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CONFERENCE ON STATUS OF NEGRO AT BRYN MAWR
Vassar Delegates Attend Discussion of the Racial Industrial Problem
A one day conference on The Economic Status of the Negroes was held at Bryn Mawr College last Saturday under the auspices of the Bryn Mawr L. I. D. The speakers included Alain Locke, of the Philosophy Department of Howard University, Walton [sic] White, secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Ira Reid, head of the Research Bureau of the National Urban League, Alice Dunbar Nelson, a member of the Inter-racial Committee of the Society of Friends, Philip Randolph, of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, J. B. Mathews [sic] of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and Mr. E. DuBois [sic], noted author, and editor of the Crisis.
Two members of the Vassar L. I. D., Edith Rosenfels, '34 and Ruth Lehman, '34, attended the conference. Some of the aspects discussed were the wages, homes, and employments offered the negro, the importance and possibilities of his achieving economic equality and the problem of discrimination. The difficulty of organizing negro workers either with the white unions or in unions of their own was brought up. It was emphasized that the color line must be broken down so that the negro worker may at least enjoy the white worker's privileges, such as they are. Various infringements of negro rights were mentioned, such as the trial of negro boys in Scottsboro, Alabama, where the court was entirely influenced by the mob. The chief point brought out by the discussion, however, was the importance of raising the economic status and improving the industrial conditions of the negro in this country.