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Well might Franklin Roosevelt and "Little Napoleon'' celebrate an entente cordiale, for last week it became evident that one of the President's greatest political victories had turned out to be a great victory of the Negro race. Back in 1932 one of Franklin Roosevelt's Democratic "angels," Oilman Michael Late Benedum of Pittsburgh, pondered the problem of winning Pennsylvania for the Democratic Party. Well aware was he of the fact that of 432,000 Negroes in Pennsylvania 181,000 were registered voters who regularly voted the Republican ticket. "Angel" Benedum turned for advice to his Negro valet-butler, Joseph Howard Gould. He knew that Joe was smart, had already organized the Pittsburgh Butlers' Association. Presently Joe Gould put his employer in touch with a power in the Negro world. Editor Robert Lee Vann of the Pittsburgh Courier. Mr. Benedum put it plainly to Mr. Vann: "What had the Negroes ever got by voting the Republican ticket?" The answer seemed to be-"Nothing."
Editor Vann became an enthusiastic New Dealer and urged his 70,000 subscribers to forget the ungrateful Republican Party. In 1932 Roosevelt came within an ace of carrying Pennsylvania and the next year Robert Lee Vann found himself Special Assistant Attorney General of the U. S. Mr. Vann did not neglect Pennsylvania. He organized a Negro "Self-Respect" campaign. Of a very light hue himself, he announced: "In 100 years there will be no color. There are 13,000,000 Negroes in America, and every year a number pass over into the white group because of their fair complexions. The race is lightening up!"
So were Democratic hopes in Pennsylvania. In November 1934 when the votes were counted it was estimated that 170.000 Pennsylvania Negroes cast theirs for Democrats. Democratic Senator Guffey went to Washington; Democratic Governor Earle went to Harrisburg. More than that, Pittsburgh sent its first Negro to the State Legislature. One of Philadelphia's four Negro legislators, Undertaker Hobson R. Reynolds, who is so pale-colored he might almost be taken for a white, popped into the legislative hopper an Equal Rights Bill forbidding segregation or discrimination against Negroes in hotels, restaurants, theatres, shops. Senator Guffey's lieutenant, Democratic State Chairman David Leo Lawrence, backed the Reynolds measure to the hilt. Republicans who had seen Mr. Benedum and his butler snatch most of the Negro vote were afraid to oppose it. In the bitter closing hours of the Legislature the Equal Rights Bill passed the House of Representatives without a dissenting vote, passed the Senate with only one member voicing a partial objection. Governor Earle took pen in hand and, with Mr. Lawrence's white face beaming over one shoulder and a legislator's black face peering over the other, signed. Ten minutes later the House tried to recall the bill. The Pennsylvania Hotel & Restaurant Association had been heard from. But it was too late. The bill was already law.