The Phoenix index., 1941-09-06
HOpes0f Negro
Outlined By
A. u. President
Tells Southern
Educators OF
Police Brutalities
BY TOM HAMMOND

BLUE RIDGE. N. C.-(Specian
THE Negro has decided that
America with it's injustices and
p1ejudices is far better than would
be a Nazi dominated country, and
for that reason is eager to help in
defense" said Dr. Rufus Clement,
president of Atlanta University in
speaking here Saturday.
DR. Clement spoke on "The Flu.
tUre of the Negro in American
Life" to g group of Southern edu-
Gators who were here for the con-
ference on Education for Southern
Citizenship. The speaker was born
in Salisbury, N. c., the son of a
Methodist bishop, and taught in
North Carolina for nine years.
"The Negro has a vital state in
an American victory" he said
"True enough, there are many Ne.
groes who are not enthusiastic
about Britain because they know
about Britain's treatment of other
brown skinned peoples. And there
ic being distributed in Northern
Negro centers propaganda financed
by fascist money which is designed
to stir up hatred against England
AGAINST HITLER
still the Negro has a state in
the outcome Of the war more than
the average American. II is because
he knows there is only one place
for the Negro in a Nazi world-in
the status of a slave. Hitler and
other Nazis have demonstrated
that an important part of their
philosophy is contempt for the
black races, and that under their
plan for the world the Negro will
serve as a slave.
II tell my students who are
drafted that they must defend the
constitution and the spirit for
which the United States was found
ed although many of these princi-
piles have not been put into prac-
tice. Still, some Of them find it
hard to see why they must give
their lives tC protect a system
which imposes cruelty and hate
upon them and their kind
"But even though the Negro is
eager to cooperate in the defense
program, often he is having to fight
for the privilege of fighting. There
have been many instances of train
ed engineers in fields where skill
cd labor is needed being refused
positions III defense industries on
nc other basis other than their
color"
Dr.. Clement then outlined the
hopes of the Negro race for the
kind of America he would like to
see and the kind he expects after
the democracies have won.
"Tn the list of war aims outlined
by Roosevelt and Churchill in their
sea conference, one point proves
for all men being able to live free
from fear and free from want.
These are the basic things that the
American Negro wants.
HE wants good decent schools.
You cannot have a working democ-
racy without an educated populaco
Yet today in the II states which
operate separate school systems,
there is not one which provides Ne
gor schools which are equal with
the white.
THE Negro wants equal work op-
portunities. In any time of depreS-
sion he is the first to be fired and
the last to be hired. Jobs which
formerly nobody but a Negro would
take have now been handed over to
white men. There can be no justice
in America until jobs are given on
a basis of ability rather than color.
F"The Negro wants justice in the
courts. something which he does
not get at the present. Recently a
judge in Georgia declared that he
would take the word of any white
man over the word of a thousand
Of the best Negroes. What kind OF
Justice do you suppose a Negro
WOULD get III the court of that
Judge? You would be shocked to
know how the goddess of justice
operates in some of the lower courts
III the South.
THE Negro wants equal protec-
ton of the law. Negroes are bullieo
/ by policemen, the policeman always
ed by the Steering Committee of