St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1945-08-24

OOWI1 IIlS dCO1I1 d1IU ldI 11SSS11IS
contained into the most devastating
weapon modern warfare has yet
produced, the Negroes 1 talked with
are now trying to talk the race "in"
on the invention in some capacity
or other. They have gone down the
line with a finetoothed comb seek
ing even the janitor who might
have been employed in one of the
laboratories so that the record will
show in later years that a Negro
was at least there.
However, the Negro did not in
vent the atomic bomb and there is
room for suspicion that he might
not have been able to invent it be-
cause of the nature of his educa-
ton. While I would not be so simple
as to contend that there are no Ne
groes capable of inventing an
atomic bomb or neutronic bomb for
that matter, the fact remains that
none came forward with such a
bomb.
Fault Seen in Education of Youth
A reason might be advanced that
the kind of education our leaders
have advocated for Negro youth is
in reality educating for an inferior
role in this modern civilization. The
type of education advocated by our
leaders usually points our most
promising young men and women
toward fields of race relationship,
racial advisors and experts on racial
matters in addition to innumerable
actors, piano players, social work
ers, and soap box orators. We need
to teach our college youth, that they
should aspire to be George Wash
ington Carvers and G. C. Spauld-
ings instead of Walter Whites and
Lester Changers.
The White man gets more scien-
tific as the years roll on and a rea-
son for it is that he trains his young
men to carry on. We don't. Our
scientists are relatively few in num-
Der and limited in scope by lack of
funds, lack of interest and of
course the ever present bars of
racial discrimination, Jim crow seq
regation. The atomic bomb is les
son in itself to a minority race
such as ours. It should serve the
purpose of opening our eyes to the
possibilities that the world of
scientific exploration and invention
offers to progressive people.
Latest reports are that the fol-
lowing Negro scientists did work
on the Manhattan Atomic Bomb
Project. They are: George Will
liams, graduate of St. Augustine
college; Robert Omahandru, How
ard University graduate; George
Reed, also of Howard; Lowell Nc
Clane, North Carolina State, and
Sidney Thompson of McGill Univer-
sity. There are a few others, we
are told. The ordinary Negroes Gas
the social element likes to call
them) were on hand in force. At
Oak Ridge, Tenn, of the $4,000,
1889 were Negro, according to Col.
Kenneth Nichols. So we were there.
Challenge from Darker People
We have just witnessed the end of
a terrible war, one that involved
highly scientific part of the white
race-Germany-and a newcomer
to the international scene, a dark
err race, the Japanese. The Ger
man ingenuity and resourcefulness
that placed Hitler's Reich in the
forefront of world politics is I'M
questioned because the Germans
are white. However, the rise of
the japanese to a place where they
could challenge for almost five
years the age-old white supremacy
of the white man over the darker
peoples gives rise to much con-
lectures. Of all the darker races
in the last hundred years, the Jap
anese seem to be the only one to
have entered the field of scientific
research and invention; mastered
the exact science of mathematics
and geography, and psychology as
well, and thereby invented battle
ships, airplanes and cannon cap
able of wreaking terrible destruc-
ton upon the enemies of Nippon.
The lesson in this is obvious.
While there is no attempt here to