Jackson advocate. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1939-current, 1948-07-10
Fisk Race Relations
Urge Immediate
Action On Civil Rights
Of Other Nations In
Civil Rights Issue Call ed Basic To Settlement
Of Present InternatiO nal Cold War


Race is the scale on which de-
mocracy is being weighed in
world which is being relentlessly
forced to choose between ideolog-
ies," Dr. Charles S. Johnson, Di-
rector of the Race Relations De-
partment of the American Mission
airy Association and President of
Fisk University, said at the open
ing session of the Institute of Race
Relations Department of the A
merican Missionary Association.
DR.. Johnson has served among
the United States delegates to UN
ESCO. He told the Institute aud
fence that if democracy is to prove
itself on tn eworld scene there is
need for more than words. "Some
genuine act of democratic convic-
tion-repeal of the poll tax, ban
ming of segregation in the armed
forces, and enactment of federal
fair employment practice legisla-
tion-wouid do more to strengthen
our nase than the threat of sup
erior weapons and manpower," the
speaker declared.
In keynoting the Fifth Annual
meeting of one of the nations
most important training labora-
tories in race relations, held at
Fisk University, with this years
theme of Human Relations and
Human Rights" DR.. Johnson said
that the time Of proof has come
and that the very issue of civil
rights has given a new cast to race
relations in America. The issues,
he observed, are no longer ''local
and personal" but public and in
ternational" The reasons are, ac-
cording to DIR. Johnson, our new
international responsibilities, the
sudden postwar threat to our eco
nomic system, and the theological
conflict" represented in the "cold
war" with Russia.
"The breakdown of American
democratic theory, when it comes
up against the issue of-race, is, to
much greater extent than most
of US realize, responsible for the
failure of the peoples of the world
to rush up and buy our product of
democracy as we took it for grant
ed that they would do at the first
-oportunity," the speaker declared.
= Arguments against civil rights
action, it was pointed out, carry
beyond our borders to all parts of
the world which has two-thirds of
its inhabitants being colored. Of
the fifty-five member nations of
the United Nations, DR.. Johnson
said, well over forty have ma
jority of colored people or color
ed minority so substantial as to
make their presence an important
factor in the foreign policy of the
country.
The economic essence of the
Marshall Plan and the strategy of
our military occupation, accordingly
to DR.. Johnson, is to rebuild the
world if we are to survive our
selves" The related issue that goes
deepest in this connection was de-
scribed as our fear of Russia. He
said that this fear is mot military
but constitutional "a deep
seated psychological instability in
which there is real and indis-
putable need for friends who share
the same ideas regarding the des-
tiny of the masses of people,
Federal Action Urged
In later session, DR.. Robert K
Carr, Dartmouth College professor
and Executive Secretary of Presi-
dent Truman's Civil Rights Com
mission. called for leadership and
action by the Federal Government
on civil liberties, as a primary
step TO improve race relations. In
this matter, the speaker said 1--WE
cannot wait upon the most back
ward state to take action" and
that the Federal Government must
assume active leadership. "Where
our states are unable or unwilling
to take steps to prevent offenses
by state and local officials against
an individuals freedom, the nation
ton as way of life in America
must go "if we are to have fav-
orable environment in which civil
rights can thrive" He predicted
that present efforts to get around
the Supreme Court decisions