Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1960-04-22
coh Rowan Writes
Contrast & Hope
lCOuttuued from Page lib

Contrast X Rope
CONTINUED from Page 1-B)
jobs only when willing to serve as
strikebreakers A group Of white
citizens considered the situation
50 deplorable that they helped
form a Committee for Improving
Industrial Conditions Among Ne
groes".
If conditions for Negro work
ingmen were deplorable, the status
of Negro women migrants was
abominable. Employment agency
representatives exploited them in
a most inhuman way" one inves-
tigator reported. They were fire.
quently placed at work in houses
of in-fame. They received jobs
paying wages far less than they
were led to expect when they left
the South. Sometimes there was
no work at all (and) they
were picked up from the streets
by men about town and by women
who were in search of new persons
for their Illicit business" Disguised
by this situation, an interracial
group in 1905 formed the Ma
tional League for the Protection
of Colored Women"
Later q third organization,
the COMMITTEE on Urban Con-
dttiOns Among Negroes, was
formed and In 1910 the three
groups merged into the National
League on Urban Conditions
Among NegrOes-nOw known as
the National Urban League.
With a measly first-year budget
of $500 this organization began
its assault on the seemingly i'm
pregnable walls of prejudice. The
Urban League army was pitiably
small; even those white men who
suffered pangs Of conscience be-
cause Of the Negroes plight were
more inclined to give charity thar
opportunity, more inclined to dc
things of their choice for the Ne
gro than things of the NegrO's
choice with the Negro. Even among
the well-intentioned, the idea OF
racial equality was weak. the
slavemaster attitude strong. Thus
in any urban center the most in.
nuential Negro was perhaps the
messenger at the bank, the hote
headwaiter, the downtown barber
To the white man who sought
information as to the Negroes
hopes and aspirations, his chauf-
feuFs version was as good as
anyOne's - indeed, preferred 10
that Of the young Negro pro-
fessiOnaIs who seemed to show
disdaIn for the time-hOnOred
place" accorded the Negro.
Against this background Of pub,
lie opinion the Urban League strug
gled almost alone, and the fortunes
of the Negro flowed and ebbed.
World War
Aided by the demands Of Work
War I, Negroes got a foot inside
the steel industry, only to be push
ed out Of their jobs by a postwar
Ku Klux Kan campaign. Still
the Kan could not turn back thu
clock on the fact that at BeIleal
Wood, Chateau hierry and on tn,
streets Of Paris. thousands o.
young Negroes had gained sophis
tication and a new sense Of what
life and liberty were all about
Never again would the American
Negro accept serfdom with meek
ness. Not even during the $780,
when, last hired and first fired
black men paraded in dishearten
ing numbers to the bread lines anC
relief offices Of the cities to which
they had nocked-or when som,
were forced into a forlorn trel
back to the farm.
II Ever To Move
Then, as Hitler's cries Of AryaI
supremacy filled the world with {
lot Of fear and a little revlllsion
something began to happen IL
America, where people wanted Il
believe, Wen win, because Coz
is on our side" In this atmosphere
the voice Of an Eleanor Roosevelt
became louder than that Of {
Theodore Bilbo. With race a dom
inant ingredient Of world politics
the American conscience obviously
was shaken. II the Negro ever wa
to move, it must be now.
Move the Negro did, The
194O's and World War III ush-
cred I'm a golden age Of progress
unmatched by any race-certain-
Iy, any minority race-in the
history Of human achievement.
In education, science, athletics