Evening star., 1947-05-25


I don't think there is any Negro pro-
convincing nonsense of race differer
But here is the story Mr.. Lewis
tells:
Neil Kingsbiood, citizen of a
Minnesota town, is happily married
and the proud father OF a. lively
little fair haired girl named Biddy.
He owns his own home in a re
stricted" residential area and has
q good job in the towns biggest
bank, where he is on his way to-
ward a career of promise and
wealth. The future is looking
bright for the Kingsblood family
And then it happens.
Neil learns that he has Negro
blood in his veins.
The Royal Line.
He has been trying to run down
family legend that the Kings
blocds were descended from the
royal line of England when he finds
unimpeachable evidence that his
great-great-great grandfather was a
full-blooded Negro. This makes
him one thirty-second Negro. But
he also finds that in most Southern
States and few Northern ones
q Negro is defined by statute as a
person having one drop OF Negro
blood.
Then and there, Mr.. Lewis has
him believing that:
ITO be Negro, once they found
you out, no matter how pale you
were, was to work in kitchens
always in other peoples thankless
kitchens-or in choking laundries or
fever-hot foundries or at shoe shine
stands. To be A Negro was to be
ARCHAEOLOGICAL fundamentally,
unchangeably unable-to grasp any
science beyond addition and plain
cooking and driving a car, any
philosophy beyond comic dream
books"
1t Was Prejudice.
The picture looks pretty grim to
Neil. But how could all this be so,
1t was prejudice, pure AND simple.
II haven't any prejudice against
any race" he says to himself After
all I was in the War Against Preju-
dice. I'm not like that. Mum
isn't. Biddy isn't. We're decent,
regular people. If Biddy is Negro.
then everything I've ever. heard
about Negroes-yes. and maybe
everything I've ever heard about the
Jews and the Japs and the Russians,
about religion and politics-all of
that may be lie, too. I've got to
learn what Negro is; I've got to
learn from the beginning what !
ami"
And thus Sinclair Lewis sets Neil's
course-and his own. A course that
leads Neil down bitter trail Of
misery, and humiliation. and vio-
lence and defeat. He becomes a
symbol Of the downtrodden; his
story, parable
Mr.. Lewis takes him on visits
to the colored section of town. where
he makes good friends and is won
over to their cause Don't be sorry
for Yourself" one tells him.
Don't be so childish. I've faced
being Negro for 65 years now,
and my wife'and children and a few
other million decent folk have man.
aged to face it." Filled with SYM
pathy and seized with a desire to-
help. Neil finally decides to let it be
known publicly that he is Negro.
He Tells the Family.
Mr.. Lewis does his best writing
when he brings Neil before the Is
members of his family assembled
in the front parlor" of his fathers
house to hear the news. "A few
months ago I would have been
scared or apologetic about telling
you this" Neil declared, but now
I see that the only apology is to
the Negroes, the Indians, the Orien-
tails, for the wrongs that have been
done to them for hundreds of years"
When the walls, the curses, the
protests. the threats and the hys-
terra die down they try to convince
Neil that nothing should be said
to outsiders, for the family's sake
as well as his own.
But Neil stands firm. His loyal
wife decides to stick by him when
she sees hatred around him, and
as the meeting breaks up one other
takes sides with him and says: IAN
Of you are assuming that you are
superior to the 'colored people,
which isn't obvious to me at all.
I've been infuriated by discrimina-
tion against Negroes and I've
wanted to do something about it,
and now that I'm colored myself,
/ shall"
1t is the beginning of the end
for Neil.
An Outcast.
When he hears the announcement
OF Negro troops by an ex-Army
officer at meeting Of his exclusive
club, and warning that the towns
businessmen had better stop giving
colored people jobs, he rises to de-
fend the race and publicly an
nounces that he is one of them. His
resignation quickly follows. He is
discharged at the bank. His white
friends desert him, and he and his
wife are Stunned by the neighbors.
He becomes pariah-fired from
every job he gets-a victim of what
one OF Mr.. Lewis characters calls
the white supremacy racket" He
learns the meaning of discrimination
and segregation as he plods the