The Illinois times. (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-19??, 1951-03-30
Negroes Case Fought


New York Expressing its pro
found concern for the elimination
Of all divisiye barriers" between
Negro and white workers, the
United Electrical, Radio and Ma
chine Workers of America tUE)
announced today the submission of
motion to file an amicus curiae
brief with the Supreme Court of
the United States in defense of
Willie MCGEE. Negro worker
threatened with execution on the
charge of rape"
The motion filed today in the
name Of the more than 100000 UE
workers, states that "The nature
of the UE's interest in the present
petition is immediate and pressing.
AS an organization of working
men and women, it is profoundly
concerned with the elimination of
all divisive barriers to the cooper
alive undertaking of Negro and
white workers in their common
struggle to protect their living
standards and working conditions.
ANY misuse of the processes of
Justice which perpetuates the sys-
tenn of segregation and discrim-
nation is thus body blow TO in
dependent and democratic trade
unionism.
Moreover, the UE has many
thousands of Negro members. In
their interest and in their defense
this trade union is obligated to
intervene in support of the petit
toners request for elementary
justice.
Finally, together with all
Americans, the uE has further
and even more far-reaehing inter
est in this petition. To execute a
Negro American, without giving
him an opportunity to prove that
his conviction had been obtained in
violation of his constitutional
rights, would be to betray the most
cherished principles of American
democracy. To deny this petit
toner elementary rights in order
to preserve outworn and decayed
mores of segregation and discrlm-
nation would be to debase this
country in the eyes of the entire
world
1.-The UE from its very inception
has been built upon the solid rock
of democratic trade unionism. 1t
has always recognized that the best
interests of the working people in
the electrical industry, as indeed
the highest principles of Amer
lean democracy, require the united
action of Negro and white working
people.
"The LIE has always recognized
that the ability of a trade union
to organize working people in
| their own behalf not only in the
Southern states but throughout the
entire country depends upon the
roofing out and destruction of any
| practices which divide the working
people. Today the establishment
of trade union organization in the
South and the growth of labor
organization in the rest of the
country depends upon the elem
| ination of segregation and discrim-
/ nation of every type against the
Negro people.
"The shame of the Jim Grow sys-
tenn in the Southern states with It's
pervasive influence throughout the
rest of our country is a most SER
ious obstacle to the organization of
white and Negro working men and
women into trade unions of their
/ own choosing.
lone of the most effective meth
DDS by which this system of dis
elimination and segregation is per
petuated is through the use of the
law enforcement machinery of the
Southern states.
~Side by side with the extra
/ legal terror of lynchlng ana peat-
ings. distorted and discriminatory
manipulation of the processes OF
the criminal law is also used "a
enforce the mores and practices OF
discrimination. This petitioner, 9
Negro American, stands in the
shadow of death sentence as 8
result of conviction which ne
charges was obtained on the basis
of. periured testimony known by
the prosecution to pe false at the
time his conviction was procured
Petitioners Briefl."
UE attorneys filing the motion
are David Scribner and Arthur