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“Oh, No, Brother, Nobody’s Going to Forget About Willie McGee” By SHIRLEY GRAHAM Willie liked a good time just as much as any- his death cell. body else. Some evenings he would shoot pool with Willie McGee’s steady, quiet voice is still. His feet “This incident I tried every way I could to avoid. the gang at Pete’s, sometimes he and Rosie, his wife, won’t walk no more and, for the first time since I left town and dodged her. She always ‘give me would take in a movie at the Strand, the one “For he was born, his hands are folded across his breast. down the country. Many times I have been picked Colored.” But Willie was smart. He worked hard But Willie McGee’s not dead. Oh, no, brothers, he’s up on Jefferson Street by Mrs. - - - leaving there and he never got into trouble—that is, not until not dead. He’s just planted in the soil of Mississippi off the Negro school grounds, going out Jefferson he did a job at that woman’s house and she saw Street to the Negro cemetery, in the good, black soil of Mississippi, and things him. bring me back at-the down there will never be the same no more. same place I get out the car, a 1937 Ford. I would Willie McGee was what they sometimes refer to go home. Just any time she wanted something Walking around Laurel, Willie was just one of the as a “likely buck.” He wasn’t so large but his body done she would come to the house and get me.” many black “boys” from across the tracks. He’d cost was firm and hard, his shoulders broad and his _ Rape—the Mississippi court. the sovereign State of Mississippi very little for smooth black skin rippled over flowing muscles. said. That’s a laugh! Only it wasn’t schooling and such. The town paid no attention to Easy to see that Willie was a good man. funny to Willie McGee, nor to Rosalee, his wife, or his four children. the street where he lived. Nobody ever saw a water He told how it was a few hours before they sprinkler going down that street. Even after Willie strapped him into the electric chair. They printed Nobody ever saw the like of what happened in married and was the father of 4 chlidren they called his words in the Jackson Daily News. Even people Jackson, the capital of Mississippi that weekend. him “boy.” That’s the way it was in Mississippi. in Mississippi know that a man don’t lie sitting in (Continued on Page 2) Here’s ON THE INSIDE Acheson Calls on Georgians My Story to Revolt By PAUL ROBESON editorial, p. 4 In the Freedom Family p.5 UST GOT BACK from the West Coast and an The Story of Octavia exciting visit with trade Hawkins union leaders and rank and Vol. 1, No. 6 SUNE, 1951 filers who are charting a oR 178 10c A Copy new course in American la- bor history. The recent con+ vention: of . the National Union of Marine Cooks and Mass Demand Backs Court Fight Stewards. set a standard in labor’s struggle for the full rights and dignity of the Negro To Abolish Segregated Schools people that other unions in our country might do well to emulate, By DOXEY A. WILKERSON Revels Cayton, the dynamic HEN lawyers for the union leader who is now an or- ganizer for the NAACP went before Distribu- the three-man Federal Cir- tive, Processing cuit Court of Appeals in and Office Chariseton, S. C., on May 28, Workers in New with a petition York 7an a asking the George Mur- court to restrain and enjoin phy, our gen- the all-white county school eral manager Officials from effecting “any at FREEDOM, distinction based on race or made the trip color in making with) me and available to we all had au the plaintiffs whatever op- exciting and. fruitful time. portunities, advantages and “Rev” has his roots deep in the facilities are provided for Coast where for. many years School children in Clarendon before coming to New York, he County, South was the outstanding Negro Carolina,” a labor leader in a vast area that new high level was reached stretches from San: Diego to in the Negro’s historic strug- Seattle. He was leader of the gle for education. MCS, and was closely asso- Dixecrat Governor James Ss. ciated with the struggles of the Byrnes, anticipating International Longshoremen’s the pos- Sibility that the cases may and Warehousemen’s Union — suc- ceed, has repeated his the men who keep the cargo public announcement that “South moving on the docks and in Carolina will abolish the public the huge warehouses of the SEGREGATED EDUCATION was challenged by this group of high school students in Rich- school system before allowing coastal cities and whose presi- mond, Va., in 1948. Led by Lester Banks, state secretary, and (behind him) Martin A. Mar- Negroes and whites to attend dent, Harry Bridges, is one of tin attorney, of the NAACP, the group is met on the steps of King George High School by T. the same schools.” the finest union leaders of our Benton Gayle, county superintendent of schools, They demanded admission to the all-white school But Negro day. on the parents all over ground that the county had failed to provide equal facilities for them. Their request the For “Rey” it was like old South are proclaiming that was called “unreasonable” and “illegal.” Now the NAACP has taken its challenge of the school they will home week as we sat with his no longer tolerate system to the courts. such old colleagues in informal bull facilities as the primitive, run-down and unhealthful sessions which got to the heart Ne- gro elementary of the problem the MCS and DePriest Death Recalls Fighting Ga. Solon schools in School ali unions face: strengthening District 22 of Clarendon The recent death of Oscar DePriest, first County, the bond of unity between its upon its intrinsic merits, I wish the members where modern, spa- colored man ever elected to Congress from a Negro and white members, of this House to understand the position I cious, well-equipped elementary Northern state, focused attention on the Ne- The problem can be simply take. I hold that I am a member of this body. schools are provided for white gro’s historic role in the legislative affairs of children. stated: Therefore, sir, I shall neither fawn or cringe A similar suit has been the country. An AP dispatch claimed that filed by (1) The union faces the com- before any party, nor stoop to beg them for NAACP attorneys in DePriest, first elected from Chicago in 1928, bined attacks of government my rights....I am here to demand my rights, Prince Edward County, Va. was the second Negro elected to the House of agencies and greedy waterfront and to hurl thunderbolts at the men who The traditional and quite il- Representatives. The Negro, press quickly would dare to cross the threshold of my man- employers because of its unre- lusory goal of “separate but nailed this deliberate distortion, pointing out lenting fight for the economic hood. There is an old aphorism which says, equal” schools for Negroes is that 20 Negroes had served in the House before Fight the Devil with fire, and) if I should rights of its members and its ' abandoned in these cases. Here DePriest’s election, observe the rule in this instance, I wish is a new and fundamental chal- progressive, pro-peace pro- A prime example of the Negro’s fight to gram; gentlemen to understand that it is but fight- Jenge to the whole structure of hold on to the legislative toehold won after ing. them with their own weapon... Segregated schools. Moreover, (2) The union can only with- the Civil War comes from Georgia. In 1868, 25 stand these attacks if the mem- unlike earlier challenges on the members of the State Legislature were ex- You may expel me, gentlemen, but I firm- graduate and _ professional bership stands solid behind a pelled because they were Negroes. Following ly believe that you will someday repent it. militant, uncompromising lead- school level, these new Virginia are excerpts from a speech delivered in the The black man cannot protect a country, if and South Carolina cases at- ership; Georgia House by Henry M. Turner, protesting (3) This solid unity of the the country doesn’t protect him; and if, to- tack school segregation at its the ouster order: morrow, a war should arise, I would not raise base, in the public elementary membership depends more than Mr. Speaker: (Continued on Page 2) Before proceeding to argue this question (Continued on Page 2) (Continued on Page 3) = Page 2 \ FREEDOM Here’s My Utory By Paul Robeson (Centinued from Page 1) world-wide struggle te save the tend the Korean war (under life of Willie McGee. And it the banner of Confederate ever on a new kind of fight against Jim Crow, not only in was a reassuring sign to see flags!) te the whole continent the men from the ships “hit union affairs and contract ne- of Asia by refusing to make the deck” in the Golden Gate an honorable peace of equality gotiations, but in every aspect of American life. Commandery Hall, owned by with the’ 475 million Chinese Macedonia Baptist’'Church, and people. Whether by the Mac- For the Negro members know vow vengeance against the Arthur or the Truman plan, it that their people are now suf- lynchers.

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