Discrimination in Manhattan

New York City's politicians like to make speeches against racial discrimination, but they always discriminate rigidly when they are making up a slate of candidates. In the old days, most mayors had to be Irishmen; today, the political bosses* of all parties feel that a "balanced ticket" must include one Italian and one Jew. By last week, it was clear that another somewhat neglected minority group merited top-drawer political consideration for the Sept. 15 primary: New York's 750,000 Negroes.

The G.O.P. bosses were the first to make their bow to Harlem's increasing voting strength. Last month they nominated independent Democrat Elmer A. Carter, 63, for eight years a member of the New York State Commission Against Discrimination, for the borough presidency of Manhattan, the city's most important county. Quickly, Mayor Vincent R. Impellitteri's faction of New York's badly split Democrats selected Colonel Chauncey Hooper, 59, an assistant deputy comptroller of the city and a staff officer in the New York National Guard, for the same office. In a supporting speech, the mayor told Harlem voters that he hoped they would vote for their "own stock," i.e., Candidate Hooper, and deplored the fact that some "Italians" might not vote for Impellitteri.

Next, the small but pivotal Liberal Party named the Rev. James H. Robinson, 46, a popular Presbyterian pastor whose round-the-world trip in 1951 as a missionary ambassador at large (TIME, April 28, 1952) had a highly effective, if unofficial, propaganda value for the U.S. This left the Tammany Democrats out on a limb with a non-Negro candidate. Assemblyman Herman Katz of Manhattan. After some hurried conferences, Katz withdrew.

At week's end, Tammany was still trying to find a Negro candidate of its own. Already one result of the election seemed fairly certain: Manhattan is sure of getting a Negro borough president, who will be the first Negro in the city's history to hold a major executive office.

* In a telecast last week, Democratic Boss Kenneth Sutherland of Brooklyn took exception to the term "political boss." His suggested substitute: "political managing director."

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