The Michigan chronicle. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1936-current, 1942-01-31
NATIONAL INTERESTS


has been aroused by the militant protest of the Negro
people against the Red Cross blood ban and the
theft of the Sojourner Truth Homes, has taken
us to task for obstructing the national interest by
demanding that the rights of the Negro people be
respected even in the face of world emergency.
There are many people of the other group who be-
lieve that the special interests of the Negro peo-
pile are in opposition somehow to what is called the
national interest We have had occasion to expose
this fallacious thinking before and now we find we
must do it again.
In the first place, almost every fight against
racial discrimination by the Negro people since the
war began has had as its ultimate objective the hope
that in crushing this discrimination We might better
serve our country We have to fight to contribute
our skill to the manufacture of bombs and bombers
to be used against the enemy, we have had to fight
to give our blood for those who might die for lack
of it. we have to fight to get in all branches of the
fighting forces, and we are fighting to house our
war workers decently and safely in order that they
may more efficiently serve their country.
What is more important still, we are an integral
part of America and are rightfully being called
upon to live up to all the responsibilities of American
citizenship in this war We are part and parcel of
the national interest itself. The contribution of
thirteen million black souls to the effort cannot
and will not be ignored today when the nation is
imperiled. In granting the Negro people full in
tegration and participation in the war effort the
nation viii of necessity be strengthened What is
called our special interest is in reality for the
best interest of the entire nation
By way of illustration Negroes in the state of
Georgia must be educated on the pittance appro-
priaed for Negro education, which of course results
in high degree of illiteracy. Army officials were
DO Of d,nf+a in
Georgia because the ability to read and write is nee
essary in modern warfare. The nation itself suffers
from this discrimination as we'll as the Negroes. On
the other hand, bad housing for Negroes in many
large cities has forced the municipal governments
to spend millions of tax dollars for police, fire
fighting and health services which would not be-
necessary if the Negroes were properly housed or
permitted to expand normally The money spent
in correcting the abuses of the housing situation
would more than pay for better housing in the first
place In terms of tax-mOney, racial prejudice not
only becomes an expensive luxury to the govern
ment but it destroys at the time the hope of
real national unity which is important in time of
peace and absolutely necessary in time of war.
From still another side, determinations against
the Negro threaten the most basic principles of
democracy itself. We are nation of minorities,
some large, some small. When one group is victim
lied unjusty the pattern has been created for the
eventual subjugation of all others. Minority rights
are important to the functioning of democracy as
important as the principle of majority rule. Thus
the discrimination against the Negro people threat
the nation, and those who seek to perpetrate in
justice against the Race are in reality guilty of
"high treason" In fighting for our rights we Ne
groes are protecting the national interests and we
are going to continue to fight, come hell or high
water.