Wilson, PFC,
MonNegro Soldiers:
Did you ever stop to think why you should
be in Korea, fighting other colored people, while
lynchings, murders and insults pile up against
the Negro people at home?
They tell you you are defending freedom here.
What kind of freedom?
Since the Korean war began there have been
more lynchings and killings in all parts of the
country than ever before....Morris Seott, shot
by a white man at Linden, Ala; Samuel Hillis,
Philadelphia Navy veteran shot by a rookie cop
in a subway.... Willie Carlisle, beaten to death
by a cop at Opelika, Ala.... Sam Jones, San
Pedro, Calif, construction worker beaten to death
by another cop.... Willie McGee put on the
electric chair in Mississippi on a frame-up
charge.... Harry T. Moore, NAACP leader,
bombed in his bed by the Klan in Florida. These
are only a few, from the South and the North,
the East and the West.
They tell you’ll come nearer to equality by
fighting in the Korean war. They always do that
when the time comes to face the guns. It‘s a lie!
—_2—‘The only place you can fight for equality is at
home. a
Here are some facts, right from the army,
right from Korea. Lieut. Leon Gilbert, Negro
officer of the 24th Infantry regiment was un-
fairly court-martialled and sentenced to death
and 60 other soldiers got sentences of from 5
years to life.... Frank Whisonant, Pittsburgh
Courier reporter wrote that “99 and nine-tenths
of men tried before court-martials in Korea are
Negro soldiers”.... Thurgood Marshall, leader
of the National Urban League wrote that “in
spite of continued protests, the U.S. army has
shown. no indication of fundamentally altering its
Jim-Crow policy in Korea.”
Does the U.S. government, the government
of your country, give you proper representation?
There are 96 white Senators and not one Negro.
There are 435 Congressmen of whom only two
are Negroes, And how many Negro citizens have
been killed and beaten just for daring to vote!
So much for your rights at home.
And in the armed services the dice are load-
ed the same way. As long ago as 1947, President
Truman’s own Civil Rights Committee admitted:
Si« ,.-in the Army, less than one Negro in 70 is
commissioned, while there is one white officer for
approximately every seven enlisted men. In the
Navy there are only two Negro officers; there are
58,571 white officers. The Marine Corps has 7,798
officers not one of whom is a Negro.... the re-
cords show that the members of several minorit-
ies, fighting and dying for the nation in which
they meet bitter prejudice, found that there was
discrimination against them even as they fell in
battle.”
Both you and the white troops are waiting
for rotation. Rotation is a racket and a run-
around for both. But for you, it’s more sc. Both
in the European Theater and in Korea, it is well
known that Negro soldiers have more trouble
getting enough points to go home.
What do you think this means to you? Don’t
you see that this war against the colored people
of Korea is the same kind of dirty business as
discrimination against you—that it’s based on
the idea that colored people have no right to exist
unless they bow down to someone, that they can
be killed if they dare to stand up for their rights?
A petition to the United Nations by American
Negro leaders put this plainly: “White supremacy
aat home makes for colored massacres abroad.
Both reveal contempt for life in a colored skin,
Jellied gasoline in Korea and lynching at home
are connected.”
Negro soldiers!
We don’t say that you shouldn’t be loyal to
the United States. It’s your own country. But
your fight is at home, alongside labor and the
peace movement, for equal rights. It’s not your
business to come here and fight other colored
people for Big Business profits.
We are not trying to turn you against the
white soldiers. They are in the same boat as you.
‘They are sent here to be killed for the Big Money,
for Big Business profits like you are. We think
‘that you, having been oppressed, can understand
this more quickly than they do. But many of
them are beginning to understand it too,
We say:
No U.S. soldiers fares any business in Korea.
Korea for the Koreans. China for the Chinese.
America for Americans, Neere and white.
We say:
Americans, black and white, unite and oa
for peace!The Chinese and Koreans are fighting for
their own homes and borders. We didn’t come five
thousand miles across the sea to ficht. We didn’t
come to America with guns and bombs and we
never will. Don’t risk your lives here. Ask to go
home where you can fight for your own rights as a
human being. Leave us at peace in our homes
here.
Your friends,
THE KOREAN PEOPLE’S ARMY
THE CHINESE PEOPLE’S VOLUNTEERS
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