Wagner Says 'Inferiority' Statement Was Not Made
Wagner Says ‘Inferiority’ Statement Was Not Made
Hits NAACP Procedure As ‘Vicious’
Paul C. Wagner, chairman of the City Human Relations Commission, today denied that a statement on Negro “inferiority” was made at an April 9 joint City Council-Human Relations Commission meeting.
Wagner referred to a story Saturday's editions of The News in which Mrs. Albert Wheeler, president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, says it was reported that during the joint meeting a councilman made the statement that "Negroes are genetically inferior to whites.”
"It is disheartening, to say the least, when, at the stage of apparent progress in the solution of one of the major problems in human relations, any organization should use the press to print inaccurate and seemingly belligerent statements,” Wagner said today.
Says Statement Not Made
Wagner said the alleged "inferiority statement has not been confirmed by any member of the council or of the commission to the best of my carefully informed knowledge. To state it baldly, the statement, as quoted, was not made,” Wagner said.
Giving the background of the April 9 meeting, Wagner said: "In the belief that one of the most effective means of solving problems is to hold discussions around a conference table, the commission invited members of the City Council to hold an informal meeting to discuss possible ways to improve housing for minorities in Ann Arbor.”
Wagner said the “value of any such meeting depends to a great extent on complete freedom of speech with the knowledge that no possibility of misquotes or phrases taken out of context might be publicly misunderstood.
“There was apparent unanimous agreement on the part of the members of the council and of the commission (both had 100 per cent attendance with the exception of the mayor, who was out of the city), that the meeting was constructive and free from any antagonism or emotional exhibition and that a second similar meeting should be held as soon as could be arranged,” Wagner said today.
Calls It ‘Vicious’
Concerning the NAACP’s use of the press in making the accusation, Wagner said: “In my opinion this is a vicious procedure which can only tend to discourage free and frank discussion in future conferences or even might prevent such conference from occurring.
“It seems so futile to try to improve human relations by using methods which in themselves only tend to cause increased dissension.
"When the various groups in our society concentrate on the solution of the problems in which they have a common interest, rather than fighting each other about the method of their procedure, then and only then is there a possibility of real success,” Wagner concluded.
The NAACP hopes to meet jointly with the Human Relations Commission and City Council to discuss the alleged “inferiority” statement, Mrs. Wheeler said Saturday. The name of the councilman who is said to have made the statement will be withheld until the proposed meeting, she added.