Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1941-01-03
THE
MILE-POST
By Samuel A. Reed

The Negro heralds the coming
of the new year with a fierce de.
termination to continue, extend,
and intensity his Great Struggle
for full and absolute citizenship.
In the year of 1871 the United
States will witness more vigorous
and outspoken demands for equal
ity from its black citizens, more
impatient cries for enforcement of
the federal constitution; its guar
antees of life, liberty, and the pur-
suit Of happiness. More violent
will be the angry rumbling of dis
content at each display Of racial
prejudice, discrimination, or segre-
CATION; deeper the Negroes resent
ment at every evidence of delayed
or thwarted justice.
The Negro looking forward on
the American scene in 1941 sees
much still to be desired by way of
improvement on the american
way of life" He also sees great
er promise of success in his fight
for citizenship. For the world has
changed! Looking about him, he
sees much confusion, great nations
locked in a death struggle, Ameri-
ca lettering on the brink of war.
The Negro has seen much of
War since coming to America. He
has fought in every great war in
the history of this nation since the
Revolution. He knows that War is
by any standard misery, butchery,
hell!-a needless waste of human
lives.
The more grim, then, is his
shocking realization that what he
has been ruthlessly denied during
long years of Peace, he has a bet
ter chance of winning during the
crisis of another terrible War.
The declaration of a state of
national emergency and the seri-
GUS possibility of War have both
served to crystalline and bring more
sharply into focus the numerous
problems of the Negro citizens.
The cold-blooded denial of a citi-
zen's right to fight and die for his
country because he is black is seen
in these trying times as more than
an ordinary violation of civil
rights. 1t introduces the much
avoided and long-deferred basic
problem of building a functional
democracy here in the United
States.
For well do civil and military
leaders know that before the
United States dares tackle an ex-
ternal enemy the nation must be
secured against internal strife. To
be so assured the United States
must take immediate, positive steps
to solve its number one problem of
establishing democracy within its
own boundaries.
And we'll does the Negro know
that he stands to benefit from any
and every extension of democratic
principles in the year 1941.
The Negroes position in the
United States has embarrassed
many administrations, but now, as
a result of the imminence of War,
the entire question has been de-
posted squarely in the lap of the
American people. Needless to say,
the safety and the preservation of
what democracy we now have rests
on Americas answer.
But let no one believe that the
Negro welcomes War as a boon to
his frustrated hopes. Instead he
curses the blindness of fools who
only War can make see.
The Negro has had no part in
the brewing of this second World
War. He loves Peace no less than
any other human being. Fool he
will be indeed, though, if he does
not in this crisis use his strength
and unity as weapons of destruc-
ton in a mighty effort to demOlish
the strOnghOlds of race prejudice
in America.
The year 1941 may see the fate
of the world decided. The fate of
America will be determined large
ly by the success or failure of De-
mocracy.