Face the Music

In the bitter ideological war between Communism and democracy, too many Americans forget what the Communists never let others forget--that democracy in the U.S. is far from perfect. Last week those Americans got a jolting reminder from beefy, deep-voiced A. Philip Randolph, president of the sleeping car porters' union.

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Randolph declared bluntly: if a draft like that of World War II was enacted, it would result in "mass civil disobedience" on the part of U.S. Negroes. Said he: "Negroes have reached the limit of their endurance when it comes to going into another Jim Crow Army to fight another war for democracy--a democracy they have never gotten." Grant Reynolds, chairman of the Committee against Jim Crow in Military Service and Training, soberly agreed.

Randolph demanded abolition of all racial discrimination in the armed services and under U.M.T. He minced no words: "To the rank-&-file Negro in World War II, Hitler's racism posed a sufficient threat for him to submit to the Jim Crow Army abuses. But this factor ... is not present in the power struggle between Stalin and the U.S. . . . Since we cannot obtain an adequate congressional forum for our grievances, we have no other recourse... ."

The Senators were shocked. Oregon's Wayne Morse asked whether Randolph realized that such civil disobedience would probably be prosecuted as treason. He did, and added: "We would be willing to absorb the violence, absorb the terrorism, face the music, and take whatever comes."

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