|
1948. Arthur Drayton was dismissed from
government service after 25 years as a postal clerk under President Harry Truman's Loyalty
Order. "Guilty" of being a member of the International Worker's Order,
proscribed by the Attorney General, the poems and plays he wrote were held against him at
his loyalty hearing. |
| They asked me why I joined the IWO. I told them it provided
an outlet for me to discuss social issues with Black people like myself, and to present
programs on Negro history. I liked the organization. I liked the people in it. They told
me it was subversive. At the end, they asked if there was anything I wished to say. I
remember I had this outraged feeling of having to testify in this manner in a free
country. Was it because I was Black? Most people I knew who were expelled from the Post
Office were Blacks or Jews. I thought of Socrates having to testify. I told them being
called disloyal sickened my heart and weighed on my soul. Then I quoted these lines from
Othello: Good name in man or woman, dear my lord, |
