Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The voice. (Lincoln, Nebraska) 1946-195? | View Entire Issue (Sept. 29, 1949)
TBa<& W@ac® v _PUBLISHED WEEKLY_ “Dedicated to the promotion of the cultural, social and spiritual life of a great people." —— . I Rev. Melvin L. Shakespeare Publisher and Editor Business Address 2225 £> Street f hone 5-64‘J) U No Answer Call b-750b Rubie W. Shakespeare--Advertising and Business Manager Charles Goolsby__—-Associate Editor. Y.M.C.A. Rev I. B. Brooks_ -_—-Promotion Manager Mrs. Joe Green.__ .... —Circulation Manager Member ot the Associated Negro Press and Nebraska Press Association Entered as Second Class Matter, Tune 9, 1947 at the Post Ollice at Lincoln, Nebraska under the Act oi March 3, 1879. 1 year subscription_$2.00 Single copy.. .So EDITORIALS The views expressed in these columns are those of the writer and not necessarily a reflection oi the oolicy of The Voice.— Pub. \ A BETWEEN THE LINES By Dean Gordon B. Hancock, Virginia Union University, v for ANP The Robeson Riots Regardless of our sharp dis agreement with Paul Robeson and his ideological departures, we must not forget nor renounce our democratic traditions. It is quite easy to pass from protest to per secution. The violence attending the appearance of Robeson at Peekskill was a disgrace to our vaunted democratic traditions. No serious student of national and in ternational affairs can view the current scenes without evincing deep concern over matters that are transpiring before our eyes. The pattern of a nazi state are emerging in ways too definite to be disputed. Klanism whether masked or un masked is a symptom of Nazism. The difference between the klan ism of Peekskill and that of At lanta is merely one of location and in both instances the spirit behind these demonstrations is the important thing. The refusal to accomplish matters within the framework of the law is a danger ous symptom regardless of where found. There was a lynching in Peeks kill just as surely as there are lynchings here and there about the South. That no life was lost was only an incident or a miscar riage of circumstances and goes down to the credit of nobody in particular and of everybody in general. The right of protest is a sacred one in the American tra dition but the right of persecution has never been established in any land, say nothing of America. The most troubled angle of the Robeson riots lies in the fact that the protect partakes of the nature of a persecution. From press ac counts it would appear that there is only one Communist in this country and that is Paul Robeson. . It seems to have been forgotten that the Communist party in New York is a well-defined political organization with one of its mem bers elected to one of the high of fices of state and nation. One be gins therefore to wonder why the nation’s vial of wrath against Communism has been preserved in order to be poured out on luck less Robeson. Why is being a Communist so much more dam nable in Negroes than in others? Why a white Communist can sit in the halls of Congress and a Negro Communist cannot sing to an American audience? Are the Robeson riots being used method ically and with malice afore thought to frighten the Negroes into remaining loyal to democ racy? Race enters many situa tions in the Twentieth Century world; but it is difficult to under stand why race must enter into fight against Communism. It is safe to say that the extent to which the Communist fight is centered on race, is the extent to which the fight against Commu nism will be lost.. The undesirable thing about Communism is its basic concepts and major premises and not the fact that Negroes upon provocation may embrace it. The Robeson riots have dangerous im plications in that they are the ra cial manifestation of the justifi able Russophobia that is sweep ing the country. The energy being expended to make an example of Robeson for the benefit of his race could more wisely be expended in promoting a way of life that is inimical to Communism. Democ racy in practice will kill Commu nism root and branch; but rioting based upon race will stimulate the growth of Communism or some thing else just as bad. The mobs staging the Robeson riots should see the dangers that inhere in over-killing their man. Already a wave of sympathy is being generated in behalf of Robe son. It is not good policy- to so Villify a man that friends will spring* up to his defense. The same tactics are being used to de feat Truman in the coming presi dential election eveja as they w*ere used in vain to destroy him prac tically in the last campaign. Had the traducers and hecklers known when to stop, Truman, would as of now, be domiciled in Independence, Mo. But the unholy alliance of Democrats and Repub licans and their over-killing tac tics boomeranged and turned the scales of the election, whereby Truman won, and made himself the political wonder of the Twen tieth Century world. The heck lers and rioters are bent on mak ing an example of Robeson which might spread fear among Negroes, should take care lest they over- j kill their man and popularize his position. Communism must be stopped but Robeson riots will not do it. Such displays of un-Amer icanism defeat their purpose. They kick back! sT~ <L-_ CCU/AI I PAINT AND JbTTMLL VARNISH COMPANY PAINTS • WALLPAPER • 8CPPIJEH 2055 O 2-3622 °l-/J SKA by IAMBS C. OLSON, SuperinUndtnt • TATI HISTORICAL SOCIITT Settlers along the Platte and Elkhorn were greatly disturbed by a Pawnee uprising in the summer of 1859—the “Pawnee War” it is sometimes called. Gen. J. W. Denver, sent out from Washington, had negotiated a treaty with the Pawnees just north of Nebraska City in 1857— a highway marker on U. S. 75 indicates the spot—whereby the Indians had ceded all claims to their lands in eastern Nebraska. Despite this, the tribesmen con tinued to be troublesome to set tlers on the frontier, stealing livestock and plundering cabins. Matters came to a head on July 2, 1859, when the Pawnees destroyed two post offices on the Elkhorn and drove off more than 100 cattle belonging to the set tlers. In fear of their lives the settlers sent their families to the older towns for protection, and petitioned the territorial govern ment for aid. In response to this petition, the territorial militia under Gen. John M. Thayer (later U. S. sen ator and governor) was ordered into the field. When Thayer ar rived in Fontenelle he found most of the settlers from the Elkhorn valley, and from among them raised a force of 194 men, including those whom he had brought from Omaha, the terri torial capital. Armed with rifles, provisions and the one piece of artillery owned by the territory, this force set out in hot pursuit of the red skinned marauders. The fourth day out they were joined by a company of dragoons sent out from Nebraska City, and accom panied by Gen. Samuel W. Black, who had been down there to de liver a Fourth of July oration. When the expedition finally came upon its prey, it found the Indians unwilling to fight. As one of the men described it, the Pawnees “run and threw away everything they had, some took to the river and others up the same, the women to howling . . and they were willing to do or say anything.”' Indeed, the only casualty was a horse belonging to one of the Indians, accidentally shot. The chiefs signed a treaty of peace, agreeing to pay for all damages and giving up six pris oners. On the return to Omaha these tried to escape and were shot. Shortly after this difficulty the Pawnees were put on a reserva tion in Nance county and re portedly committed no further depredations. “The migration of large num bers of Negroes was soon checked, but a few gradually found their way into the West, the Southwest and into the industrial centers of the Appalachian Mountains to work in the factories and mines. The large majority of the Negroes in the South were not sufficiently pioneering to follow those adven turers who were first induced to migrate. A few Negroes of talent and wealth* however, moved to the East and North, believing that they would not encounter condi tions worse than those in the South. In so doing they carried the so-called “race problem” to those sections. There they had to face the discrimination of trade unions and consequently found themselves restricted chiefly to menial pursuits. Such migrants, then, gained one thing while los ing another. * “The ordeal of half-starvation, through which the Negroes in the rural districts passed during these years, did not show any prospects of ending until about the time when the resumption of specie payments in 1879 brightened, somewhat, the apparently dark age through which the South at that time was passing. And even then, the most fortunate Negro tenants did well to come to the end of the year with more than ! what was necessary to maintain them while producing their crops during the next year. For his toil from sunrise to sunset the rural wage earner received forty cents a day, including rations of half a gallon of cornmeal and half a pound of salt-pork. Mechanics thought they were prosperous when they could earn from sev enty-five cents to a dollar and a half a ^ay and boarded them selves.”(l) (1) Carter G. Woodson. Archibald Carey, Jr., Shifted to Quinn Chapel CHICAGO. (ANP). The Rev. Archibald J. Carey, jr., son of the late Bishop Archibald J. Carey, has been shifted from the pastor ate at Woodlawn AME church to Shat of Quinn chapel, it was an nounced here last week by Bishop George W. Baber. The late Bishop Carey once held the pastorate at Quinn chapel. Rev. Carey, who is also an at torney and city alderman, had just completed 19 years of min istry at Woodlawn, During his assign-^^^^here, he modernized the chuVcn^building and pur chased a community>house and three lots for future expansion. How tl fcl£R/ lOAt I SR1ITHS •>'£,& Sjatms. BREAD / The % First National Bank of Lincoln 10th Si “O” St. Member F.D.I.C. TYPEWRITERS ANY MAKE SOLD RENTED REPAIRED Nebraska Typewriter Co. 130 No. 12th St. Phone 2-2157 Lincoln, Neb. LINOLEUMS TILES METALS SHADES VENETIAN ELINDS EXPERT INSTALLATION AMERICAN LINOLEUM & SHADE CO. 114 No. 14 <-5723 PEAK of QUALITY _____fc Gillett Cream Poultry £r Eggs Plenty of Parking Space 528 No. 9tb Pel. 2-2001 A Good Place to ^ BUY OR SELL YOUR CAR OR PICKUP Always a large stock to pick from. » THE AUTO MART 1641 O Lincoln 2-3665