Atlanta Daily World

Hastie Confirmed Judge
Against a backdrop of world conflict and international tensions, the U. S. Senate confirmed Wednesday without opposition the nomination of Judge William H. Hastie to the United States Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

Judge Hastie thus attains the highest legal position ever held by an American Negro. His nomination had been held up for several months by the Senate Judiciary committee.

The new judge, a native southerner, is qualified to training and experience for the job. A graduate of Amherst college and the Harvard university Law School, he is a former governor of the Virgin Islands and a former dean of the law school of Howard university.

Hastie's confirmation has been hailed editorially by the nation's newspapers as an answer to communist propaganda which charges insistently that Negroes are subjugated and discriminated against in America. And in a sense Hastie and all others like him are effective answers to caustic Communist critics. But in a larger sense Hastie's confirmation is more an answer to the Dixiecrats and the Southern demagogues who by artificial barriers would keep all Negroes down.

There are more Hasties in the race who would rise to the top were it not for artificial barriers and walls. The walls must come down; we must have more Hasties.

The Senate's confirmation of Hastie is an answer to both Communists critic, and Dixie demagogues, who would stultify democracy and deny men like Hastie their place in the sun.