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About The monitor. (Omaha, Neb.) 1915-1928 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 13, 1925)
i The Monitor A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER DEVOTED PRIMARILY TO THE INTERESTS OF COLORED AMERICANS I ---• PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY AT OMAHA, NEBRASKA. BY THE MONITOR PUBLISHING COMPANY , Entered a« Second-<'las* Mall Matter July 2. 1915. at the Postoffice at Omaha. Nebraska, under the Act of March 3, 1879 _ | THE REV. JOHN "ALBERT" WILLIAMS -----Editor i W. W. MOSELY, Lincoln. Neb--Aetoclate Editor LUCINDA W. WILLIAMS --Buslne,* Manager i -- i SUBSCRIPTION RATES, $2.00 A YEAR; *1.25 • MONTHS; 75c 3 MONTHS Advertising Rates Furnished Upon Application j Address, The Monitor, Postoffice Box 1204, Omaha, Neb. Telephone WEbster 4243 ■ J »»»♦ »> ARTICLE XIV, CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES ; Citizenship Rights Not to Be Abridged ; 1. All persons bom or naturalized in the United States. ■ ! and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the ! ;; United States and of the State wherein they reside. No ; ’ state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the ■ ! privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor 1 ;; shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or prop- ; 1 erty without due process of law, nor deny to any person ; within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. BOOOOOOOOOOOOO 1-M"! TAUGHT BY ELECTION THE RECENT elections held through out the country offord much food for thought and teach some plain and impor tant lessons. In some places, like De troit, Michigan, for example, vital politl cal issues were subordinated to the para mount issue of tolerance versus inloler ance; or to the consideration of the ques tion as to whether a man's religion or race rather than his character and qualifies tions to render efficient public service as an American citizen, should be the deter mining factor. This is the issue between Klan and anti-Klan forces and be it said to their credit that the voters of Detroit and many other places gave the only an swer, and that decisively, that real 100 pei cent Americans could give. In some other places the forces of intolerance won but with such reduced majorities as to snow their power is weakening, though suffici ently strong yet to constitute a real and serious menace not to be underestimated It is unfortunate that at this age religion or race should be raised as issues which becloud important governmental policies local, state and national; but the issue being raised it must be met and settled right and that is Upon the ideals of* a true democracy. This issue vitally affects us as a group and its right settlement will help our status as American citizens. The returns from New York and New Jersey, where the Democrats, who love us no more ardently than do our professed Republican friends, but who, appreciating the value of votes in winning an election have shown a disposition to treat us fair won largely by our votes, are not witnoui significance. Here is a clear and unmis takeable declaration of political emancl pation. It is very evident that the race if learning to cast its vote where it is be lieved the largest and best direct results will be obtained irrespective of party This is a great gain. Loyal as we have been and desire to be to the Republican party, the division of our vote and its evi dent alignment in the recent election, serves notice that when and where that party shows indifference to it. it will be met -with indifference from us. Racial political emancipation and a clearly de fined and uncompromising battle against racial and religious intolerance are among the lessons taught by the recent election. UNITED ACTION OUR PEOPLE everywhere are waking up to the necessity of unity. We have not learned this lesson yet, but we are gradually learning it. Wherever groups of our people assemble some one empha sizes the necessity of union and concord and the foolhardiness of separation and disunity. Forming one tenth of the popu lation we are not seriously considered be cause we have not yet learned team work. We should unite everywhere for mutual protection of our rights as citizens and for the purpose of industrial and economic development. THE COMMUNITY CHEST THE DRIVE FOR the Commanity Chest to provide funds for thirty-one charitable and welfare organizations begins Monday morning. The sum asked is $511,000. This ■I .... UJ--1J_L_ __ is not a large sum if every one will give his share. It would be, and will prove, a large sum to raise unless every fellow will do his bit. There will be those who can and will give in large amounts; but the vast number of subscriptions must come from the small givers. When soli citors call on you next week be sure to give as generously as you can. in assign . ing territory to canvassers a large district from Cuming to Lake and from Sixteenth to Thirtieth has been assigned to workers of our group anil it is hoped that the returns from this territory will compare favorably witlj other sections. Of course our people are scattered throughout the city and wherever they may be The Moni tor is counting on them to do their best Everybody give for the Community Chest. WHY WORRY? THE Rhinelander case now has the limelight. There is nothing extraordinary about it except that the man in the case has millions or is the heir to millions. There is so much intermixture and coming ling of blood in the people of these United States that it is a hazardous task to try to predict with certainty as to just who is of pure Nordic blood and who is not. Fifty yeras from now people will not care a whoop about this question of blood, but character alone will be the thing that will count. As a matter ol fact nearly every American city has unions such as that of Rhinelander and Miss Jones, sans the money. So why worry? Keep smiling and hoeing your row. If you have got a job hold onto it ant do your best. Winter is just over tin hill. Omaha. Nebr. Nov. 10. 1925 To the Editor of the Monitor: N. A. A. C. P, Meeting, Nov. 15th, 1925. Next Sunday the National Association’s Branch will hold its regular by monthly meeting at the North Side Branch of thr Y. W. C. A. for the purpose of electing officers for the coming year, is is hoped that the members and friends will be or ! hand to take part and elect a full com plement of men and women to carry for ward this very important work. With persecution, segregation, prejudice and trickery on every hand it is high time the Negroes all over America wake up and begin to fortify themselves before it is too late. The National Office is now ap pealing for funds to help in the defense of Dr. Sweet and those noble men that helped to defend his home and rights and in that defense were forced to repulse his assailants with shot. How soon we may have to do the same thing we do not know. Dr. Sweet is now charged with murder. The Association has engaged the country's most noted lawyers in this de fense and are asking the Negroes of Amer ica to stand behind them in this fight, re member this YOUR FIGHT for YOUR RIGHTS and we of Omaha cannot af ford not to hear the call. Negroes here go on record with a large contribution in this defense. Will YOU send in or bring in YOUR SHARE? Remember the time, place, purpose, and cause and get together, act together, and a A a a a a a - - - - - - - - -«* VfPPTTT^TTTTvTTfTTVV/V v tvttt * » .. * THE NEGRO’S CONTRIBUTION NOT NEGLIGIBLE | ! A moment’s thought will easily convince open-minded <\ persons that the contribution of the Negro to American !! • nationality as slave, freedman and citizen was far from • > I! negligible. No lenient of American life has so subtly and £ > yet dearly woven itself into warp and woof of our thinking ! and acting as the American Negro. He came with the first 1 explorers and helped in exploration. His labor was from the first the foundation of the American prosperity and < > the cause of the rapid growth of the new world in social and • > economic importance. Modern democracy rests not simply an the striving white men in Europe and America but also ■ • an Hie persistent struggle of the black men in America for < two centuries. The military defense of this land has de- < ponded upon Negro soldiers from the time of the Colonial ; wan dawn to Hie struggle of the World War. Not only does fee Negro appear, reappear and persist in American litera fero bat a Negro American literature has arisen of deep ; Heidflnanrr aad Negro folk lore and music are among the ' ■ cfecioest heritages of this land. Finally the Negro has played 1 m paoaHar spiritual role in America as a sort of living, f ! ■--Lii.i— test cf our ideals and an example of the faith, fena Mi tderaarr of our religion.—Du Beis, “The Gift of I :; mSt rdk.” H9 | •; s.. a I be together for your God, Country and RACE. Bv The Press and Publicity Com. H. W. B. Chairman. DARROW AND THE NARROW By William Pickens (For The Associated Negro Press' Thd most impressive thing about tne trial of Dr. Ossian Sweet and the other I ten colored people in Detroit, so far as the ; effort to select the jury, was the fact that | the GREAT MAJORITY of white people, even in a cosmopolitan northern city, admit under the probing of the attorney for de fense that they are “too prejudiced” against colored people to sit properly on a jury to try them. It was evident to the onlooker that some of them did not intend to make this admission when they came up to be tested and questioned, but the quiet, good natured. hut persistent mind of Clarence Darrow would finally bring them to it. At last a prospective woman-juryman would cry out, as if in complete capitulation: “I am very prejudiced!” Or some man would finally confess: “Because of something that happened five or six years ago, I guess I cooldn’t have an unbiased judment.” Or some other fellow who had been left on the wrack since yesterday, and who is suddenly asked now whether he had made up his own mind that he could he a just jutlge and accept the evidence independent of his bias, says defeatedly: “I guess I had better not sit." To an intelligent colored man, sitting by and looking off. these people seem to be possessed of some awful disease, and Clarence Darrow', cool and humane, seems to be probing into them for the source and center of it. He does not act as if hd wished to hurt them." He seems evi dently donj$ his best to hurt as Ittle as possible. Now and then by some good natured remark, or some humorous turn given to the response of his half-writh ing patient, he makes them all laugh even the patient himself. But, although he seems not to want to* hurt, he seems determined to find the root of that can cer of race-hatred, of inhumanity, of bru tal prejudice. He usually finds it. To the onlooker, who has had much exper ience with this prejudice, it was evident that sometimes the man under the knife was doing his best to conceal his preju dice and to get to stay on dial jury,— for reasons best known to himself. There was one horn-rimmed-spectacled fellow ! who was lying, just as sure as we are alive, when he said that he did not be ! long to “any kind of a secret society” except the lodge which he mentioned. We wondered as we looked on whether Dar | row tiso felt that the fellow was lying. Darrow never raised his voice, never appeared to feel anything, never appeared to resent any degree of prejudice which the subject disclosed. It was as if the human soul to be examined took the seat there before him in the jury row. fully clothed in PRESUMPTIONS and assuuip tions. And then Harrow would begin to take the clothing off that soul, first by one question and then another,—first the outer cloak of Concealment and then on down to the last under garment, until the soul was ashamed of its exposure toward RACE and JUSTICE. Sometimes the soul was ashamed of its exporure sometimes it was brazen and defiant, even sometimes almost boastful of the incur ableness of the disease which wav dis covered within. It is a serious commentary on Ameri can civilization—this trial. And it is noth ing less than a great human show to see this broad-minded American, DAR ROW, gently, humanely, and yet relent lessly exposing the ugliness of these other American souls who are so NARROW. “COLOR,” COUNTEE CULLEN’S FIRST VOLUME OF POEMS WINS POPULAR FAVOR Although Color, just publshed by Harpers, is Countee Cullen’g first vol ume of verse, this youthful poet is so well known to poetry lovers, that cri tics were clamoring for review copies long before the book issued from the press. Readers of Hunter’s Magazine, The American Mercury, The "Nation, | etc. are familiar with Mr. Cullen’s verse, and he has been, often before the public as the winner of poetry prizes. While at De Witt-Clinton High School, Mr. Cullen was awarded first prize in a contest conducted by the Federation of Women's Clubs with ' his poem, "I Have a Rendezvous With ; Life.” He has twice won the second 1 prize in the contest held by the Poe | try Society of America. Recently, he was awarded the Amy Spfngarn prize for poetry in the contest conducted by The Crisis. Only several days ago the Associated Press carried the news that he has been awarded the John Reed Memorial prize. Countee Cullen graduated from New York University last June, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He was elected to Phi Betta Kappa in March. Now, he is at Harvard, work ing for a Master’s Degree. It was in the Graduate School of Arts and Sci ences at Harvard, that an interview er for The Christian Science Monitor found the twenty-two-year old poet last week. She wrote of him In a two column account of her talk with him: "Mr. Cullen’s father is a clergyman. There clings about the son the inef fable benediction of a gentle back ground, with kindliness and sympathy and courage for its embellishment.” Mr. Cullen told The Christian Sci ence Monitor reporter that after he finishes his graduate work at Har vard, he will possibly teach. “Per haps it is not what I would wish most,” he said, “but it will enable me to go on writing, which I must. My race has things to say which will help the others to understand us. You will / know that we who have been given voices must not remain apart from our obligation. It is not for us to mourn prejudice, but to help to fa shion the earnest which will even tually overcome it.” Many of the poems in Color are, to use his own phrase, “expressions which will etch the truths of our race more distinctly than simplei propaganda can.” Take, for instance, this poem: FOR A LADY 1 h>OW She even thinks that up in heaven Her class lies late and snores While poor black cherubs rise at seven To do celestial chores. And his poem: HARSH WORLD THAT LASHKST ML (For Walter White) Harsh World that lashest me each day, Dub me not cowardly because I seem to find no sudden way To throttle you or clip your claws No force compels me to the wound Whereof my body bears the scar; Although my feet are on the ground Doubt not my eves are on a star 9 You cannot keep me captive, World Fntrammeled, chained, spit on, and spurned. More free tharr all your flags unfurl ed, I give my body to be burned. I mount my cross because I will, I drink the hemlock which you give For wine which you withhold—and still, Because 1 will not die, I live. I live because an ember in Me moulders to regain its fire, Because what is and what has been Not yet have conquered my desire. I live to prove the groping clod Is surely ^nore than simple dust: I live to see the breath of '■Cod Beautify the carnal crust. But when 1 will, World, I can go, Thqugh triple bronze should wall me round, Slip past your guard as swift as snow. Translated without pain or sound. Within myself is lodged the key To that vast room of couches laid For those too proud to live and see Their dreams of light eclipsed in shade. On the jacket of Color, Carl Van Vechten says: “One of the best Negro writers, Countee Cullen is the youngest ot them all. He was barely twenty-one 'when The Shroud of Color (published in November, 1924, issue of the Ameri can Mercury) created a sensation an alagotis to that created by the appear-' ance of Edna 6t. Vincent Millay’* Renascence in 1912, lifting its authoi at once to a position in the front rank of contemporary poets, white or black...” Walter While says: “Counlee Culleq belongs to tliar company of lyricists of which A. E. Houseman and Edna St. Vincent Mil lay are the bright stars.... His verse | has an emotional depth which is ex | traordinary in one of Mr. Cullen's years. He etches his emotions and I pictures with acid clearness, while un derneath lies a genuine and sympa- j thetic understanding of the Joys and sorrows of life itself." If your local book-seller does not have Color in stock, you can order it j direct from the publisher, Harper and Brothers, 49 East 33rd Street, New York City. KLAN FLIRTING WITH NEGROES. II- WS New York,— (By the \ undated Negro Press) According to information gathered j by investigators for the New York World the Ku Klux Klan began a (iglil in Tues day’s election whieb is expected lo sounu the death knell of the Knights of Colum bus. It is understood that the klansmeu have been courting the favor of Jews and Negroes in the hope of be^ng able lo des troy their arch enemy, the Roman Calh j dies. i Newest in Milliners’ Goods PARTY HATS FOR ALL OCCASIONS New hand-made hat*. 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WHITE j — ii • A thrilling story depicting race conditions in ths ! ! ! South. <1 ► ] | ; Critical book reviewers pronounce it a master piece. I Should be read by EVERY AMERICAN, Black ; er White. i $2.59 A COPY ! — j; ; For Sale by The Monitor and the Omaha Branch •f the N. A. A. C. F. EAO LE - ■ L 1/^ RED BAND \ mu/ m ^±^EAGLFP£NC/LCO. NEWYORK.U$X . j 24th and Decatur St*. Phone WEbater 5192 ;; I. LEVY, Druggist FREE DELIVERY . « ► CENOL & MYERS AGENCY \\ , < > We Have It ► < ► YOU CAN HAVE THE KIND OF JOB YOU ► < > ARE I/OOKING FOR by listing your name and telephone number with ! ! o ■•i ALFRED JONES ► < » Catering and Employment Office 1322 DODGE STREET AT M47 j ■ > 1 ✓ ‘ * \ ’ ,