St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1944-10-13
Army Reverses
Jim CrOWPlan
for Negro Troops
Especial to Spokesman & Recorder)

especial to Spokesman & Recorder)
WASHINGTON, D. C. (NNPA)
Official announcement of the
abandonment of the Army plan to
seize the Theresa and Pershing
Hotels in New York and Chicago,
and to abolish its jimcrow proposal
for Negro soldiers was made by the
War Department here on Sunday.
The announcement did not men
ton the two hotels by name but
said Gin order to avoid taking over
additional hotel facilities in housing
shortage areas, Negro returnees
will be processed with white re-
turnees through existing northern
Redistribution Centers."
For almost a month, after Presi-
dent Roosevelt received protests
concerning the proposed seizure of
the Pershing and Theresa Hotels
for jimcrow centers and ordered the
Army to work out new plans which
would eliminate segregation, the
War Department has been trying to
work out a "face-saving" state
ment for release.
The plan evolved, in consultation
with White House representatives,
as exclusively revealed by the
NNPA last week, was further re-
vised when Secretary of War
Stimson reviewed the new proposal
and determined that inadequate
provisions had been made for the
large numbers of soldiers who
would be returned to this country
come V-Day.
The official announcement saws:
''The War Department announced
today that its program for process
ing soldiers in Redistribution Cen
tiers on their return to the United
States from combat areas overseas
will be altered and expanded
through the utilization of existing
Army Camps.
"The expansion is necessitated by
a growing volume of soldiers sent
back home by the Army's Air,
Ground and Service Forces. At
present, hotel facilities are being
utilized in the Redistribution Pro-,
gram, where the returning veter-
ans are housed while resting and
being processed, re-oriented, re-
classified and reassigned. These
hotel facilities, however, are taxed
to capacity, and it is becoming in
creasingly difficult to find add
tional hotels which would be suit
able quarters for the establishment
of Redistribution Centers," the an
nouncement states.
On the matter of the previous
jimcrow plan, the announcement de-
clares: Pending the establishment
Of the camp type Redistribution
Centers, and in order to avoid TAX
ing over additional hotel facilities
in housing shortage areas, Negro
returnees will be processed with
white returnees through existing
northern Redistribution Centers.
Thereafter, all returning soldiers,
white and Negro, certified by a
medical officer as being most in
need of this type of accommodation.
will be housed in hotels retained
for convalescents in the same man
ner in which they are at present
being cared for in the hospitals
or convalescent centers."
Assurance has been given by As
sistant Secretary Of War McCloy
that Negro medical officers will be
included in the program for de-
termining whether Negro soldiers
should be certified" as being
"most in need of" the hotel type
of accommodation. Without this
assurance, this is viewed as a weak
spot in the program, offering a
loophole to keep Negroes out Of
the hotel centers after the camps
are established.
The "same manner" referred to
in connection with hospitals and
convalescent centers is one Of full
Indignation Of white and Negro
soldiers. This program Of non-seg-
regation in these phases Of the
Army's program has been IN ef-
feet all along.
AS for the Army camp phase Of
the Redistribution Center program
proposed for the future, the Army
says: "Under the new Redistribu-
ton Program, certain Of those
Army camps which are better stu
ated and more attractive win be
selected for use as Redistribution
Centers. Many such camps are be-
coming available through the move
ment Of troops overseas"
Persons familiar with the usual
Army plan Of operation are eau
tioning Negroes to watch closely
to see that when this phase Of the
Army program is put into effect
that Negroes are not herded into
Southern camps where their OPP