16  

Southern Negro Youth Conference, 1939

Foreshadowing the critical role that African-American students played in the modern civil rights movement, Southern Negro Youth Conferences were held in such places as Virginia, Tennessee, and Alabama in the era before World War II. Participants aimed to promote the economic status of African Americans, improve educational opportunities, and agitate on behalf of civil rights causes.

CALL TO THIRD ALL-SOUTHERN NEGRO YOUTH CONFERENCE

“Hands locked together and with heads erect, we march into the future, fearless and unafraid. We are Americans. We are the hope of our people. We have the right to live.” With these words 534 young men and women, assembled in Richmond, Virginia for the First All-Southern Negro Youth Conference, concluded their sessions in February, 1937. These youth then set out to improve the conditions under which they and theirs live and labor.

Since that day in February, 1937, when 534 representatives of Negro youth organizations resolved to join their efforts for the achievement of equal opportunities, the Second All-Southern Negro Youth Conference convened in Chattanooga, Tennessee in April, 1938. We could seek no better time than the present to assess the progress we have made and to memorialize ourselves, our friends and our national representatives, of our plans for moving onward with the task we have begun. For this purpose, we invite the Negro youth of the South, and all who love democracy well, to the Third All-Southern Negro Youth Conference, Birmingham, Alabama, April 28, 29, 30, 1939.

At this conference we will have an opportunity to accomplish certain well-defined objectives:

1. To consider the mutual problems and aspirations of Southern Negro Youth.
   1. Our economic status: the National Youth Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, vocational guidance, apprenticeship training, Negro business, labor movement.
   2. Citizenship rights: voting, anti-lynching legislation, the national defense program.
   3. Education: equality in educational opportunities, the content of Negro education, federal aid to education.
   4. The role of religion in the life of Negro youth.
   5. The special problems of rural youth.
   6. The development of a cooperative relationship with Southern white youth.
   7. Peace: the preservation of democracy, protection of the rights of racial and religious minorities at home and abroad.
   8. Special problems: marriage and home life, crime and juvenile delinquency, housing, recreation, health.
2. To provide a medium for cooperative planning and action in meeting our problems.
3. To develop a greater appreciation for the contributions of the Negro to our cultural life, through holding an All-Southern Art Exhibit and a Festival of Music in connection with the conference.

As the Third All-Southern Negro Youth Conference convenes, we recall that the history of the past few years has been filled with new currents of progress. We have just begun to estimate the importance of the growing movement of organized labor which marches apace with the rapid industrialization of the South. Its presence where feudal conditions once reigned supreme, gives assurance of a rising standard of living for all working men and women.

In addition, the special attention extended by the national administration has lent great impetus to the sober consideration of the South’s problems. Not many weeks ago, the Supreme Court rendered a momentous decision. It held that Lloyd Gaines had an inalienable right, which the State must enforce, to enter the law school of the University of Missouri. What new horizons for winning complete equality in educational opportunities does this decision offer to Southern Negro Youth!

Of great significance as a sign of the times have been the recent efforts of Southerners from all walks of life, to think and work unitedly for the advancement of the South. Such an effort has given rise to the historic Southern Conference for Human Welfare.

The low economic status of our youth constantly reminds us of the urgent need of securing decent living standards. Five boys who languish in jail—the Scottsboro boys—call for our help, and are grim witnesses to the fact that our civil liberties are still to be achieved. The growing incidence of crime and delinquency among our youth; their scant educational play facilities; the presence among us of scores of thousands who toil in penury and degradation as tenant-farmers and share-croppers; the denial of our right to vote and participate in the ordinary affairs of government—these conditions fairly cry out for adequate remedy.

We invite Southern men and women to seek a solution to these problems through participating in the Third All-Southern Negro Youth Conference. The youth are the guardians of tomorrow’s world. Let us assemble in Birmingham over the week-end of April 28th. Let us achieve the full blessings of true democracy for ourselves, our people and our nation!

Source: “Call to Third All-Southern Negro Youth Conference,” issued in March 1939.

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Johnetta Richards, “The Southern Negro Youth Conferences” (Ph.D. diss., University of Cincinnati, 1987).

Earl Smith, “Images and Accomplishments of the Southern Negro Nation Youth Conferences,” in Gerald McWorter, ed., Black Liberation Movement: Papers Presented at 6th National Council for Black Studies Conference (Urbana: Afro-American Studies and Research Program, University of Illinois, 1983).