The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-09-22

zAgkOnS nAQ kLaLeQ Gk1&G bk1AS IS uob the right time for Negroes to fight for their rights or to change their social conditions" pr. Lawrence M. Erwin, chairman of the New York l division of the March-on- Wash | ington movement. laShed out at the unnamed person before an audience of 5000 persons at the Golden Gate | Ballroom, Friday night.
 Asked by the Star-News reporter the identity of the person he was referring to, pr. Erwin replied, we | decided not to mention his name"
 Close Ranks
 Continuing to berate the leader by | informing his audience that he was | quoted from the newspaper saying | that "it is imperative that we should | close ranks and to bend our efforts | to win the war;" the speaker de- clared:
 ''Yes. he is apt to shut his eyes against the painful truths and | listen to the song of the siren of | success that changes his natural l figure into that of a creature with l out q soul. Close ranks, they say, and win the war. Close ranks when | a human being is taken and dragged | from Q hospital cot through the | streets of the sovereign State of | Missouri, and lynched without 8 trial without equality before the law.
 "CloSe ranks, when black boys in | the uniform of their country are shot down by civilian police, and revolverS are further emptied into | their prostrate bodiesl Close ranks, when colored officers with captains bars and majors leaves are com- pelled to travel in the filthy and foul jimcrow car for thousands of miles, and must go without food for twen- ty-four hours, until the most Hitter ate and unrefined cracker of the South leaves the dining car before | he can taste food alone; ''Close ranks, when the highest appointed government officers of policy forming committee for the United States is dubbed by the Southern press as inkspot and tar baby!
 "Close ranks, when the best blood and character of Negro womanhood of America volunteer to become of- ficerS in the Women'S Auxiliary Corp in the Army are inSulted with impunity by non-commissioned of- fceES and officers alike and dubbed H'Waccoons"
 Unlisputed Champion
 ''0loSe ranks, when our national leader, the undisputed champion of Negro rights, together with Walter White, the head of the oldest Negro organization in America, Bishop Wright. Mrs. Mary Mcleod Bethune, the first Negro woman of America, Dr. Charming Tobias, and other equally outstanding Negroes, petion- ing for conference with the Presi- dent to discus acute tension in race relations, are told by the Presi- dents secretary that he is too busy to receive theml
 Close ranks when poor share chopper Odell Waller was legally lynched by the sovereign State of Virginia; and Roland Hayes was brutally dragged, beaten and jailed in the sovereign State of Georgia because he dared to remonstrate with a white citizen about the 1C1A4hl O4 4AA0 WAAG Q 4AAOSb G4G11kC14bGxy I constitutional rightsl
 Close ranks, when an Atlanta University College Professor Is as- saulted and beaten insensibly by the legal hirelings of the sovereign State of Mississippi because he dared to ask for seating accommodations for Negro women while a white coach held only three white per- sonsl
 Close ranks, when the Governor of Georgia claims that if Negroes don't keep their place, they had better stay out of Georgia: and an Alabama Governor defies a Presi- dential edict in its entirety. because it may extend equality to Negroesl Close ranks, they say, and fight and do and die for democracy! Hell mol"
 Made Undelivered Speech
 The meeting was arranged to give A. Phillip Randolph, national direc- tor of the movement. an opportunity to make his undelivered speech which was scheduled for the Madi- son Square Garden mass meeting, June IS. and was omitted due to lock of time.
 Assuring his audience that there Is every possibility that Negroes are going to march to Washington be- fore the war is over, Randolph said:
 Personally, have no doubt that 6 march on Washington will have to be made during this war to let the President and white America know that the Negro is not going to take 8 licking from jin-crow lying down.
 But in some quarters the state- ment is made that Negroes should be all-out for the War to lick Hit- Ter in Europe. Our answer is, we are. We are also all-out for war to lick the heIl out of Hitlerism in America. We believe the fight for democratic rights for Negroes now here at home, is part of the fight for democracy abroad.
 'sIf we don't win democracy Abroad, we will not be able to win democracy at home. The fights for democracy on the home and foreign fronts are one and the same light. One strengthens the other. And the lack of fight on either wsakens the other.
 Negroes made the blunder Of clos. Ing ranks and forgetting their grisvences in the last war. We are resolved that we shall not make that bIunder again. Some of our ap- psaaeFs gay that 4 NegroeS permlnt ln fighting for their rights noW, they gre going to have trouble. We'll, Negroes are already having trouble anyway, and 6 little more trouble won't hurt
 Moreover, no cause for human yiahta vas ever carried On without fF0agnla. Tk ia written in Holy WFii