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PAGE FOUR
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Bible Speaks
Rev. J. A. Middleton
The Bible speaks to our times through the Book of
Exodus. This is the second book in our Bible and it is largely
concerned with the exit of the Hebrews from Egypt into the
Land of Promise. In the first chapter of Exodus we come face
to face with the age-old problems
of human relations. The Egyptians
were fearful of the Hebrew’s be
cause the latter w’ere so rapidly
increasing.
The question of the majority and
the minority comes to life at this
point. The Egyptians felt that un
less something was done the He
brews would soon outnumber them.
They also feared that the Hebrews
could not be trusted to remain
loyal in time of war.
Facing this situation the Egyp
tians made a decision to deal “wise
ly” with the Hebrew minority. In
Exodus 1:10-13 we read: “Come on
let us deal ‘wisely’ with them; lest
they multiply, and it come to pass
when there falleth out any war
they join our enemies and fight
against us. . . .
“Therefore they did set over
them taskmasters to afflict them
with burdens. . . . But the more
they afflicted them, the more they
multiplied and grew. . . . And they
(Egyptians) were grieved because
of the children of Israel.”
In the passage quoted above we
have a fairly typical attitude of
one group of people living in fear
of another group. This is often
known as the fear of the major
ity toward the minority.
It was fairly common for in
vaders to take over in ancient
times. Perhaps the rule of the
Hyksos was fresh in the minds of
the Egyptians. The Hyksos were a
medley of foreigners who ruled
Egypt for many years. This or
some other similar experience may
have troubled the mind of the
Egyptians. They feared the He- I
brews would take over.
Similar things have taken place
in modern times. Russia and Ger
many divided Poland. Russia has
He Will Be Remembered'
The Sunday before his death,
Joseph E. Daniels, Jr., had read
the 9th Psalm at the breakfast
table. His Confirmation Bible is
still marked at that place. The 13th
verse reads:
“Have mercy upon me, 0 Lord;
consider my trouble which I suf
fer of them that hate me, Thou
that listest me up from the gates
of death.”
Shaking his head slowly, and
looking into space, Joe Sr. said,
“I wonder why he picked that to
read . . . .”
Joe Jr. was killed when a pistol
held by a playmate went off acci
dentally. Joe Sr. is sports editor of
the Inquirer.
The young Daniels was post
humously awarded the Hess
Award as the outstanding young
ster of the YMCA. It was pre
sented by Warren Cochran, execu
tive secretary of Butler Street Y,
at the funeral at First Congre
gational Church.
The award was one of many
won by Joe Jr., including YMCA
certificates in camp-craft and
skills in 1957 and as outstanding
camper in 1958. At Howard High,
Joe played cornet in the band, was
a member of the school safety
patrol (he went to Washington,
D. C., twice with the group), and
won a letter in eighth grade bas
ketball. At church he sang in the
choir.
Last year in school he wrote an
autobiography on “My Plan for
the Future” which began, “I don’t
know what will happen in the
future, but . . . .” He said he
wanted to be a scientist and to
since taken other countries. Hu
man history is full of such inci
dents.
Since human nature is what it
is, the Egyptian fear may have
been well founded. The Hebrews
were looking forward to the day
when they would have a country.
They referred to that country as
the Promised Land. The Egyptians
wanted to make sure that this
Promised Land was not Egypt.
The Egyptians responded to the
problem they faced on two levels:
intellectual and emotional. Their
intellectual response was a rea
soned one. They saw clearly per
haps that, unless something was
done, the Hebrews would soon be
,in a position to take over the
'country.
Their emotional response was
typical but neither reasonable nor
just. The Egyptians tried to solve
the problem by inflicting the gross
est kind of injustice. They made
the lives of the Hebrews bitter and
hard by forcing them to make
bricks without straw.
The Egyptians apparently felt
that the Hebrews would soon die
out under the bitter pressure and
hard taskmasters. But they grad
ually saw that the situation grew
worse instead of better. They saw
that they had more to fear instead
of less.
This brings us to one of the
cardinal truths of the ages: that
problems are never solved untjU
they are solved rightly or justi^J
Cruelty is just not the answer to
the problem of human relations.
It is marvelous to contemplate
the different course history might
have taken if Egypt had guaran
teed full justice to every Hebrew.
Suppose Egypt had said to the
JOE DANIELS, JR.
have a pretty wife, “but not too
pretty.” He ended by saying he
would have to work hard to reach
his goals.
Tears streamed down the face
of a white woman across the street
from the funeral. She had asked
a member of the procession if it
were not the funeral of a child—
for she observed the number of
students, Joe’s school-mates. An
explanation brought the tears.
Florals, messages and wires
bore the names of many, many
sympathizers. Florals came from
Mayor-elect Ivan Allen, Jr., and
Sam Massell, Jr., president-elect
of the Atlanta Board of Aidermen.
In the words of his father:
“Joe was a good boy, and will
always be remembered.”
THE ATLANTA INQUIRER
NAACP Will Defend
CORE Freedom Riders
CORE National Director James
Farmer lauded Jack Greenberg, di
rector of the NAACP Legal De
fense and Educational Fund, for
assuming much of the future legal
burden of defending the Freedom
Riders.
“This unity of action should help
make clear to Mississippi segrega
tionists that a new day has come,”
said Farmer. “We in CORE can
now concentrate on our direct ac
tion program and leave much of
the legal defense to the NAACP
which has unmatched skill in this
field.”
Farmer pointed out that CORE
will continue to maintain a re
sponsibility and an interest in the
Jackson cases. At the request of
the Episcopal ministers, CORE will
continue to defend these 15 cases
directly.
■ wL •
’ ' BP
“TO CLEANSE THE CURCH”—Rev. John B. Morris of the
Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity shows poster his group
uses. It originated in South Africa, where the word “Apartheid” ap
peared along the fence.
Heln^wsy “We see that you are
growing rapidly; let us form a
partnership of equals and let us
work to our mutual good.” Had
Egypt responded in this spirit she
would have had nothing to fear
from the Hebrews.
But everything leads us to sus
pect that the Egyptians’ fear of
the Hebrews w'as based on the fact
that the Egyptians had somehow
wronged the Hebrews. People al
ways fear those they mistreat.
The Bible speaks directly to our
times. (1) It tells us that problems
are not solved until they are solved
rightly, and (2) it tells us very
clearly in this and othei’ stories
that we need not fear people if we
do not mistreat them.
W.W.LawTo
Speak Here
A local fraternity will bring
militant Savannah, Ga., NAACP
leader W. W. Law r to Atlanta speak
on December 6.
Eta Omega chapter of Omega Psi
Phi fraternity is sponsoring Law’s
appearance at a formal banquet at
the Waluhaje Apartments, cele
brating the fraternity’s National
Achievement Week.
Law’s dismissal from the postal
service and his subsequent re-hir
ing has caused a stream of contro
versy throughout the nation. He
successfully led a 15-month boy
cott in Savannah which resulted in
integrating lunch counters at local
stores.
He is the president of the Sa
vannah Branch NAACP, and presi
dent of the Georgia State Confer
ence of NAACP Branches. He has
held the latter position since 1955,
and was recently re-elected to the
post during an NAACP meeting in
Columbus, Georgia.
The theme of the fraternity’s
week-long program will be “New
Dimensions in Democracy.”
Southern Clergyman
Chooses Miss. Jail
A Georgia-born white minister has come through his
first jailing convinced that crusades against “segregation
and separation,” like the one he heads in Atlanta, are having
an important impact.
And he harbors the hope that
“ultimately the South is going to
work through its problems more
adequately than the North.”
Rev. John B. Morris, executive
director of the Episcopal Society
for Cultural and Racial Unity, and
14 other Episcopal priests, three
of them Negro, spent a week in
the Jackson, Miss., city jail in Sep
tember on the familiar “breach of
peace” charge.
Their “Prayer Pilgrimage” from
New Orleans to the Episcopal Gen
eral Convention in Detroit was in
terrupted when they tried to use
NEGRO GOP's
(Continued from Page 1)
scheduled meeting of the Republi
can State Central Committee of
Georgia, which will be held on the
morning of November 17. That eve
ning the Republicans will attend a
fund raising dinner at the Biltmore
Hotel at 7:30.
Local Negro Republicans include
banker C. R. Yates, real estate
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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER IL 1961
the Trailways station restaurant.
Thirteen other members of the
group continued the pilgrimage,
visiting church schools and talking
with clergymen and laymen along
the way.
Mr. Morris found Jackson au
thorities “courteous and embar
rassed, with signs of underlying
guilt.” One told him, “We know
we’re fighting a losing battle,” he
said.
One white Mississippi minister
came to visit them on the day of
their trial, in the face of harrass
ment from White Citizens Council
members in his congregation.
When the jailer summoned the
group and they asked that he give
them his blessing before leaving,
he decided to go with them, and
sat with them in the courtroom
throughout the trial.
The Episcopal Society, founded
early last year, has about 2,200
members, one-third clergymen and
about one-third living below Mason
and Dixon’s Line.
Mr. Morris came to Atlanta in
1959, to prepare for forming the
society, after four years as minis
ter of a church in Dillon, S.C.
He was born in Brunswick, Ga.,
in what he calls “an atmosphere of
benevolent paternalism, segrega
tionist but not racist, which raised
up some present-day liberals.” Like
other seaboard communities, he
feels, Brunswick offered “a great
er degree of cosmopolitan culture,
more genteel than the Southern
hinterland.”
“Some residual goodwill and
friendliness from the Southern
agrarian society,” he says, may
mean that eventually the South
will have “more honest relation
ships than in Northern cities,
where people are truly separated.”
Mr. Morris sees the South “re
fining and raising up ,n)ore compe
tent leadership to effect good com
munity relations. It is easier in the
North to overlook it all.”
broker Q. V. W’illiamson, newspa
per editor C. A. Scott, insurance
executive Gilbert DeLorme, Dr.
C. Clayton Powell, Rev. B. J. Jack
son, and William Shaw, who is sec
retary of the State Central Com
mittee of Georgia.
