Chapter XI
THE SPRINGFIELD PLAN AND SUCH

Anyone who would, in the name of Christianity, make us a negroid people betrays his religion and his race. It should be the desire of both races to maintain racial integrity and have their blood remain pure. We condemn, we will not condone, the attempt on the part of any group, or individual, to destroy our ideals and principles in the name of history, or of science, or of democracy, or of religion. -Theodore G. Bilbo(1) THE GROUPS and individuals who are today advocating either directly or indirectly, the social equality of the white, black, and Mongolian races which all intelligent people know will lead to mongrelization and intermarriage of these races in the United States are quick to endorse the so-called "Springfield Plan." This is the name applied to the program inaugurated some six years ago by the town of Springfield, Massachusetts, under the leadership of one of the students of the late Professor Franz Boas of Columbia University, who, it will be remembered, spent his life teaching intermarriage and mongrelization of the races. Although the plan has been widely acclaimed as America's Number One method of fighting racial intolerance through intelligent schooling, it is in fact only another one of the schemes aimed at the destruction of all racial barriers and the abolition of the color line. Without a doubt the promoters of the "Springfield Plan," as well as the disciples of the late Professor Boas to whom we have referred in the previous chapter, found comfort and consolation in the statement issued on October 31, 1945, by Dr. Ralph S. Linton, Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University. The press report of Dr. Linton's announcement in which he predicted that the mongrelization of the races in the United States will be completed within three hundred years follows: SEES BLACK RACE ABSORBED IN WHITE Dr. Linton of Columbia Holds Process Will Be Finished in U.S. in 300 Years Absorption of the Negro race into the general population of the United States within 300 years was forecast yesterday by Dr. Ralph S. Linton, Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University. In an address before Protestant, Catholic and Jewish clergymen and religious leaders attending the second weekly lecture series sponsored by the Institute for Religious and Social Studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary, Broadway at 122nd Street, Professor Linton said that this process already had gone further than was generally known. 'Not more than 10 per cent of the American Negroes now have unmixed blood,' he told the 300 men and women enrolled in the five-month course. 'The bulk of the American Negro population is a rather complex mixture.' As the absorption continues, Professor Linton asserted, 'in every generation a certain number of Negro genes will be incorporated in the white population.' However, he contended, as time goes on the appearance of Negroid characteristics will 'cease to be socially significant.' Speaking on the general topic, 'Anthropology as a Bridge to Intercultural Understanding,' Professor Linton first pointed out the conditions under which two racial or cultural groups have been found living peaceably, side by side. It has been established, he declared, that two groups 'get along best' when each engage in certain occupations, thus eliminating direct economic competition, and when each group 'regards itself as somewhat superior and has no particular desire to be accepted by the other.' Citing isolated examples in. this country, such as that of the Mennonites in Pennsylvania, Professor Linton conceded, though, that such conditions could not be put into general effect in this country because of our tradition as a 'melting pot' and because of our belief in 'individual social mobility.' Dr. Robert M. Maclver, Lieber Professor of Political Philosophy and Sociology at Barnard College and Columbia University, presided at the luncheon session of the inter-faith forum. At the two morning sessions, Dr. Hunter Guthrie, dean of the Graduate School at Georgetown University, discussed St. Francis of Assisi; and Dr. John T. McNeill, Professor of Church History at Union Theological Seminary spoke on the 'dissenting tradition' in American life. Dr. Louis Finkelstein is president of the institute. (2) What hope for the future does Dr. Linton give us? His statement should surely be enough to awaken us to the grave threat of mongrelization which confronts white America. He says that within three hundred years or nine generations the white and black races in the United States will have ceased to exist as distinct racial groups. If the mixing of the races continues at the present rate, the United States will be a negroid Nation within three centuries, according to this Professor at Columbia University. Dr. Linton could well have concluded with the statement that when this day comes, the dream of his predecessor, Professor Franz Boas, for a brown race may be realized, but our white civilization will be destroyed and this country will suffer the fate of all the great Nations in world history whose populations have become mongrelized. If our buildings, our highways, our railroads should be wrecked, we could rebuild them. If our cities should be destroyed, out of the very ruins we could erect newer and greater ones. Even if our armed might should be crushed, we could rear sons who would redeem our power. But if the blood of our white race should become corrupted and mingled with the blood of Africa, then the present greatness of the United States of America would be destroyed and all hope for the future would be forever gone. The maintenance of American civilization would be as impossible for a negroid America as would be the redemption and restoration of the white man's blood which had been mixed with that of the Negro. The promoters of the "Springfield Plan" surely must not be concerned about the future of the white race or of this Nation. The entire program ignores the existence of the different races although the word "race" is written indelibly upon the pages of human history. It is my understanding that there has never been any segregation of the races in the schools of Springfield, but the program adopted in recent years has been aimed at total abolition of all racial distinctions. In the public schools where the white and Negro students attend the same classes, no records are kept concerning color or creed and all students attend the same social functions. Dr. John Granrud, Superintendent of Schools, is said to be the father of the Springfield Plan." He accepted the position of Assistant Superintendent of Schools in Springfield about ten years ago, and soon after his arrival in the New England town he noted the differences of race, nationality, and religious affiliations of the school children and the teachers. He concluded that something must be done about the fact that practically all of the teachers were from the "oldline American families." James Waterman Wise says in The Springfield Plan (3) that the situation which Dr. Granrud found in the schools was not only incongruous but that it was destructive of our concepts of democracy and our theory of the equality of all peoples and all races! Therefore, the School Superintendent began to place teachers of all races and all faiths in the public schools of Springfield. Vivid evidence of the results of his theory may be found in the November, 1945 issue of Ebony Magazine where there is a photograph of a Negro teacher instructing a class of eighth grade white students. (4) The "Springfield Plan" places primary emphasis on the teaching of the full equality doctrine to the youth in the public schools. This town of some 160,000 inhabitants "feels that children are born free from bias and attempts to keep them that way." (5) However, there are also various programs aimed at promoting social relations between white and colored citizens of all ages. There is a photograph in The Springfield Plan of two couples, one white and one Negro, visiting together socially. The author remarks that such scenes as these are not yet commonplace, but that the promoters of the "Springfield Plan" feel that they will become more common during the coming years. He further comments that this is the plan which will "clear the tracks for democracy unlimited!" (6) We certainly do not question the good which may come from the sincere and wholehearted cooperation between the white and Negro races when both races are working to benefit themselves and to benefit the community and Nation as a whole. However, we not only question the wisdom of the "Springfield Plan" but condemn this or any other program Which calls for the mixing of the white and Negro races in the public schools and for the promotion of the doctrine of social equality between the members of these two races. The book, The Springfield Plan, tells the story of the experiment being carried on in Springfield and contains many photographs, some of which show the white and colored students in the same classrooms. This book together with the picture of the Negro teacher instructing white students which appeared in Ebony Magazine should be enough to convince any person that the "Springfield Plan" goes all the way in promoting racial equality. Such a plan which attempts to level the races and destroy all racial lines can only lead to miscegenation, intermarriage, and the destruction of the blood of both the white and Negro races. Those who sponsor the "Springfield Plan" and other programs of similar nature evidently agree with Louis Adamic that all races and nationalities must be mingled and integrated in order to form the United States of America. Mr. Adamic's philosophy as set forth in his book, A Nation of Nations, (7) is all right insofar as the various nationalities of the white race are concerned, but when he includes the Negro he proposes a way of life that can only destroy racial integrity and the blood of both the white and black races. The integration of American Negroes into white society in this country would destroy the white race and within several generations make our entire population negroid. As Dr. Linton has pointed out, the process of intermixture and interbreeding is going on today at a rapid rate; the threat of mongrelization hangs as a heavy, dark cloud over white America and the danger increases with every year that passes. Another program which promotes the social intermingling of the white and Negro races is one which originated in Vermont under the direction of Reverend A. Ritchie Low. Under this proposal of Reverend Low, pastor of the United Church, Johnson, Vermont, Negro children are sent to his state from Harlem, New York, to live with white families during part of the summer vacation season. Regardless of what the intentions of this minister may be - and no doubt he is absolutely sincere - his plan goes far beyond that which is necessary to provide vacations for the children from the slum sections of Harlem. Reverend Low's plan for the mixing and mingling of white and Negro children began in Vermont in 1944. In 1945, a similar program was carried out in Vermont, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Illinois. Hundreds of Negro children from Harlem who had been exposed to life in this slum section with all the vices connected therewith have been placed in white homes throughout New England to "live, eat, and sleep" with white children. What possible good could come from such an experiment? The Negro children could be given vacations with their own people - members of their own race - and receive all the benefits of getting away from Harlem without being sent to live with white children on terms of social equality. Any white man, minister or layman who would promote such a program certainly is either totally misinformed or has no regard for the integrity of his race. If no good can come from sending Negro children to live with white families in New England, surely no good but only harm can come from sending white children to visit in Harlem. This is the other part of the program of "exchanging" children for vacations for according to the Negro press and other newspapers white children from Vermont and other places have been sent to spend awhile in Harlem while the Negro children visited in the white homes. Anyone who is familiar with life in Harlem, where it has often been said that a white person enters at his peril even in the day time, shudders at the very idea of sending young children from white, Christian homes in New England to this center of sin, vice, and practically every disease known to the human race, venereal diseases predominating. The only possible results which may be accomplished by this infamous scheme of sending children from New England to Harlem would be to expose the white children to every known form of wickedness and crime! Surely every white man and woman responsible for such a plan in the past will immediately begin to work to see that the practice is never carried out again in order to make amends for the harm which has already been done and to make sure that it shall never occur again. Any minister of the Gospel who is so fanatical or indifferent to the integrity of his white blood and white civilization as to endorse such a scheme - no matter how sincere he may be - should at once be unfrocked and removed so far away from the scene that he can never again perpetrate such a great and grievous wrong on a trusting, confiding congregation under his jurisdiction. Similar plans of teaching social equality and thus integrating the Negro into the white society of America have originated and been endorsed by some ministers of other denominations, a number of whom have been named in other chapters of this book. However, there is another religious leader who sets forth a philosophy capable of doing untold harm to the Negro mind and whose writings have been given wide circulation. This church leader, Father George H. Dunne, S.J., who wrote "The Sin of Segregation," would surely endorse the "Springfield Plan," Reverend Low's plan, and all others which would help in any way to break down the segregation of whites and Negroes and contribute to the ultimate mongrelization of both races in the United States. Father Dunne's article "The Sin of Segregation" first appeared in Commonweal on September 21, 1945, and was reprinted in pamphlet form available to all those interested in sending out this article to promote the Negro social equality campaign. It was sent out by Friendship House, 309 East 43rd Street, Chicago, Illinois, and widely distributed by the Harlem Friendship House. This well-written article is evidently being widely distributed to mislead and confuse the average reader, white and black, and incite him to desert race and blood and plunge into a program of racial amalgamation. Condemning all forms of racial segregation, Father Dunne has no fear of and offers no objection to intermarriage of whites and Negroes. The American Negro should, according to Father Dunne's theory, be fully integrated into white society, and he is doing his best to speed the process of racial intermixture. However, he admits that complete integration make take some years yet. Father Dunne says: "It is probable - at least we must think so if we are not to despair - that one hundred years from now the Christian conscience will repudiate with equal decisiveness the whole pattern of racial segregation. In that happy event the lucubrations of mid-twentieth century apologists for Jim Crow will make interesting, if sad, reading." This religious leader blasts the schools of his own Church for failure to admit white and black students to the same institutions. In order to conform to Catholic principles, one of which is "unconpromising repudiation of racism in all its forms." Father Dunne calls on every Catholic school to open its doors to white and black students. After quoting Pope Pius XII who said: "The only road to salvation is definitely to repudiate all pride of race and blood," Father Dunne comments: "If Jim Crow is not the natural off-spring of pride of race and blood, whose off-spring is it?" This Catholic priest announces that the Christian religion demands the abolition of all racial segregation and endorses the mingling and mixing of the two races on terms of social equality. Furthermore, those who advocate racial segregation are guilty of a sin which is punishable in hell, according to Father Dunne. He concludes: "Racial segregation is certainly a sin against charity and, in the Christian dispensation, is certainly immoral and not to be tolerated. We can go to hell for sins against charity as easily as for sins against justice, perhaps more easily." Racial segregation is an established policy of the South and is also practiced in other sections of the country. It is believed in and adhered to by true, loyal, patriotic Americans in every walk of life, some white and some black, some Christian and Jew, some Protestant and Catholic. Neither Father Dunne nor any other religious leader has the right to sit in judgment and proclaim the acts of these people in practicing racial segregation as sins punishable in hell. Instead of spreading the doctrine of racial integration and intermarriage which will bring about the destruction of both the white and Negro races through mongrelization, Father Dunne should be spending his time preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It would be far better for him to expend his efforts and spend his time in saving both white and black people from hell instead of trying to change the color of their skin. We can thank God that there are very few decent, straight-thinking, right-thinking white Catholics of America who agree with this fanatical, radical, race-baiting ecclesiastic to whom we have just referred. Catholic leaders in justice to their Church should lose no time in figuratively liquidating this destroyer of racial integrity from any and every position of anthority and leadership in this great religious organization. When any man, no matter how high his position in his church desecrates the teachings of the word of God and deliberately and knowingly goes out to destroy the white race and white civilization, he should without delay, unceremoniously, be "squelched" for all time to come. Again, we thank God that the Catholic Church does not believe in or teach any such "rot" as proclaimed by Father Dunne. In these days of world changes and disturbances, a large number of religious leaders are forsaking the teaching of the Bible and the preaching of the Gospel to a sinful world in order to bring about a new social order and to carry on political lobbying. Various churches and church groups have established lobbies in Washington for the purpose of influencing legislation and bringing pressure to bear on the Nation's lawmakers. These practices caused Carlyle B. Haynes to make the following statement in a recent publication: "It is beginning to appear as if the church has mistaken its divine calling and has come to believe that its mission is to influence governmental legislation and administration. Earnest, devoted Christians in many communions are becoming concerned about it. They miss the preaching of the word. They do not like the preaching on current political themes, or the sermonettes which are reviews of current books." Within recent months, there have been many notable examples of church organizations and religious leaders demanding that the Congress pass certain legislation. During the filibuster in January, 1946 on the bill to establish a permanent Fair Employment Practice Committee, Senators' offices were flooded with telegrams from certain ministers of the Gospel, and these groups have long been outspoken in their demands for the passage of the anti-poll tax and the anti-lynching bills. Perhaps one of the most outstanding examples of a church organization going into politics was the convention of the United Council of Church Women which was held in Wash- ington in October, 1945. This group passed resolutions on everything from the atomic bomb to the race question; in fact, they seemed to talk about everything except religion, (8) and they went on record as condemning the segregation of the races and as endorsing complete racial equality. Sponsors of such as the "Springfield Plan" and other programs to bring about racial social equality are advocating racial intermarriage. Some of these groups and individuals may not be conscious that they are preaching this infamous doctrine to bring about the destruction of the white race but this they are doing just the same. On June 23, I946, there appeared the following article in the Vallejo, (California) Times-Herald: U. C. PROFESSOR PROPOSES NEGRO, WHITE INTERMARRIAGE Grinnell, Ia. (UP) - The biennial meeting of the general council of Christian churches here yesterday was still considering a proposal by Prof. Buell G. Gallagher, Berkeley, Cal., that Negroes and whites be allowed to marry 'at the dictates of the individual's heart and mind.' Gallagher told the council that a policy of integration was the best means of solving inter-racial tensions. He labelled integration as 'not favoring any barriers of separation between any people.' It is 'an indifference to marriage between races,' he explained 'which should be dictated by the individual's heart and mind.' The Californian listed as other possible solutions to the inter-racial tensions, extinction of minority groups, expulsion to the lands from which they came, parallel racial civilizations, amalgamation and segregation within communities and creation of a '49th state' where all would be enclosed. A11 these, he said, were beyond serious consideration. He said the Congregational church has not practiced integration and 'is the leading candidate for the Jim Crow badge of honor.' 'Amalgamation,' he said, 'was a policy of forced intermarriage recognized as a 'red herring' across the path of any discussion which seeks a feasible solution to racial problems.' The following is from the Chicago Defender (colored), July 8, 1946: Over at Englewood High School Negro and white students not only talk democracy, but live it as was evidenced Friday night when the Circle Saronies, Negro club, gave its annual graduation prom. . . White boys dated Negro girls and brought them to the dance. . . Negro boys went to the homes of the white girls and escorted them to the dance. . . Everybody had a good time and nothing happened... And while on the interracial subject, it might interest you to know that Harry Field's El Grotto cafe was jammed packed Friday night when George Auld, white band leader and his ork played their first engagement.. . This is the first time it has been done on the Southside and again we say, everybody had a good time and nothing happened.... On August 7, 1946, there was a news item in the Washington, D.C. Post (Jewish-controlled) in which the following appeared: FATHER DIVINE WED WHITE GIRL HERE IN APRIL, RECORDS SHOW Maj. J. Divine, a name used by Father Divine, the Negro cult leader.... (who claims to be God) was married on April 29 in Washington to a 21-year-old white girl from Canada, Marriage License Bureau records today disclosed.... Philadelphia, Aug. 7 (AP)-The secretary to Father Divine, 'Martha Blessed Love,' today confirmed reports that Divine has married a 21-vear-old Montreal (white) girl. She said further details would be published August 10 in Divine's publication, New Day, and stated 'this marriage is to propagate virtue. . .and to give the whole Nation a new political and religious birth of freedom.' (9) . Any individual in this Nation, man or woman, white or black, who demands the abolition of racial segregation and endorses racial social equality is just as guilty of advocating the mongrelization of the races as Professor Gallagher, who boldly proposes white and Negro intermarriage, as the Englewood school officials who permit inter-racial social functions, and as the Negro, Father Divine, who married a Canadian white woman! Let the social equality advocates read the above three news items and they will understand the result of their teachings. Every decent white man and woman and every self-respecting Negro guilty of bringing about such practices should read and weep! The sad, sickening, heart-breaking fact is that happenings similar to the ones above mentioned are increasing at lightning speed every day, every week, every month, every year that we delay some certain and definite action which will stay and prevent the evil, horrible day in this country when both races will be thoroughly mixed and mongrelized and a brown mongrel race will wreck and destroy forever the greatest scheme of government and the most glorious civilization that the white race has ever conceived and built in all the annals of time. Again and again, I beg, I intreat and plead with every white man and white woman, regardless of nationality, in the United States to enlist now - today - as a fighting soldier under the banner of race purity and our white civilization and wage a relentless war without ceasing in high places and in low places. ln our churches and in our schools, in every nook and corner in this great Republic that we may escape the evil day and certain doom that approaches us hour by hour, day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year. The great thinkers and leaders in every age of this new Republic have tried to impress upon the minds of the white race that the white and black races cannot live side by side in this country or any other country without the final results being mongrelization and the destruction of both races; yea, the destruction of everything - our white civilization, our form and scheme of Constitutional Government that makes us today the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth - leader of the whole world. All have agreed that the physical separation of the races is our only salvation. This will take time but it can be done - it must be done - it will be done. While we wait and work to accomplish this great task which is absolutely and beyond every reasonable doubt necessary if we are to save and perpetuate a pure race and a great white civilization for our children's children, there is one thing we can do which will help to lighten the burden while working and waiting to bring about the final and permanent solution and that is to pass laws in every state - thirty out of the forty-eight have already acted - making it a violation under the laws of the land for our white race to intermarry with either the black or Mongolian races. To accomplish this purpose and to bring the imperative necessity for immediate action before the minds of the people of the remaining eighteen states and the District of Columbia, the author of this book just recently introduced in the United States Senate for himself and Senator Johnston of South Carolina the following amendment to the so-called anti-poll tax bill: Hereafter, in any State, Territory, possession, or the District of Columbia, the marriage of a white person and a Negro or mulatto or a person who shall have one-sixteenth or more of Negro blood, or with a Mongolian or with a person who shall have one-sixteenth or more of Mongolian blood, shall be unlawful, and such marriage shall be void. Any person who is a party to any such marriage, or who knowingly performs a marriage ceremony to which such persons are a party, shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished by a fine of not to exceed $10,000 and by imprisonment of not to exceed ten years.

Notes From the Address delivered by Senator Bilbo before a joint session of the Mississippi Legislature on March 22, 1944. New York Times,- October 31, 1945. Wise, James Waterman, and Alland, Alexander, The Springfield Plan (New York: The Viking Press, 1945), p. 10. "Spotlight on Springfield," Ebony, November, 1945, p. 29. "Spotlight on Springfield," Ebony, November, 1945, p. 28. Wise, James Waterman, and Alland, Alexander, The Springfield Plan, p. 12O. Adamic, Louis, A Nation of Nations (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1945). See Chapter IX, p. 145. To this news item, the noted Elder Lightfoot Solomon Michaux, colored preacher and radio commentator, said that it was not right for Father Divine, who claims to be God, to marry either a white or a black girl.