The Michigan chronicle. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1936-current, 1944-10-07
A TALE OF TWO CITIES


town New York and through the teeming tenement
section of lower Harlem your editor could not resist
comparing life in Gotham with that of our own
proud city.
When Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founded
the city of Detroit in 1701, New York was we'll on
its way to fame and fortune and its first school,
established by the Dutch, already 6S years old.
In this history of both cities however, finds the
same brave, pioneering spirit among the founding
fathers, the same energy and vitality among the
immigrants who settled them.
Today Detroit has become great industrial
city with humming factories that have put America
on wheels and mechanical armed forces. New
York has become world financial center with di-
versfied industries and vast merchandise mart.
Its population is three to four times greater than
that of city.
Although Negroes shared in the early develop
ment Of both cities they migrated to these centers
in large numbers only in the last few decades. 1t is
in the present-day relationship between whites and
Negroes that the two cities differ most remarkably
The same segregated pattern Of neighborhoods have
been followed in both cities and to great extent
the same prejudicial employment policies be
found in BOTH Nevertheless there is fundamental
difference in the attitude of the average white New
Yorker and the average white Detroiter toward the
Negro.
This attitude is reflected best in the freedom
of the New York Negro to participate in almost
every aspect of the civic life of the city without
risk of humiliation. The Civil Rights laws of New
York not only work but the city fathers, including
the Mayor, consistently fight racial discrimination.
Several of the public housing projects in New York
interracial and no protests by whites were
made when these projects were opened to all citi-
zens regardless of color
The so-called riot in Harlem last year was not
nJtc bod hot hof,y ptrbi o,1 opI
Negroes on the other as was true in Detroit. Jim
Grow in the armed forces high consumer prices
in Harlem, and other factors combined to produce
that outbreak. The manner in which the Mayor and
the police department in cooperation with the Negro
leadership handled the riot illustrates again the diff
ference between the white attitude of New York and
Detroit toward the Negro.
Mayor LaGuardia and the City Council of New
York have a basic understanding of the so-caled
race problem. They are committed to act upon
policy of racial equality. Last month they passed
a city ordinance Withholding subsidies from any
housing development which bars Negroes or any
other group because of creed color. Fairgrounds
and swimming pools have been built in Harlem and
housing projects to the congestion in crowded
districts are already planned for the postwar. In
other words the city's leadership actively opposes
the encroachment of racial discrimination and is
seeking to up-root the segregated patterns which al
ways lead to conflict
Despite the fact that Negroes here have made
greater contribution to the development of Detroit
than New York Negroes have to their city, the De-
trot Negro enjoys far less freedom in his day to
day activity. Many public places boldly refuse to
accommodate Negroes here and all-white juries
promptly absolve arrangements of any crime in
fusing service to Negroes
We have Mayor who insists that neighborhood
segregation must be maintained and City Council
which concurs in this judgment. We have Mayor
who has understanding of the race problem and
who resents the attempt of anyone to give him any.
Our city fathers prefer to stick their heads in the
sand rather than face the issues which are begging
for settlement.
We believe that Detroit Negroes are more pro-
gressive and enlightened than the Negroes Of New
York City, The business development among De-
troit Negroes and the high quality of the labor and
civic leadership here places our colored community
far ahead of Harlem. Negroes have done more
things better here than in almost any other major
city, Our greatest trouble lies in the fact that De-
trot has always put its worst foot forward in the
matter of white leadership Detroiters still insist