AS 19,300,000 U.S. Negroes seek equal employment rights, they are often
met by an endlessly infuriating question: Are they really equal to
whites in their abilities, or are they disqualified by some
anthropological defect? The simplest, most frequent reply is to cite
Negroes who have become famous. No one can argue about the
extraordinary physical feats of baseball's Willie Mays, pro football's
Jimmy Brown, Decathlon Champion Rafer Johnson and many other athletes.
Similarly, the Negro has long held his share of the spotlight in the
performing arts, as witness the success of such as Jazzman Miles
Davis, Singers Lena Home, Harry Belafonte and Leontyne Price. But such an answer is too narrow.
These celebrities work before audiences, which ask only to be
entertained—and which are too often unwilling to accept the Negro as
an equal beyond recognition of physical or artistic talent. A better answer to the crucial question lies in the seldom publicized
accomplishments of Negroes in more private vocations. Here the barriers
are tougher, and the Negro is less apt to be prepared, since to him
many such fields have long seemed closed. Yet in science and education,
the professions and in business, the armed forces and Government, even
in elective politics, individual Negroes have broken the barriers,
earned positions of respect and trust, and become part of the U.S.
leadership community . To be sure, about 60% of nonwhite families in the U.S. still earn less
than $4,000 a year, against only 26% of white families. Negroes still
comprise but 3% of the nation's 180,000 college teachers, 2% of its
230,000 physicians, 1% each of its 215,000 lawyers, 2,560,000 salaried
managers, 130,000 editors and reporters. But there are now some 35
Negro millionaires in the U.S. The percentage of Negro families earning
$10,000 a year or more has gone from one-half of 1% a decade ago to 5%
. More than 16% of nonwhites hold white-collar jobs, against
less than 12% a decade ago. It is by the quality of their individual achievements and the example
they set for others that successful Negroes contribute most. They
effectively puncture those fallacious notions that the Negro somehow
has not got what it takes “to make it.” In fact, the successful Negro
more often than not must have more of what it takes than the white who
achieves an equal degree of success. Air Force Major General Benjamin
O. Davis Jr., spent most of his four years at West Point as the only
Negro there, often felt that he was spoken to only when someone was
barking a command. Chicago Dermatologist Theodore Lawless fought off
subtle rebuffs while an instructor at Northwestern University. When
his hand was to be photographed giving an injection to demonstrate a
new technique, he was asked to wear a surgical glove so his dark hand
would not “be seen. “I said, 'Hell no,' ” he recalls, “and I never
did.”
