Camp Howze Museum

Title

"Dear Mr. President" 1942 Recorded Interviews of Black Americans in Nashville, TN

Description

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?...”

Date

1942

Source

Jones, Lewis Wade, Charles Spurgeon Johnson, Mertyl Copeland, W.S Ellington, Grafton Luby, Alexander Luvey, Carrie Timberlake, and Pam Tucker. "Dear Mr. President," Nashville, Tennessee, January or February. Nashville, Tennessee, 1942. Audio. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc1942003_sr39/.

Subject

Racism

discrimination

World War II

WWII

white supremacy

Black Americans

Negro Americans

black soldiers

Colored Americans

colored soldiers

negro soldiers

federal benefits

Camp Howze

President Roosevelt

Dear Mr. President

Nashville, Tennessee

military service

patriotism

audio recording