Roosevelt Calls Upon Americans to Resist Racial Prejudices and Intolerance

Americans were called upon today by President Roosevelt to resist racial prejudice and intolerance, in a message in which the President gives his support to the annual observance of Brotherhood Week by Protestants, Catholics and Jews in communities throughout the country from Feb. 15 to 22.

The message, addressed to Dr. Clinchy, president of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, reads: “Brotherhood Week, observed during the week of George Washington’s Birthday, affirms a principle essential to our national defense. In this critical hour in our own and the world’s history we, as Americans, need more than armaments and armies to make safe our democracy. We need a secure bond of understanding among all citizens, and even more, the practice of brotherhood and of willing cooperation among Americans of every creed and racial origin.

“I have deep faith in the will of the American people to unite to maintain the liberties that all hold sacred, to perform the duties which these times demand of all, and to make of America a land where men who differ widely from one another have learned to live peacefully and harmoniously together. Our neighbors throughout the world look to our shores for the fulfillment of that ideal. In every time of danger in the past, the good sense and loyalty of our people has repudiated the counsel of those who sought to divide and confuse them by arousing suspicion and hatred. More than ever before, now is the time for men of good will in America to stand and work together for national unity, to build understanding on the foundation of justice and freedom for every citizen. Let us make Brotherhood Week the visible demonstration of our faith in each other.”