Catholic Interracialist 1955-01: Vol 14

ONE RACE--THE HUMAN RACE

CATHOLIC 7

JANUARY, 1955

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new

DEMOCRACY IN ACTION AT

1954-1955

“What is most important . . . is the ground swell of

WARRINGTON SCHOOL, MINNEAPOLIS.

iJ

uclulist-

10 CENTS

(Minneapolis Tribune Photo—Boham Cross, Photographer)

opinion among all people everywhere against segregation.”

Washington

“There is no doubt that racial segre-
gation in the United States is dead.”

So began the speech of Clarence
Mitchell, Director of the Washington
Bureau, National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People, given
in Jackson, Mississippi recently.

MILESTONES
There were two important milestones
in 1954, Mr. Mitchell said:

1) The integration of the armed
forces and

2) The decision of the Supreme Court
that segregation of schools is unconsti-
tutional.

Individual instances of awakening to
the injustice of segregation, says Mr.
Mitchell, are important. But, “What is
most important ... is the ground swell
of opinion among all people everywhere
against segregation.”

LOCAL CONVULSIONS

Mr. Mitchell points out that backers
of a private school system in the south
are victims of local convulsions which
cannot last. He says these same backers
fail to point out that seven million Fed-
eral dollars will be lost to Mississippi
schools alone if the public school sys-
tem is abandoned. The economy of

most southern states couldn’t sustain
this loss.

WORLD PRESSURE

But the real pressure for integration
in the United States comes from out-
side rather than inside our country. It
is a world pressure, says Mr. Mitchell.
It comes from the knowledge that there
are two main forces in the world—
democracy and totalitarianism.

“In one of these camps,” said Mr.
Mitchell, “we find the United States
and her allies. In the other camp, there
are the iron curtain countries and all
other nations that place the interests of
the state above the welfare of the peo-
ple.

WORLD CHOICE

“A great many of the world’s peo-
ple are trying to decide which of those
camps they will join. Some of these
people may be found in India where
an ancient nation has again come to
the fore as a world power. Some of
these are in Africa where new nations
are being born.

“Many of them are in Europe where
they still shudder at the words ‘Master
Race.’ All of these look with suspicion
on a country that preaches democracy
but practices segregation on the basis
of race.

“The wise leaders of the United

States understand the importance of
convincing these old and new nations

that there is vitality and strength to
our democracy.

NO “WHITE ISLAND”

“Sometimes, as in the case of Ethio-
pia and Liberia, it is because we wish
to have the right to place an air base
within the borders of that country.
Sometimes, it is because there are vital
products which must be purchased
from those whose friendship we seek
and desire.

“Sometimes, it is because we wish to
maintain a market for our products in
a non-white country. But the overriding
consideration is the knowledge that in
our modern world we cannot afford to
be an isolated white island in a sea of
colored nations.

OUR BEST EXPORT—DEMOCRACY

“The task of winning converts,” con-
tinued Mr. Mitchell, “to democracy is
no longer a theoretical venture in good-
will. It is now a task that must be ac-
complished if we are to survive. It is
becoming increasingly clear that democ-
racy is the most valuable product that
we can export to the rest of the world.
We also know that we cannot export it
if we do not have it at home.”

The pressure of this knowledge, along
with the awakening American con-
science, make it possible to say as 1955
begins, “There is no doubt that racial
segregation in the United States is
dead.”

Washington

Friendship House

Friendship House is looking back and
assessing the work of 1954 and making
plans for work in 1955. St. Peter Claver
Center has begun a survey of the Na-
tion’s Capital to determine what are
the most pressing local needs for inter-
racial justice. At a special staff meeting
this month, they will discuss the inter-
views with other organizations in the
District. Then they will plan the work
of Friendship House in this area in
1955.

Two training programs, one for the
staff and a six weeks’ course for vol-
unteers have been started. These will
stress a study of the Friendship House
Vocation and the Christian Social Or-
der.

(Continued on Page 6)

INSIDE:

CARMEN JONES—REVIEW
(p. 7)

AFRICAN STUDENTS IN U.S.
(p. 4)

SOUTHERN CATHOLIC
SCHOOLS (p. 8)

A Louisiana Catholic
Paper Stands Pat

“Many so-called good Catholics and even some priests do not
follow the stand of the Church on... social justice questions.”

ATHOLIC ACTION OF THE SOUTH, the Catholic paper of three Louisiana and

one Mississippi dioceses ceased local publication recently. Many issues enter into
the decision, of three of these dioceses to affiliate with The Denver Register. The
story of the paper’s struggle to influence Louisiana Catholics to see the immorality
of segregation and of “right to work” laws is clearcut however.

A STAND

The paper took a stand against three proposed Louisiana bills to thwart inte-
gration. The three bills proposed the following measures to maintain segregation
by police power:

1. Public or private schools would be denied approval by the state board of
education if they attempted integration.

2. Free text books, lunch programs, and all state funds would be denied.

3. Each parish (district) superintendent would assign each child in his area
to a specific public school.

“TOTALITARIAN”

Archbishop Joseph Rummel of New Orleans, and M. F. Everett, Editor of Cath-
olic Action of the South protested vehemently... In editorials the paper pointed up
the totalitarian aspects of denying the God-given right of parents to choose the school
where their child will be educated. The bills would have outlawed the minor and
major seminaries in the archdiocese, both of which have Negro students.

NE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS provisions would have made it possible to
place a $1000 fine or six months’ imprisonment on anyone encouraging a suit
against the segregation law. The paper pointed out that this would kill freedom of
the press and freedom of speech. Another provision made it possible to disbar an
attorney associated in a suit protesting the law. The paper pointed that this would
deal a mortal blow to justice and legal procedure.

The bills were finally amended to exclude private institutions. The State Bar
Association protested and the section concerning attorneys was dropped.

LUTHER WAS AN AMATEUR

What reaction did this stand on the part of the paper get from Louisiana Cath-
olics? The bills were passed with only eleven Representatives and two Senators
voting against them, in a legislature which has a good Catholic representation.

One letter Mr. Everett received was not atypical. Written by a man who claimed
to be a “practical Catholic” it said, “If you and the supporters of this movement
think Martin Luther gave the Church a rough time, well you haven’t seen anything
yet.” Mr. Everett states that opposition to the Church discipline (not dogma) on the
part of the laity has been part of an anti-clerical influence in the history of the
Church in Louisiana. .

OPINION SHARPLY DIVIDED

As to what effect this stand for social justice had upon the changing of the pa-
per, the editor, Mr. Everett, wrote to us:

“IT cannot honestly say that our stand has made a great difference in circulation,
for comments have been both pro and con. I have received a number of bitter let-
ters, also a warning by phone to leave town; but I have also received many fine
letters of thanks and commendation. The ratio in communications that came to me
personally was about five favorable to one against.”

The New Orleans archdiocese paper has affiliated with Our Sunday Visitor. Mr.
Everett says, “We’ll have a modest editorial page and maintain the same stand,
speaking out strongly when necessary.”

The crux of the issue in Louisiana, for Mr. Everett, is that Catholics do not take
a Catholic stand. “Events here showed that many who have the faith are not well
instructed; others who are well educated and devout in many ways are willing to
dispute the authority or discipline of the Church.

“Many so-called good Catholics and even some priests do not follow the stand
of the Church on these social justice questions. I frankly was appalled at the atti-
tude uncovered here, not only a disputing of Papal teaching on such matters but
often of the RIGHT so to speak. I have found the attitude elsewhere, but never so

sharply displayed.”

Readers Write

WHERE’S THE CHIT-CHAT?
Dear Editor: What’s happened to the paper? | look all through it for the chit-chat about the
kids | know in the Friendship Houses and | can’t find it. That’s the only thing | used to read.

College Girl

Dear Editor: It’s a joy to see the new emphasis in the paper. | am not a Catholic and do not
know any of the people in the Friendship Houses. Frankly, | used to feel that you devoted too
much space to just gossip about people very few of your readers knew, and too little space to
the real issues involved in your work. | especially found your article on unemployment and how
it affects the Negro very helpful. That's just the kind of information | need when I’m talking

to some of my prejudiced friends who won't hire Negroes.
Business Man

WHY DRAG IN SCIENCE?

Dear Editor: | notice you have an article on ‘’Science Speaks on Race’’ in your last issue. Why
don’t you take the space and devote it to Catholic principles on race. Why do we have to know
what science says in order to put Christian principles to work? It’s just a waste of time as far

as | can see. . . . And you’d have to have a Bachelor of Science degree to understand it any-

how.

Catholic Critic

Readers Write—(cont.)

Dear Editor: Why can’t we have more of the kind of thing you do in your Science Speaks on
Race in the Catholic press? Sometimes | think we Catholics are so busy stating our doctrine
we don’t take time to appreciate the fact that truth is one. We fail to see that the truths which
science gives us are simply another, and very valuable tool, in working toward human unity.

. . . My wife and | like the broad scope of the paper.

(Ed: What are YOUR OPINIONS?)

Catholic Father

Book Review

Fire and Honey

ERE WE HAVE AN ENGLISH

translation of the encyclical “Doc-
tor Mellifiuus,” issued in 1953 by Pope
Pius XII to commemorate the eighth
centenary of the death of Saint Ber-
nard. Thomas Merton, in obedience to
his religious superiors, provides a leng-
thy preface to supply a backdrop for
the life and times of the “Doctor whose
teaching is as sweet as honey.” In ad-
dition he presents a commentary on the
encyclical and the vast writings of the
Saint.

Although the book is most attractive
in format as well as rich in scholarship
and style, the result is vaguely disap-
pointing. The encyclical itself is so
clearly written that explanatory com-
ment seems superfluous and the occa-
sional fragments of biographical data
given by Father Merton seem insuffi-
cient for those who have never read
the life of Bernard of Clairvaux. Per-
haps these brief glimpses of the holy
Abbot may tempt people to examine
more closely the career of one who is
described in rapid succession as a
preacher of crusades, an adviser to
kings, hammer of heretics, the restorer
and promoter of the Cistercian order,
and, finally, the founder of a new school
of spirituality, of which the principal
monument is the IMITATION OF
CHRIST. Admittedly he was an amaz-
ing figure. Even Calvin and Luther
wrote admiringly of him. Alas, in this
little study of the man, the pieces never
quite fit together.

The Sacred Scriptures and the Early
Fathers were Bernard’s chief sources
of meditation and study. From them he
drew his inspiration and their influence
permeates his manuscripts. Many of his
compositions have found a place in the
liturgy of the Church because, our Holy

Father tells us “. . . they were redolent
of heaven and breathe forth the fire of

piety.”

FACET OF BERNARD’S SANC-

TITY was the special love he
bore for Jesus as our Divine Saviour.
Under that inspiration he penned the
profound passages which still inspire
ardor in the hearts of those who read
them. Who does not feel his devotion
enkindled by these beautiful words
“. . . What can so enrich the soul that
reflects upon it (the holy name of
Jesus)? What can... fortify the vir-
tues, engender good and honorable dis-
positions, foster holy affections? Dry is
every kind of spiritual food, which this
oil does not moisten. Insipid, whatever
this salt does not season. If thou writ-
est, thy composition has no charms for
me, unless I read there the name of
Jesus. If thou disputest or conversest,
I find no pleasure in thy words, unless
I hear there the name of Jesus. Jesus
is honey in the mouth, melody in the
ear, a cry of joy in the heart. Yet not
only is that name light and food. It is
also medicine. Is any amongst you sad?
Let the name of Jesus enter his heart;
let it leap thence to his lips; and lo!
the light that radiates from that name
shall scatter every cloud and restore
tranquility. Has someone sinned, and is
he, moreover, abandoning hope, rushing
in desperation towards the snare of
death? Let him but invoke this life-
giving name, and straightway he shall
experience a renewal of courage... .
Whoever, when trembling with terror
in the presence of danger, has not im-
mediately felt his spirits revive and his
fears departing as soon as he called
upon this name of power? .. . There is
nothing so efficacious as the name of
Jesus for restraining the violence of
anger, repressing the swellings of pride,
healing the smarting wound of
envy....

—Monica Durkin

ALL THE FRIENDSHIP HOUSES EXPRESS THEIR GRATITUDE TO BENE-
FACTORS WHO HELPED MAKE CHRISTMAS HAPPIER FOR THE NEEDY.

Harlem Friendship House
43 W. 135th St., N.Y.C., 37

Friendship House
1525 Milam, Shreveport, La.

Chicago Friendship House
4233 S. Indiana, Chicago 15, IIl.

Blessed Martin Friendship House
3310 N. Williams, Portland, Ore.

St. Peter Claver Center, 814 7th St., S.W., Washington, D.C.

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Volume 14

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Editor
Assistant Editor ...................
Circulation Manager .......

JANUARY, 1955
CATHOLIC INTERRACIALIST

Number 8
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aevosesoesesesx Re: GORGE?
wee Delores Price

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CATHOLIC INTERRACIALIST

o

Friendship House Vocation

The Lecturer-A Bridge

(SECOND OF SERIES)

“ HY DO THEY have to move into

our neighborhood? Why should
police be taken away from here to
guard a whole area for one family who
should have stayed where they came
from? Why don’t they keep up prop-
erty? Why do they want to live all
crowded together? They don’t make
good converts because they like night
life too much.”

We (two staff-workers from Friend-
ship House) were speaking at one of
Chicago’s South Side high schools,
within a two-mile radius of the Trum-
bull Park area. The nuns and the pas-
tor, realizing the attitudes of some of
their students, had asked us to talk on
the Christian’s approach to the racial
question.

STATISTICS NOT ENOUGH

The deluge of questions came from
the more vocal of the all-white student
group, and I began to know that it was
not only Christian principles that we
must give. It was more than statistics
or scientific findings that were needed
to help clear the highly charged atmo-
sphere. The task was to help a group
of normal, fairly average teenagers
catch the positive challenge from their
community and act on it.

NEIGHBORHOOD PRESSURE

The pattern of what was happening
to the kids was all too clear. Excite-
ment had begun in their neighborhood
when a Negro family moved into the
Trumbull Park housing project. A fight
had begun, and sides had to be taken.
From parents, from friends, from al-
most every neighborhood source, they
heard stories of how homes and prop-
erty values were being threatened by
Negroes, who were about to “invade”
the community, who would move in in
droves, who would rob and rape on
their streets at night.

It was not surprising to find, as we
learned later, that students in the group
had been party to beating up Negroes
who enter their area, or to stoning cars
Negroes were driving down their
streets. It was something to do. Per-
haps it falsely catered to a bit of youth-
ful idealism. At least it was more ex-
citing than anything else they could

* ee *
Family Missionary Apostolate «0: ic ix: moni

By Joseph and Theresa Shelzi
and Arthur and Emilia Vigil

LACK OF HOPE

The father of the average family who
is willing to work ten or twelve hours
a day at honest, hard labor (and their
number is great) finds that he has not
raised his family’s level of living at all
by the end of the year. In many cases
he is right where he started or has slid
back some. We feel it essential that the
impact of the Church’s social teachings
be made felt, for in these teachings lies
the answer to the economic problem
which is so closely interwoven with the
spiritual problem—lack of hope. In this
light a number of projects have been
started:

1. We’ve helped the people to organ-
ize a credit unit. It has been in opera-
tion over a year and a half. It is now
worth over 10,000 pesos and has made
45 loans to members. There are 90
members. Interest from loans goes to
members as dividends.

WATER TO DRINK

2. The “aljibe”, a 260,000-gallon cis-
tern, was built under Arthur’s super-
vision to meet the critical need for
drinking water during the dry season
(February to June). It was opened dur-

JANUARY, 1955

find to do—these youngsters who had
time on their hands to loiter at the
corner and talk things over with the
gang.

We faced a barrage of “theys”—‘“they
move in because the Urban League is
trying to help them take over neigh-
borhoods. They steal. They carry
knives. They are so noisy.”

I mentally compared this student
group to the students at St. E.’s, the
high school in our predominantly Negro
parish. The two groups had so much in
common; love of excitement, of sports;
the same desires for being accepted, for
being popular, for being part of the
gang.

“THEY” ARE PERSONS

I tried to tell them of the numbers
of hard-working people I knew who
are forced to pay abominable rents for
meager facilities, because of unaccept-
ing attitudes like the ones they seemed
to have. I wanted to make them be-
lieve that there are thousands of par-

ents like their own, in the Negro area
of Chicago, who are concerned because
they want their children to have good
recreation and a chance to go on to
school.

TEEN-AGE DANCE

I wished that I could take them to a
school dance at St. E.’s, a nicely run
party, where there was concern, too,
that the wrong kind of teen-ager (a
“they”’) didn’t crash the dance to damp-
en a good evening’s fun. And, at the
same time, I tried to show them with
words, the kind of home I live in in the
“forbidding” 43rd Street area. A home
that no doubt compares favorably with
their own, where daily Mass, attendance
at devotions, Council of Catholic Wom-
en and other parish activities are part
and parcel of living.

I don’t know how well we succeeded
that day. I’m certain the most adamant
weren’t converted. I’m sure we didn’t
give any of the students a good idea
of what living Christ’s truth in their

neighborhood would mean in day-to-
day actions. But, a part of the job of
Friendship House became clearer to me
in that session.

LECTURER—A BRIDGE

Building a bridge of understanding
through lectures is a step toward help-
ing all see Christ in their brothers.

Learning and suffering the truth of dis-
crimination firsthand from knowing
friends and neighbors who are forced
to live hemmed in by the prejudiced
attitudes of those on the outside are a
beginning in the Friendship House task.

Sharing that truth, which takes on
flesh and blood as it is seen in the lives
of people, is its continuation. It is a part
of the work of bringing, as our pre-
amble states, “the spirit of Christ’s jus-
tice and love to bear on the matter of
interracial relations.”

—Betty Schneider

Betty Schneider addresses a group of boys while on a lecture tour.

ing Passion Week with a simple bless-
ing. Father got in the way of the first
few squirts of water with the result
that we also had a “baptism”. Incident-
ally, much of the money to build this
cistern came from friends in the United
States. We are constantly obliged from
the nature of things to rely on the do-
nations of our friends until local re-
sources and leadership are developed.

CORN TO EAT

3. A corn cooperative has been or-
ganized to solve another of the “mil-
pero’s” problems. He sweats out his
harvest and ends up selling his corn
for less than it costs him to take it to
market because there is so much on
the market at the time and he needs
the money to pay bills that have been
mounting since the last harvest in some
cases. When he goes to buy it back six
months later to feed his hungry fam-
ily he has to pay three to five times as
much as he sold it for.

The corn cooperative was begun to
pay the farmer a just price for his corn
and later to resell it as a service to the
community. It has been in operation
since November, 1953 and bought this
past season 27,500 pounds of corn from
the farmers. It paid 50 per cent more

than the price at harvest time. The
corn was resold here at 33 per cent less
than the price of corn at the present
time. We now have to bide our time for
the Co-op to build itself up. The farm-
ers, due to their circumstances, can’t
save very much money. To begin our
co-op we borrowed $500 from a credit
union in the United States. The profit
made by the corn co-op is distributed
among the members after expenses are
covered.
TRACTORS

4. The Territorial Government has
given the use of two farm tractors, a
disc harrow and a set of cultivators to
help the agricultural program which
Shelzi is working out. One of the trac-
tors-runs the town’s light plant, while
the other is used for farm purposes. On
May 26 we went out to Don Herculana’s
“milpa”, along with the “Professor”,
our local teacher; and “Primero”, who
is our mayor, chief of police, judge and
head of the army all wrapped up in
one; and other townsmen who are in-
terested in our project of raising the
agricultural standards of the people. We
all participated in the blessing of the
first plot of cultivated ground in the
Territory of Quintana Roo, and helped

finish clearing the land of stumps. Then
we were served some delicious hot
“tamales” and “atole”.
WORK WITH THE HANDS

5. Within the next few weeks we
will start on the woodworking shop
that we mentioned in our last report.
Mexican customs officials have told us
that we can export ready-made furni-
ture at a very slight cost. Small indus-
try of this kind is badly needed. May-
be it is one answer.

“SPIRIT OF WARM JOY”

Slowly we see the people becoming
more friendly, coming to us with their
problems of a hundred different kinds.
A sign of this friendliness can be seen
every month when many of the fam-
ilies of the pueblo come together at the
Banquet Table on Family Communion
Sunday. The number has grown stead-
ily and the social get-together in the
afternoon with its spirit of warm joy is
a great reward for our labors. The num-
ber, too, at weekly Mass and the sacra-
ments grows. The age-old indifference
born of being without a priest for over
a hundred years is leaving our pueblo.
The people are beginning to hold their
heads a little higher and are learning
to lean on God and plan ahead. Yes,
what was lacking is being replaced and
we thank God that He has seen fit to
send us to help with the most neces-
sary work among His children.

Views

75% African Students in U. S. Lose Faith

HITE CATHOLIC AMERICANS

are a strange contradiction. At the
same time that they help to convert
Africans by their contributions to mis-
sions, they help to stamp out this very
faith by prejudice. Father Denis J. Slat-
tery, S.M.A., a Nigerian missionary,
said that seventy-five per cent of the
Catholic students who return to Nigeria
from western universities no longer
practice their faith.

THE STING OF PREJUDICE

What happens to an African Catholic
student when he reaches the United
States? He comes from a city or village
where he has been active in parish or-
ganizations, where he has a full, happy
social life with fellow Catholics. In the
United States fellow Catholics ignore
him. He becomes aware very soon of
the difference between Catholic doc-
trine and Catholic practice.

People will send donations to have
him converted, but they will not ask
him into their schools, hospitals, or
homes. Prejudice stings him all the

more since he has never experienced it
before. He grows bitter and feels that
all the doctrines the missionaries taught
him so fully, not just with their lips
but by the way they lived, are so much
hypocrisy. He drifts toward irreligion.

THE ABSENT WITNESS

The leftist groups, according to Fa-
ther Slattery, welcome the lonely Af-
rican student. He is not treated as a
second-class citizen by them. And so
he often returns home an apostle of
Marxism. The Christian leadership he
could have provided is absent from
Africa at just the time when she is es-
tablishing responsible native govern-
ment.

By their actions, white American
Catholics are helping determine the at-
titude toward Christianity of millions
of Africans. They are helping to kill
the seeds of Christianity in future Afri-
can leaders. They mistakenly think that
a donation to a foreign missionary dis-
penses them from acts of personal jus-
tice and Christian love.

Police Brutality in South

N SHREVEPORT, LA. police brutal-

ity has gone on for a long time. It
affects both Negroes and whites, but is
more commonly aimed against Negroes.
A Negro minister recently told of an
incident in which he was judged by a
policeman on the street, rather than
being taken to the courts for judgment.

MINISTER THREATENED

The minister was driving along one
of the streets in Shreveport when he
failed to see a detour sign. He was
stopped by a policeman. The officer
cursed him, and threatened to use a
pistol on his head (his actual words
were “skin your head”). Finally he let

In South Africa

the minister go with more abusive talk.

LAW OUTSIDE COURTS

A member of the legal staff of the
N.A.A.C.P. has seen many people im-
mediately after they have been brutal-
ized. Usually the victims are placed in
jail after being beaten. One man came
immediately to the N.A.A.C.P. mem-
ber’s home after release. He was se-
verely bruised, and his head was swol-
len almost twice its normal size.

In an effort to put a stop to this bru-
tality, a group of citizens have present-
ed a petition to the police department.
No formal written answer was sent to
the signers.

Trend Toward Segregation

HE ELECTION of a new South Af-

rican Prime Minister to succeed
white supremacist, Dr. Daniel F. Ma-
lan, offers little hope for relief of ra-
cial tension. The new Prime Minister,
Johannes G. Strijdom, has taken no
pains to hide his racial bias. In a speech
before Parliament, the unsmiling, wild-
ly vehement 61 year old Strijdom once
said:

“Coloreds (meaning people of mixed
white and Negro blood) who are on
the common roll with Europeans today
must be separated and given separate
representation, and Negro representa-
tives in this house (the Assembly) must
be eliminated. The Indians must be re-
garded as outsiders who cannot enjoy
political favor in South Africa.”

Several times Mr. Strijdom has said
in Parliament that “South Africa can
only remain white if the vote remains
in the hands of the dominant section—
the Europeans.”

BRITISH FEAR

It isn’t only the Negroes, Asians and
“colored” who have something to fear
from Strijdom’s government. The Brit-
ish take second place in the Dutch-
descended Afrikaner’s dream of self-
government. A leader of the United
Party Opposition said, ‘Nationalists
(Dutch-descent) have elected as leader
and Prime Minister an uncompromis-
ing extremist and apostle of a Repub-
lic completely and finally divorced from
the British commonwealth.”

POLICE STATE

Like Dr. Malan before him, Strijdom
will continue to unite the country’s
10,000,000 non-whites—Bantu Negroes,
Asians and people of mixed blood—

4

against his white supremacy. Since Dr.
Malan came to power in 1948 a real
police state has come into being in
South Africa. Some of its consequences
are:

@ Marriage between the races was
barred.

@ Curfews for Negroes were tight-
ened.

@ An act for dividing the country
into segregated living areas for each
race group was passed.

@ Defiance of Malan’s government
meant barring from political life.

@ National race registers were start-
ed classifying everyone from Afrikaner
at the top to Negro at the bottom.

@ The police force was enlarged.
Many jails were started.

STREET RIOTS

The world looks to South Africa with
apprehension. Street riots have become
more common. Police and non-whites
have engaged in armed battles. It seems
a question of time how long 10 million
non-whites will tolerate oppression by
one and a half million Afrikaners.

The New York Times had this to say
of the country since the advent of Dr.
Malan and followers:

4I@OUTH AFRICA BECAME A

LONELY NATION — hated by
non-white peoples, unpopular with
Americans and Europeans. The United
Nations threw its prestige against Ma-
lan by formally indicting aspects of
his race policies.”

Those who don’t censure Malan and
Strijdom on moral or religious grounds,
still look upon this new fanaticism as
pathetic political burgling in a desper-
ate attempt to cling to the past.

Job Discrimination Urged in Britain

HE UGLY FACT OF RACISM lurks

behind the recent statements of a
British labor union leader. “I’d sooner
have a little trouble now than a great
deal later on,” said Jim Leask, organ-
izer for the Transport and General
Workers’ Union. “Nobody wants a col-
or bar, but there would be bitter racial
feeling if, say, a colored hand is kept
on while white workers are fired.”

FOUR INJUSTICES

Using this questionable logic, as a
start, Mr. Leask made four proposals
at a weekly union meeting:

1. Colored workers should not be
promoted to supervisory jobs over
white men.

2. Colored men should not be em-
ployed in jobs for which white workers
are available.

3. Union and management represent-
atives should consult together before
colored men are hired.

4. Colored workers should be the first
to be fired in the event of a recession.

WE TRIED IT, MR. LEASK

We would like to save Mr. Leask
both a “little trouble” now and “a great
deal” later. We’ve tried his plan over
here and it just doesn’t work. It isn’t
economical. it isn’t efficient. It isn’t
psychologically sound for the nation.
We might add it isn’t human, it isn’t
moral, it isn’t democratic and it cer-
tainly isn’t Christian. To Mr. Leask, we
say: You will save your country two
or three hundred years of “trouble” if
you will just start in NOW to hire the
man who can do the job, regardless of
race.

“They’re Not a Good Credit Risk!”

HIS IS THE TUNE sung by banks,

finance and real estate companies
when Negroes try to buy anything from
a washing machine to a home. It is a
source of great discouragement to a
Negro father trying to finance the
building of a new home for his family
to be refused the credit afforded to his
white fellow workers.

UNSCRUPULOUS LAWYERS

The Chicago Defender, recently be-
came concerned about one type of un-
ethical legal practice which damages
the credit rating of the Negro. Un-
scrupulous lawyers watch the munici-
pal court records, or keep friendly con-
tact with paymasters in industrial firms.
“If they know a man will soon receive
a wage assignment,” says a Defender
editorial, “a judgment note or an over-
due credit note, they will call him in
and offer to settle all his debts through
bankruptcy.”

«ey

1954 made a change in this boy’s life. ‘The ‘Su

Some lawyers encourage this even
when the sum is quite small. Recent
arrivals from the South are an espe-
cially easy prey. It looks so easy. De-
clare bankruptcy and all your debts are
wiped out for just the fee of the law-
yer. But only later does the uninformed
client realize that his credit is also
wiped out, and he has helped damage
the credit of all other Negroes.

FREE LEGAL CLINIC

The Cook County Bar Association and
the Chicago Defender have organized
a legal clinic to help people who are

facing legal difficulties involved in pay- °

ing their debts. Each Wednesday night
from 7:30 to 9:30 lawyers will be avail-
able to give free advice. Armed with
sound legal knowledge, Negroes will no
longer be an easy mark for lawyers
who do not scruple to ruin the credit
standing of a whole class of persons,
so long as it brings an easy buck.

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Shreveport at End of First Year

Anne Foley and Mary Doian, first staff workers in Shreveport Friendship House,
seen at work in their combination library, lecture hall.

By Mary Dolan
A FRESH START
BRAND NEW CALENDAR gives
that “fresh start” feeling. So we
are thinking and planning for 1955 in
the Shreveport Friendship House and
the South in general.

Looking over the general picture, we
find two groups that are working on
problems concerning race throughout
the South and working with consider-
able effectiveness —the Southern Re-
gional Council and the National Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Colored
People.

GEORGE S. MITCHELL—SPEAKER

George S. Mitchell, executive direc-
tor of the Southern Regional Council,
spoke at Shreveport Friendship House
in December. Undoubtedly one of the
most competent persons working in ra-
cial matters in the South (as well as
one of the most delightful), he gave us
a fascinating analysis of the South and
emphasized the importance of bringing

iS CLASSMATES BE?

8,

eally’* equal educ

ation with the other children in
who his classmates will be in the next few years.

* Sage 4
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ee fae

JANUARY, 1955

whites and Negroes together.
FOUR SOUTHERN REGIONS

He divides the South into four re-
gions, roughly four bands curving
across the southeastern section of the
country. From top to bottom the bands
are: Mountain, Piedmont, Plantation
(including Shreveport), and Coastal
Plains. Each has a different history and
culture: each has different needs and
different rates of progress.

In the relatively “healthy” Piedmont
area, for instance, where political and
economic democracy are furthest ad-
vanced, the solutions of segregation are
beginning already. We can expect the
rate of integration will be slowest in
the Plantation area.

NO SHAM, NO PATRONAGE

“Every community in the South,”
Dr. Mitchell emphasizes, “needs a group
of Negroes and whites meeting to-
gether. Meeting in full dignity and
equality —no sham, no patronage. It
will probably be some brave church

(Minneapolis Tribune Photo)

ladies who will start it off. (That
the South’s racial conscience has been
moved along by the church women, is
one of his favorite theses.)

“UNEASY AND STIFF”

“They’ll meet together to look over
the local picture. The first few meet-
ings will be pretty uneasy and stiff, but
never mind. As they begin to look at
the schools, for instance, Mrs. White
will realize that the colored children
in her end of town who now have a
right to go to school with Mary and
Billy White aren’t nameless, faceless
‘niggers.’ They are Mrs. Brown’s Jim
and Sue and Joe.

A SUIT

“These ladies will begin to evolve a
plan for school integration. Word of
their plan will get to the school super-
visor; very likely he won’t be interest-
ed. And then one day the local schools
will have a suit slapped on them for
failure to comply with the Supreme
Court ruling. The first cry will be:
‘Where are those ladies!’ ”

Very likely the obliging suit-bringer
will be the N.A.A.C.P. The state organ-
ization in Louisiana claims it has 21
lawsuits in readiness on schools.

N.A.A.C.P. PLANS

Shreveport chapter of N.A.A.C.P. has
actions “in process” which will carry
over into 1955. One is a lawsuit on
Clarke Terrace homes; a hearing in late
December was expected to settle tech-
nical points and establish the questions
on which the suit will be tried in the
coming months.

A bit of background on this suit.
Clarke Terrace is the 248-house devel-
opment for Negroes, started a year ago.
Contracts for houses were sold to a
number of Negroes. Then whites living
near the Clarke Terrace site objected.
Under this pressure the developer

changed it to a “white” project. At least
two Negroes refused to turn in their
contracts; they with N.A.A.C.P.’s help
have brought suit against the developer
to build the homes for which they con-
tracted.

INTERRACIAL PROJECTS?

Meanwhile the houses have been
completed and whites are occupying
them. If the suit is won, it will mean
Clarke Terrace will be an interracial
community of new homes—the only
one in Shreveport.

A second action of N.A.A.C.P. was
that of presenting a petition to the lo-
cal school board last fall, asking the
board to begin plans for desegregating
schools and offering to help. The school
board “filed” the petition without com-
ment. Whether the Association’s next
step will be another request to the
board or a suit against it remains to be
seen. At any rate, we look for follow-
through action by N.A.A.C.P. in 1955.

FRIENDSHIP HOUSE PLANS

We of Shreveport Friendship House
have been studying and discussing and
working on our plans for 1955. We will
concentrate on the particular function
of Friendship House . . . pointing up,
clarifying, emphasizing the moral ques-
tions involved in segregation, and en-
couraging and organizing Shreveport
people who make a moral judgment to
act.

The central emphasis we have de-
termined; the details have yet to be
worked out. We have the outlines in a
few sentences from the pamphlet on
Friendship House Staffworkers, which
apply equally to all who work for the
Friendship House movement:

THE LOVE OF CHRIST

“The life and work (of each of us)
should be the expression of his love for
Christ. This love of Christ is sustained
and deepened by daily prayer and med-
itation, the daily offering of Mass, spir-
itual reading, and spiritual direction.”

.

Trend Toward Integration

OUR EVENTS have taken place in
the past two months affecting the
progress of integration in schools.

1. Briefs on how desegregation should
proceed were handed in to the Supreme
Court on November 15. These were filed
both by attorneys for the Negro princi-
pals in the segregation cases and by
the states affected.

2. President Eisenhower made a
statement to the press that he under-
stood the court would take into con-
sideration the great emotional and
financial problems in desegregating
Southern schools. He said he thought
the court would find some decentralized
method of desegregation.

3. The Supreme Court delayed the
oral debates until after a new Judge
has been seated to take the place of
late Associate Justice Robert H. Jack-
son. The President has nominated
Judge John Marshall Harlan of New
York but Senate action on the nomina-
tion must wait until at least January.

4. The Justice Department filed a
brief with the court urging that the
lower courts be allowed to handle de-
segregation in each state.

THE REACTIONS

The press throughout the country ex-
pressed varying reactions. There was
some fear that allowing the states to
administer the ruling might mean no
action at all. On the other hand one
Southern paper sees little hope for
dodging the issue this way. It especial-
ly notes Attorney General Brownell’s
statement that “racial segregation ...
will have to be terminated as quickly
as feasible, regardless of how much it
may be favored by some people in the
community.” And also that Mr. Brown-
ell recommends regular reports from

lower courts to the Supreme Court,
stating the progress toward integration
in that district.

The opinion of the northern press
was split. Some papers felt that piece-
meal integration would only increase
tensions; that a deadline was needed to
overcome Southern resistance. Others
felt that a moderate approach was the
only way to keep down tensions.

LOCAL ADAPTATIONS

The Greensboro (North Carolina)
Daily News remarked: “What may be
a solution in one locality will not be
possible in another; what may be pos-
sible in a certain locality a year or two
from now may not be possible today.
When law comes in conflict with the
customs, feelings and will of the people
in a community, an extremely difficult
situation is created.”

The paper proposed that moderate
white and Negro leaders meet on a
local level to talk over problems. An-
other North Carolina newspaper, the
Lexington Dispatch, suggested that a
step toward peaceful integration might
be the appointment of more Negroes
to school boards.

The opinions may be conflicting, but
the trend in the country is unmistake-
able. Whether it will be immediate or
eventual, integration of the public
school system will one day be a reality
throughout the United States.

NEEDED:

One DEDICATED PROFESSION-
AL PHOTOGRAPHER willing to

DONATE one-half day or one eve-
ning a month for the. cause of
INTERRACIAL JUSTICE.

IKE AND N.A.A.C.P. OFFICIALS

President Eisenhower confers with N.A.A.C.P. officials Clarence Mitchell (center)
and Walter White. It was his appointee, Chief Justice Warren, who handed down
the momentous decision barring school segregation.

1954-1955
(Continued from Page 1)

Chicago

Report

Chicago
Friendship House

Chicago Friendship House has been
making a special effort to work at do-
ing away with the causes of discrimi-
nation in 1954. At a spring study week
three committees were appointed to
work: 1) in housing; 2) in employment,
and 3) in hospital integration. Each
committee has one full-time staff work-
er or two half-time staff workers. Sev-
eral things have been done in each of
these committees in 1954 and several
things are planned for 1955.

Housing Committee

Housing is Chicago’s number one
problem. It is certainly the area where
discrimination has done its worst dam-
age. There is no existing program
which will provide even near adequate
housing for Negroes in 1955 or for a
long time to come.

CHIP AT PREJUDICE

Areas where 60 to 100 thousand peo-
ple are kept jammed into one square
mile by the wall of prejudice around
them, breed terrible tension, disease,
break-down in family life, juvenile de-
linquency, etc. The Housing Committee
would like to chip away at the preju-
dice which makes these conditions pos-
sible.

Private builders in the Chicago area
have given no indication of opening
their homes to both Negroes and whites,
to relieve this tension. Only the Chi-
cago Housing Authority will do a small
part to meet the need for integrated
housing, by opening approximately
1,800 new public housing units in 1955.
C.H.A. POLICY—INTEGRATION

William E. Kean, Executive Director

..of CH.A. has stated that, “The C.H.A.
will continue its policy of integration
in all its projects despite the protests
of certain bigotted groups.”
TRUMBULL PARK

Chicago Friendship House has plans
for work in 1955. The Housing Commit-
tee will continue to visit families in
Trumbull Park, as it has in the past
year, letting them know of our concern
over the inhuman conditions under
which they must live. It will continue
to attend the meetings of other groups
interested in integrating Trumbull
peacefully.

TENSION NEIGHBORHOODS

The Housing Committee will begin
work in changing neighborhoods where
there is tension. It will attempt to lec-
ture to parish groups, or offer the local
pastor whatever assistance Friendship
House can give.

WORK CAMPS

The Committee is now making plans
for week-end work camps. They hope
to have people from tension areas and
also from suburbs where vacant land
exists, come to Friendship House for a
day or a week-end. In the morning the
group will do manual work on some
home in the neighborhood which needs
repairs. In the afternoon it will meet

6

(Chicago Defender Photo)

to discuss the facts of overcrowding in
a Negro neighborhood. It is hoped that
these people will eventually be a force
for integration in their own commu-
nities, and so help relieve the over-
crowding.

Employment Committee

The Employment Committee has in-
terviewed several people in organiza-
tions in the city working for integra-
tion in employment. Some of the sug-
gestions of these men for Friendship
House projects in 1955 were:

1) The Mayor’s Commission on Hu-
man Relations would like to have
Friendship House refer cases of dis-
crimination to them for further action
with the employer.

2) The American Friends Service
Committee suggested that Friendship
House interview Catholic employers,
stressing as the Friends do in inter-
views, first the moral-religious argu-
ments and then the good business argu-
ments for fair employment.

3) The Bureau of Jewish Employ-
ment Problems suggested we refer dis-
crimination complaints to them, espe-
cially when a company having a gov-
ernment contract is involved.

4) The Urban League suggested we
work in employment counselling for
Negro students, informing them through
lectures of what fields will be open to
them, what fields it would be futile to
train for because of discrimination, and
what fields might open up in the near
future.

(In line with this last request, the
teen-age counselors have thought of
getting some boys in their group to go
around to the schools and tell what hap-
pened to them when they quit school
early. They would try to impress upon
other students how necessary training
is, especially for Negroes, if they hope
to earn a living wage later.)

EQUAL JOB OPPORTUNITIES LAW

In addition, Friendship House as a
whole will be working with the Coun-
cil Against Discrimination to help in
the passage of an Illinois equal job op-
portunities bill. We have offered our
staff room for a temporary office, and
will try to interest groups in our com-
munity to donate time for office work.

Hospital Committee

The Hospital Committee will con-
tinue to encourage hospital administra-
tors in the city to end discrimination.
Through interviews with administrators
it will attempt to understand the prob-
lems involved in integrating a hospital,
and urge that a just solution to them
be found.

The Committee will help the Cath-
olic Interracial Council in whatever
way it can in the planning of their
second annual Conference for Catholic
Hospital Administrators.

TWO LAWS

It will also continue to work with the
Committee to End Discrimination in
Medical Institutions in Chicago. In con-
junction with the Council Against Dis-
crimination the Committee is working
on two pieces of legislature, one for
the city and one for the state. If passed,
these laws will tend to raise the health
standards of the whole community by
insuring equal use of medical facilities
by all people, regardless of race or
color.

Portland
Report

BIGGEST PROBLEM—HOUSING

The biggest problem in Portland in
the field of human relations is the prob-
lem of minority housing. In this respect
Portland is typical of many large
Northern cities.
NON-WHITE MARKET GROWS

The economic situation of non-whites
has improved considerably over the
past few years. This improved economic
status has accentuated a problem that
has always existed. As more non-whites
have become capable of purchasing
their own homes, the demand for non-

white housing has not only emphasized ~

the acute shortage of such housing, but
the patterns of thought and action
which affect the non-white housing
market have become more clearly de-
fined.

POTENTIAL INTEGRATION

In Portland, according to the 1950
census there are about 13,000 non-
whites. The same census lists a total
of 3,269 non-white dwelling units. Non-
whites are living in 61 of Portland’s
63 quarter sections. However, half of
the Negroes were concentrated in the
two sections which encompass the Wil-
liams Avenue Community. These facts
show that Portland has a lot of poten-
tial toward becoming an integrated city
in the foreseeable future.

Yet, according to Urban League sta-
tistics, non-whites do not have equal
access to the housing market in Port-
land. There has been practically no
new housing available to non-whites,
whether financed with F.H.A. guaran-
tee or with private funds.

MET STAR

(Defender Photo)

In 1954 Marian Anderson became the

first Negro to sign a contract with the

Metropolitan Opera Company. It is a

symbol of hope to Negro opera aspir-
ants.

PATTERNS OF PREJUDICE

Racial prejudices on the part of in-
dividual home owners, restrictive sales
practices, erroneous ideas on property
values, or on what constitutes a “good”
neighborhood have all been factors in
maintaining the present non - white
housing shortage. Real estate interests
have contributed to this housing short-
age by working along with the factors
listed above, and often aiding and abet-
ting them.

The Urban League in Portland is cur-
rently conducting a study to determine
the effect on residential market prices
of non-white purchases. During the
course of this study several real estate
men have been interviewed from vari-
ous parts of the city.

UNINFORMED REAL ESTATE MEN
These men could not accurately define
the non-white areas in Portland nor
were they consistent in their opinions
as to what percentage of non-whites
in an area make it non-white. Some
thought 50 per cent non-white occupa-
tion, some thought one family in a
neighborhood was enough to classify it
as non-white. Various other percent-
ages were also given.

No real estate man had any factual
data or studies to support his opinions
concerning the effects of non-white en-
try into a neighborhood on property
values.

VARIED SOLUTIONS

When these real estate men were
asked about possible solutions to the
problem, opinions varied. One thought
that non-white areas ought to be de-
veloped, another believed that the
problem would take care of itself over
the years, and still another believed
that education would solve the prob-
lem.

It is hoped that this study in Port-
land will help to dispel the persistent
myths about property values which
make it difficult for non-whites to pur-
chase decent housing. Ed Hark

Around The
Friendship
Houses

WHODUNIT

The gremlin who disrupts Friendship
House files has finally been found. Al-
though Elizabeth Teevan—now in Port-
land—-is the nearest in size to a grem-
lin, we never even supected her. But
she finally confessed recently that she
has been saying the following prayer
for years in her best Scots-Irish brogue:
“To you, O Lord, be honor and glory;
To us shame and confusion.”

Has that prayer been answered!!!

TABLE TALK

Ed Hark writes from Portland:

“We here in Portland Friendship
House are talking about revolutioniz-
ing our diet. It seems that a cup of
wheat germ and a glass of milk will
provide all the necessary vitamins and
proteins that the human system re-
quires. It’s not only a healthier diet but
think of the time saved in eating, cook-
ing, dishwashing, and shopping.

“We told our plan to Wayne Keith,
FH volunteer at large, who pops in
every once in a while. Wayne protest-
ed violently, insisting that the best way
to get vitamins is through huge steak
dinners. Oh well! I guess every house
has its reactionary vols.

HOT TIME

Every other week a Great Books
group meets at Friendship House in
Portland. It is reported one of the best
groups in the city. “Anyway,” writes
Ed Hark, “we seem to consume less fuel
on the nights it meets here.”

WASHINGTON VOLUNTEERS
AND STAFF

Loretta Butler writes from Washing-
ton:

We have three new staffers here—
Roger St. Pierre from Canada, Tom
Steiner from Michigan, and John Reaux
from Louisiana. Don’t say we don’t
have a wide appeal here in D.C.

And we have lots of new vols—Tom
Schworles, former Chicago volunteer
who has become campus coordinator
at Catholic University for St. Peter
Claver Center. Joan Fahy came for
Thanksgiving holiday from Dunbarton
College; Bobby Bullock and Sandy
Flannagan, student nurses at Catholic
University, have been regular helpers.
Larry McCarthy and Marie Hammas are
both a big help with the children’s pro-
gram.

BUS PROBLEMS IN SHREVEPORT

Diane Zdunich wrote from Shreve-
port that she doesn’t know WHAT to
do on buses. It seems no Negro can sit
in front of a white person on the buses,
even if that’s where the only vacant
seats are. Diane tries to sit near the
back of the bus to protest the segrega-
tion, and she tries to sit with a Negro
if possible. She did this the other day,
but when five or six Negroes got on
later they went and stood behind her
instead of taking seats in front of her.
She didn’t know what to do then. Fi-
nally, rather than go to the front of the
bus, she got off and walked down town,
more determined than ever to fight this
humiliating custom.

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Carmen Jones-High Class Minstrel Show?

ARMEN JONES MAY BE HIGH-

VOLTAGE stuff at the box office,
but she blows a fuse in U.S. race rela-
tions. Aside from Legion of Decency
objections because of suggestive cos-
tuming and situation, there are objec-
tions to the film because the characters
involved in these scenes of immorality
are all Negroes.

Because of segregation, the average
white moviegoer probably knows few
Negroes personally. He has probably
rarely visited with a Negro family,
gone to church with Negroes, or been
at parties with Negroes. He forms his
impressions of the Negro from hearsay,
stories in the newspapers, and perhaps
more importantly, the movies.

CARICATURE

What kind of impression of the Ne-
gro does the white movie-goer, already
more or less prejudiced, carry away
with him from Carmen Jones? He sees
a caricature of the Negro race, on a
more sophisticated level than a minstrel
show, but equally as damaging to the
reputation of Negroes.

ARMEN JONES IS ALL WRONG

for the same reason that minstrel
shows are all wrong. If we all knew
Negroes well, if we really had a chance
in our everyday lives to meet a fair
cross section of Negroes—the intellec-
tuals, the housewives, the lawyers, the
shopkeepers — then we wouldn’t take
the ludicrous stereotype of the Negro
presented in minstrel shows as anything
but what it is. Then minstrel shows
wouldn’t be so dangerous.

But for many people, the illiterate
“darky” of the minstrel shows is the
only impression of the Negro they get.
And ever after, all Negroes are thought
of as happy-go-lucky performers who
aren’t too bright.

ONE MOVIE—NOT 200
Carmen Jones is just another carica-
ture of the Negro. No cross section of

What is Race? A Review

Negro society is attempted. This
wouldn’t be so bad, again, if there were
200 or 300 movies a year released which
had other segments of Negro society
depicted. But Carmen Jones is probably
the ONLY picture showing Negro so-
ciety which most white movie-goers
will see this year. The caricature will
be taken as fact by them.

The movie, with its story of a young
G.I., Corporal Joe, who is vamped away
from his duty and his sweetheart, Cindy
Lou, by the tempestuous Carmen Jones,
is set in the southern United States and
later in Chicago. After Carmen’s love
cools she deserts Joe for the prize fight-
er, Husky Miller. For this, Joe kills
her.

“TYPICAL” NEGRO

Some of the aspects of the film which
are meat for prejudice are:

@ The violence of some of the
scenes. The fight between Carmen and
her fellow worker in a parachute fac-
tory will just feed the notion that sav-

agery is part of the Negro heritage.

@ The diction of some of the songs.
For some reason it was thought neces-
sary to sprinkle “dese” and “dats” and
“QO Lawd’s” into the lyrics of singers
whose spoken diction was highly lit-
erate.

@ Looseness of morals on the part
of all but Cindy Lou. Again, this is
thought to be typical of Negroes.

@ Loyalty based on lust or the size
of a man’s bank account.

@ Gaudy dress. Only Cindy Lou
dresses the way most of the Negroes
we know dress.

ADJUSTING THE MASKS

It’s almost as though the makers of
the movie sat down and asked them-
selves, “What kind of a Negro does the
public want?” And then all the players
adjusted their masks and set to work
creating just the right mixture of vio-
lence, loose morals and gaudiness.

The result is a lacquered product,

CARMEN AND HUSKY MILLER

Lacquered, brilliant and cold.

brilliant and cold. It is impossible to
have any real feeling of empathy for
anyone but Cindy Lou who managed
to come through as a real person. The
moral downfall of Joe is not felt as a
tragedy—it isn’t felt at all.

WHY “ALL-NEGRO”?

The implications of an “All-Negro”
cast would be fruit for another full-
length review. William H. Mooring, Mo-
tion Picture Editor for the Los An-
geles Catholic Tidings had this to say
about the casting:

“If Hammerstein, Preminger and
some others interested in this movie
stand opposed to . . . segregation as a
social principle—as I assume they do—
how come they accept and present it in
the most powerful medium yet known
for the communication of ideas?”

For the price of a movie, Americans
can get an hour’s entertainment AND
a reinforcement of some of their pet
prejudices.

vee) vs ¥
(National Screen Service Corp. Photo)

The old classifications of Negroid, Mongoloid,
and Caucasoid are “something of a fiction”

By Jerry Hickey

The title to this UNESCO pamphlet
is, at a glance, a seemingly simple ques-
tion. But in recent history we have
witnessed the importance of an answer
based on real knowledge. The world
has always needed such an answer but
never as much as now. When we say
“world” we mean not only the world

-that history deals with but the world

of our own community as well.

THE CONTEST FOR JUSTICE

The results of some of the answers
given to this question are constantly
with us. The Nazis in their fanatical
belief that they were racially superior
produced “studies” to prove this and it
served to justify their actions against
the rest of humanity. White suprema-
cists also answer the question in the
same terms of superiority and inferior-
ity and we know all too well the re-
sults of their thinking. For those deal-
ing with these ideas and theories in the
contest for justice, it sometimes seems
impossible that these notions can exist
on such a large scale after so many
years of thinking and scientific re-
search on the subject of race.

OLD METHOD—PHYSICAL
MEASUREMENTS STUDIED

If we examine what actually has been
done in this respect, perhaps the recent
gains in the fight against racism can be
attributed in part to the recent gains
that have been in the study of race it-

JANUARY, 1955

self. The traditional approach in phys-
ical anthropology was to collect exten-
sive data on physical measurements
from all over the world—head indices,
nose indices, etc. Taking this and other
data on external features—hair type,
skin color, eye-color, etc., the races
were. classified according to all these
characteristics and, of course, in their
geographical framework.

We are all familiar with the general
breakdown of negroid, mongoloid and
eaucasoid, for the major stocks, and
then all the smaller racial groups—Nor-
dic, Celtic, Alpine, Mediterraneans, etc.
Classifications gave rise to more classifi-
cations with the ultimate hope that cor-
relations with other things — climate,
diet, etc. would lead to an understand-
ing of race. The classifications were all
based on types and described in ideal
types—blond hair, blue eyes, long head-
ed, etc., for the Nordic and so on for
the other groups.

CATEGORIES NOT REPRESENTED
One basic criticism of this approach
is that the types are something of a
fiction since they do not fit everyone
in the population and they may not,
in some cases, be representative. Obvi-
ously not all the people in Scandinavia
are blond and blue-eyed. Consequently
there is really less to these schemes
than meets the eye. Beyond that it was
an approach that could be used by
those who wanted to dress up their own

prejudiced ideas with gems of “scien-
tific proof.” Invalid correlations of race
and culture, race and intelligence were
the result. Those who were trying to
prove their own theories for their own
ends, could use the classifications and
supply their own “knowledge” and
“facts”.
NEW APPROACH—STUDY
OF GENETIC MAKE-UP

The new approach to the study of
race is based on genetic research and
seeks to understand the process and
formation of races. The UNESCO book-
let called WHAT IS RACE gives an ex-
cellent outline and basic understanding
of this approach. It graphically explains
the underlying genetic principles and
brings the latest findings up to date..-

This is research that is moving ahead
very rapidly, especially in the blood-
type studies and it would require a new
edition every three years to really keep
it current. The people of a given geo-
graphical area are studied as a popula-
tion and they are described in terms of
their genetic make-up. This requires
great research on the study of genes
and heredity to find out why physical
variation comes about and what the dif-
ferences are related to.

COVERS EVERYONE
IN POPULATION

Unlike the old approach, the correla-
tions here must be worked out in the
laboratory as well as in the field. It
covers everyone in the population so
from the viewpoint of statistics, it is a
100 per cent sample. The authors of

this booklet are some of the best in the
field of genetic and race studies and
its method of explaining the somewhat
complicated ideas are precise and writ-
ten for all to understand.

The only criticism that can be made
of the booklet is that the editors have
bothered to include the chart classifica-
tions in the traditional view:-With the
approach and material included in the
booklet, this is incongruous, not to say
intrusive. There is no need whatsoever
to refer to traditional classifications.
The new approach doesn’t require it.

Outside of this, however, the booklet
is excellently done and is indispensable
for those who want an acquaintance
with the thinking and research that is
approaching the most valid and per-
haps final answer to the question,
“What is race?”

(TERMS: Physical anthropology—The
study of the origin and historical devel-
opment of man’s body.

Genetic make-up—tThe inheritance of
genes from our parents. Genes are often
pictured as small beads on a string. At
conception the child receives half of his
genes from each parent. They help de-
termine his physical characteristics,
such as color of eyes, size of heart,
length of fingers, etc.)

(This beautifully illustrated, simply
written, booklet can be obtained for
$1 from UNESCO, Dept. of Mass Com-
munication, United Nations Building,
New York, N.Y. We strongly recom-
mend it for teachers.)

Future of Catholic Education in South

Father John McShane and his rectory. The ground floor is a garage.

NOTE: THE CATHOLIC INTERRA-
CIALIST is indebted to the ST. JO-
SEPH MAGAZINE for the reprint of
the following interview of California
mewspaperman, Ted LeBerthon, with
Father John McShane, S.S.J., rector of
St. Lucy’s Church, Houma, Louisiana.
At St. Lucy’s, Father McShane has built
a church, an elementary and a high
school, and a convent for the Presenta-
tion Sisters who teach there. He faces
a future darkened by the prospect of
losing many of his students to the new
high school for Negroes. Louisiana is
belatedly building these new public
schools, in hopes of forever staving off
the recent court decision by creating a
school system that is really “separate

. but equal.”)

LAST DITCH

Q. Father McShane... how about
this last ditch effort Southerners are
making to avoid mixed schools? .. . Is
it true Negro students are flocking to
these modern public schools?

Ans. In three Texas cities—Galves-
ton, Houston and Beaumont—new pub-
lic schools have forced Catholic high
schools to close their doors.

Q. That really answers the question.
But Father, surely good looking build-
imgs . . . do not outweigh a Catholic
education in the minds of the Negro
Catholic parents?

Ans. Catholic parents here are as
loyal as Catholic parents anywhere....
But Northerners need to realize that an
overwhelming majority of the parents
of Negro pupils down here are Protes-
tant. Why, only three per cent of all
Negroes in United States are Catholic.

Q. What is the enrollment of Prot-
estant pupils in St. Lucy’s?

Ans. We have 532 pupils presently
enrolled in our elementary and high
schools combined. About two-thirds are
Protestant. Of the 185 pupils who are
Catholics, only 33 were baptized as in-
fants... .

TUITION: 25 CENTS A WEEK

Q. Would there be an economic fac-
for in Negro parents sending their chil-
dren to the public schools? ...

Ans. Definitely. The fathers of most
of our pupils earn bare subsistence
wages. Many are sugar-cane cutters,
living in sagging old shacks on planta-
tions. In order to maintain St. Lucy’s
elementary school, we have to charge
a tuition of 25 cents a week. The fee
for St. Lucy’s high school students is
$1.00 a week .. . it is a whole lot to
the average Southern Negro breadwin-
mer. ...

@. The Church then faces a really
critical situation?

Ans. A desperately critical situation
that Gan undo much that we have done

NORTHERN HELP

Q. What is going to be the strategy
ef Catholic schools in the face of this
development?

Ans. ...I daresay many will do
what I’ve long been doing and am go-
ing to continue to do... . We will have

8

to launch the strongest appeals . . . to
our always increasing number of North-
ern benefactors. Our missionaries in
this overwhelmingly Protestant South
will continue to secure most of their
funds from Northern Catholics.

CATHOLIC RACISM

Q. Can‘t you get support of Negro
schools from Southern Catholics? In
Louisiana aren't there many Cathol’<s?

Ans. Louisiana is forty per cent
Catholic. Here in southeastern Louisi-
ana along the bayous and in New Or-
leans proper there is an over-all sixty-
seven per cent Catholic population... .
But race prejudice is just as virulent
here as in other Southern states... .

Q. Then Southern white Catholics
won't help the cause of Negro educa-
tion?

Ans. Southern white Catholics
haven’t been much help in the past,
but, in fairness to them, many factors
have to be considered. Many of them
are not as well off financially as the av-
erage Northern Catholic. . . Some
Catholic leaders still want to keep Ne-
groes “in their place” and most still
refer to them as “niggers.” They also
fear that if Negroes are “over-educat-
ed” they’ll no longer want to cut sugar
cane and do menial domestic work.

SOUTHERN CLERGY WORK
WITH WHITES

Q. Are white Catholics antagonistic
to the work of the Church with Ne-
groes?

Ans. We Josephite priests are often
called “Yankee” priests. . . . Whites
often deplore that Southern - born

priests aren’t pastoring Negro missions.

Q. Aren’t they?

Ans. The Southern-born white sec-
ular clergy of the archdiocese of New
Orleans—and this would hold true for
virtually any Southern diocese or arch-
diocese—are engaged almost exclusive-
ly in ministering to the whites.

Q. Father McShane, isn’t it true that
you have met critical situations . . . at
St. Lucy’s, and have handled them suc-
cessfully?

Ans. I suppose it’s true. When I
first came to Houma, less than one per
cent of all the Negroes were practicing
the Catholic faith. . . . Thousands of
Negroes in Houma over the years had
defected from the Catholic faith that
had been their ancestors’ when Louisi-
ana was under Spanish and French
rule. As late as 1940, some 350 Negroes
in Houma were still practicing Cath-
olics but when I came in 1944 there
were only ten left. The others had be-
come Baptists, Methodists and Pente-
costals. A few went to no church at all.

REAR PEWS—”COLORED ONLY”

Q. Why such wholesale falling away
from the Church?

Ans. Why? Because Negroes did not
like having to occupy rear pews marked
“for colored only” in St. Francis de
Sales Church in Houma. They did not
like being excluded from societies and
sodalities or having to go up to the
Communion rail only after all the
whites had received.

Q. Hasn't that type of segregation
been abolished in this diocese?

Ans. Yes it has. Archbishop .
Rummel of New Orleans in 1947 or-
dered the “for colored only” signs re-
moved and said that Negroes were wel-
come to sit anywhere in any Catholic
church in the archdiocese and to join
any society or sodality.

Q. You were called to Houma,
weren’t you, because the ten Negro
Catholics wanted a church of their
own?

Ans. The three Negro men called on
me at St. Luke’s .. . in Thibodeaux,
sixteen miles from Houma. They were
hoping I could come over to Houma
and say one Mass... . Archbishop Rum-
mel gave me permission and I secured
free the rather shabby assembly hall
of a wooden public school for Negroes
as my first “church”.

Q. How were you able to build all
that (church, schools, convent) in ten
years, Father McShane, with no assets?

Ans. We had four building cam-
paigns. My poor parishioners contrib-
uted less than three per cent of the
funds. Better than 77 per cent came
from Northerners.

CATHOLIC SEGREGATION
A DISPENSATION

Q. Father, will the example of Arch-
bishop Lucey of San Antonio, who abol-
ished segregation in the Catholic schools
of his archdiocese, soon be followed by
other archbishops and bishops?

Ans. I think the Supreme Court de-
cision of May 17 answers that. Further-
more, the building of separate Catholic
schools and churches for any racial
group, including Negroes is only per-
mitted by the Holy See under a special
dispensation . . . since 1893. . . at the
request of the late Archbishop Janssens
of New Orleans... .

Q. In other words, the Church has
only obeyed civil racist statutes and
conformed to Southern customs?

Ans. ... Legalized segregation was
unknown wherever Catholics colonized
in the Western Hemisphere... . Protes-
tant denominations by first setting up
separate churches ... entrenched Jim
Crowism.... Few... including Cath-
olics, understand this. They think the
Church in the South has approved seg-
regation....

INTEGRATION OR NON-SURVIVAL

Q. Then an ending of segregated
schools, both Catholic and public,
would resolve the crisis now being
faced by St. Lucy’s and others?

Ans. An integration that would
have to be accomplished as soon as pos-
sible... . It is going to take a long
time to change Southern white hearts
and minds. I hope we can soon welcome
into our schools any child regardless of
race, creed, or poverty. But if the arch-
diocese of New Orleans and our Jo-
sephite superior-generai would tell us
tomorrow that we could invite white
pupils to enter our schools, I don’t think
very many would come... .

Q. Even with integration, St. Lucy’s
would still have to compete with the
handsome new public high school? ...
St. Lucy’s and other Catholic schools in
the South must offer pupils equal if not
better educational, athletic and social
facilities?

Ans. ... Otherwise much that has
been done for us in the past will be un-
done by these new public high schools
for Negroes.

Beverly Porche kisses her parents good-bye and sets out for her daily, thirty-mile round-trip bus ride to St. Lucy’s. Beverly is

one of many Baptist pupils at St. Lucy’s.

(Photos courtesy of St. Joseph Magazine)

CATHOLIC INTERRACIALIST