St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1945-09-07

instances Where the WnlCe ma
that a mortal enemy had been
conquered that he just didn't give
a damn who hollered, where they
hollered and blew their horns, or
what they did, that is, short of
murder.
Consequently, the pictures will
show Negroes mixed with whites,
Chinese, and other racial stocks,
yelling their heads off in wild, joy
Gus enthusiasm that such a ire
mendous victory as ours over the
Japanese had been accomplished
with such dramatic suddenness.
The fervor with which Negroes
here in New York greeted VI
Day; the tidal wave of happiness
that swept through Harlem and the
Negro sections of the Bronx and
Brooklyn won't be matched any
where else.
Chinese Have Vital Reason
Let's look at the whole thing
candidly and attempt to rational
ize. 1t can be we'll understood why
Chinatown went mad with joy that
the Japs had been defeated. The
Chinese have their native land at
stake. Defeat of the Japanese
enemy means freedom for millions
enslaved by the conquering hordes
of Nippon. 1t places China back in
the running as a world power, no
matter how actually weak she is in
comparison with the great western
nations and with Russia. The
Chinese expressions of joy can be
accepted as factual without reser-
walton.
All the hyphenated American
groups, the Italo-American, the
Czech, the Yugoslav, the Dane, the
Norwegian, the Roumanian, the
Belgian, the Dutch, the German
American, the Pole, and even the
Filipino had good reason to re-
joice. All were either in on the
"kill" or had a chance to get in
on it. The Yugoslavs, the Czech,
the Dane, the Norwegian, the Rou-
manian, the Belgian, the Dutch, the
Pole and the Filipino are interest
ed in their homelands and all are
nations that were victims of Hit
ler's or Japanese aggression.
But what did the American
Negro get out of the war? During
the almost four years of sacrifice,
"blood, sweat and tears" both on
the actual battlefield and on the
home front, the American Negro
comes out of World War II with
but two concrete gains. They are
the United States Supreme Court
decision outlawing "White Pri-
maries" in the South and the Fair
Employment Practice Act passed
by the New York State Legislature
and applicable only to that state.
Thousands May Now Live
1t is, of course, apparent to
everyone that the American Negro
was glad and is still glad that the
lives of thousands of American
fighting men, white and Negro,
have been saved by the sudden ces-
sation of hostilities with Japan.
Among these thousands are the
sons, brothers, cousins, nephews,
fathers and uncles of other thou
sands on the home front. We all
should be prayerfully grateful that
danger to them has been greatly
lessened.
Still, it is beyond comprehension
and spontaneous gaiety and hap
piness expressed by Negroes on
VI Day. Of course we are Ameri-
can citizens. The good and bad
fortunes of our native country
affect US all. Victory for the Fas-
cists would have been sorry day
for all of African descent. We all
know that. But deeper in the situa-
ton is the fact that we are still
without status, more like wards of
a rich man who keeps US living in
shacks on the outskirts of his big
plantation mansion and allows US,
as in the days of actual American
slavery, to join in with our rich, in
fictitious laughter and songs and
humor, when the "Boss Man" has
had particularly good day on the
stock exchange, is killing the fat
ted calf to celebrate the return of
long lost son, or when he has