Volume 18 , Issue 20

1948 - 2 Negro Leaders Demand Congress Action On Rights

1948, 2 negro leader demand congress action on rights, threaten strike against draft. This news article was found in The Pantograph in Bloomington, Illinois, Thursday, April 1, 1948, with these frontpage headlines reading: "Threaten Strike Against Draft."

Found on Newspapers.com

Washington, D.C. -- Sen. Morse (R. Ore.) voiced deep concern Thursday over a threat by two Negro leaders to call millions of their race to a sit down strike against UMT and the draft.

Their purpose, the Negroes said, was to force an end to segregation and racial discrimination by the armed forces.

The threat came from A. Phillip Randolph, president of the AFL Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and Grant Reynolds, New York state commissioner of correction. Both were officers of the "Committee Against Jim Crow in Military Service and Training."

They testified on a Wednesday in 1948 before the Senate Armed Service committee. It was hearing those for and against President Truman's call for a limited draft revival and Universal Military Training to back up this country's stop-Russia policy.

Morse told Randolph such a "civil disobedience" campaign would lead to charges of treason. But Randolph replied that he and other Negroes "are willing to pay that price" in an effort to force the issue on civil rights.

Morse told newsmen, "I don't think we can minimize the position Randolph took. He undoubtedly is an influential leader in his race." "It is a much misguided course of action. However, there is no ignoring the fact that minority groups in the United Staes, including Negroes and other groups, fell grievously abused by our failure to put into practice the civil rights guarantees of the constitution."

Sen. Baldwin (R. Conn.) took a less serious view of the threat. "I don't think Randolph and Reynolds speak for the Negro race," he said. "We had other negro leaders who said they favor UMT and the draft."
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