The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-08-12
COLORED WOMEN
PREVENT PROTEST
AT SEGREGATION
Patriotic Song browns
Question to Official

Three thousand falsetto voices,
shrieking 1.-THE Star-Spangled Ban
ner" at the command Of President Hal
lie Q. Brown at the final session OF the
convention Of the National Associa-
ton of Colored Women, at the Wen
dell Phillips high school, effectively
drowned out the voice of Negro man
in the audience who attempted to take
to task Acting Secretary Of Labor
Theodore G, Risley for the policy OF
segregation which is rigidly applied
to all employees of government depart
ments in Washington.
Risley-short, bow-legged and bald
who had been sent from Washing
ton to address the convention in place
of Secretary of Labor Davis, had Just
blown the last bugle call of mill
tant war speech, when a tall Negro
man arose in the audience, shouting,
Let me ask the secretary Of labor one
question"
Miss Halle @. Brown-stately in a
black and silver gown and glittering
with jewelry-brought her gavel down
on the table with determined rap.
mo questions may be put to the sec
Rotary of labor" she ruled.
Again came the voice of the tall
Negro: Il want to ask the secretary Of
labor one fair question"
The splendid lady on the platform
waved delicate hand to the pianist;
the pianist struck up "The Star-Span-
gled Banner" and the audience rose
to its feet and howled in unison. But
not before the black man had shouted
last word: you're afraid You're
afraid to ask white man for your
rights"
The militant Negro was Mr.. j. ].
Napier of Nashville, Tenn. Back in
1912, Mr.. Napier told the DAILY
WORKER, he held a minor position
in the treasury department in Wash
ington. Because of the stringent Jim
Crow regulations which permeated
every department of the government
he quit. He had assumed that the
democratic administration was respon-
sible for the policy of segregation.
He found that the republican admin
istration took no steps to remedy it.
Mr.. ]. ]. Napier had wanted to ask
Secretary Of Labor Risley why Hard
ing and Coolidge hadn't thought it
worth while to give Negro employees
of the departments the right to use
the same stairways, the same elevat-
ors, the same Mushrooms used by the
white employees.
The last day of the convention Of
colored women witnessed no such
burst Of spontaneous enthusiasm as
had greeted Robert w. Bagnall's de-
nunciation of the Khan and the re-
publican party. The leaders, it is
true, couldn't prevent Mrs. Rose
Haynes, who works among Negro
girls in industry, from demanding
that Risley install Negro woman in
a responsible position in the depart
ment of labor But the audience Of
three thousand women was fairly do
cile while Risley, six years after the
close of the world war, shot on anti
German popguns and howled for mill
tary preparations. They swallowed
without blinking his assertion that one
Of the reasons for the passage Of the
Johnson immigration bill is that Ne
gro girls can work most factory ma
chimes as well as men of foreign birth.
They endured an hours eulogy of the
republican convention by Mrs. George
S. Williams, who praised the party
for Having in its ranks most Of the
country's multi-milionaires."
And Miss Halle @. Brown, retiring
from the presidency in favor of her
successor, Mrs. Mary Bethune, re-
ceived from Roscoe Simmons, repub-
lican organizer among Negroes, the
gift of very satisfactory job in the
ranks of the republican party.