COOLIDGE PERMITS IT!
How Our Men And Women Are Insulted In the Government’s Departments—Will the Self and Race-Respecting Negro Press of This Country Continue to Stand for This Sort of Thing?
(Special to The Gazette.)
Washington, D. C., Oct. 4, 1924.—There is more segregation in Washington today under President Coolidge than there has ever been since the Civil War. The beginnings of segregation were under President Taft. It was greatly extended, under President Wilson; increased, still further, under President Harding; and reached its zenith under President Coolidge. For instance, the largest of our parks President Wilson never troubled, but the present administration has found time and desire to introduce it even there.
To many people, segregation is a Democratic scheme of insult, but such is not the case. Mr. Taft introduced it in the bureau of engraving. He segregated the census-takers in this city in 1910, restricting white workers to white people, and black to black, often duplicating work as most blocks had white and black residents. And, worst of all, announced in his official capacity that Negroes should not hold office where white people complained. Segregation, then, is a Republican institution and not a Democratic one. It was begun by Republicans, and carried on to its all-embracing extent by Republicans!
There is far more of it in the departments, today, than at any time since the Negro first appeared, close upon the close of the Civil War. The picture requirement in the civil service, which makes it next to impossible for a colored lady or gentleman to enter the civil service, since their color is disclosed in their photograph which must accompany their papers, is tenaciously held on to by our Republican President. Only last week, a colored girl appeared after having passed the best examination, and after having been telegraphed for by the department. The photograph had failed to tell her true color, and they flatly refused to appoint her when she appeared, and they saw her complexion. Commissioner Blair of the Internal revenue bureau with thousands of clerks will not appoint a Negro clerk, and his word is law there, as he is the special favorite of Secretary Mellon and President Coolidge. He hails from North Carolina, the home of the other favorite and leader of the segregation forces, Col. Sherrill, superintendent of buildings and grounds. It is no use to complain of either of these southern gentlemen.
The colored people here who know the President could destroy segregation in the departments of the government, and the photograph requirements in the civil service by the mere nod of his head, are at a loss to understand why he does not put his splendid declarations on democracy into operation here, where it would not even cost him a single vote and where he has full power and absolutely no opposition. They wonder if he is not a firm believer in segregation, especially since segregation is one of the chief tenets of the Ku Klux Klan which has found its “welcome home’’ in the Republican party, and receives no condemnation from the Republican President.
The Gazette, Cleveland, OH, January 3, 1925