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About The monitor. (Omaha, Neb.) 1915-1928 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 7, 1927)
, ♦ i ****** THE MQNJTOR j ! > A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER DEVOTED PRIMARILY TO THE INTERESTS A < > OF COLORED AMERICANS •> ' > PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY AT OMAHA, NEBRASKA, BY THE •{• « • MONITOR PUBLISHING COMPANY *? ' ’ Entered as Second-Class Mail Matter July 2, 1915, at the Postoffice »t j J Omaha. Nebraska, under the Act of March 3. 1879, __ I ° TflE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS_Ed Iter Y ' > W. W. MOSELY, Lincoln. Neb_AstociGte Editor y J J LUCINDA W. WI_LLIAM8 _Bostnea Manager *:* J? SUBSCRIPTION RATES, $«..0O A YEAR; $1.25 6 MONTHS; 75c 3 MONTHS £ , , Advertising Rates Furnished Upon Application .J. <■ Address, The Menitor, Postoffice Box 1204, Omaha, Neb. •{• '< ’> Telephone WEbster 4243 J AN IMPORTANT WORD TO SUBSCRIBERS. | ;; The postal regulations require that for newspapers to ■ • be sent through the mails subscriptions, must be paid in X !! advance. A reasonable time, thirty days; is allowed for X ;; renewals. At the expiration of this period, where sub- £ ; • scriptions are not renewed, the paper must be stopped. X !! If this is not done, postal privileges are denied the publi- X ;; cation. Those, therefore, who desire to continue receiving £ ;; The Monitor must see to it that their subscriptions are X ! paid, as the law requires, in advance. Statements are be- X |", ing sent to all those who owe, or our collector will call— y j; and unless your subscription is paid we will be compelled •{• < ’ to cut off your paper which, of course, we do not want .i 1! to do. . x ;; We, as publishers, MUST comply with the law or f j; pay the penalty. X 11+<^*XX”XX“X“XX-X“XX"X"X"X"XX“XXXX"X-X“XX“:*'X“X";”W,X;,<^ SCHOOL MANAGER _ i The Board of Education has | elected a school manager. The choice has fallen upon Osgood T. Eastman, a man of wide and successful business experience. He has been chosen for a term of two years. This will give ample time to demonstrate his ability for the place and the wisdom of this action which has been a subject of long dis c u s s i o n. Concentrating the business administration under one head ought to make for efficiency and economy. Other cities have found a school manager a most ’satisfactory official. We see no reason why this should not prove so in Omaha. Mr. Eastman will enter upon his office as the unanimous choice of the Board. His business career fits him for the big job which he has accepted. The Monitor ex tends congratulations and wishes him success. SCHOOL TEACHERS Our people must not rest or cease their just demands for teachers of our race in the public schools of Omaha. The teachers' committee is headed by a fair-minded woman in the person of Mrs. A. H. Fetters We are advised that other members on that committee be members on that body believe in justice and right. Applicants should be pressed for appoint ment of well-qualified teach ers of our race upon the teach ing corps of the city. We have young women, graduates of our leading universities, and with experience who can measure up to every require men demanded as qualifica ions for a place upon the teaching corps. ABLE TO SPEAK FOR HIMSELF The Negro in every com munity has reached that de-1 gree of intelligence and self respect that he is able to speak for himself and to choose those whom he desires to represent | him. He wecomes most cor d i a 1 1 y the co-operation of broad-minded white friends, of whose sincerity he is not in doubt, but he respectfully re-, sents dictatorship as to whom he shall or shall not accept asj his leaders, local, state or na tional. CONGRATULATIONS, REPRESENTATIVES The Monitor extends sincere congratulations to Representa tives Barnett and Singleton, who have taken their seats in the Nebraska House of Rep resentatives. We are confi dent that they will make good. May their tribe increase. Why should not some one of our group in Omaha file for City Commissioner? How would Guy B. Robbins, R. B. Price, Edward Killingsworth, Dr. Hutten, Dr. Peebles, T. P. Mahammitt, Eli Pryor or Al phonso Wilson do? We wonder if our people cannot unite upon some one constructive program for the community which we can put over? What do you think about it. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON WAS NOT OPPONENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION Criticism of the Famous Founder of Tuskegee Institute Draws Strong Protest from Friends of Educator. Chicago, 111.—The statement that the late Booker T. Washington was opposed to the higher education of the Negro and to the Negro aspiring for any place in the political life of the nation, made by James Craig | Gordon in the second installment of ! his series of articles on ‘ America’s Negro Problem” appearing in the New York Graphic, has brought i forth a pointed protest from Albon L. Holsey, secretary of Tuskegee In stitute, who served under the late i Dr. Washington. In a letter to Mr. Gordon, which was made public today, Mr. Holsey declares that a deluge of letters “from friends of both races in New York, who have urged us to protebt against the statement” and pointed lout the public utterances of Dr. Washington “will show that he not only believed in higher education and political rights for his race, but advocated them.” To substantiate his claim Mr. Hnl sey quoted at length from various articles and addresses made by Dr. Washington in which the late leader made such statements as: “No state in the South can make a law that will provide an opportuni ty or temptation or an ignorant white man to vote and withhold the ty or temptation for an ignorant I Negro, without injuring both. The Negro does not object to an educa tion or property test, but let the law be so clear that no one clothed with state authority will be tempted to perjure or degrade himself by put | ting one interpretation upon it for the white man and another for the black man. Study the history of the South and you will find that | where there has been the most dis honesty in the matter of voting, there you will find today the lowest moral condition of both races." The foregoing statement was made ! by Dr. Washington in an open letter addressed to the Louisiana Constitu tional convention in 1898. Concerning Dr. Washington’s stand on the question of higher education, Mr. Holsey referred to his activities las a trustee of Fisk university and Howard university and to the large number of university graduates that composed the faculty of Tuskegee Institute under Dr. Washington’s ad ministration. The doctor’s own views on the subject were quoted as folows: “I believe that nothing will help my own people in your state (Louisiana) as provision at some institution for the highest academic and normal training, in connection with thor I ough training in agriculture, me chanics, and domestic economy” and further: “In the work of moulding and guiding public sentiment that shall forever maintain peace and good will between the races on terms commendable to each it is on the Ne gro who comes out of our univer sities, colleges, and industrial schools that we must largely depend.” RECEIVES MERITED PROMOTION Mr. J. Dillard Crawford, clerk in the county clerk’s office, has been promoted to the position of assistant auditor. Mr. Crawford has been in the office for two years and has given excellent satisfaction. The Monitor heartily congratulates him. “HOW DO NEGROES RIDE IN THE SOUTH?” There Are Many Answers in Many Ways in Many States—Some Pathetice, and Others Disgusting "The Arkansas Traveler” Tells of Facts From Observation and Various Experiences in the South (By the Arkansas Traveler) Jacksonville, Fla.—The people of this state are much interested in the charges brought against the State of Florida and the Pullman Company by Mrs. Brookins for being ejected from a Pullman, and throWn into jail, and fined, while an interstate passenger. This action serves, in a very timely way, to give the spotlight to Negro traveling in the South. “How do Negroes travel South?” That question is constantly asked by people North. There are many an swers. They are all true. Negroes of the South travel every way there is to travel, and there are all degrees of commotion because of it. Perhaps I am in a position to help the general public—and I mean general. 1 have traveled all over the South many years, and I have seen all sides. I want to help white as well as colored people. I want to be fair, frank, and free to tell the facts, otherwise, noth ing avails. There are Separate coach, or “Jim Crow” car laws throughout the South. These laws are enforced for the comforts and benefits of the white passengers on railroads, and not Negroes. This is evident prac tically everywhere. There are dif ferences in enforcement, as between prohibition enforcement in New York and Kansas. There are differences in different states, different rail roads, and otherwise. “Jim Crow ism” primarily is malicious, there fore, it cannot be just or fair. Georgia Furnishes Example of Differences There is a difference in the degree of enforcement in two chief cities of Georgia, Atlanta and Savannah. Take the principal railway stations. In the Union station at Savannah, there is but a trass rail that divides the “Colored” from the “White” sec tion, just that and nothing more. If there has to be separation, that ought to be fair enough. In Atlanta, at the Terminal station, colored passen^brs are forced up a long alleyway, con demned by all leaders, white and black, who wish fairness, as a dis gusting exhibition of prejudicial ar rangement. The white passenger room is large, clean and well lighted; the Negro passenger room is small, dingy and ill-kept. The shame is on Atlanta, not the Negro. It would1 seem that the vaunted civic pride of Atlanta, one of the gateways of the South, would demand a change. “We have discussed it, and are trying to find a way out,” said a brilliant young white leader to me, who agreed that a change should come, and soon. The pathetic facts of Negroes trav eling South comes in the demand for Negroes of intelligence, wealth and wide influence, commercially or oth erwise, riding in “Jim Crows” and re duced to insolences, from white and black, that should not be tolerated in a great republic. The fair-minded white America, South, is seeing this, and as a matter of real fact, there is a loosening up of the “Jim Crow” strings, by special arrangements, in many places. But, why should there be “bootlegging” in train accommo dations? There are very few of the big cen ters of the South, if any, that do not give Pullman accommodations to those “in the know.” That means in Richmond, Norfalk, Durham, Raleigh, Savannah, Atlanta, Jacksonville, New Orleans, Nashville, Louisville, Mont gomery, and other points. The influ ence for good of Tuskegee Institute is noticeable in all that section of Alabama and around Atlanta. The railroads do hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of business with Tuskege Institute and the United States Veterans’ Hospital, in freight and passenger business, and “money talks.” This same fact is true in North Carolina, where the beneficial and practical influence for good of the nationally famous “Durham group” is recognized by railroads and the public. The worst states in the United States for the Negro to get first class accommodations are Texas, Mississip | pi, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. Yet, I 1 know of instances where we have got them in these states. It would seem that in Hot Springs, National Park, Arkansas, the business men of that section, white and black, including Little Rock, would get together in a demand for first class accommoda tions for those who can afford them, as strictly a business proposition for the railroads and the business ad vantages. I know hundreds of men and women who would spend from one week to two months at Hot Springs each year, if it were not for the “Jim Crow” service and the bald frankness of denial of first-class service to Negroes. The folly of it all is in this: I took a first-class train out of Little Rock to Kansas City, and the agent informed me that “I am sorry, but you cannot get ac commodations until you reach Cof feyville, Kansas.” I reached Coffey ville at 1 a. m., after sleeping on a pillow furnished by the Negro porter in the “Jim Crow” car, for 25 cents. On reaching Kansas, I went from the coach I was in, on the same train, back into the Pullman, got a bed, and rode into Kansas City without anyone having heart failure. Is it not a terrible state of mind that pre vented me from getting into my Pull man at Little Rock? I’ll say it is. Law of Supply and Demand Helping Conditions Railroads are not charitable. They are money makers. Therefore, the law of supply and demand is helping | the “Jim Crow” situation more than : resolutions and protests. First, there are busses, there are becoming splen did bus lines, owned and operated by Negroees for Negroes, in many sec tions. There is one line from Jack sonville to Miami, Fla., and there are no finer busses running. Then, Ne groes are owning.cars that take them where they wish to go. Anywhere within 200 miles is merely like step ping out in the back yard. Hundreds use their cars going longer distances. They are beating the white man at his own game. The “Jim Crow” car was made to humiliate the better class of Negroes as well as to sepa rate the humbler class; and don’t for get that point. In another article I will tell what I have found in the way of “Jim Crow” cars on the various railroads of the South, their accommodations, and the type of people who use them, and the talk that goes on in them. I will tell the truth, let it hurt who it will, white or black. There are two sides, I must admit; let’s look at them both from all angles. The white and black should see the side of the other, not with maliciousness, but with sympathy, and then find the best way out. That way can be found with common sense on both sides. BANQUET GIVEN FOR STATE REPRESENTATIVES Last Thursday night a banquet was given at the I)e Luxe cafe in honor of F. L. Barnett and Dr. John Single ton, State Representatives from the Ninth and Tenth Legislative districts. Dr. J. H. Hutten was toastmaster. In his brief introductory address he called attention to the unique posi tion of Nebraska, that despite the comparatively small race population, thirty years ago Nebraska had a (member of the State legislature and that now, after a lapse of many years, two had been chosen, which gives the state an enviable distinc tion and forecasts larger things. He then called upon the following speak ers in turn who responded with brief and well-chosen addresses: Rev. John Albert Williams, Attorney A. P. Scruggs; F. L. Barnett, Dr. John A. Singleton, Dr. W. W. Peebles, J. H. Broomfield, M. F. Singleton, R. L. Williams and Dr. L. E. Britt, who proved himself the orator of the evening. Mr. Barnett stated that he had no expectation of setting the world on fire, or turning the world upside down, but that he would" endeavor to do his duty to his constituents in such a way that no one would have to apologize for having voted for him. That he desired to be of genuine service in any way that, he could. Dr. Singleton said that he was deeply moved and inspired by the event of the evening. That he real ized that a hard fight was before him and that the eyes of the state ! would be upon the Negro legislators and that he was not unmidful that , pitfalls might be set to discredit them. He intended to try to make friends and take an intelligent part j in legislation and would do his best to make a record that would be a credit to his race and city. The singing of “America” Jed by Rufus C* Long concluded the pro gram. ST. PHILIP’S PARISH MEETING St. Philip’s parish held its annual parish meeting in the Guild Rooms, Wednesday night after shortened evensong in the church. Reports were received rom the various aux iliaries which showed the activities of the year. The financial reports, including those of the auxiliaries, showed total receipts for the year of over $3,200, and expenditures of ap proximately $2,900. Of the $300 on hand, $175 is ip the sinking fund of the Woman’s Auxiliary, and $124 in a trust fund, and so is not avail able for current expenses, which showed a deficit of $314, which is more than covered by outstanding pledges due from members of the church. Dr. Herbert W’iggins was elected senior warden; J. Francis Smith, ju nior warden; Henry W. Black, Wil liam G. Haynes, Charles W. Dicker son, Charles T. Smith and Calvin S. Spriggs, vestrymen. Adjournment was then taken until Monday, Jan uary 17, when two other vestrymen, and delegates and alternates to the Diocesan Council will be chosen. THE BISHOPS’ CRUSADE The American Episcopal Church is undertaking what is known as the j Bishops’ Crusade, a national drive for evangelism and the arousing of the members of that/great commun ion to a sense of their personal re sponsibility to Christ, not only for | their living more earnest and con secrated lives but alBo winning others to Christian discipleship. This crusade begins throughout the country Sunday. In Omaha spe cial speakers will be at Trinity Ca thedral, St. John's and the Good Shepherd at 11 o’clock, while in all other parish churches special ser vices will be by the respective pas tors. Sunday night there will be united services at Trinity Cathedral at 8 o’clock with sermons by Bishop John Chanler White of Springfield and Archdeacon Christian of Kan sas. All next week there will be ser vices and conferences each day from 7:30 a. m„ until 8 p. m., at the Ca thedral. At 8 p. m. each night Bish op White will be the preacher. Miss Helen Nails entertained 30 boys and girls, December 27, in honor of her fifteenth birthday an niversary, at the residence of her grandmother, Mrs. C. H. Abrams, 2405 Blondo Street. A delightful time was spent by all present. * GAYETY THEATRE Lovers of burlesque can really be pleased when they learn that Sam Morris, popular producer of clever attractions, is in town this week with his all new “Step Along” company, he is bringing his own show intact fo«. an engagement of one week at the Gayety, popular Harney street playhouse The same show that has broken house records wherever it has been presented so far this season, will be here, and Manager Reider ex pects to hang up a new record for the Gayety, especially when such well known stage celebrities as Agnes Nichols, known as the Queen of Syncopation and the Two-in-One Girl. Miss Nichols has the distinc tion of being the most perfect form ed woman on the American stage to day. She not alone is beautiful to gaze upon, but has entertaining charms far above the average enter tainer seen here so far this season. Then these is that exceptionally fun ny comedian, Harry Jackson, with a new bag of wit and humor. The Nichols Sisters have a very clever harmony singing and eccentric danc ing offering that proves very effec tive. Harry (Katz) Fields is another comedian who can make an audience laugh. Frank Duframe, Harry Ra mear, Eloise Dwan, Mae Lorraine and Mae Mason are others in the large cast that Mr. Morris has as sembled in his new show. Then there is the addition of the Sixteen Danc ing Demons, who all lend valuable as sistance in making "Step Along” one of the big artistic and hilarious en gagements of the season. Many spe cial electrical spectacles and odd nov elties have been embedded in this of fering, that is said to make an audi ence gasp in amazement. Among them may be mentioned “The Night in Spain” and the “Elio Garden,” two most brilliant spectacles that will leave a lasting and favorable impres sion. f j: | Omaha's Reliable | Race Weekly | x f f ❖ X ? % T X % ! $2.00 a Year | x x v v ♦t«*tMt**t*******>***t********** *»* ****** *t* *t* *!* ♦«* *t* *♦* •** *«* *** ♦** *♦* *t* *** wmmmmmmmmmmamMmmmmmmmmmmmm