vol. 12, no. 9
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Civil Liberties
Union-News
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"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."
Vol. XII.
-ae
SAN FRANCISCO, SEPTEMBER, 1947.
No. 9
California Anti-Miscegination Chinese Brides of War Veterans Held Incom-
Statute Under Attack
Sylvester D. Davis, a Negro, and Andrea D.
Perez, a Caucasian, last month petitioned the
State Supreme Court for a writ of mandate di-
recting the Los Angeles County Clerk to issue a
marriage license to them despite a 1872 statute
which declares, "All marriages of white persons
with Negroes, Mongolians, or mulattoes are il-
legal and void."
Both petitioners are Roman Catholics. They
_ claim that the Clerk's refusal to issue a license
"denies to them the right to participate fully in
`the sacramental life of the religion in which they
believe,' and, therefore, violates the first and
14th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution.
The suit. was filed by Attorney Daniel G. Mar-
shall, Chairman of the Social Action Committee
of the Catholic Church in Los Angeles, If the
Court agrees to hear the case, the Union will
very likely file an amicus curiae brief in support
of the petitioners.
In 27 of the 48 states a difference in color is a
legal barrier to marriage, either by statute or
judicial decision. Some states, such as Georgia,
decree that men and women of different races
legally maried in another state may not live to-
gether in a state that prohibits intermarriage.
Madera Race Bigots Resent -
"Outside Interference"
On July 9, the ACLU protested to the Madera
City Council concerning several cases of racial
discrimination at the Municipal Plunge, pointing
out the violations of the State's Civil Rights
Statute, and urging that action be taken to end
the discrimination, Under date of August 5, City
Clerk Geo. M. Shedd answered as follows:
"The City Council has asked me to answer
vour letter of July 9th, 1947, regarding the dis-
turbance at the swimming pool. The Council
wishes me to inform you that they are familiar
with the law regarding race discrimination, as
they have two attorneys to keep them posted.
"The trouble at the pool to which you refer
was qaused presumably by the Negroes being
taken to the pool to create a disturbance.
"The city has managed this pool for many
vears without any racial disturbances and _ be-
lieve they can continue to do so without any
outside interference."
Foreign Language School Issue
Goes to Hawaiian Courts
A suit in behalf of Chinese language schools
in Hawaii, challenging the constitutionality of a
1943 territorial law barring the teaching of
foreign languages to children under fifteen, is
now in a federal court in Honolulu. The case,
brought by a group of Hawaiian Chinese lan-
guage schools, will also affect Japanese language
schools closed by the military authorities in
1941 and not since reopened. A law similar to
_ the 1943 act was passed by the Hawaiian Legis-
lature in 1923 and was held by the U. S. Supreme
Court to be unconstitutional.
ANNUAL MEETING
The annual membership meeting of the Ameri-
can Civil Liberties Union of Northern California
will be held at the California Club, 1750 Clay
Street, San Francisco, Friday evening, October 17,
at 8 o'clock.
The meeting will be addressed by Col. John H.
Sherman, veteran of three wars and former Pres-
ident of Tampa University, on the question, "Are
the Civil Liberties of Minority Groups in the Bay
Area Imperiled?" Rt. Rev. Edward L. Parsons
_will be chairman of the meeting.
OCTOBER 17, 1947
municado Months on End
By S.F. immigration
.
The American Civil Liberties Union charged
last month that the Immigration Service in San
Francisco is holding Chinese wives and children
of war veterans incommunicado for months on
end, despite a public announcement by the Serv-
ice last February that immigrants would not be
held incommunicado for longer than seven or
eight days.
Last February, in response to protests by the
ACLU, Attorney General Tom Clark sent Wil-
lard Kelly, Assistant Commissioner of Immigra-
tion in charge of alien control, to San Francisco
in order to inquire into the manner Chinese
wives of American soldiers were being handled
on arrival at San Francisco, Following his visit.
the Immigration Service announced what it
called a radical change of its regulations, under
which immigrants would be held incommunicado
no longer than 7 or 8 days.
In a wire to Attorney General Tom Clark, the
Union charged the Immigration Service with
breaking faith with the public and particularly
veterans "in surreptitiously reestablishing a bar-
baric practice in handling immigrants seeking
admission to this country."
"that an immediate investigation be undertaken
to the end that a humanitarian system of ex-
amination and detention of immigrants be es-
tablished."
In support of its complaint, the Union cited
the case of Chew Ah Sum of 893 Broadway, San
Francisco, who has not been permitted to see his
wife, Wat Shee, and his son, Chu Jue Gay, since
they arrived in San Francisco on July 3rd. Chew
is an honorably discharged veteran who served
in World War II for 3!% years. He is presently
employed as a bar boy at San Francisco's Cliff
House.
An immigration inspector questioned Chew
about. his marriage for 714 hours, and his wife,
child, and two sisters have also been interro-
gated at great length and without the advice of
counsel. "After this extensive preliminary ex-
amination,' said the Union, "one would think
that the chances of framing a case, if the par-
The Union urged ~
ties were allowed to see each other, would be
extremely remote, but visits by the husband and
friends are nevertheless forbidden, and all let-
ters are censored, until after a hearing before
a Board of Special Inquiry, which has not yet
been scheduled and which the Service admitted
to us will definitely not be held in the next cou-
ple of weeks. No one can object to the Govern-
ment taking reasonable precautions against im-
migrants procuring fraudulent entry into the
country, but such precautions should have re-
gard for humanitarian procedure."
The San Francisco Immigration Service has
informed the Union that its present procedure
conforms with instructions from the Central Of-
fice, but the wire from T. B, Shoemaker, Act-
ing Commissioner, on which the local Service
bases its procedure, merely instructs the Service
not to pexmit immigrants visitors until after
"completion of primary inspection." In the fore-
going case, for example, the primary inspection
had been completed and the aliens had been or-
dered held for a hearing by a Board of Special
Inquiry.
District Director I. F. Wixon disclosed to thy
Union on August 22 that 39 cases of Chinese
war brides were awaiting hearings before Boards
of Special Inquiry, and all of the persons in-
volved in these cases were being held incom-
municado. Mr. Wixon also admitted that some
of the war brides had been held incommunicado
for three months, and, Inspector Hertogs, di-
rectly in charge of the work, stated that be-
cause of increasing arrivals and reduced help,
the situation promises to become worse rather
than better.
The Union has sent a protest to Assistant
Commissioner Willard Kelly, in Philadelphia, and
has sought assistance from Congressman Franck
R. Havenner and Senators Sheridan Downey and
William F. Knowland, who intervened in behalf
of the veterans last February. Congressman
Havenner at once placed an inquiry with the
Immigration Service.
Two Month's C. P. Membership
Basis for Disloyalty Charge
The navy is seeking the removal on grounds
of disloyalty of a Negro Civil Service employee
at the Alameda Air Station who belonged to the
Communist Party for a couple of months in 1945.
An administrative hearing has been scheduled for
September 9.
The complaint against the employee charges:
"(a) Investigation discloses that you are a
member of the Communist Party.
"(b) That you received an invitation to attend
a meeting of the Communist Party of Alameda
County, California, which stated that admission
would be by Communist Party membership card
only.
"(e) That your name appeared on the 1945
mailing list of the Communist Party."
The employee is classified as an "aircraft me-
chanic" in the assembly and repair department
at the Air Station. He has been a federal gov-
ernment employee for 18 years.
The man does not deny his brief membership
in the Communist Party in 1945, but claims he
paid dues for only two months and attended no
more than 4 or 5 meetings, never getting beyond
the position of a spectator. He denies that he is
disloyal to the United States, or that he has ever
done anything to injure the country.
Anti-Red Clause Of Labor
Act Heads For Court Test
The provision of the Taft-Hartley law that la-
bor leaders must certify that they are not Com-
munists before their organization can appear be-
fore the National Labor Relations Board moved
considerably closer to a court test last month.
Both CIO and AFL leaders indicated that they
will contest the ruling made by NLRB Counsel
Robert N. Denham, Aug. 19, that "the forms
must be signed by all AFL and CIO interna-
tional and loca! officers as well as the parent
organizations officers. The chain must be com-
plete from the top down."
The ACLU had previously condemned that
provision as one of those in the act which "di-
rectly violate labor's civil rights." When the
legislation was before Congress and the Presi-
dent, the ACLU warned that the section was
"completely unjustifiable' and would "penalize
non-Communist workers for a_ situation for
which they may not be responsible." The ACLU
also declared that the section raises "questions .
of constitutionality for it penalizes political ac-
tivity safeguarded by the First Amendment."
Although no test case of the provision has
yet been initiated, the ACLU has promised AFL
and CIO counsel that it will "participate at all
points where issues of civil rights are clearly
involved."
Page 2
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION-NEWS
Congress Adjourns With
- Record of Inaction
The record of Congress on its adjournment
July 26 showed failure of the Senate particularly
to act on almost all civil liberties issues. Of bills
supported by the Union only one was passed, the
amended G. I. Brides Act, permitting entry to the
U.S. of soldiers' oriental wives ineligible to citi-
zenship if marriage was contracted prior to 30
days after enactment.
The House passed the anti-poll tax bill, for the
fourth time, the Japanese evacuation claims bill,
the bill to provide for election of their governor
by Puerto Ricans, the deportation stay bill and
a bill granting naturalization to Japanese par-
ents of "purple heart" veterans. The FEPC bill
was reported from a Senate sub-committee to
full committee, with recommendation for further
study. There was no action on legislation dealing
with anti-lynching, oriental exclusion, women's
rights, or segregation in interstate carriers. A
group of House members are scheduled to make
an on-the-spot investigation of civilian govern-
ment for U. S:-controlled Pacific Islands.
The Mundt bill, providing for congressional au-
thorization of the State Department's "Voice of
America" broadcasts after being passed by the
House and approved by the Senate Foreign Re-
lations Committee, reached a stalemate. The
program, without specific Congress approval, will
continue under regular departmental appropria-
tion.
The most flagrant use of blocking tactics in
this session was on action for displaced persons.
The Stratton bill, providing for entry to the U. S.
of 400,000 DPs over a four-year period, was
stalled despite the tremendous pressure of public
opinion in its favor. An emergency measure, per-
mitting 100,000 to enter this year, was defeated.
Instead, the Senate adopted a resolution to study
the whole immigration policy of the U. S. for re-
port to the next session.
Propose Ban On Segregation In
Schools, Militia In N. J. Constitution
Segregation in New Jersey's public schools
and state militia will be ended this year if voters
approve of an anti-discrimination clause written
into the proposed constitution Aug. 21 by the
State Constitutional Convention. The article was
approved by a vote of 50 to 18 after heated de-
bate Its acceptance by the voters when they go
to the polls in November would make New
Jersey one of the first states to have a ban
against discrimination written into the state
constitution.
"No person," the article declares, "shall be
denied the enjoyment of any civil or military
right nor be discriminated against in any civil
right or segregated in the militia or public
schools on account of religious principles, race,
color, ancestry or national origin." The amend-
ment was introduced by Oliver Randolph, only
Negro delegate to the convention.
Executive Committee
American Givil Liberties Union
of Northern California
Sara Bard Field
Honorary Member
Rt. Rev. Edw. L. Parsons
Chairman
Dr. Alexander Meiklejohn
Helen Salz
Vice-Chairman
Joseph S. Thompson
Secretary-Treasurer
Ernest Besig_
Director
Philip Adams
John H. Brill
Prof. James R. Caldwell
H, C. Carrasco
_ Wayne M. Collins
_ Rev. Oscar F. Green
Margaret C. Hayes
Prof. Ernest R. Hilgard
Ruth Kingman
Ralph N. Kleps
Dr, Edgar A. Lowther
Seaton W. Manning
Mrs. Bruce Porter
Clarence E. Rust
Rabbi Irving F. Reichert.
Prof. Laurence Sears
Dr. Howard Thurman
Kathleen Drew Tolman
Sept. 8 Deadline Set By
The government must release 319 Nisei, who
renounced their citizenship under duress, or pro-
duce them in the federal court in San Francisco
on September 8. That was the order of Federal
Judge Louis Goodman in San Francisco on Au-
gust 11.
Judge Goodman's latest order supplements one
handed down in the case on June 30 last when
he decided that the Nisei could not be held as
alien enemies. Ever since that time, the Justice
Department has been employing dilatory tactics
to gain time to make up its mind whether to
appeal the decision or to release the Nisei. If
an appeal is finally taken, Attorney Wayne M.
Collins will move to have the prisoners paroled'
to his custody.
The government has been holding the 319
Niesi as alien enemies ever since they renounced
their U. S. citizenship more than two years ago,
and they are presently detained either at Crystal
City, Texas, or Seabrook Farms, Bridgeton, New
Jersey. They have been in custody since early
1942 when they were evacuated from the Pa-
cific Coast. Since the June 30 ruling, 12 Nisei
_have been released.
In making his order, Judge Goodman denied
the government's motion `to vacate and recon-
sider" the court's order granting petitions for
writs of habeas corpus. The government had
contended that the Nisei were dual citizens, and
that by renouncing their U. S. citizenship they
automatically became Japanese citizens who
could be removed to Japan as alien enemies.
That theory was rejected as "wholly unsound"
in the following memorandum:
In the order of court granting the petitions
for writ of habeas corpus, I stated that the de-
tained applicants are not alien enemies within
the provisions of the Alien Enemy Act of 1798
and hence could not be detained for deportation.
I further stated that the reasons for decision
would be given in an opinion to be filed at the
time of decision of the equity suits brought by
3y Court For Government
To Aci In Cases Of 319 Detained
isel
petitioners. Respondents, in their motion to re-
consider and vacate the order granting the writ, -
have been handicapped in presenting the mo-
tions because of lack of knowledge of the nature
of the court's reasons for its conclusion. I will
therefore briefly indicate the basis of the deci-
sion.
Admittedly all of petitioners were, at the time
of their alleged renunciations of citizenship, na-
tive-born citizens of the United States residing
therein. The basis of their detention by respond-
ents is that prior to and at the time of the al-
leged renunciations, petitioners were also citizens
`of Japan and that therefore they automatically
became citizens of Japan when the alleged re-
nunciations were effected. The court unequivo-
cally rejects the concept of dual citizenship as-
serted by respondents. The theory that a native-
born resident American can at the selfsame
time be an alien and a citizen of a foreign state,
is, in my opinion, judicially wholly unsound. An
American citizen, as such, owes his entire al-
legiance to the United States and the United
States is. entitled to claim from him an indi-
visable loyalty. A naturalized citizen, at the time
of naturalization, renounces all allegiance to any
foreign government and swears undivided fealty
to the United States. No less is the allegiance
of a native-born citizen for the Constitution
makes no distinction between naturalized and -
native-born citizens. It is Constitutionally im-
possible for a resident citizen of the United
States to have at the same time any allegiance
to any foreign government, =
Assuming the petitioners' renunciations to be
valid, they would cease to be American citizens,
but they would not thereby acquire an alien
citizenship, which they could not lawfully there-
fore have possessed.
The motions to vacate and reconsider are de-
nied, and I will therefore sign the orders for the
issuance of the writ.
Report Finds 60% of Japanese
Back On West Coast |
About 60% of the Japanese-Americans re-
moved from the West Coast at the start of the
war have returned to their former home areas,
the U. S. Interior Department announced last
month. In a final report of the evacuation pro-
gram, Robert K. Candlin, chief of the War
Agency Liquidation Unit, WRA successor, said
that 55% of the Japanese-Americans in the
U. S. now live in Washington, Oregon and Cali-
fornia, as compared with the prewar ratio of
88.5%.
The Union meanwhile is pressing its cam-
paign in behalf. of Japanese-Americans on
both the legal and legislative fronts. When Con-
gress reconvenes, the ACLU will continue to
seek the repeal of the Oriental Exclusion Act,
and to support the pending evacuation claims
bill. It will also support bills to naturalize Japa-
nese parents of `Purple Heart" veterans and to
stay deportation of alien orientals in family
hardship cases. The latter, by recent Justice
Department action, are authorized to remain in
this country till the Senate acts on the meas-
ure. The Union-supported Oyama case, testing
the constitutionality of the California Alien
Land Law, will be reviewed by the Supreme
Court this fall, while state tests of both Cali-
fornia's and Oregon's laws prohibiting alien land
ownership are pending on the West Coast.
North Carolina "Lynching"
Charge Reopened
Seven white men face the possibility of again
being charged with attempted lynching of God- :
win Bush, 24-year-old Negro. Acting under a
52-year-old state anti-lynching law, Governor R.
Gregg Cherry had warrants drawn against the
men who had been cleared August 5 by a county
grand jury of breaking into a Jackson jail and
kidnsping the Negro with intent to injure or
kill, The governor ordered a preliminary hear-
ing Sept. 2 before a Superior Court judge. If
the charges are returned, the men will be held
for a jury trial in an adjoining county. The
Union had applauded Governor Cherry's denun-
ciation of the grand jury's failure to indict. In
its letter the ACLU called his promise of full
legal action against the men "the sort of forth-
right public action necessary if lynch law and
mob rule are not to go unchecked."
Suit Challencing State Aid
For Jesuit College Dismissed
An attempt to challenge the constitutionality
of state aid to sectarian institutions was denied
July 29 when Supreme Court Justice Isadore
Bookstein at Buffalo, N. -Y., refused an applica-
tion for injunction against a Jesuit college
granted funds by New York state on grounds
that the action was brought by "a mere citizen
and taxpayer." Henry Adsit Bull, Buffalo at-
torney, had sought to bar further expenditures -
from a $128,000 allocation to Canisius College
by the State Emergency Housing Joint Board
pending decision of a prior suit filed by him in
Erie County. The opinion held that: "It is
neither necessary nor proper to consider or
pass upon the question of the constitutionality
of the allocation of the funds complained." :
Although no action has been taken as yet,
the Erie County courts may follow Justice
Bookstein's example by dismissing the original
suit on the technical point that no individual
who is not directly affected can challenge the
constitutionality of a state action. The grant
was part of the state's program to provide ex-
panded educational facilities for veterans. Pre-
cedent for the court's decision was found in an
1858 ruling by the Court of Appeals that "No
private person ... can assume to be the cham-
pion of the community and in its behalf chal-
lenge the public officers to meet them in the
courts of. justice to defend their official acts.
The Union is exploring the case with a view
to participation in the event of an appeal.
New Mexican Indians Ruled
Ineligible to Vote
The New Mexican constitutional denial of the
right to vote to Indians on reservations because
they are not taxed was upheld July 30 by
Judge David Chavez of the District Court in
Gallup. The case, brought by three Indians
- represented by William J. Truswell, Albuquerque
attorney, in behalf of the Union, contended that
the 1924 act granted Indians full citizenship
and therefore voting rights, that Indians are
taxed by both federal and state governments and
therefore eligible to vote, and that refusal of the
franchise was racial discrimination violating the
14th Amendment. The Union plans to file a simi-
lar suit in Arizona.
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION-NEWS
Page 3
UN Bill of Rights Drafts
Criticized by ACLU
The first drafts of. an international bill of
rights prepared by the UN Commission on Hu-
man Rights were criticized by the Union as lack-
ing clarity and failing to include "the highly im-
portant issue of political freedom." The state-
ment, signed by Roger N. Baldwin, ACLU direc-
tor, and Robert M. MaclIver, chairman of the
Union's Committee on International Civil Liber-
ties, was sent to the State Department on Au-
gust 12. It described the U. S. substitute text as
generally "more carefully worked out" than the
version presented by the UN's drafting commit-
tee. :
The Union declared that an international bill
_of rights must do more than just spell out "a
standard to be universally achieved." The letter
called for "some indication of how the bill's pro-
visions may be adopted, ratified and put into ef-
fect." It pointed out the need to distinguish be-
tween rights suitable for conventions between na-
tions and rights which nations should establish
through their own domestic laws.
"The right to freedom of political beliefs and
to organize to express them should be included,"
the Union urged. "A single-party state prohibit-
ing opposition is incompatible with any concept
of fundamental human rights." To correct this
omission, the Union proposed "one or more pro-
visions . . . under which governments would be
called on not to exercise or withhold the oppor-
tunities or means for the effective exercise of the
specified rights, by censorship, by monopolizing
the organs of opinion or by other restrictive
measures."'
Other recommended changes in the draft in-
cluded the following: Adding to the obligations
of citizenship "respect for the rights of others";
removing limitations on freedom of movement;
and not asking for blind "obedience to law," since
this would ignore "the moral compunction to dis-
obey repressive and despotic law."
Georgia's Brutal Convict
Road Camps Clesed
The last two camps. of Georgia's notorious
highway convict system were abolished August
11, one month after the guards at Anguilla prison
`camp shot down eight Negro prisoners. The State
Board of Correction's action came after the
ACLU and other organizations demanded a U. S.
Justice- Department investigation of the slayings.
Hearings revealed brutal treatment of prisoners
and drunkenness among the guards. Though a
grand jury had previously exonerated the warden
and guards, the Board declared the camp a "dis-
grace" and found "no justification for the kill-
ings." A new inquiry was ordered August 12 to
supercede what the Board called "a one-sided
whitewash investigation."
The Anguilla affair occurred when a prison
labor gang refused to work in a snake-infested
ditch until they were given boots. The prisoners
were marched back to camp where the shooting
took place. A. week later, the all-white grand
jury declared the warden and guards "justified
in their action."
The Board's order closing the all-Negro An-
guilla camp and one for whites in near-by Charl-
ton County, is a belated sequel to the ending of
the famed Georgia chain gangs under the State
Penal Reform Act of 1943. The prisoners have
been shifted to county public works camps which
have been described as part of `"`the most anti-
quated penal system in the United States."
New Jersey Swimming Pool
Race Policy Challenged
Whether an amusement park may bar Negroes
from its swimming pool has been challenged by
three organizations. Eleven members of the
Committee on Racial Equality and Modern Trend
were arrested August 3 for distributing pamph-
lets urging boycott of the pool and for staging
demonstrations. The arrests marked the most re-
cent incident in a three-year struggle to break
down the park's policy. The Union has offered its
services to the defendants' counsel, James Major,
Hackensack attorney for the NAACP, and Hiram
Elfenbein, Jersey City attorney acting for CORE.
Twice in 1946, the ACLU brought action
against the management of Palisades Park for
violating the New Jersey Civil Rights Act in dis-
criminating against Negroes. A Bergen County
Grand Jury, however, refused to indict. At that
time park officials contended that the pool was a
private concession and was outside their autho-
rity, yet declared that racial discrimination would
be tolerated nowhere on the park grounds. The
Union also protested the denial of admission of
Negroes to the dance pavilion.
Fairfax City Council Will Hear `Red' Charges
Against
Writer On September 16 3
Before a packed house, a special meeting of
the City Council of Fairfax on August 6 voted
to grant the request of Miss Elsa Gidlow for a
hearing to be held on September 16 at 8:15 p. m.,
to examine into charges of "Communistic and
un-American activities,' made against her by
the City's one-man Committee on un-American
Activities, which led to her ouster from the City
Planning Commjssion until such time as she dis-
proves the charges.
The action was taken at a special meeting of
the Council that was called specially for the
purpose of providing assistance for Fairfax's
anti-red crusader, Councilman Leslie Grosbauer.
Mr. Grosbauer made a motion that Chief of Po-
lice Andrew Perry `be appointed to assist me
in my work in fighting Communism and un-
American activities in the City of Fairfax and
the county of Marin," but the motion was finally
withdrawn.
At a subsequent meeting a resolution by Mr.
Grosbauer to ask the Tenney Committee to in-
vestigate revolutionary activities in Fairfax was
adopted. Grosbauer had previously promised the -
press that an investigator for the Tenney Com-
mittee would visit Marin county "in the near
future," but thus far he has failed to put in
an appearance.
At the last meeting, as a result of the criti-
cisms of Councilman Rockwell, the Council desig-
nated the latter and the City Attorney to work
out rules of procedure to be followed in consid-
ering charges of un-American Activities against
a member of the City Government. The meeting
was also marked by Grosbauer reading a 1928
statement by ex-Congressman Hamilton Fish
attacking Roger Baldwin and the American Civil
Liberties Union.
Mr. Grosbauer never did make clear his pur-
pose in seeking the assistance of the Chief of
Police. Councilman Rockwell asked whether the
Chief would be required to tap telephone wires
and open mail, to which Mr. Grosbauer respond-
ed that "Most of his work will be by correspond-
ence." Mr. Rockwell then wanted to know, since
the Chief was a law enforcement officer, what
particular law of the city, county or state the
Chief would be enforcing, and Mr. Grosbauer ad-
mitted that he would be enforcing no law. Ob-
jection was also made that in fighting Com-
munism in Marin county, as the motion pro-
posed, the Committee would be going outside the
Council's jurisdiction.
Finally, Mr. Grosbauer boasted he had only
that day received "four different files and I
know the answers. I got the information today
that I asked for and I will withdraw my mo-
tion." He then went on to explain that since he
had gotten "the files" he really didn't need the
Chiet's assistance, but since the Council's spe-
cial meeting had been called he had gone ahead
with his request for assistance anyway. "I won't
ask Mr. Perry for any iota of help," Mr. Gros-
bauer promised. Mr. Grosbauer also promised he
would not run for re-election next April. _
Of course, what Mr. Grosbauer was really
driving at was to instill fear in the hearts of
his numerous opponents in Fairfax by lining up
the police in support of his drive against al-
leged Communistic and un-American activities
in Fairfax, The citizens readily saw through his
purpose and vigorously denounced him for it.
Outside of his two cronies on the City Council,
who gave Mr, Grosbauer very little verbal sup-
port, his only outspoken supporter in the large
audience was a woman who kept shouting,
Atta boy, Les!" whenever Grosbauer said any-
thing.
_In the course of the meeting Mr. Grosbauer
hinted that members of the City Council would
be future targets of charges of un-Americanism
and he later stated to reporters that he would
name three Communists active in Farfax city af-
fairs. If the Gidlow case is any criterion, Mr.
Grosbauer is going to make more wild charges
that he will be unable to support.
Mr. Grosbauer may be most sincere in his
red'' hunt, but he is so inept and so unsuited
to his task that his actions are ludicrous, At
the same time, the matter is serious because
his wild charges of Communism are calculated
to do immeasurable damage to the reputations
of anyone who opposes him, while making Fair-
fax the laughing stock of the community, state
and nation.
__ Mr. Grosbauer sought to extend his red-hunt-
ing activities by appearing before the City Coun-
cils of San Rafael and San Anselmo and urging
those groups to appoint Committees on un-Amer-
ican Activities, Apparently, such committees
would cooperate with his own and provide ama-
teur detectives and witch-hunters for the Tenney
Committee. In San Rafael, however, the Coun-
cil ignored, Mr, Grosbauer's proposal, while in
San Anselmo he called off his appearance be- -
fore the City Council in the face of strong pub-
lic opposition.
Before the Council vote to give Miss Gidlow
a hearing, the ACLU had denounced the Coun-
cil's action in expelling her from the Planning
Commission as "so arbitrary and high-handed,
and so lacking in what is regarded as the ele-
ments of due process of law, that the Commit-
tee and the Council's action must be condemned
as itself being un-American and typical of the
kind of procedure that is associated with Com-
munist and Fascist countries. Whether Miss
Gidlow is or is not `Communistic,'" said the
Union, "she is certainly entitled to notice of the (c)
precise nature of the charges against her and
an opportunity to answer them."
"We would suggest," said the Union, "that
the Council discontinue its venture into witch-
hunting and thought control. On the basis of
the record, Mr. Grosbauer has not shown that
he is qualified for the task. Indeed, his ac-
tions have become suspect, because the first tar-
get of his efforts is a person who opposed his
election." : 3
Metropolitan Life Housing
Bias Challenged
Renewing the attack against the racially dis-
criminatory policies of the Metropolitan Life In-
surance Company, the ACLU, NAACP and
American Jewish Congress last month urged
cancellation of the company's contract with the
City of New York. In a joint letter to James J.
Lyons, Bronx Borough President and member of -
the city's Board of Estimate, the three groups (c)
recalled Lyons' 1943 statement made when the
contract was authorized: "If I thought there was -
going to be discrimination I would not vote for
it." They asked Lyons to initiate proceedings to
rescind the contract, which grants tax exemption
and other benefits to Metropolitan's housing
projects, and requested him to insure that the
city's course is "a repudiation and not a defense
of racial discrimination."
In the meantime, Supreme Court Justice Felix
C. Benvenga refused to grant an injunction
against Metropolitan's racially discriminatory se-
lection of tenants. Holding that Stuyvesant Town ~
is private property, the court declared: "It is
well settled that the landlord of a private apart-
ment or dwelling house may, without violating
any provision of the Federal and State Consti-
tutions, select tenants of its own choice. .. ..
The court cannot usurp the function of the legis-
lature by reading into the Redevelopment Law a
provision which, on a number of occasions, the
legislature refused to enact into that statute."
The plaintiffs' brief had argued that the com-
pany's acquiring of the land through condemna-
tion by the city and the project's partial exemp-
tion from payirig taxes made it in effect a pub-
lic undertaking. Stuyvesant Town was therefore,
it said. subject to the prohibition against. dis-
criminatorv practices provided in federal and
state constitutions and in the United Nations
Charter. An appeal is being taken.
Pasadena Veterans' Housing
Abandons Race Bias
A strike against race discrimination in housing
was won in Pasadena in July when the city over-
ruled its former policy of segregation in its
municipal housing projects for needy war vet-
erans, and the first vacancy arising in one proj-
ect was assigned to a Negro family. In a suit
filed in behalf of several Negro veterans, Pasa-
dena was charged with discriminatory practices
in excluding Negroes and Mexicans from a hous-
ing project in which facilities were greatly su-
perior to those of a nearby segregated project.
Efforts by the city to have the case dismissed
were denied by Superior Court Judge Frank C.
Collier, The Southern California Branch pf the
ACLU participated in the case together with
other organizations.
Page 4
Amer can Uivii Liberties Union-News
Published monthly at 461 Market St., San Francisco, 5
Calif., by the Ameriean Civil Liberties Union
- of Northern California.
Phone: EXbrook 2-3255
ERNEST BESIG ....... Editor
_ Entered as second-class matter, July 31, 1941, at the
Post Office at San Francisco, California,
. under the Act of March 38, 1879.
Subscription Rates-One Dollar a Year.
Ten Cents per Copy.
151-
Puerto Rican Governorship
Bill Signed by Pres. Truman
Puerto Rico became the first American pos-
session or territory to have the right to elect its
own governor through a bill signed by President
Truman August 5. Passed by the Senate in the
last days before adjournment, the bill had been
killed, then revived when an amendment weak-
ened its provisions for Puerto Rican self-govern-
ment. The amendment provides for the appoint-
ment of the insular Supreme Court justices by
the President, rather than by the governor, as in
the House bill.
The Union hailed the President's signature not
only as "encouraging Puerto Rican self-determi-
nation" but as "of vast consequence to our future
relations with the people of the island and in-
deed, the whole Good Neighbor policy in South
America. Our treatment of Puerto Rico is an in-
dex of American policy in relation to all colonial
countries and thus of international import in the
development of the policies of the U. N."
_ Negroes Win Equal
Membership in Railroad Union
The 23,000 Negro members of the AFL
Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks,
Freight Handlers, Express and Station Em-
ployes have won the right of equal member-
"Ship with whites in their union. The announce-
ment, made by the N. Y. State Commission
_ Against Discrimination on August 4, followed
the Brotherhood's repeal at its convention last
May of all racial rules in local membership.
Negroes who had been restricted to local aux-
iliary lodges may now transfer to regular lo-
cals hitherto closed to them.
The ACLU had a year ago criticized the dis-
criminatory practices of AFT, uni
President William Green to foniphasie ne co
gation of all trade unions to cease practicing any
form of racial discrimination." An ACLU survey
showed that in 1946 among all unions, "approxi-
mately thirty officially practiced discrimination
S' =
Atty. Gen. Howser Limits His
Escheat Proceedings
California will not seek to escheat commerci
and residential property held by alien Teens
despite the abrogation of the Treaty of Trade
and Commerce between the United States and
Japan. That is the effect of a ruling by Attorney
et Fred N. ae handed down on August
e request o yen
a Wollenbe - ay mer Assemblyman Albert
nder the Alien Land Law, persons ineligi
to citizenship are denied the side and Hite
of all real. property except as permitted by treaty.
The treaty with Japan, abrogated in 1940
granted alien Japanese the right to use and enjoy
commercial and residential property. The Attor-
ney General ruled that the provisions of the
a were incorporated into the Alien Land
Ww.
The entire question has been pendin before
the State Supreme Court for none oon six
months in the Stockton Theatres case. A year
ago, the Third District Court of Appeal reversed
the ruling of the Superior Court in Stockton that
under the Alien Land Law alien Japanese may
not use and enjoy commercial and _ residential
property, but the Supreme Court allowed an
appeal. If the ruling of the trial court were up-
held, alien Japanese could not live in California,
because, obviously, they must use and enjoy some
kind of property while residing here.
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION-NEWS
Benecia Swimming Pool Sold To Non-Profit
Corporation In Order To Exclude Negroes
Benicia's $65,000 swimming pool, which was
built by public subscription and $10,500 of the
City's funds, on July 28 was "sold" by the City
to the Benicia Swimming Pool Club, a non-profit
corporation, although not one penny changed
hands. The Corporation was organized espe-
cially to enable the City to exclude from the
pool its 65 Negro families, numbering about 200
persons. As a "private organization," it may
establish membership regulations and take in
whomever it wishes.
To be sure, the attorney for the Corporation
claims every application will be acted upon with-
out regard to the race of the applicant, but, as a
practical matter, Negroes are the only ones ex-
cluded from the pool. Mr. Deorman T. Neal,
Negro Chairman of Benicia's Interracial Club,
who has been trying to swim in the pool ever
since it opened on July 4, was finally turned
down for membership under date of August 18.
The notice stated very briefly that, "Your ap-
plication for membership was placed before the
Board of Directors and we are sorry to inform
you that the application was acted upon un-
favorably." That was all.
Neal first applied for membership 20 minutes
after the Pool began to register applicants. At
that time, the pool was merely "leased'' at a dol-
lar a year to a Swimming Pool Committee. Neal
was informed that the pool had run out of mem-
bership application cards. A week later he pro-
cured a form and filed it, but the membership -
committee failed to act upon it for several meet-
ings because it was unable to procure a quorum.
After the "sale" of the pool to the non-profit
corporation, he was informed he would have to
make out a new application, and, finally, after
trying for six weeks, Neal's membership was
turned down. In the meantime, of course, the
pool was in general use by Caucasians.
A sixteen-year-old Negro girl who tried to join
Los Angeles Police Highway
Blockade Gets Court OK
Police blockades in which cars are stopped,
searched and their occupants questioned, were
declared constitutional by Superior Judge Henry
M. Willis of Los Angeles on August 12, Judge
Willis ruled the mass dragnets a justifiable pro-
tection of citizens when he denied an injunction
against the practice filed by A. L. Wirin, counsel
for the ACLU's Southern California Branch.
The Union argued that the blockades violated
citizens' rights of due process and that the po-
lice acted illegally in making such "unreasonable
and intolerable" searches without warrants. It
asked that L. A. police be denied further public
funds for the purpose. An appeal will be filed.
Union counsel pointed out that the Los An-
geles Bar Association in a recent pamphlet had
condemned the blockades. A protest was also
entered by the National Lawyers Guild, whose
representative said the police should go to the
legislature for further power if they intended
to continue the practice. The city's police de-
partment argued that the method had proved the
most effective curb on crime, recent raids hav-
ing brought about an 18.2 percent decrease in
crime in the areas immediately affected.
Union Takes Los Angeles
Nudist Case to High Court
A Los Angeles ordinance forbidding nudist
camps within the city limits, already upheld in
lower courts, will be challenged in the U. S. Su-
_fyeme Court, the Union's Southern California
`Branch announced August 9. Counsel A. L.
Wirin was authorized to file an appeal of a re-
cent conviction under the ordinance. The co-di-
rectors of a canyon camp described as "inside
L. A.'s far-flung boundaries in the San Fernando
country," were convicted in the Municipal Court.
They lost their appeal to the Superior Court, and
-an appeal to the State Supreme Court was de-
nied. Jail sentences of six and three months were
imposed. The ACLU provided bail.
The Los Angeles branch saw the case as a test
of whether `people who sincerely believe that so-
cial nudism is highly beneficial both physically
and morally, who studiously avoid making a pub-
lic nuisance of their belief and practice, and who
thus far have successfully met even insinuations
as to scandal have a constitutional right to prac-
tice their belief."
the Club was informed that'the membership book
had been left home that day, and the only Negro
boy who had gotten into the pool when it was
merely "leased"? was excluded after the pool was
"sold," although the Union had understood that
the exclusion policy was intended to apply only
to adult Negroes.
The Union's director interviewed Harold M.
Simon, attorney for the corporation, and James
Lemos, president of the Corporation, and both
denied that the new corporation intended to prac-
tice any racial discrimination. Mr. Lemos was
more frank, however, when he left the attorney's
office. He declared that he would in every case
vote against the admission of Negroes, and that
if he were called upon to testify, he would deny
ever having made such a statement. In fact, Mr.
Lemos was practically violent in his hatred of
Negroes. He took the position that a non-discrim-
inatory racial policy would impair the financial
success of the pool, which he had worked so
hard to build. He' mentioned with approval the
segregation of Negroes which he had observed
in the South and threatened to close up the pool
or limit its use to school children rather than
`permit adult Negroes to use it. He promised to
exhaust his means to defeat any legal action and,
admitting his temper, suggested it might not go
sisted in his efforts to secure the use of the pool
too well with the ACLU representative if he per-
by Negroes.
Under the corporation's by-laws there are
three classes of membership - regular, associate
and junior. Only the regular members have a
vote. This group is apparently made up of: the
business men who contributed most of the money
toward the building of the pool. The membership
fee has been set at 50c. The admission price to
the pool has been set at 40c for regular and
associate members, and 15c for children un
der 18. ;
GI Ousted From Military Reservation
Assigned Other Housing By University
The GI student whose membership in the
American Veterans Committee resulted in his
eviction from a veterans' housing project located
on a military reservation near the University of
New Mexico, on grounds of being "dangerous and
subversive," was finally given lodging in another
University barracks not located on the military
reservation.
Outside of giving the student other housing,
the University took no steps to protect him from
the Army's unjust charges. The matter has been
referred to the national office of the ACLU for
action.
Los Angeles Supervisors Initiate 'Red'
Hunt Among County Employees
The country's growing "red" hunt has struck
Los Angeles county where the Board of Super-
visors is requiring its 20,000 employees to execute
affidavits listing affiliations with any of some
150 alleged Communist onrganizations named in
a questionnaire. Nothing has been said about
Fascist groups. The Union has not seen the list,
but it is reported to be made up of groups named
in the Tenney "Little Dies' Committee reports.
The Board of Supervisors has not announced
what action it intends to take against any em-
_ ployees found to be members of the groups in
question.
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