citizenship ballot, equal school facilities and everything else. We fought for them. We will have them; we must not yield. The greater part of the best thinking white people, North and South know we are entitled to all we ask. They know we will get it. In their hearts they are for us though they may fear the lower elements who are trying to stir up trouble to keep us from getting our rights. But they will fail just as they failed to keep us from our freedom. God is with us. They cannot defeat God. So I say to you stand aside, stand prepared, provoke no riot; just let God do his work. He may permit a few riots just to force the Negroes closer together. He lets the hoodlums kill a few in order to teach the many that WE MUST GET TOGETHER. But he does not mean that we shall be defeated—if we trust him. Let us learn the lesson He is teaching us. Remember a riot may break out in any place. Let pastors caution peace, prayer and preparedness. Let us provoke no trouble. Let us urge our congregations to keep level heads and do nothing that is unlawful. Yours in Christian bonds, R. R. Wright, Jr. Editor of the Christian Recorder.”[364] The appeal of DuBois is more dramatic: “Brothers we are on the Great Deep. We have cast off on the vast voyage which will lead to Freedom or Death. For three centuries we have suffered and cowered. No race ever gave Passive Resistance and Submission to Evil longer, more piteous trial. Today we raise the terrible weapon of Self Defense. When the murderer comes he shall no longer strike us in the back. When the armed lynchers gather, we too must gather armed. When the mob moves we propose to meet it with bricks and clubs and guns. But we must tread here with solemn caution. We must never let justifiable self defense against individuals become blind and lawless offense against all white folk. We must not seek reform by violence. We must not seek vengeance. Vengeance is Mine saith the Lord; or to put it otherwise—only infinite Justice and Knowledge can assign blame in this poor world and we ourselves are sinful men, struggling desperately with our own crime and ignorance. We must defend ourselves, our homes, our wives and children against the lawless without stint or hesitation; but we must carefully and scrupulously avoid on our own part bitter and unjustifiable aggression against anybody. The line is difficult to draw. In the South the Police and Public Opinion back the mob and the least resistance on the part of the innocent black victim is nearly always construed as a lawless attack on society and government. In the North the Police and the Public will dodge and falter, but in the end they will back the Right when the truth is made clear to them. But whether the line between just resistance and angry retaliation is hard or easy, we must draw it carefully, not in wild resentment, but in grim and sober consideration; and when back of the impregnable fortress of the