Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1944-08-11

prejudice is no more natural than
discrimination against blond hair
or big feet. Fortunately, the North
is beginning to realize that such
prejudice has no more place in
democratic America than the hates
of Europe.
This realization is growing not so
much from a surge of brotherhood
as from a desire for efficiency. We
have seen the South bog down
further and further by the waste
motion and waste energy caused by
prejudice: dual systems Of schools
and colleges in a section least able
to support or man one system; seq
regated services in trains and
buses and waiting rooms in a
region least well equipped with
public services of any kind; learn
ing and craftsmanship frustrated
by preoccupation with color bars;
agriculture stifled by the ineffi-
cheney of tenancy and share crop
ping, which makes poems of twice
as many whites as Negroes and does
not even make prosperity for the
owners; labor divided by racial
clashes and industry hampered by
having to give as much attention
to caste as to production. The North
has looked at the bankruptcy of
the South, caused in part by the
tribute paid to "the race prob
lem; it has seen its own efficiency
impaired by following Southern
custom, and is beginning to recog-
nize that prejudice and discrimina-
ton just cost too much.
America has suffered enough al
ready from letting the attitudes of
a single small section influence the
action of the whole nation. Even
when faced by world conflict, we
faltered in total preparedness be-
cause of our subsection to Southern
custom. With defense industries
clamoring for manpower to build
ships and planes, to make NUM-
tons and all the materials of war,
the skills and energies of hundreds
of thousands of Negroes have not
been used because most employers
refused to hire colored workers in
any but mental jobs. The cost of
this waste of human resources in
production and in morale has been
incalculable. Not until the Presi-
dent issued an edict against dis
elimination in defense employment
did many firms begin to utilize Ne
gro manpower.
When we set out to draft all of
our able-bodied young men to fight
for democracy, we sacrificed total
effectiveness to these same old
prejudices. We put one-tenth of
our fighting force into Jim Crow
camps and Jim Crow units in every
branch of the service, assigning
many well-qualifed men to mental
tasks. While those who have been
given combat duty have already
made a striking record of bravery
in this war-as Negroes have in
all the previous battles of the ma
tion-it would not be surprising if
these undemocratic practices af-
fected the Negroes will to fight. 1t
is certainly true that, in general,
the morale of the colored soldier
is very low. How could it be other
wise when, to cite but one example,
Negro soldiers on troop train 60
ing through Texas find themselves
sitting behind a Jim Crow curtain
at one end of the dining car while
a group of German war prisoners
eat in the main section, together
with the white Americans!
In little ways, as we'll as big, we
have kowtowed to the ancient
feudal feelings of the South. In
New York City an authoritative
pamphlet, The Races of Mankind,
prepared by leading scientists, was
barred from the servicemen's cen
tiers. at might be all right for
US in New York" explained an Of
fetal, "but you know they are very
sensitive about race in the South"
Even in cosmopolitan Hollywood,
colored actors are seldom shown as
anything but menials and comics,
not because the movie producers
are ignorant of Negro achievement,
but because they "do not want to
offend the South"
The heartening fact is that even
in the South many people no longer
share the ancient point of view.