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Black Republicans During the New Deal: the Role of Joseph W. Martin, Jr.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

James J. Kenneally
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In the struggle between Republicans and Democrats for the black vote half a century ago, Joseph W. Martin, Jr., congressman from Massachusetts, played a major role. Using his position as Alf Landon's East Coast campaign manager (1936), minority leader (1939–1946) and chair of the Republican National Committee (1940–1942) he managed to keep the Republican party attractive to many Afro-Americans. Furthermore, the was instrumental in preventing the GOP from abandoning its traditional commitment to blacks in order to win the allegiance of Southern white conservatives. He did this by the type of campaign he conducted, the legislation and causes he supported, and the type of Afro-American he appointed to party positions. As a result it was not until the Martin approach was abandoned in the 1960s that black support for the Republican party plummeted.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , Winter 1993 , pp. 117 - 140
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1993

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References

1. Elvy E. Calloway to Joseph W. Martin Jr., 27 January 1939, file 18.14 Joseph W. Martin Jr. Papers, Martin Institute, Stonehill College (henceforth MP); Sherman, Richard B., “Republicans and Negroes, The Lessons of Normalcy,” Phylon 27 (Spring 1966): 66–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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8. Although there was no official position as assistant minority leader, Martin served in that capacity to Snell, Bertrand, Martin, Joseph W. Jr. as told to Donovan, Robert J., My First Fifty Years in Politics (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1960), p. 73.Google Scholar

9. Martin was defeated in the 1966 primary by Margaret Heckler, an unusual twist for he had become a convert to woman suffrage in 1918 and a strong advocate of women in politics. For his career see Martin, , Fifty Years in Politics and Hasenfus, William A., “Managing Partner: Joseph W. Martin, Jr., Republican Leader of the United States House of Representatives, 1939–1959” (Ph.D. diss., Boston College, 1986).Google Scholar

10. David, Paul T., Moos, Malcolm, and Goldman, Ralph M., eds., Presidential Nominating Politics in 1952, 5 vols. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1954), vol.3, The South, p. 91Google Scholar; Roy Wilkins to Martin, 14 November 1934, and Martin to Wilkins, 19 November 1934, file 12W, MP; “Statements on Anti Lynching Bill,” Crisis 42 (February 1935): 42; Afro-American, 29 April, 15 August 1936.

11. New York Amsterdam News, 27 June 1936; clipping of 17 August 1936 in Scrapbook 18, MP; interview with Edward E. Martin, 21 June 1990. Sitkoff, , Emergence of Civil Rights, p. 93Google Scholar, asserts John Hamilton, the Republican National Chairman, appointed Rivers; however, the above references and the New York Amsterdam News, 15 August attribute the selection to Martin.

12. Martin interview. At least one black leader in 1940 believed that had been Martin's motive, see Earl Brown, Memo on the Black Vote, in the papers of Claude A. Barnett of the Associated Negro Press, Chicago Historical Society (henceforth BP). In the 1932 campaign Rivers held a position with a similar title but apparently with less authority, advisor to the National Planning Board for Colored Voters, Eastern Division. The Board was not very significant in Hoover's reelection bid and Rivers, who tried to get the administration to respond to black needs, was for all practical purposes ignored, see Edgar Rickard to Rivers, 8 December 1931, Rivers to Rickard, 10 December 1931, Rickard to Walter Newton, 15 December 1931, Land Grant College File; Rivers to Hoover, 10 November 1932, Lawrence Richey to Rivers, 15 December 1932, Colored Voters File, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, West Branch, Iowa.

13. Bunche, , Political Status, pp. 81, 434Google Scholar; Mcmillen, Neil R., “Howard, Perry W., Boss of Black-and-Tan Republicans in Mississippi 1924–1960,” Journal of Southern History 48 (05 1982): 207–24Google Scholar; Republican National Committee Hearings, 17 December 1936, reel 5, frame 4 and Republican National Committee Meeting, 5 November 1937, reel 5, frame 466, Papers of the Republican Party (Microfilm Edition, Frederick, MD: University Publications of America, 1986).Google Scholar

14. New York Herald Tribune, 15 August 1936, Scrapbook 18, MP; Undated clipping, fall 1936, Scrapbook 19, MP.

15. New York Daily News, 4 September 1936 and unidentified clipping 2 September 1936, Scrapbook 18, MP; Afro-American, 31 October 1936; New York Amsterdam News, 26 September 1936;“Jesse Owens Dashes to G.O.P. in Colored Vote Race,” Newsweek 8 (12 September 1936): 18–19. Baker, , Jesse Owens, p. 138Google Scholar quotes Owens in the Chicago Defender, 17 October 1938 as saying “Poorest race I ever ran. But they paid me a lot. No I won't say how much— but a lot.” It was assumed at the time that Owens was paid, see Pittsburgh Courier, 10 October 1936.

16. Rivers, Francis E., “The Negro Should Support Landon,” Crisis 44 (10 1936): 296–97, 303Google Scholar; New York Amsterdam News, 4 July, 1,15 August 1936; Afro-American, 15 August 1936; Wolters, , “New Deal and the Negro,” p. 210.Google Scholar

17. New York Amsterdam News, 8,15 August 1936; Afro-American, 8 August, 10, 17 October 1936. Church, whose father reputedly was the nation's first black millionaire, was acknowledged as the leader of Tennessee's blacks and an ally of Edward “Boss” Crump, the Democratic chief of Memphis. Because he refused to genuflect and toady to whites, Church was considered unusual for a black and tan politician. In February 1940 he split with Howard over additional RNC funding for black support and in December was criticized by Crump for “speaking ideas of social equality.” He always respected Martin and sought the congressman's support in 1946 to elect Carroll Reese of Tennessee RNC chairman. Interview with Sarah Church, 20 November 1990; “Tennessee—White Man's Country,” Time 36 (9 December 1940): 17; “Church, Robert R.,” Journal of Negro History 38 (04 1953): 249–50Google Scholar; Church, Annette E. and Church, Roberta, The Robert R.Churches of Memphis: A Father and Son Who Achieved in Spite of Race (Ann Arbor, MI: Edwards Brothers, 1974), pp. 182–84, 209, 217–18, 268).Google Scholar The quotation is from the Nashville Globe, 20 December 1940, as in Memo on J. B. Martin Affair, file 22 RNC February, MP.

18. Afro-American, 17, 31 October 1936; for Simmons see Boulware, Marcus, “Roscoe Conkling Simmons: The Golden Voiced Politico,” Negro History Bulletin 29 (03 1966): 131–32Google Scholar; “The Twilight of Two Eras,” Ebony 7 (08 1951): 102.Google Scholar

19. Casey, Ralph D., “Republican Propaganda in the 1936 Campaign,” Public Opinion Quarterly 1 (04 1937): 35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

20. “Negro Balance of Power” Pamphlet (Republican National Committee, 1936)Google Scholar; White, Walter, “How Will the Negro Vote?” Liberty, 12 10 1940, pp. 35–36Google Scholar; Weiss, Nancy J., Farewell to the Party of Lincoln: Black Politics in the Age of FDR (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983), pp. 186–87, 191, 195–96, 203–205Google Scholar; Mccoy, Daniel R., Landon of Kansas (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1966), pp. 297, 311-12Google Scholar;Sitkoff, , Emergence of Civil Rights, p. 92Google Scholar; Evjen, Henry O., “The Republican Strategy in the Presidential Campaign of 1936 and 1940” (Ph.D. diss., Western Reserve University, 1956), pp. 143–44Google Scholar; Brown, Earl, “How the Negro Voted in the Presidential Election,” Opportunity 14 (12 1936): 359–60Google Scholar; Ladd, Everett C. Jr. and Hadley, Charles D., Transformation of the American Party System: Political Coalitions from the New Deal to the 1970's (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1975), p. 59Google Scholar; Wolters, , “New Deal and the Negro,” p. 210Google Scholar. Crisis, which didn't put much faith in either party, attributed the result as a personal triumph of Roosevelt rather than of the Democrats, see “Roosevelt's Opportunity” 44 (December 1936): 369.

21. Brown, , “How the Negro Voted,” p. 361Google Scholar; Evjen, , “Republican Strategy,” pp. 199–200Google Scholar.

22. Chicago Defender, 17 October and 26 December 1936; Afro-American, 20 December 1936.

23. Republican National Committee Hearings, 17 December 1936, reel 5, frame 226–32, Papers of the Republican Party; C. A. Franklin to Martin, 28 June 1939, file 18.14, MP.

24. Francis Rivers to Martin, 9 November 1936, file 14A-R, MP.

25. Walter White to John D. M. Hamilton, 10 November 1938, Group 1, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, apparently Hamilton never answered this letter; New York Amsterdam News, 12,19 November 1938.

26. Address of Sara Speaks before Committee on Program, 28 February 1938, reel 5, frame 789, Papers of the Republican Party.

27. Meeting of Republican Committee on Programs, 1 March 1938, reel 5, frame 889 and Republican National Committee Meeting, 10 February 1940, reel 6, frame 133–135, Papers of the Republican Party; Weiss, , Farewell to the Party of Lincoln, pp. 268–70Google Scholar; Bunche, , Political Status, p. 516Google Scholar; Patterson, , Congressional Consevatism, p. 282.Google Scholar

28. RNC Meeting, 17 December 1936, reel 5, frames 155–60,168–70, Papers of the Republican Party; Chicago Defender, 27 July, 17 August, 7 September 1940; Metropolitan Post quoted in Church, and Church, , Robert Churches, p. 268 also see p. 266.Google Scholar

29. Chicago Defender, 19 November 1938; Walter White to Michael J. Flynn, 20 March 1937, reel 31, frame 613, Records of the National Association of Colored People, Administrative File, microfilm edition, Library of Congress; Congressional Record, 75th Cong. 1st sess., 1937, 81: 3253, 3386, 3562–63.

30. Unidentified clipping, 25 September 1937, in Scrapbook 25, MP; Charles A. Wolverton to Walter White, 5 December 1938 and Hamilton Fish to White, 4 December 1938, Group 1, NAACP Papers, Walter White to Martin, 15 December 1938, file 17 LDR-W, MP. Martin and White met often in Washington but unfortunately neither recorded the substance of these meetings. By 1940 White felt free to ask Martin's intervention when John Hamilton had not answered his correspondence, White to Martin, 16 October 1940, box 509, NAACP Papers.

31. Unidentified clipping, 1937, Scrapbook 25, MP.

32. Walter White Diary, 28 November, 5 December 1940, reel 33, frames 593, 595, NAACP Records; Walter White to Martin, 28 November 1938; and Martin to White, 2 December 1938, file 17LDR-W, MP. Martin's major rival for the office was New York's James Wadsworth, an opponent of anti-lynching legislation.

33. Walter White to Martin, 16 January 1939, frame 619; to Martin and Joseph A. Garagan, 5 June 1939, frame 668; to Martin, 13 June 1939, frame 673; to Martin and others, 27 September 1939, frame 670; all on reel 33 NAACP Records; Zangrando, NAACP Crusade, p. 161; Congressional Record, 76th Cong. 3rd sess., 1940, 86:136,253.

34. White to Martin, 15 February 1939, reel 33, frame 638, NAACP Records. White also sent Martin a copy of correspondence with “Rick” who was “indifferent to the important matter of stopping the stealing of money due Negroes,” Walter White to William H. Hasn'e, 24 February 1939, reel 13, frame 363, NAACP Records. The author was unable to find this letter to Martin or identify “Rick” or the affair.

35. George W. Goodman to Martin, 5 May and 10 July 1939 and Martin to Goodman, 20 May and 12 July 1939, file 18.14; Martin to C. A. Franklin, 17 July 1939, file 18.14, MP.

36. The party had got off to a good start, for at this convention, which was presided over by Martin, there were 85 black delegates and alternates. The opening song was sung by an Afro-American, delegates were led in prayer by a black bishop, and a black was reading the call of states when Willkie was nominated. The platform was also committed to black issues. Murray, Florence, ed. and comp., The Negro Handbook (New York: Wendell Malliet & Co., 1942), p. 168Google Scholar; RNC Press Release, 4 July 1940 in BP.

37. Congressional Record, 76th Cong. 3rd Sess., 1940, 86: 253, 8902–8903; draft of undated 1940 speech, file 107, MP. Martin continued to champion anti-lynching legislation as long as it was an NAACP priority and as Speaker even greeted demonstrators on the Capitol steps in 1947, Washington Times Herald, 12 November 1947, Scrapbook 48, MP. He vigorously supported anti-poll tax legislation in the 1940s, encouraged an antidiscrimination amendment to the 1948 selective service law, fought for an antisegregation amendment to the 1956 school construction bill and because of his successful efforts to prevent the complete emasculation of the 1957 Civil Rights Bill by Senate amendments was given one of the pens with which the president signed the legislation, Philip Maguire, Taps for a Jim Crow Army: Letters from Black Soldiers in World War II (Santa Barbara: ABC Clio,1983), p. 248; Thomas L. Ashley et al. to Eisenhower, 10 February 1956 DDE file, Eisenhower to Martin, 6 September 1957, and Gerald Morgan to Martin, 16 September 1957, file 41, MP. Nevertheless, his conservatism limitedhis commitment to Afro-Americans. He was never a proponent of effective Fair Employment Practices Legislation, was one of the leaders in defeating legislation integrating the National Guard and was increasingly criticized by the NAACP for his stance on liberal legislation, Louis C. Kesselman, The Social Politics of the FEPC: A Study in Reform Pressure Movements (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1948), pp. 164, 168–69, 204;Washington Star, 30 June 1955, Scrapbook 66, MP; “The NAACP Legislative Scoreboard,” Crisis 57 (October 1950): 599–601; Ibid., 63 (October 1956): 477, 481; Ibid., 65 (September 1958): 438,440; Henry Moon, Balance of Power: The Negro Vote (Garden City, NY: oubleday & Co., 1948), p. 211.

38. Chicago Defender, 27 July, 17, 31 August, 7 September 1940.

39. Afro-American, 3 March 1940; Parris, Guichard and Brooks, Lester, Blacks in the City: A History of the National Urban League (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1971), p. 153Google Scholar; Buni, Andrew, Robert L. Vann of the Pittsburg Courier and Black Journalism (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1974), p. 195Google Scholar; L. M.Taver to Martin, 26 August 1941,20 April 1942, files 20.5,25.2, MP; Scott, Emmett J.. “The Coming Presidential Campaign,” Opportunity 14 (03 1936): 70–71Google Scholar. For indications of his ability even to see a positive side of segregation see Thomas A. Cripps's introduction to Scott, Emmett J., Official History of the American Negro in the World War (1919; reprint New York: Arno Press, 1969), pp. 50,457,459Google Scholar; and Mcguire, , Taps for a Jim Crow Army, pp. xxxvi-xxxviiGoogle Scholar. Because of their fragile condition the Scott papers are closed. However, Maceo C. Dailey, Jr.'s dissertation “Emmett Jay Scott: The Career of a Secondary Black Leader” and the master's thesis by Waller, James E., “Emmett Jay Scott: The Public Life of a Private Secretary” (University of Maryland, 1971)Google Scholar are based on them. Apparently there is little in the collection on Scott's RNC activities for neither work devotes even a complete page to this phase of his life, even though Waller has an entire chapter on Scott and the Republican party. I would like to thank Dailey for photocopying portions of his dissertation for me, it is not available through University Microfilms or through interlibrary loan at Howard University. For an assessment of Scott see Waller, pp. 82–84,100.

40. Alf M. Landon to Martin, 11 July and 6 August 1940 and Martin to Landon, 25 July 1940, box 10.101 Kansas State Historical Society as in MP; McCoy, Landon, p. 449.

41. Afro-American, 15, 29 June, 6 July, 3 August 1940; Pittsburgh Courier, 12 October 1940; Earl Brown's observations on black voters, August 1940, BP; The Call (Kansas City), 2 February 1940; for some of Speaks's political activities see Speaks to Friend, 17 September 1940, reel 8, frame 583; to Mary Church Terrell, 19 and 30 September 1940, reel 7, frame 594 and reel 8, frame 587, Mary Church Terrell Papers, microfilm edition, Library of Congress and New York Amsterdam News, 5 March 1938.

42. Martin, Edward E. as told to Kenneally, James, Down Memory Lane (Wellesly, MA, n.p., 1980), pp. 53–54Google Scholar; Ed Martin interview 21 June 1990; New Day, 24 October 1940, pp. 37, 78, 79, 80.

43. Associated Negro Press Release, 28 October 1940, BP; New York Times, 27, 31 October, 1, 4 November 1940; Louis, Joe with Rust, Edna and Rust, Art Jr., Joe Louis: My Life (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978), p. 159.Google Scholar Louis, who was not very articulate or knowledgeable about the issues, had to be rescued from reporters at a press conference by Martin, see Martin, , Memory Lane, p. 54.Google Scholar Louis's campaigning “roused a slight wave of tolerant contempt [among blacks] by his unlettered rendering of campaign bromides,” Martin, Marguerite L., “Harlem Trivia,” 13 11 1940Google Scholar, and Hancock, Gordon B., “Between the Lines,” 20 11 1940, both in BP.Google Scholar

44. Pittsburgh Courier, 5 October 1940; New York Times, 12,21 September 1940; RNC Press Release, BP; Buni, , Vann, p. 315.Google ScholarRivers and Speaks campaigned hard for the ticket, holding daily conferences, giving speeches throughout the North, and touring with Willkie, Pittsburgh Courier, 14, 21, 28 September, 5,12 October 1940; Afro-American, 19 October 1940; New York Amsterdam News, 12 October 1940.

45. Afro-American, 27 July, 24 August, 21 September 1940; RNC Press Release, 29 August 1940, BP; “Willkie Speaks,” Crisis 47 (September 1940): 279; “Willkie Speeches,” Crisis 47 (October 1940): 311; Sitkoff, , Emergence of Civil Rights, pp. 303–304.Google Scholar

46. RNC Press Release, BP; “The Problem,” New York Times, 20 October 1940; Republican National Committee, An Appeal to the Common Sense of Colored Citizens (1940); Afro-American, 12, 19 October 1940.

47. Pittsburgh Courier, 2 November 1940; Associated Negro Press Release, 28 October 1940, BP; Freidel, Frank, Roosevelt, Franklin D.: A Rendezvous with Destiny (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990), p. 356Google Scholar; Sullivan, Lawrence, “The Negro Vote,” Atlantic Monthly 166 (10, 1940): 479.Google Scholar

48. Walter White, “How Will the Negro Vote,” Liberty (October 12, 1940): 35. Martin was so pleased with this observation that he had it reprinted in his newspaper, the North Attleboro Chronicle, 7 October 1940, see Scrapbook 30, MP. Despite his respect for Martin whom he believed had a chance at the Republican nomination, White voted for Roosevelt, White to Martin, 1 March 1940; Straw Vote undated, box 476, NAACP Papers.

49. Tatum, , Changed Political Thought, p. 164.Google Scholar Although Ladd and Hadley's estimate is less than Tatum's (32%) they claim an increase of 4% over 1936 figures, Transformation of Party System, p. 60. Roy Wilkins of the NAACP described the Republican campaign among blacks as “more intelligent” than that of the Democrats, New York Amsterdam News, 16 November 1940.

50. Emmett J. Scott to Charles A. Barnett, 27 November 1940, BP. For Scott's business dealings with Barnett see Waller, ,“Scott,” 43–44, 46Google Scholar.

51. Perry Howard to Charles A. Barnett, January 1941 and Barnett to Howard and Martin, 18 January 1941, BP. Howard sent copies to 40 other leading Republicans; however, the author cannot find who they were. As part of a crusade for universal suffrage, Congressman Carl T. Curtis (Rep., Nebraska) also suggested that the reduction portion of the Fourteenth Amendment be implemented, Curtis to Martin, 26 February 1941, file 22 RNC, MP. There is no answer in the Martin Papers and as the Curtis Papers are uncatalogued the archivist was unable to find a reply from Martin. However, in 1946 Martin did go on record that if “colored” were not allowed to vote they should not be included in the count for representation, Martin to Walter White, 2 February 1946, box 121, NAACP papers.

52. Martin to Charles A. Barnett, 15 January 1941; Barnett to Emmett J. Scott, 18 January 1941; Scott to Barnett, 20 January 1941; Perry W. Howard to Barnett, 25 March 1941, BP. For a detailed account of Crumps's activities see memo on J. B. Martin Affair, file 22, RNC-February, MP.

53. Washington Tribune, 29 March 1941, Scrapbook 32, MP and Scott Press Release, 24 March 1941, file RNC 22, MP; RNC Meeting, 24 March 1941, reel 7, frame 15, Papers of the Republican Party.

54. Martin to Charles A. Barnett, 12 July 1941, BP; Nashville Globe, 26 September 1941, Scrapbook 32, MP.

55. RNC Press Releases, 1 and 15 May 1941, BP; Pittsburgh Courier, 10 May 1941; Nashville Globe, 26 September 1941, Scrapbook 32, MP.

56. Martin to Alf Landon, 13 September 1941, file 20.22; Martin to Dorothy P. Beckley, 2 April 1941, file 20.21; Martin to Bruce Barton, 11 August 1942, file 25.1; Ika F. Lewis to Martin, 3 August 1942 and Martin to Lewis, 11 August 1942, file 25.1, all in MP.

57. Emmett J. Scott to James Milne, 6 January 1941, to Martin, 2,12 September and 26 November 1941, to Franklyn Waltman, 11 July 1941; Waltman to Martin, 18 and 31 July 1941; Martin to Waltman, 30 July 1941, all in file 22 RNC, MP.

58. For press releases see files 22 RNC and 25.1, MP.

59. Franklyn Waltman to Emmett J. Scott, 30 December 1941, file 25.1 MP.

60. Emmett J. Scott to Martin, 22 June 1942; Martin to Scott, 23 June and 26 August 1942, all in file 25.1, MP. Scott had such little impact on prominent black Republicans that when a successor was appointed to Scott's position in July 1944 the new appointee was unaware that Scott held such an office, Waller, , “Scott,” pp. 72–73.Google Scholar

61. Perry Howard to Martin, 20 August 1941; C. A. Franklyn to Martin, 25 August 1941; Martin to Franklyn Waltman, 13 September 1941, all in 22 RNC, MP; Francis Rivers to Martin, 7 March 1941; Martin to Rivers, 22 March 1941; Martin to Joseph S. Mitchell, 9 May 1941; Sidney Redmond to Martin, 30 June 1941; Martin to Redmond, 22 July 1941, all in file 20.5, MP; Howard to Martin, 7 January 1942; Sidney Redmond to Martin, 30 September 1942; Martin to Redmond, 2 October 1942; John Lovell, Jr., to Martin, 9 April 1942; Martin to Lovell, 10 April 1942; Emmett J. Scott to Martin, 6 November 1941; Eleanor A. Hodges to Martin, 24 March 1942; Martin to Hodges, 27 March 1942, all in file 23.8, MP.

62. Sidney Redmond to Martin, 3 June 1941, file 20.5 and 3 February 1942, file 23.8; Nashville Globe, 26 January 1941, Scrapbook 32, MP. Despite these accolades Martin was unwilling to defy the discriminatory practices of the South. When asked by a black to bring Scott with him on his North Carolina political tour Martin replied it was “impossible” for he did not allow the heads of departments to travel together, W. H. Hannum to Martin, 23 September 1941 and Martin to Hannum, 7 October 1941, file 22.3, MP. Furthermore, although described by White as “most friendly” to black causes the NAACP leader believed that Martin, like most politicians, had to be reminded not to overlook “the Negro,” White to Ira Lewis, 30 October 1942, box 509, NAACP Papers.

63. Minutes of RNC Meeting, 20 April 1942, reel 7, frame 39, Papers of the Republican Party; Press Release, 23 April 1942, file 25.2 and Resolutions of RNC, 20 April 1942, file 25.2D, MP; Alf Landon to Martin, 15 July 1942 and Martin to Landon, 18 July 1942, box 10.118, Alf Landon Papers as in MP.

64. Congressional Record, 77th Cong., 2d. sess., 1942, 88:8067, 8079–80; Samuel B. Pettengill to Martin, 17 October 1942, file 25.1, MP. Scott did write to Martin urging that a provision prohibiting discrimination because of race be added to Edith Nourse Rogers's bill establishing the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps. Such a step would be “a reflection of your attitude as made clear in your addresses from time to time.” This letter is marked in pencil “hold.” Although such an amendment was introduced in the Senate nothing was done in the House probably because representatives of the War Department testified it was unnecessary, black units would be established as needed, Scott to Martin, 27 January 1942, file 25.1, MP; Lee, Ulysses, The Employment of Negro Troops (Washington: Office of the Chief of Military History, 1966), p. 422.Google Scholar Scott did not mean integration but rather equal opportunity for black volunteers.

65. Walter White to Martin, 3 April 1942; Martin to White, 4 May 1942, box 509 NAACP Papers, Library of Congress; White to Martin, 6 May 1942, file 23.8, MP; Martin speeches of March 1942, file 109.1, 7 July and 25 September 1942, file 109.3, and undated 1942, speech to South Dakota Republican Convention, file 109.4, MP.

66. Walter White to Maitin, 24 September 1942; Martin to White, 30 September 1942, box 509, NAACP Papers.

67. Walter White to Martin, 9 November 1942, file 25.3, MP. Martin thanked White for his comments and invited him to drop in when in Washington, Martin to White, 11 November 1942, box 509 NAACP Papers. In his letter White asserted blacks played a large part in the election switching from Democratic to Republican. This is substantiated to some extent by the Princeton University Office of Public Opinion which concluded the greatest difference between those who voted Republican and those who voted Democratic in 1942 had to do with race. Of those who believed Negroes were getting all that they deserved 90% voted Democratic while of those who believed Negroes were not being treated fairly 53% voted Republican, see Harding, John, “The 1942 Congressional Elections,” American Political Science Review 38 (02 1944): 48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

68. Cook, Rhodes, “GOP Planning to Woo Blacks to Widen Its Base,” Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report 47 (4 03 1989): 474–77Google Scholar; Tate, Katherine, “Black Participation in the 1984 and 1988 Presidential Elections,” American Political Science Review 88 (12 1990): 1160.Google Scholar