St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1942-10-09

who wish to stimulate Negroes
from coast to coast to demand COM
plete equality now and those who
suggest tn e organization of a
League to Maintain White Suprem-
acy.
Propaganda to raise Negro NOR
ale has had little success during the
past year. Most of the federal
propaganda agencies have been too
much in fear of a reactionary,
Southern dominated Congress to
devise any adequate approach to
the problem. The old Office of
Facts and Figures, in order to
stimulate Negro morale, produced
an all-Negro movie short showing
a Negro labor battalion singing
while they marched and worked.
The film simply antagonized Ne
groes, since it showed them as la
borers rather than fighters, con-
formed to the stereotype of singing
Negroes, and emphasized their Jim
Crow position in the army. 1t
would have been much better for
Negro morale if the film had not
been made. Another federal agency
worked on de luxe and expensive
edition of a book about the Ameri-
can Negro, illustrated with color
photography, designed to counter
act the Japanese propaganda that
democracy necessarily means white
supremacy. The book, however,
could not be circulated in the
United States because it might of
fend Southern Congressman.
The need for more skillful propa-
ganda and more effective action be-
comes imperative as the position of
the American Negro in American
democracy gains global Importance.
There is a close relationship be-
tween the interracial tensions with
in the United Nations and the
course of international events. The
present crisis in India is raising
the expectations of American Ne
groes. On the other hand, every bid
for status by the non-white people
of the United Nations-and every
military victory of the Japanese
evokes among the majority group
the response of fear and the deter
mination to keep down the dark
races.
The problem of the American
Negro might be met by force if the
Negroes insistence on equal par
ticipation exceeded the willingness
of the total society to grant these
demands, but in using force the
United States, and in fact the
United Nations, would lose one of
their most powerful weapons - the
loyalty of the peoples seeking free
dom, regardless of color. Under
these circumstances it is difficult
to conceive how this country can
deal with growing Negro claims
without planning program of con-
cessions. It is true that in the daily
press and on the air the Negro is
getting more attention than he has
enjoyed since the old Abolitionist
days. And there is a growing
awareness on the part of labor that
the Negro problem requires action.
In normal conditions all these
things would be considered gains
for the Negro. But they are spor-
adic and unintegrated and are in
sufficient to counterfeit the appar-
ent inability of the government to
set up a comprehensive plan.
Any real change in the morale of
Negroes will come only with a real
change in the position of the Negro
in the social structure of the coun-
try. Such a change will involve,
especially in the South, a complete
revamping of the social relations
between the races. That is some
thing which this country will not
voluntarily undertake. Unless we
are to maintain a society which
Edwin Embree has described as
"half Nazi, half democrat" the
government must intervene with a
rational plan. The shape of things
to come-the new pattern of race
Relationship be worked out on a
global basis and will necessitate
tremendous internal changes in