The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-05-05

broadcast to disilluSon the Negroes with the fake
promises which the miSleaders will certainly
put forth as soon az war is declared.
Here, then, are the facts:
Every dollar loaned, every sacrifice made,
every useful service performed will tend to win
for the coiored American everywhere the fullest
measure of American opportunity" said Emmett
j. Scott Negro assistant to the War Department.
in 1917 How this promise has been fulfilled, the
lynchings, frame-ups and continued discrimi-
nation in the years since the war can testify.
The promise that was made by Scott was in
line with the bait held out to the Negro workers.
The famous editorial by Dubois, "C1ose Ranks"
urged the Negroes to forget lynching, to "for-
get" persecution and to join hands with the
bosses in the imperialist war. Kelly Miller and
all the other misleaderS swung into 1ine.
AS early as the spring Of 1915, a group OF Ne
gro bourgeois newspaper editors were called to
Washington, ostensibly to attend certain social
functions and to lecture, but in reality to con-
fer with the white masters as to how best to
pun the Negro masses into the slaughter when
the o. s. entered it. Another conference was
held early In 1917. committee Of 100 Negroes
preachers, doctors editors, university directors
etc.-was formed, whose function was 10 hold
out fake promises. and to quen the discomfort of
the Negro masses with lynching and Jim-Crow,
in civilian life and in the army.
Lynching of Negroes ana Negro Soldiers During
the War.
With the declaration of war wave of lynch
ing swept the country. The Messenger, Negro
magazine, gave the figure of 247 Negroes mobbed
and lynched in the first year after the war
Tuskegee Institute, whose figures are always far
below the actual total admits that SO Negroes
were Enched in 1918, and SO in 1917. Five of
these were women
In many places Negro soldiers appearing in
uniform were mobbed. At vicksblrg, Miss, Lieu
tenant Joseph B. Saunders, Negro officer was
abused, Knocked off the sidewalk and beaten
Lieutenant Charles A. Tibbett, on his way to
Fort Sill. Okla, was stopped by sheriff and
lynch mob, which ordered him off the train,
Jailed him, and fined him "for riding in car
with whites" The Eighth Illinois Regiment,
travelling to Camp Logan, Texas was jeered at
and stoned on the way, and a massacre of these
Negro troops was barely prevented at way
station in Texas. Noble Sissle, member of the
18th National Guard Unit in training at Spar
hamburg, s. c., went into white hotel to buy
a newspaper He was knocked down by the white
proprietor and nearly lynched. With the help
Of EmIneh Scott. the men Of the regiment were
persuaded mot to do anything about it."
The GROWING infamy in the treatment Of
Negro soldiers during the war was the hanging
legal lynching-of 13 members of the oath In
fanry at Houston Texas, in 1917. When the
Oath Infantry arrived at Camp Logan, near
Houston, they made it clear that they resented
the local Jirn-Crow laws, which the officials
were determined TO enforce. On August "a, 1917
Negro soldier, on leave in Houston, saw white
policeman brutally beating Negro woman
When the Negro soldier tried to interfere, he
was killed. Later in the day, the same officer
ar and fad offs IF
the Path for daring to speak TO him. Lynch
spirit ran high! Three thousand whites led by
local businessmen, assembled in front Of fire
station The brave soldiers of the 34th marched
out of camp. determined to defend themselves
and to avenge their many insults They were
arrested; "a were tried IN secret court-martial;
all were found guilty and Is were secretly
hanged
Both in the United States and in France, the
lying charge Of rape" was used to arrest and
lynch Negro soldiers. and to instin race hatred
into the minds Of the French. In the midst OF
active preparations. General Hay assembled his
brigade TO tell them to treat French women ~as
they had been accustomed to treat white women
In the q. g." At Camp Dix, NJ J., the 34sth and
350th Field Artillery we're forced to stay on the
grounds for many days, on the excuse that
some member of the regiment had raped the
actress sweetheart of Captain Schultz
At Isortile, France, a Negro soldier was
lynched in 1913 on the charge of raping white
girl Actually, white soldier, taking advantage
Of the feeling engendered against the Negroes,
had blacked his face. At Locatine, Army Post
No 70, Is Negro soldiers were arrested in Octo-
Der, 1918, on the charge Of attacking French
girl On this excuse the M P.'s attacked the
Negro troops the members Of the 317th Ammu-
milton Train and the 349th, 350th and 351st
Field Artillery, and the Negro troops were forced
to break into the ammunition and shoot in
self-defense
What the boss press called "race riots but
what were-like all race riots"-carefully
PLANNED and prepared attacks upon large groups
OF Negro soldiers. took plaoe at Newport, Csnp
urtp0 osrH Mx1N ar6 Came Grant