Jackson Advocate

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"never underestimate the damage which 300 years of slavery has done to the Negro." Mr. Wilkins' remarks came during Howard's 45th annual Religious Convocation in the University's Andrew Rankin Chapel

Speaking on the second day of the three-day meet under the theme, "Walking the Earth With Dignity," Mr. Wilkins stressed the importance of competence and excellence in the area of employment. "I am afraid we do not have boys anymore who, like Booker T. Washington. would dust a room three times in order to be sure to get a job. Our boys and girls, are content to get by. They have a tendency to blame all their failures on racial discrimination." he said, adding:

"We cannot blame our total plight on the race issue. We must not make the mistake of excusing whatever lapses of which we may be guilty by pointing to others as guilty as ourselves. We should not dodge or excuse plain facts. We have the duty to build our own strengths, to weed out, as far as possible, debilitating weaknesses and to help shape our destiny from within.

He urged Negroes to fight crime within their ranks, but emphasized that "we are not unique in having criminals among us, as one might conclude from reading some of our more dedicated southern daily newspapers." He said Negroes cannot boast of the best organized, the most ruthless and rapacious of criminals, nor the most successful in terms of the size of the loot seized.

"We do not direct nationwide syndicates or international cabals. We are not gang operators or machine gunners.

Yet, the statistics of so-called Negro crime should engage our attention and study," he declared.

In the entire area of corrective action within the group, Mr. Wilkins called for a study of the "morals picture" not in reaction to spiteful southerners or hysterical northerners, "but to the facts and the conditions behind the facts."

Praising the Negro clergy and church for having the most continuous influence on the Negro population, the NAACP official urged the ministers to "continue to lead the march to citizenship rights, responsibility and to the dignity that resides in freedom and self-respect."

During a question and answer period which followed his address, Mr. Wilkins said his organization currently has no mass participation program such as that of CORE, but that it is considering such a program in order to channel the energies of more Negro youth.