The guardian. [volume] (Boston, Mass.) 1901-1960, 1950-07-08
lConlinued from last weekl

AHe very SUCCESS and preSI1gt
which the NAACP has attained
! have made it the target of many
petty, envious and ambitious
men and political movements
Communists, Democrats, Re-
publicians, Socialists and polit-
ical independents have sought
to infiltrate and dominate
branches of the NAACP. There is
not the slightest doubt that they
and others will attempt in the
future to divert to their own
uses the great and powerful or
ganization which you and Others
devoted Americans have built
during the past Al years. You and
| must be wise enough to spot
any and all infiltration for I'LL
terror motives. We must be ut
terly ruthless in routing any and
all attempts by any political,
economic or other selfish group
to take over our NAACP. Now
that the NAACP has fought for
and won the right to vote for
colored Americans and now that
that vote Yields the balance of
power not only in many north
ern and border states and
election districts but in a num-
Der of southern ones as well,
political shysters viii use every
possible form of trickery to take
over the NAACP and. use it for
their own purposes. You and. /.
must stand guard and repel any
and every attempt Of this sort.
The Annual Conferences and the
Board Of Directors have always
determined the policy Of the
NAACP and no one else. When
the day comes that this is no
longer true, then the NAACP
will befinished. We will never
permit thatday to come.
Despite the efforts of enemies
within and without the Assoc
iation, the year which has passed
has marked tremendous advances
toward the goal of equality for
all Americans. Most dramatic and
far reaching was, Of course, the
series of court decisions won
under the inspired and brilliant
leadership of Thurgood Marshall
and the great American, we honor
today Charles H. Houston who
headed our National Legal Com
rnittee We did not quite achieve
our objective OF obtaining from
the United States Supreme Court
a declaration that segregation
based on skin color is in its very
nature denial of the equal pro-
lection clause of the Federal
Constitution. The court, I'M
fortunately, did not quite have
the courage to say explicitly
what is implicit in every Line of
the Sweat, McLaurin and Hend-
erson decisions namely, that
there can never be real equality
Of opportunity as long as there
is racial separation.
But so far as the law school
of the University Of Texas and
the graduate school of education
of the University of Oklahoma
are concerned, the Supreme
Court rules unequivocany against
the 54-year-old PIessy Us Fer
g,tsop decision that substantially
equal" facilities did not violate
the Constitution.
1t seems obvious that the Court
was not unmindful that it might
soon be faced with the task of
ruling, on segregation at, the un-
dergraduate, high school and
grammar school level as well as
at the graduate and professional
school level. We must not dis
appoint the Court. We will not
disappoint it.
Most important of all is the
necessity of realizing that, fund
amental and magnificent as are
the decisions just won, they are
rot self-implementing. Our legal
staff and all other competent
authorities inform us that many
score = possibly several hum
| dred = legal actions may have to
/ be initiated and fought to secure
Southwide compliance in every
professional and graduate school
of every Southern state. 1t may
be necessary to bring contempt
proceedings against governors
like Talmadge of Georgia who
has bluntly asserted that, Sup
RENE Court or no Supreme Court,
he will never permit colored and
whites to attend the same schools
in Georgia as long as he is
governor. 1t is certain that we
shall have 10 bring numerous
cases like the one in Delaware
70 challenge the gross inequality
at the undergraduate and lower
levels of education which totals
hiore than one billion dollars,
to survive the wrecks of time
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