Negro residents of Tennessee were urged to “rush to contribute to the rebuilding of the bombed Jewish center in Nashville” by Roy Wilkins, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People executive secretary, in an address this week-end at a mass meeting here of the Memphis branch of the Association.
Terming the bombing of the Jewish center in Miami and Nashville “cowardly acts by sick but dangerous people,” Mr. Wilkins said: “Already ill with prejudice against both Negroes and Jews, those who planted the bombs were made bold by groups of so-called respectable people which have urged publicly that the courts be defied. They were made bold, also, by the timid ones who know what is right, but who are afraid to speak out.
“When the higher-ups make their law-defying statements and pass their resolutions of resistance, the sick little haters below take these for a go-signal to use violence,” the NAACP leader continued. “I hope that the Negro citizens of Tennessee will rush to contribute to the rebuilding of the Jewish center in Nashville and thus express in a tangible way our horror and outrage over this dastardly act,” he concluded.
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