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About The voice. (Lincoln, Nebraska) 1946-195? | View Entire Issue (Oct. 27, 1949)
TIh® ^f®n<g@ PUBLISHED WEEKLY__ “Dedicated to the promotion oj the cultural, social and spiritual life of a great people.** _ Rev. Melvin L. Shakespeare Publisher and Editor Business Address 2225 S Street _ ___ Phone 5-6491 If No Answer Call 5-i508 Rubie W Shakespeare.Advertising and Business Manager Phuries Goolshv ... Associate Editor, Y.M.C.A. I^orothy Greene .• ■ Office Secretary Mrs. Joe Greene.Circulation Manager Member of the Associated Negro Press and Nebraska Press Association ..Entered as Second Class Matter. June 9, 1947 at the Post Office at Lincoln, Nebraska under the Act of March 3, 1679. 1 year subscription..$2.00 Single copy.5c --9-— /nCBRHSKR T~<L— I / 1 EDITORIALS M / \^\ m m The views expressed in these columns / ' A • are those of the writer and not necessarily [AJ^SOCW^TIOn fj # ^ a ref,<,c,ion ol the P°licy of The Voice.— 'll/* /) If NATIONAL rrh>ji*iD editorial If LAsrTlA/Ty L—r ASSOCIATION Bill Hastie And Ben Davis In Somerset Maughm’s book, “Of Human Bondage” a young doctor becomes very much attached to s girl of doubtful morals who almost drags him down, but he meets the “right” girl later and ends up living a clean happy life doing good for people. It seems that the relatively small things in life build up and in the end become important in the thread of the v Fates. William Hastie and Benja min Davis are men of similar backgrounds, but last week one became a federa^judgc the other, a federal prisoner. Hastie and Davis met as Fresh men at Amherst college and both went to Harvard law' school, both practiced law in southern cities and both had a deep abhorance of the discriminations of the seg regated system. Tjast week Hastie w^as named District judge (for Pennsylvania, Delaware. New' Jersey and the Virgin Islands). The real sig nificance of this appointment lies not in its political reward, but in the fact that after over 300 years, * a Negro has been given a court bench next to the highest in the | land, where the law can be inter preted in its more equalitarian , aspects and where cases can be more quickly passed up the su pren > court for final decision. Judge Hastie, then, is in a posi tion where his brilliant legal mind can do much for the cause of democratic government. Davis was one of eleven com munist leaders convicted last week of conspiracy to overthrow the government by teaching com munist doctrines. The moneyed publisher, with good political con tacts, and popularity with Har lem’s half million Negroes, Finns and Latins was sent off to jail for his views on what America needs—(in a communistic way). In this connection it is interest ing to note that in its long his i tory of violence and murder and, 1 not only threatening, but actually thwarting the democratic process, the KKK has never had a mem ber jailed for holding its views. I guess everybody works for integrity between actions and be liefs. but one thing seems certain —that where democracy works, compnunism hasn't a chance. —CMG. Mallard Home Burnt By Klan LYONS, Ga. (ANP). According to information received here last week, the home of Mrs. Amy James Mallard, widow of the lynch mob victim, Robert Mal lard, was burned to the ground by Ku Klux Klansmen last July 4 and farmers in the Altamaha river section have just decided to tell it. Widow Mallard, who now lives in New York where her daughter, Doris Byron, is a student at New York university, learned that her house had been destroyed by fire three months ago. Mrs. Mallard’s husband was murdered near his farm house last November and, following a trial in which she was accused of shooting him, the widow left this little town never to return. Friends of the Mallards noti fied the widow's lawyer, Mrs. Cora Walker Bailey, because she had asked that chemical supplies belonging to a Boston concern be shipped north. African Colonial Issue Goes To UN Subcommittee LAKE SUCCESS. N. Y. (ANP). A special 21 nation subcommittee ■yvas handed the job of drafting . *ian settling the future of the former Italian possessions in Africa. The UN General Assembly’s Po litical and Security committee set up the subcommittee, and will not hold any sessions itself until the sub group reports. Libya will be dealt with first and Eritrea and Somaliland will be next. ' . The First Presbyterian Church Extends Cordial Best Wishes to The Voice f - • \ and commends its editor and staff for three years of fine reporting Halloween, that, jolly evening given over to ghosts, goblins and small boys of all ages, has long been celebrated in Nebraska with enthusiastic and approprite cere monies. It would appear, too, that the “Halloween problems,” with its resultant disruption of the land scape and occasional destruction of property, is as old as the cele bration itself. Search through the back files of Nebraska’s news papers, in the library of the State Historical Society, reveals fre quent news and occasional edi torial comment relative to Hal loween celebrations, impromptu and otherwise. A comment in the Tekamah Burtonian, Nov. 2, 1900, is typi cal: “Tuesday night the young bloods of the town proceeded to make a hot time by overturning boxes, etc., in celebration of hal loween. There was not near so much disturbance as there was last year.” One of the more ingenious Hal loween tricks of a generation ago was perpetrated between Bennet and Cheney in 1901. The B. & M. freight was making good headway between the towns, when the en gineer saw a man standing on the track. He whistled but the man failed to move. The brakes were applied frantically, but too late—the man was ground under the wheels.^ Upon investigating the accident, the conductor found that the “man” was simply a straw dummy placed on the track by mischiev ous boys. In reporting the inci dent, the Nebraska City News re marked, “It is not necessary to repeat any of the speeches made by the crew, as they would not look well in print.” The year 1901 appears to have Vesulted in considerable depreda tion in and around Nebraka City, including the wrecking of two cars belonging to the street car com pany. Little wonder that the News advised its readers, “Thursday night is Halloween, and you want to turn the dog loose to protect your property.” As is true today, communities frequently planned Halloween parties to keep turbulent spirits occupied in the hope that no time _-___i would be available for predatory activities. The Falls City Journal reported a number of such parties in 1899; and in 1916 the Hastings Daily Tribune reported a com munity party in which hundreds participated. Louise Pound, Nebraska’s em inent author and student of folk- ! lore, mentions a number of early Halloween customs, still persist- ; ent, in her article, “Old Nebraska Folk Customs,” published in Ne braska History for March, 1947. Actors To Note Janies Bland Compositions Saturday, October 22nd, marked the 95th anniversary of the birth day of one of America’s most prolific and yet least known com posers. He was James A. Bland, a Negro, born in Flushing, Queens Borough, Long Island, on October 2, 1854 and died in poverty in Philadelphia, May 5, 1911. He composed some 600 songs of which 53 are listed in the Congressional Library. The most famous of his compositions are “Carry me Back to Old Virginny,” the State song of the Commonwealth of Virginia, “O Dem Golden Slippers” and “In the Evening by the Moon light.” “The Etude,” music magazine for October, 1946, carries an in teresting two page illustrated ac count of Bland's life and the dedi cation of the Bland monument erected by the Lions club of Vir ginia, in the Merion, Pennsylvania cemetery and Gov. William M. Tuck of the Old Dominion State delivered the dedicatory address. Bland’s lovely nostalgic ballads have been sung far and wide by minstrels, barber shop quartets and school and college choruses’ The Negro Actors’ guild is plan ning in the near future to sponsor an appropriate public observance of Bland’s contribution to Amer ican folk music. 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