Stanley Steams

Nobody had to tell the Amateur Athletic Union that many of the swiftest U.S. runners were Negroes. Yet the A.A.U. decided to hold its June championship track meet in Dixie, at San Antonio, where any Negro athlete would think two or three times about appearing.

New York Herald Tribune sport editor, Stanley ("Coach") Woodward, threw the first brick. Wrote he: ". . . it is doubtful that any Negro will compete ... in view of the fact that he will have to travel to the scene in Jim Crow day coaches, and can expect nothing on arrival except segregation and abuse." Then Woodward steamed out to arrange a rival meet on the same day in some "civilized community," talked about renting New York's Randalls Island Stadium.

The idea got prompt support from Manhattan's pinko PM and the Boston Record. Joe Yancey, well-known Negro track coach, predicted that most Negro athletes would not go to San Antonio. But the red-faced A.A.U. stuck by its guns, said that special arrangements had been made in San Antonio to house and entertain competing Negroes.

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