President Truman addressing a huge gathering here tonight, bitterly attacked “the men who are stirring up racial and religious prejudice against some of our fellow Americans,” and said that “the voice of religious prejudice” has ever been raised in the 80th Congress.
As illustration he pointed to the Displaced Persons Act which he said “cruelly discriminated against Catholics and Jews.” Calling racial and religious prejudice an “evil force which works secretly to destroy freedom” the President recalled that “the tragic story of what happened in Germany is all too fresh. We know how Hitler used anti-Semitic propaganda as a way of stupefying the German people with false ideas while he reached out for power.
“This was not the first time such a thing has happened,” he said. “The persecution of minorities goes hand in hand with the destruction of liberty. This country has been mercifully spared extreme racial and religious strife. But in recent years there has been a new outcropping of demagogues among us. Dangerous men-men who are trying to win followers for their war on democracy – are attacking Catholics, Jews, Negroes, and other minority races and religions.” The President emphasized that he would “never surrender” the fight against “those who foment racial and religious prejudice.”
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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.
