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WNYC Airs Frank Talk on Racism in 1939
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On the eve of World War II, a commentator on WNYC compared American racism to Nazi ideology. The broadcaster was John LaFarge, Jr., an outspoken Jesuit priest known for his candor and frankness. Today, having a radio host compare racism in the United States with fascism in Europe may not be too surprising, but on June 10, 1939 airing that idea was a radical departure from most of mainstream radio. Here is some of what he said:
Racism already has a foothold in America. During the two or three decades that immediately preceded the war of secession, and shortly after that event, racist theories singularly like those being circulated by the Nazis were propagated in this country. They were used to justify chattel slavery; and later to justify political and legal discrimination against the Negro. The influences of American racist doctrine have persisted into our day. Some of them were revived on the floor of the Senate during the filibuster on the Wagner-Van Nuys anti-lynching bill. There is enough of that mentality latent in the American people and in the American social structure to afford a rich seed-ground for European racism when it is transplanted to our shores.
LaFarge was the associate editor of America, a weekly Jesuit magazine, and the author of the 1937 book Interracial Justice: Study of Catholic Doctrine and Race Relations, in which he challenged long dominant ideas about the racial inferiority of African-Americans and condemned the notion of 'separate but equal.' In his WNYC broadcast LaFarge argues that although many Americans fear Nazi swastikas reaching our shores, they have failed to see the evil that is already here.
[The United States] has been manufacturing its own swastikas for the past century or more; that these swastikas can be seen visibly in so many words upon countless segregated institutions in some part of the country and invisibly woven into the prejudices and customs of millions of persons all over the country...But let us insist that if, when and by whom racism is discussed, on every platform and in every part of the country, the whole scope of racism shall be relentlessly exposed: and thus the main stress of that discussion be laid upon the group that has suffered most from practical racism in the past is suffering vastly more than any other group at present, and will continue to suffer in the future unless it keeps making itself heard and known: the Negro group in the United States.
In his prescient fifteen-minute talk LaFarge warns listeners that, in order to keep Nazis from our doorsteps, we need to take a closer look at our own backyard.
Let us remind our fellow citizens that if they wish to keep racism out, they must exclude every bit and every form of it. Let Negro and white work together to bring the whole and unvarnished, undiminished truth before the American people and thus save Americans from being the victims of a delusion into which, if the present tendency goes unchecked, they may all too easily drift.
LaFarge's commentary was part of Negro News and Views, a weekly broadcast sponsored by the National Urban League "in an effort to awaken the general public to the realization of the importance of the Negro's cultural contribution to American life." The program was directed by Edward Lawson, managing editor of the organization's monthly magazine, Opportunity.
In 1934, LaFarge founded the Catholic Interracial Council of New York to fight racism. Similar councils spread across the country; in 1959 they joined together as the National Catholic Conference on Interracial Justice. LaFarge was also part of the 1963 March on Washington and could be seen standing behind the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. For more on LaFarge's lifelong efforts to combat racism see: John LaFarge, S.J. and The Unity of the Human Race.
Unfortunately, we're not aware of any surviving recording of LaFarge's talk. His quotes are taken from the June 17, 1939 edition of the African-American newspaper The New York Age, in an article titled "Editor of 'America' Says Seeds of Racism Exist in America's Treatment of Negroes."
The New York Urban League reported on the talk in it's monthly magazine, Opportunity: Journal of Negro Life in the July 1939 issue: