MRS. J. WATIES WARING
61 MEETING STREET
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA

November 28, 1949.

Dear Poppy and Walter,

What in the world is the trouble with
you two good friends that we have not heard a word from you
for so long a time? One newspaper clipping I sent for you
Walter seemed very serious in its implication of N.A.A.C.P.
Lawyers and I asked that you reply concerning this to Waties
or me. The rest of my letters were strictly personal ones to
Poppy, or both of you.

Now I have a strictly business letter.

Enclosed letters are self explanatory. Mr. Martin is head of
the Santa Barbara N.A.A.C.P. We have known him very pleasantly
for the three years we have been going there summers and we
think very highly of him. His heart is truly torn apart by this
hypocrisy of the Santa Barbara people toward the Negro. The
same sort of thing occured when Dr Ralph Bunche went there, but
then the EL- ENCANTO HOTEL turned Dr. Bunche down flat ahead
of time and the CORAL CASINO BEACH CLUB to any entertainment
for him which infuriated us but as we were only summer members
we felt we had no right to interfere there. However in the case
of this Hotel so insulting you, our good friend, we feel we
do speak with some authority only because of three years of
staying there a month each August. Enclosed is my suggested
letter( a copy) which if you approve I will gladly send the
original which I shall hold until I hear from you, Walter.
As this is a matter that concerns the Segregation stand of the
N.A.A.C.P. as well as you personally, Waties and I feel we
should consult you before 'RUSHING IN WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD'

November 23, 1949

Mr. W. H. Martin
431 Anacapa Street
Santa Barbara, California

Dear Mr. Martin:

Your letter addressed to Mrs. Waring and myself arrived
while I was holding court in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and now on
my return, this is the first opportunity to answer it.

We both appreciate your writing to us and feel most
deeply hurt and resentful at the unfair and un-American action of the
management of the El Encanto Hotel. I remember that when we were
in Santa Barbara, somewhat the same affair happened in regard to
Dr. Bunche. And now this has happened relative to Mr. Walter White.
As you know, Mrs. Waring and I know the last named quite intimately,
and as a matter of fact, after leaving California last summer, we
came back east and stopped in New York for over a month, and we had
the opportunity and pleasure of seeing both Mr. and Mrs. White a
number of times. Recently, we were in New York again when Mr. White
was absent on his California lecture tour, and we had the pleasure
of dining with Mrs. White in their apartment and Walter called on the
long-distance while we were there and we all chatted with him. That
a fine international figure such as Walter White should be refused
quarters in any hotel in this country or any country seems almost
unbelievable. Both Mrs. Waring and I are greatly moved by this

Mr. W. H. Martin

page 2, November 23, 1949

situation and would really like to do or say something about it.
However, in consideration of our relationship with the Whites, we
hesitate to take any step until we may have the opportunity of
communicating with them as anything we might do or say might be
embarrassing to them. But we certainly shall take it up with them
and see if there is anything that we, at any time, can do.

I am glad to hear that some of the people of Santa Barbara are going to take up this matter with the management of the hotel, and I wish you would let us know all the details in connection with it and particularly who takes part in it.

This matter has naturally up-set both of us very much
and we wish to express to you our very deepest sympathy and under-
standing of how it has depressed you. When are the people of this
country going to wake up to the fact that they are supposed to be
decent Americans?

Mrs. Waring and I hope to be in Santa Barbara again
next summer, but of course it is so far off, it is not definite.
Mrs. Waring joins me in assurances of our friendship, sympathy, and
understanding of your problems.

With best regards,

December 2, 1949

Dearest Elizabeth;

As you know, Walter is away on the
second lap of his lecture tour after spending
the Thanksgiving holiday at home -- and I do mean
at home in Connecticut. We had made a pact that
we weren't either of us going to step off the
premises but one of the neighbors lured us down
the road about half a mile for dinner one evening.
Despite the fatigue of the trip, Walter seemed
really fine. As Dr. Louis Wright puts it --"When
he's fighting, he's fine!"

He said not a word about any untoward
incident in Santa Barbara though he did tell me
that the reception accorded him in that area was
less warm than in other cities where he has spoken
to record breaking audiences and seems to have been
showered with love and attention.

Walter's secretary, Betty Curtis (to
whom I am dictating this letter), made up Walter's
schedule. She received a courteous reply that the
El Encanto was filled when she asked for a reserva-
tion but thought nothing of it inasmuch as we under-
stand it is a fairly small resort hotel. As a
matter of fact, Walter really wanted to stay at the
Mission Inn and we requested and received confirma-
tion. She had no word about why he had decided to
stay at Mrs. Verelle's home but he often changes his
plans at the last minute and nobody thinks a thing
about it. Neither Miss Curtis or I had any indica-
tion that there had been any unpleasantness in Santa
Barbara.

I am more touched than I can tell you
upon reading Mr. Martin's warm-hearted letter and
by the copies of the letters which you have so
warm-heartedly offered to send to the hotel. Frankly,
we have no way of knowing what really happened but
I am sure Mr. Martin being on the spot did know and

- 2 -

I think your letters could do nothing but good.
I have a feeling that after this kind of going-over
they'll think a long time before getting themselves
into such a predicament again. I think both your
letters are terrific, colossal, stupendous -- and
what are all those other fine big California words?
It's wonderful to have good friends rush so quickly
and gallantly to your defense. I know Walter will
be as touched as I am.

We talked together about the clippings
you were kind enough to send us and Walter has
sent them along to Thurgood Marshall. Speaking
completely unofficially and on my own, I would say
that this is just one of the problems and situations
confronting the Association at this time which look
grave and troublesome. From where we sit at the
moment I don't think there's much we can do without
being "interfering". There are a thousand things
I have in my heart to say along those lines, but
I think you know most of them and I'd better save
it for talk.

Do you mind if I keep Mr. Martin's
letter for awhile along with copies of the letters
you plan to send? To say that Walter will be in-
terested is putting it very mildly.

Blessings on you both and lots of love,

Poppy Cannon

P.S. Dear Mrs. Waring:

I think if more people would take
the trouble to write letters of this type
it would help solve a number of problems
a lot faster.

Betty Curtis

PC:bc

December 2, 1949

Dearest Elizabeth:

Walter's secretary, Betty Curtis (to
whom I am dictating this letter), made up Walter's
schedule. She received a courteous reply that the
El Encanto was filled when she asked for a reserva-
tion but thought nothing of it inasmuch as we under-
stand it is a fairly small resort hotel. As a
matter of fact, Walter really wanted to stay at the
Mission Inn and we requested and received confirma-
tion. She had no word about why he had decided to
stay at Mrs. Verelle's home but he often changed his
plans at the last minute and nobody thinks a thing
about it. Neither Miss Curtis or I had any indica-
tion that there had been any unpleasantness in Santa
Barbara.

- 2 -

Do you mind if I keep Mr. Martin's letter for awhile along with copies of the letters you plan to send? To say that Walter will be interested is putting it very mildly.

Poppy Cannon

P.S. Dear Mrs. Waring:

Betty Curtis

PC:bc

CHAMBERS OF
J. WATIES WARING
DISTRICT JUDGE

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF SOUTH CAROLINA
CHARLESTON, S. C.

January 6, 1950

Rev. Samuel McCrea Cavert
The Federal Council of the Churches
of Christ in America
297 Fourth Avenue
New York 10, New York

Dear Mr. Cavert:

Since writing you, I have read with great interest and enthusiasm, the brief as amicus curiae in connection with the case of Sweatt vs. Painter. I wish to offer my congratulations for the approach to this matter which I think will have a considerable impact on the Court.

For a long time, I have been thinking that one of the most important approaches to the goal for ending racial segregation is through the churches. The defenders of segregation can deal in much sophistry and put up many arguments based upon practice and custom and erroneous legal decision. But their weakest line of defense is in the religious area. And there really is no semblance of an argument when the approach is made from that standpoint. And, therefore, I am of the belief that the chief burden for ending segregation should be thrown upon the decent thinking churchmen of the country.

The resolutions and position taken by the Federal Council of Churches is an enormous forward step.

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

CHARLESTON, S. C.

Rev. Samuel McCrea Covert - 2

January 6, 1950

I am wondering why it shouldn't be pushed much further and carried down through the various grades to the individual church members. I am taking the liberty of suggesting that the Council communicate these resolutions to the appropriate governing or central bodies of the various denominations which are members of the Council with a view to having these central bodies pass them on to their regional or state or other subordinate organizations, and they, in turn, pass them on then to the individual churches or congregations with a view to eventually having the ministers in the various church organizations press upon their congregations the idea of militant action to end segregation. It seems to me that such a course of action may arouse the religious people of this country and bring sufficient pressure to influence our vacillating government in Washington. For instance, when senators begin to realize there is a great wave of religious backing to the abolition of segregation, they will stop playing petty politics and wipe out the bane of filibustering. Your group can thus be passing the word down through the line actually reaching millions of American citizens.

Of course, it would also be desirable, if possible, to influence still other religious groups to take

Rev. Samuel McCrea Cavert - 3

January 6, 1950

the same action such, for instance as the Roman Catholic
and the Jewish organizations. The last named, I am informed,
are moving forward, but I do not know whether they are
actually spreading the word amongst their individual members.

Pardon me for making a suggestion as
to what your organization should do, but it does seem to me
that you have a marvelous opportunity to serve our country
and American decency.

With all good wishes,

January 6, 1950

Mr. Walter White
441 West 21st Street
New York, New York

Dear Walter:

I have received copies of briefs filed by several organizations in the Henderson and Sweatt cases. The Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America have filed one. It is merely a plea along religious and decent citizenship lines rather than a legal argument. But I believe it will be very effective. It seems to me, however, that the filing of briefs in the Supreme Court is the least effect to be derived from this action of the Council. The more important aspect of the matter is for the Council to work the sentiments expressed in these resolutions down through the respective organizations, work on the heads of every denomination with a view to having them spread the light to their subordinate organizations and thence down through the individual churches to the members of the congregations themselves.

I enclose copy of a letter I have written to Rev. Samuel McCrea Cavert. If you think there is any value in the idea, perhaps you may have some lines that you can use to start this matter moving.

The Catholics and the Jews should fall in step with the Protestants and perhaps this country may see a great religious movement aimed towards ending segregation everywhere in this country and throughout

December 29, 1949

To
Mr. Jack Thompson,
El Encanto Hotel,
Santa Barbara, Cal.

My dear Mr. Thompson,-

As Judge Waring and I have stayed at your hotel for a long period of time the past three summers we feel we now have established a friendly relation with you and the hotel as well as the purely business side. Hence when the matter was brought to our attention of the unfair, as well as inhuman treatment by you in turning down our good friend Mr. Walter White, -after agreeing to take him,- we feel we should write you frankly that we resent this treatment not only of him as our friend but of as outstanding and fine an American gentleman. The embarrassment and mortification you caused those who brought him to speak in Santa Barbara, to say nothing of their difficulty in finding a place for him at the last moment, is their affair to handle in their way. But this attitude is so unlike the usual courteous and kindly behaviour of people in general in Santa Barbara to say nothing of your hotel in particular for which you are all commended, that I am amazed.

If it is because Mr. White is a Negro, I should like to ask how you can tell a Negro, who is and who is not? For you take people in your hotel with far darker skins than Mr. White's. I have seen them.

If it is Racial, - you take many Jews, and most of them very nice.

If it is social position, - ( quite customary with the best resort hotels, though few can afford to be selective or exclusive along those highly intangible lines) - then I wish to state what you may not realize that Mr. White is not only a gentleman but one of rare distinction and culture and the intimate friend and entertained by

those of America's highest social class-and in fact the World's -
as well as the most distinguished leaders in public life and thought.
They are proud to count him as a friend and seek and treasure his
friendship. He has stayed at and been entertained at the best hotels
here and abroad. He and his charming and distinguished wife have
dined with us at the Plaza Hotel in New York and we with them at
some of the best restaurants. We have invited them to visit us in
our home here in the Deep South.

Now as a complete opposite to this thoroughbred gentleman may I
remind you of your last summer's guests, a crude type of person and
his very ordinary wife and noisy children and their servants who
took over your whole hotel to the annoyance and disgust of most of
the other guests. At one of the best tables in your hotel dining
room, next to ours, their illiterate and illbred maid, chauffeur,
and valet ate with the slightly better class secretary and later a
young girl whom they called a governess( who none the less spent
her time doing the family laundry with the maid out on their porch
overlooking our houses and we theirs). These servants received the
first and most solicitous attention in the dining room, and the rest
of us had to wait for them to be served first no matter how late they
came in,- our orders sometimes taken from our trays to be hastened
to them so that they could eat quickly to return to their boorish
master of whom they were obviously terrified. The Judge complained
of this and stated to the head waitress,-"SINCE WHEN ARE SERVANTS
SERVED BEFORE THE GUESTS OF A HOTEL?" After that it improved but they
remained eating there. The Judge was thanked by the people around
us for objecting. It was most unsuitable and distasteful a situation

in a first class hotel, particularly so small and necessarily
intimate a one as yours. Obviously this man paid well for his
attentions and his servant's.

We would not expect you to take a LOW CLASS Negro.

That is not Democracy. Democracy is EQUAL OPPORTUNITY TO ADVANCE.

No matter how much money a vulgar, ordinary, low class person
has it does not entitle him to the privilege of going to and
staying at private and selective places, unless he himself attains
and advances to the status of a gentle person.

Mr. Walter White does honor to the place and the people he
stays with. He would honor and grace the El Encanto Hotel by
staying with you.

Mrs. Poppy Cannon White
441 West 21 St., N.Y.
New York City
N. Y.

NOTE TO EDITORS:

This is the complete text of the speech made at Charleston, S. C. on Monday, January 16, 1950 to the colored YWCA's Annual Meeting by Mrs. J. Waties Waring, wife of Federal Judge Waring. This speech was made in the face of threats of violence against the distinguished jurist and his wife and has been the cause of numerous anonymous telephone threats since its delivery.

Walter White,
Ex. Secy.-on-Leave of NAACP.

SPEECH MADE AT CHARLESTON, S. C. ON JANUARY 16, 1950 TO THE COLORED
YWCA's ANNUAL MEETING BY MRS. J. WATIES WARING, WIFE OF FEDERAL
JUDGE WARING.

My very dear friends, it was brave of you to invite me to speak here, and brave of all of you to come to hear me, for the White "Powers that Be" have done everything underhanded in their power to keep me from speaking to you Negro people, even to defaming Judge Waring's and my character. But we only feel sorry for them, for their stupidity, as it will hurt them, and not us, for it is apparent to everyone what their real motive is in not wishing me to speak--- FEAR of the Judge and me. We to them are like the ATOM BOMB WHICH THEY ARE AFRAID WE WILL USE TO DESTROY THEIR SELFISH AND SAVAGE WHITE SUPREMACY WAY OF LIFE. AND THEY ARE QUITE CORRECT. THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT THE JUDGE AND I ARE DOING, and they know it and see the writing on the wall. But you know and we know and they should know that there is another use for ATOMIC ENERGY, and that is for building and healing and restoring a civilized way of life. That is what the Judge is trying to do for the good of the White people down here as well as the Negro. In his famous Opinion giving the right to vote to the Negroes in the Primary Elections in South Carolina, my husband said, "IT IS TIME TO GET IN STEP, IT IS TIME FOR SOUTH CAROLINA TO REJOIN THE UNION" -- that is what he is urging the White Supremacists to do of their own volition, but when they resist only force will work. His wonderful Opinions in the Primary and Injunction cases ring out in the clear call of the LIBERTY BELL and only those who are afraid of real Freedom for all, of real Democracy, have any cause to fear us. It is their guilty consciences that make them fear.

For me it is always a great pleasure and privilege to speak to
you but it will not be a speech for that is my husband Judge Waring's
province, not mine. Mine will always be just simple heart to heart
talks with you good friends of ours--that is the only way I have to
reach out to you except in your homes and mine at informal gather-
ings, to share with you my ideas and experiences. However, I do
believe there is a constant contact between us just from our hearts
to yours, and yours to us, and it brings the Judge and me great
strength and joy. However, it is a particular privilege to speak to
you from the YWCA AS IT IS A GREAT NATIONAL ORGANIZATION THAT HAS
ALWAYS STOOD FOR TRUE DEMOCRACY. The poor given the same attention
as the more fortunate with no discrimination or segregation for or
against anyone because of race, color, or creed. How well or how
evasively this branch is following that rule and ideal is your affair

*1*

and not a matter for discussion in this talk of mine, but I wish to
repeat in passing that a prominent Negro woman leader in Civic
affairs here who attended the National YWCA meeting, White and Negro,
in Atlantic City in March 1946, has given me the book of the proceed-
ings at that meeting and I do think it would be wise for all of you
to inform yourselves on the stand they took against SEGREGATION AND,
DISCRIMINATION NATIONALLY and unanimously. It is wonderful reading.
At that meeting your great and ever so good Negro leader, Dr.
Benjamin Mays, President of Morehouse University in Atlanta, Georgia,
said, "BUT THE WORLD MOVES FORWARD ON THE FEET OF THOSE WHO WALK THE
HIGH ROAD. Never does it move forward on the feet of those who walk
the low road, and seldom on the feet of those who walk the middle
road." Not all as eloquent as Dr. Mays, but the White people just as
progressive and determined to rid this country completely of Segre-
gation and discrimination as they have already done in their YWCA.
But no more of this, though the subject of Civil Rights will not be
evaded in this talk to you.

However, this is also a personal pleasure to me to speak to you
at the YWCA and on the subject you have given me—"ACHIEVEMENT"—
for a lighter and confidential touch, the only diploma that I ever
received for ACHIEVEMENT, myself, was in the Domestic Science course
at the YWCA in Detroit, Michigan where I was born and lived the
greater part of my life. I was nineteen then and my mother decided
that after a fashionable boarding school in the East, I needed to
learn something about the realities of a woman's life, so to cooking
school she sent me. All that I seem to have remembered from the
course was how to cook cream sauce, bake a sponge cake, and make
mayonnaise. So the frills delighted me, most as they do all young
girls.

But Achievement of a more serious nature has been formulating
in my mind for a long time. A thrilling and wonderful achievement to
observe and record. The great achievements of the NEGRO RACE. It is
increasing in its momentum, in its spread and in its speed, not only
in the North where the Negro has more opportunity, and where what
prejudice remains is not backed by law, as it is in the South, but
also right down here in the deep South where the obstacles are so
tremendous that it is amazing that you people can push them over or
crawl around them and get your heads above the drag down the White
Supremacists try to keep submerging you in laws and etiquette to keep
you from rising. Today, I will speak of a few of your great and out-

*2*

standing Negroes, some of whom came from down here and went North,
some of whom were born in the North or West and a few who remained or
returned to work here, but who received their education away from the
deep South--and don't forget that *few* of the outstanding were educated
down here in the deep South--but I want to draw your attention to a
new revelation to me that has been rolling up in my consciousness for
the past year, and I have been eager to share it with you and that is
why this invitation to me to speak on Achievement came at a particular-
ly auspicious time and seems like an answer to my prayer--my prayer to
reach you and many others through you with the GOOD TIDINGS I have to
bring you. That is, the GREAT PROGRESS THAT IS BEING MADE BY ALL YOU
NEGRO PEOPLE, EVEN DOWN HERE IN THE DEEP SOUTH FOR I HAVE SEEN IT ON
EVERY HAND. Little people--even seemingly unimportant people--but no
one is unimportant--young people most apparent. The White Supremacist
Southerners have done everything to break your spirit but your spirits
are forged in the furnace of persecution and shame and have risen,
triumphant; and all the world is behind you now to establish you in
the rights and equality that is already yours, but only needs enforcing.
And you all know this, and have the inner strength of conviction of
right. The NEW DAY IS DAWNING. You are a truly fortunate people and
I mean to make clear to you now WHY you are fortunate.

A year ago, we, suffered a set-back by the filibuster on Civil
Rights in the Senate. Traitors to your country blocking the expressed
will and vote of the whole people in our country for Civil Rights.
Very much like the Communists behaviour in filibustering all measures
to advance human liberty in U. N., this alignment of revengeful
Republicans with the fanatical White Supremacy Dixiecrats. We feared
this set-back would discourage, if not break the spirit of the
Negroes, particularly in the deep South where you have been so
suppressed. But instead, there has been a tremendous rising up of the
people all over the country, as a united body, White and Negro, to
take this matter into their own hands and see that Justice is done
and that we live up to the freedom we profess in our Christian
churches--the rights of man--and the ideal of Democracy we profess as
a nation and preach to the rest of the world while we have dirty
hands especially down here in the Deep and Savage South. It makes me.
think of the old Chinese saying, to look at the other side of a penny.
What appeared to be a dark cloud for the Negro cause was instead a
spur to fight for it with more general and greater strength.

I have not time to remind you of all that has been taking place

*3*

all over this country but briefly will touch on a few of what I think
are high spots. First and foremost, the great achievements of Dr.
Ralph Bunche, so well prepared in his knowledge and experience with
far Eastern countries, to be the only man for that splendid job in
Palestine. But as I told him when we first met Dr. Bunche last summer
in Santa Barbara, California--where he spoke to an enormous enthusi-
astic audience--to me, the most wonderful thing he did came after his
return/in speaking out with a cutting knife against the segregation he
knew so well in Washington, D. C. where he had lived, whose pattern
is taken from the deep South due to the many powerful old Southern
politicians' influence (from our custom of seniority in the Senate).
It would have been so easy for Dr. Bunche to have sat back in his
own achievement and appeased his conscience by knowing how much he
means to the Negro race in inspiration alone, and the pride and power
from his position. He could have sat in his own gravy, so to speak,
and had good excuse, as well as a rationalizing for not doing any
more. But no, instead he speaks out at every turn against SEGREGATION.
Just a year ago this spring on the eve of our defeat in Congress, that
very good and learned man, Dr. Mays, spoke right here in Charleston in
the Morris St. Baptist Church in this city, Charleston, the cradle of
secession, where the Civil war was started and where the same sort of
thing is again being agitated by our local paper to arouse the White
people to a second secession. Dr. Mays opened a broadside attack here
in the most beaten down area for the Negro of the South with these
words, "THE STIGMA OF SEGREGATION, I REBEL AGAINST"-- and proceeded to
give the most erudite history of persecution throughout the ages
naming the great men in History and ending with my Judge to whom he
presented the award. And what is most important, you were all fired
with zeal and courage to follow his brave commands to you. Dr. Mays
is a wonderful man and a wonderfully brave leader of your people.

Since then, great things have been taking place all over the
country, and in the colleges in particular. Segregation is now almost
dead in the northern colleges. And the young people are on the war-
path to see that it is enforced everywhere. You get so little
opportunity to read of these advances in our Charleston newspapers
here, that suppress and censor all news regarding your race that are
to your credit, that I take the opportunity to read sections from an
editorial of Walter White's in the New York Herald Tribune two weeks
ago.

*4*

STUDENTS AND THE RACE QUESTION

By Walter White

Champaign-Urbana, Illinois

News of fifty or more bowl games, real and synthetic, clogged
newspapers and radio during the holidays to such an extent that the
uniformed might have believed all of America's college students to be
either playing in or attending one of the games. But here at the
University of Illinois is an entirely and infinitely less frenetic
aspect of contemporary education which commands fewer headlines but
means far more as a barometer of student opinion.

Twenty-five hundred college students gave up holidays at home to attend the fourth annual Methodist Student Convention here. They traveled by train, but and jalopy, some of them coming 1,000 or more miles from Texas, California, Massachusetts, Florida and other far-off places. A few came from India, Puerto Rico, China, Japan, Norway and the Malay peninsula. Few of them are the reticent, anemic type which a decade or so ago constituted the bulk of the Christian movements on many campuses. They are well fed ebullient, alert, serious but not pompous about the national and world issues they have come here to discuss. Several quite hefty football teams could be formed among the men, so far as size and health are concerned. And at least a score or more winners or at least runners-up in beauty contests can be seen among the women.

"Few of the speakers at the conference could be labeled as dispensers of sweetness and light or as authors of the vacuous religious doctrines which would have made up the program of such a conference before the war.***

"With equal seriousness and receptivity the audience, of which a high percentage was Southern white students, listened to a brutally frank presentation of the race question. It is probable that a decade ago many of the Southerners would have been angered by so un-sugar-coated a recital of our national and sectional prejudices. Instead, tumultous applause greeted the assertion that any American, especially if he be a member of Congress, who blocked legislative or other steps to end race and religious bigotry in the United States and colonialism anywhere in the world is 'more treasonable and dangerous to democracy than the eleven Communists recently convicted in New York City.'

"Equally vociferous and spontaneous was the agreement with the declaration that 'the church cannot call itself Christian as long as the shadow of Jim Crow darkens it.' It was predominantly Southern

*5*

students who swarmed around the speaker after the meeting to express
agreement and to ask for advice on how best and most swiftly racial
segregation could be abolished in church, school and state. Skeptics
may scoff and say that this is but another example of youthful
enthusiasm which won't last long after the students have returned to
schools. Or that this convention represents only one of numerous
religions on college campuses or that the majority of students ignore
religious affiliations. These comments can be substantiated by much
evidence.

"But there remains the wholesome and cheering reality that in every section of the country today's students are profoundly and in-telligently concerned about doing something as well as talking about problems of race, war, economics and politics. This interest is as intense in the Middle West at it is on the east and west coasts, with the South not far behind. College fraternities and sororities on virtually every one of forty campuses I have visited during the last two months which cling to policies of exclusion are losing caste them-selves and becoming the butt of student ridicule. They are rapidly becoming as discredited as the D.A.R. for its Constitution Hall policy."

THE NEW YORK TIMES, Sunday, January 8, 1950.

NEGRO COLLECTION IS OPENED BY YALE

Race's Artists Pour Creations Into Cultural
Stream, Fisk President Declares

by Richard H. Parke
New Haven, Conn.

"The country's largest collection of Negro arts and letters of the twentieth century was opened formally here today at Yale University.

"The material, known as the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of Negro Arts and Letters, in honor of the Negro writer, musician and teacher, has been presented to Yale by Carl van Vechten of New York, author, photographer and critic. The collection is housed in the university's Sterling Memorial Library.

"Dr. Charles S. Johnson, president of Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn., who delivered a Bergen lecture at the exercises, hailed the scope and variety of the exhibition and declared that Negro creative artists were 'pouring their contributions directly into the cultural stream of America'.

"He characterized the late James Weldon Johnson as 'the first

*6*

Negro to provide an objective and detached appraisal of the internal
workings of the Negro mind under the stress and frustration of his
racial status in America.†

"The brilliant white commentators from Harriet Beecher Stowe to Vachel Lindsay, who by their insights and skill helped to shape this day by pointing up the anachronism of a half-man in a democratic society, Dr. Johnson said, are being followed in turn by an equally redoubtable group, who view the American scene in terms of racial rather than of national cultural perspectives.†

"Dr. Charles Seymour, president of Yale, read a resolution adopted by the Yale Corporation expressing its gratitude to Mr. Van Vechten.

"The Yale collection ranges in variety and scope from recordings of Bessie Smith, blues singer to volumes by Booker T. Washington. Books on view fall in two categories--by writers with Negro blood and by white writers about Negroes. Authors in the first category include Langston Hughes, Wallace Thurman, Richard Wright and Walter White, and in the second, Eugene O'Neill, Vachel Lindsay and Dubose Heyward.

"Two special sections of the collection are filled with phonograph records and photographs. Among the 400 records are early recordings of Ethel Waters, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Marian Anderson.

"In addition to Mr. Van Vechten, the guests today included Mrs. James Weldon Johnson, Levi Jackson, Yale's 1949 football captain; Mrs. Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes."

Then passing over the Negro athletic heroes both in the professional baseball teams and also in the most exclusive football teams of our private colleges and made members of exclusive fraternities, etc., let us come to the greatest achievement for the Negro cause of all. The briefs that are being filed in the Supreme Court in the two segregation cases about to come up. Organizations of all kinds, such as the Southern Conference Educational Fund, are filing briefs, and finally ONE LAWYER FROM SOUTH CAROLINA, STEPHEN NETTLES OF GREENVILLE, has held up the name of South Carolina by putting his good name to that document signed by lawyers from most of the other Southern states as well as the rest of the country. BUT BEST ACHIEVEMENT OF ALL IS THE FEDERATED CHURCHES RESOLUTION AGAINST SEGREGATION, where it should come from and should have long ago. And they, too, are presenting these views to the Supreme Court on the segregation cases. That could not be suppressed in your newspapers. The news that the churches are re-

*7*

turning to following the teachings of Jesus in the South is heart
warming indeed. Disgrace to the ones who remained out. Now this is
a sketchy history of the tremendous rolling up of forces for good in
this country but you may be surprised to have me say this is not what
has thrilled me most.

What is filling my heart with joy so that my cup is truly running
over with happiness, and I want to share this with you, so you may
rejoice with me, is the strength and courage, the purpose and self-
respect and dignity, the assurance I see all around me of the whole
Negro people even down here. The man and woman on the street--par-
ticularly the Negro women. The rising tide of inspiration and self-
assurance of the plain everyday person who has no desire or opportunity
perhaps for public importance, but is spreading his influence all
around.

There is a new look -- not in the skirts -- but in the eyes of
the Negro women I pass on the streets and meet in the homes. The
schools I have visited are teaching more than just lessons of academic
knowledge, I observe the teachers putting great stress on CHARACTER
AND DEPORTMENT. Outward veneer often is a way to bring about inner
self-respect and strength. I read much in the Negro newspapers and
magazines that teach and suggest subtly and often openly splendid
examples or inducements about the little as well as big things that
make a people grow upwards mentally, morally and physically. Spiritu-
ally, you have been way ahead of the white people for you have been
living Christ's teaching of the Golden Rule - doing unto others as
you would be done by - to the point of guileness, weakness and apathy
and discouraged defeatism too often. But not so now. The general
average is up and brave, though still kindly. Do you realize that
truly a NEW DAY IS DAWNING - IT IS HERE AND DON'T LISTEN TO THOSE
TIMID ONES WHO SPEAK OF TIME AS THEY HAVE FOR FAR TOO LONG - IT IS AT
HAND AND YOU MUST MAKE THE FINAL PUSH NOW OR NEVER.

You Negro people will shortly not be spoken of separately but
will be human beings with the rest of us with our general and common
weaknesses and strength but we are now at the time for you people to
be united as one, just as this country was in 1776. And that is a
glorious time in the life of a people. Great spur to growing and
helping each other up and up over the hurdles. Do you realize that
it was only a little over five hundred years before our AMERICAN
REVOLUTION FOR FREEDOM FROM THE TYRANNY OF ENGLAND that in 1215 the
common man even attained any rights, with the Magna Charta, in

*g*#

England. He always had to secure his rights by force, never by time
or the fancy word so often misused, "EVOLUTION". It was REVOLUTION
THAT BROUGHT ABOUT EVOLUTION. This time it is a new type of warfare
for you as well as the rest of the world, the modern revolution of a
COLD WAR TO ATTAIN THE RIGHTS YOU ALREADY LEGALLY HAVE, TO ENFORCE
THESE RIGHTS.

You are in the springtime of your growth, when great achievements are attained. You Negro people have already picked up the torch of culture and achievement from the Whites down here. They are a sick, confused and decadent people. Like all decadent people, they are full of pride and complacency, introverted, morally weak, and low. You are building and creating. The White Supremacists are destroying and witholding. They are so self-centered that they are drawing the walls around themselves so close and high that they have become completely isolated from the rest of the world and have not considered themselves as a part of this country since the Civil War. So much is myth about that period and particularly the Reconstruction period which has more lies than truth. The phobia and frenzy aroused by mention of carpet baggers and scallawags as a reason for White Supremacy is like the Versailles treaty propaganda of the Germans as an excuse for Hitler's later atrocities. Poor excuse for the persecution of you Negroes - poor excuse for the Gestapo atrocities to the Jews. Ours is a Dixiecrat Gestapo as one returned South Carolina soldier stated to our press.

But the so-called Golden era is gone, though far from forgotten
down here. They have sunk back into a slough of despond and fallen
asleep, if not quite dead, on the imagined laurels of their ancestors.
But you are picking up the torch they have dropped and are forging
ahead. MORE POWER TO YOU AND I AM PROUD TO BE A PART OF YOUR MOVE-
MENT, FOR THE GREAT SUCCESS AND WONDERFUL YEARS AHEAD OF YOU ARE CLOSE
AT HAND. In the Charleston buses, where you Negroes sit in shame,
segregated to the rear, there is a placard saying "Respect the rights
of others -" and bear this in mind, in the deep South where no one
practices - least of all the bus companies - Christ's command "TO DO
UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD BE DONE BY". On this placard is a picture of
some Pilgrims in prayer giving thanks for finding the FREEDOM THEY
SOUGHT IN COMING HERE. Among other things, this placard admonishes
"FREEDOM IS EVERYBODY'S JOB." Let's follow the bus company's adno-
nition and right now. YES! FREEDOM IS EVERYBODY'S JOB!!

*9*

CLASS OF SERVICE

This is a full-rate Telegram or Cable-gram unless its de-ferred character is in-dicated by a suitable symbol above or pre-ceding the address.

WESTERN
UNION

JOSEPH L. EGAN
PRESIDENT

1220

<table><thead><tr><th>SYMBOLS</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>DL=Day Letter</td></tr><tr><td>NL=Night Letter</td></tr><tr><td>LC=Deferred Cable</td></tr><tr><td>NLT=Cable Night Letter</td></tr><tr><td>Ship Radiogram</td></tr></tbody></table>

The filing time shown in the date line on telegrams and day letters is STANDARD TIME at point of origin. Time of receipt is STANDARD TIME at point of destination

JANUARY 17, 1950

KINDLY SEND THE FOLLOWING DAY LETTER TO PERSONS LISTED ON ATTACHED SHEET AND CHARGE TO NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE, 20 WEST 40 STREET, NEW YORK 18, N. Y.

DESPITE THREATS OF VIOLENCE TO HERSELF AND JUDGE WARING IF SHE SPOKE LAST NIGHT AT CHARLESTON, S. C. COLORED YWCA, MRS. WARING MADE AN EXCITING AND COURAGEOUS SPEECH DENOUNCING DIXIECRATS. SUGGEST YOU GET STORY THERE AND FULL TEXT OF SPEECH. I UNDERSTAND FBI WAS ALERTED AND COVERED SITUATION. AFTER PUBLICATION OF HER SPEECH IN CHARLESTON NEWS AND COURIER THIS MORNING, SHE IS NOW BEING THREATENED BY ANONYMOUS TELEPHONE CALLERS. THIS IS AN EXCITING AND IMPORTANT STORY.

WALTER WHITE, NAACP SECRETARY
ON LEAVE

WW/mdj

Attach:

THE COMPANY WILL APPRECIATE SUGGESTIONS FROM ITS PATRONS CONCERNING ITS SERVICE