Page:Southern Presbyterian Journal, Volume 13.djvu/435

 matters of doctrine we do not differ from you by a nail's breadth."

When the reformers attempted to sweep away the immorality, the idolatry, and the superstition of the Roman church, their first task was to discover precisely what the Bible taught. The creeds they wrote are the summaries of the main Biblical themes. And the culmination of this effort, benefiting by over a century of cooperative study, is the greatest of all the creeds, the Westminster Confession.

The creed then is a statement of what the church must teach. It is the flag the church flies. It states the purpose for which the church exists. Lip service to the creed is dishonest. Diminishing its message is unfaithfulness. Scripture says more than the creed says, and this more must be preached too; but the creed summarizes the most important Biblical teachings, and these must receive the emphasis.

The Bible is the word of God who cannot lie. When his truth is vigorously and fully proclaimed, we may expect his blessing upon it.

The Negro Teacher

(Raleigh News and Observer, Raleigh, N. C.)

One individual who has a special and critical position in the whole problem of ending segregation in the schools is the Southern Negro schoolteacher. His problem has a special interest to North Carolina, which employs more Negro schoolteachers than any state in the Union. In a recent issue, The U. S. News and World Report presented significant questions and facts about this matter. It said:

With an end to school segregation decreed for the South, Negro teachers there are coming up against a real question. It is this: Can they look to the Northern states for teaching jobs if these are wiped out by an integration of Negro and white schools in the South?

The answer, on the basis of the present use of Negro teachers in the non-segregated schools of Northern states, appears to be: No.

Negro leaders themselves are convinced that thousands of Negro teachers will go out of Southern schools with the end of segregation. They have seen this happen in many Northern communities, with the integration of schools. They expect to see it happen again in the South.

As it stands now, the South is the land of opportunity for the Negro teacher. Seven Negro teachers are employed in the segregated schools of the 17 Southern and border states and the District of Columbia for each one employed in the 31 non-segregated states outside the South.

A few illustrations tend to point up the difference in the use of Negro teachers in the segregated and the non-segregated states.

Mississippi alone has as many Negro teachers in its schools as do the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Kansas put together. North Carolina employs as many Negro teachers as do the seven states of New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, California and Indiana, all put together.

These figures cover all teacher employment in the states below college level, in both public and private schools.

Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and New York have about one million Negro residents each—some of them a few more, some a few less. The four Southern States have segregated school systems. New York's system, legally, is nonsegregated.

Mississippi has more than three Negro teachers for each one in New York. Alabama and Georgia employ almost five for each one in New York, North Carolina has more than five for each one in New York.

Further consideration of the figures show that North Carolina employs one Negro teacher for every 123 Negroes in its population. New York employs one for every 542 Negroes in its population. Obviously, employment in the schools is a significant part of the base of the economic life of the Negro in the South.

This is a matter which deserves the careful thought of both races in shaping any plans for our schools in the future. The loss of jobs in this one field where the Southern Negro has an equal economic change today would be a serious matter not merely for the Negro teachers, but the South itself. OCTOBER 6, 1954