The Illinois times., August 19, 1963, Image 1

About The Illinois times. (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-19??

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voljahoJ___MONDAY, AUG~19 71%?
^nca 0 Casts
Baha'i Temple. Vihnetle, III.
ortis foi
the ff orld
GOD doth not behold riif
f<j-etire* of hue and com
pie xion. He looketh at the
heart*. He whose moral*
*nd virtues Jre praise
worthy i* preferred in the
presence of God* he who
is devoted to the Kingdom
is most loved.
—Baha'i Writings
Unity Basic Principle
EDITOR :
In view of the nationwide as well as
the local unrest regarding the integration
of the white and Negro races, it seems
essential that every organization make
clear its position.
Basic in the Baha'i World Faith is the
principle of unity. That is. that all men
are created of the same substance; all
must be treated with equal justice and
mercy by their fellow men.
From the inception of the Baha'i faith,
communities have been established on this
principle of unity. Those of the white and
Negro races who have had membership
in such communities have found enrich
ing experiences in their social and religi
ous activities. Furthermore, elected ad
ministrative bodies on the local, national
and international levels consist, as a mat
ter of course, of representatives of differ
ent races.
Unity in the Baha'i world is not only be
tween the white and Negro races but also
between various other racial as well as
religious, national, and cultural minori
ties. In every country of the world there
are Baha’i communities in which indi
viduals are sharing this feeling of one
ness.
From first-hand experiences. Baha is
know that fears of integration are ground
less. The Golden Rule which is at the
basis of all religions requires complete
justice in employment, housing, school
ing. religion, and all other facet* of hu
man existence.
Obviously this basic principle of unity,
these experiences in interracial activities
make clear that Baha’is support all ef
forts made in these communities to re
alize complete justice in every area of
human endeavor.
BAHA’I ASSEMBLY OF URBANA
Eleanor Hutchins, Secretary.
‘Take a Hand'
Remember that first day you went
to school. Or maybe it was just a new
school in a town you had moved to
You wondered what it would be like,
and whether the other children
would like you.
I p to a certain age it was a big
help if “Mommy’’ rould go along and
hold your hand. Well, this fall there
will be some cases where even
“Mommy” would be glad to have
somebody hold her hand.
The National Women's Committee
for Civil Rights has suggested that
where schools this fall are opening
on a desegregated basis, it would be
nice for white women to take the
hands of Negro children and their
parents and walk with them into the
schoolroom that first day.
The heads of this committee are
Mrs. Mildred McAfee Horton, former
president of Wellesley College, and
Mrs. Patricia Roberts Harris, associate
dean at Howard University.
This, to ns, is one of the most
heart-warming ideas that has* come
out of the whole civil-rights discus
'Opportunity Is Individual'
By Kimmls Hrndrick
Los Angeles
Some 20 years ago I sought and ob
tained an interview with George Wash
ington Carver. So far as I know, it may
have been the last newspaper interview
the great Tuskegee scientist gave any
one. As the years pass, it grows in my
thought as the most impressive news
paper experience I ever had.
Yet the recent 1963 conference of the
National Urban League, that brought
about 1,000 concerned white and Negro
people together here from aeross the
country, reminded me that what Dr.
Carver did for humanity, many other
Americans, usually less conspicuously,
are doing constantly. Dr. Carver, I think,
would have said so. Whether he would
have approved the militancy of today's
Negro leaders, I certainly do not know.
He had been ill, and his secretary
told my wife and me, as I remember,
that wc must stay with him just five
minutes. We must not, she added, shake
Associated Press Photo
George Washington Carver
his hand. But when he appealed. Dr.
Carver took our hands and shook them
vigorously. Then he talked to both of
us for half an hour.
> > >
We had never been so moved by a
human presence. He seemed to us little
and very black. He seemed to us, in
deed, almost the opposite of what we
had expected. We knew we were going
to meet a man whose contributions to
the development and use of natural
products was prodigious. I suppose we
thought he would look and act impos
ing. Instead, we found ourselves think
ing, as we said afterward, that we were
in the presence of someone to whom
thought was everything and in whom
phvsicality and its needs had been re
duced to the minimum.
Dr. Carver began by telling us that
his favorite text came from the Gospel
according to John: *'Ye shall know the
truth, and the truth shall make you
free.” Re went on, as 1 recall, to say
something very much like this: “Free
from what? From ignorance. And there
are three kinds of ignorance—honest
ignorance, stubborn ignorance, and what
I call ‘cussed ignorance.’ ”
Of honest ignorance, said Dr. Carver,
it can only be said that it is hopeful: it
wants to learn. Stubborn ignorance, by
contrast, seems practically hopeless. As
for "cussed ignorance,” he called it "the
curse of not knowing how much God
loves you.”
To illustrate this last, he told us
about a Negro boy in a nearby Alabama
reform school who had taken his own
life recently. He did so. Dr. Carver said,
because life looked worthless to him,
and he felt worthless before life. But in
that very place, the great Negro scien
tist observed, there were clays in the
soil which, utilized, could transform the
economy of the region. Had that young
ster known enough, he could have' found
his career right there.
> A >
Sometimes people, hearing this story,
have said to me, “Yes—it shows that
opportunity is individual.” Surely Dr.
Carver, born a slave, proved that it can
be, and won unsought honors from gov
ernments and scientific societies for his
work. We noticed, however, that he
himself had also devoted his career to
helping others find the environment in
which individuality could flower. He
told us about the boy who failed with
the air of one who regretted he himself
had not been there first to prevent the
chance of failure.
Listening to Urban League workers
discuss the urgency of the Negro’s pre.>
ent situation—and speaking sympatheti
cally, from their background of modera
tion, about radical and activist Negro
programs—I got a new light on Dr.
Cai vcr s comments to a young reporter
and his wife. He did his work quietly,
by example. He seemed to retreat vis
ibly from self-assertion. Yet constantly,
in his long career, he was helping create
favorable environments for human
success.
We thought, as we still think, that he
seemed unaware that he was Negro, that
we were white, or that, color had any
significance whatever. He was too busy
to think about it. He was too conscious
that any kind of man means humankind.
To him, opportunity was like the prom
ising clay in nearby soil—the thing
nearest at hand. And he said to us in
this context, as I clearly remember,
“Opportunity is never a matter of com
plexion.”
Education Eauality
Urged by President
^ ~ my
San Diego, Calif.
Receiving the first honorary
doctorate ever bestowed by
California’s state college sys
tem, President Kennedy called
on all Americans “to mobilize
the»r aroused support” behind
a national program of equal
educational opportunity for all
the nation’s youth.
“We are the privileged,” he
told 2,000 graduates at San
Diego State College and a com
mencement audience exceeding
22,000 people. “We should ex
pand this privilege so that all
men and women may share it.”
For nothing in his com
mencement address, which the
President delivered with nu
merous extemporaneous de
partures from his prepared
text, did he receive warmer
applause lhan for his words,
“We have no greater asset in
this country than an educated
man or woman.”
Four-Dav Trip
President Kennedy reached
San Diego right on time in the
course of a four-day Far West
trip crammed with defense
base inspections and a visit to
the Air Force Academy in
Colorado. Aircraft filled the
sky as his motorcade traveled
from Lindbergh Field here
along a parade route to San
Diego State College’s Aztec
Bowl.
He took the contrast between
California’s abundantly pro
visioned educational program
and the needs of the nation’s
educationally underprivileged
areas to support his call lor
strong federal aid.
Dropout Issue Noted
Citing, for instance, the fact
that "only about two-fifths of
our nonwhite population’’ have
finished high school—in con
trast to nearly three-fourths of
the young v-hite population—
the President, declared: “This
is the business of our country.
These young people come
West."
Citing school dropouts and
their effect on employability,
the President emphasized:
"this is one of the most serious
domestic problems that will
face our nation in the next
10 years.”
Citing the astonishingly large
amount of "functional illiter
acy” to be found among the
nation’s adult population, the
President said vigorously:
“This is a problem that faces
us all.”
SHARING OI K FAITH
"And Peter, fastening his eyes upon
him with John. said, look on us. And
he gave heed unto them, expecting to
receive something of them. Then
Peter said. Silver and gold have I
none: hut such as I have give I thee:
In the name of Jesus Christ of Naza
reth rise up and walk." Acts 3:4-6.
I his is the story of the lame man at
the beautiful gale of the temple. He
was one of the many beggars to be
found in the city of Jerusalem. He
never knew what it meant to walk,
because he was lame from birth, and
had to be cariied by relatives or
f lends wheievet he went. How fortun
ate. that this one day. he was left at
the gate of the temple, where he might
not only receive a few coins, but legs
and complete health.
This all came about because these
spirit-filled men were willing to share
what they had with him Jesus Christ.
No man is poor who has C'hiist within
his heart
ii Donaldson
I istui to these words of Peter:
Silver and gold have I none; but
such as I have give I thee: In the
name of Jesus C hrist of Nazareth
rise up and walk " What a gift, what
a blessing, what a joy to be able to
share our blessed Lord with those in
need. What do you think the lame
beggar would rather have, a coin of
silver, or legs on which to walk?
C ertainly he received much more than
he expected: a sound body and a
cleansed heart, instead of a few coins
that would have lasted but for a day.
All about us today are those who
tire sick, lame and needy; who need
more than a casual hand-out. They
need understanding and love; they
need the joy of Chi ist in their hearts
and ‘ the peace that passeth all under
standing.”
To those of us who know HIM,
who have tasted his love in our
own souls, let us joyfully and will
ingly share HIM with those who
reach out to us for help. May we
say as did Simon Peter, ‘‘Such as I
have give 1 thee, in the name of
Jesus, be healed.”
“Somebody did a golden deed;
Proving himself a friend indeed,
Somebody sang a cheerful song;
Brightening the way the whole day
long;
Was that somebody you?
Was that somebody you?
W, Howe Donaldson
£ l/etie
foot 'Today . • •
Follow righteousness,
faith, chanty, peace,
with them that cull on
the Lord out of a pure
heart.—II TlM. 2:22