OVERTONES
(BY AL HENINGBURG)
ONE NATION:
Many Americans will have their" eyes open to
some unpleasant truths as they read Stegner’s ‘One
Nation’, just off the press. The book contains a
striking collection of scenes of life in every-day A
rnerica, and most of these scenes reflect bitterness
and hate. It is sometimes easy to quickly forget
the printed word, but these pictures make a very
weep impression. The evidence which they pres
ent cannot be denied. This is not opinion on Amer
ican life; this is the hard, ugly, bitter fact of life it
self. If this book gets half the attention it deserv
es, thinking men and women will begin to question
very seriously the system which makes this type of
savagery possible in a civilized country.
THE RIGHT TO BARGAIN:
The labor movement is getting a raw deal on the
American scene at the present time. The impres
sion is gradually being built up in the public mind
that organized labor is out to cripple industry, and
to delay the return to wholesome standards of liv
ing. But remember that the strike is the only pow
erful weapon that the worker has. Until collective
bargaining was firmly established, every worker
was at the mercy of the man who employed him,
just as he is now at the employer’s mercy if he is a
share-cror'r>er or a domestic servant. And in pass
ing judgment on this or that strike, it is worth not
ing that labor does not CAUSE all the strikes, it
strikes in protest against conditions brought about
by others. Workers want an increase of thirty per
cent in wages because the cost of living has gone up
that much, or more. But without the power of col
lective bargaining, their cause would be hopeless.
COMMUNITY OUUTCASTS:
More than one community is giving serious at
tention at this time to getting rid of the Negroes
who came in during the war to work in war plants.
In one Jersey town, a new zoning ordinance will
have the effect of forcing all the Negroes out of the
community. Other towns will clamp down on war
housing, and will not permit those ejected to find
other shelter. But with all the kinds of problems
faced by Negroes in northern cities, very few seem
eager to ertum to Alabama or Mississippi. They
have tasted freedom, and the taste is very good in
deed.
THE OLD PATTERN:
Life in America for the Negro veteran and sold
ier is going back to the old pre-war pattern so fast
that it maeks you dizzy. North and South, many
persons in authority seem to ask this question:
“Shall I treat these former prisoners of war with
the courtesy and deference in keeping with the na
ture of their sendees to America, or shall I treat
them as I have always treated Negroes'?” While
there are some who are not guilty on this score, far
too many see a Negro, and not the sacrifice which
he made over there. Fro mllamlet, North Carolina
from Fort Benning, Georgia; and from Fox Hill on
Staten Island conies evidence of this fact. Steps
are taken to make the Negro realize that he is not
to expect the consideration shown to other Ameri
can citizens. In some instances, even the German
war prisoners fare better than he does. All of
which indicates that we actually fought the war to
keep things as they were, rather than to bring free
dom to the peoples of the earth, e
THE COURAGEOUS PRESIDENT:
The President of the United States is a courag
eous man, as is shown by his recent denunciation of
the1 DAR because of their refusal to permit Hazel
Scott to appear in Constitution Hall. It takes
courage to maintain a stand of that kind, especially
if you intend to be re-elected in 1948. But gradu
ally America and Europe are coming to realize that
Harry S. Truman fights for what he believes to be
right, and not for the benefit of any clique or polit
ical group. How much of this kind of courage the
South can stand comes to be an important question.
Perhaps Mr. Truman’s attitude will help the e.utire
nation to think and to act with more objectivity,
and to use worth rather than color as a basis of ac
ceptance.
THE TROUBLESOME QUOTA:
Jews throughout the country are deeply stirred,
and rightly so, over the maintenance of the quota
system in many of the best medical schools of this
country. While presidents of these institutions e
vade the issue in one way or another, the simple
fact is that a rigid quota system does exist. Per
haps the keen competition offered by Jewish stud
ents is a factor in keeping up the quota system.
A re You Keeping Up with the Times?
Read the Greater Omaha Guide!
I The Omaha Guide
K , ^ A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER ^ i
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Entered as Second Class Matter March 15. 1927
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Editorial: "Then What Chance Has Democracy?”
|v£NIOM
m 1
Plain Talkf...
(BY DAN GARDNER)
Of all the races in the great minority groups that
make up these United States, the Negro is the only
one that puts American first before his name in a
hyphenated relationship to the land of his birth.
By that I mean we say American-Negro, but the
German says German-American, the Jews say Jew
ish-American, the Chinese says Chinese-American,
the Italian says Italo-American, the Greek says
Greco-Ameriean, the Spaniard says Spanish-Amer
ican, and the Pole says Polish-American. In other
words, we seem to be the only race in America’s
vast melting pot with a determined policy of dis
carding a racial designation in favor of the place
where we happen to be or the land of our birth,
German-Americans of many generations still regard
themselves as German-Americans, although born
in the U.S.A. So do the others in this hyphenated
series. They think in the terms of the native fath
erland and when great national or international
crisis arise such as the one engendered by Adolph
Hitler, the reason for the emphasis on the father
land first in the hyphenation of the name here in
America is plainly seen.
Ail tnese people have native lands or countries.
Tlieir loyalties to the land of their forefathers is
never allowed to die. In fact, it is kept alive by
the mere fact of the hyphenation of the name when
they come to America. The American-Negro by
persisting in being called that does himself no tang
ible good in gaining respect from America and the
rest of the world. Of all the minorities in the coun
try, the largest, the Negro, gets the least respect as
a people. Although he alone insists that he is first
of all an American and second a Negro.
On the other hand, the German wants to be Ger
man first and then American. The Italian does the
same.-The Green, the Pole, the Hungarian,
the Czech, the Irish and on down the line. They
play the game that way and gain status to the jioint
where some of these foreign-born stock become
senators, congressmen, ambassadors, heads of great
corporations, and so forth. The best the Negro
can hope for if he is in the South, is not to be event
ually lynched or chased away from his home, and in
the North to eat in an erclusive restaurant, sleep in
a nationally known hotel, and to send his children
To an accredited school of his choice without dis
crimination.
This situation came to mind following the pub
lished story in the Amsterdam News several weeks
ago of how the American Negro stands in the eyes
of the Indian people. The question was asked by a
wealthy Indian “If Ethiopia were a world power,
had a powerful army, iavv, and air force, and be
came engaged in a major conflict with the. United
States, what would the American Negro do!”
The question has but one answer—because the A
merican Negro would find himself in the front lines
with rifles and guns and other implements of war
VICTORY FUND AND COMMUNITY CMC ST
/QUOTES—
OF THE WEEK
i
“I don’t know anything about
burglary.” — Al Jennings, 82,
once “terror of the Southwest ”
now raising chickens in Calif.
“She doesn’t mean any more
to this court than Joe Zilch.”—
Detroit judge, threatening con
tempt proceedings against ac
tress Martha Raye.
“I cannot imagine any more
inflationary proposal.”—Senator
Taft, Ohio, on “full employment”
bill. _
“Highball before dinner, good
night’s sleep, fewer letters from
voters.”—Prescription for tired
Congressmen from Capt. Geo. W.
Calver, Capital physician.
“We cannot and will not use
money snved up for many years
j for the purpose of modernizing
I and expanding our plants, and
I for providing more good jobs, to
( pay excess wages for work not
^ performed. This money cannot be
' spent twice.”—Pres. C. E. Wil
son, General Motors, refusing
t CIO demand for 30% pay boost.
“Oh, its Northern charm and
Southern etT.ciency!” — Senator
Mcgr.uson, Wash. State, on the
nation’s capital.
I
for Security
BUY
UNITED
STATES
SAVINGS
/BONDS
I AND STAMPS
1
engaged in the business of killing up people of the
same racial lineage. It is being done all over the
wbrld. The white man uses the black Africans to
kill black Africans, brown Filipinos to kill brown
Filipinos, Chinese to kill yellow Japs, and Indians
to kill Indians, all for his own profit. However,
the Indian, the native Liberian, the native Egypt
ian, Arabian, and Filipino are on a better internat
ional footing than the so-called American-Negro be
cause they have (1) a land' they can call their own,
(2) stature in international politics and affairs.
Because of this native land business, the American
Negro who in many places is denied suffrage priv
ileges and even the right to exist in the America he
calls his own, comes up a poor last in any assem
blage of nationalities on the entire national horizon.
In other words, the Indian would rather do busi
ness with the black Liberian than the American
Negro from New York City. The same holds true
with a Filipino, the Egyptian, the Arab, and other
racial groups. The native Haitian has a better
place in international affairs than the American
Negro. They all have racial stature due to the fact
that they have a fatherland. The article published
in the Amsterdam News described how the Indians
considered most Ameriean-Negroes as coolies, and
as you know, a coolie is on the lowest rung of the
Indian sciety. It matters not whether the white
man spread that propaganda, the fact is that the
Indian regards the Negro as such mainly because
he cannot corppete with the Liberian who has con
sulates in many large Euroean countries as well as
in America. The American-Negro is not repres
ented at all on the international scene because he is
part and parcel of America, which, whether we like
it or not, is fundamental!v white.
There has been a conflict over the years among
the Negro leadership on whether the American
-Negro will profit most by accepting some or a lot
of segregation in establishing his identity from in
tense nationalism as advocated by Marcus Garvey
and others fighting his battle or to make America
the land of his birth, aecet him as a free and equal
citizen based on his kinship with the land. All a
round us are examples of whites maintaining their
nationalistic connection through the hyphenation
of their names. The Negro leadership of today
persists in following blindly the pattern that out of
the welter of conflicting views and viewpoints hav
ing to do with the rights by law theory, eventually
the Negro will be accepted.
It would apear that in our present state, where
we are outcasts from every organized phase of Am
erican society, that we will to accept some amount
of self-determination and nationalism to achieve
any sort of status that will alleviate our condition,
[t is disheartening to say the least for the thous-'
ands of Negro graduaes from universities, colleges,
and high schools each year to find out that the
things they have been taught in school are false in
sofar as they, themselves, are concerned. The
competent young Negro girl who has a degree in
say designing or business administration finds it
something of a blow when she is turned down right
and left solely because she is colored. She is turn
ed! down, please note, not because she is an Americ
an, but because she belongs to a minority group in
America that has no status beyond that of wards of
the government.
In the great national emergencies such as the one
this nation has just gone through, some of the res
trictions based on color or in employment are lift
ed and some of our capable and qualified people are
allowed to work in the places where they are barred
from during peace time. But we are not seeking
such temporary advantags. The things we want
are permanent. We must think in the light of
“what will tomorrow bring?” and in thinking in
this way we will find that through being bound
closer together through bonds of nationalism and
the desire of self-determination within the frame
work of American democarcy we might achieve our
goal far more quickly than it appears now.
Most Negroes have been educated to be ashamed
of Africa as a homeland. It is common to hear
highly educated Negroes declare. “I don’t know any
thing about Africa. I was born in America. This
is my home and this is the land that my fathers
fought and died for and I intend to get from it
what is due me.” Others poke fun at African cul
urte, African art, and only give lip service to a rac
ial identification with Africa when national emer
gencies arise in which British might go on record
as barring native Africans from London or flogg
ing native African soldiers or working them to
death for a ittance a day. All this must be undone.
It is a false misconception. While none of us have
any intentions of picking up and going back to Af
rica, because incidentally, there is no place there for
us since the white man has taken over all its inhab
itable parts, we can think of Africa and keep Africa
in mind as a nat i > • Iro.u «. --'-t /1 s, as exempli
fied in the Jewish philosophy of the national home
land in Palestine. Don’t worry the Jewish people
have the same fight among themselves over the
question of nationalism and internationalism as we
do. The same goes for other races, but usually the
nationalists in these racial groups win out. Only
the American Negro laughed at Africa and pro
claimed its kinship with America through the use
?of the hpphenated word American-Negro.
1 Sometimes it might be good to wonder and think
on this one liase of nationalism: do you know that
we really tvukl not be able to haveany sort of Negro
businessess, insurance companies, newspapers, gro
cery stores, hotels, or what not if we were accepted
and integrated as Americans1?” In other words,
this very newspaper which you are realing would
not exist if we did not have to accept a certain am
ount of nationalism, which involves also the accept
ance of segregation. That was a reason for the res
ignation of Dr. W. E. B. DuBois from the NAADP
several years ago after he found that a complete in
tegration program of the organization he help to
found would not apply to the case of a people in
need £ work, food, and security, first.
—_
DO’S AND DON’TS.
Perhaps you don’t do acrobats, but do avoid an
urge to be the center fo attention.
-1345
ONE OF THE GREAT
HEN IN WORLD HISTOW
iXfo SLAVE BOY WKO
WAS TRADED FOR A
HORSE BUT YET BE
CAME ONE OF THE
. GREATEST AGRICULTURAL
rs, SCIENTISTS OFALLTIME
WAS ALSO AN ACCOM
s PLIShED PIANIST AND
ONCE GAVE CONCERTS
THRU-OUT THE MIDDLE
WEST.
I_
OF WASHINGTON D C.
[jpROFESSOR IN THE GRADUATE SCHOOL)
OF HOWARD U. IS THE FIRST AMERICAN
NEGRO WOMANTO RECEIVE THE PH.D.DE6K1
FROM BRYN MAWR COLLEGE AND THE FIRST TO
HOLD A PHJi IN SOCIAL ECONOMY.
DR.DIGGS RECEIVED HER M.A.DEGREE,
FROM FISA U. AND A.B FROM U.OF MINN.I
c«prTt«m mm bt l u. _
