Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-07-17
Negroes Get
1Run-Around'
as Patriots
What Kind Of Country
Will They Return To?
BY wEsTBROOK PEGLER

~ whom / have known about
three years came to New York
with his regiment and tele-
phoned TO his uncle. who is one
of my close friends, 10 say he
had a few hours in town before
embarking for an unknown des-
tination overseas.
The boy is only Is years old.
He is an orphan and a volun-
teer soldier who might have
waited for the draft and might
have tried TO make himself in
dispensable at a bench or lathe
in some factory.
He enlisted last fall on his
own decision from motives that
make him a worthy comrade-
in-arms of Butch O'Hara. or
Colin Kelly or Douglas Mac
Arthur and 10 the approving
and proud surprise OF his uncle
and aunt. who are his only
living adult relatives.
He had lived with his old
grandmother in the outskirts of
Jacksonville. Fla, until she
died. in a region which must
have been a ramshackle, smelly
slum il l know my Jackson
Vile, as 1 certainly do.
His uncle then brought the
orphan 10 New York and put
him into a suburban high school
for a term or two, where he did
all right.
Then, abruptly. he quit and
got work at a succession OF such
Jobs as are available to Negro
boys.
He was now on his own and
free 10 go helling around the
drinking joints of Harlem until
all hours and to get into trou-
BILE and. in some reckless or
accidental adventure. establish
a permanent police record as a
bad actor, if he felt so inclined.
DUT last fall he enlisted and
- was sent 10 number Of
army places before he found
himself back in Florida driving a
big truck.
He didn't tell me. he didn't
have to tell any one because
everybody knows that, although
he was an American soldier in
the uniform of his country. in
Florida he still found himself in
class below that OF the most
tFeaeherous undiscovered traitor
OF the German Bund and barred
not only from the haunts Of the
white civilians whose very lives
he had volunteered TO defend
with his life. but forbidden even
to buy sandwich or a glass OF
milk in a white restaurant.
Nevertheless, at the very mo-
ment of embarkation for voy-
age through dangerous waters
TO face other dangers overseas,
he not only was accomplishing
but happy. and anxious only lest
his uncle should worry about
him.
Now, assuming that this boy
comes back from the war TO
victorious country. what status
will he come back to?
Will he ~bc niggerized again
and restricted TO mental jobs.
iim-crowed and driven back 10
the dreadful ghettos of our cities
or will nc be treated as an
American?
| doubt that consciously this
boy has any idea that in fighting
the foreign enemy of his country
and of all freedom ne is fighting
a special fight for his own peo-
pie for decent measure of OPP
portunity and consideration from
the white Americans.
But shame, If no other force,
should compel the white Ameri-
can 10 face at least the fact that
this boy and his people are the
victims of a dirty deal that sim
ply cannot go on.
LIE CANNOT be asked TO
III fight. His patriotic offer Of
his life cannot be accepted in
human decency if. when IL is
all over. he is TO be barred
absolutely from all decent and
pleasant surroundings for his
home by reason of his race,
barred from the trades and the
factories and, in politics. only
exploited as a club in the hands
of one faction TO beat another.
The injustice 10 the Negro
people of the United States is
more a matter of superstition,
tradition. ignorance and indit-
ference than of conscious cruelty
in the hearts of the white men.
They live among us, but we
do not know them.
Except when they erupt and
riots result, we ignore their
existence.
We accept foreigners from
Europe and organize leagues TO
b protect their rights: we well
come them into all our residen-
tial districts with no more re-
straint than that of snobbery
and all our professions and
trades are open 10 them.
But the Negro who was born
among us and fights for the
United States when war is up
is told to stand aside because
he is a Negro.
II / were a Negro / would
H. f,,~., a-I