Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1943-01-08

enLlTe "OTlU Is pOSScSSSu ny IuSSc
a part of global war, but with the
American Negro the preoccupation
is personal and intimate, of mar
rover scope and deeper intensity.
He is not part of the suffering pop
ulation of an entirely depressed
area, but is rather a depressed in
dividual in the most favored area
of the world.
There may be those who, in the
service of certain interests, will
undertake. to argue that the per-
petuation of prejudice and the
techniques of its preservation are
a response to the personality and
behavior of Negroes, but the ma
jority of the American people I'M
derstand the proper order of cause
and effect in this phenomenon.
If ever a people were conscious
of their historical role, in the
midst of living it, the Negro in
the United States has been having
that experience since the begin
ming of the war. No citizen under
stands the issues of the war more
clearly. This realization has united
the thinking and action of the
Negro people as no other force
could have integrated them.
Race Newspapers Play Major
Roles
Until the war, unity in any one
area of Negro life has been a goal
vainly sought by Negro leadership,
no doubt for the basic reason that
race and color alone are not very
scientific means for grouping peo-
pie together. On questions of race
as well as on other scores, Ameri-
cas- psychological warfare has not
been scientific, either, and in this
fact, Negro leaders have found an
ally for their task of promoting
racial solidarity.
In tabulating the gains for 1912,
our leaders who themselves be-
gin to recognize the imperative
necessity for cooperative action
must give great weight to the
role of Negro newspapers. Vio-
lence, hatred and insistence on
race are a part of the American
scene. In reporting these facts to
the American people, the Negro
press has brought them together
on a platform which clearly eval-
yates the Negroes status and frank
ly recommends techniques for fu-
ture action.
A "QuisIing" Writes on Negro
Press
1t is in view of the violence of
the battle on the home front, which
is not of the Negroes making nor
desire, and with understanding of
the immense barriers that separate
US from participation in American
life and cause our brOOding con-
Germ with race, that I read with
sickened heart an article in the
Saturday Review of Literature, Of
December 10, entitled "A Negro
Looks at the Negro Press" by
Warren II. Brown.
All the polite invectives at my
command were exhausted on West
brook Pegler last April for his dia-
tribe against the Negro press. 1t
was hardly to be foreseen that
some need be reserved for a relic
Of slave psychology Of the we'll
known specie which outdistances
the most violent white master in
abuse Of a fellow-slave to appease
the hand that holds the whip. Ny
impulse is to save DR.. Brown from
the scorn and obliquy in which his
people will hold him upon reading
his article, just as he might have
refrained from subjecting the Ne
gro press to further misunderstand-
ing and ridicule by white people.
But he has SO richly earned every
challenge that will plaque him that
his Quisling-hke performance can
not be overlooked.
Browns Connection with
CID Battling
VIII L. &.,Lw. "a .s.~msA..uA tk.k