One of the best racial stories I ever read in comics was in
WEIRD FANTASY 18, "Judgement Day" written by Al Feldstein, with art by Joe Orlando. Cover-dated March-April 1953.
It's about an Earth astronaut who travels to a planet of robots, and there's segregation on the planet between orange robots and blue robots.
This was published at a time when segregation in the deep South was in full swing, and the tensions were running particularly high. I recall reading a commentary by Gaines that they lost some distribution for the story, but were willing to, because they were very proud of the story.
And rightly so.
I consider it the single best story E.C. ever published.
I first read it in the 1975 DC fanzine, AMAZING WORLD OF DC COMICS # 6, a special tribute-issue to Joe Orlando, and that was the representative art sample of his work, that he himself chose to run with that issue.
It lost a bit in black and white, but even in that limited form, it was very powerful.
