Hartford Chronicle

UNDEMOCRATIC EDUCATION
The Goodwill Club is a very old boys' work organization in Hartford. Many present day adults of distinction enjoyed its facilities in their youth. There is no doubt but what this institution has brought a great deal of good to the boys of this community. As in all such developments that good has been in direct proportion to the wisdom and leadership ability of those in charge.
The Goodwill Club does not mean as much today to the community as it did in previous years because there are now many more youth developments in the city. However it is still important and is an influence upon the thinking of a great many boys and their parents.
Because this is true it was rather startling to read the nature of their program for their Parents Night the last week in March. Some adult on the Goodwill staff either conceived of or condoned the sponsoring of a program in which the main theme was "Darkies" and had all of the participants black their faces. These participants were growing boys with all of their ideas and concepts of democracy in the formative stage. And as far as we know, all of the boys and their parents, white and colored, with few exceptions, had a lot of fun producing this skit.
Some naive persons would be inclined to say that this was all done in fun and there was no malicious intent. Which would be quite alright if America with its great diversification of races had reached the mature, sane level where it was disposed to look upon all men as equal in the sight of God. BUT everyone with an ounce of intelligence and experience knows that we are miles and miles away from any such inclination.
So the best that we can say for the Goodwill Club "Darky" program is that it was an unwittingly malicious piece of group work that made no contribution to the democratic ideal. In fact it might well have sown additional seeds of racial misunderstanding and bigotry. For in fact it undoubtedly added additional confirmation to the erroneous thinking of some of the boys and parents that God did not create all men equal. And that concept is what we are having a pretty bad time about today all over the world.
In the light of these very serious considerations we would commend to the officials and staff of the Goodwill Club, that in their future planning they make some effort to look slightly beyond the immediate fun element and try to measure what the long time influence will be on the minds of the boys they work with.