The Omaha guide., 1946-08-24
Research Poll
Misleading

Negroes are not receiving fair
treatment in the United States,
according to A. A. Liveright, ex-
ecutive director of the American
Council on Race Relations, who
charged a recent opinion poll on
the subject had created a false i'm
preston of the true situation. The
charge was made before the So
ciety for Social Research meeting
at the University of Chicago, on
Friday, August 9.
Addressing the meeting on Pro
lens in Social Action, Liveright
referred to the recent poll conduc-
ted by the National Opinion Re-
search Center in Denver, Colo, on
attitudes toward the treatment of
Negroes in the United States. Re-
suits of the poll, published widely
august a. in the nations press,
reported that 66 per cent Of the
white Americans polled believed
that most Negroes are being treat
ed fairly. Liveright pointed out
the danger Of publishing such fl
cures without due caution and in
depreciation, lies in the fact that
many persons reading the results
of the poll would mistake figures
published for actual facts.
Public opinion polls, although a
valuable medium for determining
the temper of public opinion. are
frequently misleading unless care
fully framed and reported, Live
right declared.
In refuting the findings of the
MORO poll, Liveright quoted the
following facts:
On Employment: The final re-
0ort issued by the now-defunct
Fair Employment Practice Com
mlrtee stated: Studies made by
and for this committee since VI
Day show that the war time gains
of Negroes, Mexican American
and Jewish workers are being dis
sipated through an unchecked re-
vival of discriminatory practices.
This report stated in it's conclu-
sions: The war veterans of these
minority groups today face greater
difficulties than other veterans in
obtaining training and finding
work.
Military Service: Despite the
fact that a special committee was
appointed to review segregation in
the armed forces and to make re-
concentrations for a new policy,
the Negro does not even have an
equal share in the army as now
constituted.
Veterans rights: Despite the
fact that no CT legislation differ
entiates between whites and Ne
groes, reports conducted by the
Urban League, NAACP and the
ACRR show varying types Of dis
elimination with respect to Negro
veterans.
Civil rights: No person who has
read newspapers for the past few
months can believe that Negroes
in the United States are securing
an equal break so far as civil
rights are concerned. Lynchings in
Columbia and Georgia and Free
port, Long Island and Monroe, Ga.
combined with the resurgence of
Ku Klux Klan activity, provide
vivid proof of the terroristic acti-
vities being used to intimidate Ne
groes. Not all such cases are, how
ever recorded. For example, the
fact that there have been IS bomb
ings or burnings of Negroes who
have moved into homes in white
communities in the Chicago area,
has been singularly overlooked by
the white press.
AS a corrective for the probable
injury to minority groups invol-
we'd in publication of a poll such
as that on opinion about Negroes
Liveright suggested that as a pu-
bile service, and in accordance
with the responsibility of the free
press for providing facts, any such
polls should be accompanied by
- 1aact aS fill accurate and hon.