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BOOK SUPPLEMENT GLORGLA BULLETIN PAGE 3 ‘Let No Barrier Be Against Mere Color’ Although most statements against racial segregation are rela tively recent, here is one that is old-more than sixty years old. It was delivered by Archbishop John Ireland of St. Paul on Jan uary 1, 1891, the 28th anniversary of President Lincoln's Eman cipation Proclamation. It remains one of the most vigorous chal lenges to racial segregation ever written. This is taken from a "Primeron Interracial Justice" by Robert Senser, Helicon Press, Baltimore, 120 pages. $2.95. Slavery was horrid. We can not recall it without sorrow and shame. Well may the Head of the Catholic Church, Leo )t- 111, say in a recent letter- that "slavery is opposed to religion and to the dignity- of man.” I know its defenders taking refuge in the shadowy regions of the abstract describe slavery- as a mere labor-contract, covering a whole life-time. In the concrete, as practiced and defended, slavery was ig nored, who was made to be the chattel. And how come it. I could ask in the name of jus tice, that the unborn child, whose father ever was a free man, was shorn w ithout his own fault or act, of the right to the free use of the powers of soul and body? Certain stages of civilization, it has been said, rendered slavery a social nece ssity. Certain stages of barbar ism they should be called, and Americans should not have low ered themselves to barbarism. SLAVERY is inhuman, It is unchristian. "There was scar cely anything,” writes Leo X- III, "dearer to the Church from the beginning than to see the slavery, which oppressed so many human beings by its mis erable yoke, removed and entirely destroyed.” The Christian religion emp hasized the brotherhood of man, the value of the soul, charity- to the weak and to the oppres sed. Slavery was the denial of Christian principles and Chris tian virtues. It was the denial of Christian principles and Christian virtues. It was the denial of the freedom of the Gospel, which found access to the soul of the slave, only as the master permitted or ord ained. Let us on this emanci pation day thank God for the blessings of Christianity. LET US do our full duty. There is work for us. I have said that slavery has been abo lished in America; the trail of This list of Catholic books released within the past week was prepared by the Library of the Catholic University of America. BIBLE, N. T. The Universal Letters. (St. Paul Publications, Derby, New York. 60f Paper). Reprint of the 1953 English edition. DAUGHTERS OF ST PAUL. The Great Hero. (Daughters of St. Paul. $ 2.50). A biography of St. Paul for children 9-12. i ELLIOTT, JOHN a The Re volt Of The Catalans. (Cam bridge University Press. $12. 50). A highly documented study in the decline of Spain and the monarchy between 1598 and 1640. GILSON, ETTIENNE and LANGHAN, THOMAS. Modem Philosophy: Descartes To Kant. (Random House. $ 10.95. A further volume in the extensive documented history of phi losophy. FRANCISCAN MEDITATION (Franciscan Herald Press, $3). This is Vol. 4 of a series to be completed in seven volumes. This covers from Easter Sun day to Saturday after Pentecost. the serpent, however, yet marks the ground. We do not accord to our black brothers all the rights and privileges of freedom and of a common humanity. They are the victims of an un reasoning and unjustifiable os tracism. They may live, pro vided they live away from us, as a seprate and inferior race, with whom close contact is pollution. It looks as if we had grudgingly granted to them em ancipation, as if we fain still would be the masters, and hold them in servitude. What do I claim for the black man? That which I claim for the white man, neither more or less. I would blot out the color line. White men have their estrangements. They seprate on lines of wealth, of intelli gence, of culture, of ancestry. But let there be no barrier ag ainst mere color. Why is barrier of this kind? Where can we find a reason for it? Not in color. Color is the merest accident in man, the re sult of climatic changes. The colors of the human skin are of many different kinds, the shading of the so-called white race are not easily numbered. Why visit with the ire of our exclusive pride the black, even into its lightest shadings, scar cely discernible to the eye from the olive dark, a shading most admired in the white family of nations ? NOT IN race. Men are all of the same race, sprung from the one father and the one mot- GRANCIAN Y. MORALES, BALTASAR. The Oracle . (Dutton. $1.95). A translation of "a manual of the art of discretion". HOOPER, VINCENT F. Medival Mystery Plays . (Barron's Educational Series. Cloth $2.50; paper, $1.25). A collection of several plays ac companied by a general intro duction. ABELL, AARON L The Ur ban Impact on American Pro testantism, 1865-1900. (Archon Hamden, Conn. $7.) An hlstori- > cal anti sociological study ori ginally presented as a Harvard doctoral dissertation. DUBAY, THOMAS E. Sisters Retreats. (Newman . $4.50). A guide for priests and Sisters based on responses from former retreatants. ELIADE, MIRCEA. Patterns In Comparative Religion . (World. $2.25). Reprint of the 1958 Sheed and Ward edition. FRANCIS OF ASSISI, SAINT. Relatos De La Vida De San Francisco. (St. Anthony Guild. $2.25). A series of legends originally published under the title "Stories About St. Francis.” her. Ethmology and Holy Writ give the same testimony. The subdivisions of race are but ac cidental deviations from the parent stock, which revert to the first model as easily with the same length of years as they diverted from it. The notion that God by special interposi tion marked off the subdivisions of the human family, and set upon each one an indelible seal of permanence is the dream of ignorance or bigotry. The objection is made that Negroes are of inferior intelle ctual parts to the whites. I reply, that there are white men inferior on those lines to other white men, and still no wall of separation is built up by the lat ter against the former. Treat Negroes who are intellectually inferior to us, as we treat in feriority in the Negro as com pared with his white brother, we can afford to deny it, in presence of his achievements in the short years which have elapsed since restitution was made to him of his freedom, and any inferiority which exis ts, we may attribute to his un fortunate condition of long cen turies whether in America or his native Africa. WE ARE the victims of fool ish prejudice, and the sooner we free ourselves from it, the so oner shall we grow into true manhood. Is it to our honor that we presecute men because of the social conditions of their fathers? It is not so long ago since the proudest peoples of Europe were immersed in bar barism. It is not to our honor that we punish men for the sati sfaction of our own pride. Why, the fact that once the Negro was our slave should compel us to treat him with liberality extr aordinary, to compensate him if possible for wrong done, and to obliterate in mutual forebea- ranee and favor the sad memo ries of years gone by. The Negro problem is upon us, and there is no other sol ution to it, peaceful and perm anent, than to grant to our color-. ed citizens practical • and ef fective equality with white citi zens. It is not possible to keep up a wall of sepration between whites and blacks, and die the attempt to do this is a declaration of continuous war. Simple common sense dictates the solution. The Negroes are among us to the number of eight millions, they will here remain; we must accept the situation and abide by the consequences, whatever pride or taste may dictate. I WOULD break down all bar riers. Let the Negro be our eq ual before the law. There are states where the violation in the Negro of the most sacred per sonal right secured impunity before the law. In many states the law forbids marriage bet ween white and black - in this manner formenting immorality and putting injury no less upon the white whom it pretends to elevate as upon the black tor whose degradation it has no care. Let the Negro be our equal in the enjoyment of all politi cal rights of the citizen. The Constitution grants him these rights: let us be loyal to the Constitution. If the education of the Negro does not fit him to be a voter, and an office hol der, let us for his sake and our own, hurry to enlighten. I would open to the Negro all industrial and professional av enues - the test for his adva nce being his ability, but ne ver his color. I would in all public gatherings, and in all public resorts, in halls and hot els, treat the black man as I treat the white. I might shun the vulgar man, whatever his color, but the gentleman, what ever his color, I would not dare push away from me. Shall the homes of the whites be opened to the blacks, shall all meet in the parlor in per fect social equality? My answer is, that one’s home is one’s castle, the privileged place where each one follows out his own likes and his own tastes, and no one, white or black, rich or poor, can pass the door with-out an invitation from the owner, and no one can pass cen sure upon the owner's act. I claim the right I grant to others - and my door is opened to men of all colors, and no one should blame me. Social equality is a matter of taste; the granting of it largely de pends on our elevation above the prejudice, and the indetifi- cation of minds and hearts with the precepts and the counsels of the Gospel. ,C Religious Articles for Graduation and Wedding Gifts ^NotreDame Book Shop, Inc. ^ ^115 Peachtree St., N.E. Atlanta, Ga. # \ Parking Lot in Rear On Pryor St. Be Sure To Get Your Copy Today MEMOIRS OF SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS FOR THE CENTENARY Of The MARIST FATHERS In America BY REV. P.H. DAGNEAU, S.M. Now Available at the Following Stores Rich's - Notre Dame Book Store - Millers How long has it been since your mind was stretched by a new idea? a challenging question from Dr. Robert Maynard Hutcbins Oliver Wendell Holmes once wrote: ‘A man’s mind stretched by a new idea can never go back to its original dimensions.’ The truth of this statement cannot, of course, be denied. A child who suddenly realizes that the letters in the alphabet are not just isolated sounds and shapes, but meaningful symbols that form words, has grasped an idea that will lead to a continuing expansion of his mind. There comes a time, though, in the lives of too many of us when our minds become occupied only with knowledge we have already learned. 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