The guardian. [volume] (Boston, Mass.) 1901-1960, 1943-07-17
SAYS OFFICIALS,
I'M. richardson
(Conttnued tront paqe onel

Continued from Page One)
tional Association for the Ad-
vancement of Colored People at
the Arena, and was featured by
the appearance of two outstand-
ing national figures: Walter
White. of the national NAACP
and Richard Frankensteen of
the Automobile Workers, CLIO, of
Detroit. Capt. Hugh Mulzac,
captain of the Booker T. Wash
ington of the United States
Merchant Marine, was unable to
make a scheduled appearance,
and Wendell Willkie and Mrs.
Eleanor Roosevelt, who had
been sought as speakers, could
not be obtained.
The meeting had been called
for the dual purpose of protest
ing the wanton slaughter of
colored people by rioters and
police of Detroit and other Am
erican cities in recent weeks,
and to cement efforts that are
being made to prevent any pos
Sible spread of violence to the
New England sector. The selec-
ton of both Mr.. White and Mr..
Frankensteen was considered
timely in view of the parts that
both had played in the Detroit
scene: Mr.. White having been
called to the mid Western city
Immediately after the riots, and
Nj. Frankensteen with his or
ganization) having taken inten-
sive action to prevent the riots
many months before they &C.
Cured.
In many ways the meeting re-
Sembled the old fire-snd-thun-
der gatherings of the days of
william Monroe Trotter's lead
ership of progressive Colored
thought in Massachusetts; it
ended, however, without much
of the positive action, appoint
ment of delegations and force
full indignation that character
lied the late leaders assemblies.
With the exception of this lack
of militant direction, the meet
ing was unusually successful.
Mr.. Whites talk was informa-
tive and pointed; he showed the
whole Fascist background of
the incidents of which Detroit
was the elimination of a con-
certed movement that had been
in progress for some time in the
nation, and he also showed the
almost culpable negligence of
officials to combat it. 1t was he
who pointed out that even in
cities where race relations were
as ideal as those in Boston, the
people cannot afford to feel any
false sense of security.
There was dynamite in the
talk of Mr.. FrankenSteen al
most from his opening sentence.
He told of the steps that organ
lied labor had taken for years
to build unity between the two
predominant races in the De-
troit area. These efforts, he
showed, never drew more than
lukewarm interest from the po-
lice and city officials, whom he
charged with almost total re-
sponsibility for the riot last
month. His most startling &C
cusation, however, was made
against the much-yaunted Fed
eral Bureau of Investigation.
This highly-touted body, he
stated, had been shown conclu-
sive evidence months ago that
the Ku Klux Klan was actively
fomenting racial trouble in the
Motor City; it had blandly re-
piled that ''The Khan is a patri-
otto organization aiding the
country in the pursuit of the
war;" 1t was this type of off1c-
ial attitude, he showed, that lay
behind the coincidence that
nearly all of the victims were
colored, that most of those
killed were killed not by rioters
but by uniformed officers of the
law, and that of the thousands
who were arrested afterward,
only a few scores were white.
The meeting was character
lied by the presence of bodies
of representatives of organiza-
tons other than the NAACP,
exernplifying to many minds the
fact that there was unity of
purpose in the session and its