Atlanta Daily World

THE NEED FOR CHANGING
By JOHN H. McCRAY
"YEAH IT'S ME"
COLUMBIA, S. C.- (SNS)
"The less conspicuous a Negro makes himself and his feelings, the more he's liable to get from white people."
A Columbia white "Democrat" with whom I was talking a few weeks ago told me those words, suggesting that we forget about voting now and let the white folks decide when and if we are to vote.
"You people ought to be interested in getting educated," he added.
When I reminded him that there are few Negroes as ignorant and perverted as certain members in the Greenville lynching mob and emphasized that white folk who go around shouting "I know my cook or my good ole mammy, hence I know Negroes" are examples of woeful ignorance, he colored and agreed, "well, a lot of white people need educating, too."
In the Greenville courthouse at the time of the lynching trial, attaches led Alex Rivera of the Pittsburgh Courier and myself to a rear room on the floor and explained that while the court was perfectly willing to give us working space around the judicial bar, officials felt our being there would play into the hands of defense counsel who would seize upon it to swing the jury. Alex and I cooperated, took seats in the balcony voluntarily and were joined there by Albert Hinton of the Journal and Guide. Ten days later, the all white jury freed the lynchers anyway.
This question of being shy and quiet just because white folks ask it, has never paid dividends. And time and again Negroes who have heeded it have found that it didn't make their situation better. Simultaneously, those who have ignored it, as it should be, have found that they make greater gains by following their own minds than by adhering to whims of white men.
When South Carolina "better education" movement seven years ago there were loud shouts about race trouble. Leaders of the movement were radicals and "reds" and some of the old-school "nigra leaders" were drafted to block the fight. They lost, however, and today South Carolina is being pushed steadily towards equal opportunity.
And three years ago when the mass movement towards winning the right to be "Democrats" started there was the same old story. We were irritating the white folks and making matters worse. "Be quiet and keep out of sight," we were told. "We white folks will get around to you, maybe, and if you stay in your place." But today, there are more "Negro Democrats" in South Carolina than ever in history and the number is growing; simultaneously, barriers against them are being reduced methodically and definitely.
Last week in Columbia we saw the fruits of two instances in which Negroes spurned the "less conspicuous and be quiet" theory in the primary and voting suits. The excitement and hard work of five or more years behind getting these into court were forgotten when N.A.A.C.P. lawyers, led by Dr. Thurgood Marshall and Mr. Harold R. Boulware, displayed ability and knowledge which oft times had defense counsel paling, reddening, rambling and trembling. Alex Alford of Georgetown, who sat behind me Tuesday, "got religion;" I understood why his soul was so happy. And William (Bo) Hamilton from Walterboro to my right, had the time of his life Wednesday watching state Democratic chairman Wm. P. Baskin nervously finger papers while being hammered into cooperating with arguments of Dr. Marshall. And common talk were best in the courthouse where the whites had put up their best. James Price, Greenville lawyer who defended the Law School, got so hot Friday morning that he injected the old racial digging we once got fighting mad about. Half facing John Wrighten who was suing, he shouted, "This towheaded, kinky headed black nigger boy better go back to Edisto Island if he's going to mingle with our fine white boys."
Yeah, it's me, kinky headed and black, and anything else anybody wants to call me. I am making myself conspicuous and I am yelling about my rights as loud as I can. And I am going to keep on yelling and being conspicuous until I get every one of them. "Yeah, it's me and I am glad."