The Chicago Star

Civic labor groups rally to halt racist violence at SU Airport homes

An emergency mobilization of leading Chicagoans was taking form here this week in the face of attacks on Negro residents of the Airport veterans housing project.

First step toward the rallying of citywide sentiment was a meeting of 19 trade unions and civic organizations called by the Chicago Action Council for Thursday night.

This action followed a week of riotous outbreaks at the Southwest Side project believed to be sponsored by big real estate interests and politicians in the West Lawn community.

Highlights were the following:

1. Moving of two Negro vets, Letholian Waddell and John R. Fort, and their families, into assigned homes at the project on Monday was accompanied by stonings, the overturning of cars and trucks, demonstrations by anti-Negro groups and the burning of a Klan-type fiery cross near the project.

2. A delegation of more than 30 labor and civic leaders met with Mayor Kelly who assured them that the Negro vets "are going to stay, if I have to call out every policeman and the state militia."

The Thursday meeting was slated to hear a report from Rev. Paul J. Folino. A week before,

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City groups rally to halt racism at vet housing project.

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Rev. Folino, Rabbi Jacob Weinstein, Rev. Edwin Gaede and other clergymen had moved the furniture of two Negro vets into the project under a hail of stones and clods thrown by crowds surrounding the project at 60th and Karloy avenues.

OUT AT the Southwest Side project crowds continued to gather nightly, chanting anti-Negro slogans and threatening the Negro tenants.

The Chicago Action Council conference took steps to promote an educational campaign in the West Lawn area. It also called for a thorough investigation and vigorous prosecution of the ringleaders.

The delegation to the Mayor's office was led by Herb March of the CIO United Packinghouse Workers and Henry W. McGhee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

LAST Thursday afternoon, Fort and Waddell first took their furniture out to the project. The crowd stoned the clergymen who withstood the assault and finished their job. In the attack six policemen were injured. Two automobiles were overturned. The truck used to carry the furniture was mired. Its windows were broken and its tires punctured.

Friday night a wooden cross was burned Klan-like in a vacant lot not more than a block away while the crowd maintained its anti-Negro demonstrations.

On Monday, Fort and Waddell moved in under a police guard. They had left their families behind for safety. As the truck which took them out was leaving it was met by a barrage of rocks and pop-bottles. Bernard Persily, the driver, was hit in the shoulder. The police arrested five men, who were released on $50 bond the next morning, their case continued until February 6.

OBSERVERS pointed out significantly that the large real estate interests in the city had recently met to discuss steps to halt renting to Negroes.

Both Fort and Waddell are veterans. Fort saw action in the Battle of the Bulge and earned four battle stars. The wives of both are pregnant.