Memo to NAACP Leaders

Home , Frederick Douglass

Here’s ON THE INSIDE e Robeson Birthday Tour My Story page 2 By PAUL ROBESON | Repeal the Smith Act pages 4-5 -NNLC Job Campaign NCE IN OUR HISTORY page 8 there was a Fugitive Negro Dancers Don’t Get Slave Law. You remember Hired ~. 2. Dred Scott. Slaves who es- Vol. II—No, 3 MARCH, 1952 oe 1 10c a Copy ; caped to the North, were dragged back, contrary to every fundamental constitu- tional fight of political asylum. The infamous Supreme Court decision, de- Memo to NAACP Leaders: livered by Chief Justice Taney, contended, that the “black man has no right that the white man is lt's Time to Fight—Not Fawn bound -to respect.” Clearly this was not a By CLAUDE BLANCHETTE . . Adeision of the people of this land — of the Abolitionists, of Washington looked the same last Feb. 17-18 when 800 of us gathered in the Hotel Statler for a the Frederick Douglasses. This Leadership Conference on Civil Rights called by the NAACP and 50 other national organizations. But was a decision reflecting the looks are deceiving. We soon discovered after visiting our senators and_representatives that civil rights was slave-holding South. a dead duck in this Congress. In the past four years, it was clear, the Dixiecrats had stealthily captured bi- And now, today in 1952, we oliticians of both old parties have a foreign relations com- partisan power. Northern mittee headed by Senator Con- had traded support for “sta ’s rights” in return for “Con- An Editorial nally of Texas. We have a gressional harmony” on Truman’s war program, now fur- Smith-Connally Act, sponsored nishing bullets to shoot down colored peoples fighting for by the same Connally and their freedom. “Smith of Virginia. We have the Cadillac Leadership denial of free speech, of the The leaders of the conference were, an alarming number either declared themselves flat- sacred right of freedom of be- —most of the NAACP officials— ETURNING FROM the recent sessions of the United lief. We have the denial of footedly \ against doing away must have sensed this change Nations Assembly in Paris, Dr. Channing Tobias, al- freedom to travel. We have a in Washington, for they held with the filibuster and passing McCarran Act, derlying free- their fire against the pro-war civil rights legislation, or they ternate U.S. delegate, announced to the world that he had dom of entry, for example, to bigshots, severely limited the were evasive and wanted to “foiled the Russians.” our West Indian brothers and participation of Negroes in the “wait until a bill was drawn up.” sisters, the Statue of Liberty program and excluded repre- Senators from Massachusetts, The Russians, according to the eminent doctor, had notwithstanding. sentatives of all organizations Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mich- tried to “embarrass” the United States by making frequent not originally among the spon- igan and..California, for ex- references to the persecution of Negroes in the South..And WENT WEST this past sors. We were termed by Walter ample, were among the fellow Tobias’ answer was that he had survived-a-boyhood in the month, to Seattle, just travelers of the Dixiecrats. White and others a “respec- South and that he had grown to be a man of sufficient across from Vancouver, British table,” “non-Communist” gath- Their names, in. order, are Columbia, Canada. Here was a ering reportedly representing Leverett Saltonstall, William E. education and standing to be appointed by the President convention of the Canadian 35 million organized members Jenner, Bourke Hickenlooper, to the UN. section of the Mine, Mill and back home. Earle C. Clements (former Gov- Smelter’ Workers, a fine union ernor of Kentucky), Homer A few days previously Walter Lee Irvin had sat in an _with black and white leader- On Monday, Feb. 18, the Ferguson and William F. Know- Ocala, Fla., courtroom and listened as a lily-white jury unit- ship—Ray Dennis, Asbury How- morning after a scrumptious land. ed with a foul-mouthed: prosecutor and a wood-whittling ard, Harvey Murphy, and that dinner the night before in the Rep: Richard Vail, of Illinois, judge to condemn him to death in the electric chair. great leader of labor, Maurice beautifully . decorated — Hotel virtually attacked a Jewish Statler, we set out from the Travis, .secretary-treasurer of delegate for lining up “with His body was bullet-ridden. His friend, Samuel Shep- Senate Caucus Room to visit the union. Negroes when .Jews are not herd, had been killed by a hate-crazed sheriff. He was a Now no American, needs a our lawmakers. Most of them (Continued on Page 6) “passport to go to Canada,.so in were not in, and of those who (Continued on Page 8) spite of my passport difficul- ties, I expected no action by the State Dept. At. the. border, in Blaine, Washington, there were many ~ Canadian acquaintances and a very frieridly Vancouver press. They assured me that the Ca-, nadian Government would not refuse me entry, and that Van- couver was waiting to give me , a warm welcome. I have ap- peared in Vancouver many times in concerts, in Othello, have spoken at the university there. No city has been friend- lier throughout the years. I remembered Douglass, Har- riet Tubman and hundreds of our folk who escaped by the ’ underground into Canada around Detroit—at Windsor for example.’ Again I felt the sympathetic understanding of the Canadian people, against a background of racial persecution in my own country. The representative of the American State Dept. called me in and very nervously informed me that, though no passport ‘was needed, a special order had come through forbidding me to “leave the country. If I did, it might mean five years, and a fine! (1 thought of my great Ben Davis—it’s and good friend bombings and about time a major fight was WILL NAACP. LEADERS provide “Cadillac leadership" or put up a NAACP MEMBERS, concerned with lynchings, launched to free Ben. People in real fight for civil rights? Walter White seems to be pondering terrorism, are looking for leadership that will let them in om (Continued on Page q) this question. the fight. _ Page 2 Defy Detroit Victory Corner

Those 700 students in Kings- Flowers, who has been active in ton, North Carolina, who walked the fight against the Jim Crow ° Witch-Hunt out on a two-day strike last schools in Arkansas, turned the The Un-American. Activities November demanding improve> note over to authorities, took Committee is demonstrating in ments for their Adkins High a pre-arranged trip to Los An- its witch-hunting attempt in School, got their demand. geles, made a speech and said: ‘Detroit that one thing enemies Kingston school officials have “If Idie I will die effectively. of democracy can’t stand is to promised $255,000 werth of im- Segregation has got to go!” He see the labor movement and provements including a gymna- then calmly took the next the Negro people join hands. sium, vocational ‘building and plane back to Pine Bluff, to go The committee centered its four brand new classrooms. on with his work. attack on Ford Local 600, with * * * * * * its militant Negro membership A 21-year-aldgwhite foreman The Pittsburgh Pirates and and leadership, and the~Na- went up. to Jake McKinney, a the Cincinnati Reds - finally tional Negro Labor Council. \ _Negro worker at Chicago’s Wil- signed two Negro players in And as the hearings opened, son and Co., and said, “How February—their first. - one of the “uncooperative” wit- you doing today, Sunshine?” i * * \* nesses was menaced in his “Who you talking to?” was Negroes all over the country plant by\a gang who dangled the fast question from 32-year- felt good when Marion Ander- a rope in front of him. They old McKinney. son sang before that. mixed told him they were from Un- “You; you look like. a sho’ audience in Miami. We felt even American head John S. Wood’s nuff happy-go-lucky \boy with better when we learned of the home state, and “if you don’t a bright-and happy smile.” And like the way the KKK. does no-segregation clause which she that was exactly the moment things in Georgia, we’ll teach - has inserted ‘in her contract, you.” young Baxter was sent crash- which means that she . will ing to the floor, from the power never again sing for a Jim First witness to be called was of Jake McKinney’s fist. Crow audience. Bravo! , the courageous’ Rev. Charles With lightning speed, Mc- A. Hill, who declared: ‘Kinney was fired. Happily the * | * * “The Negro people through- a In Harlem, after six years of anti-discrimination dept. of the out America are on the march SM Lif Wipro * United Packinghouse Workers trying, this community has we zy Hh to possess the promised land Ly was on the job. There was an achieved at least the blueprints of true democracy for which investigation and McKinney for a new super retail market ‘ xe SY they have paid their full meas- Dow was rehired on the ground that in the area, which has been Bure ure in blood, sweat, sacrifice Baxter’s insult had not only one of the big fights of the and death on every battlefield been an infringement of Mc- Consumers Protective Commit- “SENATOR, my department can convict and execute 10,000 Ne- where this nation of ours has Kinney's dignity but that of tee. It is to beat 142nd St. and fought—and they will not be groes for rape each fiscal year. And if that damned Vishinsky 8th Ave. ve some’ 35,000 Negro members of denied that right.” raises a howl about it, we'll charge him with rape too! the union. = * * * * * A consistent picket line strug- Last month, militant attorney gle against the Ford Theatre Harold Flowers of Pine Bluff, in Baltimore has paid off in the In the Freedom cane Arkansas, received a poison pen end of the segregation policy of letter, apparently from the local the theatre. Due to the picket- outfit of the Ku Klux Klan. The ing, box office sales dropped letter threatened his life if he and the theatre was forced to Robeson Birthday Tour didn’t leave town, for good. Grop Jim Crow. Frederick Diouelace School Will Benefit Freedom Fund By GEORGE B. MURPHY, Jr. Opens Its Doors in Harlem Cultural celebrations around Paul Robeson’s birthday, which falls on April 9, will take on new significance as labor, church, peace, youth, women’s and cultural organi- On March 17, in a lodge of anti-Negro elements in the zations throughout the country join in a series of huge festivals during the months of building at 124 W. 124th St. in Board of Education; Jose San- April‘and May, honoring this great people’s Ges and fighter for peace and freedom. New York, a new school will tiago; Lorraine Hansberry, as- open its doors. sociate editor of Freedom; and Following weeks of discussion Doxey Wilkerson, well-known and planning, representatives ing for the past week to draw Sponsored by a group of Har- a head of Robeson which will lem citizens, the school has educator. of the National Negro Labor Council, the Council on African be used to adorn’ the special been’ christened the Frederick Dollie Mason and Martha Robeson Concert Affairs, FREEDOM and _ leaders greeting card. i Douglass Educational Center. Johnson will have charge ofa of cultural groups have agreed Its director is Rosalie Berry, children’s program which will Because we want to make formerly registrar of the Jef- to sponsor the birthday festi- Tour Schedule include music, art, dancing and vals jointly as the UNITED sure that every member of the ferson School of Social Science. social subjects. FREEDOM Family can partici- FREEDOM FUND. The purpose Boston—April 6 Among the faculty members pate in these great events On Saturday, March 15, the of the UFF is to raise. fifty New York—April 9-11 will be W. Alphaeus Hunton; school is sponsoring a Harlem thousand dollars to carry on the around Paul during the months “Lloyd Brown, the novelist and Music Festival and Dance in work of these organizations to of April and May, we want you Newark—April 13 editor; Alice Citron, whose out- Golden Gate Ballroom, featur- which Paul Robeson has de- to write in at once with sug- standing work in Harlem pub- ing West Indian, Negro and voted so much of his time and gestions, ideas on how we can Philadelphia—April 15 lic schools made her the target Puerto Rican ee talents. make this the biggest birthday celebration for peace and free- Baltimore—April 17 lalallala atelier atataeet The United Freedom Fund dom and equality ever held in Washington, D.C.—April 20 will be the medium through America. Wiite to Miss Edith FREEDOM ASSOCIATES which the sponsoring organiza- Roberts, director, United Free- Cleveland—April 23 53 West 125th St., New York 27, N.Y. tions will work in each city dom Fund, 53 West 125th St., where the birthday festivals are New York 27, N.Y. Chicago—April 25-27; May 29 Enclosed is one dollar each for the following annual sub- held. Elsewhere on this page is St. Louis—April 29 a tentative schedule of these scriptions to FREEDOM: affairs. Pittsburgh—May 2 } In addition to the festivals, Detroit—May 4 ef - Urgent Notice! NAME (print) ane the United Freedom Fund will sponsor a nationwide ROBESON Don’t be without FREE- Blaine, Wash.—May 18 . BIRTHDAY GREETING AP- DOM in 1952 — RENEW Seattle—May 2Q » | ‘adateas City Zone No. ate PEAL, which will enable hun- YOUR _ SUBSCRIPTION dreds of thousands of people in Oakland—May 22 Now! every walk of life to send greet- : NAME (print) San Francisco—May 23 By : ings to Paul through their trade Your address-plate on the union, their church, their youth wrapper tells the month and Los Angeles—May 25 . group, or as individuals, enclos- Address City Zone No. State ing a contribution to the United year your sub expires. “12- Denver—May 27 Freedom Fund. You will receive 51” means December 1951; Milwaukee—June 1 a greeting card soon. Be sure “3-52” means March 1952— NAME (print) to fill it out and send your con- THIS MONTH, Minneapolis—June 3 = tribution. In this way you will Nearness secessionist! } be able to show in a concrete If your sub has expired or Address City Zone No, State . way what Paul Robeson’s lead- is expiring with this issue— CORRECTION ership means ‘to’ you in the RENEW AT ONCE. Just clip Also enclosed find $...... in support of the pregism Negro people’s fight for Ss The February issue of FREE: out the address-plate and of Freedom Associates. freedom and equality. DOM was mistakenly’ marked “mail it today with $1. Vol; II, No. 1. Its correct num- Seven artists have been work- ber was Vol. HI, No. 2.

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FREEDOM _ = Page 3 Egyptian People Fight for Freedom

By LORRAINE HANSBERRY In November, 1951, some -250,000 Egyptian people marched in, stark, sober quiet through the streets of Alexandria, one of Egypt’s largest and most famous ancient : cities. Their trek to the palace of the king passed 300,000 equally silent massed Egyptians. The next day in Cairo there was an almost identical demonstration. Then’a voice broke the meaningful silence of the march: “We will spare no sac- bore a British flag or label was They will no longer tolerate fifice until the Valley of the burned or wrecked, and great domination by a nation which, Nile is free from imperialism.” throngs of angry patriots dem- after the last war, rolled heavy + | This was one of many warn- onstrated’ before the govern- tanks: right: up to the palace ings to the British imperialists ment building for their imme- gates of King Farouk, to guar- of the Egyptian people’s weari- diate independence. antee by force the choice of a hess of the 70 years of -brutal This is the same country pro-British Egyptian premier: foreign rule ‘and exploitation. where for months 75,000 Egyp- One writer describes the The building of the Suez Canal tian workers have refused to guerrilla .movement as_ being took some 20,000 Egyptian and load food or water or anything constantly reinforced by work- Sudanese lives. It has since else for: the British. And this . ers, students, ‘peasants, the lo- }. = bulged the pockets of British, is the samd Egypt, the tradi- cal police: and Egyptian army French and American interests, tional Islamic “cradle of civili- officers. while a bitter Egyptian writer zation,” where women had led American: and British news- commented only three years one of the most important ‘ men and frightened diplomats pgo: fights anywhere for the equality have tried again to label this “Ninety-nine per cent of the of their sex. \ new surge of. a colored people peasant population are sick , Last February, Miedutie Doria for freedom. “Nationalistic fa with not one disease but two or Shafik, president of the Daugh- naticism,” they call it; “losing three . . .. and 80 per cent of ters of the Nile (Bent el-Nil), Egypt to the Reds,” a “threat the population are illiterate. ... the foremost women’s move- to world peace,” etc. It is clear, The preseng income of a peas- ment in Egypt, led’a thousand though, that the only threat to ant family is now less than $40 Egyptian women right into the world peace is the imperialist a year.” halls of the parliament and powers’ insistence on keeping The average Egyptian, then, demanded feminine represen- British tommies on Egyptian lives to be somewhere around tation. And significantly, it was soil. 27 years old. this same women’s movement A French correspondent, This was the Egypt which, a that in January offered some Pierre Courtade, writes from couple’ of months after the 250 trained young women for Cairo: “It is not a matter of a November demonstrations of guerrilla combat service against straw fire, a flame of passion silence, struck out in organized the British in the canal zone. exasperated by the crimes of THIS YOUNG EGYPTIAN woman is a member of her people's “’Lib- force against its oppressors. The “warnings” are over. The colonialism, but of a profound _eration Battalions” organized to wrest Egyptian soil from foreign British occupation troops had Egyptian people, like other Af- movement which has already interests. She symbolizes the Egyptian people's part in the’ spirit murdered some 40 Egyptians at rican peoples, dre tired of the gone so far that it can be con- of liberation that is sweeping all Africa, Along with their activity Ismailia, and all Egypt broke exploitation and humiliation of sidered irreversible.” into anti-British demonstra- the foreign rule of a white In other words, the Egyptian in the national tiberation: struggle, Egyptian. women are fighting tions. In Cairo, everything that supremacist, imperialist nation. people intend to be free. for their right to yote and hold public office. Thousands Mourn: Vote Against Hunger in India J. Finley Wilson

By EDWIN NOSHI ed grain to India. The grain from the trees, boiling jute illustrate the callous indiffer- Thousands over the land was cut. from 200,000 to 40,000 mourned the When Harlem’s Rev. leaves which do not satisfy but ence of these conservative Con- death Feb. 19 of tons when the Indian Govern- only stifle hunger.” And “. .. gressional breast-beaters to the the incomparable fraternal James H. Robinson was,sent ment gmswered the “white groups of living shadows, fate of peoples whose skin color leader, J. Finley Wilson, Born , on a tour of North African supremacist”. demands: “You nothing but skin and bone, in- differs from theirs. ... Over and in 1881, Wilson for 30 years held and Asian countries recently cannot treat the great nations capable of even moving ... above, the selfish political rea- the post of Grand Exalted of Asia in the old ways.” Ruler of the Elks. by the Presbyterian, Church sick children who waste away sons, our proféssed.love of all on their mothers’ knees.” In a message to help “soothe” the colored In India, correspondents saw: humanity dictates that this. of sympathy “People . . . gathering grass The Afro-American editor- badly needed grain must be sent to his widow, Mrs. Lea people’s worldwide resent- from the roadsides, eating bark ialized: “Nothing could better shipped to these pedple without. Wilson, Paul Robeson said: ment of American hypocrisy further delay.” , > eS: Finley Wilson, the greatest name among our people in foreign policy, he wrote India is that great subconti- in the fraternal life of America, of India: nental nation of Asia that gives: will always remain. with me as the world 1/5 its population. It “As an American Negro, every the symbol of a man who stood is the country that.a few years door was open to me.... I for all that is noble, all that found them warm and friendly ago relieved itself of British is courageous, all that is lovable domination and today works .. intensely interested. I should in the ‘life of our people in their toward complete freedom from say, hotly interested, in the march for full freedom, peace American race problem ... the control of foreign’ interests. and equality in this, our native they lack confidence and faith It is tackling its age-old prob-= jand.” in American democracy partly lems of land, disease and fa- mine, which are problems of on this issue. It undercuts our influence all over these lands.” government and account for Chicago Rev. Robinson’s concern for the widespread interest in the Defender the lack of “influence” of the recent. Indian elections. , Truman Administration’s for- The results of the elections Editor Dies eign pplicy did not override the show the people’s growing dis- A career Indian people’s primary recog- of 36 years with his favor of the Nehru regime, newspaper was nition of him as a Negro. He ended .when which, has failed: to give an- Lucius C. Harper, the executive was received with sympathy by swers to the basic problems of editor of the Chicago’ Defender Nehru statesmen}: militant stu- the country. One,of the most died in Chicago Feb. 10 after a

dents and Communists alike. % significant, indications of this wy four-month illness. Centuries of similar oppres- was the heavy swing to the, sion have given the Indian and Communist Party. The party The Georgia-born newsman, Negro peoples a natural under- was outlawed in some districts, who was educated at Fisk Uni-' standing that: the U.S::Con- restricted in others and under- versity. and Oberlin College, gress, which does not regard ground in. others—but aftere was the founder of the Defend- the lynching of Negroes as a the elections it emerged as the er’s famous Bud Billiken club crime, is the same Congress second strongest party in all, - that okays war on Asian peo- which once a year sponsored 4 be India. ple, that debates whether or the Southside’s “biggest ‘com- not to drop atomic bombs én The Indian people have been munity-wide celebration. He is Asian countries again if they deeply impressed by the great best known and respected for persist in their liberation land reform movements ac- complished by the Communists. his “Dustin’ Off the News” col- } struggles. 2 -And in the future the Indian in China, as well as the leader- umn and asa fierce journalistic Ay people. will not forget that. it ship of the Indian Communists enemy of the notorious Negro- when they led four million -F- was this Congress that. haggled baiter, Westbrook Pegler. peasants in wresting land from ¥ about prices and tried to force HUNGER is what the people of India were concerned with when He will be remembered as one \ the Indian government to agree the landlords—until Mr. Neh- to political L. subservience before they voted for candidates who stood for land reform. This child is ru’s Congress Party sent troops of the noble personalities in ‘it would ship desperately need- suffering from rickets caused by poor food. to smash them. journalism. :

4 2 ie a KS Soe See oe shee & ‘8: wees a ea a Ee at amr 4 it Se

I Know a Communist By Eslanda Goode Robeson

Yes, I really do know a twice to the City Council of New Communist. I daresay it York, By: ELEANOR GRAY sounds silly, when you come Yes, Ben Davis is really a won- right down to it, to brag that derful guy. What. Happened to On the evening of Feb. 21 a tall I know a real live Communist, him can happen to any of us: young woman, leaned across a the Supreme Court decided to when grownup people are say- speaker’s rostrum and looked in- call his political party, the Com- ing—some under oath—that munist Party, “a clear and pre- tently into the upturned faces of they don’t know, and never sent danger” to the Government a Harlem audience. Her voice vib- have known, any Communists. of these United States, and de- rated with deep feeling as she said: cided to send the 11 Communist This particular Communist is Party leaders to prison. “On this, my 37th birthday, I a personal family friend of long think of my mother. My mother, a Now this could happen to the standing, and I wouldn’t part machine worker in a garment, fac- Republican Party, to the Liberal, with him for the world, even if Socialist, or Progressive Party, if tory, died when she was just the the FBI, Administration, State the Supreme Court were to de- same age I am today—37 years Dept. and what-have-you tell me cide that it was “a clear and I can’t have him for my friend. old. I think I began then to develop present danger” to the govern- No, sir, ’m gong to hold on to an understanding of the sufferings ment. my good friend. And besides, this of my people and my class and to

Communist is a_ wonderful guy. As a matter of fact, the look for a way to end them.” His name is Benjamin Davis, Jr. Republicans ‘had better watch their step, because Vice-Presi- A few’ weeks after this festive birth- Ben—our little family calls dent Barkley said in a campaign day celebration, marked by the gifts him Benjy—is very American speech in Kansas City some time and tributes of hundreds of friends and very Negro. He was born in ago, that everyone voting the and admirers, the honored guest, Miss - Claudia Jones, would stand in a fed- , Georgia, was educated in the Republican ticket would be vot- eral courtroom and. face a hostile ' schools of his state, and at Am- ing for the Kremlin, and would government attorney intent on calling herst and Harvard in New Eng- be giving aid and comfort to our a temporary halt to her search. land, where he played tennis and enemies by showing them that football very well indeed and was we are divided within. As executive secretary of the na- an excellent student. He took his It. must be that our govern- tional women’s commission of the CLAUDIA JONES AND PETTIS PERRY face trial foro degree in law. ment is very nervous and fearful. Communist Party and alternate mem- for a better. life for their people and all workers. Her ber of its national committee, Miss of themselves and 15 other Communist leaders indicted: When he went back to his na- I for one have made up my Jones is one of 16 Communist leaders tive Georgia to practice law, he mind that I am not going to live whose trial starts March 3. found that the courts had no a life of fear and hate. I am not respect for him as a Negro law- Listening to the soft voice of this cause they “are the most, consistent afraid of Communists. They are . dynamic woman, one tried to associate fighters for peace, equality for: the yer, nor for his clients, and de- not bothering me. (In fact, it her with the government’s charge— Negro people, the rights of labor, and spite all his fine legal training is the Klansmen, the Admini- he couldn’t get to first base with “conspiring to teach and advocate the socialism.” stration and the police which are forcible overthrow of the government.” leadership justice in the courts. bothering me and ‘the Negro How did this young woman come by But it was impossible to do so. If Miss her convictions? Claudia Jones was and has One of his first clients was a people.) Jones’ views represent a conspiracy, major part born in Trinidad, British West Indies, Negro youth, Angelo Herndon, With my Communist friend it is the most public and open con- and came to New York at the age of who had been framed by the Ben Davis and his colleagues in spiracy in the history of the nation; eight. What promised to be a brilliant Atlanta law on an ancient “in- prison, then I as a real friend for she spoke quite plainly and fully. academic career was cut off when she One of the{ butes surrection” statute because he will have to work and fight to “Force and violence?” Miss Jones in- had to go to work to contribute to the party came fra her led the people to the City Hall get them out: This I will do, be- terrupted her talk ‘with sardonic Support of her family. She became a in a soft and sieady v to demand relief of their hunger. cause I know they have commit- laughter: “Why, I and my people have part of the young generation of the had been “eparck

Davis knew he needed allies ted no crime. been victims of real, not imaginary, 730’s—at the height of the depression

in his fight to free Herndon; so force and violence for centuries.” She five million youth between 18 and 25 so high.” He So I am going to stand by my were out of school and out of work; not agree ¥ he joined the Communist Party. friend Benjy. I would have no referred to the force and violence of almost a million of them were Negroes. Communist “a8 respect for myself as a person the hooded Klansmen “reaching new Just as some Americans joined heights every day,” the police brutality with anyone # if I did less. What kind of securi- In. order to find the. answer to her the. Republican, Democratic or in the Negro ghettos, the cops’ billies have those ty have you got, if you have no problems and those of her generation, Socialist .Party, so. Ben Davis on workers’ picket lines. that in her » joined the Communist Party. All respect. for .yourself? Claudia Jones joined the Young A The Administration could find a lot “of them were equally legitimate Yes, indeed, I know a Com- Communist League. Very soon she be- to do if it really wanted to track down political parties, and ‘there was munist. And I wouldn’t exchange came one of its top executives, an “All we Comu] the instigators of force and violence, no law against any of them. And him for all the unAmericans in editor of its publications, and a well can people is as a Communist he was elected these United States. Miss Jones declared. But it chose to known figure in the general upsurge for our “a te hound and jail the Communists be- of protest and social consciousness mine.”

Negro Press, Leaders watn rs When Mr. Truman’s Depart- this platform all lovers of Ameri- life’” he said, “I am calling, edite ment of “Justice” dusted off the ca can unite. ...No thought upon my people everywhere, nos edito:

hysteria-bred Smith Act and be- control in America.” matter what their political he-g the FE gan to lock up prominent Negro Two noted Negro attorneys liefs or ideology, to join in the™open leaders who are Communists, petitioned the U.S. Supreme struggle now for the defense react: Negroes up and down the coun- Court for a rehearing on the con- these victims of fascism for this’ place try stirred uneasily. Through the stitutionality of the Smith Act is our first line of defense.” silence of fear, voices began to and the conviction of the 11 A similar warning came fro! be raised in protest. No Negro, Communist leaders. They. were Tom Blair, columnist for the they pointed out, is safe when Richard E. Westbrooks, chairman Boston Chronicle. “This may “be! one cannot “conspire to advo- of the civil rights: committee of the beginning of the end of all) tread cate” changes in a government the National Bar Association, and Civil liberties,” he wrote, “for allY betwe« that must be held responsible for Earl B. Dickerson, former mem- political, racial and ‘religious.oarm the killing of Negroes, for deny- ber of the Chicago City Council. groups who speak out against in=y “ment ing them freedom and equality. “Discrimination against the justice.” ot tk One of the most resolute voices Negro people is deeply inbedded New York City Councilman © regir was that of the Rev. J. Pius in the fabric of government,” Earl Brown, writing in the eat Barbour. Rev. Barbour edits the they stated, “particularly the Amsterdam News, suggested that?

National Baptist Voice, which governments in the Southern if it were not “unpopulaxy speaks for four million Negro states. .. . It is inevitable that “many persons would have spok-) Baptists. He said, in calling for the decision will inhibit and im- en against the court’s decision.” opposition to the Smith Act: pair legitimate efforts to extend He wrote: “These are no day: “The Negro has more at stake democratic protections to the to remain quiet in face of attac

than any other group in America. Negro people.” upon human freedom anywher Ant The very life of the Negro William R. Hood, a top officer But this is just what happene vial church of which I am a part of some 65,000 members of Ford in the case of the Communi! ni

depends on freedom of speech. Local 600, United Auto Workers, 1l....A deadly silence envelopz abit “In this battle I am not con- CIO, called for resistance. the nation. Only a few newsy he cerned about the ideology of my “As one who feels strongly pers ... spoke out... .” > allies. The main thing is, America about the way Negroes are treat- Notable among these was must have freedom of speech. On ed in this ‘American way of Black Dispatch of Oklab

cution of Our — pe ‘Afro’ Speaks On Hounding

Sharing the platform and joining in the testimonials to Miss Jones was Of Jacksons one of her co-defendants, Pettis Perry. He is chairman of ‘the Communist (The following is reprinted Party’s farm commission, secretary of © from an editorial in the “Afro- the Negro commission and also an American,” Feb. 23, 1952.) alternate member of its national committee. Perry will act as his own at- Since June 20, 1951, J. Edgar torney in the forthcoming trial. Hoover has kept eight of his most proficient agents of the Federal Heavyset, strong of limb and feature, Bureau of Investigation lurking Perry was born in rural Alabama and about the door of 911 St. Marks grew up at Marion Junction in the Ave., Brooklyn. cotton belt of that state. He has trav- It was on that date that the eled in almost every state in the union. FBI attempted to arrest Dr. In the course of the fight to free the James Edward Jackson, scion of victims of the Scottsboro frameup, he, a well-known Richmond, Va., too, found the Communists and joined family. He had been indicted un- their ranks in California. der the Smith Act. Mr. Perry talked of Miss Jones in But Dr. Jackson wasn’t home. glowing terms. Referring to her “bril- In fact, the FBI has not yet been HARRIET TUBMAN looks liance and “boundless energy,” ‘he able to get its hands on him. approvingly down from the wall on three likened her to the heroines of the modern heroines—Mrs. Esther Jackson and her daughters, Harriet (a anti-slavery struggle, Harriet Tubman Chagrined at their failure, namesake) and Kathy. Photo by Inge Hardison and Sojourner Truth. these agents have -wreaked sys- tematic revenge on his wife, Mrs. was carefully checked for the ad- Then he turned to a contemporary Esther Cooper Jackson and their and her tiny daughters would dress of the sender. Every visitor Jong ago have cracked under the figure, Channing Tobias, who had re- two daughters, Catherine, 4 and is followed home and _ put cently told the world from his United terrifying pressure. ... Harriet, 8. through an intensive grilling. Nations platform all farmers in the It. looks like some of those They have rung the door bell U.S. have a plot of land and are “in- eight blue-coated FBI boys frit- oppesing war aid fighting at all hours of the night. They All three members of the dependent.” Mr. Perry said he had tering away their time trailing réthéy examine a picture have hounded and harassed this family, down to the four-year- innocent four-year-old children been born on a plantation and that if old daughter on her way to woman and her children. Even down the streets of Brooklyn dy ler the Smith Act. Mr. Tobias would please tell him where nursery school, have a constant friends have been intimidated by could be more profitably em=- ote by Inge Hardison his plot of land was he might go back FBI escort. Mr. Hoover’s relentless minions ployed tracking down bomb- . involved five million to Alabama and claim it, The house roared. of the law. Persons possessed with less throwing killers in the everglades mn, am the Anierican Each Christmas card received endurance than Mrs. Jackson of Florida. The Administration may’ have Sxhasty moved on to made up its mind about Claudia Jones e@ Communist Party and Pettis Perry. But if- these two ecently assumed a Communist leaders can speak to Too, ‘Conspired’ enough Negro people and working peo- Harriet Tubman, responsibility for its attle for equality for ple around the country, the govern- a. i ment may have.to change its mind> By CHARLOTTE DORSEY Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, “mediate freedom. Was it “more ‘butes at her birthday former President, tried to intro- ally. right” for the Negro to set For the main thing that strikes you Even President Truman had t a her father, who told duce an anti-slavery petition out for liberty, gun in hand?. d steady voice how Claudia about the woman from the West Indies to publicly “regret” the fact that consisting of excerpts from the Frederick Douglass himself and the man from Alabama is that U.S. citizens today are afraid document. It was tabled. passed through a period of ai¢k and bright ever to sign their names to a petition iad been a little girl, just they are “just like’ millions of other Almost no rich people associ- “non-violent” advocacy. and then containing the immortal words = that although he did ated themselves with the anti- took the position: “The slave’s Negro people from’ one end of this of the Declaration of Independ- Wi, i the views of his slayery societies. To destroy the right to revolt is perfect, and country to another. ence, upon which the liberty of institution of slavery meant to -only wants. the occurrence of ter, he would join this. country was established. o fight’ for her right to Many of the people at the birthday break the power of the top rul-, favorable circumstances to be- They are afraid because today S, shecause he knew party were not Communists and they ing class of the country. So to come a duty.” these sentiments. are. labeled he had dedicated her Seemed to sense this fact. An elderly discredit the Abolitionist move- Today, -Ben Davis sits in jail, “Communism,” and people who br her people. woman said after the affair was over, ment, the slave owners and their “conspire to advocate” them are convicted under the Smith Act. Claudia Jones said: “Well, goodness, that young woman representatives -in Congress Claudia Jones, Pettis Perry, Ben “put in jail. its ask of the Ameri- doesn’t. seem to.be talking about any- shouted that the existing order Carreathers face trial. Dr. James ame kind of respect thing I don’t teach my children to During the stormy days of was “patriotic” and those who Jackson and Henry Winston are fight for every day that the Lord Abolition, gag rule was invoked opposed it were “Reds.” fugitives from this unconstitu- sends.” in Congress against the Declara- Dr. James H. Tornwell, a re- tional law. tion of Independence. John ligious and educational leader In the Abolition period, other

in South Carolina, declared in staunch leaders of their people 1850: defied the Fugitive Slave law. “The parties in this conflict Again and again, Harriet Tub- of Smith Act's Dangers are not merely Abolitionists and man marched into the South, slave holders—they are atheists, gun in hand, and led her peo- socialists, communists, red re- ple North to freedom—with a edited by Roscoe Dunjee. A lead racy—freedom of speech. Tear it publicans, Jacobins on the one price on her head. William Still, editorial stated: “For 36 years down, destroy it and democracy side, and the friends of order Josiah Henson and the hundreds gine Black Dispatch has been an is no more.” and regulated freedom on the of other heroic conductors of ‘open exponent of change. ... But Rev. J. C. Olden wrote in his other. In one word, the world the Underground Railroad, as action has reached a point and column in the Louisville De- is the battleground—Christian- well as the thousands of pas- his place in this country where it fender: “Send the FBI down in ity and atheism, the combat- sengers, risked their lives for teen effectually block constitu- South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, ants; and the progress of hu- freedom—and that was “illegal.” tional changes.” Mississippi and Texas. Let them manity the stake.” he e An editorial in the Afro-Ameri- Other leaders made their way find the guilty parties there and Sound familiar? They even be can said: “The court seeks to to Europe—not to tell the peo- indict them.” There, he said, are all tread a thin line of demarcation had a war in those days, a war ple of Europe how well off the those who are “preventing de- all“ between freedom of speech that against the “inferior” people of slaves were, but.to promote the mocracy from becoming the gov- Mexico to get more land for Ugefarmarks democratic govern- cause of freedom. — ernment of this land.” the slave owners. Decent people n= ments and the stern suppression And so today, in a climate of * of this freedom by totalitarian In Philadelphia, Negro minis- were asking, “What are we do- legal lynchings and bombings, ing in Mexico?” But they were an regimes. ters, civic and union leaders the struggle for equality goes on hee “The line is made so thin that spoke up against the Smith Act. liable to go to jail for opposing in the tradition of Harriet Tub- at Wwe believe with Justice Douglas Heading the appeal were Bishop the war too loudly. man and Frederick Douglass, 4” that we are entering ‘territory C. C. Alleyne of the AME Zion In order to perpetuate slavery, And the fervent words of a poet, “ dangerous to the liberties of Church, Rev. W. C. Williamson the whole democracy of the George Moses Horton, written in every citizen.’ And we might add of the- White Rock Baptist American people was limited Slavery, ring with current meaning: hat it becomes doubly danger- Church and John L. Holton. more and more. Anti-slavery The Negro leaders told Truman: presses were destroyed, anti- is for minority citizens.” Oh, Liberty, thou golden prize slavery meetings broken up, anti- re # ‘And the Boston Chronicle edi- “The struggle to preserve the So often sought by blood— slavery agitators dragged thru e pees: “Today it is the Com- First Amendment to. the Consti- We crave thy sacred sun to rise, the streets, stoned, tarred and qnists; tomorrow it may be tution is inseparable from our The gift of Nature’s God! feathered, jailed and hung. é =ti-Communists.” fight for full citizenship. We Bid slavery hide her haggard . ‘he Philadelphia Tribune said: MEET THE AUTHOR of the agree with Walter White when In the Abolitionist movement face, 5 = (Supreme Court)- opinion, he says, ‘When Ben Davis goes itself, debate raged between the And barbarism fly: ‘ms to us, strikes at one of Smith Act — Rep. Howard W. to jail, a piece of me goes with “gradual emancipation” advyo- him,” I scorn to see the sad disgrace . «wdinal principles of democ- Smith of Virginia. cates and those who wanted im- In which enslaved I lie.

Page 6 : . Editorial 7 Uncle Tomfoolery

Cadillac Leadership |

(Continued from Page 1) W young man of poor education and no standing in the Presi- dent’s eyes. He had not survived a boyhood in the South. Another prosperous colored doctor, one L. R. Hampton of Ocala, Fla., had helped the ‘‘white supremacists” bring in the “guilty” verdict against Irvin. He testified against SE ON Guarp! moving the trial and said he knew of no local white man THOSE RUSSIANS who was prejudiced against Negroes! Now these two doctors are not the same kind. Hamp- ARE TAKING our ton is a tooth doctor and Tobias is a doctor of philosophy FREEDOM Away! —but they have two important things in common. They both speak for their masters—in one case the Truman government, in the other the Klan—and not for their people. And they are both Doctors of Uncle Tomfoolery! * * * NOTHER MEMBER of this happy band of “leaders” is Mrs. Edith Sampson, who told-a Danish audience recently that Negroes in the South are not persecuted. Any time a Negro wants to leave the South, Mrs. Sampson said, all he has to do is take the first bus, train, car or plane out. The fact that the masses stay, she said, is proof that they like it. As FREEDOM goes to press, news reaches us that Robert Lee Cobb has just been lynched by a mob of 125 men in the woods near Colunibus, Miss. The mob chased Cobb with bloodhounds as he ran barefoot through the woods. They riddled his body with bullets and the sheriff boasted: “We finally flushed him out.” : Robert Lee Cobb could not get out of the South and a could not live in it. He did not own a $70,000 home or fine car—the description Mrs. Sampson has given Euro- peans of Negro life in the U.S. A.

* * * ——LETTER COLUMN a. CASE of Dr. Tobias and Mrs. Sampson reflects the J. Off Your Chest crisis in Negro leadership. It is a crisis for what Dr. Get It Pius Barbour, editor of the Baptist Voice, calls our: “‘Cadil-

lac leadership.’” } c in life “Willie’s” Author Writes DOM brings me renewed hope He Got 42 Subs ~ _ That leadership must decide whether its mission that..we are. going to find our, how After a. get-together ; of: «a to “foil the Russians” or to free the Negroesiies" | ocne's. I want you».to: know way out of the present dark- is I was by Miss small group of workers. with not a Russian in’ the mob of 125° around deeply pleased ness. y There was Hansberry’s review of. “A Medal Paul Robeson, I- went back to citizen sat on the I am glad to read that Paul Columbus, Mississippi. Not a single Soviet for Willie” in FREEDOM. Per- my shop (Local. 430, .United Electrical Workers). and got 25 jury which condemned young Irvin to death. And the. haps you can share a part of Robeson’s, records... will . ‘again subs right, away..1 turned those bombs thrown at the home of Dr..Urbane F. Bass in Cairo, my. exhilaration at the . very be. available. I have a few wonderful response to “Willie” in and:kept at it and now I Illinois, were not made in the Soviet Union. but am anxious for more.’ Hé have gotten a total of 42. * 4 when I tell you of the fol- * * starids ‘for everything that is Workers. will buy FREEDOM. lowing: the finest in America today DON’T EXPECT Mrs. Sampson and Dr. Tobias to Several weeks ago 1 received if. you -just. explain .that: it is and my ‘two children never They’re too far gone. They have letter from a white woman Paul Robeson’s paper and only. accept this program. a tire of listening to stories of N. C., telling costs a.dollar. Let’s try it in to do and they’re doing it the best they know how. in High Point, him, ee a job had. read the ‘e- all shops where there are large not opposed to their having their jobs. In that she And we’re view in FREEDOM and ex- Jean. Carlson ‘numbers of Negro workers. more Negroes to high Ralph Simmons fact, we favor the appointment of pressing- a wish. that. it. were Lake. Comichan, New York, N. ¥. diplomatic posts. possible for her. to see the play. British Columbia But we are opposed to anybody’s mistaking them for Then, just before Christmas, Negro people. I. received a. very beautiful. of the aspirations and needs of the spokesmen Christmas card with a long of the United States. This same lady PEACE AND SANITY of our estab- note enclosed. This should be a warning to the leaders told me she had gone to New ‘Tished organizations. Messrs. White and Wilkins of the York and had seen “Willie.” Thought you would enjoy The conductor immediate- Granger of the Urban League: you may fol- She wrote of her great enjoy- this little incident that oc- ly becamé less aggressive NAACP, Mr. and replied, “We can’t make “Red” every ment and special appreciation, eurred the other day on an low the Sampson-Tobias line if you will; cry N&W~ train out of Winston- them move.. We can only lynching, being a white woman from, time Negroes mass their strength to fight against the South who “knew” many Salem. ask them to.” poverty and war. That way, you may land a job in the dip- of the characters practically as I noticed a glass partition The woman then said, lomatie corps and achieve the highest goal within the grasp next-door neighbors. in the middle of the car and “We are. not: moving.” of our Cadillac leadership. All of which made things innocently decided it. was to Unbelieving; the conductor abil- just a bit more cheerful and separate the smokers from turned to the Negro woman. But by the same token you will lose the right and non-smokers! . Just before struggles which are at peaceful and hopeful during “You want to move, don’t ity to play a part in the magnificent the holiday season—and since. the train pulled out the-. you? We find the races are as the © hand and which will lead to our freedom, as surely Pvt. William -B. Branch conductor approached a Ne- happier ‘when separated.” day follows night. Indiantown Gap gro woman. sitting across the aisle ‘from me, and” “No,” ‘she said, “I ‘don’t aim of the genuine Negro leadership of our time is Military Reservation, Pa, want to move,” "> me The pointing to the front section to free the Negro people—not to “foil the Russians.” \ Weapon for Peace of the car, told her she -be- Stunned,; the . conductor longed up there. And so he Jeft the .car.and returned FREEDOM is a weapon for _ with the trainman. I thought peace, and no words can ex- went through the car, shift- ing people around. The once ‘we were in for some trouble. press or. describe the deep They talked the situation yearning of mankind for relaxed and contented pas- over but I was unable to brotherhood .and peace. sengers were all disturbed hear what. they were. say- My grandson is in uniform, and the car was in turmoil. ing until the last helpless training to kill. It seems but Everyone was up changing remark of the conductor: yesterday that, he was my seats against their desire, charge and my darling. My pulling at heavy baggage. “But they don’t want to move.” son has a son, 7, but if As. the conductor started oldest The train moved out of 4 I had no grandsons, I would to take the baggage of a Negro woman te the front a the station and all. the pas- Published monthly by Freedom Associates still work for peace. sengers settled back where We all must wake up! white woman stepped up 53 West 125th Street, New York 27, N.Y. Phone: ENright 9-3980 they. were originally and Lena Caldwell and told him, “You -know gradually peace and sanity EDITORIAL BOARD: PAUL ROBESON, Chairman; Menlo Park, Calif. this is illegal, don’t you? Revels Cayton, Shirley Graham, Alphaeus Hunton, Modjeska M. Simkins, ' This is an interstate train were re-established. E.B. Editor: LOUIS E. BURNHAM General Manager: GEORGE ‘B. MURPHY, Jr. Out of the Darkness and you can’t segregate pas- Walnut Cove, N.C. You are doing magnificent sengers on interstate trains.” 10c per copy; subscription rate—$1.00 a year work, and each issue of FREE-

PE Se fh FEE SUC Se a

a 5 4 FREEDOM Page 7

$ Negro Dancers Are Su perb a But. .. They Don't Get Jobs

By PAULA JONES senting African oe dance A New York dance critic not long ago described how with authenticity to aoe audiences. the famous Leonide Massine of the Ballet Theatre stood Mr. Dafora is currently giving Ba watching a young dancer perform for his judgment. As time to a new idea which may she danced, the entire company leaned from a staircase to be the beginning of an answer watch her. When she. finished to the current dilemma among there was spontaneous applause Of more bread and butter dancers. This is the Harlem —genuine appreciation, artist significance to Negroes are the Dance and Theatre Workshop. to artist. This is how good the popular tap and and the Afro- An un-commercialized com- small, brown dancer was. Yet it Caribbean-Latin companies. Of munity outfit based on the was then that Massine ap- the first, many .of the - great teach-perform cycle, it is proached Janet Collins and names in tap dance have been unique in its low fees and col- said, “Your dancing is very Negro artists: Eddie Rector, Bill lective approach to work. Young strong, but... .” Robinson, the Berry Bothers, Negro people in the community Any Negro in America could the Nichelas Brothers. The imi- are offered a chance to study have finished that sentenee for tation of théir styles has be- ballet, African and other folk him; for in Jim Crow America, come a part of the history of dances and modern dance for the arts are no different from American dance. The-fame of a few dollars a week. Though we » anything else when it comes to these artists led to some illu- interested primarily in attract- hiring Negroes. In fact, at the sions of fairness—which has ing people of the immediate present time every major ballet never existed and does not exist community, the group is inter- company in this country but today, beyond the’ struggles. of racial. if one—the Metropolitan Opera Negro artists to create it. And Groups like these can very Company—has a rigid policy: the. growing number of jobless well be training schools for a no Negroes. tap dancers proves it. new generation of Negro danc- JANET COLLINS’ detiiy. thrills aceaiben Opera audiences— This shows once again the Among the most respected ers. They can also develop into after the Ballet Theatre turned her down because her dancing was false standards of a “white names in the field of African performing companies for our superb... BUT. supremacist” society. Audience and West Indian dances are maturing artists, like the prom- and crities may rave on and on the “dean of African dance,” ising Don McKayle, Mary Hink- about so and so, the “greatest Asadata Dafora, and Brooklyn- son, Elma Lopez and the many audience rose and gave the ‘Don’t mourn for me; organize!” dancer,’ when who knows the born Pearl Primus. Miss Primus others across the country who great Negro singer a thunder- “Robeson’s golden voice filled. potential of scores of hopeful is recognized as the American with their rich talents yet walk ous ovation. the auditorium. Everyone was young Negroes who are exclud- dancer who has done most to about the land with wistful “True, Robeson wasn’t there leaning forward, faces up- ed from the field? On the one popularize dances of the Af- aspiration shining in their eyes. in person to receive this trib- turned. . . . When the last soft hand, Negro artists are cheated rican and West Indian peoples. The admission of, Just one ute. . . . But when Harvey words, ‘I never died, said he,’ of their right to perform, as Mr. Dafora, a native of Sierra Janet Collins every 66 years will Murphy, on the Vancouver end ‘were sung, Robeson paused a artists, and their right to eat, Leone, has pioneered in pre- not satisfy this need. of a person-to-persen tele- moment, then began to speak. as human beings; while audi- phone conversation with Robe- “Refusal to allow me to ences which feign love for the son in Seattle, asked him, ‘Can - cross the border was an act of dance itself are cheated of the you hear that cheering and ap- American administration, not work of perhaps even greater Here’s My Story plause, .Paul?’..the world- an act of the American people,’ dancers than those who now famous bass-baritone chuckled he said, and went on to tell of perform. In any event, who will and replied, ‘I sure can. labor's struggles, of the strug- - By. PAUL ROBESON know until the ballet companies “U.S. action in barring Robe- gles of the colonial peoples for begin te hire Negroes? (Continued from Page 1) convention opened, I tele- son and prominent San Fran- freedom, and the struggles of While the classic ballet .com- Harlem continuously ask, “How phoned a. message from Seattle. eisco lawyer Vincent Hallinan, the peoples of the world for. panies are terrible offenders, is Ben? We need him.”) From this point, I will let Bert who were scheduled to appear peace. the comparatively new modern The Canadians were very Whyte, correspondent of the at the Mine-Mill convention, “And in closing, Robeson dance companies are little, if angry and explained in no un- Canadian Tribune, tell the turned the Denman Auditorium spoke of his own childhood, and any, better. This includes the certain language that this was story: . session into a protest meet- his ‘pop’ who told him, when he highly celebrated Martha no way to build Canadian- ings se: was a little boy: ‘Stand firm, Graham Company, Ruth St. American friendship. OME 2,000 VANCOUVER “(Robeson) began by singing son, stand firm to your princi- Denis, Ted Shawn and most of John Gray of Chicago was citizens heard Paul. Robe- ‘Joe Hill’—the song about the ples.’ to others. Martha Graham, in with me, and he did go across son sing and speak to.an open Western Federation of Miners’ “Said the Robeson of 1952, fact, once gave a scholarship to the border into Canada for a. session of the Mine-Mill na- organizer who was framed on speaking with depth and pas- a young Negro dancer who she few moments, to establish his tional conference in Denman a murder charge in Utah in sion: ‘You bet I will, Pop. as “regretted” could not perform right to do so. Auditorium Feb. 1. At the end 1915, and whose last words as long as there’s a breath in my with her company. The next night, when the of Robeson’s speech the entire he faced the firing squad, were, body.”

Stories for Children é Frederick Douglass Lived a Hard Life as a Slave Child Zz * By ELSIE ROBBINS saw an overseer drag his Aunt Esther across Once, long ago in Baltimore, a young slave the plantation and tie her to a treé and beat a “ boy sat on a wharf watching the long lines of her with a cowhide whip, 40 times. Often he slaves being led from big wooden pens on the fought with the dogs for food that had been dock up the planks and into the holds of ships thrown away. He remembered trying to keep that stood waiting in the harbor. The ships warm on cold nights when he had nothing but. were to take them further south to plantation a little cotton shirt on that was all he had to slavery. On their wrists and ankles were thick, wear. Sometimes it was so cold that his feet heavy iron chains. froze and great gashes split his skin. The boy’s heart nearly broke as he watched. As he sat watching the slaves being herded Sometimes he caught a glitpse of their un- into the ships, he though of all these things happy eyes, and he could hear their cries for and promised himself that some day he, mercy and for freedom. He too had been a Frederick Douglass, would do something to slave on the plantations and as he watched, he remembered the hard live of a slave child. help free his people. He would never forget how his mother, who Later he ran away to the north and joined he

be lived on another plantation, used to come to the Abolitionists, people who were working to see him on strange, short little visits. Once she end slavery. He went about the country making speeches and. raising money, and he pub- ft had walked 12 miles to talk a little with him, and pat his head and give him a ginger cake lished a newspaper called the North Star, that she got from somewhere. He had gone to which told people about the horrors of slavery sleep in her arms that night, feeling warmed and helped bring the time when. the Civil War * ~ and loved, one of the few times in his life. But was fought. a when he woke the next morning she was gone. So it was that Frederick Douglass, the little, .He never saw her again, for she died soon after. slave boy who sat with, tears in his eyes watch-_ All the other memories of his early child- _ing his people going to slavery, became one of; ‘hood were just as terrible and bitter. Once he his country’ s greatest patriots. A 7 kt

FREEDOM

Louisville, Chicago, Coast Victories Conversations Highlight NNLC Job Campaign

from Life DETROIT — The National Negro Labor Council’s drive for 100,000 new jobs for By ALICE CHILDRESS Negroes in industry is setting whole communities in action and producing some notable results. Projects initiated by the Council in many areas are being joined by other community Marge, sometimes I can get thing, if you means business!” forces, and Négro truck drivers, streetcar mptorneen, saleswomen, bank officials and in- so mad at my own folks that dustrial workers are appearing << : : : Look, Marge! I know it’s good in formerly .lily-white jobs. I could just scream. ... Honey, not to eat them oranges . .. but One of the most spectacular I went over to Ruth’s last night you’re missin’ my point. There projects is being carried out at we were-about to bust up this to. talk about startin’ up a ben- Louisville, Keniucky, where a club... so I took the floor. evolent social club. Well, giant new General Electric “Ladies,” I said, “Why is it that Clarice was there and you know plant is expected to hire more every time one of our folks gets than 16,000 workers. Tne Labor that she don’t allow nobody to lynched or bombed, we gets to Council there got the Board of a Negro. She is an arguin’ amongst ourselves? I call her Education to set up classes in have noticed lately in the col- Afro-American. And also Betty armature winding, motor wir- was present, and she says she ored papers that one or two of our folks have been wearin’ ing, trouble shooting and other skills in the electrical field. is colored and not no Negro or their finger out pointin’ at each Both day classes for students Afro-American. ... other, callin’ naines, tellin’ who and night classes for adults are they thinks is a agitator, who. Anyway, we made plans to included. they thinks is Communist, who. give dances and social teas and The Council also achieved they thinks is a white folks’ such... . Next thing we went what it believes to be the first ‘you know what,’ ‘and just on’ to discuss what folks we breakthrough in Jim Crow edu- havin’ a merry old time cussin’, would benefit through this be- cation in Kentucky below the fussin’ and accusin’ each other. nevolent society. . .. Well, dur- college level, when it got agree- in’ the course of the discussion _ “But I have not heard those ment that courses not being Ruth made a crack. .., “If that folks call the Klan nothin’ but given in the Negro high school Florida bombin’ had happened dastardly and shameful. Why would be opened to Negroes in in the West Indies, the people the white school. it!” ladies, I even read where’ one there’ wouldn’t have taken of ’em says, ‘This bombing Broad community support be- There was a short silence and should stop because it plays hind the Council’s program then the. conversation loped into the hands of the Russians helped put it over. The cam- along kind of casual sort of... . and makes bad propaganda paign, says Coleman Young, In a few minutes Betty says, which they can use. . - NNLC executive secretary, may “Tt’s so strange everything is well be a model for other areas so fine in the West Indies but “Now, Mr. and Mrs. Moore where new plants are being they keep comin’ over here:. . -” must be turnin’ in their graves built. Another notable break- At that I chimed in. “I guess when they hear that! Imagine through came in- Chicago, Ruth came from the West askin’ them ‘mean, low-down where the Drexel National Bank Indies for the same reason that 100,000 JOBS FOR NEGRO WORKERS is the main object of the folks to stop killin’ our mamas was forced to hire its first Ne- I came here from So. Carolina.” « Labor Council. This construction worker illustrates and papas-’cause it makes bad gro executive. National Negro of the drive — to win skilled jobs and upgrad- With that Clarice gives us all propaganda! The ‘bank, located. in. ‘the an important part a sharp look and comes up heart’ of the Southside; ‘hired ing programs and break down the restrictions that keep Negro with, “All I can say is that if “So I propose, ladies, that we Negroes only to sweep the workers in*the lowest paid, hardest and most dangerous jobs. use our funds to help build a they had bombed them folks on floors. Management arrogantly Photo by Inge Hardison the Gold Coast in Africa, them shrine to Mr. and Mrs. Moore, defended this policy when a African leaders would have and that we ask every ... Afro- delegation of Council and com- American, colored, black, and -market in the Negro commu- seen to it that somethin’ more munity representatives de- Negro motormen and conduc- was done besides not eatin’ no Negro organization (in other manded jobs for Negroes. tors. nity. words, anybody that may get oranges!” Mass picketing by the Coun- In Los: Angeles, the formerly Winston-Salem is fighting lynched) to help build it and cil, withdrawal’ of substantial lily-white Sears-Roebuck hired the. elimination-of Negro wo- Marge! By this time I could that. we ask any white folks accounts by businessmen, 15 Negro saleswomen. men from the tobacco industry. see this social club: fallin’ apart who are ashamed, - disgraced churches, and trade union Séattle reports new jobs won New York reports breaking before we got it named hardly. and fightin” mad because of the members and growing commu- in the lumber industry. the lily-white policy. of the ... but as mad as I was I had behavior of their own, people nity pressure brought capitula- Muller Dairy trucks, with sev- to credit Clarice for that. last . . to also put their money in “The Detroit Council, which tion. Capt. Harry B. Deas was eral ‘Negroes hired as drivers. crack because there was some thas” got the Ford Co. office Wet hired as assistant service man- And Brooklyn breweries have fac’ in it... . Now just suppose management on the spot, is agreed to open up initial pro- your mama and papa was Well, they are - agreed... ager of the savings department, and continued pressure is being pressuring Detroit Tigers man- duction jobs to Negroes. Addi- bombed to death and. then cause as Betty put it, “If white brought to hire more Negroes. ager: Spike Briggs: to remove tional jobs have been won in somebody pats you on the back folks got the nerve to call a Other gains were reported Jim Crow from local baseball. several other industries. and says, “Don’t worry, we’re black cake a devil and a white from the west coast. The San This is the same Walter Briggs, These and ‘other reports from not goin’ to eat. any more cake a angel... we better Francisco Negro Labor Coun- Jr. of the Briggs Manufactur- around the country indicate oranges!” watch out!” cil’s campaign to break the ing Co. whose workers recently that the NNLC campaign for Honey, I’d say, “Double damn Sure, Marge, you can come to lily-white policy of the Key struck against. speedup. 100,000 jobs has won an enthu- that! You gotta bring more the next meeting ..-.' we'll all System. trans-bay _ street-cars The Flint; Michigan Council siastic response among Negro than your eatin’ habits to this be glad and happy to have you. resulted in the hiring -of 90 is tackling a Jim Crow super- workers. Memo to NAACP: It’s Time to Fight

(Continued from Page 1) “The people of color,” declared the United States. pecially from the Northern bodies, which were not repre= discriminated against.” And the Minnesotan, “who- have There was nothing wrong cities, who did not believe that sented in Washington. Michigan’s Clare Hoffman tried been exploited have had a real with the program as it was an- the 52 organizations who spon- The Washington gathering awakening.” to hide his alliance with the nounced in various speeches, sored the two-day talk. and was a “leadership conference” new Confederacy with red- Listening to him, I couldn’t except the abject parroting of lobbying session now have their and the “leaders” were obvi- baiting and name-calling. the Truman war slogans. A. ously more interested in main- help but think that it is against work cut out. Of course, the delegates were these awakening “peoples of Philip Randolph’s call for pres- taining their respectability in angry and astounded at what color’ that the war program sure on Truman to speak out Sitting in Washington, I the eyes of a war-minded Con- they found. But they had no which he supports is aimed. against the terror and appoint wondered what would happen gress than in blasting the Ad- chance to express themselves in And my thought ran to Florida, a representative committee to when we got back home. Cer- ministration and Congress out the conference which, though where the excuse for the mur- survey the civil rights crisis; tainly if the local chapters of of inactivity on civil rights. organized by the leadership of der of Mr..and Mrs. Harry T. proposals to make civil rights all the organizations which It was an interesting meet- the NAACP, was controlled and Moore (for which no demand an issue in the election cam- made up the capital conclave ing, but it proved what I had led by white labor and govern- for action was made by the paign: from congressmen to the were to get together a lot of felt all along—that if we’re to ment officials. There were alto- conference!) was that Mr. presidency; pressure to have heat could be put on Congress- have civil rights then the rank gether nine persons scheduled Moore was a “trouble maker” every presidential candidate men, and maybe a_pro-civil and file members of NAACP for platform speeches during and a “Negro Communist.” And speak for Negro rights over a rights Congress could be elected and all its cooperating organi- in 752. the mobilization—seven of when I. saw the limitations nationwide hookup—all of these zations are going to have to them were white, four of these placed on participation of Ne- proposals*were acceptable. But And it seems to me that such make their leaders start fight- were United States Senators! there was no chance for the groes in the conference, I won- local coalitions ought to aim ing for freedom and stop dered just how much the con- delegates to say how they at activizing the membership It was left to Sen. Hubert fawning over smug pro-wair Humphrey, Minn., to indicate ference leaders believed in the thought this program could be of these organizations — and just who and what had forced awakening “peoples of color,” achieved. many other organizations, such politicians and comfortable law the calling of the conference. including their own members in There were few delegates, es- as churches, fraternal and civic bor bureaucrats.