Twin City Observer

As It Looks to Us
By FERDINAND JOHNSON
A little over a year ago the Allies were losing the war, and fast.
It was at that time that Messrs. Roosevelt, Churchill and Company
met and incorporated their now world renowned Four Freedoms.
The hopes and aspirations of millions of people the world over, representing
minority groups, were raised to unprecedented levels by
the encouragement offered them by Allies Inc.
The dire and critical nature of the Allied cause was reflected in
the sudden wave of prayer and supplication which swept over this
nation, (and we presume all the Allied nations). and which echoed
from every altar and platform in the land. And still another evidence
of Allied jitters was the over-night growth of interest in improving the lot of Negroes, and the attitude of penitent repentance
for the past acts of wrong doing against Negroes.
The fear of losing the war, akin to panic, even moved such old
staid, hide-bound groups as the American War and Navy Departments
to loosen up and say that Negroes would be accepted in all
branches of the armed forces. And the hearts of Negroes began to
thrill to the thought that at last a semblance of democracy was about
to be practiced in the land of the free and the home of the brave, even
though it was to be set in motion by a state of national adversity.
But, alas, the fortunes of war like everything else earthly are
ephemeral and fleeting: and today the Allies are on the road to victory.
Now instead of prayer and supplication a spirit of braggadocio
has developed:
But there are still people who doubt the truthfulness of Allied
claims of success.
To such dubious-minded and unbelieving persons, we would like to recommend as true a barometer as any lie detector
that was ever concocted. What more conclusive proof of Allied
successes is needed than the return of the Allies to their normal observance of the principles of democracy as applied to darker races.
Oh, yes, the Allies are winning the war. You don't hear any
more prayers coming from any station that you tune in on the radio,
do you? You don't hear any more radio programs exalting the part
that Negroes have played in American life, do you? And hasn't the
army, after spending millions of dollars to train them as fighters, reduced
highly trained Negro fighting units to labor battalions? And
doesn't the Navy still relegate Negroes to service as messmen. And
doesn't the A. F. of L. still bar Negroes in certain of its unions? And
don't they still have peonage in Georgia and Arkansas?
Yes, my friends, the Allies are winning the war in Europe, all
signs point to that fact. A lot of Negroes are disappointed that democracy and freedom are going to be restored to all the countries of
Europe that were subdued by the Axis powers before they could ever
be established for the first time in Alabama. It is too bad. we also
wanted to see certain democratic reforms made before the war ended.
But it is beginning to appear as though with a few more victories
Allies Inc. will be able to hang out a sign which will probably read
somewhat as follows: "Allies Inc., dealers in democracy, re-opened
for business. Special brand offered to Negroes and other dark minorities."