Equality

From "Equality," a commencement address Pearl Buck delivered at Howard University in June, 1942.

We hark back too much to people who are dead. Crispus Attucks, hero that he was, is dead. So is Booker Washington and so is Harriet Tubman. We need living heroes of our people. I remember how forcibly this was once brought to my attention in an essay contest for colored students of which I was one of the judges. In many scores of essays the students, both high school and college, mentioned the same half dozen heroes of their people. Almost the only one then living was Dr. Carver. Now I know Dr. Carver's work and have heard him talk about it and I agree to his greatness as a scientist. But one living great man is not enough for any people. We might add, I think, Paul Robeson, and we might put at his side Dorothy Maynard and Marian Anderson . . . .

Discrimination in our country must go, because until it does, we will not have won the war. We cannot fight for freedom unless we fight for freedom for all. We are not better than fascists if we fight for the freedom of one group and not another, for the benefit of one race and not another, for the aggrandizement of a part and not the betterment of the whole. And we must be better than fascists. . . . .

Do not yield then for one moment to anything in our national life which denies democracy. Press steadily for human equality, not only for yourselves, but for all those groups who are not given equality. It is as important for you to care that justice is given to a Jew as it is to fight for it for yourself. It is the principle that must be established for all of us, or none of us will have it.