Let's have freedom of choice! A call to restore and preserve that fine old American tradition- The right to choose your own guests, patrons, tenants, neighbors and employees! [poster]

Santa Ana: California Freedom of Choice Committee, sponsored by America Plus, Inc., [1952]. 17x22 inch poster, neatly fold-creased, with minor toning. Year penciled in lower right corner.

Irvin Borders was the leader of America Plus, Inc., based in Los Angeles, which fought against growing demands by minorities for equality in wages and housing. This poster advocates the passage of new amendments to the Bill of Rights to defend the right to discriminate, to reestablish States Rights, etc. An example, from the section about The American Neighborhood: "The roots of America are in its neighborhood. It is the binding neighborhood tie that is the most precious national asset. America Plus would let the neighborhood roots grow deep. These are sure to die unless the neighborhood has the right to develop its own culture, promote its own happiness, and to protect its own property values. Some people prefer to live in mixed neighborhoods; others do not. Sonoma accepted Sheng after Southwood had voted that it did not want this young Chinese war veteran as a neighbor. If Sonoma wanted Sheng, was not that exclusively the business of those who resided in the neighborhood which he joined? If Southwood did not want Sheng, was that any of the business of the state or of any citizen who DID NOT LIVE In Southwood? There is not a large city in America which does not have its typically Jewish neighborhoods, Negro sections, Chinatowns, Mexican communities. The vast majority of these people prefer to live and work among their own kind. Do we call them bigots and racists on that account? Yet white citizens who prefer lo live in a white neighborhood often are so branded because they insist on residing among their own kind. The people of Southwood did not reject Sheng because they HATED him. Many of them admired him as a person. They did not want him as a neighbor because they feared that his coming might bring an Oriental colony into their midst. And they simply did not choose to live among people whose culture and way of life were different from theirs. Are they to be scorned for that? If so, what becomes of the forgotten right to the pursuit of happiness? Adoption of freedom of choice would guarantee the people of each neighborhood the right, by majority vote, to say who they preferred as neighbors. They could choose anyone the majority wanted, regardless of race, color, nationality or religion."

Cat.No: 305248

Price: $300.00