TRUMAN TO ACT ON D. C. JIM CROW
STOUT, JONATHAN
Washington and the Nation Truman to Act on D. C. Jim Crow ByJonathan Stout New Leader Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON. D. C. WHEN A NEWSPAPER assignment first brought me to the nation's...
...Root has served notice that at the meeting he...
...But professional Southerners like John Rankin can be expected to rant and rave' against it as a violation of Southern womanhood...
...But credit for realizing and achieving the first concrete steps must go to President Truman...
...The Recreation Board must abolish its segregation policy in all its operations, not only the golf courses, if it wanted the golf concession...
...In this so-called plan, various recreation areas had been designated "for white" 'or "for colored...
...at the next regular meeting of the District'Recreation Board, the strict segregation policy of the Board will come up for a vote...
...Tha occasion of the conference was a dispute between the Interior Depart - meat and the District of Columbia •Recreation Board over segregation in areas designated as public playgrounds...
...ALL THREE FOLLOWED the seglegated pattern of the community...
...The District Recreation Board, in 1942, inherited the segregated recreation system from the Department of Playgrounds and the Community Centers which it superseded...
...That subject can be enlarged on in great detail, but it can also be summarized in one sentence: In a Southern city a Negro is regarded as not Quite a human being...
...When I first came to Washington Negro employee* of the Government were forced te being their lunches to work with them because there were no Negro restaurants gear Government buildings and they could not be served in Government cafeteria...
...Whan I first came to Washington none of the downtown theatres were open to Negroes...
...Interior has leased the courses to a concessionaire named S. G. Leather...
...On one occasion he took me to another friend's house, where I met a couple of Government officials, an educator and a District Court official, the latter a Negro...
...This left the Recreation Board with full responsibility for determining whether racial segregation would continue or be abandoned...
...That would not be good enough, replied the Interior Department...
...But, until it abolished racial segregation from all its programs and facilities, the lnteriqr Department could not work out agreements with the Board for operation of golf courses, swimming pools and tennis courts, he said...
...The weaning away of Washington from its Southern prejudices has been a long time coming...
...The District Commissioner's representative, Walter L. Fowler, said he would vote aa the Commissioners told him...
...When Franklin D. Roosevelt came to the capital in,1933jas President of the ynited States, Washington was as much a Southern city in its folkways as Richmond, Atlanta or Jackson, Miss...
...When President Truman turned his attention to the matter, the National Capital Park and Planning Commission announced it was erasing the colored and white designations from its master plan, the Commission admitted that "Administration pressure" had something to do with its announcement...
...It will take a simple majority of four of the seven members of the Board to eliminate segregation...
...In addition, the District's public schools and their playgrounds come into the picture—also on a segregated basis...
...The Recreation Board has been casting covetous eyes on the public golf courses located in the Federal parks here, whkh are under Interior Department jurisdiction...
...This provision of the act has caused an undercover conflict ever since 1942...
...When someone proposed spending the evening at a first-run movie house downtown, a Northern boy began learning something about living In a Southern city—for, of course, the Negro could not go...
...sage of the anti-segregation amend* meni...
...In a confidential conference—which has not rat bean made public—the Presides* tea* hta three appointee* that ha wanted segregation abolished ui Washington...
...The Interior Department never has fallen in with the idea of turning over its recreation facilities to the local board...
...2) the Community Center Department of the Board of Education;and (I) the Federal parks run by the National Capital Parks Department which, in turn, comes under the Department of the Interior...
...This will seem a small thing to minds and hearts uncluttered by the strange complex of hostilities, aggressions and fears that have come to be known as Southern prejudices...
...On the Board is a representative of the Interior Department, Irving C Root, superintendent of National Capital Parks...
...A recent struggle over this issue has resulted in the permanent closing of Washington's only legitimate theatre...
...The District Recreation Board enforces a strictly segregated policy on the city's playgrounds...
...D. C. WHEN A NEWSPAPER assignment first brought me to the nation's capital 20 years ago, a friend undertook to introduce me around...
...When the National Capital Parks office, in 1933,'took over the Federal parks in Washington from the defunct Office of Public Buildings and Public Parks, the policy of segregation on Federal park land began to undergo a change...
...It has taken 16 years, but next month one of a series of long strides will be taken toward recognizing the Negro as a human being and as a citizen in the capital of the United States^ * * a THE STEP TO BE TAKEN next month will end racial segregation in most of the public recreation areas of the Federal District, such as So|f courses, tennis courts, swimming pools and school playgrounds...
...Although its reasons in previous years were not openly stated, Assistant Interior Secretary Davidson has lately made it quite plain...
...To obtain these courses, the Recreation Board formally voted to agree to operate them on a nonsegregation basis if the Interior Department would tear up its contract with LeofHer and give it the contract...
...Two are already on record as favoring elimination of segregation, and only one, James E. Schwab, vicepresident of th« Board, is on record for ¦maintaining segregation...
...Last weak President Truman called to the While House the three Federal Commission*r« who...
...but la its piece has annealed a first-run downtown theatre widen admitt Negroes without dlscrtminaUon...
...ON JUNE 14...
...Now comes the step about to be taken by the city fathers...
...Aa I said, it might seem e small matter te anyone wee has not lived in a Southern etty...
...The District Recreation Board was created by Congress in 1942...
...DAVIDSON STATED the Interior Department felt the Recreation Board was the proper agency to operate the local recreation program...
...Federal park facilities under the Interior Department are open to all races...
...It was therefore attended also by Interior Secretary Krug and Assistant Interior Secretary C. Girard Davidson...
...under Presidential appointment, are the executive heads of the city of Washington...
...MR...
...The Recreation Board has ali along disclaimed responsibility for its segregation policy...
...Soon after 1933, however, the influence of R6oscvelt began to make itself felt...
...The act creating the Recreation Board said the Board should operate all recreation facilities in the city and make agreements with other agencies, such as the Interior Department,,which might have jurisdiction over some phases of recreation...
...After the open stand taken by the Interior Department, the White House entered the picture directly and the question of the "master plan" wee taken up...
...Privately owned restaurants still remain closed to Negroes, although there ore some breaks in this solid phalanx of prejudice...
...Ever since Franklin D. Roosevelt brought a new spirit and a new human , attitude to Washington, a change in Washington's mores has been building up...
...They haven't yet," he added...
...The trend against segregation has been greatly accelerated since President Truman began advocating his civil rights program...
...Credit for initiating the change floes to Roosevelt...
...Before that there had been three public agencies adminietering recreation in thn DJsfariot: (1) the Department of Playgrounds operating directly under the Watriet Commissioners...
...But Government cafeterias are now open to Negroes...
...l«t I would not have taken all this space for this story had It not occurred to me that Its ssnminsdy petty detail snake* an excellent deeortpntoit of the slew and painful way of democracy itself...
...It has pointed to a master plan of the District's recreation system, which wss created by the National Capital Park and Planning Commission, as the reason it has been "forced" to keep segregation...
...So as it stands now, the city has two systems...
...will call for an amendment to the Board's by-laws to eliminate segregation...
...It is believed President Truman called in Ihe Commissioners te demand they instruct their represent, alive to vote egetnet sssji station, and that this additiosnd vase insist as pa...
Vol. 32 • May 1949 • No. 22
