Racial Riots Threatened In America

Manawatu Times, Volume 70, Issue 267, 12 November 1945, Page 6

Racial Riots Threatened In America

DIFFICULTIES IN DETROIT NEW YORK. Detroit negro, union and civic organisations are working hard to prevent a recurrence of the 1943 inter-racial clashes. These organisatons face an increasingly difficult situation, because reconversion, unemployment and the threat of big industrial upheavals heighten the tension between whites and negroes. The . racial crisis in Detroit will come if, and when, tho threatened strike by the United Auto Workers' Union against car manufacturers develops. Shocking is too mild a word to describe the living condition of Detroit’s negroes. Their numbers have increased' from 1140,000 in 1940 to 230,000 this j'ear, and are still mounting. Most new negro families coming to Detroit are squeezed into the slum areas in eastern Detroit, ironically known as Paradise Valley, writes Theo Moody in tho Sydney Sunday Telegraph. I found most of these families occupying single rooms in old and unsanitary tenements, most of which have already been condemned. Attempts to provide better living conditions for the negroes in other areas have been blocked by real estate interests, who fear a decline in property values if negroes move in. Investigation Ordered. The Police Department has ordered an investigation to determine whether there is a conspiracy to thwart negroes from purchasing property. There are repeated instances of. gangs of white hoodlums terrorising negro families who try to move out of their slum areas. Recently a real estate agent threatened to blow his property up if it was sold to “niggers.” In August there were nineteen incidents, including street fights, between whites and negroes, and one recently in which a gang of whites partly destroyed the house of a negro family living outside the area in which they are segregated. But, although incidents are fewer, officials admit their propaganda has been unable to affect the general pattern of anti-negro prejudice, and the possibility of race riots is ever present. Gloster Current, Detroit secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, told me that he considered the present situation more tense than in 1943. The resentment of negroes is growing as they are pushed out of the jobs they gained during the war. They are also becoming more resentful of tho shocking housing conditions they suffer. Some union leaders declare that industrialists will try to break a future strike and smash the unions by employing negro workers as strike breakers. If this strategy is used, violence is inevitable. George Schermer, director of the Mayor's Inter-Racial Committee, says the committee is extremely apprehensive over the effects of possible strikes on the racial position. “We fear that if the strike were prolonged the management would eventually make a back-to-work appeal to the strikers. •“The negroes will feel the economic pinch of the strike earlier than the whites.

Less Union Conscious. ‘‘Despite education activities by the United Auto Workers’ Union, and the status the negro enjoys in the union, he is still less union conscious than the white workers, and would be more like-

ly to respond to a strike-breaking appeal. ’ ’ The Mayor’s Committee has discussed the danger and has appealed to both unions and management not to use tactics likely to worsen racial relations. The committee was formed in 1943. and has been conductig intensive propaganda to improve racial relations. Schermer says: “Some progress has been made, but there is still a tremendous job to be done in getting at the roots of racial prejudice. question is largely economic, but it does not automatically follow that prejudice would end if there were full employment and economic etability. “Racial friction will continue while there is widespread unemployment and poor housing.” Negro leaders in Detroit say that the best job of improving racial relations has been done by the Congress of lni dustrial Organisation’s Inter-racial Committee and by the United Auto Workers. _ The C. 1.0. end the U.A.W. have insisted on complete equality between negroes and whites inside the unions. David Connery, editor of the U.A.W. paper, says: “It is true that deep racial prejudice still exists in Detroit, and there is a consistent possibility of riots. But work of the union and the CXO. has done much to correct the matter. ’ ’