St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1940-12-27
THE
MILE-POST
BY Samuel A. Reed
LOOKING BACK

The Negro looks back on the
year 1910 with mingled emotions.
The course of events has brought
him bits of joy and success, much
humiliation and bitter failure. He
has suffered through countless
struggles and emerged changed
being. The degree and kind of
change he has undergone in the
past year can best be measured by
a closer study of his reaction to
significant victories and defeats.
The victories were won in the
face of seemingly impossible odds;
they gave him new courage and
confidence. The defeats were cal
lous denials of justice; they left
him hurt and resentful.
The Negro was elated by the
success of the battle waged to
equalize the salaries of cOlOred
teachers in southern states. He
was thrilled when the U. S. Su-
preme Court, in a signal decision,
reversed the ruling of a lower
court and freed the four Florida
"ScOttsbOrO boys"
Then came the black weeks and
months of disappointment, the
heated controversy over the anti,
poll tax bill, the abusive wranging
over the anti-lynch bill, the ad-
ministration's blunt announcement
of it's policy regarding Negroes in
national defense.
Intense was the Negroes sup
port of the anti-poll tax bill which
guaranteed to millions of dis
franchised Negroes and whites the
right to vote. Fierce was his de-
sire to pass the anti-lynch bill
which sought to protect his con-
stitutiOnal rights. Hopeful was he
for a reaffirmation of democratic
principles when a national emer-
gency was declared.
These were the real fights for
freedom, this the true battle
ground of democracy. For the out
come of these struggles would not
measure democracy in a town, city,
or state; it would measure democ-
racy in the nation. It would test
the true temper of the American
people.
We let democracy speak for it.
self: The anti-poll tax bill lies
buried in the House Judiciary Com
mittee. The anti-lynch bill collects
dust on the Senate calendar. The
War and Navy Departments con-
tinue to- violate the federal cOnsti-
tuition by invoking a policy of
segregation and discrimination in
our armed forces.
Yes, the Negro has changed.
And the change he has undergone
during the past year is fraught
with ominous forebodings. Defeat
in these three major efforts first
stunned the Negro; then made him
hopping mad; finally left him with
a deep, furious resentment toward
all who obstruct his efforts to gain
the full rights and privileges of
citizenship. Struggle has unified
him. Conflict has made him strong
and conscious of his strength. The
establishment he has suffered as
a result of repeated defeats and
suppression has exhausted his pa
tience and angered him almost to
the point of desperation.
Today the plight of the Negro
presents a challenging problem to
America and it's democratic form
of government. The problem de-
fies pOstpOnement. 1t demands So
luton. For America has made
the Negro what he is today.
And so as the Negro stands on
the threshold of a new year and
turns his back on the smoldering
ruins of his hopes for freedom,
justice, and equality in 1910, he
faces the new year with all the po-
tentialities of a solid, law-abiding
citizen or a Frankenstein monster.
The manner in which he is treated
during the coming year will deter
mine to great extent what he
will become. America has it's
choice!