Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1944-04-07
Time to Stress
Unity Is FOsdick's
Radio Plea
DR., Fosdick said:

the Christ. Jesus of Nazareth"
said Philip. That was enough for
Nathaniel: "Can any good thing
come out of Nazareth"
All around the world today
people of the colored races are
prejudiced against the United
States. Moreover, they will give
you the facts. In the last fifty
years 5000 persons have been
lynched in this country, a large per-
centage of them Negroes and many
of them under circumstances-tor-
tured, burned alive-that beggar
description. Now that kind of thing
is known all over the world, and
when some people think of America
they think of our treatment of the
American Negroes, and, contem-
plating victory of the white races,
they ask, Can any good come out
of that? Well, would you think
that fair to America?
When we read about the caste
system in India, especially about
the untouchable class - outlawed,
segregated, despised-we think
that is dreadful. Listen, then! Ben
jamin E. Mays, Doctor of Philoso-
ply, President of Morehouse Col
lege, a Negro gentleman, sometime
since visited India. Here is what
he says: THE students followed
me in crowds-not because had
anything special to say but because
l was a Negro from America and
the students wanted to know more
about the way white Americans
treat Negroes and why they deny
them the democracy they preach.
The most striking incident was my
visit to an 'untouchable' school for
boys. The Master literally
begged me to visit them, be their
guest at meal and address the boys.
l accepted the invitation. When he
introduced me he made it clear that
l was a Christian, from Christian
America; yet he emphasized at the
same time that l was an 'untouch-
able in America-'an untouchable
like u.s. he emphasized. 1 was
dazed, puzzled, bit peeved. 1t had
never occurred to me. But instantly
l recognized that there was an ele-
ment of truth in what he said. AS
long as Negroes are treated as
second and third class citizens,
whether in the North where segre-
cation and discrimination are
spreading, where Negroes are fire.
quently denied the privileges of
eating in restaurants and denied
occupancy in hotels, where dis
elimination against them in en-
ployment and civic life is rampant;
or whether in the South, where seq
regation and discrimination exist
by law and where gross inequali-
ties exist in education, politics and
work opportunities, they are the
'untouchables' of America. My
friends, that kind of thing is in
the minds of the colored peoples
around the world, so that this
group prejudice we practice on
others is a boomerang"
Would not we Americans want
to say to all the colored peoples
on earth: Try to be just to US;
we do face a desperately different
problem; we did bring the Negroes
here against their will, and until
eighty years ago held them as
slaves; and now that they are free
we confront situation that all the
wisest of both blacks and whites
know is going to take a long time
to work out. North and South alike,
the overwhelming mass Of our peo-
pie hate the things you hate, lynch
ing especially. Thank God that is
on its way out! In 1941 there were
only four lychings-we are win
ming that battle!
Would not we Americans want
to say to the colored peoples of
the world: We know better than
you do our appalling failures in
handling this problem of race re-
lationships. In the First World
War the first soldier of the Ameri-
can Expeditionary Force in France
to get the Croix deGuerre, with
star and palm, was a Negro ser
geant, Henry Johnson, in this
war the first American soldier to
die after Pearl Harbor was a Ne
gro, Private Robert Brooks. Yet
only the other day a young second
lieutenant, a Negro, in the uniform
of our nation, in one of our great
cities, not in the South, either,
was beaten up by a policeman
merely because he went into a rail-
road station restaurant for lunch.
The great mass of our people, we
would say, are Inundated, penitent,
ashamed Of this disgraceful storm
trooper nazism. But nonetheless
we are encouraged too. In Rich
nnond. Virginia. the leading naner