The Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1931-1952, 1942-06-19
We Salute Our Grads

Our high school graduates today face the rising sum-
Looking back the past shared many dark days
our hopeful young and women minds and hopes all
dressed up and no place to go.
Our national emergency has opened wide all doors hth
erto barred you have left the school with special
ty, open door awaits you.
Your country needs you today-ether in the armed
service the industrial world Whatever you do wherever
you go, let your heart keep pace with your mind.
If you answer the call to remember your has
great and glorious past Your black forefathers and
theirs left record of which you need not be ashamed you
with all education match deeds their glorious
past your race will emerge not only worthy of their tradition
but worthy OF all the rights and privileges of any American
free born. Read it again.
An all-Negro crew mans fast new 13-ton IT, S. Army
tank white colonel commanding the Negro outfit said
am cottonpach Southerner myself and don't call these
boys niggers call them American soldiers and damned
good ones!"
This is bad for the propagandsts of Germany and
Japan who have long nursed desion that the
o. S. Negroes ripe rebellion and would surely refuse
to fight 1t is perfectly true that u s. Negroes have
had square deal from u S. white majority but thew
know their lot would be far under the racial fanatics
OF the Axis Now when their country needs them they are
glad to work and fight and die alongside their white fellow
citizens That the spirit which will day wipe every
trace OF racial bgotry off the map of America.
Negro soldiers have fought under all the great generals
all the great wars and in most of the famous battles of
u D. history And they have fought WELL Negro Crspus
Attacks the first American under British fire in
the Boston Massacre of ITO Negroes fought beside the
ute Men at Bunker Hill and the Contnenals Red Bank
N where George Washington himself singled out for
praise When Andrew Jackson stopped the British invaders
at New Orleans in 1875 battalion of ree color"
formed part of his front ne In the Civil War; ISL regiments
OF Negro troops turned the tide for the North without their
help said President Lincoln neither the present nor any
coming administration the Union the State of
mississippi alone Negro soldiers enlisted fight for
the Union than white men did for the Confederacy.
Negro Cavalrymen fought against Indians in the
West and rescued the Rough Riders at San Juan HILL In
World War more than Negro troops France
one OF them, Private Henry Johnson cap Al
bany got into battle with "a Germans norman land
outpost He killed four of them with bullets rifle butt and
bolo knife probably killed fifth with grenades wounded
and drove off all the others The French called this 1.-THE
Battle of Henry Johnson"
This proud record has already extended World
War L. At Pearl Harbor Dec. ., Negro messman Dore
Miller dashed to the bridge of his ship helped carry his
tally wounded captain to place of greater safety
ned machine gun until ordered below. He just been
awarded Navy Cross. In the Philippines the first of
Brooks, of Negro sharecropper Sadevie KY To-
day the main parade at Fort Knox headquarters
the u arored forces is named Brooks Field his honor
On the U. S. production front Negroes are moving into
place beside white workers everncreasng numbers At
the beginning of 1941 there approximately 540OO0O
working Negroes in the u S. few thousand had skilled
chancal Jobsthe rest aborers farm helpers domestic
servants But this year u S. industries hiring TO-
OOOOOO new workers and Perhaps million of them will be
Negroes.
This has brought vast upsurge in wages buying power
ana serespect OF Negroes While discrimination still
Continued Page Two)