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Chapter Three To Finish the Fight: “Freedom from Fear!” As youth gathered on November 21, 1946, at the eighth annual youth conference held at Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana, Judge Hubert Delany delivered his provocative keynote address, “Freedom from Fear.”1 Judge Delany challenged the youth to lay claim to its rights guaranteed under the United States Constitution. He asserted, “The time has come for us to do something about the status of second class citizenship. It is criminal to think that our boys went abroad to fight for democracy and cannot find it here at home.”2 Judge Delany’s expression echoed the sentiments of the majority of youth and adults assembled at the conference. For most black Americans, the time had come for the nation to make good on its promise of democracy . Disillusioned by the nation’s promise of democracy after the First World War, blacks did not accept the nation’s empty rhetoric this time. They decried the status of second-class citizenship and launched a full-scale frontal assault against racial discrimination. In many ways, the mass mobilization campaigns of black Americans to secure full democracy shortly after the Second World War marked the beginning of a new era in the fight for civil rights.3 This chapter examines how activities within the NAACP youth movement accelerated greatly after the Second World War. Illuminating the youth movement ’s intensified efforts to secure equality and to wipe out segregation, this chapter also explores the organizational challenges that the youth division confronted. Lastly, this chapter highlights the Cold War’s impact on—and particular challenges for—the NAACP youth movement. Youth at the eighth annual youth conference heard the powerful and evocative keynote address of Judge Delany, and the passionate and tragic story of Sergeant Isaac Woodard. Although Judge Delany’s keynote address was moving, Woodard’s speech was more poignant. This twenty-seven-yearold World War II veteran had suffered an unspeakable horror on February 12, 1946. Having been released on an honorable discharge seven months earlier from Fort Gordon in Augusta, Georgia, Woodard boarded a Greyhound bus home to North Carolina. At one of the local stops before Batesburg, South Carolina, he asked the bus driver for permission to use the restroom, and the driver grudgingly consented. Unbeknownst to Woodard, the bus driver had called ahead to the local authorities in Batesburg to inform them that there was an unruly passenger on the bus. In Batesburg, South Carolina, Lynwood To Finish the Fight 46 Shull, the chief of police, forced Woodard off the bus and severely beat him in his uniform and charged him with disorderly conduct.4 The assault left Woodard blind. In his speech at the eighth annual youth conference, Woodard stated, “I wouldn’t want what happened to me to happen to anyone, black or white. Unless we all get together now before it is too late there are going to be others like me.”5 Notably, he had not committed any verbal or physical act of aggression against the bus driver. He had only asked to use the restroom. As a result of the lobbying efforts of the NAACP, President Harry S. Truman ordered United States Attorney General Tom Clark to launch a federal investigation of the matter. Having examined the core facts, Attorney General Clark brought charges against Shull; however, on November 2, 1946, he was found innocent in a federal court trial in Columbia, South Carolina, after an all-white jury deliberated for only thirty minutes.6 Many other WWII veterans throughout the nation suffered similarly despicable acts at the hands of white supremacists bent on maintaining a racial hierarchy that subordinated blacks. A month after Shull’s acquittal, Truman issued Executive Order 9808, establishing the President’s Committee on Civil Rights (PCCR) to investigate race conditions within the country. In many ways, Woodard’s tragic misfortune influenced that decision. Appalled by the tragedy that had befallen Woodard, and hoping to secure the political support of the black community, Truman knew that something had to be done to improve the racial climate of the nation. Several months later, in November 1947, the PCCR produced a report, To Secure These Rights, outlining specific recommendations for improving the country’s race conditions. Among its other proposed measures, the report called for the end of segregation in the military, abolition of the poll tax and discriminatory voting practices, and antilynching legislation.7 The NAACP heralded To Secure These Rights, which consisted...

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