The Reverend Henry Mitchell is a black preacher who has led the North Star Mission for blacks in Chicago for many years. He writes a monthly newsletter called the STAR NEWS. His June issue, called “Home Without A Man,” is so powerful and heartbreaking that I’m going to quote it verbatim. It speaks for itself.
“TO BLACK AMERICANS: We face one of the worst catastrophes since God said, ‘Let us make man’; and that is, 60% of black families are headed by women. We did not bring such conditions upon ourselves.
“It was the so-called white do-gooders and liberals who caused such conditions to come upon us, by passing laws to keep the black man enslaved. They knew that, by creating such laws, they would be stripping the black man of his right to be a man. The so-called white do-gooders and limousine liberals passed laws — if the black family was in need of general assistance, they would not help the black family unless the man leaves home.
“Many times have I sat in courtrooms at 11th and State Street in Chicago, and listened to black men who had families in desperate need, pleading to the judge for help for him and his family. But the judge said, the law is that you have to leave the home before the wife and children can get help.
“Tell me, what man who cares for his family would not leave home so that his family could receive food to eat? I can recall 35 years ago when black people who were in desperate need were ashamed to ask for welfare.
“I can recall the days that, when a black man and his wife had an argument and the wife called the police officers, he would be taken to jail and brought before the judge. The white liberal judge would say, six months to a year in the county jail; and the liberal judge would order the woman to get on welfare.
“Those who have read the STAR NEWS for the last 15 years can recall that I state the facts, that generation after generation is being raised on relief and welfare.
“Those do-gooders and liberals from 9 to 5 are showing a phony concern for black Americans. After 5 p.m., they get in their limousines, paid for at the expense of the taxpayers, and go to their suburban homes. If a black man was seen in their neighborhood after 6:00 p.m., he would get killed.
“My friends, if I live to see September 16, I will be 64 years of age and I have never seen the suffering conditions of the black community as I do today.
“Many black women became victims of the so-called white do-gooders and white liberals. They have caused many black women to disrespect the black man.
“I was in Washington, D.C., seven years ago, and there I saw in the U.S. Capitol, black men who had Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, but the jobs they held were those of custodians and common laborers. There were black women, who had not finished high school, who had jobs paying twice the salary of that of the black men with a college education.
“It is the desire of the so-called white do-gooders and the 9-to-5 liberals to create the image that the black women should look up to them and look down on her black man. All of these laws were made by the so-called do-gooders and 9-to-5 liberals. They need to be dumped in the Potomac River.
“Such conditions that have been created by these do-gooders and 9-to-5 liberals is causing all Americans, black and white, to suffer. This problem cannot be solved by only blacks. It takes God and the concern of blacks and whites who believe in the pride and dignity of the American system.
“I raised 12 children, 9 daughters and 3 sons. Many times, the 9-to-5 liberals and do-gooders tried to encourage me to leave my children so they could get on welfare. That was one of the greatest insults of my life. I raised 12 children, and there wasn’t any time when the record showed the names of my wife, children or myself ever receiving a welfare check.
“The image that has been created in the hearts of millions of blacks is that AFDC and Welfare is the way. The HAVES must create jobs so that able-bodied men and women can find work and earn their living.
“Black Americans must instill dignity and pride in their children. Father must come back home, and assume his God-given responsibility, and that is to provide for the family that he made. The black woman must respect her husband and help instill responsibility in their children.”
