The Deacon [E.C. Jennings]; California Eagle, October 11, 1929

[part of a series]

Why spend any money
Sending missionaries abroad
To teach the happy heathen
How to serve our Lord.

With a Bible in one hand
And a sword in the other
We rob him of his birth-right
And then call him brother.

The heathen does’nt [sic] know
How to lie or teal
Until his is imbued
With the missionary zeal.

There is no lynch law
In heathen lands
No mob violence or Ku Klux Klans.

There are no Jim Crow cars
And no separate schools
There is no segregation
In the swimming pools.

There are no scandal-mongers
To poison the mind
Of race against race
And man against mankind.

There are no bootleggers
No grafting police
No Thomas Heflins
And no Cole Blease.

The heathens are happy
Without mansions in the skies,
And “when ignorance is bliss”
‘Tis folly to be wise.

We lie and steal
Whenever we can
And delight in oppressing
Our fellow-man.

We lynch human beings
Chain them to a stake
Saturate them with oil
And a bon-fire make.

We want everything separate
For black and white,
And we work on the principle
That might makes right.

We violate the laws
Of both God and man
And then toe ease our conscience
We organize a missionary band.

Call the missionaries back
To this crime ridden stage
Where prejudice and hatred
Are all the rage.

Call the missionaries home
Or take a stand
For the Fatherhood of God
And the Brotherhood of man.