St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1944-05-26
By Dan Gardner


The National Association for
Advancement of Colored People
and other race rights organizations
have so perfected the art of pro-
test that today the Negroes cause
is known in the four corners of the
world. So intense is the barrage of
protests laid down at every angle
on the problems and situations con-
fronting the race that little more
can be asked in this respect.
The role played by the Negro
Press in carrying this protest mes
sage to the world has been dually
important with the work of the
NAACP, the National Negro Con-
gress and other groups engaged in
the same struggle. In the thor
ough job thus carried out, however,
lies the basis for alarm, because
in propagandizing the Negroes
cause, the proper checks and bal
ances to prevent unhealthy reac-
ton among the great masses of
Negroes have not been provided.
That is why we have the sordid
and unseemly picture of the Negro
with more rights" than he can
digest, suffering from the belly
ache from those he has already
been given.
Should Consolidate Gains
Constructive advancement should
be the aim of our leaders. Instead
of being carried away by the
grandiose achievements of smash
ing through to obtain the goal, and
then failing to consolidate these
gains before pushing ahead for the
next objective, we have the dis
heartening picture of people not
intelligently approaching and i'm
proving upon that which has been
won.
In certain large cities successful
fights have been waged to get
Negroes jobs in big downtown de-
partment stores as clerks and
sales persons. The effort has been
stymied in the results in which
unseemly conduct, lack of training
and lack of appreciation of the job
on the part of the workers has
caused several stores to rescind
their liberal policies in this respect
and writing off the experience as
bad judgment. Restaurants and
nightclubs, hotels and exclusive
shops have admitted Negro patrons
after long and intelligent cam
paigning by our race rights groups,
but the effort has been wasted in
many cases because the type of
guests have been of low, boisterous
character.
Lack of control of the masses
of Negroes, lack of respect from
them for the type of leadership that
is following the protest course, and
lack of education to take hold of
and improve upon the advantages
and rights" won are costing US a
staggering toll in losses on all
sides. From this it would seem
that some kind of organization or
activity would long ago have been
set up to supply the moral and
spiritual leadership of which we
are so sorely in need. In this wise,
the natural inclination is to look
to the churches and to the pulpit
for the moral guidance we so badly
need in these days. But the COM
petition of the barroom, the dance
hall, the race track and the policy
or numbers runner seems too much
for the church and it is, sad to
say, slowly losing ground in the
fight to control the morals of our
people. Whether the ministers are
devoting too much time to so-called
neutrality-suspicious." is not the ques-
ton. The fact is, the almost rigid
control over his flock exercised by
the old time gospel dispenser of the
early 19OO's has practically van
ished and in its place has come