The Michigan chronicle. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1936-current, 1942-03-28
NEGRO MORALE


The attitude of the American Negro regarding
the war and his spirit and morale are unquestion-
ably of great concern to the federal government Last
week Archibald MacLeish of the Office of Facts
and Figures called representative group of Ne
groes to Washington to obtain first hand informa-
ton on Negro morale. We believe that some genuine
efforts will be made to understand, at least the
questions that black America is asking.
1t is an established fact that we Negroes are
ready and anxious to participate in total war
against fascism and Hitherto tyranny. To say that
we are apathetic and disnerested in the effort
is to magn the Negro people We, however, are not
30 sure that the rest of America is ready and
anxious for total war against Hitersm. The Negro
people cannot understand why fascist forces IN
America are permitted to grow strong, why the adj
nlinistration harhors appeasers and gives comfort
to enemy forces here, while at the same time the
whole nation girds for the destruction of faScism
throughout the world. We want to fight the enemy
and we want to fight him wherever we find him,
here and abroad.
1t is stupid to believe that we can rid the world
of Hitersm by merely stopping the Nazis in Ger
many although that must be our prime objective
1t is stupid to believe that we can appease the enemy
forces here any more than can appease the enemy
forces abroad. We must wage total war, and with
out total war there be victory for democracy
or lasting peace for the world. Half-measures in
this hour of national crisis will result in certain de-
feat for democracy everywhere
Who are the enemies of democracy among us?
They are those persons in high and low positions
who influence American public opinion against
granting the Negro people the full privileges of cit
zenship They are the mob leaders, the KuXers
the Talmadges, the Bilbos the anti-Negro block
heads who shape the policies of the armed forces
who stubbornly persist in the belief that this is
white mans country and this is white mans war
They are the same criminals who seek to ham-strng
labor, who want business as usual and who are more
interested in war profits than the defeat of the
enemy.
The fallen countries of Europe bear witness to
the treachery of the enemy within the gates, to the
mortal danger of hte Naz myths of racial superiority
and to the internal weakness that these myths create
America needs the skill and ability of every black
man in the eounttyto win this war and those-who
would in any way seek to thwart the contribution
of our group to this end are truly agents of the
enemy. The workers who refuse to work alongside
black workers, the mobs which deny Negroes their
legal homes, the generals who spurn black soldiers
all must be driven out as criminals and replaced by
those who love democracy.
How can Washington expect us to be race of
grinnng chessycats in the face of mob rule lynchng
and tyranny at home?? 1t is wonder our morale
is no 1t becomes the duty of the government
to attack the enemy openly and declare total war
to tell America that this war can be lost in Detroit
as we'll as in Berlin. 1t becomes our duty to help
the government do this. If this is peoples war
let the people participate, all the people without fear
or favor. Let us fight fascism everywhere.
When this is done there will be no need for
conferences on Negro morale. Indeed the morale of
all Americans will lift and white and black alike
will recognize that the traditions of racism which
separate us are mutually dangerous and the
best interests of the whole nation lie in unity unity
so strong that the enemy will be powerless to divide
us on any front. Without this unity we will be u1-
worthy of victory