The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1942-08-27
COMMENT ON WORLD
,, EVENTS

issue. III Is possible tnat Cne nope OF
victory may turn upon it," write Earl
Brown and George r. Leighton in a
newly issued Public Affairs Committee
pamphlet, The Negro and the War.
Propaganda from enemy sources
brings forcibly to mind the fact that
the Negro is an American citizen but
that he has fewer rights than the
white citiZen-that the Negro is draft
ed for army service, but is not ade-
quately protected when he seeks recre-
alton on his leaves and furloughs-that
the Negro is urged to back the fight to
beat Hitler, yet is shut out of many
jobs in government and in war indus
tries.
A broadcast by the Japanese through
the Far East last January is an exam
pie of enemy propaganda based on the
treatment of the Negro in America. In
an endeavor to arouse hostile feeling
among the colored peoples of the Far
East, the broadcast spread the news
of the brutal mob murder in Sikeston,
Mo-, of a Negro named Cleo Wright.
In effect, the japanese told the Far
East Look what happens to the
cOlored American citizen; do you think
that anything better will happen to
your
Some things are being done, the
authors of The Negro and the War
point out. The Negroes won their right
to move into the Sojourner Truth
housing project in Detroit. Gmen are
investigating lynchings. Negro troops
have better food, clothing, and sleep
ing quarters than in World War l.
Illiterate Negro draftees from the
South are getting their first chance to
learn to read and write. A mixed Off
GERS training school is being conducted
successfully at Fort Benning in
Georgia. Many industrial plants oper-
ate successfully i'm war production with
no discrimination.
But discrimination and prejudice are
still prevalent to an alarming degree in
many sections, and progress to date
has been on small scale.
AhC SONSlllIiCIC oiSO DSCi
guilty." the authors write. Nowhere
in the government has there appeared
to be any clear and determined intent
to reverse the old policy" The Presi-
den's Committee on Fair Employment
Practice is a start, but the committee
needs more money, more power, and
more personnel to do an adequate job
of eliminating discrimination in both
public and private employment.
x X x
A broad, constructive program is
suggested in the pamphlet, aimed at
victory on this home front:
(D The Army should offer Negro
soldiers better protection and more
respect, and should train more Negro
officers. GU The Navy should make
the enlistment of Negroes a permanent
policy. (3) The government should end
discrimination in the appointment of
Federal employees, and the powers of
the Fair Employment Practice Com
mite should be revised and enlarged.
(4) Private employers, after suitable
workers. with their present
personnel, should make an effort to fill
their wartime vacancies with qualified
Negro workers. (5) Labor unions
should clean their own house on the
color question and not wait for the
government to straighten out their af-
fairs. CO. Workers should see that
their labor unions do not discriminate
against Negroes, and should back up
the employer when he seeks to give
Negroes IA fair deal. And 60 citizens
should try to see that Negroes in their
community have equal opportunities
with white citizens. They should also
support the organizations that are
working on these problems in the COM
munity.