St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1942-12-11

1t is hard to reconcile General
Davis report with my own obser-
vations during my recent two
months stay in England or with
what Negro soldiers told me. Tech
nically, it is true about the equal
rights and privileges, but preju-
dice never respects technicalities,
Equality cannot be created by a
manual of army regulations; the
men must feel it and think it and
act it. The social difficulties men
toned by General Davis are not
isolated cases and should not be
considered of no concern to the
army. Bad feeling between col
ored and white troops has military
consequences.
Perhaps General Davis did not
get around as much as he should
have, or perhaps he did not consid-
err it wise to make an issue Of the
matter at this time. An ugly and
dangerous situation does exist, and
it impairs the efficiency of the
troops and depresses the morale of
the entire American Negro popu-
lation, already near the breaking
point.
It is particularly shocking to OBJ
serve the Jim Grow bacillus being
injected into England, a country
without color prejudice, where the
people regard Negroes not as me-
malls and comics but as human be-
ings, and are guided in their rela-
lions with them by their natural
reactions to them as individuals,
not as Negroes. The prejudiced
white American soldiers are not
the only carriers of this germ.
Sometimes it seems to have been
introduced in England by order of
the A. E. F. In a recent issue of
the London New Statesman and
Nation a correspondent writes:
-. orders or requests have been
issued by the American military
authorities to the townspeople to
the effect that white and colored
troops should not be permitted in
the same civilian canteens. In
some cases the townspeople have
refused to comply. Partly as a re-
suit of this the latter have become
extremely annoyed at what is re-
garded as discrimination against
the colored soldiers. AS a further
result scuffles between white and
colored Americans have occurred
when Negroes have entered, or
tried to enter dance halls or bars
where the white Americans were
already disporting themselves. APP
parently in one case the white
Americans demonstrated with a
landlady for serving colored Gus
toners. The reply of the woman
is significant: ''Their money is as
good as yours, and we like their
company"
The average Briton appreciates
the complexities of the Negro ques-
ton but sees it as purely an Amer
lean problem. He resents being
told that he must develop preju-
dices.
One night I met an American
Negro corporal in Piccadilly Cir
Gus, and after I left him jotted
down our conversation almost YER
batim. I think he simply and elo-
quently expressed the thoughts
and feelings of the average Negro
soldier with the A. E. F. in Eng
land. Our dialogue ran as follows:
"Got a ight?"
Here y'are."
"Thanks. You Americana"
yeah"
$50 am I. Where you FROM"
pittsburgh. Where you from ?"
"New York"
81 worked at the Savoy in Har-
lem for a while"
"Oh, was up there just before
I left"
(Brightening) "Yeah? Whose
band was playin'?"
81 forget"
"They sent me first out to Okla
homa, an then back to Fort Dix.
gotta gal out in Brooklyn T went
to see one night, just before I come
over here. I was a sergeant an
they busted me for it."
"Why?"
"a. w. o. L. She had a kid
from me an I wanted to see 'em
both before I came over here. I
didn't know if I'd ever come back
again, so I wanted to see 'em. I
made out an allotment to her."
''That's tough, being busted for
that"
"Well, they gotta have rules in
an army. I don't blame 'em. I'm
corporal now"
Chow do you like it here?"
"Awright-'cept not many col
ored boys over here. va get lone