The guardian. [volume] (Boston, Mass.) 1901-1960, 1939-03-25
LOOKING AROUND
and BEYOND
By
FRANK R. CROSSWAITH

AS AN EXAMPLE of the enlight-
ened and emancipated position of the
responsible leaders of the I.L.G.W.U.
regarding race and color we have in
vited Brother Samuel Shore to be our
guest this week Brother Shore is
Manager of Local 81 of the I.L.G.W.U.
also an executive of the Colored Labor
Committee The following is part of
a speech delivered by Brother Shore
in the weekly educational program
which his local union conducts each
Tuesday night over radio station
WEVD.
"The history of mankind is filled
with tragedies of peoples and races
who were held in bondage. Down
through the ages nations have been
built and men have grown rich by
virtue of their ability to exploit others.
1t is only within comparatively recent
years that those who labor in the
mines, mills, factories and work shops
have achieved a status of free men and
women. Today throughout most of
the democratic countries men have q
right to organize and defend their
rights as humans.
Many races have been subjected to
the will of others, but the most humili-
ating experience is that of the Col
ored race. More than three hundred
years ago they were torn from their
native land in Africa and brought to
the western world as chattels of the
white men. The first black slaves
were brought into the American colo
MES in the year 1919. AS matter OF
fact, American colonists looked to the
African slave posts as a source OF
regular labor supply until 1868.
For more than two centuries they
labored in cotton fields, rice swamps
and on tobacco plantations with moth
ing more than miserable shack and
poor food to show for their labors. AnC
even the shacks did not belong tc
them. Their very bodies were the
property of their masters. And yet
to great extent, it was their toll that
laid the foundations for the wealth OF
the South in the slave era.
Then came the bloody and disas-
trous Civil War in which the enamel
patton of the black slave was pro-
claimed and placed into the historic
records of our Country. There it re-
NAMED as merely some words written
upon some paper for many years
thereafter. The deeply rooted preju-
dices which had been ingrained into
the heart and soul of America could
not be wiped out by a mere proclama-
ton, and even in this day and age
there are countless instances in the
daily life of the Colored American
which still reflect the spirit of the
slave period. In the South he is still
disfranchised. Socially he is still made
to feel the lash at the hands of the
so-called superior races.
Until the year 1900 the primary &C.
cupation of the American Colored man
was either as field hand or a servant
With the advent of the goth century
there ensued a rapid movement away
from farms into the industrial centers
of the north and west. They flocked
to Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, New
York and Philadelphia. The cities
afforded them increased economic anG
social advantages.
1t was the World War, however, that
permitted the Colored American, fol-
the first time in American history, tc
enter industry on large scale. Laws
barring immigration were enacted. Or
the other hand the demand for wa
materials and general articles OF
manufacture grew to immense pro-
portions. This created a new field