http://www.hawaii.edu/uhwo/clear/HonoluluRecord1/articles/v4n9/Frankly%20Speaking.html
Honolulu Record, September 27, 1951, vol. 4 no.9, p. 8
Frank-ly Speaking
By Frank Marshal Davis
Let’s End Capital Punishment
I sincerely hope that the good people of Hawaii, as a result of the Palakiko-Majors case, will demand that the next session of the legislature destroy that relic of barbarism known as capital punishment.
I was against legal killing long before I learned, through my experiences as a working newspaperman, that too often capital punishment is used as a device to maintain white security. But more on this point later.
It seems to me that the doctrine of an eye for an eye should have passed away with the Middle Ages. I cannot agree that one murder is righted by another murder, even though the second has official sanction.
No Logical Excuse for Capital Punishment
Nobody is a born criminal, according to the best scientific thought. This means that they get that way as they develop. And they develop within the framework of the society which may eventually put them to death. In other words, a civilization which permits the creation of criminals may later kill them for acting the way our civilization permits them to act.
Years ago, before we realized the influence of environment on the individual, capital punishment seemed a logical solution. But in a day and age when we have an understanding of the forces which shape an individual’s attitude toward society in general and determine his relationships with other persons, there is no logical excuse for the society-sanctioned murder called capital punishment.
Thus far, psychologists have not been able to determine exactly why, of two individuals reared in decidedly friendly environments, one will become a criminal and the other will develop into what is known as an average citizen. But we do know that delinquency and criminal careers are more prevalent among those boys and girls brought up amidst poverty, crowded slums, broken families, poor health conditions, unsupervised recreation, etc.
Death Is No Solution
Since we also know that crime is expensive, both in terms of money and human ability, it seems to me only elementary to correct the conditions that breed crime by insuring every child adequate housing, food and clothing; sympathetic schooling, intelligently directed recreation and guidance, sufficient medical facilities, mental hygiene and counseling (both for himself and parents), and seeing that each will have a chance not only to develop himself to the full extent of his potentialities but that, when developed, he will have the opportunity to use his ability for the benefit of society as a whole.
Then if, despite receiving friendship instead of hostility from society, he develops into an antisocial creature, then that individual should be institutionalized and given tasks under strict supervision which could aid society. Putting him to death is no solution.
Furthermore, with our present public approaches to delinquency and crime lagging miles behind scientific thought, we quite often invoke capital punishment in a kind of unpatterned, irresponsible fashion. We let one set of people go free after an hour in jail, as in the Massie case, and want to kill others, as with Palakiko and Majors.
Yet when you delve deeper, maybe it is not unpatterned and irresponsible. Many powerful people boast that “America is a white man’s country,” and insist they are going to keep it that way. To anybody who takes the trouble to dig up the facts, capital punishment is often used as a device to maintain white supremacy.
Law for Whites and Non-Whites
The non-white population of the United States is roughly, one-tenth of the. whole. I have before me a recent report issued by the Bureau of Prisons of the U. S. Department of Justice which shows that of the total of 2,831 persons legally executed during the 19-year period of 1930-48, only 1,253 or less than half were white. The remaining 1,578 were non-white.
All except a very small per cent of American non-whites are Negroes. There were 1,528 Negroes executed. The remaining 50 were members of other non-white groups.
Those who have studied the matter know it is seldom that a white person is executed for a crime against a non-white. In the deep South they may not even be arrested. Remember that quadruple lynching in Georgia five years ago which the FBI still hasn’t solved? Or the rape, of a Negro mother by a number of white soldiers mentioned in last week’s RECORD? Weapon Aimed Primarily At
Non-Whites
On the other hand, Negroes may be put to death on trumped up charges, or when the evidence is either suppressed or ignored. For instance, seven Negroes were killed by the State of Virginia a few months ago at Martinsville, and in Mississippi, Willie McGee was executed despite evidence that none was actually guilty of the ‘ charge of rape. But that is the prevailing Dixie pattern and it now and then spills over into other parts of America.
I would be against capital punishment on purely humanitarian grounds. But when this device is used to maintain white supremacy and is a weapon aimed primarily against non-whites, it should be gotten rid of as an enemy of the principles of democracy.
http://www.hawaii.edu/uhwo/clear/HonoluluRecord1/articles/v4n7/Frankly%20Speaking.html
Honolulu Record, September 15, 1951, vol. 4 no.7, p. 8
Frank-ly Speaking
By Frank Marshall Davis
The Johnson Plan For Peace
“Communism cannot be stopped by military means . . . We can have an honorable peace with Russia, if we are willing to take the initiative. But it will mean revising many of our present policies and attitudes.”
These are the opinions of Dr. Mordecai Johnson, president of Howard University, Washington, D.C. largest Negro university in America. Long noted as a keen student of domestic and international affairs, the renowned educator in a recent interview spelled out a plan for establishing a lasting peace between the U. S. and the Soviet Union—if we have the will for peace.
President Johnson said he believes peace with Russia and Communism is possible “in such a way as to preserve the institutions and practices of freedom which are the precious heritage and achievement of the western world, and in such a way as to enhance those institutions and practices of freedom.”
Price for Peace Consistent With Our Honor
As for war:
“There are some forces in the world which cannot be stopped by military means. Communism is one of them. Communism is a powerful revolutionary movement in the realm of ideas and human organization.
“If peace is to be achieved with Russia and with the Communists it must be achieved in the field of ideas and in the field of human organization.”
The U. S. must take the initiative in establishing such a peace and we are free to take this initiative now, said Dr. Johnson. But it will require a great price of us. Yet this price is within our power and consistent with our honor.
“If we do pay the price of peace, it will result in the functioning of our nation on a higher level than at any other time in its history, and could possibly win for us not only peace, but the esteem and affection of the entire human race,” he pointed out.
Abolish Colonialism, Support Global Economic Reconstruction
There are two points to Dr. Johnson’s program. One is the abolition of colonialism and the other is world-wide economic reconstruction which we should support to the tune of something like $25 billion annually.
“It requires the United States, first of all, to accept and to discharge the responsibility of bringing the Western powers, of whom she is the leader, to a deliberately planned and programmed liquidation of the remnants of colonial power in Asia, Africa and America, and to give up once and for all the imperialistic habits of political domination, economic exploitation and social humiliation of Asiatic and African peoples,” the educator said.
“These habits are themselves the very essence of violence. They invite distrust and violence in return. It is not conceivable that the Western powers can win the confidence and goodwill of the peoples of Asia, and Africa as long as these habits persist in ever so reduced an area.
Overcome Animal-Like Struggle for Existence
. “It requires the United States, secondly, to accept the moral responsibility toward the whole human life which goes with our enormous scientific, technical, organizational and productive genius and to go into the United Nations with a program of economic reconstruction on a worldwide basis, designed to overcome the animal-like struggle for existence which up to this time has prevailed over the earth, and to bring about adequate subsistence in food, clothing, housing and health for every human family of every race, color, nationality and culture on the earth, within the generation now before us.
“As the proponent and leader of this program, it requires the United States to support it with , magnificent and responsible adequacy, in an amount which may be equal to one-tenth of our annual productive power—about $25 billion per year.
“It requires that we set this program before the world, not as an accessory to our military program, but as the main objective in relation to which our military program is only a protective fence-building operation.
Plan On Highest Level Of Statesmanship
“Now this is a plan on the highest level of statesmanship, designed to recognize and encourage to the. maximum the Russian and Com munist belief that a world-wide conquest of the struggle for existence is possible and to offer them a well-planned and magnificently supported way of working toward it by consultation and democratic cooperation on a world encompassing basis, as an alternative to the procedure of aggressive war and the violent and subversive establishment of totalitarian states which we so greatly fear.”
There you have the Johnson plan for peace. What do you think of it? Your comments are invited.