By Dr. J. Rice Williams of Houston, Mississippi. An article that appeared in the November 9, 1950, issue of the Pontotoc Progress.
Segregation of animals, including man, is the law of God and the teaching of Christ. “Thou shalt not let thy cattle render (mate) with a diverse (different) kind. Lev. 19:19. Everything after its kind is the fiat of God and the practice of the jungle. Genesis I:21,25. Genesis VI:19,20. Genesis VII:14.
There is no amalgamation, or interbreeding, of man and beast, the eagle and the buzzard, the lion and the leopard, the eel and the snake, or of different species of eagles or different species of eels, with each other, or the birds of different kinds with each other. The American and the English eels breed in less than two miles of the same place. Throughout the thousands of years there has been no intermingling or amalgamation of the two.
When God directed the building of the Temple of King Solomon, at the time when He communicated direct with man, He directed that there should be separate courts, or apartments, for the Jew and the Gentile.
Intermarriage was forbidden between certain tribes of the children of Israel. “And Moses commanded the children of Israel according to the word of the Lord, saying, The tribe of the sons of Joseph hath said well. This is the thing which the Lord doth command concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, Let them marry to whom they think best; only to the family of the tribe of their father shall they marry.” Numbers 36:5,6.When Joseph made that noon-day meal for his brothers he set them by themselves, and the Egyptians by themselves, “Because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews; for that is an abomination unto the Egyptians.” Genesis 43:32. Then when Joseph’s family was located in Egypt, he colonized them, he placed them in the land of Goshen; “For every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians.” Genesis 46:34.
Christ obeyed the law. He practiced it Himself and taught it to His disciples. When He sent His disciples out on their first preaching mission, He commanded them to “Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Matthew 16:5,6. Christ did all of His earthly work among the Jews [meaning Hebrews]. He preached to the Jews and to no other nationality or race.
This proves that the principle of segregation was the law of God and the teaching of Christ. This being true, segregation of the white man and the Negro has scriptural authority and may be carried out with a clear conscience.
God made the white man white and He made the Negro black. This was not an accident, it did not “just happen.” He did this according to His purpose just as surely as He raised Pharoah up “for a specific purpose.” Inscrutable though this may be, and is, it is true nevertheless. This was not an experiment of God nor a temporary expedient. It was intended by Him to last till “time shall be no more.”
It would charge God with folly to say that He created the white man white, and the Negro black, and then “purposed” that they should amalgamate, and thus destroy the work of His own hand by amalgamating the two races, and thus destroy the identity of both races. God says through Jeremiah 13:23, that the Ethiopian, the Negro, can not change his skin, and He implies thereby that he should not want to change his color, or in any way destroy the handiwork of God.
I am unable to understand how these “uplifting do-gooders” can think that they can improve on the work of the Almighty, the builder of Heaven and earth, by destroying all racial distinction. God did not say that He had made “all skin of one color,” nor does the scripture anywhere intimate that such would be desirable.
Intermingling of the two races on terms of social and friendly equality inevitably leads to intermarriage. Intermarriage leads to amalgamation. Amalgamation leads to racial suicide for both races.
Some people seem to believe that you can have religious intermingling and stop at that. Religious intermingling in the churches would lead to intermingling at social gatherings, which would inevitably lead to intermarriage.
To say that the Negro shall not be permitted to worship in the white man’s church, but that he shall be permitted to worship God in his own church according to the dictates of his own conscience, does not deprive him of access to heaven or to church worship. As a matter of fact, he can worship God better in his own church with his own people in the environment that he himself provides. It is an unwarranted assumption on the part of the white man to take the position that salvation must come to the Negro through the white man’s tutelage.
Some people say that the Negro is the equal of the white, at least, religiously, and entitled to full equality in all things, and then in the next breath, so to speak, say that he is the white man’s responsibility. That is blowing both hot and cold at the same time. That is a contradictory statement. He simply can not be our equal and at the same time be our responsibility.
The only way to improve the lot of the Negro is to imbue him with racial pride. Teach him to be proud that he is a Negro. Help him to go to the height of his ambition and ability as a Negro. And above all, be fair and just with him in all your dealings with him. BUT “everything after its kind”—or chaos.
Segregation is scriptural and right in principle and in practice.