St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1944-02-11

trast in treatment of Nazi prisoners
and Negro troops is contained in a
sweeping report presented to the
War Department by the council.
A picture of low morale, mis-
treatment at the hands of military
personnel and civilians, of intoler-
able transportation conditions and
inequalities in the ordinary facili-
ties and privileges of army life was
given.
Rev. Horace made the trip upon
his own initiative and expenses
were met out of his own pocket
with the aid of the Baptist con-
vention. His report was first made
before a meeting of the Fraternal
Council of Churches in st. Louis
on January Is.
McClOy Impressed
Accompanying him when he made
his shocking report to the war de-
partment were DIR. William H. Jer-
nagin, director of the fraternal
council, and Truman K. Gibson,
civilian aide to the secretary of war.
So impressed was McCloy with
the findings that he is said to have
commented to Rev. Horace that his
was "the most comprehensive re-
port on these camps that has come
to my desk"
The camps covered in the tour
were Camp Robinson, Little Rock,
Ark; Camps Livingston and Clai-
borne, Alexandria, La; Camps
Flora and Jackson Air Base, Jack
son, Miss; Camp Shelby, Hatties-
burg, Miss; Camp Sibert, Gadsden,
Ala; Fort McClelland, Admission,
Ala; and Fort Benning, Columbus,
Ga.
Rev. Horace himself is a veteran
of World War l in which he served
as a lieutenant of infantry and later
as intelligence officer for his bat
talon.
Communities Pull
His findings were laid out on a
chart as large as a standardized
newspaper opened wide, and care
fully classified.
"The local community seems to
be the policy making body for the
was one of his conclusions.
The people of the communities Gin
sist that these camps conform to
their wishes as it relates to the
treatment of Negroes"
He talks of hospitals "They seem
fair and reasonable if soldier can
get into one; but the clinics take
the position that they are not sick,
and mark them for duty without
"The officers treat them fair to
badly. They all prefer northern
white officers, claiming that south
ern white officers spend more time
impressing them that they are in
ferior than they do to make them
soldiers. Policemen are cruel and
revengeful, and seem to express the
pent up hatred of the community.
They take jurisdiction and arrest
soldiers for the slightest disorder
and the government does not seem
to interfere.
Undesirables
"The civilians treat the colored
soldiers as undesirables. They live
under the fear that at any moment
they may have an outbreak with
the civil law. Many refuse to take
leaves for fear of trouble in town"
Rev. Horace declared that even
Negro residents of the nearby COM
munities assumed the same resent
ment for the colored troops because
to do otherwise, they believe, would
expose them to reactions. "This
complete atmosphere of hostility
makes the Negro soldier a bitter
and ruthless fellow" the report
says.
Rev. Horace said he found that
at Grenada, Miss, German war
prisoners received more courtesy
than American Negro soldiers. "Our
men have to use certain latrines
and drinking fountains while Ger
man prisoners use them anywhere"
In Camp Flora, he said, Negroes are
not allowed to send their clothes to
the post cleaners; they must send
them to town and often they get lost
there.
Raps Bus Drivers
Worship is done in a theatre after
the performance and most of the
equipment is provided by the Cath
Ole church. He said that even the
bus drivers seem to strive to crush
the spirit of Negro soldiers.
He pointed to a battalion at Camp
which for two years he
said had been trained as artillery
men and then broken up into a labor
outfit. "Yet the government is ask
ing us to save the grease we skim
off the pot while they throw away
millions on 'jim-crow' units"
II contend that the policy that
the government is using makes it
almost impossible for Negroes to
have very much morale. The South