Atlanta Daily World

O'Hara Vows Fight For Negro Page

WASHINGTON (UPI)—A congressman vowed Thursday a fight to the finish to make 14-year-old Jimmy Johnson the only Negro page in the House of Representatives—even if only for a day.

The pledge was made by Rep. Barratt O'Hara, D-Ill., the center of a patronage mix-up which saw Jimmy show up from Chicago for a page appointment which wasn't available.

The 76-year-old congressman, a veteran of the Spanish-American War, said he had "fought all my life" and would "not stand by and see this fine boy go home with a broken heart."

"Regardless of the consequences," he added firmly.

The Chicago congressman said that before Jimmy's plight got so much public attention he had "assurances" the youth would get an $1,800-a-year job as a House page "within a few days or by March 1 at the latest."

But Chairman Francis E. Walter, D-Pa., of the Democratic patronage committee, told newsmen he had informed O'Hara that there was no job for Jimmy and the boy should not have come to Washington.

O'Hara, who conceded his fight might be difficult, said he might take the matter to the House floor next week. He described it as a "sad misunderstanding" caused by a "sequence of unfortunate misunderstandings."

O'Hara said there was no indication that southern lawmakers were trying to block the appointment.

But Jimmy said: "The southern Democrats are against me."

There currently are no Negro pages on either the Senate or House side of the Capitol and officials believed that Jimmy would be the first if he ever gets his appointment.

However, Capitol records on the matter were not complete.