Answer

To answer Russian propaganda that Negroes in the U.S. are an oppressed people deprived of opportunity, influence and position, President Truman last week decided to appoint Mrs. Edith Sampson, a 48-year-old lawyer, to the U.S. delegation for the forthcoming U.N. General Assembly. She will be the first Negro ever to speak for the U.S. in the U.N.*

Mrs. Sampson was born in Pittsburgh's slums, was not able to finish grade school because her family was poor, but managed to work her way through John Marshall Law School in Chicago, and got a master's degree in law at Chicago's Loyola University. A quiet, resourceful woman who specializes in criminal law and domestic relations, she served 18 years as a referee in Chicago's juvenile court, since then has developed a thriving practice on Chicago's South Side. On a tour of the Orient last year, Edith Sampson showed that she was adept at the kind of debate which breaks out in the U.N. Heckled by an Indian about racial conditions in the U.S., she conceded that there were shortcomings, but added: "I would rather be a Negro in America than a citizen in any other land." The heckler sat down.

*Dr. Ralph Bunche serves on the U.N.'s Secretariat (in a top division director's post), but does not represent the U.S. Government.

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