CORRESPONDENCE OCT. 1950 October 1, 1950 My Dear Friend: Doubtless you have received notice of the production of my Hatian Opera, "Ouanga", by the Dra-Mu Opera Company in Philadelphia, on Friday evening, October 27, at the Academy of Music. I know that you are interested in this production and I am sending you this personal letter urging you to be present on this occasion. I shall be greatly pleased and honored if you and some of your musical friends will write Mr. Raymond L. Smith, 130 N. Sickel Street, Philadelphia 39, Pa., for full particulars and reservations. Thanking you in advance and hoping to see you, I am Sincerely, Clarence Cameron White Clarence Cameron White Tuesday Evening Club of Social Workers, Inc. 1114 O Street, N. W. Washington, D. C. There will be a [special] regular meeting at the above address. WHEN Tues. 8:00 P.M. Oct. 3, 1950 Please be Present, Election of Officers Madge Carey President Julia Valentine Corresponding Secretary NORMAN THOMAS 112 EAST 19TH STREET NEW YORK 3, N. Y. 21 October 5, 1950 Dear Miss Terrell: Probably all the friends of the Workers Defense League, like myself, get appeals from many worthy organizations but none of them can do the job of the WDL. I am asking your help and support for the Workers Defense League because its concept of workers' defense and of true freedom has led it not only to protect workers and minorities in the United States but also to pioneer in fighting the menace, still external to Americans, of Stalin's type of slavery to the state. In 1936, when I was helping the Southern Tenant Farmers Union in its struggles against organized terrorism in Arkansas, the WDL was there quietly gathering the evidence which led to the first post-Reconstruction conviction for peonage. Perhaps its biggest single achievement was the organization in 1948 of the Commission of Inquiry into Forced Labor, which assembled the first comprehensive documented report on this tragic subject ever presented to the United Nations. Its staff is still doing the work that must be done to make the peoples of the world know what this sort of slavery means. Here in America, day by day, it is doing on-the-spot investigation and research in the darker regions of our country. Despite its limited budget, it has given practical legal assistance to dozens of individual victims of exploitation. Look at the enclosed Bulletin and see how wide is the range of the League's activities: extraditions to Georgia, peonage in Florida, the plight of migratory workers in the northeast and Mexicans in the southwest, are its business. Aren't they the business of all of us? It is because I think you will say, "Yes", that I am asking a generous contribution to the Workers Defense League for its continuing service to democratic freedom. Pass around the Bulletin to your friends. They need its message; the Workers Defense League needs their help. Sincerely yours, Norman Thomas WORKERS DEFENSE BULLETIN FALL 1950 WDL PENETRATES IRON CURTAIN CLARENCE JACKSON RETURNED TO GEORGIA June, 1950, saw the end of the more than year-long judicial battle to save Clarence Jackson from return to the George prison camp from which he fled in fear for his life. The last U. S. Supreme Court appeal had been rejected, the last stay of execution of the warrant of extradition had been denied. His WDL attorney, Curtis F. McClane, stood with him in the court as the judge turned him over to the Georgia authorities. Before surrendering Jackson, however, the judge praised McClane for his handling of the case and warned Georgia that if Jackson was mistreated, further extraditions would be denied. As Jackson was led from the courtroom for his long trip back, New York detectives struck down the arm shackles and chain the Georgia officers were applying, with the succinct comment: "That is not permitted in New York." Legal precedents were set in the Clarence Jackson case which will have far-reaching effects on future extradition cases. More immediately important was the use made of the Clarence Jackson evidence and briefs in other states. WDL Attorney Leon Cousens persuaded Michigan Governor Mennen Williams to refuse to extradite a fugitive to Georgia. Later, Governor Williams again refused to extradite- this time to Alabama. Haywood Patterson, the last of the imprisoned "Scottsboro Boys," finally gained his freedom. Georgia, too, is not insensitive to the effects of the Jackson case. It marshalled its total legal resources to secure Jackson's return, and won. But the attendant publicity has aroused public opinion, particularly in the South. The Southern press is looking with a critical eye at the Georgia penal system. Atlanta papers have editorially joined the fight for reform. Before Clarence Jackson, the courts would not listen to a plea such as Attorney McClane made. "Cruel and unusual punishment" in the hands of one's jailor was not considered grounds for granting the fugitive his freedom. Two questions only concerned the judge: the validity of the rendition warrant and the identity of the prisoner. Satisfied with these answers, the judge ordered the fugitive's return-even to possible death. McClane carried the issue of cruel punishment and threat of death through six courts. While refusing to review the lower New York court's finding of fact that Jackson's fears were unfounded (despite his blinded eye, his maimed arm, his shackle scars), they all held that a prisoners should not be cruelly treated; that a fugitive would not be returned to possible death. Editorial WDL POLICY People say: "The WDL is doing a good job-BUT-" The "buts" are a series of alternative questions. "Don't you think you are playing into the hands of the Communists by pointing out the weaknesses of our democratic society? Would it not be better, in these times, to "soft-pedal" your program against discrimination, anti-union activity, and peonage?" we are most often asked. The answers are simple. It would be a betrayal of our democracy if we were to relax, particularly in these times, our traditional and real concern for the elimination of the remaining sore spots in our country. We cannot ignore these evils; ignoring them will not eliminate them. Furthermore, to ignore them would be the height of political irresponsibility. The Stalinoids will not ignore them but will exploit them for their own ends-the destruction of democracy. The other series of questions is asked by our pacifist supporters. "Why," they say, "play up the Russian forced labor (Continued on page 2) Over 100 broadcasts of the "Voice of America" have carried the Workers Defense League and the WDL initiated Commission of Inquiry Into Forced Labor through the Iron Curtain of Stalinland. These programs in many languages have brought into factual focus the story of the spread of state slavery as the basis of the Stalinist economy from the USSR throughout the satellite countries. At the same time, the Workers Defense League program to eliminate the vestiges of illegal peonage in the United States, to correct injustices to minorities, and to defend the rights of labor have been repeatedly carried on the world airways. (The work of the Commission of Inquiry Into Forced Labor is reviewed on page 2.) LISTON OAK, LABOR ANALYST, "VOICE OF AMERICA," AND ROWLAND WATTS ON MAKING AN INTERNATIONAL BROADCAST ON WDL WORK Editorial WDL Policy (Continued from page 1) system? Why use such terms as 'iron curtain,' 'Stalinists,' and 'Stalinoids'? Does this not gratuitously add to the war fever?" Here, the answers are equally simple. WDL as a responsible organization devoted to the extension of democracy has had as one of its primary objectives for fourteen years the exposure and elimination of illegal peonage in the United States. Such vestigial peonage-vile as it is-pales into nothingness when compared to the hordes of millions of slaves under the Soviets. This State Slavery of the USSR is not peace. It is was against the peoples of the world. It is not communism, socialism, or economic democracy, as its apologists claim. It is a system of degredation which can only be described as "Stalinism." It is a system before which pacifists cannot stand silent. Pacifists, particularly pacifists, must oppose it with the full force of clear and documented exposure to the court of world opinion. There can be no misunderstanding of the Workers Defense League's position. We are for democracy and for the justice to the individual which is only possible under a functioning democracy. We are opposed to forced labor, peonage, and slavery. We will fight their manifestations and their roots to the best of our ability-wherever they appear. There can be no neutrality. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT CLEARS WDL The Department of Justice, through a representative of the Civil Rights Section, in a conference with John F. Finerty, WDL National Council, reported that "the FBI had found no evidence that WDL investigator had impersonated governmental agencies in the course of their anti-peonage work in Florida or elsewhere." Mr. Finerty, while expressing satisfaction with this exoneration, pointed out the absurdity of the government's response to the WDL peonage work and called for a conference with Attorney-General Mc-Grath and FBI Director Hoover to review FBI methods in this field. IMPROVED QUARTERS FOR WDL We've moved! Same building, same address-112 East 19th Street, New York 3-but a bit more space and a much more efficient layout in Room 405. Workers DEFENSE Bulletin Published Quarterly by the Workers Defense League 112 East 19th St., N.W. AL 4-4953 Subscription, 25¢ a year (Included in $2.00 minimum annual dues) Donald Harrington National Chairman George S. Counts Treasurer Max Delson National Counsel Rowland Watts National Secretary Albert K. Herling Assistant Secretary Frank McCallister Southern Secretary FORCED LABOR COMMISSION RECEIVES INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION By Albert K. Herling, Research Director It is only a short year and a half since the Workers Defense League initiated the Commission of Inquiry Into Forced Labor as an autonomous body. Yet in that short time the Commission has made international headlines and has become recognized as a clearing house for information on forced labor, slavery and peonage all over the world. The Commission has been condemned and praised (back handedly) by the Chicago Tribune and Pravda. The praise has come when the reports the Commission submitted to the United Nations has hit at a particular "enemy" of the journals mentioned above, and the condemnation of course has come when the sacred cows of either of these journals have been carefully analyzed by the Commission's reports. Governments, private organizations and individuals, in increasing number, look to the Commission for honest and unbiased data in the field of forced labor, slavery, and peonage in the rest of the world, just as they look to the Workers Defense League for truthful and objective information on peonage and similar practices in the United States, its territories and dependencies. How the Commission Functions Tremendous publicity has been given to the public hearings held by the Commission in February, 1949, in the auditorium of the New York Bar Association in New York City. At that time more than a score of witnesses presented testimony on their experiences in Soviet forced labor camps. Each of these witnesses had a background of devotion to democracy, almost all of them had been imprisoned by the Nazis at one time or another and then had been imprisoned by the Soviet officials. The stories they told are commonplace today, but they become of increasing importance and significance as time goes on. Of course there was factual information presented at these hearings on peonage in Latin America, forced labor and remnants of slavery in Africa and the Middle East and a brief report on Asia. The Workers Defense League presented detailed reports on illegal peonage in the United States, illegal Mexican "wet-back" labor, and the conditions of some of the American Indian peoples. In August of 1949 the Commission held a special hearing on forced labor in the Union of South Africa. The testimony presented to the Commission laid the basis for the Rev. Michael Scott's testimony to the Trusteeship Council of the United Nations a few months later. Direct Reports to the United Nations February of this year marked the renewal of debate in the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations on forced labor. This time, the Commission prepared a voluminous and well-documented report on forced labor in the Soviet Union and the Eastern European countries. The American Federation of Labor presented this report which received international recognition for its comprehensiveness. At the same time that the ECOSOC was in session, the Ad Hoc Committee on Slavery of the ECOSOC was also meeting. The Commission presented its data on all areas of the world to this Committee and the Chairman, Dr. Moises Poblete Troncoso, of Chile, warmly recommended the Commission for its work and commended the presentation of its data as a model for all other non-governmental organizations. Contacts Are World-Wide A steady stream of reports and documentation come to the office of the Commission from all parts of the World. This assures us of up-to-date information which increase the importance of the organization's work. Travelers from Europe, refugees from behind the iron curtain, missionaries from all parts of the world, exiled labor leaders, simple workers and peasants come to the office of the Commission to tell their personal experiences. The information thus gathered is carefully checked against what is already known, unintentional exaggerations are noted. Only those who have a consistent background of devotion to democracy are quoted in our reports. Indeed, much valuable information remains unused because the sources of information can be recognized as coming from Nazis or former Nazis. The Significance of the World-Wide Job As far as is known, only one other organization is concerned with the problem on a world-wide scale. This is the British Anti-Slavery Society and Aboriginal Protective Association in London. A close working relationship has been established between the Commission and the British society. In effect then, the Commission is the only organization in the Western Hemisphere doing a comprehensive job. The fact of slavery in our twentieth century world is an appalling one. The years of struggle to put an end to slavery have really only begun, for as soon as the old forms begin to disappear, new forms, adapted to new ideologies and attuned to the industrialization of the twentieth century, begin to form. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, the world cannot live half slave and half free. We who maintain a degree of freedom must become the voice for the voiceless and the champions of the enslaved. Certainly our own freedom is lessened when millions of our fellow men are held in slavery. Sensitive people must see the necessity for this new abolitionist struggle. Not all of us can work amassing facts and writing reports, but each of us can contribute to the new crusade against slavery by giving our financial bit-large or small-and become the modern counter parts to those who struggled under the banner of Garrison. PLAN SECURITY CONFERENCE At a special meeting of the National Action Committee in September, the Workers Defense League studied the problem of security screening in maritime and defense employment. Specific cases of apparent injustice were reviewed and WDL attorneys were requested to consider possible legal action. The delay by the U.S. Coast Guard in establishing Review Appeal Boards was condemned. The inherent dangers to workers' rights were recognized. A conference of WDL advisers, attorneys and union representatives is planned. PRESIDENTS COMMISSION STUDIES EASTERN MIGRANTS Sitting in Trenton, N.J., September 5 and 6, the President's Commission on Migratory Labor heard almost two days of praise of the Puerto Rican in New Jersey and the Jamaican in Connecticut, and the conditions under which they worked. This was the testimony of the employers' representatives who had found to their liking these sources of cheap and amenable labor. Only under the skillful questioning of the expert commissioners and through the testimony of the Workers Defense League and others organizations did the true picture begin to unfold. "Puerto Ricans Pick Better" The Puerto Rican migration to New Jersey was described by William G. LaTourette and Neil Moore, growers' agents. They told how 4600 were brought in by plane under a contract which is supervised by the Department of Labor of Puerto Rica. These workers are screened for reliability and agricultural experience. Most of them are family men but they come alone and live in barracks. They are charged $62.00 transportation to Jersey and a $7.50 fee by the growers' cooperative. They are guaranteed 55 cents an hour when they are working, or the prevailing wage if greater. This wage was reported to average 70 cents an hour in 1950. There are no maximum hours of labor or overtime pay, and 100 hours or more a week is not uncommon. There are other periods of rain when work and pay cease, but living charges continue. Under questioning, Mr. LaTourette admitted that the growers' association made five thousand dollars on the Puerto Rican importation in 1949. He conceded that an unofficial and informal blacklist existed-that a worker who leaves a farm to work for another at a higher wage finds it difficult to come back the following year under the protection of the contract. Mr. Moore, who painted a glowing picture of life in camp barracks with delicious Spanish food, claimed that the Puerto Ricans were preferred to Southern Negroes because they were better agricultural workers. An added advantage was that they went where they were told and did not bargain over wages. The "prevailing wage" was fixed by the growers in advance and only had to be adjusted upward when there were insufficient Puerto Ricans to harvest the crop. "Jamaicans Pick Better" Connecticut has a far more comprehensive scheme for a controlled labor market in its tobacco fields. Mr. S. J. Orr, Jr., director of the Connecticut Shade Tobacco Growers Association described the system for 1949. With 5000 to 8000 year-round employees, the peak need of 20,000 workers was met by 2600 Jamaicans under contract, 1500 Virginia white highschool students, 1500 southern Negro college students, Connecticut school children and the local unemployed. He called the Jamaicans a "stabilizing force" in the labor market, They lived in carefully policed barracks, worked under an individual but uniform contract which provided a 55 cents an hour minimum wage, part of which was withheld until they returned to the West Indies They were not allowed union representation. If the Jamaican created a disturbance in the community, incurred the displeasure of his employer, or left the farm to which he was assigned, he was subject to immediate deportation. In wet weather, the tobacco fields cannot be worked but the Jamaican's $12.50 barracks board bill went on just the same. Orr regretted the refusal of the United States Employment Service to certify the need for Jamaicans in Connecticut in 1950 because he said that Jamaicans were better workers than either the Puerto Ricans or the Southern migrant. The best workers of all, however, were the children who picked faster and better than anyone. Child labor in the tobacco fields of Connecticut in 1950 earned 50 to 55 cents an hour; adult labor was paid 70 to 75 cents. "The Poor Pick Better" At this point, Peter Odegard, chairman of the Political Science Department of the University of California and a member of the President's Commission said: "In California, Arizona, and other places the story is the same, There they want Mexicans. Now in New Jersey they tell us that Puerto Ricans are more reliable, more stable and better workers. The same is true in Connecticut where Jamaicans are preferred. It seems to me that whether it is California, Texas, Arizona or New Jersey, it's the workers from the most poverty-stricken and destitute areas that are preferred." On behalf of the Workers Defense League, Rowland Watts reiterated Odegard's point and reminded the Commission that organized migration of workers under enforceable contracts had been initiated in New Jersey during World War II by the Southern Tenant Farmers Union (now the National Farm Labor Union, AFL) in cooperation with the Meat and Cannery Workers, AFL. Under the union plan, cotton workers were brought up from the mid-South to work under union conditions and were returned to their homes in time for the cotton-picking. This plan was discarded by the growers as soon as the Puerto Rican contract was evolved because the Puerto Rican Recruitment bypassed the union and put full control of the worker in the hands of the employer. Federal Action Needed Watts warned the Commission not to put the Puerto Rican worker in opposition to the continental migrant. He pointed out that what was needed were more and better contracts, If the Department of Labor of Puerto Rico, a United States governmental agency, could negotiate contracts with the growers on behalf of the workers, there was no reason why the service of the government could not be made available to all migrant labor. The labor contractor or recruiter should be subject to federal license and control, and unions in the farm labor field should have the benefits of the labor relations laws. He emphasized the need of further revisions of the federal child labor laws, which do not now apply at a time when the children need them most - during the school vacation season. In discussing the features of the New York State law, Watts stated that the N. Y. Child Agricultural Labor law had been on the books since 1928. After a three year educational campaign, intensive enforcement efforts were started in 1948. In that year, only nine per cent of the children employed on the 514 farms inspected were found to be legally employed. In 1949, 769 farms were visited and less than forty-five per cent of the child labor was legally at work. Florida Peonage Commission Planned Impetus was given to the Workers Defense League's peonage investigation by assurances from Florida Attorney General Richard W. Ervin that "the local authorities are competent and willing to thoroughly investigate the matter and take whatever action the circumstances may justify." When the fact that Florida has no anti-peonage laws was pointed out to Mr. Ervin by Rowland Watts, WDL national secretary, Ervin enumerated existing laws that might be adapted to the prosecution of those who deprive a worker of his basic right to mobility, the right to leave a job, and the right to be paid for the work he does. Rev. Donald Harrington, WDL National Chairman, states: "It is indeed encouraging when the chief law enforcement officer of a Southern state expresses a genuine concern for those who are held in bondage and near bondage within its borders. Despite the inadequacy of the Florida law, the Workers Defense League is determined to bring the facts of the turpentine camps and other peonage pockets directly to the people of Florida. We have confidence that Florida public opinion will correct conditions that the U. S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Section has been unable to correct because of its inadequate powers and funds and because of its dependence on inept FBI investigation. "Our National Executive Board has received a favorable response to its request that the Commission of Inquiry Into Forced Labor establish a Sub-Commission in Florida. Prominent Florida citizens have expressed enthusiastic interest in such an inquiry and have volunteered to serve on the Sub-Commission if formed. We welcome an opportunity to present to Floridians the material we have assembled and the new evidence which our investigators are daily uncovering. We trust that the Commission of Inquiry Into Forced Labor will soon find the funds necessary to proceed with its plans." INDONESIANS CONTINUE TO FACE DEPORTATION AND JOB DISCRIMINATION Abdulhalik Ben Dollah, Indonesian seaman, has been sailing American ships since 1942. His record is good. Now he can no longer sail the seas on American vessels because he is not an American citizen. And, being unable to sail, he faces deportation as being unlawfully in the United States. If Abdulhalik Ben Dollah were a German, a Chinese, or a Turk, he could still be sailing the seas because, under the law, his five years of sea-service on American vessels would have entitled him to apply for citizenship. But, being an Indonesian, he is still debarred under the remnants of the infamous Oriental Exclusion Act which is still on our statute books. Congress passed a bill which would have made it possible for Ben Dollah to apply for citizenship. The basic purpose of this bill was simply stated: "The right to become a naturalized citizen of the United States shall not be denied or abridged because of race". So many provisos were added to the bill, however, that it would have seriously retarded the whole naturalization process. The President vetoed it. It was hoped that the Congress would eliminate the undesirable parts and repass it before adjourning. This it has failed to do. There are other Indonesians who will not be benefited by this act, however modified, because while it removes the racial bar to naturalization the bar on immigration remains and deportations will continue. During the last five years, the cases of over five hundred Indonesians have passed through the WDL offices. Many of them faced deportation to Dutch-held ports at a time when their fellow Indonesians were waging their war for independence. When independence was won and recognition was given to the Republic of Indonesia as a free and equal nation, the United States continued to deport Indonesians as "ethnically undesirable." American homes have been broken up because the father was Indonesian, despite the provisions of the law for discretionary relief in such cases. Only through habeas corpus proceedings was the WDL able to prevent the deportation of Moetahar Padellan, which would have left his five-year-old American son a public charge. The Workers Defense League pledges itself to continue to give full legal and other aid to the Indonesians in the United Stated and to all others who are debarred from permanent residence because of their "ethnic origin." CLARENCE JACKSON WRITES Dear Mr. Watts: Just a few lines to extend my warm appreciation of the wonderful fight you have put up in my behalf. We have lost our fight but it gives me comfort and satisfaction to know that we have fought to the end. I am going back as you know, but with a feeling that I have been regarded as a human being and I hope and pray this feeling will remain with me throughout the years of my term. I did not think there were so many people interested in a small individual such as I. It has made me feel that as important as a human being. If I die through the outcome of my return I will be happy to do so, because I believe in God. And you have put every effort in this case to prevent it. Even people who dislike me feels the same as I feels only they on the other side of the fence. I am Black and that is only one part of it that makes easy for them to send me out. They wants the thing of life just as I do. They are not practically how they get it. They hires people and do not pay them enough. They takes what people own and build up power to regulate by. They have things arrange so they can do those things and people cannot fight back. They do this things to black people more than others thy do this things because they say black people are inferior. So that is why black people have to believe in themselves, because they made me feel that I have no protection, to them I am just a dog if they want to kick me they will just kick me. So I want to say thanks again from the bottom of my heart to you and all who have shown interest in my behalf. yours sincerely Clarence Jackson Norman Thomas 112 E. 19th Street New York 2, N. Y. Dear Mr. Thomas: For the continuing work of the Workers Defense League, I enclose my contribution of $______. Please send copies of the WORKERS DEFENSE BUL- LETIN to the names listed on the back and send me ______ copies for distribution to interested friends. NAME (Please Print) Address JOIN THE WDL Membership entitles you to participate in the election of the National Executive Board and to receive occas- inal action bulletins. Regular dues are $5.00 Sustaining dues, $25.00. Check here ( ) if you want your contribution to be credited as dues. If you are not a member, join now. OEIU-153-1 The Evening Star-The Sunday Star WASHINGTON 4, D.C. October 6, 1950 Mrs. Mary Church Terrell 1615 S Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. Dear Mrs. Terrell: I have received and read with interest the mimeographed copy of the Amicus Curiae Brief. I am in thorough sympathy with your desire to have the case subjected to all legal tests. However, I cannot as Editor of the Star, become involved in any proceedings of the sort. I am sure you will understand my position. Yours sincerely, B. M. Mokelway Editor BMMcK:ea [*ca 10-9-50*] [*1950*] THE NATIONAL FRATERNAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES USA. INC 318 Third Street S. W. Washington, D. C. Mrs. Mary Church Terrell 1615 S Street N. W. Washington, D. C. My dear Mrs. Terrell: The enclosed statement will further explain our conversation by telephone yesterday at which time we invited you to attend the celebration of the FIFTH ANNIVERSARY observance of the United Nations Friday October 20, 1950 beginning at 3:00 P. M. Mt. Carmel Baptist Church, 3rd and I Street N. W. Much love and we will be looking forward to seeing you if possible. Please say hello to your charming daughter and bring her if she can come. Respectfully Bertie L. Der ick Associate Director Methodist Episcopal Zion; (3) Colored Methodist Episcopal; (4) National Baptist, Inc., and others; (5) African Orthodix; (6) Methodist - Central Jurisdiction; (7) Disciples - Christian; (8) The Church Of Our Lord Jesus; (9) Conference of Community Churches; (10) The Pentecostal Church; (11) Freewill Baptist Church Association; (12) Church Of God In Christ; (13) Church Of God Holiness; (14) Negro Churches Of Interracial Denominations. 8. What can I do? Ans. Join as an individual voting member for $2.00 and boost the Council at every opportunity. 9. What does membership mean to me? Ans. As a voting member, you are free to discuss questions on the floor at the annual meeting and hold any office for which you are qualified. Moreover, you will receive releases through mail informing you of the work of the Council. 10. Who are the present officers of the Council? Ans. President - Bishop W. J. Walls, A. M. E. Z.; Vice President - Bishop A. J. Allen, A. M. E.; Secretary - Dr. E. Franklin Jackson, A. M. E. Z.; Chairman Executive Board, Dr. J. M. Brady, Baptist; Secretary of Executive Board, Bishop A. W. Womack, C. M. E.; Executive Secretary, George W. Lucas, Baptist. Each denomination participating furnishes a Vice-President and members of the Executive Committee according to its numerical strength. ______________________________ Do use the enclosed application blank to become a member of the Council immediately. While our nation solves world problems, we must keep its citizens reminded that there is an underprivileged minority within her own borders. [*10-19-50*] Brief Answers to Basic Questions About the National Fraternal Council of Churches U. S. A., Incorporated BY George W. Lucas, Executive Secretary 401 South Summit Street Dayton 7, Ohio 1950 BRIEF ANSWERS TO BASIC QUESTIONS 1. What is the National Fraternal Council of Churches, U. S. A., Incorporated? Ans. It is a cooperative movement made up of the major Negro Church denominations, however, all groups that share an interest in our peculiar problems are invited to participate. 2. When was it organized? Ans. The Council was organized in 1933 in the Mt. Carmel Baptist Church, Washington, D. C., pastored by the President of the National Sunday School and B. T. U. Congress, Dr. William H. Jernagin. 3. Who were the organizers? Ans. Bishop Reverdy C. Ransom of the A. M. E. Church sent out the call that brought representative leaders of several denominations together to set the Council in motion. Dr. L. K. Williams had conceived of such a movement and presented the idea to Negro Church leaders in Rochester, N. Y., in 1929. 4. What is its purpose? Ans. Article II, Section One of the Constitution states: The purpose of the organization shall be: (1) To develop cooperative relations among all member denominations, and to take appropriate collective measures to strengthen this bond of Christian Unity, so that they may work together as one United Church to bring about racial and economic justice, progressive measures of non-partisan political legislation and social reform. (2) To afford a center for coordinating the actions of the denominations in the achievement of their common goals. (3) And to cooperate with other organizations of like nature in seeking to foster the world-wide program of Christ. 5. How does it work? Ans. Through Commissions. (Article 13, Sc. 1) The Council may foster the following commissions: (1) Evangelism and Worship; (2) Education; (3) Health and Housing; (4) Human Relations; (5) Industrial and Economic Relations; (6) Agricultural and Rural Life; (7) Urban Life; (8) Family Life; (9) Home and Foreign Missions; (10) Recreation and Amusements; (11) Public Relations; (12) Program; (13) Washington Bureau; (14) International and World Relations and (15) Comity. The most vital Commission is the Washington Bureau, Dr. W. H. Jernagin, Chairman, which has represented the Church on all issues affecting our group in Congress, and has purchased a building at 318 - 3rd Street, S. W., at a cost of $16,000.00. The Bureau employs two full time staff persons to carry out its objectives. 6. What has it done? Ans. It was through the influence of the Council that the Negro church was represented when U. N. was born. Three clergymen, Bishop John A. Gregg, Dr. W. H. Jernagin and Bishop W. J. Walls, the present president, were sent by the U. S. Government to visit servicemen overseas. Much information has been gathered on political issues, which is in the Bureau files. Appearances have been made before various congressional committees and have cooperated with other organizations fighting for Civil Rights. 7. What denominations are members? Ans. During the history of the Council, the following have participated: (1) African Methodist Episcopal; (2) African I want to join you in endorsing the statement calling upon Presi- dent Truman to explore all possi- bilities for the peaceful settle- ment of present international tensions. Name ______ Address ______ Church or Organization* ______ ________ *For identification purposes only THE NATIONAL FRATERNAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, USA., INC. JOINS IN THE CELEBRATION OF UNITED NATIONS DAY October 24, 1950, all over the world, the Fifth Anniversary of the United Nations will be celebrated. In cooperation with the request of Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, Chairman of the American Association of the General Assembly, for all organizations to join in the celebration, the National Fraternal Council of Churches will observe United Nations Day with the citizens of the world as a symbol of peace. On October 20, 1950, at the Mt. Carmel Baptist Church, Third and I Streets, N. W., will be held an inter-racial, international and interdenominational Leadership Conference, which has been heartily endorsed by our Washington Chapter of the Federation of Churches. This conference will call the Christian leaders together in order to expose them to the function of the United Nations and its value to world freedom. Excellent Leaders, some of whom are nationally and inter- nationally known, have been secured, and it is the belief that a most profitable and stimulating program will be the result. A Leadership Conference Panel Discussion is planned for Friday afternoon from 3:00 to 5:00. The topic to be discussed is, "UNITED NATIONS AS IT RELATES TO HUMAN RIGHTS". Participating in the discussion are: Mrs. Rachel C. Mason, State Department; Attorney Herzel Plaine, Justice Department; and Dr. Venson J. Brown, School of Government, Howard University; all internationally known scholars in the Field of Human Rights. This promises to be one of the most informative sessions in the history. The feature address will be delivered by Dr. Mordecai W. Johnson, President of Howard University, at 8:00 p. m. 1615 S St N.W. Washington, DC Oct. 10, 1950 It is a genuine pleasure for me to testify to this excellent service rendered by Dr. Ambrose Caliver in the important position he has held for many years. His high standards, acknowledged efficiency and tireless energy have been [instrymental] instrumental in meeting successfully needs of various kinds in the educational life of the nation. Mary Church Terrell United Community Services of Washington 1101 M St., N.W., Washington 5, D.C. - Decatur 7330 October 10, 1950 TO MEMBERS OF SETTLEMENT HOUSE BOARDS: In connection with the self-studies now being done by the local Settlement Houses it was agreed by the members of the central study committee that at some appropriate time in the process it would be arranged for a consultant from the New York office of the National Federation of Settlements to visit Washington for a joint meeting of all Settlement Boards. It was thought that the presence of national representatives of the Settlement movement to interpret objectives and process of the study, and to discuss progress, would be beneficial to all concerned As you doubtless have been informed, the meeting will be held at 8 o'clock, on October 18, at Friendship House, 619 D Street, S. E.. As Chairman of the Recreation and Group Work Section of United Community Services I am using the facilities of our office to write to urge that you make every effort to attend this meeting. Duane M. Paul Chairman Recreation and Group Work Section DMP/bl Planning for Effective Community Health, Welfare, and Recreation Officers Lee D. Sutler President Charles C. Glober, III 1st Vice President G. Howland Shaw 2nd Vice President Dr. Garnet C. Wilkinson 3rd Vice President Mrs Henry Gichner Secretary F. Elwood Davis Treasurer Executive Committee Hugh K. Duffield Victor H. Evjen W. Herbert Gill Mrs. Eberhart Haynes Jane M. Hoey Col. Campbell C. Johnson Preston B. Kavanagh Mrs. Pearl B. Klein Francis H. McGuigan Jerome B. McKee William J. McManus Herman L. Neugass Clifford H. Newell Judge Clarence V. Opper Dr. John R. Pate Duane M. Paul Mrs. Charles Runyon, III Mrs. Maxwell Stokes Mrs. Hester G. Stoll John W. Thompson, Jr. Walter Tobriner Glenn E. Watts Mrs. Theodore O. Wedel Robert W. Wilson Executive Director Arthur H. Kruse Asst. Exec. Director Ferdinand V. Grayson Maryland Committee for Peace P.O. Box 1053 - Baltimore 3, Md, - MA. 6573-M, OR. 4558 October 11, 1950 Mrs. Mary C. Terrell 1615 S Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. Dear Mrs. Terrell: We wish to express our sincerest gratitude for your contribution to the cause of peace by speaking at our Peace Meeting. We are indebted to you for a penetrating analysis of the relation between the exploitation of colonial peoples and the danger of world wide war. The inspiration provided by your courage and conviction helps us to carry on our work in this most pressing of all causes. I would like to add my personal gratification in meeting with so noble a champion of the cause of peace and freedom. I hope that we may have occasion to meet again. Sincerely yours, Ruth Bleier Ruth Bleier, M.D. Chairman P.S. Several news clippings from the Sun and your own material are enclosed. Honorary Charimen Rev. J. Harrison Bryant Rev. Gustav Schmidt Bishop Alexander P. Shaw Chairman Dr. Ruth Bleier Vice-Chairmen Rev. Frank J. Frye Mrs. Eugene Jenness Secretary Mrs. Joan Wertheimer Sponsors Rev. Percy C. Adams Mr. Franklin Balch Miss Carol Blanton Dr. Robert Burns Dr. A. C. Burwell Dr. J. E. T. Camper Miss Betty Clarke Rev. R. J. Daniels Rev. Don Foster Rev. Bruce Gilford Dr. E. A. Gilkes Rabbi Israel M. Goldman Rev. H. Octavius Graham Rev. W. A. Hall Rev. John Hammond Rev. E. J. Harlee Rev. Charles S. Harper Mrs. Mary E. Hawkins Rev. & Mrs. Richard R. Hively Mrs. Adah Jenkins Mr. & Mrs. Richard Kapuscinski Rev. Claude T. King Mr. Linwood Koger Mr. Arthur C. Lamb Dr. Stanley Levy Mr. Matthew Lipa Rev. and Mrs. Ely L. Lofton Mr. Karl Metzler Rev. Levi B. Miller Dr. & Mrs. Leonard Molofsky Mr. & Mrs. William Murphy Dr. A. G. Osler Mr. Arthur Randall Mrs. Arno C. Shirokauer Dr. & Mrs. George Sharfatz Mr. Louis Shub Rev. E. L. Smith Mr. Aaron Sopher Rev. V. V. K. Stokes Mrs. Henry Taubman Mrs. Haidee Terrill Prof. Alexander Walker Mr. Melvin L. Ward Mr. Gunther Wertheimer Rev. F. E. Williar Rev. E. W. White The National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs [ Incorporated ] Official Organ---"Responsibility" 1950 Annual Convention October 27-28-29 Office of the President 1011 You Street, N. W. National Officers President Mrs. Geneva K. Valentine 1011 You Street, N. W. Washington, D. C. First Vice President Mrs. Grace Dadd 359 Beach Street West Haven, Conn. Second Vice President Dr. Lucia Thompson 4518 Forrestville Ave. Chicago, Illinois Third Vice President Mrs. Delolah Harris 253 Gates Avenue Brooklyn, N. Y. Financial Secretary Mrs. Marie Wilson 164 N. Clinton Street E Orange, N. J. Recording Secretary Miss Alice Fauntleroy 1710 Westwood Avenue Baltimore, Md. Corresponding Secretary Miss Mazie Hall Henry Avenue Wayne, Pa. Treasurer Mrs. Minnie Hurley 2026 Seventh Avenue New York, N. Y. Editor Miss Eureka Whord 8714 Lyons Avenue Philadelphia, Pa. Attorney Ruth Whitehead Whaley 1867 Seventh Ave., Apt. 6-C New York, N. Y. National Junior Leader Miss Mildred Holden 759 N. 44th Street Philadelphia, Pa. National Junior Scribe Miss Iris Elzy 62 Admirable Street New Haven, Conn. Committee Chairmen Program Dr. Lucia E. Thompson Chicago, Ill. Finance and Budget Mrs. Thelma Young Wilmington, Dela. Publicity Mrs. Gladys Graham New York City Extension Mrs. Grace Dadd West Haven, Conn. Education Miss Elizabeth Anthony Baltimore, Md. Health Mrs. Louise M. Francis New York, N. Y. Legislation Mrs. Marion H. Elliott Washington, D. C. Magazine Mrs. Alberta L. Persons Brooklyn, N. Y. International Relations Mrs. Gladys Emanuel Philadelphia, Pa. Ambassador of Good-Will Florence Madison Hill Philadelphia, Pa. Honorary Presidents Ollie M. Porter New York, N. Y. Bertha P. Rhodes Philadelphia, Pa. Anna F. Brodnax Wilmington, Del. Ruth A. Handy Brooklyn, N. Y. Florence Madison Hill Philadelphia, Pa. Northeast District Governor: MRS. LAURA B. McCOY New Haven, Conn. Co-Governor MRS. BESSIE T. KING Richmond Hill. L.I., N.Y. North Central District Governor : MRS. BEATRICE MORGAN Chicago, Ill. Co-Governor MRS. MYRTLE COOK Detroit, Mich. Central East District Governor: MRS. VIRGIE WATERS Baltimore, Md. Co-Governor MRS. MINNIE L. BANKS Washington, D.C. South Central District Governor: MRS. E.M. VAN DYKE Austin, Texas Co-Governor MRS. C.A. JONES Dallas, Texas Southeast District Governor: MRS. LOVIE M. GILBERT Co-Governor HELEN G. WILLIAMS Birmingham, Ala. Western District Governor: MISS HORTENSE DILLETTE New York, N.Y. October 16, 1950 Mrs. Mary Church Terrell 1615 S St. N.W. Washington, D.C. Dear Mrs. Terrell: It gives me very great pleasure to announce to you formally that the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs, Inc. has selected you as its first HONORARY LIFE MEMBER. We shall deem it a privilege and honor to bestow this membership at our Fifteenth Annual Luncheon at Roger Trent Hotel in Newark, N.J. Saturday, October 28th, at 1.00 P.M. You have been an inspiration to me personally and I am certain you have touched many lives during your life of service. We feel you are one of the outstanding women or all times and therefore wish to make some small outward expression of our esteem. Thanking you for permitting us to confer this membership and with kind personal regards, I am Sincerely yours Geneva K. Valentine ALUMNI HOUSE, NEWARK, N.J. THEME: "Mid-Twentieth Century Awareness" North American Headquarters CHINA'S CHILDREN FUND, INCORPORATED Member of the Foreign Missions Conference of North America Operating orphanage schools in China, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Malaya, Burma & India China Building Richmond 4, Virginia Phone: Dial 2-4013 Cable Address: Chinachild North American Executive Committee T. Nelson Parker Chairman Marvin L. Presson Treasurer Verbon E. Kemp Secretary Dr. J. Calvitt Clarke Executive Director Jesse W. Dillon John J. Fairbank, Jr. Dr. Edward D. Grant Dr. Daniel A. Poling Ford Stewart W. Owen Wilson AND SPONSORED BY COMMITTEE OF 1000 Fairbank, Knapp & Co., C.P.A. Auditors China Executive Committee Fanling, Hong Kong Dr. Wm. W. Cadbury, M.D., F.A.C.S. Chairman Emeritus Rev. Hedley P. Bunton Chairman Rev. Paul Wu Secretary Mrs. E. W. Raetz Treasurer Rev. Erwin W. Raetz Executive Director Rev. Calvin Lee So. China Supt. Mr. Wong Tsinforn Rev. Merrill Ady Rt. Rev. Ronald Owen Hall, S.T.D. Rev. Lau Yuet Shing Miss Lois Armentrout Mrs. Hsu Liang Chi Dr. Wong Wai Tsing Mrs. Yeung Liu Fung Ling Major Burton E. Pedlar The Salvation Army Rev. V. J. R. Mills Executive Director North China, Japan and Korea October 17, 1950 Dear Mrs. Terrell: It will only take a minute to look over the photographs in the enclosed magazine article reprint. Yet, that moment or two of your time may save a human life. I have seen conditions similar to these photographs taken in China by Harrison Forman. How much is a human life worth? How much is a little child's life worth? Even the poorest among use here in America cannot conceive of roads, lined with human bodies, some still living and some dead. We can't conceive of a human being so hungry as to chew the bark off a tree. We can't feel the pain in a starving child's stomach. Even as you read these words some child gives its last feeble cry for rice and dies! What might the child be, if he or she lived? It is so easy to ignore the suffering of others, thousands of miles away. It it so easy to do nothing. To do nothing and, then when the times comes, to eat OUR next meal. But if you do look over the pictures and if you feel, out of gratitude for being an American of because of your Christian beliefs, that you want to help, then China's Children Fund can transmit your gift to China for you. None of your gift will fall into the hands of Communists. It will be handled through the Hong Kong Branch of one of New York's largest banks and distributed in perfect safety to the children through our representatives in the 50 CCF orphanages located in China. Food stuffs cannot be shipped from America and must be purchased in the Far East. All CCF orphanages have their own gardens but if the starving are to be saved, fund are necessary. China's Children Fund has access to the famine sufferers. A dying child's cry for rice can be answered. Sincerely Yours J. Calvitt Clarke J. Calvitt Clarke [*I hope this letter, Mrs. Terrell, will receive your consideration. J.C.C.*] China's Children Fund Emphaiszes Religious Guidance in 70 Orphanage Schools Reprinted from SEE Sept. 1950 Issue Millions in Misery Clutching his pinched stomach in pain, dying Chinese farmer falls by wayside. His daughter, 4, got the last of his food, but also died in China's worst famine. Stripped trees (above) stand as gaunt witnesses to starvation of peasants, who ate bark and surrounding grass. Supper of weeds (below) is prepared by mother and daughter. Famine area covers 20 million acres in Eastern China. Famine in China By Harrison Forman Writer and Lecturer on the Far East Drought, Locusts, War, And Failing Crops Bring Powdery Ruin To The Good Earth And Starvation To 40,000,000 Chinese Forty million Chinese are doomed to die of starvation this summer in the greatest famine in history. I saw a foreshadow of the famine recently and it was grotesquely unbelievable. I saw roads and trains packed with starving refugees in a mass exodus of millions. I saw the deep-sunk eyes and shriveled skins of the dead and dying. I saw abandoned babies, deserted villages and miles of trees stripped of their bark, which was all the people had left to eat. Those too weak to join the trek to food were sitting on their doorsteps, waiting for death. Famine had deeply affected the most fertile area of Central China and was spreading in all directions. Millions had already died. When I arrived at the tiny railway station of Tung Chia Tien in Honan Prov- ince, a long freight train, pulling in from the east, puffed up to a screeching stop. From cowcatcher to the last car, it was encrusted with humanity. People huddled together on slippery car roofs - men, women, and children, boxes, bundles, pots and pans, all ajumble. They were jammed in between the cars, sitting on couplings, or underneath riding the rods. They lined the catwalk of the locomotive, leaning as close to the hot boiler as they dared. But only a few thousand could crowd aboard those trains. The others walked. The roads were choked with them. Some pushed wheelbarrows piled high with bedding, an iron kettle, a bundle of clothes, perhaps a precious plow on one side, a baby strapped on the other. Set features and staring eyes bespoke their hope - that their strength might last until they reached the blessed land of food. The dead and dying were everywhere - by the roadside, in the streets, in their miserable beds. Carrion birds circled obscenely overhead and wild-eyed dogs prowled the countryside. I passed through deserted villages terrifying in their silence. Down trench- Famine in China (Continued) Youth and age, distraught with hunger, are typical of millions fleeing to West for food. Many hundreds of thousands have already perished in new China disaster. Asia's Four Horsemen Of Strife, Hunger, Pestilence, And Death Again Scourge The Billion-Footed Sons Of Han like roads, flanked by towering walls eroded by the centuries, I rode with hor- ror as my horse shied from the stinking, unburied bodies. I saw a little girl sprawled in the road. She must have collapsed and died a few minutes ago. The refugees unheeding, detoured around her; none troubled to push her body to the roadside. In Chengchow, once a thriving railway junction of 200,000 inhabitants, shops were boarded up and the streets almost deserted. Before an imposing department store a man was sprawled in the gutter. Weakly, his wife tried to lift him. Her skeletoned child, propped up against the curb, swayed, then keeled over and plunked its head sickeningly on the stone pavement. The woman dropped her husband and propped the child up again. At Hsinchang a thousand of the poorest people were lined up outside the city gate. Some, thinking I was bringing food, dropped in the dust before me. There was nothing I could do, nothing anyone could do. True, the Chinese is the world's best farmer. But there are just too many mouths to feed. And a bad harvest - resulting from drought, floods, locusts, civil war and the dis- location of entire populations - means death by starvation for many millions. Pushing wheelbarrow loaded with wife, child, household goods, merchant leaves town of Lini heading for Szechwan Province where May wheat crop is less scanty. Pathetic peasant, wife dead of starvation at his feet, sits and sobs out waning strength along forsaken roadside in Kiangsu Province Biting into bark of tree, desperate man seeks the nourishment to live another day. China's new Communist government has been unable to check famine's spread. Rice relief station saves fortunate mother and child (above). Reds have asked U.S. welfare groups to aid famine victims. Abandoned Suchow is typical of ghost towns now dotting Eastern China. Deputy Premier Chen Yu has announced that 4,000,000 people have died and 7,000,000 more are in "most serious plight." Encrusted with humanity from engine to caboose, train pulls out of Chengchow station. The heav- iest exodus of people has been from Honan, Anhwei, Shantung and Kiangsu Provinces. Flight of the masses continues daily with over- loaded trains carrying but a fraction of refu- gees. Officials fear, unless food reaches inland areas by mid-summer, 40-million will die. [Photo] TATTERED, TORTURED WITH HUNGER, CHINESE BOY SINKS EXHAUSTED IN SUCHOW STREET 2 which I have done. There are no matters to discuss concerning the committee anymore because it does not exist. The final financial statement was sent out as of Sept. 1, 1950. The only financial matter is that of wages due me of $1900.00 as of Sept. 1. That amount I gladly contribute to the freedom of Mrs. Ingram and her two sons. Otherwise, the Committee 20 East 109 St. October 17, 1950. Dear Mrs. Terrell, I am enclosing the newsletter containing a copy of your resignation. The Ingram Committee concluded its official work with the conference on Sept. 10th. I did agree as the executive officer to send out the statement and wind up the business matter is a closed affair. Those who worked before will continue to do so in spite of all difficulties of the times and obstacles. Sincerely Maude White Katz Committee to Abolish Discrimination 718 Jackson Place, N. W. Washington 6, D. C. Philip Murray President James B. Carey Secretary-Treasurer EXecutive 5581 James B. Carey, Chairman Willard S. Townsend, Secretary George L-P Weaver, Director W. Richard Carter Arthur Goldberg Bessie Hillman James J. Leary William H. Oliver Morris Pizer Harry Read M. Hedley Stone Philip Weightman Boyd L. Wilson October 17, 1950 Dear Sir and Brother: This is to advise that Brother George L-P Weaver, Director of the above Committee, has been granted a temporary leave of absence, to serve as Special Assistant to Mr. W. Stuart Symington, Chairman of the National Security Resources Board, for the duration of the present emergency. While we regret that our CIO staff is temporarily losing the services of Brother Weaver, we are confident that the ideals and principles that have governed the operation of our Committee will be served in a broader scope during the economic and industrial mobilization of our country's resources. It is a tribute to our Committee that the experiences gained by Brother Weaver while serving as Director of the Committee can be effectively utilized by our country in this time of crisis. During the period of Brother Weaver's absence, President Willard S. Townsend, United Transport Service Employees, who is Secretary of the Committee, and Committee member Harry Read, Executive Assistant to the Secretary-Treasurer, will also assume many of the responsibilities heretofore assumed by the Director. Sincerely and fraternally, James B Carey James B. Carey, Secretary-Treasurer and Chairman, Committee to Abolish Discrimination IN DEFENCE OF PEACE PARTIDARIOS DE LA PAZ LES PARTISANS DE LA PAIX REVUE EDITEE PAR LE COMITE DU CONGRES MONDIAL DES PARTISANS DE LA PAIX Directeur: 15, rue Feydeau, PARIS (2e). Tel. : CENtral 82-35 Redacteur en chef: JEAN LAFFITTE C. C. POSTAUX 7272-21 [Renaud de Jouvenel] Claude Morgan October I8, I950 Dear Friend , We send with this a copy of "In Defence of Peace" (N° I6) as to one who we know is genuinely interested in peace. The Negro peoples of the world stand to contribute no mean part to securing and maintaining a stable world free from the threat of war. Their struggle for freedom is an integral part of the effort to secure stability since peace can only exist on a basis of equality among all men. We are, therefore, writing to you as one of the leaders of your people in America with a part to play not only among them but among the whole American Nation. Our Journal is the organ of the World Peace Movement and exists to serve as a link between all men and women of goodwill who sincerely want peace. It contains news and surveys of the peace movement drawn from all over the world and we hope you will find it interesting and useful. If you do, we hope that you will take out a subscription. - Price : $1.70 for 12 issues, 3.00 for 24 issues. Payments may be made by a cheque payable to "LES PARTISANS DE LA PAIX", I5 rue Feydeau, Paris 2me, through the Chase National Bank, New York, to the account of the Banque pour l'Europe du Nord, Paris. You will not regard this as just another appeal from another journal, but will agree that peace is our business and that a special responsibility lies on those of us who are called upon to aid our fellows with our gifts and attainments. We hope to hear from you soon. Yours sincerely, Robert Simon administrator SAINTS INDUSTRIAL AND LITERARY SCHOOL Lexington, Mississippi October 20, 1950 My dear Mrs. Terrell: The Saints Industrial and Literary School is proud to announce the celebration this year of the 25th Anniversary of Dr. Arenia C. Mallory as President. The principal celebration will be held December 4th. The Committee would appreciate felicitations reaching us on or before November 28th, as a Book of Memories will be presented to Dr. Mallory on December 4th. Knowing her high regard for you and your accomplishments we would like your message to appear in this presentation. Respectfully yours, The Committee on Celebration Eva R. Archer, Chairman Saints Industrial School, Lexington, Mississippi Anna Mae Broy Crocket General Secretary, Saints Industrial School Alumni Chicago, Illinois MRS. MARY CHURCH TERRELL 1615 S Street N. W., Washington 9, D.C. Oct. 20, 1950 Mrs. Geneva K. Valentine President of the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs 1011 You Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. Dear Mrs. Valentine: If I knew all the words expressing gratitude in the English language I could not possibly tell the members of the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs, of which you are the President, how much I thank them for the great honor conferred upon me by making me its first Honorary Life Member and for planning to bestow this membership upon me at their Fifteenth Annual Luncheon at the Roger Trent Hotel ai Newark, N.J., Saturday, October 28th, at 1;00 P.M. National Ass'n of Colored Women Inc. 1008 CITY PARK AVENUE TOLEDO 2, OHIO MRS. ELLA P. STEWART Oct. 22 1950 President My dear Lady Mollie: I am rushing to off to tell you that the N.E. Region will be at Headquarters Sunday Oct. 29th for a tea & Reception at which time Miss Jones the President will present a picture of Miss Elizabeth Carter Brooks. Please arrange your busy schedule to be present from 4 to 6 Oct 29 at 1114 O St. I have asked Mrs. Watson to phone you about it also write Miss Jones to write you but they may not do it. Therefore, I am saying I will be in Sunday noon from Memphis to greet you. Leaving tonight for Chicago enroute to Clarkesdale Mississippi Will come on to Memphis and to D.C. Hope to see much of my friend & please have material for press Love as ever Ella Organized 1896 National Association of Colored Women, Inc. Incorporate 1904 Affiliated with the National Council of Women, U.S.A. Inc. 1906 Maintains Frederick Douglass Memorial Home and Property--1916 Established National Scholarship Fund and National Headquarters 1114 O STREET, N. W. TELEPHONE DEcatur 8160 WASHINGTON 5, D. C. October 23, 1950 Mrs. Mary Church Terrell 1615 - S Street, N. W. Washington 9, D. C. My dear Mrs. Terrell: This is to remind you of our Tea which will be given on Sunday, October 29th at Headquarters. The New York ladies are presenting a picture of Mrs. Elizabeth Carter Brooks, and the Washington and Vicinity group is joining them with a reception for Mrs. Rowan who will arrive within a few days to begin her office here as Headquarters Secretary. We are looking forward to having you with us on this occasion. Mrs. Brooks will arrive Saturday evening and she will be stopping here at Headquarters. Mrs. Stewart has requested me to invite you over to chat with Mrs. Brooks on Saturday evening, if you can arrange it. I am enclosing a Radiogram notice which was left here during the week-end, however, I am sure you received the message, as someone in the building directed the messenger to your address. Sincerely yours for service, Ethel L. Watson Acting Hdqrs. Secretary. elw encl. COORDINATING COMMITTEE FOR THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE D.C. ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAWS CHAIRMAN: DR. MARY CHURCH TERRELL 1103 Trenton Place S.E. Washington, 20, D.C. October 23, 1950 To All Members of the Executive Committee Coordinating Committee for the Enforcement of the D.C. Anti-Discrimination Laws Dear Friend: Enclosed is a copy of a brief amicus curiae prepared at the request of the Executive Board for presentation to the Municipal Court of Appeals in our case against Thompson's Restaurant. This brief must be filled with the Court before the end of this week. To facilitate an early filing, would you please read the brief promptly upon receiving it and notify me immediately at Johnson-2-6932 whether you wish to have your name, as a member of the Executive Board, signed to it. Your name will appear on the last page under the heading "Members of the Executive Board" I will be at home all day Tuesday and after 1 P.M. on Wednesday. Thank you for your cooperation. Sincerely yours, Annie Stein Annie Stein, Corresponding Secretary J0-2-6932 MUNICIPAL COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Appellant vs. JOHN R. THOMPSON COMPANY, INC. No. 967 Appellee Brief of the Coordinating Committee for the Enforcement of the D.C. Anti-Discrimination Laws, Amicus Curiae The Interest of the Coordinating Committee The Coordinating Committee for the Enforcement of the D.C. Anti-Discrimination Laws is a voluntary, inter-racial organization whose sole purpose is to secure the enforcement of the District's anti-discrimination laws and to educate the public as to their rights thereunder. The Committee consists of representatives or members of 61 cooperating civic, religious, fraternal, labor and other organizations of the District, as well as of other interested persons. The names of the members of the Executive Committee are set forth below at the end of the brief. The Committee was established in September, 1949 after public interest in the "lost" anti-discrimination laws of 1872 and 1873 was aroused by the report of the National Committee on Segregation in the Nation's Capital and the opinion of the District Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, holding that the laws were still in effect. The Committee has been instrumental in the bringing of the test case which is now before this Court. Two members of its executive committee are among the complaining witnesses, and Mrs. Church Terrell, a complaining witness, is chairman of the Committee. The Restaurant Survey During the trial of the first case against Thompsons, the Committee was impressed by the fact that there was not available any statistically acceptable objective data as to the real situation in Washington restaurants with regard to the extent of discrimination, the degreee of hardship imposed on the colored citizens of Washington, the readiness of the white citizens to accept or welcome a change from previous discriminatory practices, or the attitudes of restaurateurs themselves to a change in the prevailing practices of the industry. The defence in that trial argued, without submitting any supporting evidence, that the Acts of 1872 and 1873 were "unreasonable"; that they interfere with the rights of restaurateurs; that their enforcement would be resented by the -2- white citizens of the District of Columbia and would lead to violence and disorder. Believing that none of these allegations was based on fact, the Coordinating Committee on April 8th, 1950 initiated an extensive survey of discrimination in Washington restaurants to determine how many restaurants w ould not serve colored persons; what management attitudes are on the issue, and what the normal reaction of other regular pa trons of these restaurants would be to having colored patrons served. One hundred and forty-five white and colored volunteers conducted the survey over a period of seven months. Restaurants to be surveyed were assigned to the volunteers and an accurate record kept of the results of each check. Survey Procedure Survey volunteers went in groups of two, three or at most four, either inter-racial or all colored, to the restaurant to be checked, seated themselves in a quiet, orderly, well-behaved and normal fashion at the tables or counters where other patrons were being served. If they were served, they ate and left in the normal fashion. If they were refused service by the waitresses, they asked to speak to the manager. If the manager refused to see them, that fact was noted and they left the restaurant in a quiet manner. If they had an opportunity to see the manager, they were under instructions to ask him whether they were being refused solely because of their color and whether the manager was aware of the anti-discrimination laws of 1872 and 1873. They did not enter into any controversies with the manager, but faithfully reported his attitude for the purposes of this report. Selected for study were 99 restaurants, in the downtown area, covering eating establishments of all classes, soda fountains and lunch counters in drug stores, department stores and 5 and 10¢ stores. None of these restaurants had been known to serve colored persons prior to the survey. Survey Findings A total of 316 checks was made in the 99 selected restaurants. (See Appendix for list of restaurants and tabulation of number of checks made.) 188 parties were served and 128 parties were refused service. Of the 99 restaurants, 38 refused service on the first check and consistently refused on all subsequent checks 33 served without discrimination. Of this number, 8 at first refused, but after subsequent discussions with the managers, agreed to serve and did serve without discrimination. 28 served on some checks and refused on others, the last check in each case being a refusal. Attitude of White Patrons The most striking finding of the survey was that in the 316 checks made, in not one instance did any incident occur to indicate any displeasure whatsoever on the part of the other patrons of the restaurant. Not a single white customer [Left Page] -3- made a derogatory remark to the colored patron or within the hearing of the checker or left his seat to indicate a negative reaction. The checkers reported that occas- ionally there was curiosity indicated in a glance, but that the usual attitude of the white patrons was one of indifference. So contrary was this to the reaction expected and prophesied by the defense in the court below that checkers were told to be particularly alert to patron reaction and to report even the slightest hint of a negative attitude. There were none. On the contrary, nine instances were reported where the white patrons reacted, not to the fact of a colored customer sitting next to them, but to the re- fusal of the manager to serve the colored checker. In one case, two white men re- fused to accept their dinners when served because they had witnessed such a refusal. In other instances, white patrons volunteered such comments as "They take your money at the other counters, why shouldn't they here?" (in a department store) and, "They really make it hard for you, don't they". In one case where service was given two white patrons informed the checkers that they were going up to congratulate the management on his policy. In another case, a man sitting next to a checker who was refused service offered to order for the checker, so that he need not go hun- gry. It is perfectly clear from this survey that Washingtonians are fully ready to accept or welcome a change in present segregation practices in D.C. restaurants and that no disorder will attend such a change. Attitude of Waitresses and Waiters The majority of the waiters, waitresses, cooks, kitchen employees, and hotel service employees in the hotels and in the higher-priced restaurants are organized into unions which do not discriminate against Negroes in membership. Many of these organizations are cooperating with the Coordinating Committee for the Enforcement of the D. C. Anti-discrimination Laws and are fully in accord with the desire of the committee to bring these laws into active enforcement. They represent a high proportion of the persons employed in these occupations in the District. For those employees, not in unions, we can determine their attitudes from the experiences of the survey checkers. it was found that the attitude of the waiter or waitress was in most cases a reflection of the attitude of the mana- ger. There were only three cases in which a waitress indicated a hostile attitude in places in which the management was willing to serve. Otherwise, the insults came from waitresses who were under instructions to refuse service. Even in those stores refusing service, however, the waitresses usually said they were sorry but that the management's policy was to refuse service. In a surprising number of in- stances, the waitresses said that they personally had no objections and didn't know why they were so instructed, but had to refuse to serve. The normal reaction of a waitress when our checkers waited for service [Right Page] was to be doubtful what to do. In most cases, the waitress would immediately go back to see her supervisor or manager and receive instructions from him. Just as salespersons in department stores, instructed to be courteous to all customers, will treat colored customers politely, so, if these laws are brought into enforce- ment, waiters and waitresses will unquestionably conform to their managers' instruc- tions. A source of much bitterness lies in the fact that colored waitresses, who constitute a high proportion of all waitresses in the average restaurants and lunch counters are daily forced to refuse service to persons of their own race. Our Committee has received many such complaints from employees of stores practising discrimination. A striking example of this took place this summer at the Boy Scout Jamboree in Washington where colored employees of a cafeteria had to separate the Negro scouts from the white s couts and send the former away, although arrangements had been made by phone and food had been prepared for the entire group. In the same cafeteria, a child accompanied by a colored nurse was served in the restaurant, the nurse being fed in a back hallway, to the great indignation of the colored staff. Attitude of Restaurant and Fountain Owners and Managers As indicated by the numerical results of the survey the attitudes of the restaurant owners and managers fell into three general categories 1. Those that refused to serve because of color: 38 cases The reason given for refusal to serve in this group was almost uniformly that they were following Washington Restaurant Association policy; that they would comply readily and willingly if the Courts decided the laws were still valid, but that they would not risk Association censure until that time. In only six of these 38 cases was the restaurant owner abusive and discourteous. In the chain restaurants, the local managers expressed personal regrets usually, stating that they were bound by the instructions on policy laid down by the national or local chain, based on past custom. In two cases, the owners declared that they feared the loss of their leases if they changed to a non-segregation policy. In two other cases, they expressed fear of loss of liquor licenses, based on the experience of an inter- racial club which lost its license during this year. It was the definite conclusion of the volunteers that the restaurant owners in this category will not resist the enforcement of the anti-discrimination laws once their validity has been determined by this Court. 2. Those that will serve colored patrons: 33 cases In these cases, "service" is defined to mean service identical with that received by white patrons. Service at segregated counters or standup counters, where there are facilities for eating while seated, is not considered "service" un- der this definition. Where no checker was ever refused service (25 cases) the attitude of management is not directly known because managers were interviewed only when service -5- was refused. In eight additional cases, however, services was refused at first and then secured after one or more conversations between the Committee representatives and management. The reasons for their final agreement to serve can reasonably be attributed to the ones who served without discussion. The main reasons for serving were these: 1. Recognition on the part of managers that "it has to come eventually." As one manager put it, "Washington has just outgrown its status as a small southern town. The need is there and the facilities will just have to be provided for the very large population of Negroes shopping and working downtown." 2. Improvement of business: Many restaurants, especially those in department and ten cent stores catering to a moderate- or low-income trade complain of poor business conditions at their fountains and see in the large colored population shopping and working downtown an additional source of business never reached before. 3. Several of the managers and owners greeted the rediscovery of the laws as granting them an opportunity to change their policy to conform with what they had always felt in their consciences was the decent and honorable way to conduct their businesses. This group of restaurant owners, far from feeling that the laws of 1872 and 1873 constitute an infringement on their property rights, are eagerly awaiting a favorable court decision. In all eight cases where the management was interviewed before it agreed to comply, the owners expressed hopes for a favorable outcome so that they could openly solicit colored patronage without fear of censure from the Washington Restaurant Association or of running the risk of becoming known as an all-colored restaurant because their competitors refused service to Negroes. 3. Restaurants that fluctuated in their policy: 28 cases The attitudes of the managers in these restaurants is well known to the Committee because in each case conferences with them were held two or more times. These are all cases where colored checkers were served at least once and often more frequently but refused on the last check. These owners are all motivated by the same reasons for giving service as those in the serving group, but because of the fact that their competitors do not comply with the laws are afraid to make a forthright change in policy. In almost every case, the owner or manager pleaded with the Committee to try to win their direct competitors over to a nondiscriminatory policy, authorizing the committee to say that they would be very willing to change if their competitors would. Since the competitors often find themselves in the same position and each one is fearful of making the break first and finding himself in an isolated position all the restaurants in this group say they will welcome a favorable decision in this case. They want the protection of a law establishing a uniform policy of nondiscrimination that will permit them to take advantage of the added business from colored customers without their "sticking their necks out" as more than one manager expressed it. In summary, then, 32% of the restaurant owners and managers have a passive attitude, where they will accept without complaint enforcement of the anti-discrimination -6- laws. Six percent (those who were abusinve) feel that such a law is an infringement of their rights. "I don't care about any law and I don't want to know about any law, get out", is the way one of these proprietors expressed it. The remaining 61 cases, 61% of the total number surveyed, are eagerly awaiting an early resolution of this issue to enable them to take advantage of the increased business opportunities without running the risk of finding themselves in an isolated position. Other Survey Findings As a corollary result of the survey, many requests came in urging the Committee to find restaurants that would serve colored to meet special needs. Similarly, many complaints were sent in by persons w ho were unprepared for refusals. The need for a place to eat in when a man or woman working downtown is hungry is obviously a "reasonable" need. Equally obvious and reasonable is that a mother who brings her children downtown to buy their clothes or toys would like to buy them lunch at lunchtime without subjecting them to humiliation and insult. A third large group that suffers daily inconvenience or embarassment is comprised of the many tourists who visit Washington and are unprepared to find that their elementary wants cannot be satisfied. Within this general framework of hardship many specific types of needs that must go unsatisfied were brought to the attention of the Committee as follows: 1. Request received: May, 1950: from a member of the Grand Jury, required to serve for three months. She was refused lunch at three cafeterias near the Courthouse and was forced to walk the long distance to upper 7th St. before she could obtain lunch. She ate a hot dog and coca cola at a standup counter (the only food that was served there.) She was sick with distress and did not know how she could survive the ordeal for three months. She requested that we find an establishment near the Court that would serve without discrimination. Similar requests were received from colored attorneys who often find that they cannot get uptown for lunch and back in time for the reopening of court. 2. Request received: June, 1950: from a student in a night trade school in the vicinity of 9th and Pennsylvania Avenues. Students there have no place to eat their dinners. Government cafeterias which do not discriminate are all closed at that hour (8 P.M.) Most of the students do not have home facilities for preparing dinners to take along. What they do now is go hungry. An identical request was made by a night law student whose school is in the vicinity of 15th and H Sts. nw. 3. Request received: June, 1950: from an employee of the Veteran's Administration, at 19th and Pa. Ave. nw. No cafeteria is provided for employees in the building and no restaurant in that area will serve colored persons. Many of the employees go without lunch. Identical requests were made by an employee in the State Department Annex, 18th and Pa. Ave. nw and by employees of the Food and Agricultural Organization, Longfellow Building, Conn. Ave. which has a big food counter in a drug store in its own building but where colored persons are refused service. An identical request was made by employees of the central post office at N. Capitol St. where employees eat their lunches in back alleys. 4. Request received: July, 1950: A self-employed business woman with a dressmaking shop at F and 12th Sts. nw. She has no facilities for preparing lunch at her shop and has not found any place that will serve her lunch. She cannot close her shop to go uptown for lunch. -7- A similar request was made by a taxi-cab driver who says he is likely to find himself remote from the Negro sections of town at meal times. 5. Request received: April, 1950: from a large and prominent Negro church in the vicinity of 11th and K Sts. nw. A national convention was to be held in the church and no establishments were available that would serve meals to the delegates. 6. Many requests came from national organizations holding meetings or conferences where colored delegations were expected, where the work of the conference had to be interrupted to separate the white from the colored representatives at mealtimes. 7. Several requests came from national organizations and from Congressmen to determine which restaurants in the Capitol Hill area would serve colored persons. Constituents visiting their Congressmen, with little time to spare, were often unable to find any place where they could obtain their meals. In addition to these specific requests for the Committee to help find restaurants that would serve without discrimination, many complaints came to the Committee typified by these examples: 1. A prominent N.Y. physician attending a government conference on prevention of tuberculosis and staying at the Statler Hotel was indignant because she had been refused breakfast at the Statler Drug Store. 2. A group of high school students, accompanied by their teacher, visiting Washington to study how laws are made in a democracy were refused service because of color at Childs Restaurant at Mass. and N. Capitol Sts directly after they had left the Congress. CONCLUSIONS BASED ON THE FINDINGS OF THE RESTAURANT SURVEY 1. There is a critical present need for restaurants that will serve without discrimination to safeguard the health and welfare of a third of District residents and an undetermined but significant number of tourists and other visitors to the city. 2. The enforcement of the anti-discrimination laws of 1872 and 1873 will be either accepted without question or protest or warmly welcomed by the white citizens of Washington. 3. There will be very little dissatisfaction among the white staffs of the restaurants and a considerable improvement in morale in both the white and colored staffs if these laws are enforced. 4. A large majority (61%)of restaurant owners and managers will welcome a favorable resolution of this issue because it will increase their business opportunities without exposing them to censure or reprisal. Only a small number (6%) consider the laws an infringement of their rights. The remainder are prepared to comply once the laws are declared valid, without hesitation and without complaint. This brief has limited itself to the practical findings of a survey treating the District of Columbia as thought it were any other city in the United States. The organizations and individuals comprising the Coordinating Committee for the Enforcement of the D.C. Anti-discrimination Laws are of course, equally concerned with the fact that as the capital of a great nation, our practices are under the daily scrutiny of visitors from all over the country and of representatives of -8- nations from all over the world. We are convinced that the enforcement of these laws, designed for the more narrow purpose of police protection of the health, safety and welfare of the residents of the District of Columbia, will help repair the damage already done to our reputation abroad and at home and enhance the prestige and dignity of the American way of life in the eyes of the world and of our own people. Respectfully submitted David Rein 711 Fourteenth Street, Northwest Washington, D.C. Attorney for Coordinating Committee for the Enforcement of the D.C. Anti-Discrimination Laws, Amicus Curiae Chairman of the Committee: Dr. Mary Church Terrell Members of the Executive Board: APPENDIX Restaurants covered in the Restaurant Survey, April 8, 1950-October 7, 1950 Showing Number of Checks Made, Number of times Served, Number of Times Refused Restaurant #Checks #Times #Times Made Served Refused Restaurants that refused service on every check: ALL STATES CAFETERIA 1 0 1 BARRY'S LUNCHEONETTE 1 0 1 BASSIN'S 1 0 1 BLUE BELL 1 0 1 BLUE BELL DONUT SHOPPE 1 0 1 BONAT'S 1 0 1 CAPITOL HILL CAFETERIA 1 0 1 CHINA DOLL 1 0 1 CHILD'S 1423 PA AV. 2 0 2 CHILD'S 600 N. CAP ST 2 0 2 CHAMBERLAIN CAFE 1 0 1 CHICKEN HUT 1 0 1 CONGRESSIONAL DRUG 1 0 1 CRYSTAL CITY 1 0 1 DEUVILLE FOOD SHOPPE 1 0 1 EL MEXICO 1 0 1 EWARTS CAFETERIA 1 0 1 EXECUTIVE PH. 501 F ST 1 0 1 HERMAN'S SAND. SHOP 1 0 1 HOLMES BAKE SHOP 1 0 1 HOT SHOPPE 1 0 1 HUBBARD HOUSE 918-14 1 0 1 INVESTMENT CAFE 1 0 1 KRESGE'S 434-7TH ST 12 0 12 KRESGE'S 1101 G ST 1 0 1 LIGGETTS 1301 F ST. 1 0 1 MINUTE LUNCH 1 0 1 MAYFAIR RESTAURANT 1 0 1 NEISNER'S 2 0 2 NEW ENGLAND RES. 1 0 1 O'DONNELL'S SEA GRILL 1 0 1 PEOPLE'S DRUG 1100 h 1 0 1 SQUIRE GRILL 1 0 1 STATLER HOTEL DRUG 1 0 1 TOWN HOUSE DRUG 1 0 1 WHELAN'S DRUG CONN AV 1 0 1 WHITE TOWER 419-11 1 0 1 YET HO RESTAURANT 1 0 1 Number of restaurants: 38 Totals: 53 0 53 Restaurants that consistently served without discrimination or that served on last check: A-1 RESTAURANT 2 2 0 GOLDENBERG'S 2 2 0 F & W GRAND 13 13 0 H.L. GREEN 1 1 0 GREYHOUND POST HOUSE 12 10 2 INT'L BLDG. LUNCH 1 1 0 IVY TERRACE TEA ROOM 1 1 0 KANN'S DEPT. STORE 11 4 7 KRESGE'S 3116 14TH 7 5 2 LITTLE LINDY'S 2 2 0 MAYFAIR PHARMACY 1 1 0 MAYFLOWER DONUT SHOP 4 4 0 McCRORY'S 5 & 10 12 12 0 McREYNOLD'S DRUG 3 2 1 METHODIST BLDG. CAFE 2 2 0 G.C. MURPHY'S 7THST 2 2 0 G.C. MURPHY'S 3128-14ST 5 4 1 NEW BAGDAD 1 1 0 NEPTUNE GRILL 2 2 0 POTOMAC CAFETERIA 4 3 1 REEVES BAKERY 2 2 0 SCHULTE'S 9TH&Pa. 1 1 0 SCHULTE'S 14TH&F 2 2 0 17TH ST. CAFETERIA 1 1 0 STATE DRUG 9 7 2 TENPENN 1 1 0 TRAILWAYS BUS DEPOT 5 1 4 WOOLWORTHS 1201 f 20 19 1 WOOLWORTHS 7&I STS 15 15 0 WOOLWORTHS 406-7TH 2 2 0 WOOLWORTHS 3200-14ST 7 7 0 WHELAN'S 1700 PA. 1 1 0 YMCA CAFETERIA 3 3 0 Number of restaurants: 33 Totals: 157 136 21 Restaurants that fluctuated in policy, refusing on last checks: ALBANY DRUG 2 1 1 CALIFORNIA KITCHEN 2 1 1 CERES LUNCH 4 2 2 CHICKEN HUT 427 11TH 3 2 1 CHINESE LANTERN 5 3 2 EXECUTIVE PH. 909 PA. 5 2 3 FAR EAST 6 4 2 FORD'S 4 2 2 HECHT'S DEPT. STORE 4 1 3 HOWARD JOHNSON 3 2 1 LANSBURGH'S DEPT ST. 2 1 1 LANSBURGH'S FOUNTAIN 5 3 2 LITTLE TAVERNS total of four stores covered 7 5 2 G.C. MURPHY'S two counters totals 21 7 14 NEDICK'S: Total of three stores covered 15 6 9 NORMANDY 3 2 1 PEOPLE'S DRUG Thomas Circle 2 1 1 S & W CAFETERIA 2 1 1 SERVICE PHARMACY 2 1 1 STATES RESTAURANT 5 3 2 VIRGINIAN 2 1 1 WODDWARD & LOTHROP TEA ROOM 2 1 1 No. of rest. 28 106 52 54 SUMMARY TABLE Number of restaurants checked 99 Total number of checks made 316 Number of times served: 188 Number of times refused: 128 OUR WORLD A Picture Magazine for the WHole Family PHONE: MURRAY HILL 7-6663-6664 35 WEST 43d STREET, NEW YORK 18, NEW YORK October 23, 1950 Mrs. Mary Church Terrell Robert Terrell School of Law Washington, D.C. Dear Mrs. Terrell: This magazine is planning a story on the recent revolution in higher education in the South. The fact that Negroes may now enter universities in many of the Southern states is of vast importance to fifteen million people of this country. We feel that in the next five years this trend will have a marked effect on the social thinking of the South, if not the whole country. We are interested in publishing an expression of your opinion on this trend. Whether you agree or not, we think that you, as a leader in the thinking of this nation, can give our readers an idea of the future possibilities of its success or failure. We are writing to several other eminent persons in education, journalism, and the arts- Negro and white- to find out their opinions on this question. For editorial reasons, I suggest that you limit your statement to a maximum of 150 words. Since our deadline on this story is November 10th, I would appreicate a reply from you by the 7th. I would also appreciate your sending a small full-face photograph of yourself. Very cordially yours, David Hepburn David Hepburn Executive Editor DH:RLB EMMA J. ANDREWS WOMAN'S CLUB Organized December 21st, 1932 Object, Perpetual Memory MOTTO "TO HIGHER HEIGHTS" Flower - Poinsetta Bertha Scott President Ruth Courch Cor. Secretary Address 4 5532 LaSalle Address 4514 Evans 700 E 46 st. Office of Chr. Chicago Ill Oct 25, 1950 Dear Mrs. Terrell, - Hope you are feeling your dear self as in days gone by. I haven't been so well but duty keeps begging me so I am trying to carry out this task that I've shouldered for past 14 yrs. Please see that we get your letter of Commendation which it was our pleasure to have last yr. so we will have it by Nov 19th. We will send you a program of the affair as soon as possible. All of our past programs were requested by Yale U. for that opening last Jan 17. We sent them and have their letter of thanks. Sincerely yours All mail to Florence Kibble, Chr, 700 E 46 st. HOWARD UNIVERSITY WASHINGTON 1 D. C. October 26, 1950 Dear Mrs. Terrell: Please do not think that I have forgotten my promise to come over and help you with your clippings. I have not had any free time for the past three weeks. During October the Library of Congress called upon me to assist with a Luso-Brazilian Congress which it had for one week. Scholars were brought here from all over the world. I served as a commentator on one of the sessions. As soon as I get my work at the University a little more straightened out I will get over to your house. I will call you about the middle of next week and see if we can make an appointment for one day or evening towards the end of the week. Sincerely, Dorothy Porter Office of the Solicitor General Washington, D. C. D.J.File: 144-16-60 October Twenty-seventh 1950 Mrs. Mary Church Terrell Coordinating Committee for the Enforcement of D. C. Anti-Discrimination Laws 1615 S Street, N. W. Washington, D. C. Dear Mrs. Terrell:- Thank you very much for your letter of October 24th and for the amici briefs filed in the Thompson case in the Municipal Court of Appeals. The case is adequately briefed on behalf of the appellant and we do not think that it is advisable for the Department of Justice to intervene at this stage. We shall be glad to give renewed conideration to the matter after the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has handed down its decision. With best wishes, I am, Sincerely yours, Philip B. Perlman Solicitor General [*[ca10-27-50]*] 1945 THE DRA MU OPERA COMPANY 1950 Raymond Smith, Founder 130 N. Sickels Street Telephone: GR-anite 4-0059 Philadelphia 39, Penna. Dear Friend: On Friday evening October 27, 1950, the Dra Mu Opera Company will present the Haitian Opera "Quanga", by Clarence Cameron White. Dr. White gave me your name as one who is interested in Opera and particularily this Opera. Therefore I write to ask if you will subscribe to tickets for this presentation. It is to be presented at the historic Academy of Music, Broad and Locust Streets, Philadelphia, Penna., with a notable cast, the large Dra Mu Chorus, Ballet and Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Henri Elkan is our capable Music Director and Mr. Dale Wasserman, Stage Director. Tickets for Box Seats will sell at $3.90. The entire first floor and first two rows of the Balcony $3.25. The balance of the Balcony and first twos of the Family Circle $2.60. Balance of the Family Circle $2.28. Ampitheatre - $1.63 and $1.30. We shall begin our sale of tickets August 31st. Make your reservations now by using the enclosed envelope. Very sincerely yours, Raymond Smith, General Manager AMERICAN SPONSORING COMMITTEE FOR REPRESENTATION AT THE WORLD PEACE CONGRESS 135 LIBERTY STREET, Room 409 NEW YORK 6, N. Y. REctor 2-9351 October 31, 1950 Initial List of Sponsors: Mrs. Charlotta A. Bass Dr. Allan M. Butler Prof. Anton J. Carlson Dr. Mark A. Dawber Dr. W. E. B. DuBois Dr. E. Franklin Frazier Prof. Fleming James Rev. John Paul Jones Dr. John A. Kinsbury Bishop W. Appleton Lawrence Dr. Robert Morss Lovett Rev. Joseph Moore Prof. Philip Morrison Bishop Arthur W. Moulton Bishop Edward L. Parsons Dr. Linus Pauling Dr. Theodor Rosebury Dr. Vida D. Scudder Mr. Fred W. Stover Bishop John Moore Walker Acting for the Committee: Prof. Joseph F. Fletcher Cambridge, Massachusetts Rev. Robert M. Muir Temporary Secretary Mrs. Mary Church Terrell National Association of Negro Women 1615 S Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. Dear Mrs. Terrell: Knowing of your deep concern for peace and of your fine work, we hope you will take seriously the invitation extended to you by Dr. Joliot-Curie of the World Defenders of Peace. His invitation is enclosed herewith. It was sent to me as he did not have your address. While we recognize that time is short, we trust that if you accept the invitation, you will communicate immediately with me by telephone so that we may make the necessary travel arrangements for you. With that in mind, we enclose the necessary information which we have on hand. Let me emphasize again that while we may not agree with the political position of the World Defenders of Peace, nonetheless it is of the utmost importance that people of many points of view discuss openly their differences. You will not be bound by the findings of the Congress but we know that you will use your influence, both at the Congress and when you return, to further the cause of world peace. We hope that you may have an affirmative answer to this invitation. Most sincerely yours, Robert M. Muir (Rev.) Robert M. Muir Temporary Secretary Enc. AMERICAN SPONSORING COMMITTEE FOR REPRESENTATION TO THE WORLD PEACE CONGRESS 135 Liberty Street, Room 409 REctor 2-9351 New York 6, N.Y. URGENT!!! M E M O R A N D U M URGENT!!! To: DELEGATES AND OBSERVERS TO WORLD PEACE CONGRESS, SHEFFIELD? ENGLAND, NOVEMBER 13-19, 1950 From: REV. ROBERT M. MUIR, Temporary Secretary Subject: PLANE TRANSPORTATION We have just received information that it will be possible to book plane reservations at $400 round-trip. This plane is a DC-4 of the best type. The best dates to leave for the Congress would be November 4th, 7th or 11th. Return dates have not yet been determined but at least one flight will return immediately after the Congress. If you wish to stay on, returning at your convenience, you can make your own arrangements for one-way passage at $260.00, if desired. One-way passage at $260.00 is also available to the Congress. The agency handling these flights can also make arrangements for plane transportation on non-scheduled flights from your city to New York at exceptionally low prices. These planes are also of the best type. If you are interesting in flying, please fill out the form below AND RETURN IT TO US IMMEDIATELY, ACCOMPANIED BY A CHECK OR MONEY ORDER FOR $100.00 DEPOSIT. (This deposit is refundable if your plans change. This form is being sent to you now so that we may determine whether a sufficient number of delegates and observers desire plane transportation. A later memorandum will be sent to you informing you of the exact time and place the plane will leave New York. *************** I am interested in flying to England: Yes (_) No (_) Please make plane reservations for: __________________________________ (Date) I would like round-trip plane reservations: (_) One-way passage: (_) I would like transportation from my home to New York: Yes (_) No (_) I enclose (_) or money order (_) for $100.00 deposit. Name:_____________________________________________________ (Please Print) Street Address:____________________________________________ City and State:_____________________________________________ Organization:______________________________________________ (For purposes of identification only) PLEASE FILL OUT AND RETURN IMMEDIATELY IN ENCLOSED STAMPED SELF-ADDRESSED ENVELOPE AMERICAN SPONSORING COMMITTEE FOR REPRESENTATION TO THE WORLD PEACE CONGRESS 135 Liberty Street, Room 409 REctor 2-9351 New York 6, N.Y. Q U E S T I O N N A I R E Re: Arrangements for attendance at the Second World Peace Congress Sheffield, England....November 13-19, 1950 ************* 1. Delegate (_) or Observer (_) Name:____________________________________________ (Please Print) Street Address:___________________________________ City and State:____________________________________ Organization:_____________________________________ (For purposes of identification only) 2. Has passport been granted? Yes (_) No (_) 3. Has vaccination certificate been obtained from your physician? Yes (_) No (_) (Please note: If you have been vaccinated within three years, you may obtain a certificate to that effect from your physician. Otherwise, it is essential that you be vaccinated immediately and have your physician make out a certificate - AND BRING IT WITH YOU). 4. Do you wish this office to make passage reservations for you? Yes (_) No (_) By boat (_) or by plane (_) 5. Date passage is desired:_________________________________________ 6. When do you plan to return to the United States?___________________ (Date) 7. Do you wish this office to make return reservations for you? Yes (_) No (_) By boat (_) or by plane? (_) URGENT! - FILL OUT AND RETURN TO ABOVE ADDRESS uopwa Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.