The Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 1995, Memorial IssueVarious
History
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 1995, Memorial Issue
Various
African Americans -- Social conditions -- To 1964; Civil rights movements; Martin Luther King, Jr., Day; United States -- History
something better than any one else, has learned to do a common thing
in an uncommon manner, has power and influence which no adverse
surroundings can take from him. It is better to show a man how to make a
place for himself than to put him in one that some one else has made
for him. The Negro who can make himself so conspicuous as a successful
farmer, a large taxpayer, a wise helper of his fellow men, as to be
placed in a position of trust and honor by natural selection, whether
the position be political or not, is a hundredfold more secure in that
position than one placed there by mere outside force or pressure. I know
a Negro, Hon. Isaiah T. Montgomery, in Mississippi, who is mayor of a
town; it is true that the town is composed almost wholly of Negroes.
Mr. Montgomery is mayor of this town because his genius, thrift, and
foresight have created it; and he is held and supported in his office
by a charter granted by the state of Mississippi, and by the vote and
public sentiment of the community in which he lives.
Let us help the Negro by every means possible to acquire such an
education in farming, dairying, stock-raising, horticulture, etc., as
will place him near the top in these industries, and the race problem
will in a large part be settled, or at least stripped of many of its
most perplexing elements. This policy would also tend to keep the Negro
in the country and smaller towns, where he succeeds best, and stop the
influx into the large cities, where he does not succeed so well. The
race, like the individual, which produces something of superior worth
that has a common human interest, wins a permanent place, and is bound
to be recognized.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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