The Mississippi enterprise. (Jackson, Miss.) 1938-current, 1942-08-22
RACE EQUALITY
IA WAR ISSUE

Race equality has become q war
issue. 1t is possible that the hope
Of victory may turn upon it," writes
Earl Brown and George r. Leighton
in newly issued Public Affairs Pam
phlet, 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
drafted for army service but is not
adequately protected when he seeks
recreation on his leaves and fur
loughs that the Negro is urged to
back the fight to beat Hitler, yet
Is shut out of many jobs in govern
ment and in war industries.
Some things, the authors point out,
are being done. The Negroes won their
right to move into the Sojourner
Truth housing project in Detroit
Omen are investigating lynchings
Negro troops have better food, cloth
ing, and sleeping quarters than in
World War I. Illiterate Negro
draftees from the South are getting
their first chance to learn to read
and write. Amixed officers training
school is being conducted successful
ly at Fort Benning in Georgia. Many
industrial plants operate successful
| ly in war production with no discrimi-
nation.
But discrimination and prejudice
are still prevalent to an alarming
degree in many section, and progress
to date has been on a small scale.
One of the serious results, in the
war industries, is the danger of a
dislocated labor market, with inten-
sified labor shortages and unneses-
sary migration in areas where much
Negro labor is now available.
The government has been guilty
the authors write. Nowhere in the
government has there appeared to
be any clear and determined intent
to reverse the old policy" The
Presidents Committee on Fair En-
ployment Practice is start, but the
committee needs more money, more
power, and more personnel to do an
adequate job of eliminating discrimi-
nation in both public and private en-
ployment.
A broad, constructive program is
suggested in the pamphlet, aimed at
victory on this home front: Cd The
Army should offer Negro soldiers
better protection and more respect,
and should train more Negro officers.
(2) The Navy should make. the en-
listement of Negroes a permanent
policy. CD The government should
end discrimination in the appoint
ment of federal employees, and the
powers of the Fair Employment
Practice Committee shold be revised
and enlarged. (4) Private employ
ers, after suitable preparation with
their present personnel should make
an effort to fill their wartime va
cancies with qualified Negro work
ers. 60 Labor unions shold clean
their own house on the color question
and not wait for the government to
straighten out their affairs. co.
Workers should see that their labor
unions do not discriminate against
| Negroes, and should back up the
employer when he seeks to give Ne
groes a fair deal. And CD citizens
should try to see that Negroes in
their community have equal oppor-
/ tunities with Whote citizens. They
should also support the organizations
that are working on these problems
in the community.
The pamphlet concludes: "A re-
markable opportunity now exists to
break the barriers and see that the
Negroes receive WHAT rs FAIR,
| their rights. Men and women want to
be free, and the sight of one part
of our people getting more freedom
can only strengthen the determine
ton to win more freedom for ALL
The Negro and the War is the
seventy-first of series of popular
factual, 10-cent pamphlets publish