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a job as a dish-washer during the summer, earning twelve dollars a week.

All summer long, George saved his money. He bought his own clothes for the coming school term, and arranged with his boss to continue working on the night shift. The night shift was from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.--and school hours were from eight in the morning until three in the afternoon. George had to drop typing and shorthand, to get an extra hour's sleep in the morning.

1929:  School or Job?

Things worked out all right for a while. George was taking no part in the cultural or social life of the school but he was getting the education he wanted. But lack of sleep began to tell. George's grades began to go down. The boss began kicking about George's work--he said that lack of sleep was preventing him from doing a decent job.

The question was placed bluntly before George. Which would it be--school or job?

George's family needed the money he was bringing in each week. If he were to quit his job, it would be taking bread out of their mouths, food from the table. While George was wrestling with this question, there came the crash of 1929. George's father lost his job in the steel mill, and the whole responsibility of the family upkeep rested on his shoulders.

George's Problem Is Yours

He quit school. he has never been able to go back. Gone are the dreams of being a senator or president. Gone 

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are the hopes that education would enable George to obtain a decent job.

George's story, modified in one way or another, is the story of the Negro youth of America. George was fighting against the same combination of forces that all young Negroes have to fight against.

George's problems are your problems.

What Do We Want?

What do we young Negroes want from life? What do we have a right to expect?

First, we want the right to become useful citizens. That means the right to have a steady job, with regular pay--a job that gives us a chance to utilize our best talents and ambitions.

Second, we want a chance to enjoy the good things that life provides. We want to have enough money to have a home that is bright, cheerful, and attractive. We want to have enough money to enable us to entertain our friends and be entertained by them. We want to be able to afford a radio in our homes to bring us music. We want to be able to afford to go to the movies, to plays, perhaps to concerts and operas. We want to have books in our home to read. We want to have money in the bank, to take care of the doctor bills in case we become sick.

Third, we want a chance to have a family life of our own. We want the chance to find the person we want to marry, to move into a home of our own, to settle down, to raise a family, to see that our family has a chance to grow up healthy and happy.

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