Vol. 8 Ne. 8

Both old guard capitalists

In examining the merits of first demands to know what li

damentally, the golden city

Both systems (they cannot be dignified by the term “phi- losophies,” for neither truly loves wisdom) thereafter march away back to back eventually to meet face to face in the No Man’s land of com- mon destruction. Having set out from the exile of confusion in confusion for the mirageland of physical well being, they subject themselves en route to

unishments of both mind and

y more severe than those of the classical ascetic. Were truly Christian peorie to exert one-half the effort expended _ by the materialists and use such force in cooperating with _ grace the world would be gyerzpn by saints. Subsequent insequences for both capital- ism and communism may be regarded with a wistful eye. _ Seeking, then, the native country of the human heart in a never never land where God is not, both capitalism and communism condemn them- ‘selves to hell on earth, for where God is not there is hell. Both systems deny God as effectively as such negative action is possible for man.

Do I hear an immediate outraged outcry to the effect that capitalism does not deny God? Let the reader ask him- self: Which is less worse? To impugn the known fact of God’s existence? Or to admit His existence as a probable possibility (or even as a fact) and then sweep aside the enormous human responsibili-

presence?

Communism denies; capital- ism ignores. God is.

It must be remembered, as W. D. Hennessy pointed out in a letter to the Commonweal , in May, 1938, that capitalism ; evolved haphazardly without a uniform body of principles to guide it.

F | ; | P| ; i

pediency, its one object is the creation of wealth, the mak- ing of money.

Communism, on the other hand, grew up fully indoctri- nated in a college staffed by one-eyed professors who had accustomed themselves to see- ing one half of reality—the material half. (The well re- cognized pseudo-spiritual as- pects of communism require considerations beyond the | limits of these notes.) The communists themselves have y underlined their own insist-

_ @nce on the material well be- (sic) of the “worker,”

» forg

of $ ; “ Se a is

, eae Pre. rea a <3 ee ee ee re Oe = EUR. a be a a ~ ‘ fs T é ‘ we : reeves:

ties flowing from His omni-:

Moulded in an| environment of economic ex- |

ss ie.

ON CAPITALISM AND COMMUNISM:

and communists would resent

the. statement that they are brothers under the skin. Neither can deny, however, that both spring from a common ma- terialism. Too often is this basic fact ignored in the welter of charges and counter charges hurled by the opposing camps.

any way of life common sense es at the end of the road, what

is the promised land, the golden city of the pilgrimage. Fun-

of both capitalism and com-

munism is just that and nothing more. Each holds out the promised reward of earthly wealth and beyond such wealth the void of annihilation. This is the basic agreement—that _ man is born for his own giorification, that such glorification is to be attained by his physical command of material wealth.

ing in the wilderness, make

Formerly HARLEM FRIENDSHIP HOUSE NEWS

New York, N. Y.

January, 1949

VOICES IN THE WILDERNESS

By Sheila MacGill

“ T am the voice of one cry-

straight the way of the Lord.” In the time of John the

THE BLACK

10 Cents

METROPOLIS

Just as New York City attracts many thousands of people of every conceivable national origin and religious persuasion, so Harlem, the Capital of Black America, draws the colored peoples of America and the rest of the world. Within its two square miles, nearly a million people struggle for life and

happiness. A community of

strange extremes, its people,

Baptist, the wilderness was a| whether in the pent-houses of Sugar Hill or the evil-smelling literal as well as a figurative | tenaments of Lenox Avenue, are united only by the artificial

one,

Today the wilderness; bond of color and the common suffering’ which the tyranny

lies in the hearts of men who | of white faces inflicts upon them. As all oppressed peoples, have heard the truth and have| they are welded together by their common aspirations.

Harlem, at the beginning of this century, was a cheerful of it. There are many ways | neighborhood of brownstone dwellings and spacious avenues. in which the path of the Lord | To the 60,000 Negroes in New York City at that time, it.was must be straightened today.| a vague place in upper Manhattan with a strange Dutch name.

denied both it and the Author

On account of the very great love with which He loved us, God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful’

flesh, allelu ya, Magnificat, Circumcision

The Social Mind “Tt takes mature Christians to erect a democratic govern-

ment and k it going.” In thus auehing. it ‘pope Pius XT, Monsignor Hillenbrand rounded out a thesis which he made.in a recent talk, given at Friendship House’s Anniver- sary-celebration. “We need a new mind,” the Monsignor stated, “to meet the modern world. One of the significant contributions which the lay apostolates have made is to create in people’s minds the thing called a social mind.”

The apostolates have stood for charity, for indoctrination, for a “going to the people,” but an important angle of their effect which is little em- phasized is their development of a social consciousness. In their espousal of the state of being poor, they should not be thought of as martyrs. They should be seen as con- fessors or witnesses of the truth, attempting to live the true Christian life. Being wit- nesses, they are helping to build the new mind which is the mind of Christ. For ex- }ample, the pastor of Sacred Heart, Hubbard Woods, con: jceded, this effect of Friend- ; ship House can be seen on the | North Shore.

| The lack of a social mind is 'a great stumbling block. At |every level the absence of it

\I. There was no cooperation |with the League of Nations, |for there was no mentality to |cooperate. A nationalism, the product of individualistic

in labor. The Taft-Hartley Law is one evidence of this. We haven’t a social mind in the way we treat minorities. Consider the fact that we still have racially biased Catholics —in other words, “twisted

ahead bn| Souls in people so warped that

(Continued on page 7)

| was obvious after World War |

Bec tli so iat eee ea

Here at Friendship House we are trying to restore Christ’s Kingdom to Him by the fostering on interracial jus- tice, because if the seeds of

in the heart of the Mystical Body, there can be no wide- spread peace, union or sanc- tity among nations.

This is a rather long winded way of getting to the point of the function of the volunteer in Friendship House, but it is always necessary to restate a principle before it can be ex- pounded. First, what is a vol- unteer? He is a person who for any number of reasons cannot spend his full time

promoting the work of inter- |

racial justice, but who devotes as much time as possible to furthering the cause of brotherhood among men.

A volunteer comes to Friendship House eager to give, but he finds that he ends up on the receiving end—he imay give of his time and energy—but he reaps a thous- and-fold in the fruits of charity, peace and personal sanctification. The aim of the program is two-fold: First, to increase the spiritual life of the individual, and secondly, to equip him to go back to the |everyday world where the | staff workers cannot penetrate 'to spread the ideals and to | practically apply the fruits of |Christian charity.

Let us take the first aim, | personal sanctification. In lorder to carry on with the | work and to produce any last-

|ing fruits, one must be more | |than outwardly conyinced of | minds, reigned. Today, Father | what he is doing. If we under-| scription. It is often said of the walls. Hillenbrand went on to point | take to carry the cross te Cal- | the proletariat that they lack throughout the buildings for out, we haven’t a social mind| vary with Christ, we cannot initiative. Indeed one of the | the dirty, ripped walls are ex-

| The American Proletariat

| Authors of textbooks on Economics often assert with pride that there does not exist would correspond to the pro- letariat of other countries. They point with pride to the high standard of living of the “average American worker.” Of course the proletariat in its purest form is rarely ever found in any country. How-

tricts of the large industrial centres of America to realize that this country, too, has its | proletariat.

of security. Except for a few pieces of furniture and cloth- ing, there is nothing about which he can say “this is imine.” At most, he has a very elementary knowledge of reading and writing.

In any large industrial centre of America, one can find people of all races, colors and creeds who fit this de-

/ever, one has only to spend a; \few weeks in the slum dis-| lent, steady stream from the

+ Prior to 1900 they had lived

crowded together in the sec- tion around Penn Station, in mid-town Manhattan and in the less crowded area of Brooklyn. Population shifts among the Negro group have usually been preceded by racial strife. For example, during the Civil War when white men vented their anger against the draft by hanging Negroes from lamp posts on the lower East side, a mass exodus of Negroes to the com- parative safety of Brooklyn occurred. Similarly, the great race riot of 1900 drove them to upper Manhattan and the con- servative district of Harlem, Its phenomonal growth can be attributed to many things. The great exodus from the feudalism of the South is per- haps the most important fac- tor. World War I set the tide, for labor in the United States opened its arms to the black men of the world. They flooded New York in a turbu-

|East and West Indies, Puerto | Rico, small islands in the Car- |ibbean and even from the far |reaches of Africa, until today, |one third of the population of |Harlem is made up of foreign born colored people. Two thirds of the population is composed of persons of mixed ancestry. It is interesting to discover that a large portion ‘of this group is more native born than any other group in America, including the Daugh- ters of the American Revolu- | tion who, from the standpoint ‘of ancestry, have been per- isecuting -their betters for | years.

The overwhelming majority of Negroes live a life of want and oppression. A huge num- ber of them are found on the |Public Welfare Rolls. For the | average Negro, an unheated, | greasy, run-down railroad flat 'is the best that he can expect. |'Rats infest the tenement |buildings and many a tiny ‘child curls up between dirty isheets to be kept awake all ‘night by the turmoil of the |rats scrambling about inside Roaches swarm

lag along the way. We may | dehumanizing effects this con-|cellent breeding places for stumble, in fact we are sure to} dition has on the individual is|them. The filthy, littered do so, but by that very stumb-/| that it gives him few opportu-|streets are crowded with loi-

ling we can come to realize/nities to stimulate initiative. | terers,

the unemployables

how completely we depend|The average man must have | because of color. Everywhere

upon God for the strength to|some faint hope of success in|is destitution,

disease and

walk by His side. What means/order to undertake any pro-| death. The rate of tuberculosis’

are used to-foster this interior

se tt on th

(Continued on page?)

ject, and in: (Continued on page 7)

ale

CTR OST ov = 5 2

America |is four times higher

@ Vol. s

<a January, 1949 No. 8

CATHOLIC. INTERRACIALIST

Formerly Harlem Friendship House News

$4 WEST 135TH STREET Tel. AUdubon 8-4892

MARGARET BEVINS.. .ccccccccccerreccsenseaseseewessaarsssssranes Editor MABEL C. KNIGHT ...ccesccccccccccsetrceereresesesseseed Assistant Editor ANN FOLBY... 2. cccccccccccccvscscesesssccceeresvenss Circulation Manager REV. EDWARD DUGAN......5 cee ceceeeenee Official New York Moderator

Staff Artist

CARL, MIBRECHEL:, ..cccccccsesccccccsccccccteceresesseecesck A Member of the Catholic Press Association

ae Interracialist is owned, operated and published monthly, September through

une and bi-monthly July-August by Friendship louse at 34 West 135th Street, New York 30, N. ¥. | Entered as second class matter December 13 1943, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Reentered as second

class matter September 16, 1948, at the Post Office at New York, N; Y., under the

Act of March 8, 1879. Subscription price, $1.00 year. Single copies, 10c, |

If Christmas means any more than buying a dollar. present to get a dollar present back, it is because Christ- | mas not only voices the ages-old longing for brother- hood. Christmas is the fact, because Christ made the FACT. That is probably the reason why historians date the birth of Christ as the prime FACT of history, and call everything else before Christ, B.C. Indeed, what- ever meaning and vitality there is in the idea—“all men are free and equal”—from whatever banner the cry has flown, stems from the same fact, that we are now living A.D.—in the year of Our Lord.

The year 1949 A.D. which God has given to us to grow in Him and for others, might well begin with a resolution—to comprehend more fully the scope of the great doctrine for our times, the Mystical Body of Christ. Understanding it, not_in the sense of a mere cold, collection of human beings as cogs, all the same, but in the sense of the brotherhood of that most sacred of earthly unions, the family. The great human family of saints made and in the making, united in the great love of God.

Part of this resolution will be to comprehend how radically evil are the effects of race hatred, how much each one of us is responsible to work to change condi- tions as they are, and once and for all, to lift the low level of thinking that usually accompanies the subject— “how I feel about the Negro.” How I feel about the Constitution of the United States doesn’t change it. Even more so, how I feel about moral issues does not change them, either. And if the race question is cer- tainly concerned with the Constitution, it is more certainly concerned with basic moral law. Racism is, in point of fact, one of the basic moral issues of these’ times, according to Pope Pius XII, who used very strong | language in naming racism for what it is, “heresy.” |

Racism Worse Than Murder? |

We have had 300 years—since 1619 when the first | boatload of Negroes torn from, their native soil were | landed in America—to find out how evil the effects can be, when the basis of dealing with people is “how I feel.” | And these bad effects are far wider and more insidious than we imagine. They don’t stop with creating a hell for the Negro. They have created a hell for all of us, individually and collectively.

If we are serious about our desire to reconstruct the social order, and God knows it needs reconstructing, we | will see race prejudice for what it really is—not just as | regards the Negro, but as regards the wanton destruc. tion of our precious unity which was bought so dearly | for us by Christ. Rev. Claude Heithaus, S.J., has put it succinctly in these words, taken from a magnificent satire called “Why Not Christian Cannibalism ?”: |

“Race_prejudice and discrimination are denials in action of a two-fold unity established by God.

They attack the unity of the great human family

of Christendom in the Mystical Body of Christ. |

CATHOLIC

oe |

RACISM, 1949, AD.

tae

or ya ey sai onan Likad are Bre BEE 4 ae

ea y ut crs,

Body, a deep permanent, massive cleavage by which _ | large sections of the Body draw apart and subject | BITS OF COLOR the rest to injustices and indignities which do great |

spiritual harm, and in turn react unfavorable on By Anne Foley the spiritual health of the whole Mystical Body.” The National Theatre, in | Though in the present state of racist thinking in this | Washington, D.C.,"opened its country too much concentration on how the Negro doors for white people only, suffers from discrimination can hardly be given, we will | 4nd Equity refused to play ' pass this over, since it has always been one of the main | there unless this policy was changed. The result — the

aims of this newspaper, and of Friendship House itself. | “"* = capital’s only legitimate thea-

Effect on Whites - ° tre converted to motion pic-

tures. Equity’s comment —

= anal for a a at the bad effects produced they believe that in the con- on the iscriminators. he price is high, as it always version of the National Thea- must be when prejudice is practiced against any group tre to motion pictures and the in the human family, because nature inevitably takes 108s of the only legitimate

: ; , theatre in the city, the theatre its own rev i enge, even though it may take some time to patrons of Washington were

evidence itself. The first most obvious thing is the high | not considered and that if they

cost of maintaining the double standard. In the South, ad been given the opportuni- ty they would have welcomed

for example, schools, hospitals, lavatories, railroad ts dieniantion at the die trains, churches, etc., are usually separate for white | crimination in order to keep and colored. The ghetto system that is found through-| the legitimate theatre. Our out the whole country, however, produces the same ef- be meen Figen f 7 the —— f ‘ di f trati d . a principles an e strong ect: more disease, more frustration and insanity, more backbone to carry them out.

_unemployment, more crime and juvenile delinquency, If Washington does not have

deep lesions in family life and in the social structure as 9¢™°cracy, to whom shall we

a whole. Is the ghetto such a heremetically sealed ~ Fraternities have drawn

vacuum that these poisons do not penetrate to the rest the prejudice lines more of the country ? sharply with the National

: : Inter - Fraternity Conference cae of cold hard cash we pay an ever increasing upholding racial and religious

For larger and larger tax bills must be paid | discrimination. The vote to for the higher and higher demands for public relief, keep fraternal clauses dis- fire, police, health and other social sefvices that slums me pce yore pico , . . - asians was always entail. But worse yet, is the mental effect. We 25-13; with 18 abstaining. seem to be laboring under a mass delusion, in our notion | “So it goes” said discouraged that whiteness of skin is of itself, automatically, the delegate Jules Dolgin, of hall-mark of all that is not only excellent, but superior. Washington University, St.

; : Louis. Like all error, it spawns other errors that unfortunately | oa one day we'll wake up

affect other areas of thinking and acting—hypocrisy, and find there are no’ frater- compromise, rationalization, dishonesty, etc. /nities because the fraternities | just die of stupidity.” AND he

The warping and sometimes blinding effects of preju- ‘may be sight — tes Ausiaret

dice on our reason and judgment are too little known College chapter of Phi Kappa

or thought about. A classic example is the way we used | Pai was suspended for admit-

force in the first instance to enslave the Negro, and | Pleiging “th to ‘membership. : ; ” e young man,

then, in order to keep up the barriers we had raised, we | they coca as the Phi

had to resort to more force. The next step was to find | Psi fraternity.

reasons to justify the mess we created, hence more! Giving honor where honor

twisting of the min : : is due—Miss Frances Douglas g e mind to escape our sense of guilt. Think, pti By tg a es

for example, of a civilized country like the United |QDwyer to the Board of States, in this year of Our Lord, still tolerating the Higher Education which

barbaric practice of lynching, and worse—defending it Supervised) the municipal

z ‘colleges of New York City. in the halls of Congress! ‘She is ably fitted for the posi-

It is one thing to have a cancer, and another, to know!tion as a member of the it. The cancer of race hatred is undermining our Ameri- faculty of St. Joseph’s College

can way of life which, ironically enough, those who are ane ate aT nee

most prejudiced are loudest to proclaim. Because what! work toward the doctor's one part of our country suffers we all suffer. What degree in psychology at Ford- affects one group affects every group of men. What #™ University. °

affects the Negro affects the white man. Not only be- eae Pgh yal

cause the blade of “envy and hatred with which we try idential campaign prove that to pierce our neighbor with a sword cannot reach him the cause $ interracial justice, unless it firs S ” ‘instead of being a divisive ar eh t passes ane our own body” (Merton), | ciement in the community, is

ut also because our racial prejudices are so many body | an element of union according blows aimed at our own integrity, as well as the soli-|to Father John LaFarge S.J.,

darity of the whole of mankind. |editor of America. 4 rere ——_______..._....| Whereas North or South,

CHILDREN PROTEST st mous Ss roe

at the mote in his brother’s The Spanish

: j eye, the South nevertheless section in. seethed to the surface in an’ has some special problems. A

Lower Harlem is perhaps the Unusual and frightening man- Georgia NAACP branch pres-

most economically depressed under the Fatherhood of God, they attack the unity area ie

ner. ae hundred thin ident was brutally assaulted ‘ : ragged children grouped in for carrying Negroes to the Th = ar York City. front of the East Harlem polls in his automobile on the

ousands of immigrants Health Center to stage a par- | day of the Georgia Democratic

“Because they do this systematically, relent- |have swarmed into _its/ade in protest of the high milk| primary election; a-28-year lessly, and on a grand scale, they are far more cramped quarters from Cuba, | prices. First and second grad- | old Negro was slain for voting ‘Panama, Puerto Rico and/jers predominated. Armed _/|in the same primary election,

grievous disturbances of the order established by God than such crimes as murder and adultery which are momentary and particular attacks by in- dividuals upon individuals . .. They are worse even than unjust warfare, because they do more harm to more people, and are carried on more systemat- ically, more thoroughly, and more uninterruptedly.

“St. Paul saw very clearly that race discrimina- tion is a sort of civil war within, Christ's Mystical

seats tami Stony tye AT a

et Ee: ae Bil ii Suit oa Sea eal See - icici i kh TMS ai ah

unrest of the

|other sections of the Spanish with placards, larger than/and a prosperous Negro sales-

speaking world. Fabulous|themselves, they marched /man was recently lynched, |tales of American labor mar-|with a minimum of disorder | allegedly because of political

kets have drawn these people'down 2nd Avenue, chanting activity. The South also has 'from the squalor of their na- itive lands to the filthy tene- jments and garbage i

streets of this strange land of |faces so tragically burdened |southern states has for its

“We need milk.” ;some special solutions — a The spectacle of these chil- | Southern Regional Council dren with their gaunt, old| with representatives from 13

ttered

plenty, with the disorder of a society | announced aim “equal o - Several weeks ago, the deep not of ‘their ’ is an in-|t 7 for * all ‘the South's: community 2 < “ e er ee e483 “# ‘

s < . pi td ae geet 7 gis ty a Hi A tae sad ia ais eis oS gg ying i i oa Naat ase aes gE ala RS a a deen xs pee pe peli cla ae th ; cues RT Bo a eat Shae, fai

name rived early learn tolat even: hadn lay a come aint ad | facto Aven week Cath Some capt the ii a lad ciety Porre Ram tiviti those lege | gest Club They the ] mona Th begar when intere racial ton U P. M. tive 25 ye The is to. relati tion— comp abolis discri vidua or cre The struct ber 1( land presic specti Porre the cl ligiou work centui by th was ( patro! early were a stuc in gen ultim: emph: the Ni One

S-

te WSO OD MD ie

wet Re SD eo

AS THE JIM CROW FLIES —

Christ is unwelcome in 22) Catholic Colleges. Christ in the Negro is still being ex- cluded by 22 Catholic Colleges ‘and Universities in the United |States. These are the findings of Rev. Richard J. Roche, ,O.M.I., published in his study, “Catholic Colleges and the Ne- igro Student,” brought out by the Catholic University Press. Father Roche found that 111 |Catholic institutions of higher | i\learning do admit Negroes and | that one of these is a Southern school. | * ae x | How long will a Negro fight for freedom abroad and put up without freedom at home? How long will a Mexican be a good soldier for Uncle Sam and still be subjected to star- vation wages, bad housing and tuberculosis? How can the United States “assume the moral leadership of the world when race riots and murder, political crimes and economic injustices disgrace the very |

H FE R F BOA R D ‘name of America?” | With these leading ques-| : : , |tions, Archbishop Robert E.

A lad from Kansas by the club is to investigate cases of |Tucy of San Antonio ad-| name of Denny Holland ar- discrimination in Omaha dressed 16 Archbishops of the rived at Friendship House schools, The club was instru-|Southwest and several hun- early one August morning to mental in the decision of the | qred priests and laymen ‘in El learn all about the lay apos-| faculty of one Omaha school, | Paso recently. Speaking of the tolate. At 10 p.m. that same previously closed to colored |“yndeserved poverty” that the | evening, he conceded, he children, to accept two Negro Mexican people and other | hadn't learned much about the students in September of this| minority groups are afflicted | lay apostolate, but he had be- | year. | with and the myths and “pop- |

Platform of the Catholic Interracialist

WE BELIEVE in the sublime doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ—for He is the Mystical Vine and we are the branches. He is the Head and we the members.

WE BELIEVE that the fruit of the Incarnation and the Redemption is the Brotherhood of Man under the Fatherhood of God.

WE BELIEVE that we are our brother's keeper and have a personal responsibility, there- fore, before God, for the welfare of that brother in Christ and this embraces all men, irrespective of Race, Nationality or Color .. . for Christ died for ALL man-

kind.

WE BELIEVE that a lasting social order and peace will be achieved only by a Christian Social Order based on Christian Social Justice which includes Interracial Justice.

Editor, January, 1949.

‘an elderly gentlewoman to

Se a eee eee

INTRUDER IN THE DUST, by William Faulkner. Ran-!' dom House. $3.00. For those whose minds are open enough to profit by it, Intruder In The Dust is an important book. It tells the story of Lucas Beau- champ, an arrogant stubborn

|unfriendly old Negro bearing

aristocratic white blood in his veins, at once ridiculous and superb, and of the incredible | thing done by a young white | boy, a young Negro boy and

save him from lynching, not

guage: and when the reader comes upon the inevitable, the unescapable word, and recog- nizes with surprise and de- light its absolute rightness, its climax and release, he realizes with what art the preceding words, sentences, pages even, have been built.

In addition to its impor- tance as literature, the book is an important social document. Minds less realistic than Mr. Faulkner’s may find it difficult to string along here, for he presents the South and its

because he is a Negro but be- race problem exactly as it is, cause he is a human being. without sentimentality, with- Mr. Faulkner's style is not out wishful thinking. He says easy, being compounded of an in effect: This is what the incredible.length of sentence, |South is like—take it or leave involvement of syntax, and it, like it or loathe it, this is penury of punctuation. Yet what it is like. his characters, his story and; Mr. Faulkner knows his his message come across with! South. At one extreme there a tremendous impact. And/|is the small minority who be- what reader can say, in his lieve in, work for and practice deep participation which the social justice—at the other, book commands, that this is|the small minority who actu-

‘in spite of the style, rather ally perform the atrocities—

than because of it? But let no! the vicious inbred worthless one call it “poetic.” It is prose, | poor-whites, boot-leggers and good round prose, written as|pool-room hangers-on. And few are able to write it, with swung between these two all the ifs and buts and repe-| poles, the great mass of peo-

(Continued on page 6)

titions of the natural lan- |

come well-acquainted with a

aint brush. Friendship House had just moved to a barn-like factory building on Indiana Avenue. Denny stayed four weeks and a good share of his Catholic action was muscular. Somewhere, however, he di capture the full spirit, for it is the inspiration and the fire of a lad in love with God and so- ciety which started the De- Porres Club. Its secretary,

Ramona Horn, reports its ac-|

tivities for the past year. . To those of you working with col- lege interracial clubs, we sug- gest contacting the DePorres Club for a sharing of ideas. They may be reached through the DePorres~Club, c/o Ra- mona Horn.

The Omaha DePorres Club

began on November 3, 1947, | when a small group of people |

interested in ene 3 inter- racial justice, met at Creigh- ton University with Rev. John P. Markoe, who has been ac- tive in the field for over 25 years.

The primary aim of the club is to bring about better racial relations by constructive ac- tion—to banish every form of compulsory segregation and abolish any and all forms of discrimination against indi- viduals because of race, color or creed.

The basic organizational structure was set up Novem- ber 10, 1947, with Denny Hol-

land and Peggy Wall named |

president and secretary, re-| >. Crow are perpetuated |

spectively. Blessed Martin De- Porres was chosen as patron of the club. He was a Negro re- ligious who, because of his work in Peru during the 16th

century, was declared Blessed |

by the Catholic Church and was chosen as the universal patron of social justice. The

early activities of the club)

were concerned mainly with a study of the racial problem in general, its basic causes and

ultimate solution, with special |ings are held every Monday at|and defensive, but the very |

emphasis on the problems of the Negro in Omaha.

) . 35 5" 4

ee apes ‘. 7 a 8 ic Chi CF, Sal tsi aie

SR nce

hala ST ae ah St

| The Industrial Relations |committee is one of the most important committees of the ‘club. This group approaches business men in order to learn their policy about the employ-

‘ment of Negroes. and to en-

\courage the employment of

qualified Negroes. Several maha firms have been con- |tacted, including the Omaha ‘and Council Bluffs Street Rail- 'way Company, Northwestern Bell Telephone Company, and the Omaha World-Herald. Although no remarkable changes of policy have result- ed from these contacts, at least 'a step has been taken in the \direction of justice. Several

jmembers of the club have

filed law suits against restau- \rant-owners for denial of service.

Eleven months after the be- ginning of the organization, a center was opened at 1914 North 25th Street. The center |has a library for the use of the jcommunity, recreation for children, clothing for the poor, ‘and it provides a meeting ‘place for various committees | of the club, and as a place of ‘contact in the Negro com- imunity. Lectures or forums ‘are held at the center on Sat- 'urday nights. The open hours ‘of the center are: Tuesday ‘through Friday, 7 p.m. ’till '9:30 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. ’till | 9:30 p.m., and Sunday, 2 p.m. till 9:30 p.m. .

Since the cruel injustices of

‘through ignorance, several members of the club have

which will prepare talks on various aspects of the race \question, and make them |availble to schools and other | groups.

| Inter-denominational as well ‘as interracial, the DePorres i\Club is open to anyone who ishows sufficent interest. Meet-

(7:30 p.m., in Room A330, Creighton University. All are

One of the projects of the | invited to attend.

formed a speakers’ bureau,.

‘ular nonsense” that have’ arisen about these people, the | |Archbishop said: “And right pear Sir: here a thought occures to me Ag a result of my experience | which I believe has validity. | in the classroom, I have found ‘How hard would an Irishman | that there does exist, in our |

|work if you paid him 40 cents | 44; ial |

gh Schools, a_ potential an hour? How much exuber- ipe for recruiti into | ae pgs Bi oe your’ cuando fox: eeouaall shad been underpaid, under- |" Discumeton in my four Sen- nourished and badly housed |jor History classes invariably

for half a century?” reveals one great defect. Their

principles are usually morally ‘The South Is sound, but they lack facts to | | + ‘Changing

support generalizations.

Mr. Williams declared: furor about the Dixiecrats, “Those who expected this people are beginning to think, transition to come smoothly and I predict that when the and painlessly have deluded hubbub has subsided very themselves with a false hope' much more good than harm | ... The old political and will have resulted. Unless we | economic order is deeply assume this attitude, the rooted and offers powerful re- | present scene would indeed sistance to change.” |be discouraging.

“One of the hopeful devel- ... For those few of us who} opments of the past year is are active in the social field, |that both the South and the! the work is never ending, but | nation have received a vast’ it has, as you well know, its| amount of education about own unique fascination: the civil rights,” the council pres- fascination of knowing the | ident said. incalculable good that can be |

“Millions of people in the |done through social action for South who had given the mat-| the spread of Christ’s King-| ter little thought were told' dom in a world that is sick that improvement