THE CHARGE IS ...

JIMCROW

*The Official Government Policy in Federal Prisons*

FREEDOM is indivisible. The rights of people must be all-inclusive if they are to exist at all.

That is why the Negro press welcomed the announcement that Benjamin J. Davis, now serving a five-year sentence under the Smith Act and facing a possible additional ten years under the same law, was filing a petition for a writ of mandamus directing Attorney General Herbert Brownell and Director of Prisons James V. Bennett to end jimcrow in Federal prisons.

"Ben Davis, Jr.'s Voice Comes From Behind Bars Against Jail Jim Crow," declared the headline in the Dec. 25th issue of the *Philadelphia Independent*.

"We hold no brief for Mr. Davis' political conviction," said the *Afro-American* in an editorial early in 1954, when it first heard of the then contemplated court action. "But we cannot help but admire his courageous outcry against this denial of elementary justice for men in federal custody."

SEGREGATION CAN BE LICKED

The people of America, and throughout the world, hailed the 1954 decision of the United States Su-

preme Court denouncing the 80 year-old judicial
and discriminatory principle of "separate but
equal," in relation to segregation in the public
school system.

This victory was wrung from the Court by the
efforts of democratic-minded people, first of all the
Negro people. Struggles such as this, persistently
raised and consistently fought, will achieve in fact
the first class citizenship of Negroes that is theirs
by right.

If today the decision of the Supreme Court is
resisted by certain elements in our country, and if
they threaten its annulment through extreme meas-
ures if necessary, it is because the Federal Govern-
ment itself is guilty of segregation in areas in which
it has absolute control.

This is the essence of the action of Mr. Davis, over
and above the simple humanitarian aspect.

THE CHARGE

In the petition now served on the Government, Mr.
Davis declares that at the U.S. Penitentiary at
Terre Haute, Indiana, in which he is confined as a
political prisoner, as well as at other Federal prisons,
he and other Negro prisoners are subjected to dis-
criminatory practices under regulations set by the
Justice Department.

Mr. Davis charges in his petition that all Negro
prisoners are confined to cells or dormitories which
are located in a section reserved only for Negroes;
that upon entering the mess hall or the entertain-
ment hall they do so as a group separately from other
prisoners and occupy separate tables; that in the
auditorium, gymnasium and in other places set aside
for entertainment, they are seated in one section.

What the *Afro-American* on July 17, 1954 said was
"even more shocking," is Mr. Davis' charge that jim-
crow practices deny to Negro prisoners the privi-
leges and benefits accorded to white prisoners as a
result of meritorious conduct and exemplary work
required of all prisoners, Negro or white.

ILLEGAL AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL

These discriminatory prison regulations promul-
gated by the Justice Department are thoroughly
illegal. The United States Code which provides that
the Attorney General may "classify the inmates,"

and which provides for the standards to be observed
in the classification of prisoners, does not make any
reference to race or color.

These prison regulations are a violation of the
Eighth Amendment of the Bill of Rights, which
prohibits the infliction of "cruel and unusual punish-
ment." These regulations are personally offensive
to Negro prisoners, are spiritually degrading, and
physically damaging.

They are a violation of the Fifth Amendment,
which proscribes against "double jeopardy." Under
these conditions, every Negro inmate, whether he is
imprisoned for his political ideas as was Mr. Davis,

or for a crime, is automatically subject to double
jeopardy, as a prisoner and as a Negro.

WHO IS BEN DAVIS?

Benjamin J. Davis knows whereof he speaks. The
first-hand experiences from which Mr. Davis makes
his observations, and the personal jeopardy and dis-
comfort that making such a complaint creates for
him, attest to that. The conscientiousness with which
Mr. Davis grapples with problems and fights for the
rights of minorities and of all people, was recognized
by the people of New York who twice elected him
to the City Council.

Dr. J. Pius Barbour, editor of the *National Baptist Voice*, said of him, "What about a man who is willing to go to prison for his cause though that cause seems erroneous in our sight? If you are really called

to preach and know something about the prophets,
you must say, out of such material come saints!"

Walter White, no partisan supporter of Mr. Davis,
declared in *The Progressive* of Nov. 1950, "When
jail doors close behind him in the not too distant
future, Benjamin J. Davis, convicted Communist,

will take with him into his cell a little part of you
and me."

## DISCRIMINATION AND JUSTICE

Discrimination against Negroes does not begin
after they enter prison. The very dispensing of jus-
tice in the United States is riddled with bias. The
1953 report of the Federal Bureau of Prisons states
that "30.2 percent of those received for offenses
other than violation of immigration laws, were Ne-
groes," patently out of proportion with the Negro
population.

According to an article by B. J. Cutler in the *N. Y.
Herald Tribune* of July 23, 1954, "There were 373
executions for rape during the study period. Of this
total, 37, or 9.9 percent, were white executions; 334,
or 89.6 percent, Negro. . . . Commenting on the

execution figures by race, Prof. Frank E. Hartung
of Wayne University, said, 'Considering their pro-
portion in the total population, this means that
Negroes are over-represented, by about 550 per-
cent.'"

In view of the well-known history of rape frame-
ups against Negroes, the prejudicial source of this
"over-representation" is quite obvious. In a state-
ment made on Oct. 5, 1954, upon his release from the
Danbury Federal Prison, William L. Patterson,
executive secretary of Civil Rights Congress, de-
clared on the basis of personal observation, that he
saw the incarceration of the Negro lads in a federal
correctional institution which failed to correct, as
an "attempt to stamp the brand of criminality on
a people," a part of the Federal Government's
"justification" for segregation of a people.

Mr. Davis in his petition states that segregation
of Negro prisoners "tends to foster and encourage
racial prejudice, contrary to the announced policy
of the United States."

## THE FIGHT FOR NEGRO RIGHTS

The Supreme Court desegregation decision made
partial amends for the denial of constitutional
rights to the Negro people. The fight for its imple-
mentation, and for the inclusion under its essential
opinion of all phases of life, goes on, and must be
prosecuted with ever greater vigor—first of all by
the people, and by those in authority responsible
to do so.

However, not the pious words of government offi-
cials, but the deeds of the agencies they head, are the
true barometer of the intentions of the Government.
A Department of Justice that segregates Negro pris-
oners upon whom it exercises sole and complete
authority, WILL NOT and CANNOT enforce de-
segregation in schools or any other phase of life,
which it is obliged to do. A Department of Justice
so impregnated with prejudice, that it itself promul-
gates discriminatory rules, CANNOT and WILL
NOT use its police powers to destroy anti-Negro
prejudice in the land.

The suit of Ben Davis CAN and MUST BE won.
The people of the United States, whose struggles
for democracy and Negro rights over the years
achieved the Supreme Court victory, are the de-

termining factor. The fight for the victory of the
Ben Davis petition is a fight for the elimination
of official Government—Federal and State—anti-
Negro discrimination; a fight to cleanse the Gov-
ernment of an official policy of jimcrow.

Such a vital democratic struggle demands the joint
efforts of all people, regardless of partisan differ-
ences. It demands the same kind of unity among
the Negro people as brought about the Supreme
Court desegregation decision. It demands the ut-
most unity of Negro and white that alone is capable
of defeating the heritage of Southern white suprem-
acy reflected in official Government policy.

THE DEMANDS OF JUSTICE

The rights of all people—Negro or white—are
involved in the Ben Davis legal struggle to:

1. Terminate and abolish the practice of segregating and classifying Negro prisoners in Federal penitentiaries for any purpose whatsoever in accordance with race or color;

2. Terminate and abolish the practice of segregating Negro prisoners in mess halls and entertainment halls in federal penitentiaries;

3. Terminate and abolish the practice of providing segregated sleeping quarters for Negro prisoners;

4. Make available to Negro prisoners without discrimination all benefits and privileges which are or may be extended to white prisoners for meritorious conduct and exemplary work or otherwise in Federal prisons.

Support the campaign of Ben Davis, who fights from behind prison bars to bring the benefits of justice and the Bill of Rights to the Negro people. Your democratic rights, your self-interest are involved in the success of this court action.

Send a message to Attorney General Herbert Brownell, in-
forming him that you support the Ben Davis petition, and
demanding that he eliminate jimcrow in Federal prisons.

Make a contribution to Civil Rights Congress to help finance the legal fight.

(PLEASE USE THE COUPON BELOW)

CIVIL RIGHTS CONGRESS

6 East 17th St., Room 200
New York 3, N. Y.

I support the petition of Benjamin J. Davis to end jimcrow
in Federal prisons.

☐ I have written to Attorney General Brownell.

☐ Send me additional protest cards for which

I enclose $............ at the rate of 2c a piece.

[ ] I enclose $............ as my contribution to help finance the legal expenses.

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