Read Online Double Victory by Cheryl Mullenbach - Free Book Online
Authors: Cheryl Mullenbach
Ads: Link
and LETâS PRACTICE DEMOCRACY AS WE PREACH IT!
The Washington, DC, event never happened. But rallies in New York City, Chicago, and St. Louis made up for the disappointment in the nationâs capital.
For five days in June 1943 delegates from across the country gathered for a convention in Chicago called We Are Americans, Too. A. Philip Randolph had asked E. Pauline Myers and Ethel Payne to organize the event. At the convention delegates voiced their support of the Non-Violent, Good Will, Direct Action campaign. They agreed to use the technique to fight discrimination in employment, transportation, and any situation where discrimination was obvious. They also agreed to set up educational institutes around the country to train people in how to use the technique. Part of the training would include teaching people how to organize and participate in pickets and parades in nonviolent ways. The institutes would teach people how to remain quiet when they were being insulted. And, most important, the nonviolent training showed people how to endurephysical assaults without striking back. During the final day of the convention, after two hours of debate, a controversial decision was reached. The delegates voted to bar whites from participation in the March on Washington Movement.
Many speakers gave talks during the five days. Some were women. Senora B. Lawson from Richmond, Virginia, said she supported the work of the March on Washington Movement because âit remembers the forgotten men, the men of the street, and gives them a chance to work and exercise their talents.â Cordelia Green Johnson, president of the Beauty Culturists League in New Jersey, said, âWeâre not asking to sit at the banquet table of white people, but we are asking to sit at a banquet table and eat of the Bill of Rights. It is not necessary to have freedom in heaven, we wonât need it there. We want freedom here and now when we can enjoy it.â Layle Lane said black people had tools to use in the fight for equality. She said they had tools in ânumbers.â She meant there were millions of black people living in the United States who, she said, had âpurchasing powerâ of billions of dollars annually. She also reminded the delegates that black peopleâespecially in the northern states where blacks could vote without restrictionsâneeded to use their voting power to elect candidates who were in support of equality. And E. Pauline Myers reminded the delegates that âcolored citizens have the right to disobey unjust laws.â
Some black women began to experiment with the idea of taking actions that were nonviolent but bold and challenging. They began to invite attacks and meet them with stubborn resistance.
Stubbornly Resistant
Pauli Murray had applied for graduate school at the University of North Carolina in 1938. She was refused. The letter shereceived was very clear: âMembers of your race are not admitted to the university.â
Pauli tried the old method of fighting discrimination. She wrote lettersâone to President Roosevelt. A copy of that letter went to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The president didnât answer, but the First Lady responded to Pauliâs letter. It led to a lasting friendship between the two women, but it didnât get Pauli into the University of North Carolina.
Being multiracialâblack, white, and Cherokee IndianâPauli Murray knew all about racial discrimination. But âcoloredâ was the only part that a bus driver in Virginia saw on Easter night 1940. And that, along with Pauliâs stubborn resistance to segregation practices, was enough to get her arrested.
Pauli and a friend were on their way that night to visit Pauliâs family in Durham, North Carolina. They were traveling by bus from New York. The two young women were sitting toward the back of the bus but close to the center. Other black passengers were sitting behind them. The
The Washington, DC, event never happened. But rallies in New York City, Chicago, and St. Louis made up for the disappointment in the nationâs capital.
For five days in June 1943 delegates from across the country gathered for a convention in Chicago called We Are Americans, Too. A. Philip Randolph had asked E. Pauline Myers and Ethel Payne to organize the event. At the convention delegates voiced their support of the Non-Violent, Good Will, Direct Action campaign. They agreed to use the technique to fight discrimination in employment, transportation, and any situation where discrimination was obvious. They also agreed to set up educational institutes around the country to train people in how to use the technique. Part of the training would include teaching people how to organize and participate in pickets and parades in nonviolent ways. The institutes would teach people how to remain quiet when they were being insulted. And, most important, the nonviolent training showed people how to endurephysical assaults without striking back. During the final day of the convention, after two hours of debate, a controversial decision was reached. The delegates voted to bar whites from participation in the March on Washington Movement.
Many speakers gave talks during the five days. Some were women. Senora B. Lawson from Richmond, Virginia, said she supported the work of the March on Washington Movement because âit remembers the forgotten men, the men of the street, and gives them a chance to work and exercise their talents.â Cordelia Green Johnson, president of the Beauty Culturists League in New Jersey, said, âWeâre not asking to sit at the banquet table of white people, but we are asking to sit at a banquet table and eat of the Bill of Rights. It is not necessary to have freedom in heaven, we wonât need it there. We want freedom here and now when we can enjoy it.â Layle Lane said black people had tools to use in the fight for equality. She said they had tools in ânumbers.â She meant there were millions of black people living in the United States who, she said, had âpurchasing powerâ of billions of dollars annually. She also reminded the delegates that black peopleâespecially in the northern states where blacks could vote without restrictionsâneeded to use their voting power to elect candidates who were in support of equality. And E. Pauline Myers reminded the delegates that âcolored citizens have the right to disobey unjust laws.â
Some black women began to experiment with the idea of taking actions that were nonviolent but bold and challenging. They began to invite attacks and meet them with stubborn resistance.
Stubbornly Resistant
Pauli Murray had applied for graduate school at the University of North Carolina in 1938. She was refused. The letter shereceived was very clear: âMembers of your race are not admitted to the university.â
Pauli tried the old method of fighting discrimination. She wrote lettersâone to President Roosevelt. A copy of that letter went to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The president didnât answer, but the First Lady responded to Pauliâs letter. It led to a lasting friendship between the two women, but it didnât get Pauli into the University of North Carolina.
Being multiracialâblack, white, and Cherokee IndianâPauli Murray knew all about racial discrimination. But âcoloredâ was the only part that a bus driver in Virginia saw on Easter night 1940. And that, along with Pauliâs stubborn resistance to segregation practices, was enough to get her arrested.
Pauli and a friend were on their way that night to visit Pauliâs family in Durham, North Carolina. They were traveling by bus from New York. The two young women were sitting toward the back of the bus but close to the center. Other black passengers were sitting behind them. The
Similar Books
