http://www.hawaii.edu/uhwo/clear/HonoluluRecord1/articles/v4n2/Frankly%20speaking.html
Honolulu Record, August 9, 1951, vol. 4 no. 2, p. 8
Frank-ly Speaking
By Frank Marshall Davis
Ralph Bunche as Ambassador
According to Doris Fleeson, syndicated columnist whose articles appear in the Star-Bulletin, there is another move under way to have Dr. Ralph Bunche named U. S. ambassador to Russia. Sponsors of the plan believe the noted Palestine mediator should be used in the war against communism and say that his appointment would be a “living refutation to Communist racial propaganda against the United States.”
Thus far, Dean Acheson has not agreed. The Secretary of State does not want to seemingly aid aspiring politicians with large Negro voting blocs, nor does he want to set a precedent of naming officials because they represent minorities. And on this point the Star-Bulletin had an editorial on Saturday, August 4, which stated, among other things:
“Practical Side of Present Unrest”
“All peoples everywhere, want equality. That is a practical side of the world’s present unrest which too many people like Mr. Acheson, who long ago achieved equality, fail to recognize.”
Since Secretary Acheson says he always tries to appoint the best qualified man for the job, regardless of color, the afternoon daily charges the head of the State Department with “disavowing” his own words. He is not considering Dr. Bunche without regard to his Negro ancestry. He is, on the contrary, handicapping him on account of it.”
I am glad to see that the Star-Bulletin is back of the proposal to name Dr. Bunche the U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union. I believe that not only I, but virtually all of America’s 15,000,000 Negroes would take pride in such an appointment. it would mark a milestone in U. S. history.
Act As a Diplomat But Not As a Tool
But at the same time, most of us would expect Dr. Bunche to act as a diplomat and not as a tool of the white supremacists who would hope to use him to silence criticism of discrimination against America’s non-whites instead of eliminating that discrimination.
Frankly, I do not believe that Dr. Bunche would allow himself to be used in such a fashion in the war against Russia. For this same Dr. Bunche is one of the nation’s most vocal persons in calling attention to jim crow and denial of equal opportunity. It was not too long ago that he refused a top post in the State Department because he would not live in the segregated atmosphere of our national capital.
Speaking before the 42nd annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People held a few weeks ago in Atlanta, Ga., Dr. Bunche had this to say:
“It is imperative that we go much further than we have gone thus far in applied democracy for all Americans. Pull equality is the answer, and the Negro can never be content with less. We must all keep battering away at the undemocratic barriers of discrimination and segregation.”
Appointment Would Not Bring Equality To 15 Million
Nobody knows any better than Dr. Bunche that his appointment as ambassador would not bring full equality to all Americans. He knows that housing restrictions, job discrimination, jim crow in education and denial of civil rights would not automatically end for 15,000,000 Americans. Ho would not dare say to Russia:
“Look at me. I am living proof that there is no such tiling as white supremacy and racism in America.”
As a matter of fact, we could appoint a Dr. Bunche as ambassador to every other nation in the world and it still would not eliminate the stigma of the legal lynching of the Martinsville Seven in Virginia, or Willie McGee in Mississippi, or the recent race riots in Cicero, Ill. and near Washington, D. C., and Dallas, Tex.
Yes, people everywhere want equality. But it must be equality for all, not for one or two individuals selected in the hope they can be used for propaganda purposes.
Pass and Enforce Strong Civil Rights Laws
As one Negro woman in California phrased it: “I’m tired of having Ralph Bunche waved like a flag in front of me. I want to live wherever I can afford to pay rent, and I want my husband and son to have the best jobs their abilities will permit. Of course I’m proud of Ralph but until these things happen, he’s just one Negro who happened to get ahead. Look back and see how the rest of us live.”
“If the politicians want to silence Russian criticism of white supremacy in America, they have the soundest and surest means already in the palms of their hands. Let them pass strong civil rights laws and then throw the full weight of the Federal government back of them to insure their enforcement. Then you won’t need to talk of appointing a Negro as ambassador to Russia purely for propaganda reasons.
http://www.hawaii.edu/uhwo/clear/HonoluluRecord1/articles/v4n9/Frankly%20Speaking.html
Honolulu Record, September 27, 1951, vol. 4 no.9, p. 8
Frank-ly Speaking
By Frank Marshal Davis
Let’s End Capital Punishment
I sincerely hope that the good people of Hawaii, as a result of the Palakiko-Majors case, will demand that the next session of the legislature destroy that relic of barbarism known as capital punishment.
I was against legal killing long before I learned, through my experiences as a working newspaperman, that too often capital punishment is used as a device to maintain white security. But more on this point later.
It seems to me that the doctrine of an eye for an eye should have passed away with the Middle Ages. I cannot agree that one murder is righted by another murder, even though the second has official sanction.
No Logical Excuse for Capital Punishment
Nobody is a born criminal, according to the best scientific thought. This means that they get that way as they develop. And they develop within the framework of the society which may eventually put them to death. In other words, a civilization which permits the creation of criminals may later kill them for acting the way our civilization permits them to act.
Years ago, before we realized the influence of environment on the individual, capital punishment seemed a logical solution. But in a day and age when we have an understanding of the forces which shape an individual’s attitude toward society in general and determine his relationships with other persons, there is no logical excuse for the society-sanctioned murder called capital punishment.
Thus far, psychologists have not been able to determine exactly why, of two individuals reared in decidedly friendly environments, one will become a criminal and the other will develop into what is known as an average citizen. But we do know that delinquency and criminal careers are more prevalent among those boys and girls brought up amidst poverty, crowded slums, broken families, poor health conditions, unsupervised recreation, etc.
Death Is No Solution
Since we also know that crime is expensive, both in terms of money and human ability, it seems to me only elementary to correct the conditions that breed crime by insuring every child adequate housing, food and clothing; sympathetic schooling, intelligently directed recreation and guidance, sufficient medical facilities, mental hygiene and counseling (both for himself and parents), and seeing that each will have a chance not only to develop himself to the full extent of his potentialities but that, when developed, he will have the opportunity to use his ability for the benefit of society as a whole.
Then if, despite receiving friendship instead of hostility from society, he develops into an antisocial creature, then that individual should be institutionalized and given tasks under strict supervision which could aid society. Putting him to death is no solution.
Furthermore, with our present public approaches to delinquency and crime lagging miles behind scientific thought, we quite often invoke capital punishment in a kind of unpatterned, irresponsible fashion. We let one set of people go free after an hour in jail, as in the Massie case, and want to kill others, as with Palakiko and Majors.
Yet when you delve deeper, maybe it is not unpatterned and irresponsible. Many powerful people boast that “America is a white man’s country,” and insist they are going to keep it that way. To anybody who takes the trouble to dig up the facts, capital punishment is often used as a device to maintain white supremacy.
Law for Whites and Non-Whites
The non-white population of the United States is roughly, one-tenth of the. whole. I have before me a recent report issued by the Bureau of Prisons of the U. S. Department of Justice which shows that of the total of 2,831 persons legally executed during the 19-year period of 1930-48, only 1,253 or less than half were white. The remaining 1,578 were non-white.
All except a very small per cent of American non-whites are Negroes. There were 1,528 Negroes executed. The remaining 50 were members of other non-white groups.
Those who have studied the matter know it is seldom that a white person is executed for a crime against a non-white. In the deep South they may not even be arrested. Remember that quadruple lynching in Georgia five years ago which the FBI still hasn’t solved? Or the rape, of a Negro mother by a number of white soldiers mentioned in last week’s RECORD? Weapon Aimed Primarily At
Non-Whites
On the other hand, Negroes may be put to death on trumped up charges, or when the evidence is either suppressed or ignored. For instance, seven Negroes were killed by the State of Virginia a few months ago at Martinsville, and in Mississippi, Willie McGee was executed despite evidence that none was actually guilty of the ‘ charge of rape. But that is the prevailing Dixie pattern and it now and then spills over into other parts of America.
I would be against capital punishment on purely humanitarian grounds. But when this device is used to maintain white supremacy and is a weapon aimed primarily against non-whites, it should be gotten rid of as an enemy of the principles of democracy.