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"The emancipation of the Jews and the liberation of the black slaves are the two crimes of civilization committed by the plutocrats in the last few centuries."  But white or black, conquered people become slaves under Hitler.

We can be a mighty force

Some Americans say that it makes no difference who wins the war.  Doric Miller doesn't say that.  Joe Louis doesn't say that.  Most of the 13,000,000 loyal Negro citizens know that America is fighting not only to live, but to live more fully.  Because we have known the weight of chains, because we have known the helplessness of bondage, we can be a mighty force in this nation's fight for freedom.

This war, said Vice President Wallace in his great speech of May 8, 1942, is not a war for the preservation of outmoded ways of living but a crusade for the common man.

"Through the leaders of the Nazi revolution," said the Vice President, "Satan now is trying to lead the common man of the whole world back into slavery and darkness.  For the stark truth is that the violence preached by the Nazis is the devil's own religion of darkness.  So also is the doctrine that one race or one class is by heredity superior and that all other races or classes are supposed to be slaves."

But darkness shall not prevail.

"The people," said Mr. Wallace, "are on the march toward even fuller freedom than the most fortunate peoples of the earth have hitherto enjoyed. . . . I say that the century on which we are entering--the century which will come out of this war--can be and must be the century of the common man. . . . The people's revolution is on the march, and the devil and all his angels cannot prevail against it."

Recently the Christian Review, the religious journal edited by the Rev. L. M. Smith in Philadelphia, recalled the triumphs of America's Negro athletes at the Olympic Games and the insults that were heaped upon them by the German propaganda machine.

"Hitler," the editorial said prophetically, "will see some new 'Black Auxiliaries.'  Negroes have been trained in the rudiments and sciences of war and it is likely that some Negroes will see action in Berlin. . . . These Negroes will be wearing the insignia of the United States and will conduct themselves as champions.  The Negro of America stands ready to bring new victories to his native land.  And he will do it despite all the propaganda of the German and Japanese machines."

We already know something about champions.  One cool summer night in 1938, under the arc lights at Yankee Stadium, our champion knocked out the German champion in one round.  Sergeant Joe Louis is now a champion in an army of champions.

Joe Louis doesn't talk much, but he talks truly.  He talks for 13,000,000 Negro American citizens, for all American citizens, when he says:

"We're going to do our part, and we'll win 'cause we're on God's side."