Healing the Racial Divide. Lincoln Rice
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an opportunity to call a special meeting of the Morgan Park–Beverly Hills Interracial Group, to hold “very frank discussions which resulted in the organization taking a determined stand in terms of equal opportunities for all people.”181
As chair of the Interracial Commission, Falls performed a similar function in helping to form the Lower North Interracial Group on the Lower North Side of Chicago, where there was “increasing friction between Italian and Colored boys.”182 This situation was different from that between Beverly Hills and Morgan Park because the Italian and African American residents were not segregated. Beginning in December 1932, Falls arranged with the residents to have a number of speakers come and talk to them on race relations. In addition, a survey indicated that larger recreational facilities were needed so that the Italian and black children would not feel compelled to fight over the current resources, which were very limited.183
Within the context of forming and sustaining each of these interracial groups, Falls strongly emphasized teaching and listening. His two-pronged approach of assessing each group’s needs while communicating the latest scientific information on race undoubtedly had its source in Lillian with her expert knowledge of the social sciences.
Taking advantage of the Chicago World’s Fair, the Interracial Commission held a national conference on 20 June 1933 in the Illinois Host Building of the fairgrounds. Falls viewed this conference, which brought together experts in the field of race relations from all over the country, as “an outstanding success.”184 Noted personalities at the conference included Eugene Kinckle Jones (1885–1954) from New York, who was the first executive secretary of the National Urban League, and Mary McLeod Bethune (1875–1955) of Florida, a prominent educator and businesswoman who founded the National Council of Negro Women in 1932.185
On 15 July 1934, Falls decided to observe how the police would react to an organized interracial group of swimmers at Jackson Park Beach. A week before, the police had arrested eighteen swimmers at the beach who were promoting integration. This time, the police marched toward the interracial group in double columns and arrested eleven of the white swimmers. Falls believed that the intention of the police was to enforce segregation and scare interracial groups from attempting another event at the beach. The Interracial Commission met with the superintendent of the South Park System and a representative of the South Park police. After a two-hour discussion, the police agreed to change their tactics of enforcing segregation. They did in fact stop harassing interracial swimming groups, and there were no more disturbances at Chicago beaches that year.186
By May 1935, the commission had developed affiliations with about one hundred organizations and thousands of individuals.187 Nonetheless, it appears that after 1936, Falls involvement with the Urban League lessened, though he would carry the spirit of active struggle that was present in the league to his activities in the Catholic Worker movement.188 Unfortunately, Falls was not often forthcoming about his declining participation with any group. A plausible explanation in this case is that he thought the Catholic Worker would be a better avenue for racial integration and racial justice. Even though his involvement with the Chicago Urban League would be minimal by the late 1930s, he did rejoin its board of directors for a short period during the second half of the1940s.189
Federated Colored Catholics
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