An Autobiographical Note

Abstract

In 1946 I frequently published essays in various periodicals and journals. Among these, two brought me great satisfaction. One, in New Masses, February 12, 1946, was entitled Integration among Combat Troops in World War II. This detailed employment of black-white mixed combat infantry companies during closing weeks of war. This was not of major military consequence; it demonstrated also how quickly racism could be overcome if reality of joint black-white struggle came into existence. The second essay, Literacy, Afro-American, and World War II, appeared in Journal of Negro Education, Fall 1946. It described tests in learning and comprehension administered by army to scores of thousands of black and white troops. This resulted in slightly better achievements by black men than white-a smashing blow to ideas of black inferiority that then were dominant and still are not overcome. Major-General Edward Witsell, of War Department, asked me, in a letter dated August 17, 1948, for permission to reprint that article for distribution among officers in his command. Permission was granted; general thanked me for this in a letter dated September 3; he added that editor of Journal of Negro Education also had granted permission. Enclosed were two copies of this offprint. Two years later I received a three-page single-spaced letter from another army officer, C. A. Beall Jr. This communication, dated November 6, 1950, was marked Confidential. I received it on Armistice Day. It was addressed to Major Herbert Aptheker, A.U.S. Here it is reproduced, in full. Its imbecility is startling. Note, as examples, charge s, where allegedly I state that Communist party is only champion of Negro race which is fighting for their emancipation from tentacles of masses. This lunacy is matched by charge t, where I am alleged to have said-and this is put with quotation marks-the way defects in our government could be remedied was by an armed conspiracy. Noteworthy is emphasis upon my connection with the Negro-this reflects, I think, racism then openly expounded by Washington and especially by fanatical J. Edgar Hoover.