1949

Articles from 1949

The Black Women Who Pass For White (Liberty Magazine, 1949)

In most of our larger cities and many small towns there are thousands of Negroes who have successfully ‘gone over the line’ and are now living as white. Among them, it is said, are several well-known athletes and members of Congress – But you don’t hear much about the Negro women who pass. The roving male nature makes it easier for a man to pass completely, though it involves giving up his family as well as his friends. A woman finds passing harder to take.


Click here to read about the social differences between darker skinned and lighter skinned black people.

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When President Truman Tried his Hand at ”Distributing Wealth” (Pathfinder Magazine, 1949)

It seems like a tough nut to swallow, but 12 years before President Obama was even born – U.S. President Harry S. Truman plugged the idea of ‘wealth distribution’ as a portion of a piece of proposed legislation that has come to be known as the the Fair Deal. The president’s scheme was introduced to the nation in his 1949 State of the Union address, it was composed of 21 points and the element that is discussed in the attached article involving distribution of income was called the Brannan Plan – for it was U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Charles F. Brannan (1903 – 1992) who was its advocate. Secretary Brannan wanted the government to establish a guaranteed income for farmers, while allowing the market forces to determine the prices of agricultural products.

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The Ice was Thawing… (Pathfinder Magazine, 1949)

Starting in the 1940s, small articles like the one here began appearing in magazines and newspapers across the nation – snippets indicating that the American people (ie. whites) were slowly catching on to the system of racial injustice they had inherited – and wondering aloud as to the tyranny of it all:

To 13 co-eds at Uppsala College, East Orange, N.J., democracy is something more than a worn text-book theory. It is a living, though thorny, reality. Shortly before school’s end, they formed one of the nation’s first interracial, interfaith college social sororities.


Another article about segregation’s end can be read here.

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Addressing the ”Negro Problem” (Coronet Magazine, 1949)

Like the article posted above, this essay serves as further evidence that the immediate post-war years in America were ones in which the foundations for the civil rights movement were established; foundations on which the civil rights leaders of the Sixties and Seventies would rely upon to guarantee the forward momentum of the movement.


The attached article pertains to the necessary work that was being done by the National Urban League.


Upon reading this piece, we’re sure you’ll recognize that the author knew full well that the article should have been titled, The Answer to the White Problem.

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Segregation Soviet-Style (Pathfinder Magazine, 1949)

As the April of 1949 was winding down, 11 members of the Communist Party U.S.A. were standing trial in a Federal courtroom spilling every secret they had in an all-out effort to lighten their load further down the road. Among these classified plots was a 1930s plan to invade the United States and create two separate Soviet republics – one White, the other Black. The region they had in mind for the African-Americans would cover nine of the old Confederate states.


A Quick Read About Soviet-Enforced Atheism Behind the Iron Curtain…

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Vaudeville at the Palace Theater – Again (Pathfinder, 1949)

There was some dispute over what killed vaudeville. Some said talking movies. Others said radio. A few cruel critics said it committed suicide. But all agreed that with the fall of its last fortress, the Palace Theater, it was dead… Last week, the corpse that wouldn’t die got up and went home. Sol A. Schwartz, vice president of the Radio-Keith-Orpheum chain (RKO) announced restoration of vaudeville at the Palace, beginning May 18 [1949].


You can read about Chicago Vaudeville here

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Mildred Gillars of Maine (Pathfinder Magazine, 1949)

How many times have we heard an actress or actor say, What the Heck, it’s work – plenty (if I had a nickle for every time… etc.). No doubt, this was the thought that tarried through the airy head of Mildred Gillars (né Mildred Elizabeth Sisk) when she agreed to broadcast Nazi propaganda from the heart of Germany on a radio program titled, the Home Sweet Home Hour (1942 – 1945). However, due to the fact that two witnesses must testify in order to prove the charge of treason, she was convicted in Federal Court for having performed in a 1944 Berlin Radio broadcast called Vision of Invasion. The Federal jury found her not guilty of committing seven other treasonous acts. Gillars served 12 years in Federal prison and was released during the Summer of 1961.

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Socialism Bad (The American Magazine, 1949)

It seems difficult to imagine, but this opinion writer felt America leaning toward socialism as far back as 1949:


While the people look more and more to Washington to do everything under the sun for them, the Federal Government hasn’t been discouraging them at all. On the contrary, the Administration has been repeatedly asking for more and more powers to use when it may see fit.


He is sympathetic to their feelings, but cautions his readers that Marxism looks alluring on the printed page – but it will simply lead to serfdom in the end

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Judith Coplon in Federal Court (Pathfinder Magazine, 1949)

FBI agents arrested Judith Coplon (1921 – 2011: Soviet code name Kompid) on March 4, 1949 in Manhattan as she met with Valentin Gubitchev, a NKVD official employed at the United Nations, while carrying what she believed to have been secret U.S. government documents in her purse. Hoover’s G-Men FBI were certain that Coplon, a secretary at the Federal Justice Department, was colluding with the Soviet agents in Washington but to prove their case conclusively would compromise an ongoing counter-espionage project called the Venona Project. The failure to prosecute this case successfully began to shed doubt upon the FBI director and his credibility in matters involving Soviet spy-catching.– read about that here…


Years later Coplon’s guilt was made clear to all when the Venona cables were released. However our laws mandate that it is illegal to try a suspect twice for the same crime and she was released.

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