The Race Problem

The smoldering bitterness of U.S. Negroes against segregation in the services flared into flame again last week. This time the fuel was laid by respected onetime Federal Judge William H. Hastie, dean of Howard University Law School. Explaining this week why he had resigned as Negro civilian aide to the Secretary of War, he charged the Army Air Forces was discriminating against Negroes.

When the 99th (Negro) Fighter Squadron was formed, Lawyer Hastie insisted that it should not be segregated from white outfits, either in training or operation. It was. In the conflict between the ethical right of the Negro soldier and officer to be treated like anyone else, and the practical impossibility of doing it in the face of existing prejudice, the Air Forces had chosen the practical way.

But Judge Hastie went further. He charged that the Air Forces had failed to train enough civilian technicians, had given enlisted men of the 99th jobs of common labor. Furthermore, said he, these and other acts of discrimination had been carried out without being submitted to him for comment or approval, as had been specified when he was appointed.

Now the Army has decided to organize other Negro squadrons, but Judge Hastie declared that the training of their technical crews is likely to be far behind the training of pilots. Meanwhile, Negro pilots already qualified are hindered in training because the Army Air Forces is unwilling to let them take cross-country flights which might set them down on fields where they would get the privileges of the officers' club.

By speaking his piece, Judge Hastie had put his finger on an Army-wide problem that already has resulted in many a round of fisticuffs and occasional disorder and insubordination. Although long-standing white prejudice against the Negro could not be dissolved by Government fiat, Judge Hastie's airing did his cause no harm.

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