AME Zions — Half Million Strong — Back Paul Robeson Passport Fight Mrs. Sampson and State Dept. Sit Out Vote as 3,000 Cheer ESO ee ce con On May 16, Senior Bishop William J. Walls took the microphone ata session of the 34th quadrennial conference of the AME Zion church and said to the assembled audience of 3,000 delegates and visitors: JUNE, 1952 ee 1 10c “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- Jeader 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 by Negroes in the past decade. Joined him in singing songs be- ‘That action brought to Mr. ‘As a State Department rep- loved in the Church and by the Robegon’s suppport in the fight resentative, she called for sup- Negro people. to restore his right to travel port of U.S. foreign policy and abroad, the backing of the third sald, “If America goes. down He ended his performance by largest Negro church denom- the drain, we go down with it.” saying that he had been born ination in the country, boast ‘As Mrs. Sampson left the and brought up. in. the AME ing. 600,000 members ‘in the stand and Mr. Robeson and a Zion Church. He pointed out United States, the Carribean group of artists rose to present that he had always fought and area and Africa the cultural program of the would continue to fight as long In calling for the action, evening, the two outstanding as he lived for the oppressed, Bishop Walls noted that the personalities exchanged greet- peoples of the world. State Department's brief in the ings. Then Robeson and the Tt was in the midst of the Passport case which is now be- Supporting artists presented a thunderous applause which fore the Circult 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. ofthe -independenco- of tory..of. the church... Robeson that the Church of Zion is in the colonial peoples of Africa.” reelted 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 years until it was cancelled FORTY THOUSAND ADMIRERS gothered at the International 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 SEE STORY ON PAGE 8 conference climaxed the most By ESLANDA G. ROBESON see page 2 [DuBois Calls Third Party Only Hope in 1952 | By W.E.B. DuBOIS @iscussion on platform or over ties. There is no choice of cai the publishers will print, and cast our votes for men, not for What is wrong with the radio; in newspapers or peri- didates whether his name is Ei what the movies will screen, Generals or College Presidents United States? We are an in- odicals. Nearly every indepen- senhower or Taft, Kefauver or ‘They are united in that super- or Rich Men's babies. telligent, rich and powerful dent thinker has been silenced, Stassen or Warren, Dulles or congress of which the National Vote! ‘That is what demo- nation, Yet today we are con- while stool-pigeons, _ traitors Dewey, Joe or Charlie MeCar- Association of Manufacturers eracy is for. There is no ques- fused and frightened. We fear and professed liars ‘picked by thy. Ail of them listen to their is the upper house and the Na~ tion: We can-have peace if we poverty, unemployment and wealth, industry and power, master’s voice, the steel trust, {ional Chamber of Commerce is want peace; we can have war jail, We are suspicious not only can talk to the nation unham- the aluminum trust, the rub- the lower, which are preparing We want war; and if we don't Of enemies but especially of pered and ungagged. .. ber combine, the automobile world war to rule mankind and know what we want or don't friends. We shrink before the What can we Go about it? Induistry; oll, power, plastics, reduce again the worker not dare to tell, we will get what- world and are ready to make How can we face and heal our the railroads, tobacco, copper, simply to.slavery but to idiocy. ever makes the most money for war on everybody. General Ei- plight? Not by silence, not by chemicals and coco-cola, tele What can you do about it? those who own Congress. We senhower has assured us that fear; not by voting again for graph and telephone; liquor; Vote for a Third Party. There ean get low taxes, social secur- “we can lick the world,” and the same old parties and going radio and movie—ali of the is absolutely no other way. A ity, housing ‘and slum clear- we are preparing to ‘spend continually ‘over the same more than 200 giant corpora- Third Party or die! . ance; social medicine; cheap seventy billions of dollars to mumbo-jumbo of meaningless tions which wield the power light, heat and telephone ser- do it, even when we do not elections. We are boasting we that owns the press and the « If we are going to have dem- vice; decent schools taught by know whom to fight or why or are free when we are not free magazines, and — determines ocracy in America, we must or- teachers with guts; strectear how. Of the 35 civilized nations even to cast our ballots, We what news the news agencies ganize the Third Party by fares spent on passengers and of the world, we and Japan are are peddling freedom to the will distribute; what opinions homes and blocks; we must not on subway bonds born in the only ones who have refused world and daring them to op- jam meetings and halls. We dishonesty; all this any people to sign the International Trea- pose it and bribing them kindly must contribute our little dol ean have, if they dare vote for ty promising not to resort to to accept it, and dropping Jars, remembering that the it, germ warfare; and it Is widely death on those who refuse it; dollars of the masses can out- Tam not one who despairs charged that we are now using while we, the real victims, weigh the huge endowments of even when brasshats and bacteria in China, whose taxes furnish the bribes the business foundations, and thieves seem triumphant and We are deprived from day to and whose dead and crippled that full employment and high it costs a man life, liberty and day of knowledge of the real and insane children furnish wages which now depend on happiness to dare express his facts, Our sons fight and die the soldiers, sit and ask with murder and destruction can. opinions, when this nation is ‘and we cannot learn why or vacant faces: for whom shall have a more civilized founda- about to be black-jacked into hhow. Deaths by bullets are re- we vote, which candidate shall tion In housing, hospitals and selecting as President a war= ported but deaths by freezing, we vote for, and if you please, schools. We must listen to facts maker who cannot reveal a accident and disease are con- dear eandidate—will you kindly and read reason instead of be- policy because he has none to eealed. We are allowed no free please tell us: what the hell do ing entertained by stupid radio reveal; when we have crime you stand for anyway? Is it and television advertisements because there is no essential ener Yoo much for us (0 ask your and tawdry, vulgar pictures. ethical difference between pri- (Excerpts from the Keynote Majesty? We must know the issues and speech delivered at a Progres~ talk about them and tell others, vate theft, big business meth- sive Party rally in Madison Sq. Yet we are fooling nobody, We must unite our wards, vil- ods and public graft, Beneath Garden, N. Y., May 13.) not even ourselves. We have no Inges and cities into a nation, this stampede and filth; this eS choice. ‘There are no two par~ E. B, DuBOIS and in November, rain or shite, (Continued on Page 2) Page z FREEDOM Mrs. Edith Sampson Tells Europeans National News Florida was news in the Negro press again last month with the birth of a new white supremacist hate organization called Negroes Are Happy, Almost Free the “White Democrats of the South.” To join is to pledge: “...1 By ESLANDA G@.