The Michigan chronicle. [volume], August 28, 1943, Image 6

About The Michigan chronicle. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1936-current

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INDEPENDENT
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Published Bmy Tlnn4»T If
THE MICHIGAN CHRONICLE PtmUEIHNO COMPANY _
MAIM OmCEi 2U Eliot Detroit Mick. TEmple 1-tm
LOUIS EMANUEL MARTIN. Editor
Eutaroda. cUa. mMMr M*r I W* •* *?** OMco at
Detroit Mich, under tha act of March 5. lIW.
: Tonne of fubacription (treble in advance):
One Tear. $4.00; Nine Months SJOOi Six Months. *2.00:
V. Three Months SI.OO
HOODLUMS
A very simple fact which is worth repeating at
this time is that hoodlums, regardless of their color,
are not bom. They arc made. One does not inherit
hoodlumism but it is acquired from an environment
of poverty and ignorance. It follows very logically
that the surest way to eliminate the hoodlums is to
correct the conditions which produce them. Our pro
fessional do-gooders too often are led to believe that
hoodlums may be cured by a moral shot-in-the-ann
and that up-right propaganda can take the place of
a wholesome environment and a decent living stan
dard. Such thinking is sheer folly and any student
of social problems knows it
Following the reports of the riot causes in De
troit, the consensus seems to be that hoodlums
participated in the actual rioting and therefore
something must be done about these hoodlums. The
fact that these youths were bom in the depression
years and reared in the foulest slums imaginable
should serve to stimulate a profound interest in the
rehabilitation of our blighted areas and providing
A decent environment for our youth. Most. Negro
children in our great cities are concentrated in slum
areas where they fall victim to what Roi Ottley,
author of “New World A-Coming,” calls “slum
shock.” One way to get rid of “slum-shock” is to
get rid of the slums.
We are happy to report that a group of enter
prising Negroes have formed an association which
has petitioned the Federal Housing Authority for
a subsidy to help promote a new housing develop
ment in the slum area. Whether financed by private
capital or public funds, the immediate need for clear
ing the slums of Detroit cannot now be questioned.
Such a development will even contribute to greater
production in the war effort and pay fabulous divi
dends in better morale.
It is an old adage that runs if you treat a human
being like a dog long enough, he will eventually learn
to bark. It may be added that such a human being
under intense provocation will also learn to bite. We
Who are concerned about the welfare of the Negro
Community and who are working to promote good
will between the races can make a splendid start by
helping to eliminate these kennels and erect decent
housing. As a matter of fact the damage in dollars
and cents which w’as clone in the June 20 riot ex
ceeded the cost of all the civic improvements which
are needed to redeem our blighted areas. While
decent housing is not enough, it is a basic need and
the time has come when we should begin to con
sider things that are basic and not merely incidental
jto the social unrest of this period.
NEGRO NEWSPAPERS
Writing in a recent issue of the New Republic,
Thomas Sancton, a southern white journalist, stated
that when the average white person first reads a
Negro newspaper he feels as if someone had thrown
a bucket of water in his face. The white reader is
startled to find out that the Negro people have in
timate knowledge of all the double-dealing and hy
pocrisy by which the principle of white supremacy
is maintained and practiced, even within government.
The average white is disturbed by the insistence of
the Negro writers on the practical application of the
equalitarian ideals which are expressed in the Dec
laration of Independence, in the Constitution of the
(Country and in other documents which are the foun
dation stones of our democracy.
For the first time in life, this new white reader
Bees Negroes pictured as intelligent citizens who act
and think in a manner far different from the clowns
and buffoons on the stage, screen and radio. He sees
that Negroes are seriously concerned about political
affairs, housing problems, labor, industry and gov
ernment. Today this reader sees something of the
extent of Negro participation in the war effort and
many feature articles proclaim the resentment of
the Negro masses for being denied the opportunity
jto make a greater contribution to the task of winning
the war for the democracies. All of the illusions
about the Negro are knocked into a cocked hat by
the Negro newspaper.
Those whites who have been taught from child
hood that Negroes are sub-human creatures may
dismiss the Negro newspaper as a piece of propa
ganda cooked up by a few sinister Negroes who are
not representative of the masses. They may find
It difficult to give up their in-sered views that Ne-
EDITORIAL PAGE OF THE MICHIGAN CHRONICLE
groes are like children who may be petted or spanked
as the occasion requires. They knew all along that
shiftless old Sambo had a mellow voice and all Ne
groes can sing, but it is shocking to them to learn
that these Negroes can also think. Carver and
Booker Washington are regarded as freakish ex
ceptions in the Negro race and the fact that hundreds
of thousands of Negroes are following in the wake
of these heroes is disturbing no little.
It is only to be expected that those whites who
know’ very little of Negro life should become alarmed
over the questions raised by the Negro Press. They
know that in our democratic system the Negro is
entitled to what he asks for. They know that stories
of injustice headlined in the Negro Press are true.
They know’ that there is no justification for the op
pression of the Negro people either in the tenets of
democracy or in the principles of Christianity. They
know that the Negro is the victim of pure racial
prejudice. This knowledge gives them a sense of
deep moral guilt.
These whites may salve their conscience by giv
ing Sam a few’ crumbs from their table or vow to
end this injustice by joining hands with the Negro
people in an effort to make a decent America. A
few’ of them may decide that w hite supremacy should
be maintained because it is profitable and they give
their support to the Ku Klux Klan and other organi
zations which racketeers found for the purpose of
thwarting the advancement of the Negro. This lat-
ter group are most alarmed by the Negro Press be
cause they recognize that until it is destroyed, the
Negro masses will be made constantly aware of the
inequities in the social order. The anti-Negro w hites
know that only an ignorant people can be kept in
slavery.
The clever campaigns directed against the Negro
Press by-pass the editorial demands for a working
democracy in America. No attempt is usually made
to answer the questions raised about Negro rights.
Rather they seek to prove that the Negro Press
exploits crime and sex new’s for profit and that the
newspapers are morally degrading. They overlook
the fact that crime and sex are staple news in the
vast majority of American newspapers and popular
magazines. Stories of incest, rape, intimate divorce
testimony and pictures of near nudes which appear
in the dailies and magazines are dismissed without
question. A similar story in a Negro newspaper,
however, is used as proof that the Negro Press is
a sordid thing. Incidentally, no Negro newspaper
in the history of journalism has ever carried crime
and sex to the lengths of Mr. Hearst in his American
Weekly which is a Sunday supplement for all Hearst
papers and boasts a circulation of seventeen million
every Sunday.
Negro publishers have been the first to admit
that crime stories are over-publicized and they share
w’ith all the American press a responsibility to clean
them up. Any regular reader of the Negro news
papers will admit that Negro publishers have ad
vanced considerably faster in this regard than many
of the multi-million circulated magazines and news
papers published by the majority group. It is an ex
tremely interesting fact that not a single Negro
periodical has had its mailing privileges revoked
by the Post Office censors for obscenity while over
ten white publications have been suspended this year.
In a real democracy there would be no need for
a minority group press. When Negro socialites
make the society pages of the dailies, when stories
of Negro achievement are given the same treatment
as others, when Negroes become an integral part
of the community life without proscriptions against
them because of their color, the mission of the Negro
Press and its only excuse for existence will have
been fulfilled.
‘Negro workers earh
r °M5/a IL WORKS^6EHC S Y AS
»THEWOB-K THAT WORK?
Book
. Reviews
Riad Mora—Learn Mora
By GERTRUDE KCOTt MARTIN
UNDER COVER, <E. P. Dutton;
New York City: $3.50>, is the
courageous account of native fas
c<m told by a man who for four
year* «pied upon those persons and
groups which seek to undermine
and destroy the democratic system
and sot up in its place a brand -*f
Fascism. The book is printed un
der the name of John Roy Carl
son although that is not the author's
real name; and the substitute is
“My Four Years In The Nazi Un
derworld of America.”
Mr. Carlson began his adventure
in New York passing from one
group to another on the recomman
dation of those whose confidence
he had won by his pressed Nazi
leanings. There was a large num
ber of groups into which he wormed
his way but the purpor- of all was
more or less the same; spreading na
tionalist teachings, denouncing Jews
and often Negroes; often praising
Hitler and the Nazi regime openly.
D.fferent groups catered to differ
ent levels of society and changed
their approach accordingly but
there was a common denominator
In all: the desire to destroy Ameri
can democracy. The American Na
tional-Socialist party, the German-
Ainerican Bund, the Ku K’ux Klan:
tiie National Workers' League, the
Christian Front, the America First
Committee, Coughlin’s Social Jus
tice group and many others are
linked together in a vicious net
work of hate.
Many of those r.amed by the
author are familiar; some have al
ready been convicted of sedition,
others are still free to preach their
Nazi propaganda. Fritz Kuhn. Joe
McW’illiams. Mrs. Dilling. Gerald L.
K. Smith. George Deatherage. Sena
tor Wheeler. Senator N'ye, Michi
gan’s own Clare Hoffman, Joseph
P. Kamp and many others play
their part in the dramatic pages of
Under Cover, but each plays too
role of a villain.
There is a chapter. Detroit Is
Dynamite, which we would like to
call to the attention of the city
fathers who are so naive on the
subject of native fascism and its
working*. Here is outlined the
technique of anti-semitic. anti-
Negro preachings being used in the
plans to win over worker.* by men
like Tony Bommarite and Parker
Sage: “You begin your work by
talking against the Jews and the
nigger. The Jew got us into the
w ar. You tell 'em that. The Je*.v is
keeping labor down by controlling
the money. It’s the Jew who hires
niggers and gives them low wages
. . The author tells of the con
nection between Garland Alderman
and Gerald L. K. Smith and states
that Alderman told “such an
astounding atory of collaboration
between the committee (America
First) and Nazi interests that I
would never have believed it if I
had not seen Its duplication in the
East.”
Of Detroit the author writes; "I
succeeded in showing the rommon
denominator between the respec
table groups pleading appeasement
and defeatism, and the outright
Nazi frontists striving to achieve
those same goals under identical
slogan.* of “patriotism” and "Ameri
canism.” I succeeded in showing ‘he
common meeting ground between
the America First Committee, the
National Workers League, Smith’s
coterie of followers and the lead
ers of the Mothers groups I inter
viewed.”
There Is a chapter too on “Hitler
and Hirohito In Harlem" which out
lines the program of hate preached
by black Hitlers who had ties with
the white fascist groups and wee
encouraged by them. The Negro
fascists preached anti-semitism and
anti-white doctrines to their follow
ers and extolled the Japanese. This
chapter reminded me a great deal
of Carl Offord’s story of Harlem,
“White Face" in which he sought
to expose this same sort of vicious
teaching.
UNDER COVER tells of actual
danger to our way of life which
will grow unhindered unless there
is a widespread realization of the
forces at work and the techniques
used to set group against group.
The material here is carefully docu-
mcnted; the author lists names and
places. The facts that he has un
covered should be a challenge to
those who wish to toe democracy
preserved. UNDER COVER is al
ready on the best seller list in De
troit: it should stay there indefi
nitely.
* * *
In last week's review of AMERI
CA'S ROLE IN ASIA the word “or
appeared in the sentence which
should have read “Korea's betrayal
by the Western Powers" changing
tie meaning comiletely. We ii
blame it on the gremlins unt'l *ve
have more accurate information.
TELLS OF NEGRO WOUNDED
WASHINGTON—(ANP)—Report
ing on his adventures in Sicily,
Ernest Pyle, noted syndicated col
umnist whose articles have won
commendation throughout the coun
try. says that during his sojourn in
that island, thousands of wounded
men were treated at medical bases
located there, among whom were
many Negroec. He also named In
dians, Italians and Puerto Ricans
and Mexicans fighting for the
United States as being among those
receiving treatment at the station.
? v
ar wiluam uSHcaajLLj
THE QUESTION WHICH
HAUNTS me more than any other,
as I witness the finest of our Negro
youth leaving to drencfc foreign
battle fields with their blood, sweat,
and tears, is,—what will America
do. by way of extending to its col
ored citizens complete freedom and
opportunity when this groat sacri
fice is over? . . . Perhaps America
docs not know it—but this question
haunts not me alone: it is upper
most in the minds of every Negro
including our boys who are scaling
the mountains of Sicily and crawl
ing through the swamp* of the Far
East . . .
We are not making too b'.g a fuss
about the answer now. for we are,
as we have always been, loyal to
our country and our f'ag . . . We
realize that though we are now
treated as second class members,
we are nevertheless, member* . . .
of this great nation, and as a nation
we have but one job to do —that
job is, win this war . . . This mud
come before anything else . . . De
feat is unthinkable to any of us
. . . Only if we win this war, can
we return to the way of life we
want to live—to the full enjoyment
of the advantages and happiness of
democratic living . . . Only after
we have achieved victory can our
factories rovert to the production
of those things which make life
easier and more enjoyable and our
boys come home to their families
free again to plan for the future
. , No. ndthmg must hinder our
winning this war.
>:t Jfe *
A NATION, however, is strong,
only by union: is happy only by
peace—And there can be neither
union nor peace unless there is
freedom for all. opportunity for all,
protection for all . . . Lest, there
fore, we make this great sacrifice in
vain—America must start now open
ing the doors of full and complete
citizenship to each and every
American . . . Programing to
achieve for its Negro citizens com
plete and equal enjoyment of all
the rights and obligations of citizen
ship, is M vital to the futurp and
security of America as any post-war
planning we are now doing.
I make no threat when I say that
America’s black citizens are not go
ing to be content with seeing de
mocracy granted freely to those
who are now the enemies of de
mocracy and at the same time de
nied those who have staked their
all to save it . . . After this war
the same German and ftalian mur
derers. rapists, and pillagers, who
are doing their level be. to destroy
our country, will be wekomed to
THE LONG ARM OF THE LAW!
rdL
DOOM "PREDICTORS’' FOR
NEGROES AFTER THE WA
It is interesting to listen to the
numbers of, people, who predict
doom for the American Negro, af
ter the war. These “doom predic
tors" say the lot of the American
Negro will be unbearable after the
war. They point out that prejudice
is becoming more stubborn, and
that discrimination is cropping up
everywhere. Because of this, they
say. we can look for a concentrated
drive to push the Negro further and
further back in the onward rush of
American life. If these “doom pre
dictors" were not sincere and ig
norant, one would hesitate to deal
with what they say. Their sinceri
ty about the plight of their race
after the war. causes one to re
examine historv and to tie it in
cur country with open arms and
accorded ail the blessing* of de
mocracy . • . and this is as it
should be . . . But are there any so
foolish as to believe that Negroes
will sit quietly by while the goud
things of their country are given
their enemies and denied them? —
Those who do, know nothing of
what is taking place in tne mind of
Negro America.
M: * *
NEGRO AMERICA TODAY, has
a new* sense of its dignity and re
sponsibility jus an American citizen;
,t is becoming conscious of itself
and the place in American life to
which it is justly entitled . . . Tnc
present war. coupled with exper •
once* of last war, has cleared the
Negro’s thinking and given him a
point of view in complete harmony
with the professed aims and ambi
tions of the exponents of the demo
cratic ideal.
He has a feeling that he It duty
bound to help see to it that the
things his government, say* it
fights for. are achieved . . .Out of
the crucible of disappointment and
despair has come the conviction
that America is as much his coun
try as it is anybody's . . . He has
bought and paid for the right to be
an American and to enjoy every
right of an American, with his
sweat, blood and tears . . . He re
fuses to take anything less.
* * 0
TODAY, from every port of our
nation, black husbands and fathers
—sweethearts and brothers, sons
and daughters are headed straight
for the pits of hell . . . Some will
come b3Ck and some will never re
turn . . . They are willingly
gambling their lives because they
think they are sure of what they
are fighting for . . . They are not
fighting for the right to ride in a
filthy jim-crow car . . . They are
not flinging their lives away "over
there" for somebody to tell them
"We don’t hire Negroes" . . . They
are not crawling through swamps
and charging machine gun nests
for somebody to tell them that they
can't vote, can’t live in this or that
m ighborhood, can’t eat here or
there . , .
Black America fights today for
real freedom—true democracy—a
new America . , , We dare not dis
appoint them . . . Don't anybody
dare tell them when they return
that they have returned to the same
"old order" . , , The same discr’
nation , , , the same old segrega
tion . . . the Same second class
citizenship . . . God forbid, that
America, my country, will be so
stupid.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 1948
THE FACTS IN
OUR NEWS...
■y HORACE A. WHITE
Hk Jkt -
■RK
with the present dav events, and
try to predict the future.
During the !asrt war Negroes were
rushed into a new phase of our
economic life For the f.rst P-ne in
'.he history nf the American Negro,
he was brought into heavy indu«-
try. Pefore • h;s he had done most
of h : « productive work in American
life on the farrr.< in the south. It is
interesting to note, if we read the
h s'nry of that period as it relates
to the Negro, that «ome of the prob
lems we now consider so important
and so all-enthralling, existed then.
It was a matter of helping the Ne
gro to get adjus’ed to a new work
situation. Everybody then waa try
ing to tell the worker how he
ought to act on the job, what he
ought to do witb his money. Every
body wv saying then that he would
lore what he had gained after the
war because he had been brought
in only afier dme necessity on the
part of the manufacturer. The
“doom predictors" of dsy, were
quite sure that tire Negro would
bo 1 -t .if'er the war. Well, the fact
of the matter u. the Negro did not
lose h.a place in heavy industry.
He maintained his place in steel,
coal, automobile, and the building
trade induStr.es.
For the first time great masses
of Negroes began to get some edu
cation. The war opened up to great
masses of our people, new vistas as
learning which had been denied
them before. The leaders of that
day were so afraid that the masses
would not take advantage and they
would not realise what great op
portunities they had before them.
U'ell, the fact is, that Negroes
bought more homes, extended the
education of their, children where
they had the opportunity, helped
to cut down the infant mortality
rate, and began to move In larger
numbers into the great Industrial
centers of our nation.
During this period there were
many racial outbreaks, just at se
vere in their implications as the
racial outbreaks we have been hav
ing all over the country. There wrut
the same amount of disturbance
over the segregation in the armed
force* in the last war, as we arq
having now’.
White workers were refusing in
the last war, to work along with
Negroes, just as they are refusing
now. in aome instances to work
along with Negroes. In fact, the
situation was juat as much aggra
vated during the last war as it is
now.
So it behooves us to not play the
process of democracy cheap as It
relstes to ourselves. Nor should we
play ourselves cheap as we relate
ourselves to an evolving democracy.
We must he objective enough about
ourselves to see all of the disad
vantages to which we are put at
any given moment in our democ
racy. But we must also he very
careful lest we become the victim*
of imaginary doom to see the ad
vantages inherent in any riven sit
uation as we seek to have democ
rats* include us In its unfolding pro
cess.
Negroes are making very definite
gain-! during this war as they made
in the last war. We are getting larg
er hand-holds in heavy industry.
We are being given finer opportu
nities of self expression in indus
try. and more inclusive expression.
Certainly some of this will go from
us temporarily, because it will be
the nature of post-war America.
But believe me, we are making
good our opportunities in industry
today. Negroes will show tremen
dous gain* that we will hold after
the war. There is nothing inherent
in the core of American life that
should give ary intelligent observer
the feeling that the Negro is doomed
after this war. There are too many
people in America today, who real
ize ns they have never realized be
fore, that the American Negro i»
a creative asset to American lit*.