The Wilmington morning star., 1944-12-17
alabama Man, Who Lost Son In Crash
With Negro, Raps Elevation OF Race
Opposes Duties For Men
He Claims Not Yet Quail
fled To Perform

ADMISSION, Ala, Dec. 16.-lA-
whose son was killed in a recent
air collision involving an army
pursuit plane piloted by a Negro
protested the Sudden elevation OF
the Negro to duties he is not yet
qualified to perform" in a letter
to the Admission Star and the War
department.
Earl C. Knowlton, head OF the
Admission water works, said his on
lv son. Lieut.. Earl c. KnoWlton,
,Jr.. pilot of a B-24 and II others
were killed, in addition to the Ne
gro pilot of the pursuit plane, in
recent accident near Charleston,
S. c.
81 knew that my boy might nave
to give his life for his country, ="
Knowlton wrote, 'but I expected
it to accomplish some useful pur-
pose. and not to be sacrificed to
the fanatical idea that all m e n
must be allowed to perform on
the same level regardless Of back
ground qualification"
my fathers people fought for
the north; my mothers for the
SOUTH" in the war between the
states, Knowlton said.
II hold no blame against the
Negro who flew fighter plane
into bomber, killing my boy and
eleven others. He flew that plane
because he was ordered to do so, :"
KnoWlton wrote. i.
But, with all my heart, I re-
sent our government apparent
determination to raise the Negro
overnight, as it were, to a place
in civilization which he is as yet
unprepared to assume.
with rare exceptions, his mind
is not prepared to make the split
second decisions which mean life
or death in the operation of so
swift and SO complicated and so
deadly a mechanism as an air.
plane.
Negroes were among the first
to come to my home to offer sym
pathy in my boys death. They at
tended the funeral service. They
loved him. He loved them. So, this
is not a letter of hate.
1T is tn expression Of the very
d ep resentment l feel to-
wards tn fetishism of our gov
eminent in its attitude towards an
unnatural and impossibly sudden
elevation of the negro to duties
he is not yet qualified to perform.
Some will say that the acct
dent might have happened if a
white man had been plotting the
fighter plane. That is true. But the
percentage against it would have
been in my boys favor. :" .
Knowlton has a daughter, Capt.
Louise Knowlton, on duty in
France with the WAC.
In New York, Roy Wilkins, act
ing secretary of the National AS
ISOLATION for the advancement of
colored people, said in a state
ment:
eve can understand the grief
and disappointment of a father
who expected that if his son should
lose his life in serving his coun-
try, it would not be in an accident.
but in combat against our enc
mics.
''But the record of Negro combat
pilots to date in actual combat
with German planes in the Med
iterranean theater of war, over
the Anzio beachhead, at Salerno,
with the British Eighth army up
the Italian peninsula, and in escort
work for our big bombers ove-
southeastern Euorpe and southern
France during the German occu-
patton, would seem to prove that
Negroes are capable of handling a
combat airplane and making split
second decisions at more than 400
miles an hour.
MIR. KnoWlton says his letter is
not one of hatred and we believe
him SO far as his feelings for this
one Negro pilot is concerned: but
his main thesis, which is that the
Negro is still a kind of uncivilized,
lower animal incapable of adjust
ing himself to civilization an
underhand cut at the whole Negro
race
From the very beginning of
1910, Negro-Americans have spent
most of their energies struggling
to get chance to fight the enc
mics of our country, and this in
cident is just one more of the
many that have been used to dis
courage him and to relegate him
to strictly mental and service work
in uniform"