MAIUNG
EDITION
"Che^uth Unbri^e^^
VOL. xxm —N0.'-«2
Durham, North Carolina, Saturday, December 25, J94o
COWNS
FEPC Chairman Blasts Railroads* Bias Attitude
Railroads Short Of 850
Firemen; Refuse To
Use Competent Negroes
Popular Smart And Pretty
Prompted by a letter sen
by 16 rftilrojids and termlnn
companies to the President’s
Committee on Fair Employ
ment Practice, Malcolm Ross,
the committee chairman, to
day issued the following state-
The quest'on of preventhip
Nei>i'o railroad workers from
boinp used by tjhe carriers at
their top skills is a war prob-
Um of the first order. Evi
dence at the FEPC hearinji-
showed a shortage of 850 fire
men on American railroads,
this at a time when trained
and experienced Negro fire
men were unemployed an3 the
carriers were preferring to
take on green hands, simply
because there has been fo
years a sometimes tacit and
sometimes formal agreement
uetween the railroads and the
railroad unions to decreasQ
flie number of ITegro firemen
and give their jobs to white
workers. This is no question
of Negroes seeking to displace
whites. Negro firemen were
tie accepted majority for 50
years on southern railroads,
until automatic stokers and
sel-powered engines changed
the dirty, hpavy work into de
sirable Jobs. Racial prejudice
is not at issue here. White
southern engineers have for
decades had decent, working
relationships with Negro fire
men. Sidney Aldermav
r;el for the railroads at the
FF,PC hearings, stated: “I
corlnn.ly do not mean to con--
tend that anything in th
south would interfere with
the employment of Negroes as
firemen on locomotives.”
The Southeastern Carriers’
C o n f e r e n ce Agreeement,
which the Committee found iri
violation of Executive Order
■1316, wasi concerned with the
hiring and use of Negroes as
firemen and not with theiv
promotion from firemen to en
ginoers. The railroads no\T
advJincc obligations under th»
Railway Labor Act as bar
riors to changing the discrim
1 inatory Southeastern Carriers’
Conference Agreement. There
is no conflict of jurisdiction
here. The Agreement was
reached with"-the Brother
hoods in 1941, and by mutual
atrreement it can be altered
or discarded. In asking bofh
pnrties to haake this move, tlie
Please turn to Page 5
Jim Crow Law And Journalism School
Lincoln University Oose After
Both Are Found To 'Be Too Expensive
Jefferson City, Mo., Dot*
23.—(ANP) — That a Jirr
Crow school system is expen
sive was substantiated last
Saturday when the board ol
curators of Lincoln University
decided to close the schools
of law and journalist afteV
the current semester, ending
Feb. 1, 1944.
Both schools represent the
state’s determination to pro
long the practice of a dual
jim crow educational system
after youthful Lloyd Gaines
was refused admittance to the
Iftw school at the University
of Missouri. The supreme
court heard Gaines’ story of
being barred from the tax
supported state university and
ruled that Missouri mu.st pro
vide equal educational oppor
tunities and facillcies for col
ored students.
Qaines’ victory was hailed
as one of the race’s out
standing gains in 1937 and
is said t(^ have caused con
siderable antagonism among
enemies of colored people.
Both schools are closed and
in a manner not closed, be
cause of an existing techni
cality which demands that a
certain , number of students
must be enrolled before the
schools are classified as. of
an “active status,” it was
learned.
Such a technicality pre
vents colored students who
desire to enroll as student?
of law and journalism from
enrolling at-the University of
Tobacco Workers Of
Giant RJR Factory Cast
6,822 Votes For CIO
Miss Louise Penn, popular
A and T College senior an«i*
treasurer of the Alpha Mr*
Chapter, Delta Sigma Theta
ber, serving fourth year as
member of the college band,
and past chaii';.ian of the
college War Bond Rally
Sorority, dramatic club mem-
Asks FDR To Act In Three FEPC
Cases; Fight Against Agency Spreads
Big Planes Used In Navigation
^ ♦ V-
Bnrrao of Pnblle Bclaticia, U. 8. War CciKrimeaT
R£ADY to TAEB off—Checking into plane, a 0-60 nsed on student navigation missions at
Hondo Army Air Field, Hondo, Texas, are Aviation Cadet* Francis B. Collier, Berkeley, California;
Everett E. Richardson, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Celestino S. Monclova, Brooklyn, New York; Wil
liam F. Burrell, Pocatello, Idaho, and Edward Fressly, Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Army Air Forces).
Washington, Dec. 2J3.(aNP)
—Upon his return cap-
ital la.st week. President Roo
sevelt found Himself confront
ed with requests to settle
three cases arising out of the
efforts of the Fair Employ
ment Practice committee to
combat discrimination.
These involve the disputes
with the X’ailroads, the boiler
makers’ union on the west
coast, and the Capital Tran
sit company situation. In alJ
of these cases there has been
sufficient evidence to con
clude that impasses have been
reached.
those cases fher has ’nO
The unsettled question in
the minds of many observer-j,
however, is whether or not
FEPC will show the “cour
age and directness" exempli
fied by the National War La
bor board in its handling of
the Point Breeze, Md., case
centering around the demand
by Western Electric company
employes for separate toilet
facil’tes for Nogro"s.
While the railroads cite>l
in the September, hearings
have until Dec. 23 officially
to comply with tlie commit
tee’s directives, they filed
Please turn to Page 5
Negro Soldiers
Being Trained
Paratroopers
Chicago, Dec. 23.—(ANP)—
Negro soldiers are being
formed ii^to paratroop units.
Those in position to know but
who preferred not to be quot
ed, said they expected the unit
to be activated about Jan. 1.
It is further reported that the
unit will be the 501st Para
chute battalion and that it
will be stationed at Camp
Mackull, N. C., with all Ne
gro personnel.
Apparently ther are Negro
paratrooper units already but
this is theifirst one which will
have all Negro officers. Soin*;
of the crack officers in sev
eral Negro regiments have
been asked to volunteer to
serve as officers of this out
fit and have accepted.
Paratroopers are airborne
troops and regarded among
the cream of the army. Their
battle role is so . vital that
they are not to be used ex
cept in a coordinated attack
ordered by the theatre com
mander. This assures the
paratroopers of'the honor of
being used at key points. It^
mebers receive flying pay and
chances for promotion are re
garded as excellent.
Acclaimed
Mordecai Johnson
And Benjanw Mays
AtN.C.C.InIaD,
Speakers and artists appear-
injr at North Carolina College
during January wete an
nounced here last week by
Dr. James E. Shepard, presi
dent of the college, as fol
lows :
Sunday, January 9, Presi
dent Benjamin Mays. More
house College, Atlan^, Ga.;
Monday-Tuesday, January" 10-
il. Carl Weinrich, organist;
Sunday, January 16, Acting
President R. O’Hara Lanie%
Hampton Institute, Va.; Sun
day, Januafj' 23, President
Mordecai Johnson, Howard
Please turn to Page 5
.. Dr. ~4T~Heninburg, former
faculty member of N. C. CoH-
ege whose work with the Ur
ban l^eague in the placing of
Negroes in new defense job.s
in various defense plants
throughout the nation is be
ing acclaimed short of phen
omenal. I
Negroes In Vii^
SeekRe^l Of
Segregation Law
Richmond, Va., Dec. 22.—
(ANP'—Since much favor
able comment has been
since the advocacy of the^-
peal of segregated .street cars
and buses by the local daily,
Richmond Times-Dispatch of
which Virginius Dabney is ed
itor, 80r Negro representatives;!
of about 20 communities met
in the Richmond Beneficial
Insurance auditorium Sunday
to push this plan.
Winston - Salem, Dec. 22.—
Climaxing a tm) year o-rg»n-
iing campaign, CIO won bar
gaining rights by a vote of
more than two to one in a
final election covering the 12,-
000 workers at the R. J. Rey
nolds plants. The Tobacco
Workers Organizing Commit
tee of UCAPAWA-CIO polled
6,822 votes. The R. J. Rey
nolds Employees A.ssociation
(company union) polled 3,175
votes. No union vote was 301
with 224 ballots challenged
and -56 void.
Courts Reject Injunctions
The election followed a se
ries of court actions by, the
Company Union who succ^d-
ed in getting two injunctions
restraining the National La
bor Relatiotis Board from
holding the election on 'two
previous occasions. Attorrfeys
for the Company Union re
ceived their final set-back on
the day before the election
wlien “trust busters” Thur
man Arnold and two other
judges of the District Court
of Columbia’s Circuit Court
of Appeals unanimously re
jected the petition t7i. the
Company Union for still an
other injunction on Thursday,
December 16 and after Judge
Bailey of the Federal Dis
trict Court of the District
Court of Columbia had »lso
turned duwn a request for an
injunction.
The meeting, which was
called by Dr. Leon A. ITeid.
was under the sponsorship of
the Richmond Civic Forum,
of which the Dr. W. L. Ran-
some is president. A commit
tee of three, Dr. L. F. Palmer
of Newport News, Roscoe C.
Mitchell and Wiley A. Hall
of this city were named ‘to
draft resolution for a plan of
action and as a guide in cre
ating sentiment, and to enlist
support of the whites. Those
resolutions would be distrit)-
uted in each community rep-
Please turn to Page &
I'nion Plans Industry Wide
Organizing Campaign
In a statement issued by
Donald Hendersoru Interna
tional President of UCAPA
WA-CIO, Conrad Espe. Exe
cutive Vice - President and
Frank Hargrove, Director of
the Tobacco Workers Or^n-
izing Committee in Winston-
Salem the Union announced
that it woyld at once start ne
gotiations for a contract cov
ering the 12,000 woriters in
cluded in the bargaining a-
gency.
“Wi expect to extend tli«
benefits of CXO. OiTf
tion thj^ughout the indostiT'*
the Union leaders staM.
ter twenty-five (85) ytan
failure and sell-wits ^
A. F. of L. Tot>acco W:
Union this tiask
Please tun to ft