Rep. Podell Urges New York University to Dismiss Hatchett As ‘racist’

Representative Bertram L. Podell, New York Democrat, has urged New York University to dismiss former Harlem public school teacher John F. Hatchett on the grounds that he was a racist and urged the appointment of another director of the university’s Afro-American Student Center. In a statement here, the Congressman assailed Mr. Hatchett as the author of an article charging “the Jewish people of New York with responsibility for lack of progress of Negro children in the city’s schools.” He called the Hatchett appointment “an affront to the thousands of Negroes in our city who are impeccably qualified to direct the new center but are not afflicted with racist doctrine.”