Negro leaders in Harlem were split today over charges that a group of Black Nationalists had used anti-Semitic slogans in their protest against plans by a Jewish businessman to open a restaurant in the Negro area.
The restaurateur, Sol Singer, offered to reduce the racial tensions by asserting he was ready either to take in Negro partners in the proposed restaurant or to sell out to Negroes. He made the offer after undergoing three weeks of militant and occasionally anti-Semitic picketing.
The picketing was denounced by Jackie Robinson, a former star baseball player, who is now vice-president of a coffee company which operates a chain of restaurants including several in Harlem, and by A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Both are leaders in the Negro community.
Mr. Randolph called a press conference to discuss Mr. Singer’s offer and to denounce “provocative, inflammatory” tactics of the Black Nationalists. He said that they had chanted such slogans as “Jew go away — black man stay.” Mr. Robinson said: “All my life I have been fighting against this same thing as it applies to Negroes, Black supremacy is just as bad as white supremacy.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
