Milt’s Letter: Minorities

Hello Vernon,

Am waiting here for dinner to end. They want us to scrub out the mess hall real nice tonight. Got some important people coming in. Anyway, wanted to write to you and figured this was the time.

Thanks for writing me about Dorie Miller. I can’t believe he was right there working at Pearl Harbor when the sky started falling. You say he was in the breakfast kitchen and saw some gunner go down then stepped right up into that gunner’s place – didn’t even know shooting – and shot down a couple of Jap planes that morning? Bet they was surprised, huh?

Things here are so different. Leon’s gone to Tuskegee. Says he’s gonna learn to fly an airplane. Yeah, I will believe that when I see it. I imagine if them Tuskegee boys ever do get in them planes, they’ll do good. Course they probably won’t let ‘em actually fight. They might let ‘em ferry the planes around though. I seen some of the fighting planes in a local picture show a month back. I guess them big bomber planes need the little fighters to protect them and give the Japs and Germans something to worry about. Looks to me like sparrows going after some big old hawk. Guess I shouldn’t be writing about such things. We are always being told about talking too much about the war.

The WPA folded so Daddy hasn’t got work, but Ma’s working. She’s still taking laundry in, but they are hiring Negro females into the factories now that all the men’s gone and the white ladies are working too. She’s got a job at a place called Redstone Arsenal. They make grenades, bombs and ammunitions. She got her own crew, all colored women, and they’s earning rewards for not falling behind on production even once. The boss there calls them Amazons.

You see the Brown Bomber is in now too? Yeah, old Joe Lewis himself is in the army, fighting for the country. I figure he did his fighting in the ring when he knocked out that German guy. Country sure loved him then, didn’t they? Can’t believe he keeps giving his prize money to the war effort.

I hear talk of there might being some money when we get out. Maybe money to go to college. Maybe money to start our own business somewhere. I can’t think things would go back to the same old song – not with the way Negroes are fighting on the battlefield. You always said I had my thick head in the clouds, but I’m thinking this might make some big changes with the colored man. Daddy says Mr. Roosevelt can’t tend to the poor when he’s tending to the war, but I think maybe this is the ticket for us. Lots of new war industry is around and they got to be getting the contracts for all this government work. Jobs will be there for us I’m thinking.

Got to go. You keep your head down. Milt

Milt’s Letter: Minorities (PDF File)