St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1954-03-26

SDuehShh NOiiLtItilCt EuutdllO
moned seem hardly likely to b.
First, Senator James o. East
land of Mississippi, who is sched-
uled to be one of the presiding
members, has prejudged the case.
In announcing the investigation,
he called the SCEF communist
organization ''masquerading be-
hind the facade of a humanitarian
educational institution"
Secondly an aide to the Senate
Committee on Internal Security
announced to the press that the
SCEF had been under investiga-
ton for three months" The quail
ity Of this investigation can be
gagged by the following errors of
fact this same aide made In his an
nouncement:
"a E. said that the Southern
Conference for Human Welfare
was on the Attorney Generals
list. The following day the JUS
tice Department corrected this
misstatement. pointing out that
the SCHW had never been 50
listed.
(2) :. Press releases includ-
ed the name of DIR. Benjamin
E. Mays. president of Morehouse
College, as being a vice-presi-
dent of the SCEF. He has not
served in that capacity for some
sixteen months now. a fact that
could be learned by the most
casual observer from the list
of officials published each
month in the Southern Patriot,
the SCEF bulletin.
But most important of all. I am
convinced that the real issue in
this hearing will never be allowed
to come out in testimony. The
SCEF, since its establishment in
1916, has devoted its energies ex-
clusively to the adjustment of
racial segregation and discrimina-
ton in the South. Senator East
land is the man who declared on
the floor of the Senate In 1915:
The Negro soldier was a dismal
and utter failure. He was a dis
grace to the flag Of his country.
He will not fight. He will not
work"
This issue is what has brought
the senatorial investigators here,
but the shame is that they will not
have the nerve to debate it. Sig
nificantly, no Negro members of
our board have been subpoenaed
by the committee, so far as we
know, although two Of the SCEFs
officials and Is members of the
board are Negroes. The committee
does not wish it to be known what
prominent support the SCEF has
in the Negro communities of the
South.
In the effort to make public
what am afraid the committee
Will never allow to be placed on
the record, I am enclosing a
chronological listing of all the ma
jor activities of the SCEF from
the time of its establishment to
the present. These projects were
conducted in the same spirit as
that expressed by vice-President
Nixon when he declared, upon his
recent return from the far east
Every act or racial discrimina-
ton or prejudice in the United
States hurts America as much as
an espionage agent who turns over
a weapon to a foreign country"
1s47
Circulated more than 125, 900
copies Of special edition of the
Southern Patriot devoted TO a
graphic presentation of "Segrega-
ton in Education
1913
Coordinated a Conference of
Virginia and the adoption at
Monticello, home of Thomas JEFF
ferson, of a Declaration of Civil
Rights" signed by 200 outstand-
ing Southerners. Negro and white.
Twenty-Five thousand copies of
the Declaration" were circulated.
1919
Conducted a poll of $1,000 coll
lege and university teachers in
Southern states on their attitudes
toward segregation in higher ed
ucation-
Began q campaign to open pub
lie libraries to Negroes
Submitted an amicus curiae
brief to the U. s. Supreme Court
In the Herman Marion Sweat
case testing the constitutionality
~ sapreO.tior In the vrnfverxitv