4

PUNCH…COUNTERPUNCH

What had begun as a “neighborhood squabble,” in the words of Detroit News editor Martin S. Hayden, “grew quickly into a city-wide racial dispute [and] has now become magnified into what some regard as one of the nation’s primary problems of war-time unity.” Undermining the nation’s perceived role as champion of democracies and democratic institutions were federal policies and practices that would deny African Americans equal justice under the law. No less a figure than Eleanor Roosevelt would opine to readers of the Negro Digest, “If I were a Negro today, I think I would have moments of great bitterness. It would be hard for me to sustain my faith in democracy or to build up a sense of goodwill toward men of other races.”⁴⁶

THE BREADTH AND DEPTH OF THE REACTION

On January 22, the Detroit Housing Commission wired the Department of Defense Housing seeking a definite commitment to a black defense housing project. The very same day, DDH officials wired that three hundred homes for black defense workers would be built at the Dequindre and Modern site and that land acquisition would begin immediately. Just four days later, however, on January 26, field agents for the USHA reported that the Ford Motor Company had purchased the site for a new war production plant and that there were no more suitable sites within existing African American neighborhoods. The agents recommended that a site be found outside city limits. The neighborhood composition rule, established by the FWA in 1933, had come home to roost.

Meanwhile, Mayor Jeffries argued before Common Council that the city should go on record for “Negro” occupancy. He took this step, subsequently approved by a majority of councilmen, when faced with the choice of doing so in this manner or ordering the project moved outside the city. “That,” Jeffries told the council, “would be tantamount to saying to the Negroes that there is no place within Detroit where they can have new housing. It strikes me that this matter has degenerated into a question of whether government can formally declare itself as favoring racial discrimination. Such a statement would be far different than an individual declaration and I do not believe that, in a democracy, a government can so put itself on record.”⁴⁷

Mayor Jeffries was hardly alone in his frustration with political meddling and federal flip-flopping at a time when the entire country needed to remain focused and unified. A local controversy was now gaining traction as a regional and national issue, and powerful voices within and outside the city of Detroit were about to be heard.

If Jeffries and a council majority felt a moral obligation to take a stand in favor of black occupancy, leading African Americans in Detroit took the obligation a significant step further. The Reverend Horace White, who had attended the January 15 meeting in Washington and was the special target of Congressman Tenerowicz’s vitriol, wasted no time in contacting the influential state senator Charles C. Diggs, who knew exactly how to translate moral outrage into bold action. It was imperative, Diggs believed, that action take place promptly while the situation in Washington was fluid. Waiting for the ink to dry on these federal proclamations would be deadly to the present cause.

Diggs immediately assembled a group of Detroit’s most prominent black citizens, not armchair intellectuals but movers and shakers within the black community; they included Louis Martin, first editor of the Michigan Chronicle, the state’s largest black newspaper; Dr. James J. McClendon, president of the Detroit Branch of the NAACP; Percival Piper, an assistant to the state attorney general who had been so helpful earlier to local residents of Conant Gardens; the Reverend Charles A. Hill, the popular pastor of Hartford Avenue Baptist Church; Lebron Simmons, an young attorney and an activist within the National Negro Congress; and others. The first meeting, held informally at the St. Antoine branch of the YMCA on the lower east side of Detroit, provided the necessary focus and resolve to kickstart the resistance. Without dissent, the Reverend Hill was elected chairman, with Lebron Simmons serving as treasurer.

The African American churches of Detroit, in all their various forms and denominations, were a perpetual source of spiritual nourishment and moral guidance for the city’s struggling minority. In late January, this small coterie of black leaders organized the Sojourner Truth Citizens Committee (STCC) under the auspices of various black churches to raise money, preach social justice, distribute leaflets and newsletters and encourage individuals to man picket lines, write letters, send telegrams and communicate with public officials face-to-face as the opportunities arose.

These church meetings served as the perfect counterpoint to the meetings that were held at St. Louis the King Parish, not to mention the thirty-five other Polish parishes around the city whose pastors, in most instances, lent quiet support for white occupancy of the new housing project. This is not to say there were no liberal Catholics supportive of black occupancy, but they were neither organized nor outspoken. With respect to Catholic Church hierarchy, the higher one moved up the ecclesiastical chain, the more reserved or muted the response with respect to the housing crisis. At the very top, within the chancery, not a single public utterance was forthcoming from Archbishop Edward J. Mooney.

Within the Jewish community, there were mixed levels of support. Several individuals and organizations provided financial support but were reluctant to participate more openly, fearing an anti-Semitic backlash. Sam Lieberman, longtime leader of the East Side Merchants Association, for instance, provided a great deal of financial support directly to the STCC. Others, like Jack Raskin, a member of the newly formed STCC, used the offices of the Civil Rights Federation, which he headed, to encourage various Jewish community leaders to publicly support black occupancy of the Sojourner Truth Homes. Some individuals, however, were nervous about aligning themselves with the federation ever since it had drawn the attention of the FBI for its association with the communist left. Nevertheless, several rabbis and other prominent Jews officially and publicly added their names to the list of supporters of black occupancy, including Rabbi Leon Fram, Temple Israel; Rabbi Dr. Leo M. Franklin, rabbi emeritus, Temple Beth El; Ernest Goodman, attorney; and Herman Jacobs, director, Jewish Community Center.⁴⁸

From among the city’s white churches and clergy, the Reverend Henry Hitt Crane, pastor of Central Methodist Church, emerged as a powerful advocate of interracial cooperation and support for the Sojourner Truth project. Crane’s church sermons and public pronouncements were especially noteworthy because of his well-deserved reputation for persuasive oratory and the historic prominence of Central Methodist Church. Within days of the DDH announcement of the change in occupancy, Crane formed an eight-member Action Committee of the Interracial Commission, drawing the immediate support and participation of the Reverend Hill. Both would work closely together in opposition of the federal action and sponsor interracial meetings to keep both white and black communities up-to-date on the issue. Crane was not without community detractors, particularly other white pastors who believed that Crane had put them in an impossible situation, pitting black against white. Crane received a few scolding letters, including some directly opposing black occupancy using the same arguments put forth by Father Dzink and the SMFHIA.⁴⁹

By the time the STCC next met, just two days after its initial organizational meeting at the YMCA, a considerable groundswell of support had been generated by the expanding network established by church leaders, public officials and community activists. The newly minted chairman of the STCC initially saw the controversy as an opportunity to plead with the Polish Americans who fought against black occupancy for working-class solidarity. In an open letter to the Polish community living in the vicinity of Sojourner Truth, Reverend Hill wrote that blacks and Poles were “in the same boat together,” as both had been historically vilified. Reverend Hill went on to enumerate the kinds of harmful stereotypes to which both groups had fallen victim. Ultimately, Hill would conclude that his efforts to bridge the divide had been for naught.

This second meeting of the STCC, held at 3:00 p.m. on January 23 at Calvary Baptist Church on Clinton Avenue, drew a crowd of three hundred community members, anxious to move forward with an agenda that would, at this point, be short on words and long on action. Everyone seemed to understand what was at stake beyond local defense housing; the struggle now, here, was for racial justice. There was a general sense that lawmakers in Washington were listening and nervously watching what was happening in Detroit. And if they were not, they soon would. In many instances, members in attendance were representatives of various black and biracial organizations, such as the Michigan Civil Rights Federation, the UAW (particularly Ford Local 600), the Detroit and Wayne County AFL, the CIO, Detroit Youth Assembly and as many as three dozen other organizations and church groups. Immediately after the meeting, the Reverend Hill sent off a sharply worded telegram to President Roosevelt, the first lady, Governor Murray Van Wagoner, Mayor Jeffries, city councilmen, select members of the state legislature and various federal officials. It reminded the recipients that wartime was no time to raise “the color issue in the arsenal of democracy and rob Negro defense workers of the Sojourner Truth Homes built by the Federal Government.”

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, an ardent integrationist and strong supporter of defense housing for African Americans in general and for black occupancy specifically at Sojourner Truth, received fourteen telegrams urging a reversal of the January 15 decision, one of which was from the Reverend Hill. Because of her presence at the groundbreaking and dedication of the Brewster Homes earlier in the decade, it was believed she would make the case on their behalf directly with the president. It was also believed that Mary McLeod Bethune, a close friend of the first lady, would exert additional pressure within the White House, to which she had unparalleled access, particularly considering she was a black female professional, not a domestic turning beds or preparing meals. Bethune was president of Bethune-Cookman College, a private historically black university in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Mary McLeod Bethune was also a member of the informally named “Black Cabinet,” or “Black Cabineteers,” a group of forty-five black community leaders holding positions as advisors on matters of civil rights within numerous executive agencies in Washington, D.C. Many of these Cabineteers were acutely aware of events unfolding in Detroit and were exerting what influence they had within their various departments or agencies to resolve this issue favorably. These members included Ralph Bunche, a native Detroiter and an analyst in the Office of Strategic Management; William H. Hastie, a Harvard-educated assistant solicitor for the Department of the Interior; Eugene K. Jones, executive secretary of the National Urban League, serving during the war as advisor on Negro affairs within the Department of Commerce; Lawrence A. Oxley, who had entered government service as director of the Division of Negro Relief for North Carolina, under the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, and was serving in a variety of roles within the Department of Labor, most notably as conciliator in industrial labor disputes; and Robert C. Weaver, trained as an economist, advisor on racial problems in the Department of the Interior and later to become the first African American member of the federal cabinet as secretary of housing and urban development. Bunche would eventually receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work as United Nations mediator in Palestine, securing the necessary signatures on the armistice agreement between Israel and the Arab States in 1949. Hastie would become the first African American federal judge, appointed by Roosevelt to the District Court of the Virgin Islands. If nothing else, members of the Black Cabinet made sure the sensitive issue of racial justice would be kept on the front burner in Washington and that any efforts at discrimination would not be countenanced.⁵⁰

African Americans peaceably assemble in Cadillac Square in downtown Detroit to protest the decision by the federal government to reverse its original stance and declare the Sojourner Truth housing project a white settlement. Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University.

In Detroit, more than three thousand individuals supportive of black occupancy were now attending meetings held at local churches, volunteering to distribute literature containing the latest updates and seeking additional volunteers. Many participated in regular picket duty around city hall; others agreed to join a large group of picketers at the meeting of the Detroit Housing Commission on Monday, January 26, at 4:00 p.m. in the Water Board Building on Jefferson Avenue. Maximum pressure was being exerted at all levels of decision-making in Detroit and in the nation’s capital. There was an increasing sense of unity and cohesiveness among participants as many came to realize for the first time what was at stake for African Americans.

Wishing to resolve the issue, once and for all, leaders of the STCC were convinced that it was time to pull its most powerful card: sending a large delegation to Washington to obtain an audience with the president. Absent that meeting, other powerful decision-makers would be targeted. Presidential aide Marvin McIntyre, who received word of the plans to send a substantial delegation to the capital, immediately consulted with housing coordinator Charles Palmer to see what might be done to defuse the situation. Already, East Coast newspapers were not only covering the developing story but also editorializing on behalf of black occupancy.

Before it was determined who would join the delegation, as well as attend to the logistics associated with such a trip, a document titled “Statement on Sojourner Truth Housing Project” was crafted by the Reverend Hill and signed by thirty-seven prominent local supporters:

We strongly protest the barring of Negro defense workers from the Sojourner Truth housing project as an act disruptive of the unity of our people, which jeopardizes the defense of our Nation.

The Sojourner Truth project was expressly planned for and promised to the Negro defense workers of our city, in recognition of the especially critical housing problem faced by this group. A Negro manager has been chosen for the project; not only that, but a substantial number of Negro families had already been selected for occupancy in it.

In his recent message to the Congress and the American people, President Roosevelt warned us that if we are to achieve victory in our war for freedom “We must guard against divisions among ourselves. We must be particularly vigilant against racial discrimination in any of its ugly forms.”

The denial of the Sojourner Truth project to the Negro defense workers for whom it was originally intended is precisely the sort of dangerously divisive action so strongly condemned by the President. We demand that this discriminatory decision be reversed.⁵¹

The statement was widely disseminated locally and sent to various federal officials as well. The STCC was now seriously on the offensive, with precious time ticking off the clock. Everyone knew the housing units were almost ready for occupation, and once the first residents were assigned their units and began the move-in process, it would be nearly impossible to reverse course. All local levers of power seemed to be exhausted. The DHC was reluctant to officially voice any recommendations beyond what it had already done since its relationship with federal authorities was complicated by mixed messages and contradictory policies. No use causing further deterioration in the relationship with the USHA, FWA and DDH. However, the mayor had become outspoken of late and seemed prepared to take on a larger role on the issue. Members of the STCC approached Mayor Jeffries directly on January 29, and after a short meeting, he agreed to send off a letter to Washington. First, however, he needed a resolution coming from the DHC in support of black occupancy; otherwise, he was afraid that federal authorities might conclude there was a serious division in city government. Though a couple commissioners declined to sign off, he obtained the signatures of most of the housing commissioners. He was now prepared to draft the following letter to Baird Snyder, Charles F. Palmer and Colonel F. Charles Starr, using his recent remarks before the Detroit City Common Council as a template:

Our Detroit Housing Commission was instructed last week to accept applications for the Sojourner Truth defense housing project from white persons.

To refresh your memory, for months the tenant selection division of the Detroit Housing Commission has been accepting and investigating applications from Negroes. In fact, from the inception of this project the housing commission, together with the informed citizenry of Detroit, was of the opinion that this was to be a Negro defense housing project. Since our instructions to change this to a white project, a cursory but yet a relatively complete survey of the city has been made for the purpose of locating an alternative Negro project. No place apparently is available with anything like the same satisfaction. In fact it appears that to build a project with any size with the requirements laid down by the Defense Housing Authority as to vacant land, it seems necessary to go beyond the borders of the city.

Therefore I have discussed this matter at length with the members of the Common Council of the City of Detroit, and we feel that the Defense Housing Authority has made a mistake in diverting this to a white project, and that in fairness to the Negro population of the city of Detroit and the Negro defense workers, this project should be maintained as a Negro defense housing program.

We earnestly request you to authorize the housing commission of Detroit to place Negro defense workers in the Sojourner Truth project.⁵²

At an emergency meeting of the STCC on the same day, over $1,200 was raised to send a biracial delegation of thirty-seven citizens to Washington that very night. Made up of civic, labor and church leaders, the delegation set its sights on Baird Snyder, who had replaced Clark Foreman. While no official statement was issued in the aftermath of the meeting the next day, members of the delegation believed they had made their point. On Monday, February 2, just eighteen days after the earlier reversal, Charles F. Palmer, defense housing coordinator, announced that the Sojourner Truth Homes would be re-designated for black occupancy.

Likely never to be resolved is the issue of what specifically tipped the balance and caused federal authorities to reverse their decision yet again on occupancy of Sojourner Truth. Was it the mayor’s letter? The STCC delegation meeting with Baird Snyder? The influence of Eleanor Roosevelt? Media attention, both local and national? Behind-the-scenes lobbying by members of the Black Cabinet? The labor unions? NAACP? NUL? What is certain is that federal authorities, now reversing their decision, would remain unmoved, despite the anticipated backlash soon to follow from white residents in the area of Nevada and Fenelon.