1934: SEGREGATION REARS ITS UGLY HEAD IN DEMOCRATICALLY CONTROLLED CONGRESS

THIS INCISIVE NOTE RECEIVED FROM FELLOW HAMILTON HORNET LT. COLONEL JIM ROSS, SHEDDING LIGHT ON THE DEPRIEST U.S. CONGRESS SEGREGATION ISSUE. THANKS COLONEL ROSS!:

Tom,

My name is Jim Ross. I am a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army (1990 graduate of West Point and 1986 graduate of Hamilton High). I find your website highly educational and entertaining. I was really taken with your article on Congressman Oscar DePriest and the state of racial issues back then. Listening to the recent tone of rhetoric in the current presidential primaries, I wonder how much has really changed, unfortunately. It appears that the informal ban in the capitol facilities persisted until the late 1940s when Congressman Adam Powell from NY challenged it again and the opposition disbanded. Anyway, I looked up more about Mr. DePriest and found the following:
Civil rights activists criticized De Priest for opposing federal aid to the needy, but they applauded him for speaking in the South despite death threats. They also praised De Priest for telling an Alabama senator he was not big enough to prevent him from dining in the Senate restaurant, and for defending the right of Howard University students to eat in the House restaurant. De Priest took the House restaurant issue to a special bipartisan House committee. In a three month-long heated debate, the Republican minority argued that the restaurant's discriminatory practice violated 14th Amendment rights to equal access. The Democratic majority skirted the issue by claiming that the restaurant was not open to the public, and the House restaurant remained segregated.In 1929, DePriest made national news when first lady Lou Hoover, at DePriest's urging, invited his wife, Jessie Williams DePriest, to a tea at the White House.
By the early 1930s, DePriest's popularity waned as the economy plummeted because he continued to oppose taxes on the rich and fought Depression era federal relief programs. De Priest was defeated in 1934 by Democrat Arthur W. Mitchell, who was also an African American. He was again elected to the Chicago City Council in 1943 as alderman of the 3rd Ward,
and served until 1947. He died in Chicago at age 80 and is buried in Graceland Cemetery. The Illinois Congressman succeeded in bringing to the House Floor a measure to investigate the incident. By employing a rare parliamentary procedure, De Priest circumvented the influential Rules Committee-the panel that controls the flow of legislation in the House, and chaired,
at the time, by a southern Democrat. Although the House eventually voted in favor of De Priest's resolution, the investigatory panel split along party lines and refused to recommend any revisions to House Restaurant policies.

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JIM:

EXCELLENT!YOUR VERY DEFINITIVE INFORMATION AS BEEN ADDE TO THIS POST. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR VISITING MY WEBSITE(s). I HOPE YOU WILL BE A REGULAR VISITOR. YOU'RE A GREAT AMERICAN; THANKS FOR SERVING OUR COUNTRY.

TOM GLOVER