The Omaha guide., 1945-07-07
PageG
THE LIVING SOUTH

o O0N VI DOoltlCoo DC(duSC DIh
weasel politics have sucked off it
life blood by denying it funds.
June 80 will also be a day wher
thousands of Negro workers - frs
victims of cutbacks and layofs-wil
be trudging home with polite pinl
discharge slips tucked in their Satur.
day pay envelopes. June 80 may be q
day of mourning for awakening blacl
America, wondering if it must AGAR
sell its life blood for a pair of duck.
ing breeches and a plate Of poke
greens.
June 30 may be no day of rejoic-
ing for the people. But neither shall
the weasels rejoice for longer than il
takes us to pillow them up and throw
them over that fence which separates
the South's yesterday from the South's
tomorrow.
1t is the South of yesterday which
fights FEPC. But it is the South of
tomorrow which fights for FEPC. 1t
is the South of tomorrow which will
give thousands of black champions
and thousands of white champions to
that new movement for full and fair
employment due to arise if Congress
acts like a pack Of weasels on June
80.
You see, both the white people and
the Negro people of Dixie have had
their blood sucked by the weasels.
And l reckon that's why l heard SO
many white people declaring them
selves in favor of a permanent FEPC
when4I took a recent trip through
the Deep South.
Meet Sister Janeway
You've probably never met Mrs.
Lura Janeway, of South Pittsburgh,
Tennessee. | never had either until
hat morning when | sat next to her
on the rear seat of a Chattanooga
bound bus. But l think that Sister
Janeway is Of the stuff which the
South will furnish for that nation
wide movement to dig out the weas-
els.
I've got nothing against colored
people and | don't mind riding here
on the back seat with them," said
Sister Janeway after a naughty old
dame from Nashville chose to stand
up rather than sit with Negroes. Il
don't know much about this her
FEPC because l don't have more
than a third grade education. But
I'm for it if it means that the gov
eminent backs up everybody's right
to work for whatever he can do and
for the same wages. l just don't think
hat white people will get their just
share Of things until colored people
get theirs"
All Depressed
In Atlanta, | was handed a copy
of a declaration asking that FEPC
be made permanent, signed by dozens
of prominent white and Negro Geor-
gianS with the majority of the Signer,
being white. The declaration declared
in human words and not in wease.
words that Here in the South, we
have experienced the unwholeSome
consequences of discrimination in en-
2 ployment. A large section Of our peo-
pie, held at a low wage level, ha:
depressed the income of all anc
stunted the progress of the area"
When | read those words which
are the words Of people as Southern
as my grandma's hoe-cake, l remem.
bered Charlie Bruce, the white Ma
con, Georgia, fireman who testified
before the FEPC in the Central o.
Georgia railroad hearings back il
1913. Charlie, you will remember, re
fused to accept promotion over a Ne.
gro railroader with longer seniority
He said that there were dozens O
other white men in the yards who fell
just like him about their colored fel
low-workers.
| also read with pride the call tt
action for a permanent FEPC sen
out to the people of the South by
Southern Conference for Human
Welfare in Nashville.
l heard the voice Of the Soutl
that deSpises the weasel words, bias
pheming the spirit of man, when
read an editorial in the white Dur
ham, North Carolina Herald that &
seems vitality essential to set up /;
permanent and broader FEPC imme
diately.' The Herald was one of the
FIVE Southern dailies, listed by Con
gresham Frank Hook in the Congress
sional Record as supporting a perma
nent FEPC.
In a majority of the Southern
States, there are white people fighting
actively to guarantee democracy il
the South, by guaranteeing the RICH
of every worker Of every color t.
hold his job through an FEPC witt
teeth sharp enough to bite the stuff
fling out of the weasels.
Maybe, some Negro leaders mad,
an honest mistake by failing to in
clude in their fight for the FEPC
thousands of Southern white peopl,
who would have gone down the lin,
had they been modified into action