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Dorothy Schramm newspaper clippings, 1949-1955 (folder 1 of 2)

Women's Home Companion Article: "How Minneapolis Beat The Bigots" Page 6

[[Header]]
How Minneapolis Beat the Bigots
[[end header]]
[[italics]]from page 33[[end italics]]
really had in mind was an entirely new kind of survey--a bright devastating new weapon against prejudice. The weapon is the Community Self-Survey originated and carried on by the Race Relations Department of the American Missionary Association at Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee.
The Community Self-Survey started Minneapolis--and can start your community too--on the road to real democracy. The whole job was accomplished at the ridiculously low cost of three cents a person.
INTO Minneapolis went Dr. Herman Long, a brilliant thirty-five-year-old sociologist from Fisk University, and a small staff of assistants. The American Missionary Association paid the group's salaries; the city paid only travel and living expenses. A Fisk team will be glad to perform the same service under the same arrangements for your town or any other.
Other communities have called in outside experts to take a good look at their racial and religious situations. Often after the experts have made their reports and gone home little or nothing has been changed. The reason: the people of the community still had no first-hand knowledge of what it was like to live as a Negro, jew or Oriental int heir city.
It was Dr. Charles S. Johnson, famous sociologist and president of Fisk University, who realized why other surveys had failed. As a result, he devised the Community Self-Survey--a plan whereby outside experts help but the community itself does the real job.
Minneapolis already had a Mayor's Council on Human Relations, a small group of private citizens who had set out to do something about race and religious relations. But as one of its members told me: "We had some vague ideas about doing something--but even if we had known e3xactlyw hat needed to be done we wouldn't have known how to go about doing it."
The self-survey showed this group, and all the people of Minneapolis, exactly what had to be done. Moreover it aroused public opinion. For lack of an aroused public all too many community attempts at bettering human relations wind up in dismal failure.
Quietly and unobtrusively Dr. Long found the people in Minneapolis who could best help with the survey. Mind you, it was to be a [[italics]]self-survey[[end italics]]--not one imposed by outsiders. A vice president of Pillsbury Mills, one of the city's biggest industries, agreed to be over-all chairman of the project. A prominent priest, a rabbi and a minister agreed to look into the church situation. The president of the Minneapolis realty board led the study on housing. A society woman and a labor-union official were among the other survey leaders.
The self-survey was made without any of the breast-beating histrionics that have so often accompanied--and hampered--previous attempts to improve race and religious relations. The Fisk University people are intensely practical and sensible; they do not believe in table-pounding, picketing, demonstrations or name-calling. They take for granted a fact too frequently forgotten--that prejudice is not the fault of anyone in particular but is primarily a bad social habit.
"You have to assume that most leaders of the community are people with integrity, honesty and a real concern for the community," Dr. Long says. "You have to assume that when an issue is laid before them in clear terms--especially when they themselves have been helped clarify the issue--they will take responsibility for making the necessary changes."
The actual legwork of the survey in Minneapolis was done, as it would have to be done in your community, by a large group of volunteers, mostly women. In Minneapolis it took about four hundred to do the job. They interviewed real estate men, businessmen and teachers; they rang doorbells and talked to the everyday citizen. Their mission was not to argue but to learn the facts.
Just how did the Jew, Negro, Japanese American, Indian and Mexican fare in Minneapolis?
What careers were open to them and what ones were closed?
Where did they live and how?
How did the people in Minneapolis really feel about these minority groups? Did they favor segregating them--or giving them a better break in life?
One of the survey leaders was Mrs. Opal Gruner, wife of a University of Minnesota professor. Extremely realistic and sensible, she is the type you will need in a key position if you try to solve the race-religious problem in your community. "The greatest danger was that we might be considered Pollyannas or crackpots," she told me. "We had to be realistic."
The first result of the Minneapolis survey was that the four hundred women making it got a new kind of education in racial understanding. As one of them told me, "I had never met an educated Negro until this thing started. I never new a Negro could talk and think as intelligently as a white man."
Another told me, "I was amazed at the cleanness and neatness of many of the Negro homes I visited and the genuine hospitality Negroes showed me. When I learned how little income they had and how they had to scrape to make ends meet, it actually made me angry."
Another woman met a young Japanese-American girl who had a great talent for painting. Before the survey she had hardly been aware that there were Japanese people in Minneapolis. Now, on her own hook and without waiting for the survey to show results, she found the girl a job as a commercial artist.
Here is one of the survey's first discoveries--a fact not generally known but one that will help your community solve its race-religious problem just as it helped Minneapolis: [[italics]]In any city, there is far less prejudice than appears on the surface.[[end italics]]
The bigots make all the noise; the people who would like to do something about the situation remain silent. The social pattern--the exclusion of the Jews from the service clubs or of Negroes from jobs--gets set in the direction of bigotry and almost everyone goes along. People are afraid to break these old habits, not because of their own feelings but because of the way they think their neighbors feel.
For example, Minneapolis department stores had never hired Negro salesgirls because store officials commonly believed that customers and other employes would object.
[ [[italics]]continued on page 96[[end italics]] ]
[[Text in box]]
[[Header in bold]]HELP YOUR COMMUNITY
[[End header and bold]]
[[bullet]]Clubwomen all over the country are taking an active part in making their communities safer and better for their families and neighbors. To help clubwomen carry on their work the WOMAN'S HOME COMPANION supplies them each month with a program package of speeches, plan of action and additional source material.
You can receive these programs also by writing to Betty Carter, Woman's Home Companion, 640 Fifth Avenue, New York 19, New York
[[Bottom of page]]94 October 1951

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[[Header]] How Minneapolis Beat the Bigots [[end header]] [[italics]]from page 33[[end italics]] really had in mind was an entirely new kind of survey--a bright devastating new weapon against prejudice. The weapon is the Community Self-Survey originated and carried on by the Race Relations Department of the American Missionary Association at Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee. The Community Self-Survey started Minneapolis--and can start your community too--on the road to real democracy. The whole job was accomplished at the ridiculously low cost of three cents a person. INTO Minneapolis went Dr. Herman Long, a brilliant thirty-five-year-old sociologist from Fisk University, and a small staff of assistants. The American Missionary Association paid the group's salaries; the city paid only travel and living expenses. A Fisk team will be glad to perform the same service under the same arrangements for your town or any other. Other communities have called in outside experts to take a good look at their racial and religious situations. Often after the experts have made their reports and gone home little or nothing has been changed. The reason: the people of the community still had no first-hand knowledge of what it was like to live as a Negro, jew or Oriental int heir city. It was Dr. Charles S. Johnson, famous sociologist and president of Fisk University, who realized why other surveys had failed. As a result, he devised the Community Self-Survey--a plan whereby outside experts help but the community itself does the real job. Minneapolis already had a Mayor's Council on Human Relations, a small group of private citizens who had set out to do something about race and religious relations. But as one of its members told me: "We had some vague ideas about doing something--but even if we had known e3xactlyw hat needed to be done we wouldn't have known how to go about doing it." The self-survey showed this group, and all the people of Minneapolis, exactly what had to be done. Moreover it aroused public opinion. For lack of an aroused public all too many community attempts at bettering human relations wind up in dismal failure. Quietly and unobtrusively Dr. Long found the people in Minneapolis who could best help with the survey. Mind you, it was to be a [[italics]]self-survey[[end italics]]--not one imposed by outsiders. A vice president of Pillsbury Mills, one of the city's biggest industries, agreed to be over-all chairman of the project. A prominent priest, a rabbi and a minister agreed to look into the church situation. The president of the Minneapolis realty board led the study on housing. A society woman and a labor-union official were among the other survey leaders. The self-survey was made without any of the breast-beating histrionics that have so often accompanied--and hampered--previous attempts to improve race and religious relations. The Fisk University people are intensely practical and sensible; they do not believe in table-pounding, picketing, demonstrations or name-calling. They take for granted a fact too frequently forgotten--that prejudice is not the fault of anyone in particular but is primarily a bad social habit. "You have to assume that most leaders of the community are people with integrity, honesty and a real concern for the community," Dr. Long says. "You have to assume that when an issue is laid before them in clear terms--especially when they themselves have been helped clarify the issue--they will take responsibility for making the necessary changes." The actual legwork of the survey in Minneapolis was done, as it would have to be done in your community, by a large group of volunteers, mostly women. In Minneapolis it took about four hundred to do the job. They interviewed real estate men, businessmen and teachers; they rang doorbells and talked to the everyday citizen. Their mission was not to argue but to learn the facts. Just how did the Jew, Negro, Japanese American, Indian and Mexican fare in Minneapolis? What careers were open to them and what ones were closed? Where did they live and how? How did the people in Minneapolis really feel about these minority groups? Did they favor segregating them--or giving them a better break in life? One of the survey leaders was Mrs. Opal Gruner, wife of a University of Minnesota professor. Extremely realistic and sensible, she is the type you will need in a key position if you try to solve the race-religious problem in your community. "The greatest danger was that we might be considered Pollyannas or crackpots," she told me. "We had to be realistic." The first result of the Minneapolis survey was that the four hundred women making it got a new kind of education in racial understanding. As one of them told me, "I had never met an educated Negro until this thing started. I never new a Negro could talk and think as intelligently as a white man." Another told me, "I was amazed at the cleanness and neatness of many of the Negro homes I visited and the genuine hospitality Negroes showed me. When I learned how little income they had and how they had to scrape to make ends meet, it actually made me angry." Another woman met a young Japanese-American girl who had a great talent for painting. Before the survey she had hardly been aware that there were Japanese people in Minneapolis. Now, on her own hook and without waiting for the survey to show results, she found the girl a job as a commercial artist. Here is one of the survey's first discoveries--a fact not generally known but one that will help your community solve its race-religious problem just as it helped Minneapolis: [[italics]]In any city, there is far less prejudice than appears on the surface.[[end italics]] The bigots make all the noise; the people who would like to do something about the situation remain silent. The social pattern--the exclusion of the Jews from the service clubs or of Negroes from jobs--gets set in the direction of bigotry and almost everyone goes along. People are afraid to break these old habits, not because of their own feelings but because of the way they think their neighbors feel. For example, Minneapolis department stores had never hired Negro salesgirls because store officials commonly believed that customers and other employes would object. [ [[italics]]continued on page 96[[end italics]] ] [[Text in box]] [[Header in bold]]HELP YOUR COMMUNITY [[End header and bold]] [[bullet]]Clubwomen all over the country are taking an active part in making their communities safer and better for their families and neighbors. To help clubwomen carry on their work the WOMAN'S HOME COMPANION supplies them each month with a program package of speeches, plan of action and additional source material. You can receive these programs also by writing to Betty Carter, Woman's Home Companion, 640 Fifth Avenue, New York 19, New York [[Bottom of page]]94 October 1951