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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IX. Leadership and Concerted Action - 39. Negro Improvement and Protest Organizations - 13. Negro Strategy
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Chapter 39. Improvement and Protest Organizations 857
this fundamental principle of democratic politics more clearly than is com-
mon among white Americans discussing national politics.
The fact that Negroes will have to seek a maximum number of white
allies should not, however, be a reason for neglecting the organization of
the masses of Negroes. All efforts of their own are required for the Ne-
groes’ advancement. A. Philip Randolph, speaking vainly to the National
Negro Congress when it went down, rightly observed:
The only rational conclusion, then, seems to be that the Negro and the other
darker races must look to themselves for freedom. Salvation for a race, nation, 01
class, must come from within. Freedom is never granted; it is won. Justice is never
given, it is exacted. Freedom and justice must be struggled for by the oppressed of
all lands and races, and the struggle must be continuous, for freedom is never a final
fact, but a continuing evolving process to higher and higher levels of human, social,
economic, political and religious relationships.^’®
By this Randolph did not mean isolation in a black movement:
But Negroes must not fight for their liberation alone. They must join sound,
broad, liberal, social movements that seek to preserve American democracy and
advance the cause of social and religious freedom."®
A word must be added on the moral aspect of Negro leadership. To the
outside observer, one of the most discouraging facts in present-day America
is the great indifference shown by the average white citizen toward corrup-
tion in politics, particularly in the states and municipalities where Negro
concerted action will have to do most of its work. In the shut-in Negro
world, there are, as we have observed,® so many special reasons for cynicism
and amorality that dishonest leadership—except on the national level—is
not unusual.
T0 the Negro feofle dishonest leadership is a most important cause of
weakness in concerted action. It should be preached against and fought
against. It should be a main topic in the teaching at Negro universities, in
the Negro journals, in Negro adult education. If a generation of young
Negroes could be brought up to understand how scrupulous honesty could
tremendously strengthen the Negro cause—and, incidentally, in the long
run advance them individually much more than the petty handouts by
which they are now tempted—this would mean a great deal for Negro
progress.
*See Chapter $6,
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