Among • the agencies fighting racial prejudice in the Southern
States must be mentioned the Federation of Women's Clubs, Welfare Boards and Church organizal tions. A. group. of North .Carolina women, representing these- bodies, has issued a humane and vigorous state:, ment on the, inter-racial situation. One or two paragraphs are given below and deserve the widest publicity :— " We believe that unrest existing between two different races dwelling side by side under the same economic system and the same government can be lessened, and eventually dispelled, by a course of justice and fair play.
We believe that every human being should be treated not as a means to another's ends, but as a person whose aspirations toward self-realization must be recognized ; that we must cherish racial integrity and racial self-respect, as well as such mutual respect as will lead each to higher moral levels, to mutual trust and helpfulness.
No family and no race rises higher than its womanhood. Hence the intelligence of women must be cultivated and the purity and dignity of womanhood must be protected by the maintenance of a single standard of morals for both races.
We believe that violence has no place where people lend their support in every possible way to the agencies constituted by the people for the apprehension, trial and punishment of offenders against society. We resent the assertion that crumnality can be controlled by lawless, outbreaks and woman's honour protected by savage acts of revenge."
Previous page
