February 28, 1950
The Negro Citizen
The negro of today can no longer be treated as a freed slave. Four generations of semi-free negroes will not endure their heritage of second class freedom. Just as our democracy changes to cope with a new world in foreign relations, so must we change our domestic views to fit a new and enlightened negro generation.
The past can no longer be a blue print for our conduct toward the negro. The Civil War heroes are dead, but what they fought for, for some, is an accepted concept of democracy. No one can argue the just of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Bill of Rights giving freedom to all and barring discrimination for "race, color or previous condition of servitude." And yet, in 80 years of justice, the negro still has not come to to realize all of the fruits of freedom.
Today, freedom for negroes is again a popular public--hence a political--platform. President Truman won a re-election on a program that included legislation for 'equal rights' in their true sense. Since his election much progress has been made in ending racial discrimination.
There is still much legislation needed because of the born and bred prejudice of the minority. This does not mean legislation that will give the negro something that he legally already has. The negro can vote, has all the freedoms of the whites technically. The laws being passed merely prohibit and make unconstitutional the trick legislation conceived and enacted by individuals for the purpose of racial discrimination.
The Fourteenth Amenment gave the negro the right to vote in 1869. Since that time the negroes of the Northern United States have enjoyed comparatively unrestricted suffrage, but this is not true with the Southern negro. The South has long been adroit at developing schemes and organizations for the exclusion of the negro at the polls. These include 'grandfather clauses' of free ancestry, the poll tax that poor negroes cannot pay (or anyone poor for that matter), the educational tests for voting that are strangely higher for negroes. And then, of course, there is the notorious Klu Klux Klan.
During the recent war, I spent considerable time in both the North and the deep South. Negro housing, while much better generally in the North, is still zoned much as it is in the South. In Lincoln, Nebraska, I have eaten in restaurants where negroes and whites were served side-by-side. In Norfolk, Virginia, I have been on buses where 'the color line' was drawn clearly on the floor of the bus. The 'Jim Crow' section was the back one-third of the bus and the driver had credentials stating he was a special deputy to enforce the so called 'blue laws' for negro segregation.
On one of the buses I happened to ride in Virginia, the negro section was crowded while the larger white section was almost empty. One negro man crossed the line to sit in the last row of the white section. The driver immediately stopped the bus, "In the back n***er," he shouted. The elderly negro moved back with the others. Discrimination has been carried on with less publicity. The factories which do not hire skilled negroes, the neighborhoods where the negro may not live, have been accepted -- even by the people who otherwise preach racial equality.
During World War II, the negroes had their first big chance to work as skilled and semi-skilled labor. The results have been so good that today employment of negroes in factories is up 17% over ten years ago.
In housing, zoning laws have been liberated in such cities as Chicago, Kansas City and St. Louis to allow larger and larger areas of good flats and apartments for negroes. In many areas, whites and negroes live side-by-side in mutual understanding and police reports indicate that acts of violence and crime are lower in these mixed areas than in all-white or all-negro neighborhoods.
The legislative approach to the entire negro question has never quite risen above the politically expedient level. The lofty ideals set forth by the major parties are still nothing more than campaign promises, while the ratio of actual laws enacted is very low.
A recent Supreme Court ruling that any contract of agreement which stipulates racial discrimination is invalid, has proved to be a major gain in the 'civil rights' program of President Truman. Another step forward came August 20, 1949 when the Secretary of Defense ordered that all segregation cease within the Armed Forces.
The politicians of today and tomorrow may well learn and remember that the 1950 census is expected to reveal population figures of which 17% will be negroes, and this large percentage is a powerful political force which cannot be denied it's birthright. Negroes have served in war and peace and are increasingly becoming more of an asset in our country.
They cannot continue to be denied the practice of those freedoms which they already have.
Schultze, Edward C.
Today, August 5th, 2023... the 101st birthday of my father. Happy Birthday dad. So glad that I and so many of us, but sadly not all, were 'born and bred' to know, not only we are all special, but that we are all equal. Much has changed dad in the 73 years since you wrote this, but sadly, more change is needed, and even still needed, believe it or not, in elections. Dad got an S- on the paper and there were edits all about the writing. Of course said with bias, but, as a dad he was a definite A.
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