The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-05-06
Scottsboro Marchers
To Fight For Civil
Rights For Negroes

innocent boys in the face of their
proved innocence, in the face of
the perjury Of the principle State
witnesses, of the acknowledged in
lection Of race prejudice by the at
torneys for the prosecution, and of
admitted tampering with the jury.
So brazen has been the offensive
of the s-controlled courts of
Alabama in the Scottsboro fight
which has become a test case for
the continued tyranny over the
Negro masses, that the moment has
come for the Negro people and
white working class, as well as all
true friends of Negro liberation to
hurl the challenge: Shall a nation
of thirteen million people continue
to remain oppressed economically,
politically, and socially, or shall the
entire American working class,
white and black, join in unison TO
demand full and unqualified equal
ity for the Negro people!
Finally, the refusal Of Congress to
avail itself of the enforcement
powers granted it by the 18th, 14th
and 18th Amendments, the refusal
of the President to exercise his ex-
eeutive powers to check lynchingS,
has given the stamp of approval,
the status of unwritten law, to the
murderous instigations Of the white
master class of the South against
the Negro masses whom they seek
to keep in perpetual subsection
through the most f1endish terror.
The railroading to long prison
terms of Angelo Herndon and the
five Tallapoosa sharecroppers are
examples of the whole system of
white ruling class oppression, par
ticularly in the South.
The Constitution Of the United
States includes three Amendments
avowedly for the purpose Of giving
political equality to the Negroes.
The following are quotations from
the 18th, 14th and 18th Amend
ments:
"Sec. 1. Neither slavery nor
INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE,
except as a punishment for crime
whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted, shall exist within
the United States, or any place
subject to their jurisdiction.
"All persons born or naturaliZed
in the United States, and sub
ject to the jurisdiction thereof,
~ e Trxst kat
and of the state wherein they
reside. NO STATE SHALL MAKE
OR ENFORCE ANY LAW which
shall abridge the privileges or i'm
munities of CITIZEN of the
United States; nor shall any
state deprive any person Of life,
liberty, or property without due
process of law, nor deny to any
person within its jurisdiction the
equal protection of the laws.
''The right of the citizens of
the United States to vote shall
not be denied or abridged by the
United States, or by any state,
on account of race, color, or pre-
viOus condition of seryitude."
Each Of the foregoing Amend
meilts carries with 1t an enforce
ment clause reading
Congress shall have power to
enforce this article by appropriate
legislation"
The responsibility for the inhu-
man oppression of the Negro people
rests directly upon the white ruling
class and its State and Federal
Governments. Numbers of states
openly launch attacks upon the liv-
ing conditions, liberties and lives of
the Negroes, while the refusal Of
Congress and President to act or
lift a voice, against these atrocities
clearly demonstrates their partner
ship in the onslaught upon the Ne
gro people.
Congress in two fragrant ex-
amples out of many has jumped
to the defense of the lynchers: in
the case Of George Crawford, where
impeachment proceedings were
overwhelmingly voted against Judge
Lowell because he refused the ex-