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143S An American Dilemma
Chapter 45. America Again at the Crossroads in the Negro Problem
^
A parallel analysis of the relationship between war and improvement in the status
of Negroes may be found in Guion G. Johnson, “The Impact of War Upon the
Negro,” Journal of Negro Education (July, 1941), pp. 596-611.
^ Horace R. Cayton, “The Morale of the Negro in the Defense Crisis,” unpublished
manuscript of paper read to the 20th Annual Institute of the Society for Social Research,
The University of Chicago (August 15, 1941), p. ii.
Cayton reflected pessimistically:
“It is not that any of these men or groups are really interested in changing in any
fundamental way, the position of the Negro in the United States. This would prove, in
most instances, just as embarrassing to them as it would to those leaders who are
interested in an immediate declaration of war. But the Negro presents a ‘pat* argument
for those who want to say that democracy should be built at home. Nevertheless, the
Negro was thrilled to at last have national flgures speak about this plight on the radio,
from the platform and in the newspapers* Neglected, for the most part, by the pro-war
groups, the anti-war crowd has made a deep impression on the Negro public.** {Idem,)
* There is a question whether Negroes have identified themselves with other colored
peoples as much as Southern whites have identified American Negroes with Japan. A
confidential public opinion poll taken before Pearl Harbor showed that the South, with
no Japanese population, was more anti-Japanese than Americans on the West Coast,
who had a definite Japanese problem. Also symbolic is the following AP dispatch from
Atlanta, Georgia (from the New York Herald Tribune [April 5, 1942], p. 3).
“Atlanta children were heard reciting this wartime rhyme:
‘Eenic, meenie, minie, moc,
Catch the emperor by the toe.
If he hollers make him say:
“I surrender to the U.S.A.**
* **
This, of course, is a paraphrase of the doggerel containing an anti-Negro sentiment,
known to every American child (in two versions):
“Eenie, meenie, minie, moe.
Catch a nigger by the toe
If he hollers, let him go
Eenie, meenie, minie, moe.*’
“Eenie, meenie, minie, moe.
Catch a nigger by the toe
If he hollers, make him pay
Fifty dollars every day.”
^Raleigh News and Observer (May 3, 1942).
® Earl Brown, “American Negroes and the War,” in Harfer*s Magazine (April,
P- 546.
® Horace R. Cayton, “Fighting for White Folks?,” Nation (September 26, 1942),
p. 268.
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