Appendix V The Universal Image of the American Negro searchable text

                                                                                      APPENDIX V

THE UNIVERSAL IMAGE OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO

          World War II ended the era of nationalism, colonialism, and economic exploitation.  International economic relationships are on a sovereign and compact basis of mutual agreement.  Consequently, the American image in this world has become essential to our economic survival.  Moreover, in a world composed predominantly of darker races, the image of the American Negro has become a dominant factor in the equation to the extent that he is the key to American survival; the Negro is the barometer of equality and freedom in America; and his cause must triumph if America is to impress the world, both free and communist, with the success of capitalistic democracy.  To the extent that America is the keystone of the free world, the American Negro has emerged in the second half of the twentieth century as the capstone of the free world.

          To the narrow minded, the Negro is demonstrating to protest bigotry, bias, and prejudice; to the short sighted, he is demonstrating his protest against an economic system that permits poverty and deprivation within its citizenry.  But these are merely protests.  Actually and ultimately, the American Negro is demonstrating to the whole world that all American citizens have legal redress alike for wrongs suffered.  The protest, so often confused with demonstration, is merely a cog in the vast mechanism of demonstration.    (Handwritten note in italics)