AKRON COUNCIL ON RACE RELATIONS

31 NORTH SUMMIT STREET
AKRON 8, OHIO

March 12, 1948.

Mr. Langston Hughes
634 St. Nicholas Ave.
New York 30 New York.

Dear Mr. Hughes,

We all feel very badly about the shabby
treatment you recieved in Akron, let us hope that from it
you made some strong friends.

Mr. Cox is writing and asking you for a return engagement
real soon. Just before I started this letter he called and
said that some of the leaders think it is the thing to do.
He seems to thing he has a place, I hope it is the Armory.

I will try and collect all clippings about you since you left
and send them to you. We are also trying to get recordings
of those two sermons given over the radio for you.
The Civil Rights Committee of the Council has been instructed
to immediately contact the agent in Cleveland for the
American Civil Liberties.

Would you have any objections to our keeping the rest of
your books and selling them at the next Council meeting? Is
it all right with you if I give anyone your address who
might like your autograph?

The morning after you left I took your poem "Freedom's Plow"
to Mr. Jackson and asked him to publish it as it was such a
strong plea for democracy. He said it was too long, I told him
he had published one of your unpublished poems and he said,"
But I have to publish what people bring in to me." I told him
that was exactly what I was requesting. He hedged and I said,
" Do I understand then that you do not wish to publish this?"
He asked me if I were putting him on the spot and I said yes.
He has not published it.

Enclosed is a copy of the letter I sent to the East and West
Association.

I went to WAKR and asked for time on the air for the Council,
he said what do you want it for. I told him to clear up the
Langston Hughes affair and he said he would have to contact
Billington and find out what he said, they keep no file of
what goes over the wire. He said not unless it is liable and
I told him it was. I asked him if a certain per cent of
his time did not need to be educational and he said yes but he

March 13, 1948

Dear Friend:

You are well aware of the situation recently created here in Akron through
the concerted opposition to the appearance of Mr. Langston Hughes which re-
sulted in the cancellation of the program, and in much discussion throughout
the community. The Executive Committee of the Akron Council on Race Relations
felt it was under obligation to the members to prepare and issue a statement
setting forth our position on the whole affair. The statement follows:

"The Akron Council on Race Relations contends that the recent denial of free speech and right of assemblage to the poet Langston Hughes affects all the people of Akron. The forces of reaction which spread the hysteria of fear and attempted to besmirch the character of a great poet through innuendo could be turned against any group or citizen. It behooves the people of Akron to be alert to the danger of such forces in our midst.

We accept at face value the denial by Mr. Hughes of membership
in the Communist party and call attention to the fact that up to
now no evidence has been produced to belie his statement.

The Akron Council on Race Relations will continue to work in
the field of human relations among all peoples of our community and
will do everything possible to improve the status of those who are
denied their basic human rights and will take whatever steps deemed
advisable to secure those rights. We assert that the recent injus-
tice done to a great artist is a travesty on our ideals as a demo-
aratic people. It was an assault on all human rights and human dig-
nity guaranteed by our Constitution and our Bill of Rights."

This series of incidents should have served the purpose of emphasizing
for all of us the nature of the problem with which we are confronted in im-
proving human relations within the community. It would seem to call all of
us to larger endeavor and more concentrated work. It says to us in the
Akron Council on Race Relations that we should redouble our efforts, enlarge
our program and seek the cooperation of an ever increasing group of interested
persons. Your Executive Committee is making plans for just such procedure
and we trust that we can count on your enthusiastic support.

March 16, 1948

Mr. Langston Hughes
634 St. Nicholas Avenue
New York City, New York

Dear Mr. Hughes:

Your telegram stated that the material I asked you for would
arrive this morning but it has not done so. Perhaps it will get here
before the day is done.

It is our plan to mimeograph your statement about how the poem "Good-bye Christ" came to be written and send it to the ministers and others who are on our mailing list from these churches. We are also mailing them a copy of the statement which we procurred and issued after the whole incident was over. I am enclosing a copy of our statement with this letter.

We have checked with the radio stations and they have located a
copy of the script of one of the ministers who attacked you on Sunday,
March 7. And, another station has the recording of the speech made by
the other. We have not yet been able to check through them carefully
to see just exactly what was said. If there was any information which
we think you should have, we will send it along.

Since your leaving, a number of us have been talking and thinking
about what we ought to do about asking you for a return engagement and
there seems to be a great deal of sentiment in the community for just
that to happen. We are going to have another meeting of the Executive
Committee on Friday night of this week and will probably make a decision
on it then. Dr. Babcox has asked the Bureau for a date and they perhaps
have communicated with you about it already. There are some other groups
in town that are interested now in sponsoring your appearance as a money
making proposition and one of them is the United Labor Party, so I under-
stand. We would appreciate it if you would let a return appearance be
handled by us, if you are minded to come. We thought that the Council
would sponsor it with a sponsoring committee in addition to the Council
itself. Some people have already indicated their willingness to be part
of such a committee.

We have checked on the civil liberties angle here, but the Cleveland
advisor seems to think that we ought not to file any suits at this juncture.
I would appreciate it if you would keep us informed as to the steps you
take on the matter so that we will know just what is going on.

March 18, 1948

Dr. Mildred L. Babcock
439 Carrol Street
Akron, Ohio

Dear Dr. Babcock:

Your long letter and the clippings have just reached me here in
Chicago. Yesterday in Detroit the same tactics were tried but
both the Social Workers Club that I addressed at the Central
YWCA at noon, and the forum of the Central Methodist Church
where I spoke in the evening, refused to be intimidated, and
Rev. Henry Hitt Crane in introducing me delivered a soathing
denunciation of attempted suppression of freedom of speech.

It was very good of you to send me the clippings and I think
the paper did rather well by the editorial and the cartoon.
Of course you may keep the books and if they are all sold you
may send the money to me at the Clark Hotel, Washington and
Central, Los Angeles, California, as I leave Chicago tonight for
Carlton College in Minnesota, then Salt Lake City, and up to the
State of Washington.

I flew over to New York last Friday for a conference with Morris
Ernst and a member of his staff, but in the short time that I
had in town we were not able to come to a decision as to a suit,
but when I return in the late spring it will not be too late then.
I talked to the Colston Leigh office on the phone, but did not
have a chance to go into all of the details of the Akron situa-
tion. I know they will be interested to receive your letter,
however, the carbon which you sent me was addressed to The East
and West Association, 62 West 45th Street, New York 19, New York.
I think this must be a mistake as I imagine you meant the letter
to go to Miss Marjorie Smith, W. Colston Leigh, Inc., 521 Fifth
Avenue, New York City.

I very greatly regret the difficulties caused the Akron Countil
on Race Relations in regard to my appearance there. My feeling
is that it is not important that Akron hear me but that it is
important that you have the right to choose your speakers without
intimication.

Dr. Mildred D. Babcock

March 18, 1948

Please send me Mr. Cox' address as I neglected to get it when I
was there and I would like to write him a letter. I was telling
the folks at the Central Methodist Church in Detroit what a fine
fellow he is.

I do not have any copies of The Big Sea here in Chicago, so I
would suggest that the persons who wish them either order them
directly from my publishers, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 501 Madison
Avenue, New York City, or else ask one of the local book shops
to order the copies for them.

You were certainly wonderful about the whole sorry business. I
admire you greatly and I am happy to have met you. Please give
my thanks to all the members and friends of the Akron Council on
Race Relations who stood by us on March 10. I am deeply grateful
for the kindness and friendship shown me.

My continued good wishes to you,

March 23, 1948

Mr. Langston Hughes
634 St. Nichols Avenue
New York City, New York

Dear Mr. Hughes:

Thank you for sending the statement and the copy of the
poem. We have made rather wide use of the statement in the
following manner.

First of all we mimeographed copies of it which we sent
to churches and other groups which we had invited to become
members in the Akron Council on Race Relations just prior to
your coming to town. We also turned a copy of it over to Mr.
Jackson, editor of the Beacon Journal and they printed the
statement in full and the poem in Sunday's issue of the Beacon
Journal. I think it will do much to clear the air.

I am enclosing with this letter a copy of the poem as it
has been circulated in various ways in this community. Naturally,
it has been circulated by the reactionary religious groups. It
evidently has been passed out in the rubber factories and vari-
ous other places. You will notice the curious omission of the
reference to the "Saints". Also it contains two lines which are
not in the copy of the poem you sent to me.

We are still awaiting your word and the word of your book-
ing agency concerning a return engagement. The Executive Com-
mittee of the Akron Council has voted to take steps looking
toward such a return and we feel that it can be worked out.

With very best wishes, I am

ATC:tlq
Enclosure