VOL. 5. NO. *7 Official and l*-gai Nuwpapag Thursday. April 26, 1951
Stirring Plea Made By
Rep. William Dawson
WASHINGTON. (ANP)—Rep.
William L. Dawson of Illinois,
giving his most dramatic address
during this session of congress,
last week inspired fellow con
gressmen to vote down a jim
crow provisiion in a proposed uni
versal military training bill.
Rep. Dawson, one of only two
Negroes in congress, posed these
questions before his colleagues.
“How long, how long, my con
feress and gentlemen from the
South will you divide us Ameri- j
cans on account of color? Why,;
will this body go on record to I
brand this section of citizens sec
ond class?”
When Cong. Dawson finished
his speech, even members from
the south applauded. Later, the
house voted 178 tc 126 to throw
out the segrega .on section to the
proposal.
Introduced by Rep. Barden of
North Carolina, this provision
would have given while induc
tees the privilege of saying
whether or not they preferred to
join an all-white unit. It is an
idea that has been proposed sev
eral times by southerners.
Here is what Rep. Dawson said
in part:
“Give me the test that you
would apply to make anyone a
full-fledged America’ and by the
living God, if it means death it
self, 1 will pay it—
Pointing to a scar on his fore
head, Dawson cited his own cour
age to volunteer for World war I
although he was too old to be
drafted. He exclaimed:
“This mark vou see here on
my forehead is the result of Ger
man mustard gas and this left
shoulder of mine is today a slip
joint.
“That would have been a good
joint, if I had not been a good
American Negro. I served in a
segregated outfit as a ciitizen try
ing to save this country.
“I would give up this life of
mine to preserve this country and
every American in it, white or
black..
•‘Deny to mg, if you will, all
that American citizenship stands
for. I will still fight for you,
hoping that under the constitu
tion of the United States all
these restrictions will be removed
and that we will move before the.
world as one people, American
people, joined in a democracy
toward all the world.
“God didn’t curse me when
He made me black any more than
He cursed you when He made
you white.
“I say to you who claim to
love America in this hour of its
stress that the greatest argument
the Soviet Union is using among
the black peoples of the world to
turn them against us is your
treatment of me, me an Ameri
“I believe that the south is big
can citizen.
enough for all of us to live in
together in peace and happiness
if we can but have understanding.
“But we cannot have under
standing if you raise one against
the other because of color.”
Dawson then -ook his seat with
the house applauding. Applause
is a rare sight in congress these
dways. This was one of Dawson’s
few oratorical dissertations before
congress.
He is 65 years old and chair
man if the house appropriations
committee. In this post, he is
the first Negro to head an im
portant standing committee in
congress.
In political circles he is one of
the nation’s most powerful demo
cratical leaders.
Bishop D. O. Walker
Rt. Rev. D. Ormonde Walker,
presiding prelate of the Fifth
Episcopal district of the African
Methodist Episcopal church is
scheduled to be in Lincoln, Sun
day, May 27. A meeting will be
held at Quinn Chapel, 9th and
C streets. The Rev. J. B. Brooks
is pastor. It will be the bishop’s
first official visit in the city.
MacArthur Pay
$18,761 for Life
WASHINGTON—Gen. Douglas
MacArthur will draw his pay of
$18,761 a year for life, even
though he is out of a job.
Unless he is given another mili
tary assignment — and President
! Truman strongly indicated that
won’t happen—General MacAr
thur is free to take any civilian
employment he likes, run for
public office or just take life easy.
As a five-star general of the
army, he comes under a special
act of Congress which states he
never can be formally retired
from the service.
NAACP in New
Civil Rights Call
NEW YORK.—The nation’s
leading church, labor, fraternal,
civic and minority group organ
izations will be asked by the
NAACP to send representatives
to a civil rights' conference in
Washington next month to formu
late a co-ordinated plan of action
in the fight for civil rights.
—
Calendar of Events
QUINN CHAPEL A.ALE. Church
Bake Sale at Wells and Frost..
.. April 28th
Revival .May 14-25
District Conference at Elwood,
Kan.May 9th & 10th
Bishop D. O. Walker to be guest
. May 27 th
MT. ZION BAPTIST CHURCH
Church School Pew Rally_
. April 29th
LINCOLN URBAN LEAGUE
Y.M.C. club’s benefit show
.April 27 th
Membership Drive .
. May 15 to June 1
Clean Up Campaign. |
. May 14 to May IS
Boy’s Town Concert.May 18
Annual Duke and Duchess Re
vue .. May 25th
Annual Memorial Day Picnic..
. May 30th
Jo Baker Does Fine Job Of
Race Relations In Chicago
Chicago Girl
To Represent
80,503 Scouts
CHICAGO— (ANP) —Florence
Miller, 16-year-old senior at Dus
able High school, will be the of
ficial representative of 80,503 Girl
Scouts in Illinois at the Interna
tional Encampment in Portland,
Ore., this summer, according to
Miss Mary C. Olsen, executive
director of the Girl Scouts of Chi
cago.
Florence will be among the
ftpresentatives from each state
and from foreign countries at- *
tend the encampment scheduled
to be held July 17 to Aug. 6
at Wind Mountain camp, in'
Washington, just north of Port
land. She is the vice president
of the Senior Girl Scout council
at DuSable. Upon her graduation
in June, she plans to enroll in
teachers’ college and to study
fashion designing at the Art In
I stitute.
Our Honor Roll
The following is a list of those
who are New Subscribers or have
renewed their subscription to The
Voice:
j Miss Estelle Kerns
Mrs. R. H. Powell
_
Widow of Ensign Brotvn Helps Honoi
Man Who Tried To Save Her Husband
j WASHINGTON, D. C.—Mrs.
Daisy Pearl Brown, of Hatties
burg, Miss., widow of Ensign
Jesse Leroy Brown, last Friday
watched President Truman pre
sent the Congressional Medal of
Honor to Lieut, (junior grade)
Thomas J. Hudner, Jr., for his
daring effort to save her hus
band’s life in Korea.
After the presentation, Mrs.
Brown posed with Mr. Truman
and Lieutenant Hudner for photo
graphs and the newsreels.
Mr. Truman hung the blue rib
boned star shaped emblem of
heroism around Hudner’s neck in
recognition of the flyer’s brave
but futile attempt to save the life
of Brown, a fellow pilot, behind
the North Korean lfces Dec. 5. It
was the first Navy Medal of
Honor of the Korean war.
The ceremony took place in the
rose garden of the White House.
Witnessing it were Hudner’s par
ent, three brothers of the city,
and Secretary of Navy Francis
P. Matthews.
Mrs. Brown, who was presented
earlier in the day to Secretary
Matthews, carried a bouquet of
red roses which the secretary had
presented her. She was accom
panied to the White Hohse by
Lieut. Dennis Nelson, a Navy
public relations officer, and Sea
man First Class Clara Carroll,
who is stationed at the naval re
ceiving station in Anacostia.
Coincident with the White
House ceremonies, it was an
nounced at Quonset, R. L, that
shipmates of both Lieutenant
Hudner and Ensign Brown had
raised a $2,700 scholarship fund
for Pamela Brown, 2-year-old
daughter of the dead flyer.
Brown crash-landed his plane
which was hit by anti-aircraft
fire five miles behind the enemy
lines near Chosen reservoir in
North Korea. Hudner, seeing
Brown’s plane afire, crash-landed
nearby, although “knowing his
own chances of escape were
negligible,” and made a futile at
tempt to free Brown, trapped in
the plane.
Unable to open the canopy of
the burning aircraft, Hudner
called for a rescut helicopter with
fire fighting equipment. While
awaiting the helicopter, Hudner
packed the fuselage of the slowly
burning plane with snow in an
effort to keep the flames away
from Ensign Brown.
Brown died from injuries be
fore he could be extricated from
the plane. He was the first col
ored naval officer to the killed in
any United States war.
Mrs. Brown told the reporter
that she has not yet made up her
mind as to v:hat she will do. Since 1
receiving notice of the death of j
her husband, she said she has
been under the care of physician.
She disclosed that she is anx
ious to continue her education,
which was interrupted when she
married Ensign Brown. She said
she may enroll in Alcorn College, j
Alcorn, Miss., or may come to
Washington and take o govern
ment job and attend evening j
classes in one of the schools ‘
here.
She and Brown were married
in 1947 while he was a naval
aviation cadet, but their marriage
was kept a secret until he was
commissioned an ensign and
designated a naval aviator in
1948. Naval aviation cadets are
forbiden to marry.
Brown and Hudner were squad
ron maets on the U.S.S. Leyte
and were taking part in a close (
support Mission in the rugged
mountain country near the Chosen j
reservoir when Brown’s plane
was hit
BY < IIAIU.KC'K IIAK8TON
CHICAGO. (ANP). Fabulous Josephine Baker left Chicago
Friday after completing two heavy weeks of entertainment and good
race relations work. Behind her she left hundreds of astonished
entertainment lovers and amazed business leaders.
Perhaps the most amazed persons are the business executives
of Chicago whom Miss Baker paid a pop call on along with Sid
ney Williams, executive secretary of the Chicago Urban league.
Miss Baker and Mr. Williams met when he visited Paris in 1936.
During the war, the two met again in Casablanca where Mr. Wil
liams was heading an American Red Cross entertainment unit.
Miss tiaker escaped to Casablanca from Paris when the German*
entered.
Boys Town Choir
To Present Concert
At Urban League
Mr. Lynnwood Parker, execu-j
tive secretary of the Lincoln Ur- j
ban League, announced that the
Boys Town Choir will render
a concert in the Urban League
Auditorium, May 18th at 8 p.m. j
Tickets are on sale at the Ur-,
ban League or Dietz Music Store.!
Father Frank Schmitt, director
of the choir, has carried the boys
all oyer the United States.
Mrs. Evelyn Knowles
Mrs. Margaret Hightower
Miss Olivia Pound
Mrs. Pearl Watkins, Omaha
Mrs. L. B. Webster
Mrs. T. M. Raysor
Mrs. Kermit Johnson
Mrs. Elsie Bates
| Mrs. J. M. Reinhardt
Tne two visited Dotn Dusiness
executives employing Negro help
and those not employing them.
The former they complimented,
and the latter they hoped would
respond to the star’s discussion of
employment on the basis of de
mocracy. She unhesitatingly
pointed out that the United States
could not go forward with a pro
gram of moral content in it un
less racial discrimination is elim
inated completely.
Among the places Miss Baker
and Mr. Williams visited was the
famous State street store, Carson,
Pirie Scott, where she congratu
lated Mr. Carson for his out
standing job of integrating Ne
gro workers. She did likewise
when visiting Fowler McCormick
of International Harvester and
Co.
Her visit with President Henry
Livingstone of the First National
j bank, considered the most influ
ential bank in the Midwest, was
j of a little different order. She
'! discussed how Negroes might well
* fit into his program. Impressed,
Mr. Livingstone asked her how
she thought the Negro community
would react to a Negro being put
in the savings department of the
bank. The star immediately an
swered: “Gloriously.”
When Miss Baker and Mr. Wil
liams went to congratulate J. H.
Wright, vice president and gen
eral counsel of the Illinois Central
railroad on the company’s 100th
anniversary, they brought to his
attention the practice the railroad
has of segregating Negro passen
gers going south from Chicago.
Mr. Wright stated he had been in
office only six months and such
practice had not been called to
his attention before. He promised
to investigate and set in motion
the necessary procedure to stop it
at once.
When the fabulous star ques
tioned Justin Miller, president of
the National Association of Radio
and Television Broadcasters about
the organization's employment of
Negroes, he declared some ideas
were being worked on. A friend
of his, Carl Haverlin, president
of a radio entertainer’s organiza
tion in New York hurriedly stated
he employed four on his staff of
110.
Miss Baker stopped him imme
diately: “That’s not enough cona
pared to the size of your staff.”
After some discussion, he 0
agreed.
The star and Mr. Williams
closed off their visits with a
call on Leverett Lyon, chief ex
ecutive officer of the Chicago
Association of Commerce and In
dustry, to ask the association to
encourage its members to adopt
and execute decent employment
of Negroes.
Miss Baker said at the end of
her tour. “I can’t understand this
discrimination. White and col
ored should get together. Peopls
(Continued on Page 4)
Vote Tuesday, May 1st