1942: Negroes, American

During 1942, the so-called race problem became to many Americans for the first time, a world question instead of a national or sectional question. The attitude of the people of Burma, India, Malaya, and other Pacific areas in insisting that they share the democracy for which the war is being fought had profound repercussions on the Negro question in the United States.

The struggle for justice and opportunity within the United States became more evident. Over and over again leaders of Negro opinion voiced the aspiration of 13,000,000 Negro Americans not only to be permitted to share in winning the war, but also to make democracy more of a reality in the United States by the abolition of lynching, disfranchisement by means of poll taxes and 'Democratic white primaries,' discrimination in employment and education, and the whole caste system based on color. This spirit was manifested in the phenomenal growth in size and activity of agencies like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. But this was more than a racial aspiration. The pronouncements of leaders of world opinion like President Roosevelt, Vice-President Henry Wallace, Wendell Willkie, Sumner Welles, and Chiang Kai-shek that World War II is a struggle for freedom of all men everywhere helped to give hope and direction to the struggle of Negroes for freedom.

Here are some of the high points of that struggle. On Oct. 13 the House of Representatives passed the Geyer bill to abolish the poll tax in eight Southern states by an overwhelming vote of 252-84. When the bill reached the Senate, a determined filibuster was waged by Southern Democratic Senators aided behind the scenes by some Northern Republicans. The filibuster was successful in temporarily postponing action on the bill. But there was widespread indignation throughout the country at the stoppage of the Senate's work by the filibuster. Labor, civic, church and other groups which supported the movement to abolish the poll tax immediately planned to renew the fight in the 78th Congress not only to abolish the poll tax, but also to support legislation to reduce representation as provided in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of those states which improperly restrict exercise of the right to vote.

In courts of law numerous cases involving the differential in salaries paid to Negroes and white teachers doing the same work were successfully argued in courts in Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana and Virginia. Disfranchisement by means of the white primary was also attacked in the courts. In a case arising in Texas, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals decided against Lonnie E. Smith, a Negro who was barred from participation in the primaries, but appeal of that decision was immediately taken to the United States Supreme Court where it was expected to be argued early in 1943.

One of the most fundamental and difficult of problems — denial of employment to minorities, particularly Negroes — was attacked relentlessly throughout 1942. Modest gains were made chiefly through the instrumentality of the President's Committee on Fair Employment Practice. The necessity for such an agency was demonstrated by Fortune magazine through its poll of employers which showed that 56.3 per cent of these employers hired no Negroes during peacetime, while 47.5 per cent still refused despite the urgent need for skilled labor. The Fortune poll also revealed that less than 10 per cent of the employes were Negroes in 29.8 per cent of these plants, and most of these Negroes were employed in custodial or unskilled, poorly-paid jobs. But even the FEPC was threatened with destruction when at the end of the year Paul McNutt, Chairman of the War Manpower Commission, suddenly ordered the 'indefinite postponement' of hearings scheduled to begin in January on discrimination by railroad unions and railroads. A storm of protest arose, coming not only from Negroes but other minorities, church groups, the CIO and AF of L, and other organizations and individuals.

The bright spot of the condition of the Negro in the armed forces continued to be the success of training white and Negro officers even in the South in the same Officer Candidate schools. Despite this success, however, announcement was made late in December that renewal of the pattern of segregation was to be inaugurated at Jefferson Barracks, Mo., by training Negro officers for ground duty with the Army Air Forces. This step, together with other instances of refusal of the Army Air Corps to permit the proper training of Negroes as fliers caused the resignation of Judge William H. Hastie, Civilian Aide to the Secretary of War.

Negro women successfully completed training as WAACS and began service as Third Officers. The records of a number of them were so excellent that they were promoted to First Officers at the year's end. Opportunities for enlistment and training for ratings higher than messman were inaugurated in the Navy, although Negroes were still barred from training as officers, and Negro women were barred from the WAVES. Despite these handicaps, some Negroes demonstrated valor which brought nationwide praise. Dorie Miller, 22-year-old Negro messman, was commended by Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox on Apr. 1 for 'distinguished devotion to duty, extraordinary courage and disregard for his own personal safety' at Pearl Harbor. After the Captain had been killed on the bridge of his ship, Miller manned and operated a machine gun against Japanese planes. Charles Jackson French, a Negro messman from Newark, N. J., towed a raft on which were a group of exhausted fellow seamen and officers for six miles through shark-infested waters following the torpedoing of a United States destroyer.

Serious difficulties arose in England, Australia, India and other countries when some American white soldiers sought to transplant racial prejudices to these countries. Recommendations were made to the War Department that it give special instruction to all American soldiers in an effort to acquaint them with the history and the contributions to civilization of the peoples of these countries as an antidote to racial prejudice.

Numerous conferences were held in Hollywood between leaders of the motion picture industry, Wendell Willkie, and Walter White, of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, regarding the effect of the limitation of Negroes in motion pictures to comic or menial roles. All of the leading Hollywood producers agreed to broaden the treatment and to picture the Negro hereafter as a normal human being and as an integral part of the life of America and of the world.

Famed Negro singers like Marian Anderson and Paul Robeson continued to fill the largest concert halls in all parts of the country. A brilliant young Negro orchestra conductor, Dean Dixon, served as guest conductor of the New York Philharmonic at Lewisohn Stadium. In other cultural fields, a number of notable books by and about Negroes was published during 1942, including Angel Mo' and Her Son Roland Hayes, a biography of the distinguished tenor; For My People, by Mildred Walker, a young Negro woman whose volume won the annual Yale University young poets' award; J. Saunders Redding's No Day of Triumph, and Zora Neale Hurston's Dust Tracks on a Road.

The most notable and gratifying trend during the year was the increasing attention and the sound treatment given the Negro in magazines of wide circulation.

1941: Negroes, American

Chief emphasis by Negroes during 1941 was of necessity put upon the task of breaking down discrimination in the earning of a living. The Congress of the United States appropriated vast sums for defense. The bulk of the $78,000,000,000 voted was spent through contracts given to private employers. Many of these, for reasons of prejudice or timidity, or both, refused employment to Negroes irrespective of their qualifications. In many instances they were aided in doing this by certain A. F. of L. unions, like the International Machinists Union which through constitutional clauses, ritualistic practices, or otherwise, restricted union membership to white persons. Where such unions succeeded in obtaining closed shop agreements in plants or in otherwise controlling terms of employment, Negroes were completely barred.

The steadily rising cost of living and increase of taxes caused by the defense program and America's entry into the war near the end of the year made more acute than ever the economic problems of Negroes. These increased costs, coupled with the discriminations encountered in obtaining employment even in defense plants for whose contracts the Negro was taxed with other Americans to finance, added to the discontent. When efforts to secure a Senate investigation were blocked by certain Southern Senators, despite the fact that an overwhelming majority of the Senate had promised to vote for such an investigation, dramatic and desperate steps had to be taken by Negroes to bring to the attention of the American Government and people the nature and extent of the discrimination. The March-on-Washington, in exercise of the constitutional right of citizens to petition their government, was organized by A. Philip Randolph, President of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Walter White, Secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and others. Official Washington belatedly became galvanized into action by the threat of the march. President Roosevelt invited Messrs. Randolph and White to a conference at the White House on June 18, which was also attended by the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy, by the Directors of the Office of Production Management and the Office of Civilian Defense, and other high Government officials. Out of this conference came an Executive Order by the President banning discrimination in employment by industries holding defense contracts and by the Federal Government itself, on account of race, creed, color or national origin. The order also provided for the establishment of a Committee on Fair Employment Practice, of which Mark F. Ethridge, Editor of the Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal was named as Chairman and Lawrence W. Cramer, former Governor of the Virgin Islands, as Executive Secretary. Hearings and other activities by the committee, backed by a steadily increasing opposition to such discrimination, resulted in its discontinuance in a few industries during 1941.

The determination of Negroes and interested white Americans in settling such problems was manifested also in the taking into the courts of test cases involving disfranchisement; differentials in salaries paid to Negro and white teachers, amounting to more than $43,000,000 annually; discrimination in public transportation, and other phases. Most of these were taken into court through the instrumentality of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Though the Navy continued to bar Negro volunteers, except as menials, the Coast Guard and Marines continued to bar them altogether, and the Army continued to insist on Negroes serving in completely segregated units. A few indications that this rigid pattern could be successfully changed became evident during 1941. The first of these was the small but significant increase in the number of Negroes admitted to West Point, which was accomplished without public criticism or difficulty. The other was the training of Negro and white Army officers in the same Army training schools, even in the deep South. This, too, was effected without friction. William H. Hastie, brilliant Negro graduate of Amherst College and of the Harvard University Law School, served as Civilian Aide to the Secretary of War and aided materially in achieving these modest steps toward a more democratic Army.

Distinguished Negro artists, like Marian Anderson, Paul Robeson, Dorothy Maynor and Roland Hayes, continued to add to their fame through singing to huge audiences in various parts of the country. Other Negroes, inspired by the success of these, began to be heard from. Outstanding among these was Dean Dixon, brilliant young Negro orchestra conductor and Juilliard graduate, who became the first Negro and one of the first American conductors of the N.B.C. Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic at the Lewisohn Stadium.

In the field of sports a number of successful Negro fighters, like Ray Robinson, Chalky Wright, Bob Montgomery and others, moved towards the top of the prize-fighting world. Agreed upon in 1941 by all sports writers and the public as being the greatest heavy-weight who ever lived, Joe Louis defended his title successfully seven times during 1941. Early in 1942, in a fight with Buddy Baer, whom he defeated, Louis generously contributed all of his purse to the Navy Relief Fund.

1940: Negroes, American

A gradual shifting of the Negro's position in American life was to be noted during 1940. Part of the shift was heartening, part the reverse. In the courts of law and of public opinion notable gains were made. The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the verdict of the Federal District Court in a case brought by Melvin Alston, a Negro teacher in the public schools of Norfolk, Va., and by the Norfolk Teachers' Association challenging the differential in salaries paid Negro and white teachers in the public schools. The lower court had denied Alston's complaint. The economic importance of this case to the Negro is to be seen in the estimate that the differential in salaries paid teachers of the two races is in excess of $1,000,000 annually, although white and Negro teachers are required to meet the same qualifications of education, experience, ability and character. The total differential for eighteen southern states from which Negro teachers suffer is estimated to be between $20,000,000 and $25,000,000 a year. The Norfolk School Board appealed the C.C.A. decision to the United States Supreme Court but that court dismissed the appeal and thereby affirmed the C.C.A. decision, declaring such racial differentials to be a violation of the Constitution and ordering their abolition.

Similar actions both in and outside the courts were stimulated by the Alston decision in other counties of Virginia and in other southern states. In Louisville, Ky., the local press, notably the Courier-Journal, gave active support to the Negro teachers in a similar effort, and the Mayor of Louisville with the authorization of the Board of Aldermen offered to appropriate the sum necessary to equalize teachers' salaries in that city.

In a notable decision on Lincoln's birthday, Mr. Justice Hugo Black on behalf of the Supreme Court reversed the convictions of four Florida Negroes from whom 'confessions' had been extorted by torture. Later in the year the same court acted to save the lives of Dave Canty in Alabama and Bob White in Texas.

A temporary set-back in the efforts of Negroes to secure professional and graduate training in tax-supported state schools of the South was given to Lucile Bluford who sought graduate training in journalism at the University of Missouri, the court ruling that Missouri should be given time to set up a jim crow school for Negroes. An appeal was taken from that decision.

Most difficult of problems faced by the Negro in 1940 was the discrimination he encountered in the National Defense Program. Not only was there such discrimination in the Army, Navy, Air Corps and Marine Corps, but in the industrial phases. Discrimination by employers and in some instances by labor unions prevented qualified Negroes from working in the plants filling contracts for the $17,000,000,000 defense program voted by Congress, although Negroes are taxed at the same rate as others for this and other governmental activities.

In the American literary world, one of the 1940 sensations was Richard Wright's 'Native Son,' which aroused widespread controversy and which was for many months a best-seller. Its depiction of the effect of proscription and segregation upon some Negroes shocked many of its readers. Langston Hughes' 'The Big Sea' was a fascinating revelation of the life and experiences of a sensitive and talented Negro poet. Other volumes were published by well-known Negro writers, including Claude McKay's 'Harlem: Negro Metropolis'; Charles Wesley's 'The Negro in the Americas'; Ira De A. Reid's 'In a Minor Key — A Study for the American Youth Commission'; W. E. B. Du Bois' 'Dusk of Dawn,' as well as other books such as 'The Negro in Virginia,' written by Negro writers on the Virginia WPA Writers' Project.

Paul Robeson made Ballad for Americans one of the outstanding songs; while And They Lynched Him on a Tree, a poem by Katherine Garrison Chapin with music by William Grant Still, was presented at the Lewisohn Stadium in New York City to an enthusiastic audience. Marian Anderson and the new Negro concert star, Dorothy Maynor, sang in all parts of the United States, as did Paul Robeson, to large and enthusiastic audiences.

In sports, Joe Louis continued to meet all comers as heavyweight champion and continued to be invincible. Henry Armstrong, one-time holder of three titles, neared the end of his pugilistic career. Negro football stars continued to perform brilliantly.

1939: Negroes, American

Marian Anderson Recital.

Dramatically, the high spot of Negro-white relations during 1939 occurred on Easter Sunday when Marion Anderson, great Negro contralto, stood on the steps of Lincoln Memorial in the nation's capital and sang 'America' to an audience of 75,000 persons, white and Negro, and to countless others over a coast-to-coast radio network. Behind her sat members of the President's Cabinet, Senators, Congressmen and distinguished citizens, white and Negro, representing the world of politics, art, and public affairs. When Miss Anderson closed her recital with the haunting and appropriate spiritual, 'Nobody Knows De Trouble I've Seen,' a new affirmation of democracy was felt by all those present, even by some members of the Daughters of the American Revolution who had refused Miss Anderson the use of Constitution Hall in Washington.

Equalization of Salaries.

Less dramatic but perhaps more far-reaching was the decision in the United States District Court in Maryland, handed down by Judge W. Calvin Chesnut on Thanksgiving eve, in which it was ruled that Anne Arundel County, Maryland, could not pay Negro teachers lower salaries than white teachers with the same experience, educational background, and size of school. The racial differential from which Negroes suffer in Anne Arundel County totaled $45,000 a year; in Maryland, approximately $600,000 a year; and in the 19 southern states which maintain and require separate schools for Negroes which are supposed to be equal, the differential is estimated to be between $20,000,000 and $25,000,000. Judge Chesnut ruled that salary differentials based solely on race and color are a violation of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which represented a new precedent in Federal court procedure.

Admittance to Graduate Schools.

Similarly, in the field of education the repercussions were felt during 1939 of the decision by the United States Supreme Court in Gaines v. University of Missouri (Vol. 83, Lawyers Edition of Supreme Court Reports), in which the Court ruled that the state of Missouri must either provide Lloyd Gaines, a Negro citizen of Missouri who desired to study law, substantially equal accommodations for studying law to those provided for white Missourians at the University of Missouri or else admit Gaines to the University of Missouri. To meet this decision the Missouri Legislature appropriated $200,000 to establish a law school for Negroes which was housed in a building formerly used to manufacture cosmetics and hair preparations. Because it was patently not the equal of the School of Law at the University of Missouri there was practically unanimous opposition on the part of Negroes to this inadequate substitute.

A very well prepared young woman made application for admission to the School of Journalism of the University of Missouri and was refused. As 1939 came to a close it appeared likely that the state would also have to supply money for a school of journalism and perhaps for other professional and graduate schools which are now provided for white Missourians but not for Negro citizens of that state.

In Kentucky a commission appointed by Governor Albert B. Chandler to make recommendations about meeting the issues raised in Kentucky made by the Gaines decision recommended that legal action and legislation be studied with the view to bringing the practices of Kentucky into harmony with the Supreme Court decision. In other states of the South various proposals were made and studied, involving cooperative arrangements between white and Negro schools, so-called regional professional and graduate schools for Negro youth, and voluntary scholarships. In Maryland, however, a Negro Oberlin graduate was admitted to the School of Law of the University of Maryland, the third of his race to be admitted there since a Maryland State Court decision ordered that Negroes be admitted.

Increase in Number of Voters.

The enfranchisement of Negroes in states where hitherto they had been denied the right to vote moved steadily forward, though slowly, during 1939. In Richmond, Va.; Birmingham, Ala.; Atlanta, Ga.; and various cities in Texas, Louisiana, North Carolina and Kentucky, the number of Negro registrants and voters materially increased. In Florida and South Carolina parades by the Ku Klux Klan, mob violence and other forms of intimidation were unsuccessfully resorted to in an effort to discourage Negroes from voting. Meanwhile, the potential balance of power held by the Negro vote in 17 northern and border states with a total vote of 281 in the electoral college profoundly affected the national political scene. The growing independence and intelligence of the Negro vote in these states caused politicians of all parties to realize that this was a phenomenon which had to be reckoned with.

Artistic Prowess.

In the world of the theater Ethel Waters made her début as a dramatic actress, winning enthusiastic critical acclaim for her performance in the title role of Mamba's Daughters. Bill Robinson, in The Hot Mikado, enjoyed a long run on Broadway and later at the New York World's Fair. Paul Robeson, returned to America after many years' absence in England and Russia, opened in Roark Bradford's John Henry. Maxine Sullivan gained new prominence in addition to that which she had won on the radio and stage by her performance in Swingin' the Dream, a swing-version of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream in which she was co-starred with Benny Goodman and Louis Armstrong.

But Broadway and the cinema continued to remain impervious to a presentation of Negro life on any level save that represented by the above productions.

Marian Anderson continued to win new acclaim as one of the great singers of modern times. She was awarded the 24th Spingarn Medal which was presented to her by Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt at the 30th Annual Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People at Richmond, Virginia, July 2. A new Negro singer appeared with ecstatic acclaim in the person of Dorothy Maynor, soprano, who was presented by Serge Koussevitzky at the Berkshire Symphony Festival. She later made her début in Town Hall in New York City with lavish praise by critics and public.

Sports.

In the world of sports, Joe Louis successfully defended three times his heavyweight championship and continued to be the same modest, gentlemanly individual he had always been. Henry Armstrong retained his welterweight championship but lost his lightweight title to Lou Ambers in August in a decision which was very sharply criticised by sportswriters and the public. Negro football players on many college teams won widespread praise, among them being Kenney Washington who gained more ground than any other college football player. Negroes continued to be barred, because of their color, from professional baseball and football teams. Numerous southern schools, among them Texas Christian University and Davis Elkins, followed the sportsmanlike example of the University of North Carolina in intersectional games, of playing teams on which there were Negro players. An outstanding example of the surrender to prejudice was that of Boston College which benched Lou Montgomery, its great Negro backfield, when it played the University of Florida, Auburn and Clemson, the latter game being in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas.

Appointments and Awards.

William H. Hastie, first Negro to be appointed a Federal judge, resigned his post in the Virgin Islands to become Dean of the Law School at Howard University. Herman E. Moore of Chicago was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to succeed Judge Hastie. In New York City Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia appointed Jane M. Bolin, Negro woman lawyer, as Justice of the Court of Domestic Relations. Judge Bolin is the first Negro woman to be appointed to a judgeship in the United States. Mayor LaGuardia also promoted Magistrate Myles A. Paige, to be a justice of the Court of Special Sessions, the first Negro to hold such an office.

Dr. George W. Carver, distinguished agricultural chemist at Tuskegee Institute, was awarded the Roosevelt Medal for his distinguished contributions to the development of products from cotton, the peanut and the soil of his native South.

Employment and Labor Unions.

The chief barrier to the Negro's progress and development as a citizen was continued discrimination in the matter of jobs and of economic opportunity. This was true in both public and private employment, though the United States Housing Authority and the Department of the Interior broke new ground by including in their contracts that there must not be discrimination on account of race, creed or color. The American Federation of Labor unions continued their constitutional and other barriers to admission of Negroes to many of the unions though there were a few faint signs that the attitude of C.I.O. unions in welcoming all workers regardless of race to its membership began to have its effect on the membership of some A.F.L. unions.

1938: Negroes, American

The American Negro found himself at sea in 1938 when he sought to chart his course toward peace and stability. On the debit side he found himself, as perhaps the most marginal of marginal workers, given scant consideration when new jobs opened up. Lynching, with all its connotations of terrorism, was completely checked while the Congress seemed likely to enact anti-lynching legislation. But that crime burst out again when Congress adjourned.

Admittance to Graduate and Professional Schools.

As the year neared its end the United States Supreme Court on Dec. 12th handed down a 6 to 2 decision in the case of Lloyd Gaines v. University of Missouri which declared that the 17 states which bar Negroes from the professional and graduate schools of their tax-supported universities are violating the Federal Constitution; that they must either immediately provide equal schools for their Negro citizens or admit them to the already established state universities; that payment of scholarships for study in schools in other states is not an adequate substitute and that each state must meet its own responsibility within its own borders. This epoch-making decision created consternation in many states which have denied their Negroes the educational opportunities given to their white students. The decision is of far-reaching importance to Negroes since eight million of the twelve million colored citizens of the United States live in states where separate schools for Negroes are required, though in these states, as in others, Negro citizens have always been taxed at the same rate to support graduate and professional school education from which they have been wholly barred. Of particular significance was the reaction of the student bodies of the Universities of Missouri, North Carolina, West Virginia and other states when a considerable percentage of these students indicated their desire to see Negroes admitted on the same terms as others.

Until the court action in the University of Missouri case was begun only two of the seventeen states provided out-of-state scholarships — West Virginia and Missouri. In Maryland the state courts ordered the law school of the University of Maryland to admit a qualified Negro. He matriculated, and graduated in 1938. Five states — Oklahoma, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia and Maryland — in the interim between the University of Maryland and the University of Missouri cases, established funds for payment of tuition of Negroes in schools in other states.

Salary Equalization.

Notable progress was also made in efforts by the courts of law and by public opinion to eliminate differentials in the salaries paid to white and Negro teachers. Action begun in seven counties of Maryland resulted in raising salaries of Negro teachers by more than $10,000 annually. Similar actions against such differentials and against inequalities in school buildings and equipment, length of school terms, courses of study, bus transportation and per capita expenditure were launched or brought to successful termination in states as widely separate as Maryland, Florida, Alabama, Virginia, and other states. In state legislatures and in Congress increasingly persistent determination was expressed for adequate safeguards in Federal and other legislation against inequalities based on race.

Artistic Prowess.

In the field of art, the great contralto, Marian Anderson, rose to world fame. Roland Hayes, distinguished Negro tenor, appeared in concert halls less frequently than in previous years, but his appearances continued to win high critical praise. A brilliant young Negro writer, Richard Wright, his pen dipped deep in the tragedy and rhythm of Negro life, won widespread praise and attention with the publication of his four powerful novella, published under the title of 'Uncle Tom's Children.' Zora Hurston, the anthropologist-folklorist, continued to command the respect of her readers with her 'Tell My Horse,' based on her study of Haitian life and voodoo.

In drama, the Federal Theater Project's Haiti and Androcles and the Lion, presented almost completely by Negro casts, attracted large audiences.

In the midst of these and other contributions came the tragic loss, in an automobile accident, of the distinguished Negro poet and scholar, James Weldon Johnson. Other great losses by death were those of Arthur Schomburg, collector and curator of the famed Schomburg Collection of books by Negroes; and Dr. Henry A. Hunt, distinguished Negro educator and assistant to the Administrator of the Farm Credit Administration.

Sports.

In the field of sports, Joe Louis, world heavy-weight champion, after an exceptional series of victories, and a single defeat by Max Schmeling, fought the German contender again, and won by a knock-out in one round. Even newspapers in the deep South forgot racial distinction and recognized him as an American and pugilist worthy of his title.

Scientific Attainments.

In the field of medicine and science Dr. Louis T. Wright of New York City broke new ground in the publication of the results of his long study and treatment of skull fractures and brain lesions. Hinton in syphilology, Just in biology, Carver in agricultural chemistry, Abram Harris in social science, and other distinguished scientists continue to contribute to their respective fields.

Labor Unions; Politics.

In the field of labor increasing attention was paid to Negro workers by reason of the rise of the Committee of Industrial Organizations which, in sharp contrast to the craft unions of the American Federation of Labor, not only raised no color bar against the admission of Negro workers but worked actively to organize them. That they were welcome in most instances, even in the deep South, in the same unions with other workers instead of being segregated in Jim Crow units materially affected the previously hostile attitude of many white workers. In steel, automobiles, garments, longshoreman, mining and other unions Negro workers played an increasingly important role.

In the field of politics considerable attention was paid to the Negro voter during the 1938 elections, particularly in the 17 Northern and border states, with an electoral vote of 281, in which the Negro vote potentially holds the balance of power.