Roosevelt, in Brotherhood Week Message, Calls on Citizens to Shun Prejudice

A message from President Roosevelt urging rededication to brotherhood and unity against prejudice and intolerance was made public today by the National Conference of Christians and Jews on the eve of the opening on Sunday of the seventh annual Brotherhood Week, which will be observed in more than 1,000 communities through church services, interfaith rallies, school exercises, radio programs, dinners and other events.

“With gratitude to God for the liberties we enjoy and with a full measure of respect for each other’s faith, let us gather together in our churches, synagogues, schools, public halls and homes during this week to celebrate our brotherhood under God as citizens of our beloved land,” the President’s statement said.

“Let us here resolve that in a time of world division and pain this nation shall be rededicated to the principles that all men are brothers; that religious prejudice and group intolerance may not here destroy that unity in freedom which is the strength of our national character.”

Proclamations and statements in support of Brotherhood Week have also been issued by governors of a number of States, Senators and heads of principal religious, educational, fraternal and labor organizations, according to Dr. Everett R. Clinchy, director of the N.C.C.J. At community meetings during the week a ten-point goodwill resolution will be adopted calling for efforts to understand, respect and defend the rights of other groups. The theme of this year’s observance is “The Present Crisis in Human Relations.”

In a Brotherhood Week proclamation made public today, 273 Protestant clergymen and social service and interdenominational officials in New York called on American citizens to join the Christian churches in standing “implacably against the sin of racial hatred in any of its forms.”