St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1948-12-31

1t was a cold winter morning in
1913, when a young matron, about
to have a baby, applied for admis-
sion to a hospital in Washington,
D. C. Though there were plenty
Of vacant beds inside, the Church
supportedD hospital refused her
admission, and she had her baby
on the sidewalk before its door.
The medical authorities very kind
ly furnished a sheet to cover the
mother and the newborn infant as
they lay on the cement, until ar
engagements could be made to take
them away. The mother was a
Negro; and the baby who had had
the temerity to be born into a
white mans world was, God help
him, a Negro too.
That story is one Of many told
in a report on Segregation in
Washington" written by Kenesaw
M. Lands and based on elaborate
research in the District of Column
bia by the National Committee on
Segregation in the Nations Capt.
tai. The committee, which met in
Washington last week, includes a
lot of well-known Eleanor
Roosevelt, Raymond Swing, Bishop
Oman, Walter White, Clarence
Pickett, Philip Murray, Melvyn
Douglas, Senator elect Hubert
Humphrey, Marshall Field, Harry
Emerson Fosdick, Dorothy Can
field Fisher, Helen Hayes, Charles
p. Taft, Ordway Tead, Walter Reu-
Their, James G. Patton, Howard w.
Odum, Isador Lubin, Mrs. ]. Bor-
den Hartman, Edwin r Embree,
win Alexander, Roger Baldwin
and James Carey are a few of
them. 1t Is worried about discrim-
nation, of course, at all times and
everywhere; but its members are
particularly exercised, and with
good reason, because OF discrimi-
nation today in Washington.
We are now engaged in a fren-
zied campaign throughout the
world, trying to sell our brand of
democracy as being the best, If
not the only, kind there Is. Yet,
almost literally in the shadow of
the Capitol dome, we practice the
grossest injustice on the sole basis
Of the color of a mans skin. We
give away propaganda advantages
which cannot be offset, in the eyes
of hundreds of millions of the col
ored races who are quietly watch
ing us all over the earth, by the
Of any amount of
money to explain the purity of our
hearts and our passion for justice.
Some of the aspects Of discrimi-
as they were reported in
last weeks meeting, would be
funny If they were not so disgrace
full. There are nations In the world,
even important nations, believe it
or not, most or all of whose in
have dark skins. Some
of these countries maintain diplo-
matte relations with the United
States of America and send pleni-
potentiaries to the shores of the
Potomac. Washington hotels, res
taurants and theatres, which up
hold the color line rigfdly against
our own citizens, are forced to
bend the rules a little in the case
of these foreigners. The problem
becomes one of proving you are
not a citizen and are therefore en-
titled to some consideration.
An American Negro, with I'M
usual courage, once took advan-
tage of this fact; he put a turban
on his head, walked into one of
the leading hotels, and promptly
and without trouble got a room.
On another occasion q group which
contained some genuine foreigners,
but did not want to argue about
it, managed to get into a movie
theatre by talking Spanish loudly
as they approached the box office
But for every such account,
there are a hundred on the other
side of the ledger.
The Foreign Minister of an Afri-
can country arrived in Washing
ton late at night, in the middle of
the recent war in which America
badly needed his nations help.
When he tried to pick up the hotel
reservation which had been made