DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | Dorothy Schramm newspaper clippings, 1949-1955 (folder 1 of 2) | Women's Home Companion Article: "How Minneapolis Beat The Bigots" Page 9

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Dorothy Schramm newspaper clippings, 1949-1955 (folder 1 of 2)

Women's Home Companion Article: "How Minneapolis Beat The Bigots" Page 9

their own form of defensive prejudice. Their three-million-dollar hospital now has more non-Jewish staff doctors than Jewish. Their country club has a non-Jewish director.
The very atmosphere of Minneapolis is different--and nobody knows this better than the Communists. Not long ago the Communist Party of Minnesota made the mistake of picking on the Minneapolis public schools. it charged that school officials weren't really following a nondiscriminatory policy in hiring new teachers. It followed the usual line of demanding a public meeting.
the Mayor's Council met the charges point by point. Not only were Negroes now teaching in the school system but the board of education  had solicited applications from among the Negro graduates of teaching universities when it ran out of qualified applicants from the city. It had even sent word of the new policy to negro colleges in the south. Moreover, the old practice of asking the applicants to submit photographs has been done away with.
Minneapolis does not claim to be, and is not, the perfect example of how to solve the race problem. Two of the city's businessmen's luncheon clubs still will not admit Jewish members. Some employers--fortunately not many--still hire only white Christians. And there are neighborhoods in and around the city where a Jew or a Negro or a Japanese cannot buy or rent a place to live. As one member of the Mayor's Council told me, "You could work at this thing all your life and never get it perfect."
But the strides have been enormous. on my first morning in the city I had breakfast in a hotel restaurant. i noticed a middle-aged Negro enter. The hostess escorted him to a table without hesitation ; a waitress served him cheerfully. Soon a man at an adjoining table began talking with him.
A few weeks earlier, two hundred Negroes from out of the city attended a union convention in Minneapolis. They lived at the two finest hotels in the city, ate in all the different restaurants and went anywhere they pleased. All during the convention there wasn't a single unpleasant incident. A union official later wrote the Mayor's Council: "A few years ago our organization couldn't even think of holding a convention in your city because of the discrimination that existed."
The women of Minneapolis who helped in the self-survey like to tell another story of how times have changed. Recently a group of property owners of the old type got together to try to keep a Negro from buying a house in the neighborhood. They hired a lawyer and told him their plans.
After listening carefully he said, "What are you objecting to?"
They gave him the old story of property values. He listened again and asked, "Did you buy your homes to live in--or as an investment for profit?"
To a man they said, "We bought them to live in."
"All right, then," said he, reaching for his hat. "Why don't you just go on living in them and forget all this?"
Another story illustrates the change a community can make in its race relations. Not long ago a public meeting was called in a Minneapolis suburb; the subject was The minority Problem. This suburb had always excluded Negroes. Even calling a meeting represented a great innovation.
What happened at the meeting, though, was even more significant. A man got up--an elderly man full of prejudice and authority-- and exclaimed, "i don't see why we're wasting our time. We have no Negroes. Therefore we have no problem."
A young man of the community then rose and said quietly, "If we have no Negroes living her I think we have a real problem!"
The simple truth is that among those who have practiced bigotry are many fundamentally sound people--people who can be reasoned with and who were confused or unduly influenced by a handful of highly vocal out-and-out bigots. By learning this lesson and acting on it, Minneapolis has accomplished wonders. Perhaps your town could--and should--too. [THE END]
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Woman's Home Companion 97

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their own form of defensive prejudice. Their three-million-dollar hospital now has more non-Jewish staff doctors than Jewish. Their country club has a non-Jewish director. The very atmosphere of Minneapolis is different--and nobody knows this better than the Communists. Not long ago the Communist Party of Minnesota made the mistake of picking on the Minneapolis public schools. it charged that school officials weren't really following a nondiscriminatory policy in hiring new teachers. It followed the usual line of demanding a public meeting. the Mayor's Council met the charges point by point. Not only were Negroes now teaching in the school system but the board of education had solicited applications from among the Negro graduates of teaching universities when it ran out of qualified applicants from the city. It had even sent word of the new policy to negro colleges in the south. Moreover, the old practice of asking the applicants to submit photographs has been done away with. Minneapolis does not claim to be, and is not, the perfect example of how to solve the race problem. Two of the city's businessmen's luncheon clubs still will not admit Jewish members. Some employers--fortunately not many--still hire only white Christians. And there are neighborhoods in and around the city where a Jew or a Negro or a Japanese cannot buy or rent a place to live. As one member of the Mayor's Council told me, "You could work at this thing all your life and never get it perfect." But the strides have been enormous. on my first morning in the city I had breakfast in a hotel restaurant. i noticed a middle-aged Negro enter. The hostess escorted him to a table without hesitation ; a waitress served him cheerfully. Soon a man at an adjoining table began talking with him. A few weeks earlier, two hundred Negroes from out of the city attended a union convention in Minneapolis. They lived at the two finest hotels in the city, ate in all the different restaurants and went anywhere they pleased. All during the convention there wasn't a single unpleasant incident. A union official later wrote the Mayor's Council: "A few years ago our organization couldn't even think of holding a convention in your city because of the discrimination that existed." The women of Minneapolis who helped in the self-survey like to tell another story of how times have changed. Recently a group of property owners of the old type got together to try to keep a Negro from buying a house in the neighborhood. They hired a lawyer and told him their plans. After listening carefully he said, "What are you objecting to?" They gave him the old story of property values. He listened again and asked, "Did you buy your homes to live in--or as an investment for profit?" To a man they said, "We bought them to live in." "All right, then," said he, reaching for his hat. "Why don't you just go on living in them and forget all this?" Another story illustrates the change a community can make in its race relations. Not long ago a public meeting was called in a Minneapolis suburb; the subject was The minority Problem. This suburb had always excluded Negroes. Even calling a meeting represented a great innovation. What happened at the meeting, though, was even more significant. A man got up--an elderly man full of prejudice and authority-- and exclaimed, "i don't see why we're wasting our time. We have no Negroes. Therefore we have no problem." A young man of the community then rose and said quietly, "If we have no Negroes living her I think we have a real problem!" The simple truth is that among those who have practiced bigotry are many fundamentally sound people--people who can be reasoned with and who were confused or unduly influenced by a handful of highly vocal out-and-out bigots. By learning this lesson and acting on it, Minneapolis has accomplished wonders. Perhaps your town could--and should--too. [THE END] [[Bottom of page]] Woman's Home Companion 97