In the Notes section of James McGrath Morris's Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, the First Lady of the Black Press (Amistad/HarperCollins, 2015), he quotes from an article that was part of a series called "Industry USA" that Payne wrote for the Chicago Defender in 1951. The series regarded postwar employment of African Americans in Chicago.
A plant manager (presumably white) is quoted as saying, "When two white people have a quarrel, it's just a quarrel. If two Negroes quarrel, it's a disturbance; but if a white person and a Negro quarrel, it becomes an 'incident.'"
Sad to say, more than sixty years later, that statement still applies.
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I remember writing that scene and I thought the comment by the plant manager, who was white, was so very telling. Earlier in the book, when I wrote about the 1941 March on Washington Movement there was another plant manager who said he would be glad to employee Negros except that his white workers wouldn't put up with it. Thanks for reading my book.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome. I'm enjoying your book very much.
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