Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-05-13


elimination. Negroes still are pour
ing North and westward by the
thousands. Even the most menial
job pays between $1.50 and 81 an
hour.
There are no really reliable fig
ureS on this migration and there
won't be until after the 1860 census.
One study, though, estimates that
Negroes are arriving in Chicago al
the rate of $500 a month.
In Los Angeles, it was found that
Negroes are arriving in the area at
the rate of 1900 month. Many
are coming directly from Alabama
and Mississippi. Formerly the in
flux came largely from Louisiana,
Texas and Oklahoma.
Lomp Post or Governor?
In New York I asked Roy Will
kins, executive director for the
National Association for the Ad-
Vancement of Colored People, to
CApld11 bIuS I1l1sI dGIOIl.
There is an old expression
among Negroes" DR.. Wilkins re-
piled. 1T goes, I'd rather be a
lamppoSt in Harlem than the
Governor of Georgia There is
discrimination in the North, but
here you can agitate against it.
seek the outlawing of it. 1t is
being cut down steadily-in restau-
rants, theaterS. parks, hotels. swim
ming pools and even schools"
In New York, Los Angeles, De-
troit and Chicago a Negro can
and often does-go to places he
wouldn't even try to enter in, say,
Memphis.
If he is well dressed and obvi-
ouSly able to pay his way he can
register in any hotel. eat at any
restaurant Though he might be
seated by the kitchen entrance)
and drink at any public bar. He
can ride unsegregated on any bus.
subway, train or airplane. He can
use any public sanitary facility,
drink from any fountain and sit
where he pleases in any station.
In Baltimore. which has a South
ern orientation, the barriers are
breaking down. In the last two
years Negroes have begun to
patronize the stand-up, quick lunch
counters in five department stores
and almost all drugstores.
BY and large the Negro in cities
still works at the day labor and
semiskilled jobs. but that does not
tell the whole story. There has
been a breakthrough on the white
collar front.
In Detroit, Chicago and New
York Negroes can be found as sales
personnel in the leading depart
ment stores. The communications
industries in New York and Detroit
are beginning to hire on the basis
Of ability. not color.
Scattered here and there in Of
flee buildings you will find Negroes
working as stenographers, book
keepers and clerks. Negroes are
nurses and technicians in hospitals.
You will find Negroes operating
buses and subway trains.
Civil Service Open
Detroit, Chicago and New York
have opened civil service rolls to
Negroes. There no longer is a place
on job application forms for desig-
nation of race or religion. Balti-
more recently voted to follow suit.
Even in these cities. although all
labor unions incorporated in the
AFL-CIO have anti-discrimination
policies, not all follow the principle.
In Detroit. New York. Baltimore
and Chicago leaders of the inter-
racial Urban Leagues. devoted to
improving the lot of the Negro. said
industrial unions generally were
much better in practicing anti
discrimination than the craft
unions. especially the building and
printing trade unions.
One of the great worries in the
South. and the source of consider
able agitation. is school indignation.
The schools in all the cities visited
are integrated. There are some all
white schools and some all-Negro,
chiefly because the surrounding
school districts are comprised of
one race or the other. Most Of the
schools are mixed.
With some exceptions private
schools also are open to Negroes
Another great worry to Southern
parents has been "socializing' at
school functions. Ed Lewis, head
Of the Urban League of New York.
was asked how this worked out.
Fine" he said. THE kids come
If they want to. There are no