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THE BLACKMAN
Cowards & Weaklings Can Never Build
The time of testing is at hand. Pressure is being applied to Black peoples everywhere. Our right to sit on the same economic, political and social seat with other peoples of the world is challenged. Whether we live in the future depends upon how high a passing mark we make in the test of today. We are being called upon to pass the test in faith, wisdom, vision and courage. If we fail in these, we fail our God; we fail destiny. Every Great Nation that has been built, every people that have been saved, every Great Cause that has been won, had behind it men and women who possessed faith, wisdom, vision and courage. Men and women who had the vision to see through the clouds of doubt and darkness and pierce the walls of unborn time. Men and women who had faith in their God and their Destiny; who had wisdom with which to choose the right; who had the courage to risk their lives and their fortunes. We live in a world where only people of wisdom, strength and courage live secure and enjoy the best. Only people with strength and courage can build and achieve. Cowards and weaklings never build, never achieve greatness, never earn the respect of their fellow men, because the “Cowards” never start and weaklings die along the way!!! No! Cowards never start and weaklings soon drop by the way. Those who are afraid to line up with the Black Man’s FIGHT FOR A PLACE IN THE WORLD SHOULD BURN THESE WORDS IN THEIR HEARTS. Those who once started and dropped out should ponder long these words “Weaklings DIE along the way.” We can never become a great people unless we pass the same test others have passed in their climb to a place in the sun. The story of every great nation, of every great cause, of every great achievement is the story of a people who had visions, faith and courage and were willing to risk and sacrifice everything to achieve their goals: A place, position and power. They were not lucky as fools and dullards think. Their jobs were not easy. With hearts of steel they traveled the road of danger, hardship, tragedy and heartbreak. They built their structures on courage and endurance and because they had the wisdom to know that the price of victory is suffering, sacrifice, blood and the courage to pay the costs, their children today enjoy the best fruits of God’s green earth. The world’s foremost people stand where they are today because they were willing to yield their all upon the altar, bare their bosoms to the missiles of their battlefields and bring back upon the point of their blood, freedom, liberty and independence. Had they been cowards, they never would have started. Had they been weaklings they would have died along the way. We the people of African descent must be prepared to meet and pass successfully the test of freedom. We must resolve to pay all the costs of independence. We must work to earn the respect of the world’s people if the generations of Blacks yet unborn are to enjoy more than the hush of life. Our Great and Sainted Leader, Marcus Garvey, gave up his life getting the Black people of the world started on the path of independence and glory. The cowards never started. Many of those who did start were weaklings and they died along the way. Too many of those who started with Garvey were weak in vision. They did not see the road toward which Garvey was pointing. They did not see that it was a road of suffering and sacrifice. They did not see that it was a road of giving and giving again. They did not see the failures they had to endure before they would succeed. The danger they would face before they overcome. Nor the defeats they would suffer before victory came. So when suffering, sacrifices, failures and defeats came, these weaklings died along the way. Many of those who started with Garvey were weak in faith. They had no vision. They saw the long, long road with its defeats, failures, sufferings and sacrifice, but they had no faith in their ability or the Negro’s ability to travel it. They knew other races had traveled this path to glory, but they did not believe Black men could do what other men had done. So, being weak in faith, they died along the way. There were others who were weak in courage. They joined Garvey because they saw the crowds, heard the playing of bands, and were enthralled by the tramp of marching feet and the excitement. They thought they were leaving on a boat excursion the next week. Some expected to get rich. Others were looking for an easy job. They did not know what the freeing of a continent and the building of a Nation entailed. Hence, when they began to get a faint glimpse, they died along the way. But, thanks be to God, all of us who fell in line behind Marcus Garvey were not cowards. All of us who swore allegiance to the Red, Black and Green were not weaklings. In this new day, thousands of us in North America, Central America, the Caribbeans and Africa are still in the middle of the road marching toward freedom. We have resolved to pay the price. We’ve been sacrificing for years and we are still sacrificing. We’ve been giving for years and we are still giving, for we know that victory belongs to those that hold out until the end. We, the Black people, are on our way. Danger does not weaken us. Jails hold no terror for us. Death does not frighten us, for ours is a righteous cause and God is on our side. As we enter upon this new journey, let us, the Black people of the world, join our voices in one Universal Prayer to the God of our Fathers for an abundant supply of faith and courage to discharge the task that lies ahead. William Levan Sherrill (b.May 9, 1894 - d.March 7, 1959) was born in Altheimer, Arkansas. He joined the UNIA-ACL in September 1921 at Baltimore, Md. He was elected 2nd Asst. President-General at the 3rd International Convention in 1922 and represented the UNIA-ACL as a delegate to the 1922 League of Nations Peace Conference in Geneva, Switzerland. Sherrill went on to serve as Acting President-General in 1925 and later as President of the Detroit Division in 1934. Finally, he represented the UNIA-ACL at Ghana's Independence celebrations on March 6, 1957. THE BLACKMAN Vol.2  
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