Eson Passport Fight — Mrs
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FAME Tos = Half Million Strong — Vee k Paul Rob eson Passport Fight — Mrs. Sampson and State Dept. Sit Out Vote as 3,000 Cheer On May 16, Senior Bishop William J. Walls took the microphone at a session of the 34th quadrennial conference of the AME Zion church and said to the assembled Vol. II—No. 6 “JUNE, 1952 Ge *"° 10c audience of 3,000 delegates and visitors: “We are not judges here, but we can demand fair play for all. Everyone here who is in favor of having Mr. Robeson’s passport returned to him—Stand up on your feet!” Three thousand people stood ab once. Only two persons in exciting evening of the drama- leader of the church, castigat- the entire church | remained packed two week session. Mrs. ing the fugitive slave act. He seated: Mrs, Edith Sampson, - Sampson read. a prepared read Frederick Douglass’s fa- U.S. State Department spokes- speech describing the interest- mous admonition on the phil- man, and Mrs. Ruth Whitehead of Europeans in the Negro osophy . of | reform—‘Where Whaley, Secretary to the Board question .and what she had there is no. struggle there is no of Estimate of New York City. told them of the progress made progress’—and the audience That action brought to Mr. by Negroes in the past decade. joined him in singing songs be- Robeson’s suppport in the fight As a. State Department rep- loved in the. Chureh and by the to restore his right to travel resentative, she called for sup- Negro people. abroad, the backing of the third port of U.S. foreign policy and He ended his performance by said, “If America goes down largest Negro church denom- saying that he had been born ination in the country, boast- the drain, we go down with it.” and brought up. in. the AME As Mrs. Sampson left the ing 600,000 members in the Zion Church. He pointed out United States, the Carribean stand and Mr. Robeson and a that he had always fought and group of artists rose to present area and Africa, would continue to fight as long the cultural program of the as he lived for the oppressed In calling for the action, evening, the two outstanding peoples of the world. Bishop Walls noted that the personalities exchanged greet- State Department’s brief in the ings. Then Robeson and the It was in the midst of the passport case which is now be- supporting artists presented a thunderous applause . which fore the Circuit Court of Ap- program which the delegates greeted. this statement that peals in Washington,’D.C., ad- will not soon forget. Bishop Walls called for the ac- mits ‘that Robeson’s travel They performed a script, tion on the passport issue. As right is denied because he has written by Julian Mayfield, and the audience stood, the Bishop been “politically active on be- based on the anti-slavery his- declared: “Let the record show half. of the -independence. of tory.-of..the church...Robeson that the Church of Zion is in the colonial peoples of Africa,” recited a speech of Bishop John favor of his having his passport (Mr. Robeson held and used Loguen, ‘revered 19th century (Continued on Page 4) a passport continuously for 22 FORTY THOUSAND ADMIRERS ‘gotheted at the lnteriotional years until it was cancelled without explanation almost Mrs. Sampson Tells Europe “Peace Arch at Blaine, Washington, on May 18 to hear Paul Robeson two years ago.) sing the songs of peace and of the peoples of many nations. The action of the AME Zion Negroes Happy, Almost Free q SEE STORY ON PAGE 8. conference climaxed the most By ESLANDA G. ROBESON—see page 2 a DuBois Calls Third Party Only Hope in 1952 | By W.E. B. DuBOIS discussion on platform or over ties. There is no choice of can- the publishers will print, and cast our votes for men, not for radio; in newspapers or peri- didates whether his name is Ei- what the movies will screen. Generals or College Presidents What is wrong with the odicals. Nearly every indepen- senhower or Tait, Kefauver or They are united in that super- or Rich Men’s babies, United States? We are an in- dent thinker has been silenced, Stassen or Warren, Dulles or congress of which the National Vote! That is what demo- telligent, rich and powerful while stool-pigeons, traitors Dewey, Joe or Charlie McCar- Association of Manufacturers nation. Yet today we are con- eracy is for. There is no ques- and professed liars picked by thy. All of them listen to their is the upper house and the Na- tion: We can.have peace if we fused and frightened. We fear wealth, industry and power, master’s voice, the steel trust, tional Chamber of Commerce is want peace; we can have war poverty, unemployment and can talk to the nation unham- the aluminum trust, the rub- the lower, which are preparing if we want war; and if we don’t jail, We are suspicious not only pered and ungageged. ber combine, the automobile world war to rule mankind and of enemies but especially of know what we want or don’t industry; oil, power, plastics, reduce again the worker not What can we Go avout it? dare to tell, we will get what- friends. We shrink before the the railroads, tobacco, copper, How can we face and heal our simply to. slavery but to idiocy. ever makes the most money for world and are ready to make chemicals and coco-cola, tele- plight? Not by silence, not by What can you do about it? those who own Congress. We war on everybody. General Ei- graph and telephone; liquor; fear; not by voting again for Vote fer a Third Party. There can get low taxes, social secur- senhower has assured us that radio and movie—all of the the same old parties and going is absolutely no other way. A ity, housing ‘and slum clear- “we can lick the world,” and more than 200 giant corpora- we are preparing to spend continually ‘over the same Third Party or die! ... ance; social medicine;. cheap mumbo-jumbo of meaningiess tions which wield the power light, heat and telephone ser- seventy billions of dollars to that owns the press and the « If we are going to have dem- elections. We are boasting we vice; decent schools taught by do it, even when we do not magazines, and determines ocracy in America, we must or- know whom to fight or why or are free when we are not free teachers with guts; streetcar what news the news agencies ganize’ the Third Party by even to cast our ballots. We fares spent on passengers and how. Of the 35 civilized nations will distribute; what opinions homes and blocks; we must of the world, we and Japan are are peddling freedom to the not on subway bonds born in world and daring them to op- jam meetings and halls. We dishonesty; all this any people the only ones who have refused must contribute our little dol- to sign the International Trea- pose it and bribing them kindly can have, if they dare vote for to accept it, and dropping lars, remembering that the it. ty promising not to resort to dollars of the masses can out- germ warfare; and it is widely death on those who refuse it; I'am not one who despairs while we, the real victims, weigh the huge endowments of charged that we are now using the business foundations, and even when brasshats and bacteria in China. whose taxes furnish the bribes thieves seem triumphant and and whose dead and crippled that full employment and high We are deprived from day to wages which now depend on it costs a man life, liberty and day of knowledge of the real and insane children furnish happiness to dare express his the soldiers, sit and ask with murder and destruction can facts. Our sons fight. and die have a more civilized founda- Opinions, when this nation is and we cannot learn why or vacant faces: for whom shall about to be black-jacked into we vote, which candidate shall tion in housing, hospitals and how. Deaths by bullets are re- schools. We must listen to facts Selecting as. President a war- ported but deaths. by freezing, we vote for, and if you please, maker who cannot reveal a dear candidate—will you kindly and read reason instead of be- accident and disease are con- ing entertained by stupid radio policy because he has none to cealed. We are allowed no free please tell us: what the hell do reveal; when we haye crime you stand for anyway? Is it and television advertisements ce, and tawdry, vulgar pictures. because there is no essential too much for us to ask your ethical difference between pri- from the keynote We must know the issues and (Excerpts Majesty? vate theft, big business meth- speech delivered at a Progres- talk about them and tell others. Yet we are fooling nobody, We must unite our wards, vil- ods and public graft. Beneath sive Party rally in Madison Sq. this stampede and filth; this "Garden, N. Y., May 13.) not even ourselves. We have no lages and cities into a nation, choice, There are no two par- Ww. E B. _ Dubos’ ann in Nevember, rain or shine, — (Continued on Page 2) i i Page Zz FREEDOM Mrs. Edith Sampson Tells Europeans [ National News |t Florida was news in the Negro press again last month with.