The Augusta Courier

Negro Minister
Says
Segregation
Best for Everybody

It is refreshing to find a negro who has not followed off after the teachings of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
There are a great many good southern negroes who know that segregation is best for the white people and best for the negro.
There are a few southern negroes who know that the negro problem in the South can only be solved by the negro and the southern white man when let alone by agitators.
A few southern negroes know that the FEPC Bill and the campaign against the segregation of the races was inspired by the Communist Party in America for the sole purpose of creating racial hatred and discord.
As an illustration of this point of view we have come across a letter written by a negro preacher and one of his church members to the white people of Clarksville, Tenn., in an appeal for aid for their church.
This letter in full follows:

Clarksville, Tenn., May 17, 1948.
To Our Good White Friends of Clarksville:
Dear Friends: The Wesley Chapel Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, located at 618 Franklin Street, is facing a little crisis and must raise $2,500 to remodel both our church and parsonage, which stands badly in need. We must beautify our church and pay off some pressing obligation.
This church is one of the oldest churches in this city. It was organized by the former Southern Methodist Church in 1870. This church, through the years, has rendered incalculable service to the people of this city. It has made and is making a very definite contribution to the social, moral and religious well-being of the Negro residents of that section. Because of its constituency, it is doubtful if any Negro church in the city has a larger opportunity for constructive services in the way of social uplift and good citizenship. It is in a real sense a community church and is endeavoring to minister in a most helpful way to the underprivileged.
This church is badly in need and is handicapped because of condition and must be repaired. The members of our church are poor but they are worthy; they have worked heroically and given sacrificially in the effort to meet the obligation, but because of their limited resources, we have been unable to raise these needed funds.
This church is one of the oldest Negro organizations in this city. This church is a child of the former Southern Methodist Episcopal Church and was set apart in 1870, just after the War Between the States. For 200 years, the only place where he could give expression of his yearnings and aspiration to his God was his religious gathering. The church has been his greatest school.
Many of our Negro fathers and black mammies worked as slaves in your homes and on your mother's and father's plantations. There is a close tie between the southern white man and the southern Negro that only they can understand. There are no two races that can get along like the southern Negro and the southern white man. There is no problem between the Negro and the southern white man if let alone. The Negro is not losing any sleep over the proposed civil right program because it is a vicious attempt to take from the States the right to manage their own affairs. Good southern Negroes do not want all of this stuff that is inspired by communistic agitators of all races; passage of such a law would be the end of your social order and the death blow to the traditions dear to the hearts of the people of the South and of equal interest to both races. There is no Negro born in the South who wants to live apart from our white friends and there is no Negro born in the South who wants social equality. We do want social justice, better understanding and equal opportunity. We want our own churches and schools, our own places of amusements. We teach our Negro boys and girls from our pulpits that racial integrity is best attained by racial purity and solidarity. We teach them that they must train to be better servants along industrial lines.
Slavery was a blessing to the Negro. Our white masters wrought well in their days whatever may be said of the hardships of slavery. It must be admitted that the slave owners turned out 4,000,000 men, women, and children better trained in trades and industries, morals, manners, and religion than any 4,000,000 since. We came here without a language, today we speak the proud Anglo-Saxon language which seems destined to become the language of the world. We confess that we owe our freedom to the American white man. We look upon you as our leaders and our friends. You own the banks, the money, you make the laws, you administer them. You control the ballot and we are your subjects, we obey your laws and wherever you find the Negro preacher and his church you do not find communism, gangsters, mob violence, nor racial troubles. The Negro preacher teaches against such evils. We realize that the promise of social equality is a sham and an attempt to use the Negro for political purposes; if this matter is let alone time, religion, and education will work all of this out. We realize that the South is the Negro's home and our friends are in the South. The best way to have law-abiding Negroes in Clarksville is to help to make Christian Negroes. The church is interested in the standard of the life patterned in Christ and incarnated in His earthly career for the establishment of social order that is brotherly, just, merciful, loving, kind, and considerate of all men everywhere. We need the church now as never before, and if the church is to be the church and if it is to bring the entire world at the foot of the cross, it must exert definitely in the affairs of the State. It is clear that worldly men reflect their attitude toward life in laws which they enact by the administration of these laws. If we are to have permanent peace, and God grant that we may, the church universal must make itself felt in the Christianized opinions of the world. No peace will be permanent that is not formed in the atmosphere of the church and influenced by the ideals for which the church stands.
The democracy which the United Nations fight to preserve has its deep foundation in the principles of Jesus Christ. We are sending this appeal to every good red-blooded white man and woman of this city, asking that you please come to our rescue in helping us to raise this needed fund. The general church will give us $1,000 if we can raise the $1,500. We have a new pastor Rev. I. D. Mitchell and his wife and as our house and parsonage needs remodeling badly, we are asking you to help us raise this money. We have our church agent here this week to help us, and we know that all good white people are willing and ready to help any good worthy cause. Our pastor is doing more for our people and church than any pastor we have had.
Please make your check to the Wesley Chapel C. M. E. Church and send to Robert W. Wells, church agent, 618 Franklin Street, Clarksville, Tenn., and we will gladly acknowledge your donation and the money will be spent wisely. No money that you will ever spend will bring you a greater blessing than the money you may give to help this worthy cause.
I. D. Mitchell, Jr., Pastor.
Robert W. Wells,
Church Agent and Sponsor.