Shades of Opinion

Vacationing at Martha's Vineyard, the Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, pastor of Manhattan's Abyssinian Baptist Church and Manhattan's first Negro Congressman-to-be popped off to a reporter:

"Did it ever strike you how ridiculous is the attitude of many whites toward color? Take the situation here. It's a downright disgrace to be white. I mean that literally. I have seen folks come here with gleaming white skins and they are in such a hurry to acquire color they lie about in the sun for hours. And, ironical as it is to a Negro, the darker they are the higher they stand in the summer-resort social scale."*

The reporter remarked that the Rev. Powell is rather lightskinned. Replied Rev. Powell: "There is no such thing as being slightly colored. I'm colored and that's all there's to it."

For other opinions on Negro-white relations, see RELIGION.

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