◆ SpookStack

7 Marshall consented and was given two ballots - one prepared by Davison's supporters and the other by the Communist-dominated group. Marshall proposed that instead of using either that both be used-as @ guide and that. the members vote on a blank sheet of paper, which was done. Davison alleged that the Com- munists attempted to influence the Negroes to vote against her. She stated that she had a discussion with Marshall about a week before the election, at which time she explatned to him the trouble they were having with Communists. He allegedly told her he knew the Communists were trying to move into the various chapters of the NAACP and especially on the Pacifie Coast. He reportedly urged Davison to have a show~down fight with the Communists. He appeared quite sympathetic and interested tn the problem. Davison advised she later learned that Marshall also had a conference with her opponents, with whom Marshall was quite friendly. She was of the opinion that these Communt sts swayed the opinion of Marshall against her. The January 2, i944, issue of the Daily Worker con- tained the first of a sertes of articies by Hugene Gordon on- what had been done about the causes of the August race riots in Harlem the preceding year. <A number of people were listed as having been tnterviewed to get material for the articles and Marshall's name was included among them. The gist of the articles was that the causes of the race riots were still “present. The New York Amsterdam News, a Negro newspaper, in~ dicated on January 20, 1945, that Attorney Donald Crichton, former deputy in charge of the OPA area rent office in Harlen, had been removed from his post the preceding week. An .informant said that Crichton was definitely a fellow traveler and quite possibly a member of the Communist Party. An articie in thia paper quoted Thurgeod Marshall ae stating in a letter to Chester Bowles, then national @PA administrator, "The removal of the only Negro serving as a rent director in Region 2, or so far as we know the oniy one in the country, raises a serious question as to the real reason for his removal." Marshall was further quoted as stating tn the letter that Mr. Crichton "possesses to a high degree the qualifications generally regarded as desirable for such an administrative office. Mr. Crichton is a Negro. It is obvious that any governmental action in an area which tneludes Harlem has a direct effect upon race relations, not only in the urea involved but throughout the country.” The weekly intelligence summary of the Army Service Forces, Headquarters First Service Command, Boston, Massachusetts, | for the week ending February 15, 1946, contains an item from a source described as "completely reliable" that Thurgood Marshall, . as legal representative of the New York NAACP Headquarters, held ~ 3-