not propose to take it, and we do not care what happens."[12-37]

[Footnote 12-37: Ibid., p. 689.]

When Senator Wayne Morse warned Randolph that such statements in times
of national emergency would leave him open to charges of treason,
Randolph replied that by fighting for their rights Negroes were
serving the cause of American democracy. Borrowing from the rhetoric
of the cold war, he predicted that such was the effect of segregation
on the international fight for men's minds that America could never
stop communism as long as it was burdened with Jim Crowism. Randolph
threw down the gauntlet. "We have to face this thing sooner or (p. 304)
later, and we might just as well face it now."[12-38] It was up to the
administration and Congress to decide whether his challenge was the
beginning of a mass movement or a weightless threat by an extremist
group.

[Footnote 12-38: Ibid., pp. 691-94. The quotation is
from page 694.]

The immediate reaction of various spokesmen for the black community
supported both possibilities. Also testifying before the Senate Armed
Services Committee, Truman Gibson, who was a member of the Compton
Commission that had objected to segregation, expressed "shock and
dismay" at Randolph's pledge and predicted that Negroes would continue
to participate in the country's defense effort.[12-39] For his pains
Gibson was branded a "rubber stamp Uncle Tom" by Congressman Adam
Clayton Powell. The black press, for the most part, applauded
Randolph's analysis of the mood of Negroes, but shied away from the
threat of civil disobedience. The NAACP and most other civil rights
organizations took the same stand, condemning segregation but
disavowing civil disobedience.[12-40]

[Footnote 12-39: Ibid., p. 645.]

[Footnote 12-40: The Philadelphia _Inquirer_, April
11, 1948; PM, April 11, 1948. See also McCloy and
Ruetten, _Quest and Response_, pp. 107-08; "Crisis
in the Making: U.S. Negroes Tussle With the Issue,"
_Newsweek_, June 7, 1948, pp. 28-29; L. Bennett,
Jr., _Confrontation Black and White_ (Chicago:
Johnson Press, 1965), pp. 192-94; Grant Reynolds,
"A Triumph for Civil Disturbance," _Nation_ 167
(August 28, 1948):228-29.]

Although the administration could