Evening star., 1947-08-31
Reviewed by
CARTER BROOKE JONES.

If some of our novelists who are
writing angry books about racial
injustice, basing their theses almost
entirely on social segregation, would
drop their theories for a moment
and look about them, it might occur
to them that they are oversimpli-
flying the problem.
They might, If they studied their
material first hand, even come to
realize that economic equality Is
far more vital to any minority. If
you increase the chances Of people
for an education and better living,
other injustices can wait; most OF
them will melt away in the course
Of time. 1t need not be admitted,
as MarXists argue, that economic
and social relations and even inter-
marriage are bound together.
Mr.. Young, in first novel of
unusual merit, has turned away
from the indignant interracial tracts
disguised as fiction to write about
some Negroes as they actually live
not in the oppressive South, but
in unsegregated Brooklyn.
With the schools reopening, the
book Is timely because the story of
Jadie Greenway is centered in a
public school. The pupils are all
Negroes, though most of the teach
ers are white. Mr.. Young, white
teacher, now a minor executive in
the New York City school system,
once taught in such school.
The teachers are the only white
characters in his novel. The chill
dren live in crowded fats in crum-
bling old houses. Their parents exc
out a sort of living. The streets
where the boys and girls live and
play are tough; so are they.
Negroes occupy this squalid neigh
borhood, but it is not a segregation
enforced by law or by intimidation.
It's a colored section, just as there
are Polish, Irish, Jewish, Italian,
French, Spanish sections in many
large cities.
Jadie is is and attractive. Her
father had cleared out long ago.
She and her mother and the two
Younger children live in typical
upstairs fat, with primitive convent
ences. The mother finds prostltu-
ton easier than working as scrub
woman. Jadie has grown into ado
lescerce, not fooled by her mother,
wise to all the ways of the hard little
world around her.
Can't Be Bluffed.
At school there's feud between
Jadie and an overgrown, overbearlng
girl named Queen Mary, who rules
most of the girls by inspiring ad-
miration or fear. But Jadie can't
be blaffed. She carries clasp knife
with trick opener; it's the only way
she knows to protect herself. Then
the new colored teacher. Mr.. Chelton,
appears. handsome. athletic. Jadie,
in her elemental way, can't under
stand why he rejects her frank
advances, while all the other young
men sin her neighboorhood have to
be fought off, sometimes with the
knife.
Jadie gets into lot Of trouble.
That's not to be wondered at. What
chance has a girl like Jadie? It's
only the understanding and COM
passion of the white principal that
keep Jadie away from the police
and reform school.
go Jadie had no concern
about the world-almost as little
about the world as she did about
her family Whatever thought she
gave to herself and to her environ
ment was processed by her immedl-
ate needs and desires"
Chelton, the colored teacher, re-
marks: "+ !" Among my people
there are some who are intent upon
maintaining a hiatus between white
and black even when and where
that schism is nonexistent or very
slender. 8"
Mr.. Young's story, like the people
it depicts, is tough. Their language
is rough. But you couldn't report
their talk in nice phrases, or, If you
did, 1t would have no reality. If
the effect is shocking, that's be-
cause of the condition the book re-
veals--the way in which some chill
dren must grow up. 1t is only by
indomitable will and hearbreaking
toll that an occasional one, like
Chelton, escapes to a better life.
It's a sordid picture Mr.. Young
shows us, but the truth often lacks
beauty and decorum. There's also
sympathy and understanding in his