The Pittsburgh Press (October 17, 1944)
Perkins: Republicans’ apathy costing them Negro vote, publisher says
GOP leaders warned to get on job or group will go 2–1 for Roosevelt
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer
Washington –
The Republican Party, with the best program on paper for the Negro people, is failing to drive its arguments home with the rank and file of colored voters in the key and doubtful states, according to one of their spokesmen here today.
Alexander Barnes, manager of the Washington Tribune, a Negro newspaper published here warned Republican leaders verbally and through his publication that unless more direct work is done with the mass of Negro voters, they “will go almost 2–1 for President Roosevelt.”
Describing himself as a Dewey supporter, this publisher said it was the general opinion among people who have studied political and economic conditions among Negroes that without a better Republican effort, the Negro votes in such cities as New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Chicago may swing one or more of the doubtful states of New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois.
Dewey effort expected
The Washington publisher said that Governor Thomas E. Dewey has made only incidental references to the Negro subject so far but that there are reports the Republican nominee plans to go into it at more length before he ends his campaign.
Meanwhile, the CIO Political Action Committee is making a special point of registering Negro voters in the industrial sections, and much Democratic argument is being directed at them.
A survey just completed by a non-political agency shows that leading Negro newspapers among the more than 200 published in this country are almost evenly divided in their support of President Roosevelt or Governor Dewey.
Field workers bungling
Mr. Barnes said he had recently visited all the important centers of Negro population in the Northern industrial states, and reported “all is not well in the Republican ranks because of the alleged apathy and ineptness in the work among Negro voters.” and “that the bungling of the campaign stem: from the Negro brain-trusters working with the Republican National Committee.”
He pointed out, however, “that there is still time to let the Negro have the facts. Experienced campaigners can be put to work and a wavering Negro vote convinced that Dewey is the man. Thousands of party workers are willing to volunteer their services if the bigwigs will permit them to go to work in traditional Republican fashion.”
‘Tricks’ alarm Negroes
An editorial in the Washington Tribune stated that paper “has not yet decided which candidate it will urge its readers to support, but has become unduly alarmed at the strange tricks which are being played. The Democrats ditched Wallace, and then, from information received this week, the Republicans put two men in to woo the Negro vote who are cold, indifferent, unconcerned and even insolent, at times, when Negroes approach them about aiding in the election of their man.”
The “two men” were identified as Negro leaders with whom some others do not agree on campaign tactics.
The Tribune editor’s idea is that:
Mr. Dewey needs a campaign that is going to bring the issues down to earth. He needs a campaign that is going to let the Negro in the pool rooms, the beer gardens, the fields and the farms, and in the coal mines, know that he stands for justice for all men.