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To the Editor of the Crimson:
The recent Crimson editorial on the Detroit race riots clearly stated the abstract principles involved. Four points, necessary to make real sense out of the whole dirty business, were, however, omitted.
Firstly, your writer ignored completely the role which the KKK had played in organizing the attack on the Negro families. The riot was by no means a spontaneous uprising, but upon instruction of the Michigan Grand Dragon of the Klan.
Secondly, no mention was made of the mass reaction of wideawake citizens of Detroit, led by the city's powerful trade union movement. The county organizations of the CIO and AFL joined with Negro and white church, youth, fraternal and civic groups to form and support the Sojourner Truth Citizen's Committe. This Committee held a mass meeting last week which enthusiastically approved a four-point program demanding the punishment of the Klan, the city, and the government officials who directly and indirectly instigated the riot.
Thirdly, Attorney General Biddle has ordered the Federal Grand Jury to investigate the conspiracy to foment the riots and will prosecute to the limit of the law. Mayor Jeffries of Detroit has condemned the Hitler facties used on the Negroes.
Lastly, by pointing out merely the paradox of such anti-democratic action, the editors did not go far enough in their analysis. The students must be made to realize that the Detroit incident is only one fact of the huge attempt to divide the American people and provide propaganda for fascist agents among our present and prospective allies. Klansmen and Christian Fronters are not only had Americans, but more importantly, very good Nazis. Their crime is not so much against the constitutional rights of a minority but against the national effort to smash Hitlerism. Harvard Inter Race Council
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