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"Dear Mr. President" 1942 Recording of David Helfeld, New York city college student David Helfeld, a 19-year-old college student and the President of the Student Council at the College of the City of New York, speaks on behalf of himself and his fellow students regarding their mutual horror over the discrimination against Black Americans in the United States Armed Forces. He equates the mistreatment of Black Americans with the same fascism being fought by Americans overseas and insists it must be fought at home as well.
Transcript:
01:04-02:59 “...Dear Mr. President, My name is David Helfeld…I happen to have the honor to be the President of the Student Council of College of the City of New York. I’m only 19 now and I have a year before I graduate. Before I become 20 I intend to join the army. There’s just one thought I’d like to get across to you. It’s a feeling which horrifies all the boys at our college and that is negro discrimination in the army and in the navy. It seems to me to be an example, a very horrible example of fascism within democracy. When we here at the college hear that there are … purely Negro regiments and that Negroes are only allowed to do slop duty aboard the ships of our navy, it makes us feel very bad. We here realize that there are three wars to be fought; the physical war against the fascist nations - Germany, Italy, and Japan, and the war from within against anti-semitism, Jim Crow, and factors of that nature. We feel that as long as we have fascism at home it is rather futile to fight from the outside if we are not at the same time fighting it from within. I thank you for listening. Besides the two wars I’ve just mentioned I feel there is a third war, a very important one, namely the war to make a proper peace, peace which will do away with all wars in the future.”
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"Dear Mr. President" Audio Recording Jacket Audio recording jacket for 1942 interview of Black Americans in Nashville, TN with handwritten descriptions of persons interviewed.
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"Dear Mr. President" 1942 Recorded Interviews of Black Americans in Nashville, TN
00:10-01:20 Black American lawyer, Alexander Luvey, argued against the federal government entrusting racist local governments with the authority to oversee the administration of federal benefits for Black Americans.
Transcript:
“Mr. President, this is Alexander Luvey, a lawyer from Nashville, Tennessee. It is generally recognized that the Negroes of the South are not contributing as much as they can contribute to his national defense. Nor are they receiving the benefits which the federal government desires them to receive. This is due to the fact that the federal government is working through constituted local authorities. It is true that local served government is a theory of democratic government, but Mr. President, this is a condition and not a theory which confronts us Negroes in the South. When the head of our government publically announces that this is a white man's country, when the head of our local Department of Education fights vigorously to maintain a dual educational system paying different salary schedules, how can we expect that the local authorities will function fairly and efficiently for the Negro?...”
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"Dear Mr. President" Recorded Interview of Black Americans in Nashville, TN, 1942
00:08-01:31, 01:36-02:42 Recorded interviews with several Black Americans from Nashville, TN addressing President Roosevelt with their concerns regarding discrimination against black citizens and abuse of black servicemen. The Nashville residents interviewed asked President Roosevelt for his understanding and assistance in protecting the rights of black citizens to serve their country.
Transcript:
“...I am thinking of 15 million Negroes who are among the most loyal citizens in the United States. In the face of discrimination and segregation the Negro has remained loyal. What greater proof than a Joe Louis benefit for the navy, a branch of our armed services which has never permitted his race to rise above the ships galley. These millions of negroes are doing all in their power to serve in the presence crisis. Most defense industries are closed to him. The possibility of advancement in the army is definitely limited. If Democracy is to survive. If Democracy is ever to be made to work, our generation must make it work. We want as you do, to perpetuate the democratic way of life. Do all in your power as we are doing to remove the barriers, raise the ceilings, unshackle the loyalties, release the energies and the initiative of this loyal race that together, all Americans, all liberty loving peoples may give their all that our way of life may survive.”
01:36-2:42 Mrs. Julia T. Glavin of Nashville, TN. “Mr. President, in this section of the United States it seems to me that there are two outstanding problems confronting us now. They have to do with our negro soldiers and taxation. In certain parts of our country the uniform of our army is not properly respected. Our loyal black boys in uniform should be protected while they’re in camp. The ruthless beating up and murdering of them should be stopped. This sort of thing breaks down the morale of any army. Every loyal soldier is an important factor in our defense program. It’ll take a lot of money to win this war. We’re going to win and we’re going to sacrifice all we have for our country, but it has become a problem to know how to meet these new taxes and keep up the old ones with our limited incomes which have not increased with the increased demand of heavy taxation. If we borrow we are plunged into debt, and citizens in debt cannot present as strong a defense as we desire, but we have pledged ourselves to do our best.”
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"Dear Mr. President" Audio Recording Jacket Audio Jacket for "Dear Mr. President" interview of black residents in Nashville, TN during the winter of 1942.
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"Army Nurse Corps" Full page photo and article in the black newspaper, The Oklahoma Eagle, highlighting the commitment of black nurses as commissioned officers of the United States Army Nurse Corps. Locations of duty mentioned in the article include the two hospitals serving black military service members in Texas, one of which was at Camp Howze.
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Sergeant Joseph H. Ward An announcement in The Oklahoma Eagle, a black newspaper, honoring the military service of Sgt. James H. Ward, recently transferred from Camp Howze, TX to Camp Claiborne, LA as a member of the U.S. Army Service Force.
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"Dear Mr. President" by Miss Maude Gray
In this recording, Miss Maude Gray of Austin, TX relays her concerns regarding the mistreatment and discrimination black soldiers, like her brother, were forced to endure as service members in the U.S. military. She asks President Roosevelt to understand that black Americans want to serve in the military honorably. She explains why black Americans need the president's help to ensure they are treated with dignity and offered the same opportunities to serve their country as all willing, able-bodied Americans.
Transcript:
Miss Maude Gray speaks about her brother and other black soldiers’ experience with racist treatment in the military and by authorities unwilling to hire them. “…I got a brother who’s in the army….when he left here he was mighty glad to get in the army. I don’t know whether he’s so glad to be there now from all the letters I’ve been gettin from him. Mind you, I don’t mean that he’s against our country or anything like that, but he’s not so satisfied with the treatment that he’s gettin up there, he thinks that it could be a little better….” The young woman goes on to describe degrading mistreatment of her brother and his fellow black soldiers. She mentions public fears of race riots as the justification for keeping black soldiers from accessing and training with weapons. “They don’t have any entertainment for them, whereas the white soldiers have lounges, and guest houses, and everything that they could wish for as far as facilities will permit while our boys don’t have anything but a post exchange. And that’s not very good for entertainment and when that’s all he has to do. I think they could stand that if they were just treated a little better when it comes to other things that are most important duties, promotions. The navy won’t let you in. The army, when they get you, it put you off somewhere off by yourself…”
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Miss Maude Gray, "Negro Girl from Austin, Texas" Jacket for the recording of Miss Gray in which she relays her concerns regarding the mistreatment and discrimination black soldiers, like her brother, were forced to endure as service members in the U.S. military. She asks President Roosevelt to understand that black Americans want to serve in the military honorably. She explains why black Americans need his help to ensure they are treated with dignity and offered the same opportunities as everyone else.
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"Chinese Soldiers in 86th at Howze Want to Fight Japs" In this photograph and caption published in the Gainesville Daily Register, Chinese-American soldiers are admired for their service and determination to defeat the enemy in battle.
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Gainesville Negro Girl Lieutenant This brief mention of a young black woman's commission as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps was a rare moment of acknowledgment for black service members in news publications covering the local region surrounding Camp Howze
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Response from Mr. Gibson,
Civilian Aide to the Secretary of War In this response letter to Private E.L. Reynolds, Mr. Gibson, implies that banning the Pittsburgh Courier, or any other "Negro publication" at Camp Howze would violate official War Department policy AG 461 Subject: Restriction of Commercial Publications. Mr. Gibson advises Pvt. Reynolds to write back with further details regarding this issue.
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Black Newspapers Banned at Camp Howze A letter from a black soldier at Camp Howze to Truman K. Gibson, Civilian Aide to the Secretary of War, in which the soldier asks why the camp's post exchange for black servicemen will not sell the Pittsburgh Courier, a highly regarded black newspaper. This was significant because news reports in local publications including the Camp Howze Howitzer rarely included stories of black citizens or service members, choosing instead to report exclusively on white Americans' experiences and perspectives that often demeaned black Americans.
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The Wolf - Untitled Camp Howze Howitzer Comic Racist imagery used for humor in the Camp Howze Howitzer.
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"I Made $1.35 in Tips Yesterday" Racist depiction of African men dressed in loin cloth and carrying the white soldiers’ goods.
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Muller Street USO Anniversary Photograph of service members from the 212th QM Battalion, the Station Complement Special Detachment along with administrators of Muller St. USO celebrating the anniversary of the club.
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"Sweet, Sweet Harmony" Photo of five servicemen, Sgt. Anderson Matlock, Pvt. Guy Hoskins, Sgt. Joe Ward, Pvt. Willis Pope, and Pvt. James Potts, members of the 1885th Special Detachment Unit singing at the local radio station - WFAA Dallas.
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Camp Howze Howitzer Comic Comic illustration depicting a topless African woman looming over U.S. soldiers in a threatening manner.
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Blackface Performance at Camp Howze Photo of servicemen from the 409th Infantry regiment dressed in blackface and costume posed to advertise a performance planned to entertain GIs at Camp Howze.
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"Minstrel Darky Doings" Photograph of white servicemen from the 84th Infantry Division Special Service performing in blackface as minstrels to entertain GIs at Camp Howze.