Twin-City herald. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1927-1940, 1935-09-07
The Way Out
BY Loren Miller
/ SMALL TOWN STUFF

The Los Angeles Y. M. C. A. gain
Cd a small measure of a peculiar
kind of fame recently when it closed
its doors to Langston Hughes who
was scheduled to speak there for a
quite respectable organization. 1t is
easy to set this amazing episode
down to provincialism and let it go
ut that. The trouble is that that is
not the real sorry.
happen to be well acquainted with
Mr.. Baxter s. Scruggs, secretary of
the Los Angles Y. M. C. A., and know
that he is a nice enough fellow who
prides himself on his liberality. I
suppose that he must have read some
of Mr.. Hughes work and that he
was not particularly harmed by them.
As q matter of fact, my operatives
report that he was quite abashed at
having to exclude the poet.
Strange Company
The order itself came from two
gentlemen who are fairly well known
in the country. One of them, Claude
Hudson, once served as a national
board member of the N. A. 9. C. P.
and the other, Albert Baumann, still
graces the national board of the Ur-
ban League Both of the men are
quite ambitious members of the Los
Angeles community and l am sure
both Of them pride themselves on
their years of service to the Negro
people in their respective fields of
endeavor.
A little inquiry on the part of
either of them would have revealed
the fact that both the Urban League
and the N. A. A. c. P. are looked
upon as dangerous bodies in the
wilds of Alabama. I have heard both
men make statements for which they
might have been burned at the near
est stake in Mississippi. They are
keeping strange company when they
join forces to curtail free speech.
Who Owns Them?
have no doubt that both had heard
grumblings from the Big White
Folks coupled with whispered warn
ings against radicals. There, I
think, is the crux of the whole mat
ter. The question is: to whom do
Negro Y. M. c. AS belong? Ask
any Y. M. C. A. secretary and he
will fare right back with the inform
ton that the "Y" is a community
institution belonging to the Negro
people of he community. At least,
Mr.. Scruggs will.
II it is rue that the Y. M. C. A.
belongs to the community, it seems
simple enough that the people of the
community should have the right to
hear any person they want at their
own institution. Reports have it
that plenty Of Los Angeles people
were on hand to hear Mr.. Hughes.
They were prevented from doing SO
at the behest of those who would
control Negro opinion.
Old Story
There is plenty of reason for the
desire of sinister forces to control
Negro opinion. 1t is an open secret
that, Negroes are pretty well dissatis-
fed with the existing set-up. Why
shouldn't they be? We are the hard
est hit by the mushroom ills of the
past six years. If there is any spark
Of struggle left, we ought to be plot
ting ways and means of lettering our
own lot.
The effort to prevent Negroes
exercising free speech is an old one.
Frederick Douglass was barred from
some of our best churches and 'lead-
ing" Negroes Stunned John Brown
like poison. In our own day Dubois
was branded dangerous radical.
The point is that any semblance of
thinking by Negroes is frowned upon
by those who profit, directly or in
directly, out of excepting the Negro
in his place." Negroes, like Mr.
Scruggs or Mr.. Hudson or Mr.. Pau.
mann, who connive at these efforts
are only preparing halter for their
ow necks. If they aid in preparing
a Fascist America they can ge pretty
certain that they will occupy cells
right close to that one assigned to
Nj. Hughes.