UNGODLY COMPETITION

Furthermore, it will profit the Negro nothing to enter into ungodly competition for material possessions when he has gifts of greater value. The most valuable contribution which he can make to American civilization must be made out of his spiritual endowment. He must do it in self defense, and in defense of America. She needs it. Without it she will never dispense justice, and will be consumed by her own folly and wrath. The Negro has helped save America physically several times. He must make a larger contribution to her spiritual salvation . Who knows but that the divine purpose for bringing him into this country was that, in due time, he might just make such a contribution . “The tragedy in this problem solving enterprise is that the Negro is not being taught the tremendous achieving powers of his virtues. He is not being taught to glorify what he is. When he learns that he has the leaven that is needed in this American lump, he will put it in. In other words, he will proceed to use his spiritual powers and give new meaning and give proper evaluation to the Beatitudes, and at the same time , give new impetus to the development of a real Christian civilization. “When the Negro learns what manner of man he is spiritually, he will wake up all over. He will stop playing white, even on the stage. He will rise in the majesty of his own soul. He will glorify the beauty of his own brown skin. He will stop thinking white and go to thinking straight and living right. He will realize that wrong reaching, wrong bleaching, and wrong mixing have ‘most nigh ruin’t him’ and he will redeem his body and rescue his soul from the bondage of death . “The final values of races are computed almost entirely in terms of high ideals and noble purposes lived up to. Jesus told his ambitious, materialistic disciples that the kingdom—the glory which they craved—is not here and is not there—it is within you. In other words, it is not what you have but what you are inside of yourself, that counts. “I believe it is the Negro’s sacred duty to spiritualize American life and popularize his own color instead of worshiping the color (or lack of color) of another race. It can be done in Negro life, in pictures, in plays, in books, in spirit, if the Negro would spend as much time glorifying his own character as he now spends imitating the color and the foibles of the white race. The Negro can become the most beloved and most lovely race in the world. His happy spirit and varied hue make him the very spice of life among other races . No race is richer in soul quality and color than the Negro. Some day he will realize it and glorify them. He will popularize black.... “Preachers, teachers , leaders, welfare workers ought to address themselves to the supreme task of teaching the entire race to glorify what it has—its face (its color); its place (its homes and communities); its grace (spiritual endowment). If the Negro does it, there is no earthly force that can stay him.” P.53-55, “With All Thy Getting,” (1927), NANNIE HELEN BURROUGHS (2019) edited and annotated by Kelisha B. Graves