Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 18 September 1948 — Page 10

Hie Indianapolis Recorder

EDITORIALS

AND

COMMENTS

The Indianapolis Recorder

SCHOOL FIGHT FLARES AGAIN School opened last week, and at the same time there reopened the perennial companion of school in Indianapolis —the crusade against the segregated school system. The fight against jimcrow schools has now become so much a “part” of the city school system that we propose it should be made an extracurricular activity. More seriously, it should be clear to all by now that the crusade for democratic education will never end until the dual system is abolished. The current protest is being carried on by a group of 45 Northside parents whose children should attend School No. 43, at 150 W. 40th st. The size and strength of the protest movement appear to be greater than ever before. Several white parents of the community have indicated agreement with its purpose. The scales are beginning to tip, we believe, toward the ending of segregated schools in Indiana’s capital. But let us not delude ourselves with easy hopes — powerful forces are pushing harder than, ever on the jimcrow side of the scale. It will take a mighty effort to right the balance, so democracy can prevail. Besides the contelnplated court action, we will remind the parents that political activity is decidedly on the order of the day. Segregated schools can be ended throughout Indiana by the passage of a state law. All the political parties, and particularly and every candidate for the General Assembly, should be put squarely on the spot and compelled to take a stand for or against jimcrow schools. Considering the political climate, we believe this line of attack would pay dividends in hastening the process of change.

THE DIXIECRAT RAID ON INDIANA Like Morgan’s Raid during the Civil War, the Dixiecrat invasion of the Hoosier state has been repulsed. Judge Lloyd Claycombe of Marion Circuit Court last week issued a permanent injunction which will keep the “States’ Wrongs” party off the Indiana ballot this fall. All decent-minded citizens breathed a sigh of relief at this ruling. The visitors from Mississippi, who thought they could play Indiana cheap, found that they had reckoned without the host. A swift counterattack by Dr. Ralph E. Hanley, civic-minded dentist, and hard-hitting Attorney Henry J. Richardson Jr. sent them scuttling across the Ohio Riv^r. Indeed, there was keen competition among Hoosier parties and individuals to see who would be first to hurl back the Rebel onslaught. And what a picture of political immorality was exposed by the investigation of the Dixiecrats’ election petitions! It was like lifting the lid off a cesspool, if the reader will pardon the expression. The stench was as old as slavery, and as vile as Hitler fascism. These political A1 Capones, in the preparation of their so-called petitions, had committed just about every variety of fraud it is possible to conceive. Holding the institutions and laws of Indiana in utter contempt, they had hired persons to copy whole'lists of names out of the telephone book, not even sparing the names of the deceased. One woman’s name was signed three times in three different handwritings! A workingman who actually signed the petition, was tSld fhaf he was signing fof Hiighef wa&es.’*’ A fiotafy public was represented as witnessing 8,000 signatures in one morning! In the light of these revelations, it appears that the Republican members of the State Election Board made a serious error in okaying the Dixiecrats in the first place. While no one would accuse Gov. Ralph F. Gates and Edwin Steers Sr. of sympathizing with the race-hatred movement, nevertheless they must be censured for playing with fire. In short, the GOP chiefs were willing to open the door for the Dixiecrats, in order to embarrass tneir Democratic opponents. This is carrying partisan politics too far. It is a disturbing reminder of the way self-seeking politicians “did business” with the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920’s. The danger signals, thererore, must be kept flying. The Dixicrat raid was repelled, but it did achive greater succuss than most people expected. Freedom-loving citizens must rouse themselves to the fast-growing perils of the day.

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and honest programs on interracial relations must be concerned with both tbe intellectual and economic advancement of Negro people if the discordant note in the social pattern is to be alleviated. Again the reader contends that promoters of better interracial relations have as their first task a crusade to promote chances or opportunities for Negro people to work any place or every place in keeping with their ability to do the same work as any or all other workers. Further the reader observes that Negro people must be afforded equal or identical opportunities for education, and a waning trend of the discordant note in the social patter will inescapably follow. Otherwise the reader observes fruition of the discordant note in wider divergence must eventually produce, and has produced calamities in all ages or climes. * * * * Our own observations parallel contentions of the Recorder reader in this instance but people within the front ranks of the Negro group have an obligation ahd a near insurmountable task, that of coaching the masses of Negro people who have little regard for, or knowledge of the fitness of things. However this must be traced to the failure of educational or training opportunities and these are based largely on economic backgrounds. Otherwise Negro people of our community or land as a “discordant note” in the social pattern diverge into anomalous paradoxes. But wisely or honestly it must be recognized that repression or proscription of the Negro group is a major paradox in our Christian culture and democratic civilization. This course of things follows, in mockery of genuine tenets of Christianity and the U. S. Constitution or the fundamental law of the land, amounting to a refutation of established truths of justice, yet awaiting the answer of time.

THE NATION'S HEALTH

Labor Views

By GEORGE F. McCRAY For ANP

Reds seemed to be not only interested in them as workers and human beings, but expressed ideas which made sense to the average African trying to live on less than 40 cents a day. The British Trade Union

INDIANA STATE MEDICAL/ 1 \Y\ ASSOCIATION /

HEARING AIDS Few persons hesitate to wear glasses to enable them to see better, but many individuals will not wear hearing aids to help them hear better. It is embarrassing to them for other people to know they are hard of hearing. Deafness should not be considered the end result of a defeat, but should be considered an obstacle to be overcome by medical and mechanical help. The modern hearing aid is, in reality, a miniature public address system. It comes in a small box, weighting from 8 to ten ounces, containing a microphone, vacuum tubes, batteries, volume control, and in some makes, tone control. An ear specialist can assist in selecting the correct hearting aid. It is wise to take a friend along when trying one so that another voice besides the salesman’s will be heard. Hearing aids last from three to live years and cost between thirty and fifty dollars a year

to keep up.

What the hard-of-hearing person is interested in is whether the contrivance will aid his hearing, how much it costs, how inconvenieht it might be, and also how conspicuous in appearance. A good hearing aid does not disfigure or mar one’s appearance, and no person wearing

Drafting a ten-year national health program recently reported, Oscar Ewing, Federal Security Administrator, urged the earliest enactment of “government health insurance as the best means to realize the nation’s health goals of complete health and medical service ... for every man, woman and child, without regards to his skin, his place of national origin, or the place he lives in our land, and without regard for his personal economic status”. Mr. Ewing warned that seventy million Americans cannot afford to pay for adequate medical care. He noted that the national health insurance program guarantees free choice for both patient and doctor. He cites ways in which the program may be administered through federal-state-local cooperation to cirvumvent the clamour of centralization of government operations. Significant in the report is the revelation that seventy million people need medical care for which they cannot afford to pay. And these people represent in some measure the moral or spiritual and physical vigor of our nation present and future. They represent half of the population of the nation at the same time. Herein is the most compelling sign indicative of a decadent or decaying nation as viewed by wise and honest people in high places. But these prophets are without honor in their own time and country. There was a prophet at another time and in another land, Benjamin Disraeli, eminent English statesman, who in an observation on the matter said, “the health of the people is really the foundation upon which all their happiness and all their powers as a state depe/id”.

VIEWS ON INTERRACIAL RELATIONS Unheralded and unidentified a Recorder reader recently presented some views on interracial relations which he or she contends are fundamental in any or all courses of promoting “fair play for Negro people of our community and the land and an understanding on a progressive scale”. This reader notes Negro people of our community or the nation have never been afforded educational opportunities equal to, or in an overall sense comparable to the like of which has been enjoyed by all other people. Again he or she notes that our group of people, generally repressed to the lowest level of the economic order of their surroundings and at any time or place have reflected more largely a discordant note in the social pattern. For such reason or reasons our observer contends wise

A CALL FROM AFRICA One of the most important developments in the international labor movement is shaping up in British West Africa. The Trades Union congress of Nigeria, a British colony of kome 80 million African Negroes, has invited the CIO to send fraternal delegates to its next annual eongress-in-ses-sion opening in Lagos, Nigeria, on Dec. 25. The letter extending the invitation to the CIO states that African labor is fully aware of the interest American Negro trade union officials have always shown in the problem of African workers and as a consequence African leaders are very desirous of meeting some of their Negro brethren from across the sea. There are several reasons why this invitation is supremely important. In the first place the Nigerian Trades Union congress with a membership of some 300,000 persons is the largest labor federation not only in Nigeria, Britain’s largest colony, but in the whole of West Africa. It is composed of the same variety of workers one finds elsewhere; miners, railroad workers, transport-construction ' e m - ployes, clerks, teachers, proemployes. Though much fessional and other groups of younger than the CIO the Nigerian TUC has not hesitated to call general strikes, engage in politics, affiliate with the World Federation of Trade unions, send its leaders abroad to study and otherwise act far differently from what one might expect of African workers. Frankly, the invitation surprises me and undoubtedly indicates that West African Negro labor leaders are seeking a new political outlook. In the past they have gravitated •toward the left and a few toward the Communists. The

congress has tried to play the role of a big brother and since the war tne colonial government has tried to be helpful. But the suspicion and distrust which separates Negro and white in West Africa, quite understandable once you know the abuses which followed in the wake of Britain’s military conquests, stands as a very high barrier to effective Negro-white cooperation. Unless the barrier is surmounted, Nigeria, West Africa, and eventually the whole African continent will fail to move forward as rapidly as the world demands. This much is certain: Europe needs

one should feel sensitive about

it.

Africa’s raw materials, both agricultural and mineral. Africa needs western machinery, technology, and science. No barriers should be allowed to stand in the way of a fair exchange. I hope the CIO responds to the invitation and sends several of its best representatives. The fact that the invitation was sent to the CIO is a clear expression of the feeling even in far away Africa that the CIO is an organization which seems to know the real meaning of the fraternity of labor.

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“^PyLES FfAffLEfS AMO HCROtC FU&mVE SLAVE OP KENTUCKY/ Continental Feature*

THE LIFE AND WORK OF THIS GREAT WOMAN IS THE THEME OF MANY PRESENT-DAY STORIES OF HEROISMBORN A SLAVE, 140 YEARS AGO IN KENTUCKY, SHE RECEIVED NO FORMAL EDUCATION* HER HATRED OF SLAVERY PROMPTED HER TO FLEE WITH HER HUSBAND CHILDREN.AND HER SYMPATHETIC OvVnER.FROM KENTUCKY TO IOWA IN AN OLD COVERED WAGON • SHE THEN PURCHASED THE FREEDOM OF HER Z SONS-IN-LAW WITH MONEY SHE EARNED AS A FEARLESS PUBLIC SPEAKER AGAINST THE INSTITUTION OF SLAVERY* WE SALUTE THE MEMORY OF THIS GREAT AMERICAN/

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In The Nation's Capital By LOUIS LAUTIFIl For the NNPA News Service The Granger report to Secretary of Defense James Forrestal on the conference held by sixteen colored leaders in the Pentagon Building on April 26 on segregation and discrimination in the armed services is not an objective document and does not repre?ent the consensus of the conferees. Mr. Forrestal, former Secretary of the Navy, has raised comparatively large funds for the National Urban League, of which Lester Granger is the executive secretary. Without cuestioning the integrity of either Mr. Granger or Mr. Forrestal, the financial relationship between Mr. Forrestal and the National Urban League is such as to raise a question of propriety concerning Mr. Granger’s acting as a consultant to the Defense Secretary in matters involving delicate interracial relationships. In the next place, Mr. Granger has consistently defended the Navy against charges of discrimination ever since his return from a junket to the Pacific where he visited Navy installations under arrangements made by Mr. Forresital. The purpose here is not to be critical of Mr. Granger. He is a man of unquestioned ability and integrity. But race discrimination and segregation in the Army, Navy and the Air Force ought to be put in its true perspective. The Navy has a history of harsh treatment of colored personnel. Not until late in 1942 did the Navy drop its ban on the enlistment of colored men except in the messmen’s branch. After it open- * ed its general service to colored men and the WAVES to colored women, it set up an elaborate training program for colored personnel at Great Lakes, but it failed to use effectively the colored men whom it trained. Remember the Port Chicago explosion, in which 320 sailors were blown to bits? It occurred July 17, 1944. Remember the fifty sailors who were convicted of mutiny October 24, 1944, because they were unable to overcome their panicky fears following the tragic Port Chicago explosion — the worst home front disaster of the war. They were sec-ond-class seamen but were used to load ammunition because they were colored sailors. The Navy maintains that it has changed its policy and no longer practices racial discrimination and segregation. If that is true, there are some things which are hard to understand about the Navy which has a policy of integragation, when compared with the Army, which is attempting to achieve equality of treatment in a segregated framework. For example: There are only four colored officers on active duty in the Navy, while 934 commissioned officers are on active duty with the Army. Of the four colored officers in the Navy, only one is in the Regular Navy; the others are in the Naval Reserve. There are fifty-three colored officers in the Regular Army, which is nothing to brag about. One of the four colored officers in the Navy is a nurse. The Army has sixty-nine colored nurses, and 272 colored women, eight of whom are officers, in the Women’s Army Corps. The Navy argues that it has no more colored officers on active duty than it has because all of its colored officers rushed to return to civilian life at the earliest possible moment; that it cannot get colored nurses to join its nurses’ corps; that it cannot get colored youth interested in the naval aviation program; that it cannot get colored messmen, who are qualified for other branches of the service, to switch to general service. All of the Navy’s contentions may be true, but nevertheless the Army has found qualified men for every branch of the service, and the Air Force at least has a Fighter Wing and an air base under the command of a colored officer. If the Army and Air Force can induce colored men to join them and serve in segregated units, it is difficult to understand why the Navy, which professes to have a policy of integration, is unable to procure colored officer personnel and to recruit colored enlistees. But there is no indication that the Navy is making any effort to do either of these things. It seems content to boast of a non-discriminatory and non-segregation policy. The adoption of policy is insufficient. That policy must be implemented. Until that implementation takes place, neither the Navy nor the Army can boast of equality Of treatment and opportunity for all men — even in a supposedly non-segregated framework.

Voice from the Gallery By ANDREW W. RAMSEY

WHITE SUPREMACY BECOMES MORE COSTLY Not only have the major necessities of life and essential services taken a sharp increase in price but. it has become more costly to maintain the mythical luxury of a white skin. In the poverty-ridden South ^ where i n - ferior educational, rec r e a tional ajul.. cultural facilities result from the meager income of the region, the worship of the whit eness of their skins causes the majority group to insist upon separate institutions and conveniences for the Negro citizens who are unfortunate enough to live there. With the recent Supreme Court decisions regarding equality of oppertumty. for a higher education, many of these poor states are attempting in spite of Jthpir poverty to duplicate graduate and professional schools rather than, to admit Negroes to the existing schools, which must be kept inviolate for the cult of the white skin. These deluded people are willing to pay for segregation even though it means that they must deny themselves firstclass education and cultural programs to do so. That is what the main plank in the platform of the Dixiecrats means. But one does not have to turn to the South or the Dixiecrats to find a willingness on the part of American whites to pay for the privilege of possessing pale skins. Right here in Indianapolis there is plenty of evidence that the Dixiecrats are not alone in the mad battle to keep the white race supreme. Segregation of the races is the rule rather than the exception in schools, churches, recreational and social service institutions here. This duplication costs the tax-payers, the church groups and the Community Fund hundreds of thousands of dollars annually but that fact is immaterial so long as the “shcredhess” of the white skin is maintained. The situation with regard

to residential segregation is ludicrous. A s middle-class Negroes move from the congested ghettoes where municipal services are meager or non-existent into the neighborhoods o f middle-class whites, the whites feel the necessity of moving not because of the personal characteristics of their new neighbors but because they feel that they must maintain the sacrosanct aloofness of the white race. And this is becoming extremely expensive for them. In many cases they have their homes completely paid for and because of the myth they must go into today’s housing market and pay several thousand dollars more than they can get for thetf homes - and they are getting far too much - - for a house located far from members of the race they feel that they must look down upon. In many instances they are renters and not finding rentable dwellings in the “restricted” areas into which they feel that they must move, they are forced to buy often on contracts houses that they can ill afford \o own. So general is the tendency of the local whites to flee from contact with Negroes that many very elderly couples sell their homes and use the money plus their life savings to acquire homes in neighborhoods dedicated to keeping white supremacy alive. The same real estate agents who obtain exorbitant prices from Negroes for homes purchased outside the ghettoes, also reap a rich harvest from the fleeing whites v^hom they egg on by pretending the value of the property will depreciate in the proximity of Negroes. The line usually works and the poor devils sell the homes purchased at a great sacrifice to make a fresh start in a locality where the atmosphere is filled with the ozone of white exclusiveness. Thus one sees white plumbers, ten-cent-store clerks and school teachers fleeing from contact with Negro doctors, lawyers, plumbers and business men. The Dixiecrats eye Indianapolis and Indiana with a great deal of hope for they feel a kinship with people who are w'illing to maintain their prejudices regardless of the public or private cost. To the men from Mars it must look mighty stupid.

Between The Lines By Dean Gordon B. Hancock For ANP THE APPROACHING ELECTION AN INTERRACIAL POLL The pros and cons of interracial progress can be debated indefinitely. There are those who assert that race relations are in a state of deterioration. These view with alarm the resurgence of Negrophobia throughout the South and in a lesser degree throughout the country. The southern demagogues are reverting to the Ben Tillman-Hoke Smith-Var-daman-Heflin type of campaign. The late Gene Talmadge of Georgia was the prophet of the new era of racial hatred. The appeal of these demagogues to the baser passions of the people has dangerous implications. This fact must never be minimized or discounted. The Negroes of the country have chosen to make a frontal attack on southern traditions and It is not surprising if these “latter day” Negrophobes elect to counter in kind, that is by frontal attacks. The rise of the Dixiecrats with their state rights campaign is no more "than a polite way of saying 'with the demagogues of the past, “keep the Negro dowrp”^ £he current campaign of South Carolina’s Gov. S! ro'm ‘’Thurmond is hardly more than a revampe d Tillmanismj Bilboism. Rankinism, Talrtiadgistn and all the other anti-Negro isms that flourish in the South. Because the issues are so tightly drawn on state rights and th" implications thereof, the coming election is going to be largely in the nature of an interracial poll telling where the Negro stands in the hearts and minds of the people of the nation. The Dtxiecrats will serve that one good purpose of letting the world and the Negro know how stands the case of race relations in this country. s ., ; i» 'S The strength of Dixiocracy is the strength of the opposition to the Negro’s full citizenship. The weakness of Dixiocracy indicates how far the Negro has &one in winning the war for democracy for Negroes. There ate.tho^e of us interracialists Whd at times grow hopeful at some display of this nation's more favorable attitude, while at other times

despairing because of what amounts to a national “gang up” on the Negro in his drive for his rights. But the story will be told in November in terms that cannot be mistaken. A more momentous election, as it concerns the Negro, has never been held in this country and it all stems from the civil rights stand of President Truman which set off a species of resentment among the Negrophobes that is shaking this nation to its very foundations. November will tell the story! However, the elections may go. Truman must be credited with having focused the attention of the nation and world on the step-citizenship of the Negro. A large part of the nation is ashamed and the others will vote with the Dixiecrats. A POLITICAL FEAST FOR NEGROES The approaching elections will not only be the most illuminating interracial poll ever held in this country or in history, but it will give the Negro one of the finest political feasts ever offered a minority group. There is our good friend Henry Wallace, who is without doubt one of the best men in the country, in fact too good for the presidency. It is unfortunate that his - Progressive party is threatening to become an all-Negro party. For demonstrational purposes and for dramatic displays of sure-enough democracy, the Progressive party under the leadership of Wallace will serve a good purpose. But even the most intoxicated optimist of the Wallaceites does not even faintly envision Wallace’s election. But for the Negro and white idealists Wallace and his platform offer a happy political diet. But for the realists who want to get something started, the race is between Dewey and Truman. But in the background of all parties and candidates will be the lurking color question and the victors and the vanquished alike in the coming election will throw light on the progress of race relations in this country. We a re now largely in the “guess stage” but we are going to enter the “know stage” come the November elections. With either the election of Dewey or Truman will come tokens of a better day for Negroes. For the first time in this country’s history, the Negro gan plajj “across the hoard” with hope of winning!

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