The Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1931-1952, 1932-06-23
old Jim Grow" Is
Barred From Camp
lContinned from Page u

for America and Democracy, and
they all are trained men at that.
5000 IColored Vets Thursday Night
There were approximately $500
colored veterans in Camp late Thurs
day, with more arriving every hour,
it was reported by Sergt Clifford L.
Ford, a stalwart dark vet from Cam
den, N. j., who has been singled out
as "leader" of the colored vets.
Six hundred arrived in various
eontingents during Wednesday night.
A most touching fact was that as
each new contingent arrived at the
camp, the first place they made for
was the mess tent, where they were
permitted to replenish their empty
stomachs, for they arrived hungry
almost invariably.
At the automobile entrance to the
camp there were "traffic cops, vets
appointed by their fellows and work
ing in shifts, who directed the
steady inflow of visitors and cars
which poured into the camp contin-
uously. There was no jim crow here
either, for welding authority with
equal levity as the white vets were
brown-skinned boys who wore a
cheerful grin.
In fact, the only hostility observed
at the camp is toward communists,
with dire and sundry mutterings
being heard whenever the word
''red" was mentioned. According to
Sergeant Ford there are some reds
in the camp, but every effort is
made to locate them and throw them
out.
OF the entire outfit with the
southern group the Richmond, Va,
outfits under the command of Capt
Thomas B. Dubbs, white, have the
best accommodations. Having trav-
eled to Washington in trucks, the
men, by some means, were success
full in getting enough army mat
tresses for the 210 men in their
group. OF that number, 81 are col
ored. To them five tents have been
allotted.
Among the men who are living in
the camp under similar conditions
as when they were in the service of
the United States military forces
are three Indians, one Hindu and
two native-born Africans. All of
them travelled from Oklahoma.
The most outstanding feature of
the camp is the company of bonus
seekers who are under command of
Lieut.. Clifton C. Boyd of Beaumont,
Texas, who is well known throughout
the east for his theatrical work sew
eral years ago as an acrobat. Boyd
is the only colored man command
ing a colored company. He is Sc
years of age. He left his wife and
home to join the ranks of bonus
forces.
Joseph Lewis and Leonce Roux,
both from the Creole sector of Lou
isiana, went over and came back
gassed; today they are at Camp Ana
costa declaring that they are there
to stay right with the boys, even
if they did have to come more than
a thousand miles for it. They made
the trip from New Orleans in two
weeks, and say that the only diff
ficulty they encountered was from
sundry southern policemen who
would not cooperate with them and
help them. They arrived Wednesday
night from their long trek from the
bayous, and their faces wore the
same grim, determined look that the
rest of their fellows had.
AS usual in all groups, there al
ways is one man who stands out as
a leader and is regarded as such
by reason of instructive natural
ability and choosing. In this case
the leader of the Negroes in this
"strangest of strange armies" is
Clifford l. Ford, a sergeant, of Cam
den, n. j., who commanded a group
of IS Negro veterans from Camden
into the camp, where his natural
ability as leader soon asserted
itself and elevated him to one of
the chief aides of the commander
in chief, A. A. Altman. Sergeant
Ford is taken into conference on all
matters that pertain to the camp
by the leaders. The boys call him
"The Sarg".
Black and white alike join in the
earnest assure that: eve are not
here to take anything or make
anybody give us; We are here be
cause we need that which we want
that which we are asking for, and
we are here as American citizens
and sleeping under the same flag
for which We fought and bled.
over each "tent" and shelter file.
the Ssars and Stripes