St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1945-12-07
Dear JOe''
A Weekly Column by and
for Veterans
By JAMES L. HICKS
Dear Joe:


Ray is a good man to be civilian
aide to the Secretary of War is be-
cause he has seen action overseas
in the Battle of Europe, but we col
ored CTS have a better reason for
thinking it's good deal because we
know that he has also seen plenty
of action in the Battle of America.
Remember back in 1871 when we
were playing war with wooden guns
on maneuvers and the citizens of
Arkansas and Louisiana were snip
ing at US with the real Mccoy?
Well, Colonel Ray was down there
in the woods around Pine Bluff and
Gurdon, Arkansas, with the old
1S4th Field Artillery. He knows
what a colored CT is up against
when he is stationed down south be-
cause he was there with us in that
action, Joe. Here's hoping he won't
forget.
Those were rugged days. 1 saw
more action around Gurdon, Arkan-
sas, in August, 1871, than I did in
"a months in New Guinea. The 48th
Quartermaster and the Gath Engi-
neers will never forget.
Know what the VA says about
segregation in veterans hospitals,
Joe? They say, eve only segre-
gate GI's in communities like the
south where segregation is followed
by everybody" and then, Joe, they
turn right round and segregate
them at the Hines Veterans Hos
pital in Chicago.
And here all the time I've been
thinking that Chicago was "way up
north"
Here's one for your notebook,
Joe. In the U. S. they have one all
Negro veteran hospital-way down
south in Tuskogee, Alabama. So
what? So now they are getting
ready to build another - and you
know where they are planning to
build it, Joe? No, not in Maine,
not on the Canadian border. You're
way off the target. They are going
to build it in Mississippi or Ala
bama. They haven't decided which
will be the greater of the two evils
yet. Sounds like they want to make
lynching legal, doesn't it, Joe?
This weeks award of Maggie's
Drawers goes to DR.. Dorothy Bould-
ing Ferebee and her AKA Nation
al Partisan Council.
Sister Ferebee and her AKA's
have been doing a grand job of
fighting for your and my rights
while We were over there but not
long ago Sister Ferebee went up be-
fore the Senate Education and La
Dor Committee and told them that
the $80,0O0,000 which they were
getting ready to spend surveying
and constructing hospitals for vet
Grams was all right except the bill
didn't say anything about no race
discrimination in these hospitals
and she figured they should amend
it so that it would. She said she
wanted it made clear that we could
get as much benefit out of that
dough as our white brothers.
So these smart guys up in Cong
ress looked all ashamed like and
said OK lady, We'll make some
amendments, and then they got
their heads together and wrote
some long rambling legal sentences
that say without discrimination
on account of race, creed or color"
about every other word and it all
looked fine until they got ready to
finish the sentences. Then they put
"but" in there and after the little
"but" they added this: ian excep-
ton shall be made in cases where
separate hospital facilities are pro-
vided for separate population
groups, if the plan makes equit-
able provisions on the basis of need
for facilities and services of like
quality for each group"
That's the "but" that did it, Joe.
All that simply means that if they
build hospital in Mississippi or
Alabama or any other place, where
Jim Crow is practiced (and where
it ain't) they can still put the white
GI's on the sunny side of the build
ing as long as they give you a room
on the back.
You gotta give DR.. Ferebee and
the AKA's credit for trying, Joe,
cause after all they did get some
part of the bill changed to aid col
pred people, but what we can't for
give is that they leveled off on the
;arget of discrimination and scored
a bullseye but then wouldn't fire
both barrels at the segregation tar
get while they still had the range.
And so for failing to shoot we give
them "Maggie's Drawers"
Wave the red flag, corporal! This
business of compromise just amt
no good.
Editors Note: When a soldier Is firing
on the range and misses the complete tar
get a red flag is waved across the target by
the marker to indicate he has missed. CTS
have given this flag the nickname Of Mag
gie's Drawers." Each week this column
awards 'Maggie's Drawers" to persons who