Black Pilgrims

Last week 56 Negro Gold Star mothers and widows, guests of the U. S. Government, sailed out of New York Harbor aboard the American Merchant to visit the graves of their soldier sons and husbands in France. They had the vessel all to themselves. They seemed satisfied. But behind were left 53 other Negro Gold Star mothers and widows who were not satisfied, who had refused to make the trip, as a protest against the War Department policy of segregating them on a ship apart from white pilgrims.

Aroused by the militant National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, these women had earlier in the week filed two complaints with President Hoover: 1) the War Department was "jim-crowing" them to France; 2) it was providing a ship where the passage was $100 whereas white Gold Star mothers traveled at a $175 rate.

Secretary of War Hurley replied that: 1) no other big line would book the Negro women; 2) the War Department had to charter the American Merchant from the U. S. Lines to provide transportation; 3) it cost the Government more to send Negro women over on a chartered ship than it cost to send white women on regular lines; 4) if any Negro wanted to go with a white group which would "welcome" her, the War Department would make the necessary arrangements.

New York City gave the Negro mothers the same sort of send-off at City Hall it had given white mothers. As their escort on the American Merchant sailed Maj. General B. Frank Cheatham (retired), onetime Quartermaster General of the Army, who declared:

"These women will be much happier on this ship than if they were with white women. No race animosity is involved. I'm a Southerner* and am happy to go with them."

*General Cheatham was born in Tennessee.

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