After 5 days, return to
THE AMERICAN INTERRACIAL SEMINAR
112 East 19th Street,
NEW YORK, N. Y.

Mr. Langston Hughes
Hedgerow
Moylan, Pa.

I'll see about the other things you mention over the
week end.
The American Interracial Seminar

112 East 19th Street, New York
ALGonquin 9365

OFFICERS
Franz Boas, Honorary Chairman
Herbert A. Miller, Chairman
Benson Y. Landis, Treasurer
Hubert C. Herring, Executive Director

October 4, 1930

NATIONAL COMMITTEE

**Alabama**
Henry M. Edmonds
Monroe N. Work

**California**
Emory S. Bogardus
Eliot G. Mears

**Connecticut**
Robbins W. Barstow
Amy O. Welcher

**District of Columbia**
Mordecai W. Johnson

**Florida**
Mary McLeod Bethune

**Georgia**
Will W. Alexander
John Hope
Forrester B. Washington

**Illinois**
Jane Addams
Zonia Baber
Paul Hutchinson
Harold M. Kingsley
Mary E. McDowell
Albert W. Palmer
Robert E. Park
Mrs. Irwin S. Rosenfelds
Ernest F. Title

**Iowa**
Edward B. Reuter

**Kansas**
Wm. Allen White

**Maryland**
John T. Gillard

**Massachusetts**
William N. De Berry
Robert C. Dexter
Mrs. Elbert Harvey
Mrs. John F. Moors
Mrs. Lucius H. Thayer

**Minnesota**
Harry P. Dewey

**Missouri**
Ferdinand M. Isserman

**New Jersey**
Laurence Fenninger

**New York**
Franz Boas
Fred L. Brownlee
Mabel Carney
Niles Carpenter
Everett R. Clinchy
Louis I. Dublin
Mrs. Lucius R. Eastman
Mitchell Salem Fisher
Daniel J. Fleming
Eva Frank
Frank Gavin
George E. Haynes
Stanley High
Sidney Hillman
James Weldon Johnson
John La Farge
Henry Smith Leiper
John Howard Melish
Henry Neumann
Reinhold Niebuhr
Juanita Saddler
John Nevin Sayre
Channing H. Tobias
Oswald Garrison Villard
L. Hollingsworth Wood

**North Carolina**
N. C. Newbold
Carl C. Taylor

**Ohio**
Ferdinand Q. Blanchard
Abraham Cronbach
Wendell P. Dabney
Earle Eubank
Herbert A. Miller

**Pennsylvania**
Clyde L. King

**Tennessee**
E. Franklin Frazier
Thomas E. Jones

My dear Langston:

I tried to get Zora by telephone but the line is disconnected and I haven't had time to run by there to see if she is back. However, this being Saturday and having the week end I shall try to get a lineup on her whereabouts.

Saw Mrs. Mason a week ago last Monday and it was short but excruciating. I said nothing and she said lots. I had failed utterly, all Negroes had failed utterly and she was through with us. It was all untrue and nothing I could say would make any difference. I offered to pay her for my desk and typewriter, and she said that I didn't mean it. So I shut up and let her do all the talking, although she would throw in such remarks as there was no use to argue and no need to implicate anyone. I didn't quite understand what she was talking about for I said nothing and called no names. But it is all a damn mess and I had quite a bad time. Miss Chapin threw in her rather nasty amens to everything Mrs. Mason said. I must confess that I don't know what it is all about, and after a very unhappy evening thinking over the whole thing I have tried to forget it--that is the humiliation of it.

The job is fine, but keeps me busy as hell. Don't you think you would like to along on this trip of distinguished citizens. I think that I shall get to go, but it depends on our budget. Pray for me as I would have a grand time getting down to all those places I have never been.

Mother hasn't been so well. I am thinking of sending her to California if I can find the money somewhere. My cousin Mary is here from Kentucky. She is a sweet kid and would make about two of me.

I am very much interested in your play and hope that things materialize as you would like. Do come back, though, as we miss you lots.

Always,

Form
16

Mackay

MAY 23, 1932

F14 59 DL=BR NEWYORK NY 23 1145A

LANGSTON HUGHES, CARE SULLIVAN=
2323 HYDE ST=

1932 MAY 23 AM 9 19

MOSCOW WIRES ALL PLAYERS MUST ARRIVE MOSCOW BY JULY FIRST VERY NECESSARY YOU AND LOREN ARRIVE NEWYORK READY TO SAIL BY JUNE FIFTEENTH ADVISE CANCELLING ANY ENGAGEMENTS NECESSARY EVEN IF MEANS LESS MONEY OR BORROWING MEANS LESS EXPENSE OTHER END IF YOU COULD GO AT ALL PLEASE DO THIS HAVE GOOD GROUP CONSULT MATT WIRE IMMEDIATELY GIVE MAIL ADDRESS=

LOUISE..

Miss Louise Thompson....2

August 18, 1933.

one story to Scribners almost immediately. All the Left
writers in Moscow recommend him very highly as they say he
has been most successful in disposing of stories and novels
of proletarian life. I think I shall let him handle all of
my magazine work from now on as it will save me keeping track
of it myself.

I guess you are anxious to know about what happened
in Japan and I want you to know because some of the newspapers
carried very untrue versions of the affair, making up out of
the clear sky situations that did not take place and state-
ments that I did not issue. Here is the whole story in out-
line at least. When I came from Russia to Japan I spent a
very delightful week there, visiting the beauty spots of the
island and then stopping for three or four days in Tokyo. I
met in Tokyo many of the literary people and all the artists
of the Tokyo Left Theatre (the only modern theatre in Japan
doing O'Neill, Shaw and Russian plays and other foreign dramas,
as well as Japanese). Then I went to Shanghai where I spent
two weeks, met very few Chinese Liberals or Radicals, as most
of them are in hiding, living in terror of their lives. I did
meet Mrs. Sun Yat Sen, however, and twice had dinner at her
home. Since she is the head of the Anti-Imperialists League
in China and has spoken openly against Japanese oppression
there I do not doubt that she is watched all the time by
Japanese spies. In any case upon my return to Japan they
knew there that I had met Mrs. Sun Yat Sen and immediately
began to question me, even at Kobe, where I did not intend
to land. At Tokyo, where the boat on which I was coming to
America remained in port for two days, I was allowed to go
ashore after relating the entire history of my life to the
Immigration Authorities on board ship. A group of Japanese
writers had arranged a luncheon for me the following day that
I might meet other literary people that I had not met before.
As I was waiting in the lobby of my hotel for some of the
writers to come and take me to luncheon two gentlemen came
up to me and presented their cards. When I looked down at
the cards they said "Metropolitan Police Bureau". They in-
formed me that their chief wished to see me. When I said
that I had a luncheon engagement and could not see their
chief at the time they, with extreme politeness, replied,
"but the chief must see you". Anyway, I went with them to
police headquarters and there I was questioned for the rest
of the day. I learned from reporters that evening that a
number of Japanese writers were also detained and questioned
so I presume they must have arrested all those in attendance
at the luncheon. And as Japanese may be held twenty nine days
in Japan without charges being put against them I expect that
most of these fellows are still in prison. Some of them were

Miss Louise Thompson....3

Aug.18,1933.

quite conservative people too and not what you would call
proletarian. The police were most interested to know why I
would come from Russia, go through Japan and then go to China.
They seemed to feel that I was carrying messages and that I
had much more important connections than I have. They even
seemed to feel that I might know Stalin. They ended by de-
manding to search all of my baggage and asking me to swear
that I had brought no messages from Moscow to Japan. The
whole thing was more or less amusing as most of their questions
seemed very naive to me and as I had nothing to hide I could
answer all of them truthfully, so in spite of the continual
repetition of the same forms of questions I never became con-
fused and eventually I suppose they decided that I was telling
the truth. There are lots of amusing things to tell you about
the dialogues that went on between myself and the police but
it would take me all day to write them down so I shall wait
until I see you. The only exciting evidence they found in my
baggage was a fan from the Left Theatre which the members of
the cast had autographed for me, writing their names on both
sides of the colored paper. The police went to great pains
to copy down every single name on the fan as though they had
discovered a list of conspirators. You see what a dangerous
person they thought I was. Anyway they forbade me to see any
more Japanese, two detectives accompanied me everywhere and
walked beside me to the very door of my cabin on the boat.
Of course you know the extent to which suppression of freedom
of speech goes in Japan. Hundreds of students are arrested
there every year and there is strict censorship of thought,
speech and writing. I have many facts from American observers,
teachers and missionaries who have left there for some time
and I hope to do an article about conditions there soon.
Japan, as well as China labors under a militaristic dictator-
ship that crushes without shame anyone opposing the rain of
bullets they have let Asia in for.

I suppose you have gotten direct information about
Black and White from comrades lately returned from Moscow
so I will not go into details here. It seems to me best, at
least, to stop making public statements of any sort in regard
to the picture as it will perhaps not be made for some time.
You know how slow the Russians are anyway and although I do
not doubt but that our picture will be made eventually, I think
the years will roll on there a little while before it is com-
pleted.

Why don't you come out here for a vacation or a speaking
tour or any other good reason this fall? Nebby and Mat and all
of your friends (me too) would be mighty glad to see you and

(Incorporated)
Max Bedacht, General Secretary
80 FIFTH AVENUE :: NEW YORK, N. Y.

Telephone: ALgonquin 4-7733
Night Phone: G Ramercy 5-9011

February 10, 1937

Dear Lang:

I don't like your remark about being as old as you; it sounds like
a dirty crack. However, tho belated, let me extend to you all best
wishes for not only this birthday, but a hundred to come.

Now about the poems. I am certainly glad that both you and Lieber
like the idea. I am enclosing a list of those we have. OPEN LETTER
TO THE SOUTH I am sure we can get from the New Masses as it was printed
there in 1930 or '31, was it not? You can go over this list and make
your suggestions as to those which you think should be included. The
WALDORF-ASTORIA one is so long we may have to cut it out, and then, it
is sort of dated.

It seems to me, Lang, that a good title might be A NEW SONG. I like
the poem itself and I think it might set the right tone for such a
volume.

I went up to see Doug the other night to ask him if he might do the
illustrations. He was not cold to the idea. He wanted me to leave
the poems with him so he could go over them and see whether he could
get into the mood. His idea was, if he did them, that they be sort of
mass outlines in black and white.

So in the midst of writing operas, arranging tours to Europe, going to
parties, and sleeping, try to get these things re-arranged so we can
go ahead with it as quickly as possible.

I wouldn't mind travelling along as your secretary, valet, or something -
how about it? I'd even volunteer to find some comrade-shoes for you.
If you haven't any proposals to make, about as far as my possibilities
can extend for the summer is to the West Indies. I haven't any money so
far, but the idea lingers.

Love to everybody. Let me hear from you as soon as possible.

INTERNATIONAL WORKERS ORDER

(Incorporated)

Feb. 16, 1937

Langston Hughes
2256 E. 86th St.
Cleveland, Ohio

Dear Lang,

Received your letter and we had quite a discussion about the
matter of illustrating the book of poems.

Your idea of actual photographs is one well worth considering.
The thing is whether or not we would be able to get the proper pic-
tures. They would have to be especially fine studies. Maybe we
might combine both pictures and some illustrations. When you send
in the additional poems and your proposals as to how many and which
ones should be included we can consider the matter of a section on
translations.

By the time you get to New York we can probably have a final
conference on the whole set-up. Everybody is very enthused about
it and has some swell ideas about the publicizing of it. What we
want to do is get as broad a distribution of it as is possible.

I am leaving for Boston and will be gone until the 22nd. I
hope when I get back to find a letter from you telling me when you
are going to be in New York.

I have to be out of town quite a good deal next month and want
to be sure that when you are here I shall be here also if possible.

I believe that the publication of this volume of your poems can
be used as a means of bringing Negro culture to the masses of people
and I cannot tell you how enthusiastic I am about the whole idea.

Love to you and your mother.

LT/SS
BSAU
12646

INTERNATIONAL WORKERS ORDER

(Incorporated)

Telephone: ALgonquin 4-7733

Night Phone: GRamercy 5-9011

209

Dec. 17, 1938

Mr. Langston Hughes
1379 E. Washington Boulevard
Los Angeles, Cal.

AIR MAIL

Dear Lang:

Indeed I was glad to get your letter. I realized of course that you were probably on the go every minute but I was anxious to know how your trip turned out and what your plans were.

I cannot say that I am really surprised at your decision to spend more time out there, nor that I am surprised at your resolution to turn a new leaf. We shall do all we can to keep things going here in the Theatre though I must say that it will be a happy day for us when you return.

We are now laying plans to hold a patrons tea and to start a serious effort to raise funds. However, we can't do anything until after the holidays are over.

We have gotten a decision that the sponsorship of the Theatre should be broadened and we intend to use the patrons tea to begin a broadening of our base. I am confident that once we get this started we will be able to raise the funds necessary to carry on our work and to cover the expenses of our director. We all agreed that if when you do return you will be willing to assume this post it will be the thing really necessary to get our Theatre launched.

There is one thing I wish you would do and that is to write Toy. She is somewhat disturbed feeling that we are trying to take the Theatre away from you. I think you should write her a nice letter and tell her that you have heard from me giving you an idea of our plans and that you feel they are O.K. This will help to set her straight. I don't think she realizes that anything I propose, or any of the rest of us for that matter, we do only in consultation with you and with your approval.

The Opera is meeting with a few obstacles. At one rehearsal the singers did not appear in sufficient numbers and at the subsequent two rehearsals Johnson was absent I think because of a number of things he had to do. But we intend to plug away and try to keep it going.

-2-

We have the house all sold out for the month of January.

The rehearsals of the other two plays seem to be going along
fairly well.

I presume you have seen by now the fine article Lawson did for
us in "Opportunity". We are thinking of using this article in sub-
sequent material we intend to get out on the theatre.

I will be writing you again but I wanted to get a note off to
you now.

Thanks for sending me the check.

Tell everybody "hello" for me and in your next letter tell me
about Dot and some of the others. I hope you don't stay too long.
I miss you and we all need you.

Vaughn Love should be home from Spain next week. He did not
come in with the first group.

Love,

Louise

LT/SS

UOPWA-No.16

(Incorporated)

Telephone: Algonquin 4-7733

Night Phone: Ramercy 5-9011

209

January 13, 1939

AIR MAIL

Dear Lang:

I have been intending to write you all this time, first of all to thank you for your nice California Santa Claus, then to let you know how we are getting along with the Theatre. I am going to have a lot of hard luck to tell you so be prepared.

First of all we have been forced to move out of our 125 Street headquarters by the Fire Department and the Department of License. We are not permitted to give any more performances there without a license and they tell us that we can't get a license there because of the fire hazard. Last Sunday we gave our performance in the YWCA. This coming Sunday it will be in the Finnish Hall. From there I don't know where we go because as yet we have not been able to get a permanent place but we are working on it very hard and I hope to have some good news to report on it soon. That is problem number one.

As far as the license is concerned I am working through Bob Elzy to try to get permission for us to continue our work without it because once we need a license we will be in for many things that we as a non-professional group would not be able to stand. Next week Elzy and I are going to see Delaney about it.

Otherwise things are not so good. The main problem is that Hillary is so weak that we are always in a chaotic state.

We were forced to suspend rehearsals on the "Organizer" during the holidays because Johnson was tied up with a number of other things, one of them being a play on Broadway "Policy Kings" which got lambasted and closed very quickly. I have seen him since then and he is willing to go ahead with rehearsals but now we have to find a place in which to rehearse. Meanwhile John Hammond called me today and told me that Johnson had brought the opera to Columbia Broadcasting Company. John Hammond is working there now and is very enthusiastic about it and feels that they may be able to use it with some very prominent singers. They are to have an audition on Monday morning and I will let you know further about this.

-2-

"A Young Man of Harlem" is also meeting with considerable difficulty. I have not been able to see Toy because I was sick through all the holidays, but I know they have had to postpone their rehearsal date and Lindsey is supposed to be doing some re-writing on the third act. It is my frank opinion that this play is too weak a vehicle for us to follow "Don't You Want To Be Free" with. It seems to me that in order to live up to the reputation we have earned we must follow it with something like the "Organizer".

I can't write you at great length now because I am on my way to the train and have but a minute or two to finish this.

The one thing I want to raise with you though, is the matter of your coming back. Unless you come back soon and takehold of things, or we are able to get somebody stronger than Hillary, I feel we will just muddle along and not get any place. It is almost impossible to organize the work unless we have a competent man at the helm. If you are not planning to come back soon then we may have to think of someone else. The thing that distresses me so much is that I hate to see this splendid start we have in the Theatre lost. George and I have had a long talk about it and we are both convinced that until we do get the right person in charge of the Theatre we will not get any place.

I will write you again next week. Meanwhile I would like to hear from you as regards your own plans.

Give my regards to everybody in Los Angeles.

LT/SS

UOPWA-No.16

Things are moving very badly with the theatre. I think I can say without exaggeration that Tommy left us in a worse state than he found us. We have no money and are having all kind of costume troubles with Plant in the Sun, also with Mighty Wind. It is hard for me to see any way out but we are doing our best to hold the thing together. Kenneth Spencer just came in yesterday and I guess will go into the case of John Henry which is supposed to begin rehearsing next week. I understand that Robeson is back.

I am enclosing a receipt for your dues. I will see that they are kept up until you are able to take care of them. Kit called me the other day and wanted to know whether I could lend him $10. Bearing in mind what you said about him I told him that I could not.

I guess you know about Matt's undergoing an appendectomy. I haven't heard from Nebby yet as to how he is getting along. She told me the operation was to have been last Tuesday. She also told me that you come up ever so often and how much it means to them to have you.

I still have not run down the reviews on your picture but I heard
lots of comments and all of them are uncomplimentary. Everybody says

they cannot understand how you could have written such a scenario or if
they changed it why you permitted it to come out under your name. I tell
you this unpleasant news because I know you want to know what they are
saying about the picture here. I understand one review in the Post stated
that the film had set the cause of the Negroes back a number of years and
in general all the papers panned it.

Well, that is all for now. Write and let me know how you are getting
along with the book.

October 25, 1939

Mr. Langston Hughes
Hollow Hills Farm
Monterey, California

Dear Lang:

Are you so engrossed in your book that you can't take time off to write a fellow? I am interested in getting your reaction to the report I made to you on the opinions expressed here on your movie. I thought afterwards that I might have been too abrupt in what I said but I still think I should have told you the word that is going around.

We are still struggling to get somewhere in the theatre. At the present time we are suspending all production activities and going to concentrate on getting new plays. We gave one performance of "Mighty Wind" for the Spanish Committee but we never yet succeeded in getting together a full cast for "Plant In The Sun" and we can't put "Mighty Wind" on the boards by itself. Furthermore, I am convinced that we are going about the whole thing wrong. I don't see any point in putting on productions per se. It seems to me that if we haven't anything worthwhile and original to present we should keep quiet until we have something to do. This opinion is shared by other members of the Executive Committee so we are just about where we were a year ago. I still feel that the next production which follows "Don't You Want To Be Free?" will have to be as significant and as original. Therefore we are very interested to know if at this time you can give us any new production. In this connection we would like to know whether you would need any money for this. I am wondering what you have in mind to do about "Sold Away". Also I should like to know if you think any of your old plays done by the Gilpins might be suitable for us.

We had in mind something else to do. You know the fad now is for adapting and swinging the classics. The latest announcement is a swing version of "Midsummer Night's Dream". By the way, Earl Jones got a nice part in this. I believe he is to play opposite Maxine Sullivan. We were thinking about the adaptation of some of the classical satires like "Alice in Wonderland", "Gulliver's Travels", etc., or the possibility of using some of the fairy tales. The idea is still quite nebulous and we haven't investigated but I think if we could think of something novel and new to do, it would mean as much for us as these things are meaning for Broadway. What do you think about it and would you be interested in exploring any such possibilities? I am frank to confess

Form LHI-G

15M-6-39

39

AIR MAIL

Mr. Langston Hughes
Hollon Hills Farm
Monterey, Calif.

THIS SIDE OF CARD IS FOR ADDRESS

Mr. Langston Hughes,
634 St. Nicholas Avenue,
New York 30, N.Y.

Mr. Langston Hughes
634 St. Nicholas Ave., Apt. 1-D
New York 30, New York

March 24, 1949

Dear Lou:

Shortly after I got to Chicago I went by your house
only to learn that you had moved to New York, but the
man who answered the door did not know your address. So
I was delighted to find your note here and if I did not
have to fly right back to Chicago, I would see you. But
I will be back next week for the opening of TROUBLED
ISLAND on March 31, providing the flying weather is good
that day.

As you probably know, I have just taken up my duties
as "poet in residence" at the Laboratory School of the
University of Chicago, but a few little difficulties
came up (as usual in relation to show business) concerning
TROUBLED ISLAND, so I had to high myself over here. That
show is costing me more in travel expenses than I will make
in ten years -- since it is an OPERA. But it looks pretty
good in rehearsal, and being based on man's eternal fight
for freedom, it might help the cause a little bit -- par-
ticularly since it has some very high notes in it.

My best to Pat.

LH:HHS

mr. Langston Hughes
20 East 127 St.

New York City
(Manhattan)

Dear Lengston:

Here is a re-draft of the letter incorporating ideas of the first and
suggested re-phrasing to make it more personal and informal. Would
appreciate your ideas. Since I will be on vacation beginning Friday,
would you please send them to Louise Patterson, 1268 President St.,
Brooklyn 13, who will try to get the letters mimeographed in time for
our meeting Wednesday, August 20, so that they can be personally signed.

Doris Bu Bissette

Dear :

To artists for whom Africa has always been a great wellspring of creative
inspiration, the recent developments in that vast continent which are
bringing independence and freedom to its people bring us great joy
and a deep desire to give it expression.

Thus it was that a few of us, artists and friends interested with us,
in New York began to talk about what we might do -- and the Afro-
American Committee for Gifts of Art and Literature to Ghana was born!
We decided to contact other artists and their friends and invite them
to join us in this effort.

We felt further that, in recognition of Ghana's leadership in these
independence movements, our first effort would be to assemble a select
collection of paintings and books (manuscripts) by outstanding Negro
artists and writers to send as a gift at the time of Ghana's second
independence year celebration in 1960.

I have been asked by the Committee to invite you to participate with us in this tribute. We believe that such a contribution by the leading Negro artists and writers of America will be valued by our African brothers in the spirit in which it is given.

Ambassador Daniel Chapman has written us that his government will be
most happy to receive our gifts and has offered the assistance of his
staff to facilitate its shipment and proper exhibition in Ghana. Our
Committee hopes to assemble the paintings and books or manuscripts by
mid-November, in time for a New York showing and shipment to Ghana for
the 1960 celebration.

It is my sincere hope that you will find it possible to join us in this
effort. Since we are only writing a limited number, we should welcome
your early and favorable (we hope) response. We need to know what works
we can count on as soon as possible so that we will have plenty of time
to round out the schedule outlined above.

P. S.: To facilitate your response, a registration blank is enclosed.

October 14, 1959

Dear Lou:

All of my Ghana letters went out this weekend. And the first response, complying, has just come in today from William Stanley Braithwaite who offers three books and his manuscript poem about Booker T. Washington written long ago......If you see W. E. B. or Shirley, you might prod them among a little bit, or just get the things from them, and save them mailing. This is what I will do with some of the Harlem writers I know and see......I am off for lectures in Trinidad the first week in October---if they send the ticket!

Best to the family,

Sincerely,

1268 President St.
Brooklyn, New York

January -- 1961

Dear Friends:

Belated but hearty greetings for the New Year of 1961.

Though tardy, we still wish to greet you by sharing some of the impressions from the trip we were greatly privileged to take to Europe and many socialist countries in 1960. It was an experience that etched deeply into our consciousness the wastefulness and inhumanity of unjust wars and the need to end them forever. It was also a joyful time akin to witnessing springtime when new growth and flowering burst forth from the stubble and bareness of a long hard winter.

Where did we go -- to the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Germany, Central Asia. What did we see....people confidently and at a tempo unknown to the West building a magnificently creative life. The agony, hunger and devastation of war is behind. They have emerged triumphant to make the ideas of peace and plenty a dominant note in world affairs. Building cranes outlined against the sky followed the path of our plane and greeted us where we landed. They symbolize the products of peace -- new factories, schools, cultural and sports centers, homes, scientific institutions. A sense of security came to us. Tension was nowhere present. We were among people who do not worry about the present, who are certain of the future. Full employment, education for their children, medical care during sickness and childbirth, provision for their old age are the built-in guarantees of their socialist society.

They are concerned, however, with what the American people are thinking and doing about peace. (We attended the spy trial of the pilot shot down in an American U-2 plane over Soviet territory.) We accepted the flowers, warm hospitality and friendship we met everywhere as manifestations of their desire for peace and friendship with the people of our country. But it takes two sides to make the peace.

The more we saw and heard of the horror that was World War II-- the untold millions of lives lost; the vast devastation; the tremendous setback to peacetime construction -- the more we were able to understand why the people in all Europe are deeply concerned and seek permanent peace. We wished that all Americans (who have never had to experience mass bombing, invasion, starvation, concentration camps) could have shared our experiences. We were in Leningrad where 1,000,000 civilians starved to death during the 940 day siege of the nazis. In Lidice, the little Czechoslovakian village which Hitler ordered to be obliterated brick by brick. We saw Auschwitz, that ghastly concentration camp where 4,000,000 men, women and children from 28 countries died in gas chambers. In Berlin we stood at the Brandenburg Gate which separates east and west not only of that famous capitol but the very allies who together defeated Hitler buried deep in the ruins of the Chancellory nearby.

-2-

It is a great temptation to try to tell you more about the people, places and things we saw during those six months of travel over thousands of miles. That telling would take a book. (We hope we can relate it later in a pamphlet, but meanwhile this greeting must get on its way.) All we hope to convey here is the message the people there and the many visitors we encountered from Asia, Africa and Latin America might wish all Americans to hear.

We encountered delegations on goodwill, trade and technical assistance missions. We saw students from newly independent and still dependent countries studying to be doctors, engineers, scientists, agronomists that they may be equipped to help their countries rapidly overcome the backward economic and cultural heritage of colonialism. We watched visiting sports teams in friendly competition with their hosts and artists widening cultural understanding. We thrilled to see children of all races being fortified for the future as they learned to live and play together in the warm sun and invigorating Black Sea at the international Pioneer camp in Yalta. We sat with women from 61 countries, many of whom had travelled thousands of miles to Warsaw to talk and act for peace and an end to colonial domination.

All these experiences were object lessons for us in the meaningfulness and possibilities for peaceful coexistence of all nations and peoples which many of our government spokesmen attempt to explain away as "soviet propaganda". But for growing millions in all continents it is a realizable and necessary goal.

So here is our wish for 1961:

- Total disarmament to end fears of nuclear world destruction and lay the basis for enduring peace;

- Racism and colonialism ended everywhere;

- A United Nations with the true representatives of the Congo; the 650,000,000 people of China; all nations of Africa and Asia in their rightful places helping to find peaceful settlements of all differences between nations and peoples.

We have faith that the people of our country can and will come to understand that our future depends on joining this world march to peace and plenty. But all of us, setting aside other differences, have to work together and hard to achieve it.

With all best wishes,

William and Louise Patterson*

*Our daughter, who is now among the hundreds of foreign students in Moscow, sends her own cabled greetings to our friends: "This year holds greater promise for peace and freedom. So goodby 1960, Hello 1961. Happy New Year."

--Mary, Lou

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1268 President St.
Brooklyn 13, N. Y.
U. S. A.

Mr. Langston Hughes
20 E. 127th St.
New York, N. Y.

DU SABLE LODGE 751

INTERNATIONAL

CHARTERED BY THE INSURANCE
6200 Cottage Grove Ave.

WORKERS ORDER

DEPT. OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
Chicago 37 - Midway 3805

INCORPORATED 1930

President
LUTHER S. PECK

Vice-Presidents
ELWEARD T. WILLIAMSON
JAMES S. TATE
JOHN C. BURNEY
THEODORE R. MARTIN

Executive Secretary
LOUISE THOMPSON PATTERSON

Financial Secretary
GLADYS DURHAM
ALLEN E. VILEY, Assistant

Recording Secretary
B. FRANKLIN JONES

Treasurer
VERNON S. GORDON

Chaplains
Rev. JOSEPH W. MILLER
Rev. MALCHUS DAVIS

Parliamentarian
EUGENE J. MARSHALL

Sergeant-at-Arms
CHESTER JOHNSON

Mr. Langston Hughes,
640 St. Nichols Ave.,
New York, New York.

Dear Lang:

I am sending you with this note our brochure on Du Sable Community Center. Also an invitation to our Founders Luncheon next week which I know you won't be able to attend, but I wanted you to know about it.

We are moving ahead on the campaign for the Center with very hopeful signs. We have gotten support from the unions, the various I.W.O. groups, and Business and Professionals, both Negro and White. If the present development continues and expands we can rightfully say that we are building a real peoples Center.

There is one thing that you could do for us now if you will, I would like to have a telegram from you by the time of the Luncheon next week, pledging your support and wishing us success. How about it?

I'm still at home but I have set up shop right here, using the phone, the typewriter and other peoples legs to carry on the work.

I should like to know also, when you will be here in January and what free time you have. We would like to organize something around you. I don't think the Center will be opened by then officially so we will not be able to have a big public affair, but we could have a private party aimed at big donors such as we are doing with Paul on November 14 at the Stevens Hotel. What do you say to this?

If Eula is still in town give her my best regards and the toy.

COMMITTEE DIRECTORS

Membership
EURAH GERRARD

Promotion
La URSA S. HEDRICK

Education
WILLA MAE JONES

Legislation
EULALIA WEIGHTMAN

Cultural
ALBERTA POPE BOLDEN

Social
ANNA MAE MOHN
MAUD CLEMENTS

Welfare
GAGE WOODS
EMMA LEE HARVEY

Youth
LILLIAN LARVENETTE

Junior
ANNIE A. CLARK

TRUSTEES

WELDON CANADA
ROY CARR
CLOTILDE DENT
KENNETH GARNER
THEODORE T. GREENE
JAMES L. KELLY
POSEY LYONS
SHELBY NICHOLS
ESTELLE PETTIFORD
KING D. WILLIAMS

360