Southern Laws Aim To Tax Naacp Out Of Existence, Similar To Anti Labor Efforts
Ballot Is The Last Resort Secured By Naacp
Negro Indifference To Voting Enables Obstruction By Southern Congressmen Like Eastland
Southern Control Of Congressional Committees Blocks Civil Rights
Must Become Vote Conscious To Advance