The Gazette

SEGREGATION AN OUTRAGE!

COOLIDGE PERMITS IT!

How Our Men And Women Are Insulted And Humiliated In the Government's Departments-Will the Self and Race-Respecting Negro Press of This Country Continue to Stand for This Sort of Thing?

(Special to The Gazette.)

Washington. D. C., Oct. 4, 1924.

-There is more segregation in Washington today under President Coolidge than there has ever been since the Civil War. The beginnings of segregation were under President Taft. It was greatly extended, under President Wilson; increased, still further. under President Harding; and reached its zenith under President Coolidge. For instance, the largest of our parks President Wilson never troubled, but the present administration has found time and desire to introduce it even there.

To many people, segregation is a Democratic scheme of insult, but such is not the case. Mr. Taft introduced it in the bureau of engraving. He segregated the census-takers in this city in 1910, restricting white workers to white people, and black to black, often duplicating work as most blocks had white and black residents, And, worst of all, announced in his official capacity that Negroes should not hold office where white people complained. Segregation, then. is a Republican institution and not a Democratic one. It was begun by Republicans, and carried on to its all-embracing extent by Republicans!

There is far more of it in the departments, today, than at any time since the Negro first appeared, close upon the close of the Civil War. The picture requirement in the civil service, which makes it next to impossible for a colored lady or gentleman to enter the civil service, since their color is disclosed in their photograph which must accompany their papers, is tenaciously held on to by our Republican President. Only last week, a colored girl appeared after having passed the best examination, and after having been telegraphed for by the department. The photograph had failed to tell her true color, and they flatly refused to appoint her when she appeared, and they saw her complexion. Commissioner Blair of the internal revenue bureau with thousands of clerks will not appoint a Negro clerk, and his word is law there, as he is the special favorite of Secretary Mellon and President Coolidge. He hails from North Carolina, the home of the other favorite and leader of the segregation forces, Col. Sherrill, superintendent of buildings and grounds.

It is no use to complain of either of these southern gentlemen.

The colored people here who know the President could destroy segregation in the departments of the government, and the photograph requirements in the civil service by the mere nod of his head, are at a loss to understand why he does not put his splendid declarations on democracy into operation here, where it would not even cost him a single vote and where he has full power and absolutely no opposition.

They wonder if he is not a firm believer in segregation, especially since segregation is one of the chief tenets of the Ku Klux Klan which has found its "welcome home" in the Republican party, and receives no condemnation from the Republican President.

(Special to The Gazette.)

Washington, D. C.-In the postoffice segregation is rampant. The faithful colored clerks work under constant humiliation and physical disadvantages.

The department maintains a spacious cafeteria for whites only. where these inferior white clerks can buy appetizing luncheons and chat in comfort while eating, while the colored clerks must bring cold luncheons from home and eat them any place they can. The physical discomfort, disadvantageous as it is, is far less galling to the colored clerks than is the thought of their government taking their taxes, as it takes those of the whites, for the comfort of the latter, and setting them off as though they were lepers.

The injustice stings all the more when they reflect that they are far more capable than the whites, and render the government more intelligent and efficient service the white man of their attainment being able to get far more lucrative employment.

The department goes even farther in its solicitude for whites and neglect of colored. It maintains a well-appointed club room with pool tables and other games, comfortable lounges and other equipment for rest, sociability, and recreation, and nothing for these same colored employees. This private club is in the magnificent postoffice building, built and maintained by ALL of the people. In the locker rooms there is segregation, and segregation is even attempted in the toilets. And all of this is against the most dependable and faithful employees.

Last year the white employees passed around invitations to the white employees, in the very presence of the colored. to attend a reception to the heads of departments, including the postmaster general, in the postoffice building. It announced dancing and a pleasant social evening with the officials for "the postoffice employees," yet not one was delivered to the colored clerks. I hurried a protest to the postmaster general the day before it was to come off, and he ordered the postmaster to invite the colored as well as the white. These clerks get around their colored co-workers by giving the function at a local hotel.

It is inevitable that the wicked spirit of segregation would express itself in appointments, assignments, and salaries. Colored applicants are often passed over though their examination was superior. No Negro, however efficient or old in the service, must ever dream of a promotion to a directive position. The hard, unyielding caste passes whites over him, one after another, though many of the colored employees have won contests in quickness and accuracy in the handling of mail. The colored clerks have dared to form a union which meets regularly and often sends manly and intelligent protests to the postmaster, and often appeals from his decisions to the postmaster-general. It has secured some improvement in their working conditions, but they are still bitter over the huge injustice done to them for nothing else than the color of their skin.

(Special to The Gazette.)

Washington, D. C.The government printing office keeps faith with the government's universal scheme of segregation. Some of the best and brightest of our girls are forced to accept inferior positions there on account of the better and more lucrative avenues of employment being closed to them because of their color. The whites are generally of a very mediocre group. far from equaling our girls in educational equipment, culture. and working efficiency. Yet these superior girls are set off from the whites with the latter, of course. having the better working conditions, salaries and recreational facilities. There is a large cafeteria in this huge structure where all of the employees may go, but there are a few tables in an out-of-the-way section reserved for our employees.

I am glad to say that few, very few, of our people patronize the place, preferring a little physical inconvenience to the open, semi-public humiliation of segregation.

In toilet facilities. dressing-rooms, and work assignments, wherever possible, the law of segregation is in full force, and, of course, this same undemocratic practice reveals itself on the salary roll and in the hard caste that bars promotions.

Here, as elsewhere. the inferior whites pass over our superior employees to directive positions, and higher salaries.

The whites have a large recreational center in this public building with many fine appointments for rest and amusements. During lunch and dinner hours they repair to this restful retreat for sociability and dance. Last fall, a young Afro-American with a splendid record in his work, felt. the injustice of this exclusion of our employees so keenly that he secured the company of a young lady of the race to take part in the dance. As soon as this couple started to dance the music was abruptly stopped, and the young man reported for attempting to take part in an entertainment provided for employees. He was called to the office. lectured for being "one of those smart Negroes" who believe in "social equality." and then dismissed on a trumped-up charge. He was a night-employee, hence he carried a pistol. Right after the dance incident a fire broke out in the office. He was quickly accused of setting the building afire in revenge for his exclusion from the dance floor. Detectives came to the building to arrest him, and failing to secure any evidence searched him only to discover the pistol. They quickly dropped the arson charge and substituted one for carrying concealed weapons for which he was immediately dismissed. By this severe punishment our employees are taught that there is no way of escape for one who dares to resent the daily insults that their government (under President Coolidge) gives them.

Many of the employees have expressed their deeply-wounded feelings to me at being considered a pariah by the government whose institutions they are serving so faithfully, and I have taken up a number of cases only to be met by a denial that the conditions complained of exist, and a request for the names of my informants. I knew the fate these informants would suffer so I have never given a single name!! The department then taking the position that it cannot take up the case. It is perfectly clear that this iniquitous scheme of segregation is a difficult thing to fight, since the government is so well settled upon it. and the complainants cannot bear witness to it.

(Special to The Gazette.)

Washington, D. C.Segregation in the bureau of engraving and printing has an interesting history involving President Thomas Woodrow Wilson and members of his family. three heroic'young colored women who lost their positions as a result of their protest. and the noble wife of Senator Robert La Follette.

Shortly after the accession of Mr. Wilson to the White House. a member of his family visited the bureau where she saw white and colored girls working together in perfect harmony. oblivious to any thought of race. Shortly thereafter came an order for segregation of the races, and a white lady who had been noted for her philanthropy among our people and who was upon intimate terms at the White House appeared at the bureau to tell our girls to be contented with the new order as "a great Negro leader had taught colored people to stay in their places."

Three of the young ladies resisted the order to the last ditch and were summarily dismissed!

Senator La Follette lodged a protest with Secretary McAdoo to no avail, and his noble wife began a crusade against the undemocratic innovation. She took the platform here in Washington and Boston before the famous Twentieth Century club. She used the columns of the Senator's magazine, sparing neither space nor vigor of utterance. She thundered against it in our local white press. and addressed the national gathering of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in New York. When our people here were so profoundly discouraged. she came out one stormy afternoon to the Y. M. C. A. to urge them to continue the fight. for democracy was at the crises. Oswald Garrison Villard came to town to attack White House and Cabinet and arouse our people. and the Nation Association secured publicity in over six hundred influential white papers in the country. The fight checked what was thought to be the intention of the segregators. namely. the elimination of the colored employee from the bureau altogether.

The same segregation which some of our people think is the cherished institution of the Democratic party is still there. in all of its fullness. under the administration of the party that Abraham Lincoln. Charles Sumner and Frederick Douglass helped to found. Our girls are employed there in far larger numbers than in any other branch of the public service. THEY ARE SEGREGATED in their rest rooms, toilets, and working stations, and of course none are ever thought of for promotions to executive places, They are girls from our best homes, most of them with high and normal school training. and fine culture. The white girls are of no such grade. as there is no segregation for them in the great world of things. They have unlimited fields at high wage for even mediocre talents. The best of our girls must take these inferior positions, the inevitable result of segregation. Our people are still hoping for the issuance of an order destroying this iniquitous practice in all of our government departments. for it not only humiliates the best of the government servants but impairs the government service.

(Special to The Gazette.)

Washington. D. C.-The treasury department. according to the President's recent acceptance speech. is now under the ablest financial genius since the days of Alexander Hamilton.

It is to be remembered that the great Hamilton came from the West Indies. and in that long sweep of history that the President traversed are the mighty Salmon P. Chase, secretary of the treasury in Lincoln's cabinet. who. in a national extremity such as this country has never known. devised the national banking system which financed the Civil War; and Ohio's master financier. John Sherman.

These men never knew what segregation was!

The present head of the department of internal revenue. Mr. Blair from North Carolina, has not appointed a colored clerk since his incumbency. While his predecessor. Mr. Daniel Roper. a Democrat from Texas. appointed and promoted several of them. Since the income tax legislation and the numberless new taxes that the recent war necessitated. this is by far the largest department of the treasury. employing several thousand clerks. Yet Negroes are so scarce there that they can't be noticed. There is the same general complaint here among our clerks and other employees as there is in the other branches of the government-failure to recognize their efficiency when promotions are due: ability to go so far and no farther.

The various forms of segregation exist here as well as elsewhere--the restaurants closed or divided along color lines, and special toilets. locker rooms, rest rooms. etc.. set off for colored. The toilets for the colored are few in such a large structure. Hence. the segregated clerks are forced to endure physical inconvenience at times. and are forced to travel long distances when they desire the use of them. The department maintains a huge. magnificent cafeteria. in the splendid sweep of woodland along our national driveway, where white people of every class can come to rest. dine, and socialize of afternoons and evenings at minimum costs. The white press of the city is constantly telling of the thousands who take advantage of this "delightful retreat," and the festive scene that their presence creates. It seats two thousand diners with space to spare: but not one Negro! His only share is in the taxes he is forced to pay for this luxury for another group!

The registership of the treasury, which Republican Presidents have given the Negro since Garfield appointed Blanch K. Bruce, is now filled by a white man, and the colored people are congregated in a separate room which is publicly proclaimed as "a colored division."

When it is discovered that Negro clerks are "working as white" in other divisions. they are promptly transferred to this "colored division."

Our people fear that protest against this segregation would result in the abolition of the division altogether: so they remain in a dilemma, fearing to act. Our clerks must accept segregation or elimination, and being poor, with no other opportunities in this southern atmosphere, must take the former. They are depressed at the wrong. but economic stress compels endurance of it.

By a single stroke of his pen, President Calvin Coolidge can stop every bit of this damnable segregation, just as he can condemn that lawless organization the Ku Klux Klan.

COOLIDGE'S SEGREGATION

Washington. D. C.We wish to call attention to the fact that in the fight against the segregation of our government employees, the Treasury Department will most likely be the center of attack. for segregation in several of its bureaus has been most pronounced. This is particularly true of the office of the register of the treasury and the internal revenue bureau. In the former, beaver board'walls were maintained until recently. In the latter there have been two cases of discrimination on account of color brought to public view. The words. announcing the election of President Coolidge. were hardly cold before the effort to increase segregation in the departments here was on again at full speed. It had slowed up a little during the campaign.

Investigation of Bureaus

An investigation of the executive departments and bureaus listed below shows that segregation prevails in them as follows:

Office of the Register of the Treasury. there are two segregated sections-one with 30 Afro-American employees and the other with 14.

Navy Department - one segregated section of 18 of our employees, as well as a segregated lunch room.

Census Bureau -a segregated section of 60 Afro-American employees.

Bonus Section Ronus section of the War Department-one segregated section of 180 of our employees.

Veterans Bureau-a segregated section of 16 employees.

Department of Justicea segregated section of 10 employees in the file room.

Internal Revenue Internal Revenue Bureau-a segregated section of 7 employees.

Office of the Treasurer of the United States a segregated section of 4 employees.

War Department, Transportation Division-a segregated section of 5 employees.

P. O. Separate Lunch Room Post Office Department-a segregated lunch room.