THE GAZETTE
August 8, 1950
Editorial Page
A CLEAR, HONEST CHOICE
By Frank Frings
It is confounding that in their ill-conceived crusade against all things bearing even a speck of Red, certain elements within the City—most notably mayoral aspirant Vic Truffant—have cast their rapacious gaze at the Uhuru Community.
To those unaware of the Uhuru Community, this clapboard hamlet is an experiment in Negro self-government and relative isolation. This endeavor is presided over in a rather remote and idiosyncratic fashion by a visionary named Father Womé. I had the occasion to hobnob with Father Womé and receive explication of the purpose of this movement. The crux of the Uhuru Community’s existence is the extension to Negroes therein of a degree of freedom not achievable in Caucasian-dominated municipalities. Freedom.
Truffant and his ilk will, whether with deepest sincerity or the most craven deviousness, point to a small cadre, numbering less than ten, of alleged communists associated with the Uhuru Community and, with this anemic justification, demand the dismantling of the Community and the dispersal of its residents.
This is a piece of foolhardiness that only people with a cruelly misguided appraisal of their own cogitative abilities and moral sense would advocate. Who can predict with any certainty at all the consequences of leaving the Uhuru Community to its own devices? The answer to this is clear as is the essential choice to be made in this instance: whether to allow the Negroes in this Community to be free or to deny them freedom. This is the choice. There is no other choice to be made.
This choice should not be considered within external frameworks constructed by opponents of the Uhuru Community that do not bear on the essential choice. This choice should not be delegated to others who stake capricious claim to knowledge that is both unfounded and unknowable. Delegation of the choice is not a choice.
So how to make this choice between freedom and not-freedom? This, as with all choices made by an honest man, must be made on universal principles. If we are to deny these Negroes freedom, it is because we choose to deny all men freedom. If we choose to grant them leave to pursue their freedom, it is because we would afford freedom to all men.
Consider these principles and I trust the correct, that is, honest, choice is clear.