Bigger & Blacker

The Mason & Dixon line between Pennsylvania and Maryland (and its westward extension under the Missouri Compromise of 1820) once divided free States from slave. It still divides the North from the South on Negro treatment. Last fortnight portly, grey-wooled Oscar De Priest crossed it for the first time since he took his seat as the only Negro Congressman (from Illinois). He addressed 5,000 blacks at the Lexington (Ky.) Colored Fair.

Last week Oscar De Priest crossed back to the North, addressed another large Negro audience in Harlem, "capital of Black America." The theme of each speech was the same: the Negro's use of his political power to attain his constitutional rights. The De Priest treatment of that theme South and North was different. Comparisons:

In Lexington: "Until you make your votes felt, the white man will not respect you."

In Harlem: "If your district leader is a white man, pitch him out. You have a jimmy in your votes to better conditions. Use it. Don't complain about race discrimination; change it through practical politics. When a Negro doesn't want to elect a Negro, there is either jealousy or dirty money behind him."

In Lexington: "If you're going to get anywhere politically, you've got to learn not to accept payment for your vote."

In Harlem: "If white candidates come nosing around your district and trying to spend money for votes, take their money and beat them too. I wish some [white] people would try to spend money in my district. We'd take every cent they had and then send them to the dry cleaners."

In Lexington: "Now as to why I appoint only Negro youths to West Point and Annapolis. The black man has taken part in every war. . . . Until some white Congressman sees fit to recommend a Negro, I feel it my duty to recommend Negroes only, for through me is their only chance of gaining this opportunity."

In Harlem: "When I got to Congress and nominated my first candidate for West Point I picked the blackest boy I could find anywhere. My appointee has been writing disheartening letters. ... If the young man gets cold feet and quits West Point because of any racial discrimination, next time I'll appoint a bigger and blacker Negro."

Only once did the Lexington speech approximate the tenor of the Harlem address. That was when Congressman De Priest cried: "I occupy a serious position in America. The eyes of the civilized world are on Oscar De Priest. I have received more publicity than any other member of Congress. I will continue to fight for Negroes' rights in Congress and use bathrooms, barber shops and restaurants [at the Capitol] whether my colleagues like it or not."

Senator James Thomas ("Tom Tom") Heflin of Alabama publicly pined for an encounter with Congressman De Priest in the Senate restaurant. The Senator "calculated" that to "punch De Priest in the nose" would be worth at least 50,000 Alabama votes for him in his hard fight for re-election next year.