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01-15-2010, 04:36 PM
http://video.pbs.org/video/1383655650/
The Open Mind The New Negro
In 1957, Richard D. Heffner sat down with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Judge J. Waties Waring watch online free at PBS.com
THE OPEN MIND
NBC Television
Host: Richard D. Heffner
Guests: Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
Judge J. Waties Waring
Sunday, February 10, 1957
ANCHOR: THE OPEN MIND, free to examine, to question, to disagree. Our subject today, The New Negro. Your host on THE OPEN MIND is Richard D. Heffner, author and historian.
HEFFNER: I think it’s safe to say that a lot of the Negroes in America throughout our history have deeply bothered the conscience of each and every one of us who deeply believes in traditional American principles of democracy and liberty and justice and freedom. I think this may be a little less true today than ever before, and yet for the larger part of American history I think we ought to realize that the Negro more or less was in slavery. I think the Negro was more likely to be a slave for the greater part of our history, than not. And quite naturally the attitude of the Negro toward the white, of the white toward the Negro, and of the Negro toward himself, has been conditioned and tempered and molded in very large part by the fact of a long history of slavery.
Besides, I think it’s important to remember that slavery as an institution put a premium not upon self-assertiveness and the understanding of one’s own human dignity, but upon self-assertiveness and the understanding of one’s own human dignity, but upon acquiescence by the Negro slave.
And I think that one can fairly say that the acquiescence of the Negro slave was generally, well, to put it very bluntly, generally safer than the self-assertive Negro who is conscious of his own human dignity and of the democratic philosophy that is the American heritage.
As a matter of fact, I think we can admit that the whole myth that we have built up about the Old South, in which slavery existed, has been a myth in which we see the picture of the happy, acquiescent slave; the Negro who is a slave, the Negro who is acquiescent, is happy, the Negro who is happy is --by definition-- acquiescent. Negroes are happy because they accept their life.
And think of the movies and the books and the plays and the novels that we read and see about slavery in the Old South. We see the Negro who is acquiescent, is happy. The Negro slave who is self-assertive, looks for his own rights, is considered a troublemaker. Even when slavery was brought to an end by the Civil War it was said that acquiescence and acceptance by the Negro of his lot, these were the greater part of wisdom. It was said that the Negro could gain even more by submerging his own sense of dignity than by asserting it, that the Negro would so antagonize others by demanding his own rights, that it was better for him to bide his time at each step along the way, wait for something to be given to him, rather than demand it as of his own right.
Well men of good will, I think both Negro and white, cannot deny that to some extent there is validity to this argument. But the degree of that extent, to what extent this is true, is a question that we must face today.
In recent years there have grownup leaders among both Negroes and whites, who feel that a just and a wise self-assertiveness is necessary on the part of the Negro. There has been emerging in our times a new Negro, a Negro who is aware of his own dignity and of the American tradition of liberty and justice.
We want to talk today about that new Negro, about who he is and what he is. And our guests are quite expert in the subject.
Our first guest is the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., of Montgomery, Alabama. Reverend King has been very much involved in the demand by the new Negro for his rights in the Negro bus boycott in Montgomery and in many other instances.
Our second guest is a jurist, Judge J. Waties Waring, formerly federal judge in South Carolina, a gentleman whose decision in the area of segregation paved the way in a very real sense for what became in 1954 the Supreme Court's decision that segregation in our public schools is unconstitutional.
Well, gentlemen, suppose we begin this discussion by first asking you, Dr. King, in your estimation, what and who is this new Negro?
REV. KING: I think I could best answer that question by saying first that the new Negro is a person with a new sense of dignity and destiny. With a new self-respect. Along with that is lack of fear, which once characterized the Negro.
This willingness to stand up courageously for what he feels is just and what he feels he deserves on the basis of the laws of the land. I think also included would be this self-assertive attitude that you just mentioned.
http://www.theopenmind.tv/searcharchive_episode_transcript_print.asp?id=727
The Open Mind The New Negro
In 1957, Richard D. Heffner sat down with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Judge J. Waties Waring watch online free at PBS.com
THE OPEN MIND
NBC Television
Host: Richard D. Heffner
Guests: Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
Judge J. Waties Waring
Sunday, February 10, 1957
ANCHOR: THE OPEN MIND, free to examine, to question, to disagree. Our subject today, The New Negro. Your host on THE OPEN MIND is Richard D. Heffner, author and historian.
HEFFNER: I think it’s safe to say that a lot of the Negroes in America throughout our history have deeply bothered the conscience of each and every one of us who deeply believes in traditional American principles of democracy and liberty and justice and freedom. I think this may be a little less true today than ever before, and yet for the larger part of American history I think we ought to realize that the Negro more or less was in slavery. I think the Negro was more likely to be a slave for the greater part of our history, than not. And quite naturally the attitude of the Negro toward the white, of the white toward the Negro, and of the Negro toward himself, has been conditioned and tempered and molded in very large part by the fact of a long history of slavery.
Besides, I think it’s important to remember that slavery as an institution put a premium not upon self-assertiveness and the understanding of one’s own human dignity, but upon self-assertiveness and the understanding of one’s own human dignity, but upon acquiescence by the Negro slave.
And I think that one can fairly say that the acquiescence of the Negro slave was generally, well, to put it very bluntly, generally safer than the self-assertive Negro who is conscious of his own human dignity and of the democratic philosophy that is the American heritage.
As a matter of fact, I think we can admit that the whole myth that we have built up about the Old South, in which slavery existed, has been a myth in which we see the picture of the happy, acquiescent slave; the Negro who is a slave, the Negro who is acquiescent, is happy, the Negro who is happy is --by definition-- acquiescent. Negroes are happy because they accept their life.
And think of the movies and the books and the plays and the novels that we read and see about slavery in the Old South. We see the Negro who is acquiescent, is happy. The Negro slave who is self-assertive, looks for his own rights, is considered a troublemaker. Even when slavery was brought to an end by the Civil War it was said that acquiescence and acceptance by the Negro of his lot, these were the greater part of wisdom. It was said that the Negro could gain even more by submerging his own sense of dignity than by asserting it, that the Negro would so antagonize others by demanding his own rights, that it was better for him to bide his time at each step along the way, wait for something to be given to him, rather than demand it as of his own right.
Well men of good will, I think both Negro and white, cannot deny that to some extent there is validity to this argument. But the degree of that extent, to what extent this is true, is a question that we must face today.
In recent years there have grownup leaders among both Negroes and whites, who feel that a just and a wise self-assertiveness is necessary on the part of the Negro. There has been emerging in our times a new Negro, a Negro who is aware of his own dignity and of the American tradition of liberty and justice.
We want to talk today about that new Negro, about who he is and what he is. And our guests are quite expert in the subject.
Our first guest is the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., of Montgomery, Alabama. Reverend King has been very much involved in the demand by the new Negro for his rights in the Negro bus boycott in Montgomery and in many other instances.
Our second guest is a jurist, Judge J. Waties Waring, formerly federal judge in South Carolina, a gentleman whose decision in the area of segregation paved the way in a very real sense for what became in 1954 the Supreme Court's decision that segregation in our public schools is unconstitutional.
Well, gentlemen, suppose we begin this discussion by first asking you, Dr. King, in your estimation, what and who is this new Negro?
REV. KING: I think I could best answer that question by saying first that the new Negro is a person with a new sense of dignity and destiny. With a new self-respect. Along with that is lack of fear, which once characterized the Negro.
This willingness to stand up courageously for what he feels is just and what he feels he deserves on the basis of the laws of the land. I think also included would be this self-assertive attitude that you just mentioned.
http://www.theopenmind.tv/searcharchive_episode_transcript_print.asp?id=727