Atlanta Daily World

National YWCA Is Proving Real Champion For Race Relations, Report

NEW YORK CITY (ANP)—New York's civic-minded citizenry and many others interested in the general welfare of the Public and in improvement of race relations spoke in high praise this week of the work accomplished the past year by the National Public Affairs Committee of the National YWCA Board. Cooperating with the Race Relations Section, headed by Mrs. William L. Tucker, chairman and Frances Williams, secretary, the Public Affairs Committee waged a spirited battle for Anti-lynching legislation, for greater economic opportunities and a guarantee of civil rights for Negroes and for inclusion of colored workers in the many departments of its National Recovery program.

For the last three years the national YWCA has worked for adequate federal anti-lynching legislation and at one of its annual conventions passed special legislation endorsing the Costigan-Wagner Bill in Congress. It waged a nation-wide fight through the many YWCA branches in various cities and through cooperation with a score of other church and labor organizations.

In 1933, the Public Affairs Committee became a member of the Joint Committee on National Recovery and the effects of its endeavors are seen in an increase understanding among administrative officials in Washington of the situation of the Negro group throughout the country and of the recognition by Negroes that according to their need and ability, they should become a part of all programs which the government offers.

In its efforts to procure for Negroes, protection in the exercise of basic civil rights, the YWCA's Public Affairs Committee gave wide-spread support in the Scottsboro and Angelo Herndon cases; in the field of education it challenged the right to spend public tax moneys for whites only; it demanded equal opportunities for Negroes in professional schools and high schools, and equal pay for equal work by both white and colored school teachers.

The National YWCA Committee also fought Jim Crowism and discrimination in New York's institution for the blind and insisted on equal accommodations and privileges for the afflicted of both races.

The Public Affairs Committee has a notable and far reaching program outlined for the present year in this field of Negro-white relations and bulletins are issued at intervals to the YWCA Branches throughout the country, informing them of progress made and suggesting the best methods for the working out of the national program.