The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1921-06-11

IL Will be recalled that the I" i'm
crow assistant business was started
during the world war, when the then
secretary of war appointed colored
man as confidential clerk as
shown" by the official records. It was
given out that he was Especial as
sistant to the secretary of war; and
many of the people were deceived
and really believed that a colored
man had been appointed assistant
secretary of war. 1t was evidently a
camouhage for that specific purpose.
Those who were versed in such things
knew that real assistant secretary
to any member of the Presidents
cabinet, must be nominated by the
President and confirmed by the Sen
ate. The so-called Especial assistant"
to the Democratic secretary of war
was simply a Handy man" to act as
a buffer between Baker and the col
ored people when they came to make
complaints about the outrageous
treatment Of the colored soldiers in
the jimcrow cars and jimcrow train
ing camps in the United States and
in the labor battalions and on the
firing line in France. The Especial
assistant" had no actual status as an
official Of the government.
In the campaign of 1920, THE APP
PEAL called the attention of the
Republican managers to the fact that
in a previous campaign, Marcus A.
Hanna had appointed three colored
men as actual members of the Ad-
visory Committee of the Republican
National Committee and advised that
the same be done in the Harding
Coolidge campaign and that i'm
crowism be entirely eliminated. In
this THE APPEAL, was supported by
a number of prominent colored men
from all parts of the country. Then
Henry Lincoln Johnson of Georgia
won for himself his place as Repub-
lican national committeeman from
Georgia. THE APPEAL was proud
of his success which he had achieved
in spite of the efforts of Roosevelt
and other leaders to prevent his elec-
ton, and sent him a letter of con-
graduation and suggested that he
ought to be memebr of the execu-
tive committee of the party organ
lzation and offered what little aid
that could be thrown his way. He
was asked to use his influence to- pre-
vent any segregation in the campaign.
No reply came to this letter. On
July 3, 1920, a second special delivery
letter was sent to Mr. johnson con-
tanning the following: "You should
have been made a member of the
executive committee of the Repub-
lican National Committee. Many
women, novices in politics were put
on it-why not you? I had hoped
that you would step into the inner
circle of party management. Hope it
is not yet too late, can anything be
done?" No reply was ever received
to this letter, but shortly after a
special 'colored' bureau was organ
lied with Mr.. Johnson as the head
and Mr.. Perry Howard as secretary.
THE APPEAL continued it's work
of trying to get pledges from the
Republican party leaders that they
would cut out segregation in the de-
partments in Washington and else
where, if they were successful in
electing their candidates. Howard
got hold of one of the letters ad-
dressed to one of the Republican par
ty officials and replied in part as
follows: ~, perchance came across
a copy of your letter, and I find that
you are true to your previous record
in standing out for those things
which affect our interests. I think,
however, in this instance, you press
the issue bit too far" i =
'You will recall that until the Demo-
cratic party assumed control of af-
fairs at Washington, there was no
segregation at Washington. Then, why
should we demand that the Repub-