The Omaha guide., 1946-11-02

president OF the AmdlgamdteC
Clothing Workers and State chair
man of the American Labor Party
told the audience that Bilboism in
wolves the issue of decency against
indecency in public life, and that
it enlists the support Of members
of all political parties.
we fought a long and terrible
war to eradicate fascism from the
face of the earth and to put an
end to the hateful doctrines and
disgraceful practice of racial dis
elimination he declared. I'm that
war thousands of Negroes, Jews,
Italians and other minorities laid
down their lives. But the victory
they helped to win on foreign soil
will never be realized so long as
race hatred is permitted to flour
iSh in our own land. A Bilbo in our
Senate is a~threat to all Americans
he is an insult to the memory of
our heroic dead. The campaign to
unseat him should and must COM
mand the support of all those who
love America.
Percy Greene, publisher of the
Jackson (Miss.) Advocate and one
of the signers of the petition that
urged the Senate to investigate
charges that Bilbo disfranchised
qualified voters through intimida-
ton and violence during the July
2 primary campaign. was a voice
for Missippi and the South at the
dinner. Mr.. Greene said:
For thirty years I have known
Mississippi political campaigns
with the Negro question almost
the sole issue. I say to you that
the 1916 campaign was the most
violent, vituperative, vulgar, I'M
Christian, undemocratic, un-Amer-
lean and illegal in all the history
of the State. A campaign in which
every emotion born of ignorance.
prejudice, passion, bigotry and
hate was called upon to keep the
Negro citizens and soldiers of the
State from exercising the right of
every American citizen, the basic
right in a democracy. the right
TO vote.
Mr.. Greene added that "Our
grievance is not against an indi-
vidual as such, but calls for the
Iprooting and destruction of a
philosophy, an ism, a way of pol
itical action and social conduct
which not only threatens the fu-
ture right of Negro citizens to
enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness amid freedom from
fear, but which in equal degree
threatens the future happiness and
progress of all the people of the
State, the South and the entire ma
ton. 4
During and since the primary
election in Mississippi on July 2
the Civil Rights Congress has had
attorneys and field Investigators
in that State collecting evidence
of Bilbo's Acknowledgement Of
qualified Negro voters through in
.timidation and violence.
This evidence, in the form of af-
fidavits, was the legal basis of a
petition drawn up by a Civil Rights
attorney and filed by so eligible
Negro and white voters of Miss
issippi with the Committee on Cam
paign Expenditures and the Com
mittee on Privileges and Elections
of the U. S. Senate. The petition
ers urged that Bilbo be unseated
as unfit to hold public office.
AS a result of this action the
Campaign Expenditures Com
mittee sent three Investigators to
Mississippi two weeks ago, accord
ing to a wire received by the civil
rights group from Senator Allen
j. Ellender. The chairman of the
Senate committee said the course
of the investigation into Bilbo's
primary campaign will be deter
mined soon" after the committee
studies the report of its investi-
gators.
The Civil Rights Congress also
wired Senators Harley M. Kilgore
and Homer Ferguson of the Sen
ate War Defense Investigating
Committee, urging a thorough in
quiry into charges against Bilbo
of graft and irregularity in con-
~nection with war contracts.
Last night the Civil Rights Con-
gress launched a national cam
paign to rally support for the ac-
ton to remove Bilbo from the Sem
ate. 1t will gather a million sig
natures on a mass petition add
ressed to the Senate, urging that
it bar Bilbo from the Mississippi
seat when the 80th session con-
venes on the first of January.
The affidavits sent by the so
Mississippians with the petition to
the Senate committees attested
that qualified Negro voters. MANY
of them veterans of World War
II, were threatened with lynch
ing, beaten, arrested, thrown off
their jobs, told to STUDY YOUR
civics awhile" and in other ways
deprived of the right to vote.
AS evidence of Bilbo's part in the
Acknowledgement of qualified vo-
tiers, the Civil Rights Congress e
called some statements he made
during his campaign for renomin-
alton this past summer.