The Omaha guide., 1934-06-30

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla, June 81
Thousands of white people all over
America gladly would join the Ma
tional Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People and support
its program if they we're properly
educated and recruited by colored
people.
This was the assertion of Miss Mary
White Ovington, treasurer of the as
ISOLATION, and ore of its founders in
1909, in her address to the opening
mass meeting Of the 25th annual CON
10 n c tc night at Calvary Baptist
church.
Miss Oyilgton declared most white
Fs@pie were "abysmally ignorant" of
the problems OF Negroes and urged
colored people to drop their own race
prejudice and APPROACH whites imam
to man" and ask them to join in the
work of the association. After tell
ing something of the beginning of
the association andits achievements
in the past twenty-five years, Miss
Ovington appealed for a larger white
membership, saying:
There is one very noticeable
change between the Association of
twenty-five years ago and the Associa-
ton of today. the proportion of Ne
groes to whites. At our first con-
ference, held in 1909 in New York
City, the number of white and colored
was about even. Today the whites
are not one in a hundred. Only at
the meeting Of the board. do we have
decisions that represent i%nterracial
| discussions.
Il shall not attempt to analyze why
this is, but I believe it to have been
a policy, unconscious perhaps, but
nevertheless a policy, of the Negro
members. 1t is they who have form
branches throughout the country,
they who have sent in their fifty
names necessary to secure a charter.
Rarely is a white mans name among
the number. And this not only in
sections where the whites might not
be in sympathy with so radical a Ne
gro program as outs but also in cities
where there would be no difficulty in
scouting white membership. Branch
organizations are colored and the
white man who might be interested
knows nothing about them.
'"This is not true of a few Of our
large cities. Judge Jayne of Detroit,
David Pierce of Cleveland, Miss Nc
Dowell Of Chicago, the late Moorfield
Storey of Boston; these have been
and some still are loyal and impart-
ant supporters to the ause. At one
time Harold L. Ickes, secretary of the
interior, was president of our Chicago
branch. Senator Capper was long
active in the Topeka, Kans. branch.
In New York Governor Lehman is
OllC VI Jul AuOoC 4Oyo1 ouPPO1 OSAo' L
could name others, important people
who have been interested in our move
ment. But they are exceptions. The
fact remains that the Negro has
segregated himself in the N. A. A.
G. P.
Must Educate Whites
segregation. That is a word that
brings instant attention in a colored
audience today. DR.. Du Boic' editori-
al, that pointed out a value in segre
cation, was repudiated by the bulk Of
his readers. But what I want TO
ppoint out is that it is not the white
mar that does all of the segregating.
For twenty-five years I have watched
the N. A. "A. G. p. become more and
more an organization manned by n
race only.
"For myself | can see no advantage
in these tactics. This is a movement
for larger opportunity for On Cypress
ed minority. But ultimately this
opportunity will be given by the
majority. Why then. make no effort