Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1941-12-05
Mass Meeting
Hears Union
Labor Officers

Approximately $50 people at
tended the mass meeting sponsored
by the Minnesota Negro Defense
Committee, in the Halle @. Brown
Community House, 553 Aurora
Avenue, st. Paul, last Sunday.
Only Two Labor Officials Appear
Only two of the six representa-
tives of local AFL and CLIO unions
who had been scheduled to speak
on the subject "The Negro and La
Dor Unions in National Defense"
appeared to speak.
George w. Lawson, secretary of
the State Federation Of Labor, was
the first speaker. He admitted that
there was discrimination in some
of the unions of the ALL. He men,
toned the Machinists Information
al, which was organized in Atlanta,
Georgia, as being one Of the offend
ing unions. Mr.. Lawson said that
he was against discrimination, but
that he and others, even William
Green, the national president of
the AFL, were powerless to change
the constitutions of the unions that
practiced discrimination. He urged
the Negro to be patient"
Collins Applauded
Boyd Collins, Negro president of
the clearinghouse Workers Council
of the CLIO in South St. Paul,
scored the ALL for its policy of
discrimination, and said that John
L. Lewis left the American Fed
Grafton of Labor and organized the
Committee for Industrial Organi-
cation in his fight against dis
elimination. Collins pointed out
that Negro workers and white
workers are all men and that what
affects one affects the other and
that discrimination in the labor
movement is most detrimental. He
lauded the Minnesota Negro De-
tense Committee for it's relentless
fight against discrimination. Col
Inns completely "stole" the show
with his witty and oratorical COM
ments and he was frequently inter-
rupted by the applause of his hear
ers.
Turpin Case Discussed
A highlight of the meeting was
brief resume of the case of Lee
K. Turpin VS.. Governor Harold E.
.Stassen and other officers of the
Minnesota Home Defense Force,
by Jonas Schwartz, militant Mime
apolis attorney. Turpin filed suit
in the U. S. District Court on Mo-
vember ID, to restrain Governor
Stassen, COMMANDMENT Chief, and
other officers of the Minnesota
Home Defense Force from dis
eliminating against him and other
Negroes in the state militia.
The audience showed its ap-
proval of the case by giving Mr..
Schwartz a great applause and by
a ready response to the appeal of
Chairman Frank Alsup, Cecil New
man and Rev. Clarence T. R. Mel
son, for cash and pledges to assist
in prosecuting of this case which
has attracted nationwide atten-
ton.
Plan To Raise $500
Plans are being made to raise
$500 for the expenses of this case
and to carry it to the United States
Supreme Court if necessary. The
legal staff for the plaintiff, Lee
Turpin, are donating their services
in this case which has been called
by an editor of a Minneapolis daily
as the greatest case of its kind
since the bred Scott case"
Other lawyers names appearing
on the pleadings for Turpin in
clude Thurgood Marshall of New
York City, special counsel for the
National Association for the Ad-
vancement of Colored People; R.
A. Skinner, president of the Min
neapolis branch of the NAACP;
Lyman Edelman, Minneapolis, and
Charles Halpern, law partner Of
NJ