Negroes all over the state and nation are protesting the Jim Crow textbook law just passed by the legislature. The civics textbooks for the Negro pupils will not contain information on voting, instructions on how to vote, matters of government and civic responsibility.

In passing the law, the legislature said that Negro children should not know those things. In the Senate, where the bill passed by a vote of 37 to 9, Senator H. L. Davis, of Oxford, stated:

“Under the Constitution the Negro is a citizen and of course we know and accept that. But he can never expect to be given the same educational and social privileges with the white man and he doesn’t expect them. The best education we can give him is to use his hands because that’s how he must earn his living. It always has and it always will be.”

The bill provides that all books returned by the Negro and white pupils be stored in separate warehouses to prevent white children from using the same books used by Negroes. Dr. E. M. Garvin, senator for Stafford Springs, stated that the books should be stored separately so white children would not get germs from the books used by the Negro children.

From the Socialist Appeal, Feb. 24, 1940.
 
 
Winning production jobs at Flint
FLINT, Michigan—Real headway against racial discrimination in the factories is now being made in this stronghold of General Motors, and Negroes have begun to work on war production machines, shoulder to shoulder with their white brothers in the UAW-CIO and at the same rates of pay, $1.10 an hour to start.

This first victory of its kind here, won through union militancy, has inspired not only the eight thousand colored people of Flint, but also their white brothers. As soon as the first half dozen Negroes went to work at Chevrolet division of GM, Buick workers took the cue and began a fight to achieve the same kind of victory over industrial Jim Crow.

Only the organized and militant action of Negro leaders in the union, with much white support, made this forward step possible. The Negro militants in Chevrolet refused to sit idly by and wait for justice. In other plants, where the Negroes waited, they’re still waiting, or working only as laborers, if they are working at all.

As soon as Roosevelt’s executive order against discrimination was issued last June 25, the Chevrolet Negro militants began to organize to enforce it. When the corporation had failed to place any Negroes on machine jobs by July 2, the militants set out to file a discrimination grievance against the management.

At first the management offered to transfer Negroes to any jobs it might decide they were qualified for. But the Negro militants stood firm until they won what was needed—an arrangement whereby all workers, including Negroes, would be called by seniority as soon as new jobs were opened in the changeover from auto to war production, with the colored workers having the same chance as whites to prove their ability to hold the jobs.

For many years the corporation had justified its policy of discrimination on the grounds that to grant job equality would create trouble among the workers. This argument is still raised in some plants, but it was proved completely false at Chevrolet. Whites and Negroes who went to work together for the first time greeted each other with handshaking, backslapping, and hearty congratulations, despite the fact that more than 40 percent of the workers in Chevrolet are southerners and foreign born. Extra police held in eager readiness by the management could find no pretext for using their clubs.

The Negroes in Chevrolet constitute only about 5 percent of the membership, and so it was not too easy at the beginning for them to make headway. The Negro militants not only had to push the case against the management, but they also had to assert themselves in union elections, helping remove some of the leaders who had stood in their way. Progress was much more rapid when more progressive leaders obtained union posts. The Negro workers became among the best union members, and today their union loyalty is recognized by everyone; even white workers who did not at first understand the need for supporting this fight learned that it was in their own interests to win it.

From the Militant, May 2 and Oct. 24, 1942.
 
 
Fifty found guilty of navy ‘mutiny’
SAN FRANCISCO, October 26—In a drastic move to maintain its vicious Jim Crow segregation policy, a seven-man, gold braid, navy court-martial has found fifty Negro sailors guilty of “mutiny.” Penalties may range from extended prison sentences to the maximum, death. The verdict was brought in after only forty-five minutes of deliberation upon the conclusion of thirty-three days of contradictory testimony and summation arguments.

The case goes back to the Port Chicago disaster, when a ship being loaded with ammunition blew up, causing the death of 327 men and tremendous damage. The great majority of the men were Negro sailors in “labor battalions” doing longshore work. All the men brought to trial were involved in the tragedy, being either survivors or among the squads that cleaned up the wreckage and remnants of bodies dismembered by the explosion.

This disaster caused a profound reaction in the men and appears to have brought to the surface their resentment against navy Jim Crow policy. Up to the outbreak of hostilities, Negroes were accepted in the navy only in the capacity of messmen. “Only after things got hot,” stated Thurgood Marshall, chief counsel for the NAACP, “did the navy open up other opportunities to Negroes in other capacities.” Even then they were Jim Crowed into segregated units. “Somehow or other,” Marshall pointed out, “these units happen to get assigned to the dirtiest, hardest, and most dangerous jobs.”

The navy uses Negro labor gangs extensively in the San Francisco area to load ships. They usually work under the direction of white officers. Training for skilled types of work is often insufficient. It has been pointed out that the longshoremen’s union does not permit men to work ammunition until they have had five years’ experience. Yet some of the men at Port Chicago were put in ammunition after two or three months’ training. On top of that, navy officers often use speedup methods, pitting one crew against another. It has been reported that officers in charge would make side bets with each other on the comparative outputs of their gangs.

The trial testimony showed that the men feared to continue loading ammunition after Port Chicago. Petitions had been circulated asking for transfers to other types of work, stating that they feared to work ammunition after seeing the effects of the blast. These petitions were used as the basis for the charge of “conspiracy to mutiny.” Although much reference was made during the trial to “refusal to work” lists, no clear-cut evidence was presented that the men had refused to obey direct orders from their officers.

One important point stands out from the testimony. Any exhibition of resentment by the men against their lot was immediately translated by the officers into a threat against their authority and discipline. The whole navy system of intimidation was brought into play.

When the news that the men did not wish to handle ammunition reached the officers, a series of questionings and musterings were held. Men were questioned individually and statements drawn up by the officers were given to them for signature. Groups were lectured and the navy manual on mutiny read. Many of the statements were not taken verbatim.

One ensign testified that he asked the men to tell him “all about it” and then selected that which he thought was “important.” Another officer testified that he took down notes in longhand and then dictated statements that he considered were “the substance of what the men said … excluding irrelevancies.” Many of the men testified that they were told to sign the statements, and did so because “they thought they had to.”

The army and navy have made a whole system of allowances for battle fatigue, shell shock, and psychological reactions to the horrors of war. Yet in this case, where the men went through one of the severest munition disasters of the war, no consideration for its effect was made.

In his final statement Prosecutor Lt. Cmdr. James F. Coakley, who has been accused by Thurgood Marshall of prejudice, said: “Any man so depraved as to be afraid to load ammunition deserves no leniency.”

The case has held the interest of Negroes all over the country. They see in it a representation of the whole system of discrimination as practiced by the U.S. armed forces. They see in it a repetition of the discrimination they have experienced all their lives. Many young Negroes, believing this a “war for democracy,” hoped that by joining the armed forces they could win some for themselves. Their experience has proved otherwise. All the conflicts in society are reproduced in the army and navy with intensified force.

This trial, the largest mass trial in navy history, bids fair to become the Negro cause célèbre of the war. Resentment is piling up. The imposition of sentences will touch off movements of protest by colored workers all over the country. Their demand will be “Free the fifty sailors.”

From the Militant, Nov. 11, 1944. The 50 sailors were part of a larger group that refused to load ammunition after an explosion killed 327 men on July 17. Hundreds of the protesters were shipped to the South Pacific, 256 were arrested, and 50 were court-martialed and sentenced to terms ranging from 8 to 15 years.  
 
 
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