Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1944-06-16
TALKING
versus
DOING
By Earl Brown in n. Y.
Amsterdam News

While a great many people and
organizations are doing a lot of
talking about the race problem,
some trade unions are going ahead
and doing something about it.
Moreover, some of the union men,
bers, white and colored, now do
something about the race problem
as a matter of fact. They don't
bubble but act.
was out in Chicago recently, and
a group of white and Negro leaders
from all over the country met, and
somebody raised the question
whether the group should go on
record against racial segregation.
About a year before, a CLIO union
held a convention in the Shorthand
Hotel in the same city, and though
the hotel barred Negroes before the
union delegates arrived, they
haven't done so since. There were
Negro delegates among the union
GERS, and so they barged in, held
their meeting and that's all there
was to it. Now, any respectable
colored folk can go into the place,
situated on the beautiful Lake
Michigan front, eat a good meal in
good surroundings. All because of
the CIO union delegates.
Before the clearinghouse Workers
Union (CIO) was organized in Chi
cagO, every eatery back of the
stockyards barred Negroes. Even
one-arm beaneries. But the union
broke this up. Today, cOlOred stock
yards workers enjoy their lunches,
ETC., in these restaurants in peace.
The UAW-CIO over in Detroit, did
more than any other group to break
down racial discrimination in De-
troit hotels as well as otherwise. of
course, here in New York City the
democracy in the International
Ladies' Garment Workers Union
and some other unions is well
known.
MONUMENT IN DIXIE
Even down in Birmingham, Ala,
white and colored workers had a
monument erected to a great Negro
labor organizer who helped to put
over the Mine Workers Union
against the toughest odds anywhere
in the country. Whatever real ra-
cial democracy exists down there
and it's very ittle-resulted from
efforts by colored and white work
ers in trade unions. Some white
union members know that if they
are ever going to get anywhere
they must accept the Negro whole
hog-that when one of their fell
low workers who happens to be
colored is barred from a hotel or
restaurant, it indirectly and adj
versely affects the welfare of all
workers, black and white.
In every instance where I have
seen colored and white workers eat
ing, meeting, dancing and other
wise working or enjoying them
selves together as union men and
women, the Negroes showed no
feeling of racial or color conscious
ness. A few weeks ago CLIO union
held a dance in the ballroom of the
Stevens Hotel in Chicago. Many of
those who attended we're Negroes.
They danced and enjoyed them
selves with their white fellow union
members about the same as if they
had been in the Savoy Ballroom in
Harlem. Fact is, both the white
and colored union people were gen
orally oblivious of race; to them
their union and what it stood for
was paramount. Furthermore, the
presence of colored unionites at a
meeting or a dance in a hotel or
some other place that hitherto dis
eliminated against Negroes sooner
or later breaks down the barriers;
and even some of our top race
leaders who spend all their time
fighting discrimination and segre-