Jackson Advocate

More Uncle Toms Greatest Need Of The Southern Negro

The one thing that is causing many a responsible Negro citizen in Jackson, in Mississippi, and the rest of the south to withhold their opinion in regard to the issues now of the greatest concern to the future of the race, especially if such an opinion, if expressed, would be contrary to the manners and opinion of the new crop of Negro leaders who have come forward since the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court is the fear of being called and designated an "Uncle Tom." A name calculated by this new Negro leadership to subject the designated to all manners of ridicule, derision and contempt of the Negro Community.

In the minds of this new Negro leadership any Negro is an "Uncle Tom" who, whatever the issues involved, seeks to maintain a friendly and respectful attitude toward the responsible white people of the community.

Looking back at the history of the Negro in Mississippi as well as in the rest of the south it will be found that it was those Negro leaders of the past who would be, and are being, called "Uncle Toms" by the new crop of Negro leaders who, by maintaining a friendly and respectful attitude toward the responsible white people of the community were able to secure their help and cooperation in laying the foundation for the great progress of the Negro since his emancipation from slavery.

Heading the list of the Negro leaders of the past now being designated by the new Negro leadership as an "Uncle Tom," because his philosophy and manner runs counter to that which they have employed is Booker T. Washington, the founder of Tuskegee Institute, a man whose works and thoughts have brought him world renown. Also among their list of "Uncle Toms" would be the late Mr. Spaulding, founder of the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Co. with its subsidiaries, including the Farmers & Mechanics Bank, making it the largest Negro Financial Institution in the world now giving employment to hundreds if not thousands of Negroes, and with Mr. Spaulding would be the founders of the Atlanta Life Insurance Company, and the other large Negro owned financial institutions of Atlanta which is largely responsible for its reputation as the "Negro Capitol" of the United States.

Among the Mississippi Negro leaders of the past which the new Negro leaders would and do designate as "Uncle Toms" are the McKissacks and Walkers: founder of the Mississippi Beneficial Life Insurance Company, now the Universal Life Insurance Company, organized at Indianola, Mississippi, now with headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee, out of which has come the Tri-State Bank of Memphis. This group would also list among its "Uncle Toms" the late W. H. Holtzclaw, and the late Prof. J. E. Johnson, Founders of Utica Institute, and Prentiss Institute, two institutions which gave educational opportunities to Negroes at a time and in places when it would otherwise have been impossible.

Among contemporary responsible Negro leaders in Mississippi this group would also designate as "Uncle Toms," T. J. Huddleston of Yazoo City, founder of the Afro-American Sons and Daughters, and Mr. P. M. Smith of Mound Bayou, Founder and head of the Knights and Daughters of Tabor and organization now operating in nine states, and their prime target for such a designation is Prof. Laurence C. Jones, Founder and head of the now world famous Piney Woods Country Life School, at Piney Woods, Mississippi.

What this new and brash Negro leadership has succeeded in doing more than anything else is losing whatever welcome they might have had in the councils of authority, by vituperative, vindictive, calumnious speeches and newspaper statements, directed towards the responsible white citizens who form the councils of authority in the community.

Where there are any responsible Negro leaders in Jackson, in Mississippi, or any place else in the south, who by their manners, and attitude of respect towards the responsible white leaders of the community, still finds welcome in the councils of authority, they should no longer fear being called or designated an "Uncle Tom."

Though somewhat slowly, the masses of Negroes of the south are beginning to see that they are being led over a precipice by the siren calls of the New Negro leadership to be repeatedly submerged in a ever maddening whirlpool of hatred, fear, frustration, and bewilderment.

In conclusion, looking backward at Negro history, in the light of present conditions as they effect the masses of Negroes, the greatest need of the Negro in Jackson, in Mississippi, and in the rest of the south, is more and more "Uncle Toms"