The Michigan chronicle. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1936-current, 1942-10-31
Wa~o 1ha1
Negro
BY WILLIAM |. sHeReiIL

LISTEN AMERICA" we cannot
defeat Japan-we cannot destroy
Hitlerism until we have honestly
set forth to defeat and destroy the
enemies Of tolerance, fair play, JUS
tice, and inter-racial goodwill with
in our own borders, We cannot
fight a ninety per cent war while
the Japs and the Germans fight a
hundred per cent war. Opening our
factories and industries to ninety
per cent OF the population; opening
the military branches Of our gov
eminent to ninety per cent OF the
population, and closing them TO the
other ten per cent will make US
ten per cent weaker than the enc
my. We can't expect one hundred
per cent of our population to stand
Fundamentally behind the Cause
for which, we say we fight, when
-o-fy-tife ninety percent permit
ted the right to work anywhere,
the right to live anywhere, the right
to vote anywhere. and the right TO
be protected " the law, anywhere,
AMERICA, IN THIS HOUR OF
national peril we must cease trying
to kid the Negro and honestly seek
to make him part and parcel Of al!
which goes to make up this great
nation. II we think we fool the
Negro we only fool ourselves, for
the Negro today fully conscious OF
his rights as a citizen Of this great
commonwealth and the wrongs per
TIE Negro resents these wrongs be-
petrated against Black America,
cause he knows that he is entitled
to every right and every privilege
enjoyed by his white American bro.
Their.
Black Americans insist on their
citizenship rights, They do so with
full realization that they have
earned the right to American citi-
zenship. Black Americans have paid
the same price for the benefits Of
American government that white
Americans have paid. He too paid
with blood and tears. The Negro
landed in this country at almost the
same time the white man landed
Our labor has helped make this
country what it is today Our sweat
has fertilize1 its fields, our strong
arms have tunneled its mountains
and bridges its streams Two hun
bred and fifty years OF free labor
laid the economic foundation for
the glory, which is America.
IN EVERY WAR we have given
our blood to defend Americas glory
ad build her oower We were with
Washington at Valley Forge. We
we're with Andrew Jackson at New
Orleans. We helped save the
Union in "65." We dashed with
Teddy Roosevelt up San Juan Hill
In 1917 we took our places in the
trenches in Northumberland" To.
day we are in the four corners Of
the earth. offering our lives in de-
tense Of our country. We black
Americans have watered the earth
with our blbod all the way from
Boston Commons to the far out
posts OF Iceland and Australia.
WHO-TELL NE WHO. has an!
more right to enjoy full and com
plete citizenship in this country
than the black American? VII!
must we be treated as persons sep
arste and apart. Why must GU
men be told that we don't hir,
Negroe, for this md we don't worl
Negroes here2 Why must secre
Identification marks be used oil
Civil Service records to Identify Ne
gro applicants? Why must Negrl
women be refused employment il
certain industries and factories be
cause, w. have no facilities 70
handling Negro help?
Can't we see, can't we understand
that the policy Of prejudice, seq