Interracial Meet of Negroes, Japanese, Filipinos and Jews

New state laws prohibiting clauses in real-estate contracts which would bar anyone from moving into a residential district because of race or color, were urged last night at an inter-Racial Clinic in the Plymouth Congregational Church.

Leaders of the two-day meeting, sponsored by the Seattle Council of Churches, also were drafting recommendations for legislation to change any state banking and loan laws which might allow discrimination because of race or color.

Proposals for the legislation came after speeches by representatives of many races and presentation by Deputy Prosecutor John E. Prim of a study of such housing restrictions in Seattle.

Prim declared there were few race or color restrictions here prior to 1928, but after a general movement of Negroes from a small area on East Madison Street, the Capitol Hill Community Club circulated restrictive covenants in real estate contracts which will last until abou [about] 1949.

Negroes Hemmed In

"As a resul [result] of these covenants, Negroes have been hemmed into given areas, thus not allowing them normal growth, and the Negro areas have become crowded," Prim said. "The homes are in need of repair, because, prior to the government's extending loans, it was difficult to get a loan in those areas."

Rabbi R.H. Levine of Temple De Hirsch said the Jewish housing situation in Seattle is about the same as with any other race -- crowded and with a shortage of houses.

Prudencio Mori, business agent for the Cannery Workers' Union, declared Filipinos had found it difficult to obtain federal housing because of a clause stating only citizens could occupy the homes. The status of Filipinos in regard to citizenship, he said, had not yet been determined.

The Rev. Fountain W. Penick, pastor of the People's Institutional Baptist Church, said he had been informed that several housing projects will be used to house returning soldiers. Mr. Penick expressed the hope that returning Negro soldiers will get their "just share of such facilities without segregation or discrimination."

Report on Hotels

Mrs. Roy Green, member of the Y.W.C.A. board, reported that there is a policy among hotel organizations to refuse Negroes as guests because Negroes are considered undesirable and downtown Seattle hotels may be said generally to refuse Negroes as guests."

The Rev. Thomas J. Machida, pastor of the Japanese Methodist Church, said two-thirds of the 2,000 Japanese who had returned to Seattle from relocation camps are now temporarily sheltered with relatives.

"Almost every Japanese homeowner in Seattle has at least two or three families with him at this present moment," Mr. Machida added.

"There are still 2,000 evacuees returning to Seattle from the Hunt center alone. Unless the Housing Authority prepares to cope with the rising situation through their emergency measure, a serious housing shortage will arise in the very near future."

The clinic was under the direction of Dr. George E. Haynes of New York, executive secretary of the Department of Race Relations of the Federal Council of Churches.

John R. Harris of Seattle, director of Race Relations for the Washington State Council of Churches, assisted Dr. Haynes.