Salt in the Wound

The army seems determined to turn the spotlight on its Negro discrimination policy as fast as the more brilliant glow of national emergency obliterates it. Working in two directions at once, it conceals this much-hushed problem with one hand and exposes it with the other. For its inconsistency the army deserves many thanks. The problem must not be forgotten. But that it should be kept open at the expense of the Negro draftee is unfortunate, and that is exactly what is being done.

The army has stationed Negro trainees in Southern training camps, in total disregard of the common fact that race prejudice is there most intense. The results were inevitable. On January 10 a white MP and civilian police opened fire on a group of colored troops in Alexandria, Louisiana, and 29 of the soldiers were wounded. A War Department investigation has determined that, "while a show of force may have been necessary to disperse the crowd which gathered when a colored soldier resisted arrest by a military policeman, the shooting was unnecessary." This was not the first, but merely the most spectacular example of violence against colored troops on leave. Nor will it be the last as long as these troops are kept in the South. There are certainly camps enough in the North and West to accomodate the 500,000 odd Negro draftees.

That a problem does exist is undeniable. To demand complete elimination of racial segregation in the face of inborn prejudice would be a cloudy proposal at best. But the present plan can hardly be justified as clear-headed reality. There is nothing realistic in the policy of stationing Negro soldiers in the ultra-prejudiced South, where they are excluded from many towns and proper recreation. There is nothing realistic in the policy of arming Negro MP's only with billy clubs, and then assigning white MP's with guns to patrol colored districs. There is nothing realistic in the policy of white commanders, who have agreed to comply with the demands of local authorities. In one instance townspeople and state police forced colored troops to walk in the ditch beside the main highway and to break camp in the middle of the night because of its proximity to the city limits.

Undoubtedly the situation is intensified because most of the colored soldiers in the South are from the North, and are not prepared for the bitterness of discrimination there. To them the fact that they are colored has meant discomforts, but never degradation and violence. The habit of an unfortunate prejudice must be met with compromise, but there is no rhyme nor reason in the present policy, which is pregnant with trouble and unnecessary bitterness. It is bad enough that the U. S. Military system should allow Joe Louis to contribute $47,100 to an organization which refuses him permission to serve under it, though it allows the Negro equal opportunity to die (as many are dying in the Philippines today), and denies him the opportunity to serve as he chooses.

The reductio ad absurdum lies in the Red Cross' refusal to accept Negro blood donations. To add to these inanities by sending colored troops to Southern training camps is a point of friction that can and should be avoided.