Atlanta Daily World

MISDIRECTED ENTHUSIASM

By DR. E. G. BOWDEN

According to the Atlanta Daily WORLD, Saturday, June 19, 1938, 100 or more Atlanta Negroes will be leaving in the next 24 hours for New York to attend the Joe Louis-Schmeling fight. On the surface, this would appear to be a wholesome interest in athletics but fundamentally I think it is a serious indictment of the Negro's ability to weigh what are the important things in life.

No one appreciates more than I the outcome, after the fight play some music on the automatic piano and solace your feelings.

HON. WEST DOBBS - Louis will "kill" him before the eighth.

T M. ALEXANDER - I'll give Schmeling until the ninth, then the curtains.

EDDIE ROBY - Joe Louis will win in the eighth round with one of the hardest lefts a challenger has ever received.

DR. R. B. JACKSON - Joe Louis in the eighth round.

RALPH GALANTI - Joe Louis in the sixth round, by a knockout.

R. V McCURDY (Barber) - Joe Louis, between the fifth and eighth by a knockout.

JOE VEAL - Joe Louis, sixth round.

WILLIE ESTES (Sportsman) - Schmeling will take a lot of punishment and will lose in the sixth.

"MOUSE" COOPER - No Prediction, but it's going to be a tough fight

E. B. SHIELDS - Schmeling will win again

DR. J. B. TRANSOU SAYS. "I HAVEN'T GOT TIME TO GO TO THE FIGHT"

He was on the go as usual, easing the pain of human ill. I asked him was he going to the fight. He replied. "Deacon. I just haven't got the time to go to New York to see a fight, though I would like to go."

I am of the opinion Dr. Transou has enough fight here subduing the ills of mankind, and when he gets through with that fight he is too tired to witness a prize fight.

A BIG REVIVAL ON IN EDGEWOOD, GEORGIA

Rev. C. A. Moore invites the public to attend a great revival at his church.

The Rev. Dinkins, a powerful gospel preacher from Savannah, Ga., is conducting this revival. It's a gospel treat to hear him.

HAVEN'T SEEN HIM IN MORE THAN 35 YEARS

Robert Mannings, son of Dr. Mannings, an A. M. E. minister and once a teacher in the Theological Department of Morris Brown college, is in town. He is now a teacher in New Jersey but on a two weeks vacation home.

I do the value of wholesome recreation and proper leisure-time activities, but these functions must be weighed against all the other phases of life. It is unnecessary to state that the people of America have never faced a more serious crisis than that of today. This morning's newspapers carried a story of an appropriation of $300,000,000 to take care of the unemployed people of America of whom an abnormally large part are Negroes. We are on the verge of becoming, as a race, a dependent group.

Yet, 100 Negroes leave Atlanta to attend a sporting event, 1000 miles away at a minimum expense of $50 including the admission to the fight. Thousands of other Negroes are leaving the South, the far distant West and the extreme North to converge on New York for the same purpose.

Take Atlanta as an example, I can count on the fingers of one hand the Negroes who are really able, without sacrifice to their families or themselves, to take this long and expensive trip.

The word "Sport" means to play; to frolic; to wanton; to trifle; to divert; to throw off with easy and playful copiousness the serious things of life. This is the actual concrete definition of the word "sport" as derived from the latest authorities

Among the five things necessary for a successful life, according to Rabbi David Morantz, a hobby for relaxation, a diversification from the actual grind of every day life. Therefore, some outlet is necessary for a normal life. But I am wondering as I think of the Negroes' predicament if he is able to indulge financially in sport to the extent that he does. One of the reasons why I ask this question is as I make my rounds daily I find the Negro imbibed with a Spirit of relaxation. He is continually discussing the merits of the Black Crackers' and the white Crackers' Baseball teams. He knows when Babe Ruth hit his first home run; he knows how many runs Lou Gehrig made in 1935 and 1936; he knows actually how many strike-outs Hubbell, Lefty Grove and Dizzy Dean had to their credit. He knows the batting average of DiMaggio, and Mailho and Richards locally. He knows also when Jack Johnson K'O'd Jeffries, and if one wants to go as far back as Peter Jackson and Joe Gans, he has an accurate knowledge of their records. He can tell you of the champions of the wrestling bouts, and when Bobby Jones won the English-American Golf championship. But I find that he is not in a position to meet his urgent necessary obligations or to take care of the needs at home as he should.

After years of listening to the prattle of my friends I have come to the conclusion that if they knew as much about any one thing in this world of material value as they do about sports they could make a million dollars.

There is such a thing as a grown-up having a child's mind - a desire to play.

It is my ultimate conclusion that real men do not spend money and time for sports until they have arrived. It's one thing to love sports, and it's another to be able to indulge in them. I believe that the Negro is on an upward march for recognition as a sober man should think seriously and earnestly before he allows himself to be swept off his feet by the superficialities of life at a time when, according to the most reliable authorities from 45 to 50 per cent of the Negroes of America are on relief.

I know it is going to be sickening to the residents of Atlanta when these migrants to the fight return and attempt to out-do Clem McCarthy and all of America's expert sport commentators with their opinions of the fight.