vol. 11, no. 5
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AMEHICAN
Evils LDR ES
UNIUN-NEWS-
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.'
FREE SPEECH
FREE PRESS
FREE ASSEMBLAGE
Vol. XI.
SAN FRANCISCO, MAY, 1946
No.
Or
Court Action Due in
Renunciation Cases
_ After six months' delay sought by the govern-
ment, the habeas corpus suits brought by the
Nisei who renounced their citizenship under du-
ress will finally go on for a hearing before Fed-
eral Judge A. F. St. Sure in San Francisco on
May 13. At that time, Thomas M. Cooley II, di-
rector of the Alien Enemy Control Unit of the
Department of Justice, will move the court to
strike from the mass habeas corpus petition the
letter of Abe Fortas, former Secretary of the
Interior, who admits "It was primarily due to the
pressure of the (subversive) organizations that
over 80 per cent of the citizens eligible to do so
applied for renunciation of citizenship... " It
has been stipulated by counsel that the govern-
ment will file a formal answer to the petition a
week after the motion to strike is heard. _
About 400 renunciants are still in custody. All
of them are now held at the Crystal City, Texas,
internment center. Incidentally, 31 more renunci-
ants have joined the mass suit being handled
privately by attorney Wayne M. Collins of San
Francisco.
Among the renunciants recently released was
Miss Yukiye Teshiba of Los Angeles, one of the
trio who filed an independent suit challenging the
government's renunciation program among the
Nisei, but who later switched to the mass suit
after spending time in a San Franciscce jail. The -
only one of the trio still detained is Henry Mitt-
wer, who has been transferred to the Crystal City
internment center. ; :
The Justice Department has advised the Union
that a small group of Japanese aliens who are
still detained as "dangerous enemy aliens," and
_who failed to obtain hearings, will shortly be
granted hearings by a special hearing board. |
High Court Rules Pacifists
May Be Naturalized
Over-ruling the famous 5-4 decisions in the
McIntosh-Bland cases of 1931, and the 6-3 deci-
sion in the Rosika Schwimmer case of. 1929, the
U. S. Supreme Court on April 22, in a 5 to 3
decision, ruled that an alien does not have to be
willing to bear arms to defend this country in
order to be admitted to citizenship.
The ruling was made on the appeal of James
Louis Girouard, of Stoneham, Mass. He was born
at Monton, New Brunswick, Canada, and is a.
member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church.
Girouard is willing to perform non-combatant
service in the Army, but he is unwilling to bear
arms.
The question about willingness to bear arms
_appears nowhere in the Nationality Act of 1940.
It was introduced into the naturalization petition
form in 1924 by Commissioner Crist of the
Naturalization Service, upon the request of
several "patriotic" groups.
Justice Douglas, writing for the court, declared
that the oath required of aliens "does not in
terms require that they promise to bear arms."
Nor has Congress expressly made any such find-
ing a prerequisite to citizenship, he pointed out.
"To hold that it is required is to read into the
(Nationality) act by implication. But we could
not assume that Congress intends to make such
an abrupt and radical departure from our tradi-
tions unless it spoke in unequivocal terms."
Chief Justice Stone and Justices Reed and
Frankfurter dissented. Justice Jackson took no
part in the case.
`Union Dues Raised To $3 Per Year
At the April meeting of the Executive Com-
mittee of the ACLU of Northern California, it
was voted to increase the annual membership
dues from $2 to $3. The annual dues includes a
subscription to the "News" at $1.00 per year.
After Kidnaping Peruvian Japanese U. S. Now
Seeks `'o Deport Them To Japan As Illegal Entrants
Virtually kidnapped by the U. S. government
and brought into this country for internment,
scores of Japanese who resided in Peru face de-
portation to Japan as illegal entrants into the
United States. The United States characterized -
_them as illegal entrants because when they en-
tered as "immigrants" they were not in posses-
sion of valid immigration visas, nor did they have
passports. If these people are illegal entrants,
then it should be remembered that they did not
come here willingly; and that the United States
government participated in the illegality and in-
deed was responsible for it.
Most of the Japanese-Peruvians were arrested
by officers of the Peruvian government in Jan-
uary or June of 1943 and, without hearings of -
any kind, handed over to officers of the U. S.
government at their request. They were then
placed on U. S. transports, guarded by U. S. war-
ships, and transferred to a Panama internment
camp for a brief stay before being shipped to
internment camps in the United States.
Sixty-five Japanese, some of whom entered
Twenty of the 65 are bachelors. Three are widow-
ers, but the remaining 42 have wives and general-
ly children in Peru. Twenty-seven of the wives
are Peruvians, while 15 are Japanese. The 45
have an average of three children, or an aggre-
gate of 145, who are all citizens of Peru. Indeed,
seven of the children are serving in the Peruvian
army. Although their families are residing in
Peru, it is proposed to deport these men to Japan,
because -the Peruvian government does not wish
to accept them. .
In addition to the Japanese-Peruvians at Santa
Fe, New Mexico, there are said to-be some 46
families at the Crystal City internment center. (c)
The Union is informed that 100 families accepted
voluntary repatriation to Japan. Some of the
Crystal City Peruvians, having lost all of their
property in Peru, would prefer to remain in the
United States. Many of them now have children
ACLU Not Involved in New Left-Wing
; "Civil Rights"' Move
A meeting was held in Detroit on April 27-28
to form a new federation for civil rights in order
to create greater unity in the fight against what
the signers of the call term "fascism." The pro-
posal was originally made by the Chicago Civil
Liberties Committee which last year withdrew
its affiliation from the ACLU under pressures
arising from controversies in the committee. The
announcement by the Committee says that its
proposal for "a new national civil rights federa-
tion" was "finally agreed to by the National Fed-
eration for Constitutional Liberties, International
Labor Defense, and the Michigan Civil Rights
Federation," These are all left-wing groups whose
policies differ sharply at many points from those
of the ACLU. The ACLU therefore was. not in-
vited, and was not represented.
School Segregation Case Appealed
Four Orange County, California, school dis-
tricts, who on February 18 were enjoined by
Federal Judge Paul J. McCormick from discrim-
inatory practices against pupils of Mexican
descent, have appealed the decision to the Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The
Southern California branch of the A.C.L.U. will
now intervene as friend of the court.
Peru in the early 1900s, and most of whom en-_
tered Peru after 1910, are presently interned at"
the Santa Fe, New Mexico, internment camp.
born in this country. Practically all of these
people are Roman Catholics.
The U. S. State Department has admitted that
none of the Peruvians are "dangerous to hemi-
spheric security." In a letter directed to the group
at Crystal City, under date of April 9, Jonathan
B. Bingham, Chief Alien Enemy Control Section 0x00B0
of the State Department, declared: "As you know,
the Peruvian Government has indicated that it is
opposed to the return to Peru of any of the in-
ternees who are Japanese citizens. Through its
Embassy in Lima the Government of the United
States has expressed the view that all of the
internees who appear not to he dangerous to
hemispheric security (this applies to the entire
Japanese group) should in fairness be permitted
to return to Peru. The Peruvian Government indi-:
cated that it was unwilling to change its position
in principle, and the Department of State is not
now in a position to take the matter up with the
Peruvian Government once again."
The refusal of the Peruvian government to
allow its former Japanese residents to return can
perhaps be understood in the light of that gOv-
ernment's confiscation of the properties of Jap-.-.2
anese nationals. The Union is informed that on
December 8, 1945, a law was enacted applying
. Such confiscated property to claims by the Peru-
vian government.
In answering the claims of the U. 0x00A7. govern-
ment that they entered illegally, the Peruvians
have pointed out that they came into the United
States at a port of entry, and that they were
inspected by immigration and customs inspectors.
Obviously, too, their entry was pre-arranged be-
tween the governments of Peru and the United
States.
The Peruvians have.sought legal counsel, and
the Union is informed that attorney Wayne M.
Collins of San Francisco will represent the group
presently at Santa Fe, and possibly most of those
at Crystal City, The Immigration Service late last
month said it Still hoped to return most of the
Peruvian Japanese to Peru, particularly those
Cases - in which the wives and children are
Peruvians.
ACLU PROTESTS ROTTEN CONDITIONS
IN CAMP SHOEMAKER BRIG
The American Civil Liberties Union of North-
ern California has protested to the Secretary of _
the Navy against the treatment accorded Trice
E. Knight, who was held at the Camp Shoemaker
brig for about 90 days while awaiting court mar-
tial on desertion charges.
Knight is an 18-year-old boy. He was placed
in solitary confinement in a cell six feet by eight
feet and lighted by a 150-watt bulb 24 hours a
day. After the case came to public attention, the
white bulb was replaced with a blue one. The cell
has no bunks and prisoners sleep on a mattress
which is placed on the floor.
The Union said it was concerned not only with
`the question of why the boy was denied a speedy
trial, but also with his confinement under such -
outrageous conditions. `
Lily White D.A.R. Opens Censtitution
Halli to Negro Artists
After barring Marian Anderson and pianist
Hazel Scott from Constitution Hall, the DAR
has finally succumbed to criticism and resigna-
tions and has extended use of the hail to
artists. On June 3, the Tuskegee, Ala., Institute
choir will be allowed to use the hall "entirely
without cost''.
Page 2
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION-NEWS
ACLU to Aid Appeal from
Decision vs. New Jersey
Anti-Injunction Law
An appeal by the United Electrical Workers,
CIO; against the recent decision of Vice Chancel-
lor John O. Bigelow declaring New Jersey's anti-
injunction statute unconstitutional will be aided
by the American Civil Liberties Union. The CIO
group has announced that it will appeal Chancel-
lor Bigelow's decision in a Newark picketing case
to New Jersey's highest court, the Court of
Errors and Appeals, and to the U. 8S. Supreme
Court if necessary. Participation by the ACLU in
the appeals will be settled after conference be-
tween interested groups.
Vice Chancellor Bigelow held unconstitutional
a section of the New Jersey law enacted in 1941,
which is modeled on the federal Norris-LaGuardia
Act, and prohibits the issuing of injunctions
against picketing where there is no "fraud or
violence."' The voided section also upheld the
right of workers to refuse to work, to join a
union and to demand a closed shop. Chancellor
Bigelow based his decision on the fact that the
law appeared to deprive injured parties of their
right to-sue for damages resulting from labor
pactices, and because the legislature had no
power to pass a law preventing the courts from
providing protection for "those entitled to it
under established principles of equity."
According to the Civil Liberties Union, Vice
Chancellor Bigelow's decision ``goes for beyond
the limits necessary to insure access of non-
strikers and others to struck plants, a right which
we have always supported. We do not contest his
power to issue injunctions in support of this
right, but we do contest his decision outlawing
valuable and established labor legislation." The
Chancellor's decision was handed down in auth-
orizing injunctions restraifing picketing. at
Westinghouse plants in Newark and Bloomfield,
and a Phelps-Dodge Copper Company plant in
Elizabeth, New Jersey.
Chancellor Bigelow's action bears out a widely
publicized warning to strike leaders by the Amer-
~ican Civil Liberties Union in January, pointing
out that if pickets continued to bar access to
struck plants by force, the `inevitable effect will
be resort to the courts for injunctions. Even the
labor's legitimate rights from,
statutes protecting labor's. ute
injunctions may thus be endangered."
-PUERTO RICAN HOUSE OF REPS.
_ HAILS ACLU SUPPORT
Following publication in Puerto Rico of the
text of a recent letter to President Truman from
the American Civil Liberties Union urging him
to veto a Puerto Rican bill for a plebiscite on the
Island's political future, the Puerto Rican House
of Representatives adopted a resolution express-
ing their "deep appreciation" to the Union. In a
_ cable to Arthur Garfield Hays, who signed the
Union's letter, Ernesto Ramos Antonini, speaker
of the House, said in part:
"The House of Representatives of Puerto
Rico at its meeting this day adopted a resolution
to express its deep appreciation to you for the
strong support that you as a member of the
American Civil Liberties Union have given to our
right of self-determination by sending President
Truman a message on March 15 urging on him
immediate approval of two bills of the Senate of
Puerto Rico referred to the White House after
they were vetoed by Governor Tugwell." ~
A bill is pending in Congress to permit the
Puerto Ricans to vote on their future status. The
action of the Island legislature sought to antici-
pate Congressional action and was therefore ve-
toed. The ACLU took the position that a prompt
expression by the voters of Puerto Rico should
aid Congress in determining policy. A delegate
from the Puerto Rican legislature is due in
Washington to endeavor to bring the long-stand-
ing issue to a head.
BOSTON CIVIL LIBERTIES GROUP SCORES
CENSORSHIP BY BOOK PUBLISHER
Refusal of Doubleday Doran and Co., New
York publisher of `Memoirs of Hecate Countv'",
by Edmund Wilson, to send copies to Boston for
sale in that city was scored as "censorship" by
the Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union last
week. "It's still censorship, whether initiated by
the Watch and Ward Society, the local book deal-
ers or by the publishers', Miss Mary Elizabeth
Sanger, secretary of the Boston group said.
Doubleday Doran were reported unwilling to try
bucking Boston censorship with the Wilson book
on account of passages giving a detailed account
of a love affair. This is the first instance of a
publisher's censoring his own book.
_@
Att'ys Urged To Recommend
Probation For War Objectors
United States attorneys all over the country
were urged to recommend probation for con-
scientious objectors "still being brought into
federal courts at the rate of about one a day",
in a circular letter from the American Civil Lib-
erties Union on April 15. Signed by three ACLU
attorneys, the letter says that "there is no such
necessity as in war-time to buttress morale by
substantial sentences for objectors who refuse
to be drafted,' and noted that the Department
of Justice has already indicated that shorter
sentences are in order.
The signers said they were acting "not as
partisans of conscientious objectors but as
lawyers concerned for the fair treatment of con-
science". Noting that even during the war in
"several hundred cases" judges had placed ob-
jectors on probation to work of national impor-
tance, the letter said that this procedure is even
more appropriate now that no practical purpose
is served by imprisoning men whose conduct is
clearly prompted by `conscientious motives'
rather than "draft dodging'.
The letter said that a large proportion of the
men still being tried for refusal to accept military
service were Jehovah's Witnesses who demand
status as ministers, but who are mostly willing
to accept assignment on probation to any work
that does not interfere with their "witnessing" in
public places in off hours. Signing the letter sent.
to all U.S. attorneys were Arthur Garfield Hays,
counsel for the ACLU; Ernest Angell, chairman
of the ACLU's National Committee on Conscien-
tious Objectors; and Julien Cornell, counsel for
the Committee.
_ Ruling Due on Renunciant's Eligibility to.
Travel Between Hawaii and Mainland
The American Civil Liberties Union of Nor-
thern California has requested a ruling from the
Immigration Service as to whether a person of
Japanese ancestry residing in this country, who
renounced his United States citizenship, would
be eligible to return to the mainland after pro-
ceeding to Hawaii and remaining there as a resi-
dent. The District Director for the San Francisco
District has referred the matter to his Central
Office in Philadelphia for a decision. Awaiting
the ruling is a young lady whose fiance is residing
in Hawaii for the next few years.
School Buses May Haul Parochial Students
The Fourth District Court of Appeals in Fresno
recently affirmed a lower court decision that
public school buses may transport pupils of
parochial schools. The suit was filed by Victor
Bowker of Porterville in January, 1944. An ap-
~peal will be taken to the California Supreme
Court.
THOMAS L. STOKES: The whole procedure
of setting up a congressional committee to ferret
out "un-Americanism" is unwise and dangerous.
It gives license for the exercise of passion and
prejudice to persecute anybody whose views
differ from those prevailing on the committee.
NO DEPORTATION PARTY SCHEDULED
IN JAPANESE HARDSHIP CASES
Alien Japanese who are faced with deporta-
tion as illegal entrants in so-called hardship cases
were thrown into a state of panic last month
when some of them suddenly received notices that
they would be deported on April 17. Subsequently,-
the Central Office of the Immigration Service
indicated it had been unable to arrange trans-
portation, so the deportations were again post-
poned. As we go to press, the District Office of
the Immigration Service has advised us that they
have received no information to arrange a depor-
tation party to Japan.
- In the event that any of the alien Japanese are
taken into custody for deportation, it is pro-
posed to bring legal action in their behalf. In
the meantime, legislation is pending in Congress
which wouid grant relief in hardship cases.
Japanese Deportations Due
FLASH!!! A deportation party is leaving
Seattle for Japan on May 13. The Immigra-
tion Service has just informed the Union
that the party will be limited to able-bodied
adult males. No married men will-be taken.
NO HARDSHIP CASES WILL BE IN-
CLUDED IN THE PARTY!
-On May 6, another deportation party is
leaving San Pedro for Japan. Included in
that party will be Peruvian Japanese who
are single or who have Japanese wives but
no children.
It is anticipated that legal action will be
filed on behalf of most of the foregoing per-
sons.
- People.
Carriers Balk at Lifting
Nisei Travel Restrictions
Hawaiian transportation companies are balking
at obeying an order of the Immigration Service
to cease requiring American citizens of Japanese
ancestry to get "certificates of citizenship'"' be-
fore leaving the Hawaiian Islands for the U. S.
mainland. Among the travellers to the mainland,
orientals alone must still establish their citizen-
ship to the satisfaction of the carriers before
they can secure transportation. As a result,
further representations will be made to the Im- (c)
migration Service by the A.C.L.U. to end the
discrimination against citizens of oriental an-
cestry.
One transportation company has announced
that while it is no longer requiring certificates
of citizenship, it is inspecting birth certificates
"as a point of service" and will recommend certifi-
cates of citizenship where the birth certificate
may not be considered adequate proof on the
mainland. It appears that the Immigration Serv-
ice in San Francisco will not recognize Hawaiian
birth certificates that were not issued at the
time of birth, but many years after birth on the
basis of affidavits. The carrier defends its action
on the ground that the law imposes a $1000
penalty on him for transporting illegal entrants.
The Immigration Service says it cannot recall a
case in which the carrier has been fined.
_ Pan-American Airways says it will refer ques-
tionable cases to the immigration authorities be-
fore selling tickets to the mainland. -
The Immigration law permits inspection of all
persons travelling between our island-possessions
and between our island possessions and the main.
land. Whereas, all persons travelling from the
Territory of Hawaii to the mainland must be in-
spected by the Immigration Service, persons en-
tering from the Territory of Alaska are not sub-
ject to such inspection.
Last month, the A.C.L.U. received a letter from
TB: Shoemaker, Deputy Commissioner of the
Immigration Service, which said in part:
_ We have received a report from our District
director at San Francisco covering his investiga-
tion of this matter, and he has been advised to
follow the procedure indicated below: (1) Advise
transportation companies in Hawaii, in writing
that there is no requirement in the law or regula-
_ tions on the part of this service that any citizen
obtain a certificate of citizenship in order to pro-
-eeed.to the mainland or elsewhere. (2) Further
advise such companies that the procedure for the
issuance of_such certificates is solely for the
convenience of the citizens themselves and that
any such citizen, when about to travel to the
mainland or elsewhere, may obtain such a certifi-
cate if he elects to do so, but, on the other hand
Se ee ee such a certificate. (3)
euro-press at Honolulu wi i
foregoing notifications," Se =
_ Deputy Commissioner Shoemaker's letter was
in answer. to a query by the ACLU based on re-
ports that Americans of Japanese ancestry in
Hawaii, including war veterans, had been pre-
vented from leaving for the mainland until they
| had obtained certificates of citizenship.
a
SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS GEOR
NEGRO PRIMARY vOne oS
By refusing on April 1 to review tk isi
of lower federal courts granting hee
to_vote in Georgia Democratic primaries
the U. S. Supreme Court put the final seal on
litigation over the issue. A Georgia federal dis-
trict court last year ruled that Negroes should
be permitted to vote, on the ground that the
Democratic primary is the only real election in
Georgia. It was upheld by the Circuit Court in
New Orleans on March 6. The Supreme Court's
refusal has the effect of sustaining the lower
courts. The case came to the high court on appeal
by three Georgia election officials against a suit
by. Primus E. King, a Negro who was awarded
$100 damages in the district court after he was
barred from voting in a primary in 1944. The
case was handled by counsel for the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored
oe
BOOK NOTE
Nationalities and National Minor
I. Janowsky of the faculty of the
City of New York, MacMillan Co.
Although Professor Janowsk
with national minorities in Euro
of the minority probl
ities by Oscar
College of the
y deals wholly
-} pe, his treatment
14S an immediate. relev-
ance to the general world problem of re
how confronting the United Nations. In iti
it is of special Significance in the United Ge
where so many of the European peoples are rep-
resented by vigorous nationality organizations.
Professor Janowsky's book is a plea for the prin-
_ ciple of federalism in a multi-national state and
- economic unity. :
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION-NEWS
Page 3
Army Court Martial System
To Be Overhauled
A nine man civilian commission to overhaul the
Army's court martial procedure was appointed
by War Secretary Patterson on March 25. The
Army court martial system has been criticized in
both houses of Congress and by private agencies,
partly on the ground that enlisted men are tried
only by their superiors; and that officers have
sometimes received preferential treatment for
similar crimes. Heading the new commission
which will meet in Washington this month is
Dean Arthur .T. Vanderbilt of New York Uni-
versity law school, former President of the
American Bar Association. The American Civil
Liberties Union has received scores of complaints
of injustices by courts martial, and will make
representations to the commission for reforms in
procedure long advocated to extend to enlisted
men the protection accorded defendants in civilian
courts.
Firemen May Talk, New York's
Highest Court Decides
A gag rule forbidding New York City firemen
to discuss their working conditions in public,
imposed by former Fire Commissioner Patrick
Walsh during the LaGuardia administration, was
recently thrown out by the New York Court of
Appeals in Albany. The Court of Appeals, highest
state court, reversed two lower courts which had
sustained the gag rule under which John P.
Crane, president of the Uniformed Firemen's
Association, was punished in 1944 by being exiled
_ to Staten Island, fifteen miles from his home.
The Walsh gag rule was issued in the middle
of a dispute between the Firemen's Association
and the Fire Commissioner about wages and
hours, and forbade the firemen to make any
_ further pronouncements on their working condi-
tions `or anything else'. It was opposed in the
lower courts and before the Court of Appeals by
the American Civil Liberties Union as depriving
firemen of their constitutional right to freedom
of speech, and reducing them to "the level. of
abject slaves of a benevolent departmental
despotism." The Court of Appeals relied in part
on the fact that the New York Legislature "has
unequivocally declared that no citizen shall be
deprived of the right of appeal to the Legislature,
or to any public officer, board, commission or
_ other public body for the redress of grievances
on account of employment in the civil service of
the state or any of its civil divisions or Cities."
The Uniformed Firemen's Association an-
nounced that Mayor O'Dwyer's new Fire Com-
missioner, Frank J. Quayle, has "made it plain"
that the right of free speech would not now be
denied any member of the Fire Department.
_ PRES. TRUMAN CLARIFIES STAND ON
POLL TAX: FAVORS FEDERAL ACTION
Gratification was expressed to President Tru-
man by the American Civil Liberties Union last
month following an interview on April 11 in'
which the President stated his support of federal
legislation to abolish the poll tax as a condition
for voting in federal elections. The ACLU had
previously written the President expressing
alarm over reports that he had said at an inter-
view in Chicago on April 6 that he favored "state
action".
In his later interview the President said: "I
have `not changed my position on the federal
anti-poll tax legislation. I am still in favor of
federal legislation. I voted for cloture on this
issue in the Senate and I would do so again if I
were a Senator. However, I also favor state
_ action. There is no contradiction between federal
and state action on this matter." In writing the
_ President the ACLU said it was "gratified by
reports that we were in error in imputing to you
lack of support of the federal bill."
Senators Urged To Kill "Women's
Equal Rights" Amendment __
_ The constitutional amendment to grant equal
rights to women now scheduled for an early vote
in the Senate was recently opposed in letters to
all members of the Senate by the American Civil
Liberties Union. The ACLU said it was 100% in
favor of giving women equal rights, but that
the proposed amendment actually would not ac-
complish that result, and would jeopardize "valu-
able social and labor legislation." The Senators
were told that the best way to obtain equal rights
for women was by the itemized method of "spe-
cific bills for specific ills," such as the pending
bill granting equal pay. The letter was signed by
former Judge Dorothy Kenyon of New York
City, chairman of the Union's Committee on Wo-
men's Rights, and Dr. John Haynes Holmes,
chairman of the Board of Directors.
- arrested. In restoring order,
The Truth Abou? The
Mass Terror And
Murders In Columbia, Tennessee
In Columbia, Tenn., 28 Negroes have been
charged with attempted murder and three others
have been charged with "attempt to commit a
felony', as an outgrowth of the shocking mass
terrorism that occurred there late last February.
They are scheduled for trial early this month.
The public has received only meager press
reports of what happened, and these accounts
have been highly inaccurate. According to press
stories, a.Negro woman and her son were
arrested for assaulting a white man, after which
the town's Negroes rioted, wounding six white
persons and one Negro. Seventy Negroes were
the homes of
Negroes were raided by law enforcement officers
and 300 weapons were confiscated. State Guard
reinforcements appeared "after a burst of gun-
play in the Maury county jail in which two
Negroes were killed by highway patrolmen.'
Now, let's see what really happened in Columbia,
Tenn. = :
On Monday, February 25, 1946, at about 10
A.M., Mrs. Gladys Stephenson went to the
Castner-Knot Electric Appliance store in Co-
lumbia, Tenn., to see about a radio which was
being repaired. With her went her 19-year-old
son. Mrs. Stephenson complained to William
Fleming about a faulty repair job. Fleming be-
came abusive, and, when Mrs. Stephenson
objected to the abuse, he slapped and kicked her.
Thereupon, Mrs. Stephenson's son hit Fleming,
who fell through the store's plate glass window.
Fleming wasn't injured, but a crowd collected.
The mother and her son were slapped and
punched, and a policeman clubbed the boy. They
were finally taken to jail and released on $3500
bond each. The bondsman was just in time,
because shortly after their release an armed
mob stormed the jail demanding that the Ste-
phensons be turned over to them.
The town's Negroes barricaded themselves in
their homes, turned off the lights and stood
ready to protect themselves. Bands of white men,
fully armed, roamed the streets adjoining the
Negro section. Several cars tore through the
darkened area pumping shots into the houses.
Then a car, carrying a group of city policemen
certain that the mob was finally moving in
against them, waited. And then someone shouted
hysterically, "Here they come!" Scattered shots
rang out. No one knows who fired the shots but
they were aimed at the dark car moving through
a dark street. Although there were no serious
wounds four of the policemen' were hit with
buckshot. According to the sheriff, a cordon of
state patrolmen and helmeted state guardsmen
were thrown about the section so that no one
could enter or leave.
SUIT SEEKS NATURALIZATION FOR
FATHERS OF NISEI SERVICEMEN
The Southern California branch of the A.C.L.U.
last month filed a suit in the U. S. District
Court challenging the refusal of the District
Director of Immigration and Naturalization to
process petitions for naturalization of three alien
Japanese, Shosuke Nitta, Gensuke Masuda and -
C. Kendo, whose sons served in the U. 8. Army.
All three of the men have lived in this country -~
more than 40 years.
If the court rules in favor of the Japanese, it
will upset the law that has been applied for the
past 25 years, which has excluded orientals from
the privilege of naturalization. Recently, the first (c)
break in the law was secured when Congress ex- -
tended immigration and naturalization privileges
to Chinese, and a bill is now pending in the Senate
Immigration Committee, which has already been
adopted by the House, establishing an immigra- |
tion quota for East Indians and permitting them
to be naturalized.
DANGER OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN
URBAN REDEVELOPMENT PLANS
The San Francisco branch .of the N.A.A.C.P. ~
has adopted a resolution endorsing the principle
of urban redevelopment legislation, but pointing `to certain dangers that may result in freezing
Negroes out of the proposed new housing in the (c)
Fillmore District. Included in the resolution are
the following demands:
"That. substantial amounts of low rent, public
or private, housing be included within the area -
to be redeveloped;
"That preferential rights be given to displaced
persons to reoccupy the redeveloped area; and, |
"That the Redevelopment Agency guarantee in 4
all purchase, sale, lease, or rental of property |
segregation or
acquired that there shall be no
discrimination."
At dawn on Tuesday morning, 500 State patrol-
men and guardsmen in full battle dress, armed
with tommy-guns, automatic rifles and machine
`guns, lay down a barrage, battle fashion. Then
(the houses were rushed. The frightened people
were clubbed and jabbed. Screaming children
running wildly for their mothers were sent
-Sprawling. The Negroes were marched off to the
jail while mop-up squads emptied the homes of
hunting rifles and ancient relics.
In the business section, the police and guards-
men, working in platoons, smashed through the
`Shop windows, chopped down the doors. The
`streets were soon littered with furniture hurled
out of windows. In a poolroom the cloth was
Slashed on all of the tables. A doctor's office was
smashed, the medical furniture chopped beyond
repair. Surgical instruments, drugs, and valuable
`clinical apparatus were wantonly destroyed or
Stolen. In the offices of the Atlanta Life Insur-
ance Company the uniformed vandals left a hope-
`less shambles after carefully destroying all files
and records. In a funeral parlor, draperies were
cut up, chandeliers and all other lighting fixtures
`were ripped from their sockets. The pulpit was
-hacked and the light over the Bible smashed with
a well placed gun stock. The hate-ridden orgy
was topped off with a huge KKK scrawled in
white chalk across one of the chopped caskets.
oe registers in all of these establishments were
rifled.
The Negro prisoners were held incommunicado
for days, some for more than a week, while a
three-man "board of investigation' sifted the
evidence to decide which persons should be
charged with crime. Z. Alexander Loody, Negro
attorney of Nashville, and Maurice Weaver, white
attorney of Chattanooga, were employed for
them by the National Association for the Ad-
vancement of Colored People. Officials refused
Weaver the right to see the prisoners and to be
present when they were questioned.
On Thursday, February 28, two of the prison-
ers, William Gordon and James Johnson, were
shot to death in the jail. The official explanation
was that Gordon had grabbed a gun from the
: . confiscated we `
and showing no illumination, drove slowly into , weapons stacked in the room and
the tense, blacked-out section. The Negroes, |
fired it, giving Deputy R. T. Darnell a slight flesh
wound in the left arm. No one has explained why -
prisoners were in a room where there were loose
guns lying around, nor why the prisoners could
not be subdued without killing them, nor what
methods of questioning were used which could
drive helpless prisoners (against whom there were
no serlous charges) to so desperate and hopeless
an extremity.
The legal defense is in the hands of the
N.A.A.C.P. Contributions towards the defense
may be sent to the organization at 20 West 40th
Street, New York 18, N. Y. Checks should be
made payable to NAACP. Legal Def d
Education Fund. : 2
Executive Committee
American Civil Liberties Union
of Northern California
_ Sara Bard Field
Honorary Member
Rt. Rev. Edw. L. Parsons
Chairman -
Dr. Alexander Meiklejohn
Helen Salz
Vice-Chairman
Joseph 8. Thompson
Secretary-Treasurer
Ernest Besig
Director
Philip Adams 2
John H. Brill
H, C. Carrasco
Wayne M. Collins
James J. Cronin, Jr.
_ Rev. Oscar F. Green
Morris M. Grupp
- Margaret C. Hayes
Prof. Ernest R. Hilgard
Ruth Kingman
Ralph N. Kleps
Dr, Edgar A. Lowther
Mrs. Bruce Porter -
Clarence E. Rust
Rabbi Irving F. Reichert
Dr. Howard Thurman
Kathleen Drew Tolman
Page 4
AMERICAN CLVIL LIBERTIES UNION-NEWS |
American Civil Liberties Union-News
Published monthly at 216 Pine Street, San Francisco, 4,
Calif., by the American Civil Liberties Union
of Northern California.
Phone: EXbrook 1818
ERNEST BESIG ....... Editor
Entered as second-class matter, July 31, 1941, at the
Post Office at San Francisco, California,
under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription Rates-One Dollar a Year.
Ten Cents per Copy.
State Medical Board Loath to
Give Information of Its Work
Recently the ACLU requested the State
Board of Medical Examiners to furnish it certain
information as to the number of applicants for
physicians and surgeons licenses who have been
granted or denied such licenses during each of
the past five years. In particular, the Union
151-"
wanted to secure data on the applicants who had
practiced ten years in other states, and who are
therefore required to take an oral examination.
The reason for the inquiry was that the Union
had received complaints that the latter applicants
are frequently rejected without a fair inquiry
into their qualifications. C
Here is the amazing answer to the Union's
inquiry of April 10, as contained in a letter signed
by Dr. Frederick N. Scatena, Secretary-Treasur-
er of the Board, under date of April 22:
"The matter concerning statistical data, in
my estimation, has no bearing on the subject
mentioned in the fifth paragraph of your letter.
However, these statistics are available, and at the
May meeting of the California Medical Associa-
tion, Doctor Frank Otto, President of the Board
of Medical Examiners, will give a talk before the
Association, and in this talk will give the data
you request." That was all.
The statistics may be "available," but Dr.
Seatena is obviously doing his best to make it
difficult for the Union to secure them.
In the same letter, Dr. Scatena also states that
"an applicant who has kept himself abreast of
the times and informed on all changes in medi-
cine has had no difficulty in passing the oral ex-
amination. Those who have failed, we believe,
have done so because they have taken the exam-
ination too lightly and have not prepared them-
selves sufficiently for the examination." The
Union would be more ready to accept these state-
ments if the Board was not so reluctant in shar-
ing information about its activities.
ACLU Investigating Contempt
Conviction of G. L. K. Smith
The Chicago Division of the American Civil
Liberties Union has been asked to investigate the
conviction and sixty-day sentence of G. L. Ky
Smith, leader of the America First Party, on con-
tempt of court charges in Chicago on April 8.
The local group has been asked to find out if the
contempt charge was justified under Illinois law,
and to support an appeal if it appears that
Smith's rights of free speech have been abridged.
~ Smith was convicted of contempt by Munici"
pal Judge John V. McCormick on the basis of a
press release issued by Smith during the trial
of his associate, Arthur W. Terminiello, suspends
ed Catholic priest, on disorderly conduct charges.
The release was distributed by a press agent dur-
ing a court recess. The agent was also cited and
will be sentenced on his return to Chicago. The
release held that the prosecution "has no leg to
stand on," and called it a "cold-blooded persecu-
tion." '
The ACLU is also sending observers to
Smith's pending trial on disorderly conduct
charges growing out of a riot at a Smith meeting
on February 7 last in Chicago. Attitude of the
Chicago Division of the ACLU is that they
"abhor" Smith's ideas, but will defend his rights
because "you can't have free speech for some
people and not for others."
Says THE NEW YORKER: We disagree, in a
small particular, with Owen D. Young about free
speech and the radio. "Freedom of speech for the
man. whose voice can be heard a few hundred feet
is one thing," he told Rollins College students.
"But freedom of speech for the man whose voice
may be heard around the world is another." We
think they are identical. For although the radio
has a million ears (and therefore a million times
greater reception of ill-advised sounds), it also
has a million times greater power of skepticism,
analysis, prejudice, and inattention. The beauty
of speech which is free is that it is self-annihilat-
ing, whether in tiny amounts or great amounts;
and the menace of speech which is not free is that
it is self-perpetuating, like a cellarful of rats.
Plan Legal Aid For 17 Cited
For Contempt By House
With contempt citations voted by the House
against seventeen officers of one group that
refused to produce records for the House Un-
American Committee and scheduled for vote
against officers of two other groups the Ameri-
can Civil Liberties Union last month turned its
attention to legal aid for the cited officers, whose
cases will now be brought into court by the U.S.
District Attorney. The ACLU had previously
appealed to liberal congressmen in two circular
letters to vote down the contempt citations
against officers of the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee
Committee, the Council on American-Soviet
Friendship, and the National Federation on Con-
stitutional Liberties, on the ground that the
House Un-American Committee had no business
`trying to-investigate contributors to the three
groups.
The citation against officers of the Refugee
Committee for refusing to submit their books and
records to the House Un-American Committee
passed the House by a 292-56 vote on April 16.
ACLU intervention in any eventual court pro-
ceedings against the citations will contend they
are out of order on the ground that the House
Un-American Committee was empowered by Con-
gress to investigate only "Un-American" groups,
and therefore had no power to subpoena records
of organizations which had not been found to be
"Un-American."
In its circular letters to congressmen the ACLU
said "we are as zealous as any member of the
House to maintain its prerogatives but trust that
you will share the view that the Committee ex-
ceeded its mandate in demanding books and
records of these organizations. The history of
this Committee and of its predecessor makes it
evident that the submission of names of con-
tributors would be followed by harassment of the
contributors themselves. The inevitable publica-
tion of their names in the Committee records
would impute to them a wholly unjustified Un-
Americanism. We submit that the Committee's
activities in these respects are contrary to the
principle of the form of government guaranteed
by our Constitution. May we urge that you vote
against the contempt citations" ? :
OUSTERS OF WATSON, LOVETT, AND
DODD APPEALED TO HIGH COURT
The constitutionality of the Congressional
ouster in 1943 of three federal employees for
alleged subversive activities will be determined
by the U. S. Supreme Court. The appeal to the
Supreme Court was made by the U. S. Justice
Department at the request of the House Appro-
priations Committee, which attached a rider to
an appropriation bill in 1943 specifically provid-
ing that no salaries be paid the three men. Both
President Roosevelt and the Justice Department
maintained that the rider was unconstitutional.
The three concerned, Robert Morss Lovett,
former secretary of the Virgin Islands, Goodwin
B. Watson and William E. Dodd, both with the
Federal Communications Commission, continued -
in their jobs in order to bring a test suit in the
U. S. Court of Claims, which last November
awarded them back salaries without passing on
the constitutionality of the rider. Their suit was
supported by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The Justice Department told the Supreme
Court that it was acting at the request of the
House Appropriations Committee, although it
still considers the rider unconstitutional. The
three men are represented by attorney Charles
A. Horsky, of Washington, who is also Washing-
ton counsel for the American Civil Liberties
Union.
Immigration Service Discriminates
Against Wives of Nisei Servicemen
A Nisei has appealed to the A.C.L.U. of North-
ern California in behalf of his brother, Sergeant
Robert Kitajima of Alameda, who has been denied
permission to bring his wife into the U. S. from
Canada.
Last December, Congress passed a law allowing
servicemen to bring their alien wives into the
United States. Sergeant Kitajima married a
Japanese Canadian girl, fully expecting that he
would be permitted to bring her to California
with him. Instead, the Immigration Service in-
formed him that while Congress made no excep-
tion in the law, they would interpret it to mean
that Congress did not intend to alter its nrevions
policy of excluding all Asiatics except Chinese.
Moreover, the Sergeant's wife has been denied
entry as a visitor.
Lieut. Makoto Kimura finds himself in the
same predicament. Fortunately, the problem is
not a pressing one with him because he is about
to embark on a 16-month stretch with the U. S.
occupation forces in Japan.
Philippine CLU Protests
Amendments To Indep. Act
' A cablegram from the Philippine Civil Liber-
ties Union, protesting against provisions in the
bills pending in Congress for relations with the
Philippines after independence next July was
released by the American Civil Liberties Union
last month. The Philippine Union scored High
Commissioner Paul V. McNutt's role as allegedly
representing "selfish interests" and opposed his
en in that office. The cablegram in full
reads:
"Tydings and Bell bills simultaneously intro-
duced in Congress providing for amendment to
Philippine Independence Law would if enacted
constitute greatest betrayal in Philippine-
American relations. These measures provide re-
tention by United States of all properties vested
in it on July 4, 1946 and authorize acquisition of
additional properties even after independence for
use of the United States government or any of
its agencies or instrumentalities. These would in
effect emasculate Philippine independence. Dis-
regarding loyalty and sacrifices of Filipinos dur-
ing war they would foist upon Filipinos a mock
Republic reminiscent of Japanese puppet govern-
ment here.
"We cannot believe Tydings-Bell bills reflect
opinion of American people whose fairness is
unquestioned. Rather we believe these proposals
inspired by American imperialists intending to
make Philippines their exclusive hunting pre-
serve. Conspiracy of silence in shrouding presen-
tation; of these bills shocking. High Commissioner
McNutt's ominous silence on Tydings-Bell bills
and efforts to make Filipinos believe these are
for their benefit identified himself with selfish
interests. We believe McNutt's' continuance in
ee prejudicial to Philippine-American rela-
ions."
The Philippine group is headed by Judge Jesus
Barrera of Manila, and is associated with the
ACLU. The ACLU has directed its legislative rep-
resentatives in Washington to report.on the effect
of the proposed amendments on Philippine inde-
pendence and sovereignty, with a view to action
in Congress.
FBI TO BE SUED FOR LAWLESS ACTS
FOLLOWING SUPREME COURT DECISION
Officers of the federal government are liable to
damage suits in the federal courts if they violate
the constitutional rights of citizens, according to
a decision of the U. S. Supreme Court on April 1
In an appeal by Arthur L. Bell of Los Angeles.
Bell and several officials of "Mankind United",
a semi-religious group in California, have beey
trying to sue the Federal Bureau of Investigation
ever since FBI agents raided their homes and
arrested them without warrants in December,
1942. They appealed to the Supreme Court after
the lower federal courts threw out their suits on
the ground that they had no jurisdiction.
_In its decision the Supreme Court held that -
federal courts are obliged to hear any claim made
in good faith that agents of the federal govern-
ment have violated a citizen's constitutional
rights, and sent the case back to the Federal
District Court in Los Angeles for hearing as to
whether Bell is actually entitled to damages. The
Supreme Court pointed out that it had never
ruled as to whether "federal courts can grant
money recovery for damages said to have been
suffered as a result of federal officers violating
the Fourth and Fifth Amendments", granting
protection from unreasonable searches and im-
prisonment without due process of law. It left
this. question up to the District Court, merely
ruling as to jurisdiction. ~
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