The Monitor
A Weekly Newspaper Devoted to the Interests of the Eight Thousand Colored People
in Omaha and Vicinity, and to the Good of the Community
The Rev. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor
$1.00 a Year. 5c a Copy. Omaha, Nebraska, July 10, 1915 Volume I. Number 2
COLORED BOY BREAKS
GRADUATION RECORD
ONLY TEN YEARS OLD.
New Haven, Conn., June 28. A col
ored boy broke tlie* graduation record
in the public, schools of New Haven,
Conn., last week, when Pritchett A.
Klugh, the 10-year-old son of Rev.
l)r. 1). S. Klugh, pastor of the Em
manuel Baptist church, graduated
from the Scranton public school as
the youngest member to ever leave
the public school of this city. In
the class with young Klugh were 150
members, all of them being 14 years
of age and more, and the appearance
of this young boy of color receiving
his diploma at the age of 10 was
easily the feature of the commence
ment exercises. The record that this
boy has made has created a wide stir (
in educational circles of New Haven,
and is furnishing a topic for conver
sation among the intellectuals that
has sent the stock of the Negro race
up in New Haven 100 per cent. In
vestigation has found that the record
of young Klugh in school was very
brilliant, and his work was warmly
praised by his teachers and the prin
cipal of the school. Young Klugh has
been prominently mentioned for a
candidate for the New Haven high
school which prepares for Yale uni
versity, and when he enters high
school this fall he will be the young
est candidate to ever enter the New
Haven high school, which makes the
feat of this boy a record that the
whole race might well be proud of.
If he keeps up his present record, he
will be ready for Yale university at
the age of 14, an age when most boys
are leaving the grammar school. In
an interview with Rev. Dr. Klugh, the
father of young Klugh, he stated that
his boy was perfectly normal in his
play and study. “He is very fond of
study,” stated Dr. Klugh, "and that
accounts for his success in his stud
ies.” Dr. Klugh said that his boy
was extremely fond of reading and
was a'so of a mechanical turn of
mind. The record of young Klugh will
be welcomed throughout the country
with much delight, and his career will
be watched with keen interest.. Rev.
Dr. Klugh is one of the most sue
cessful pastors in New Haven, and
his church is one of the largest of
< the city.
GOVERNOR WILLIS AGAINST THE
PICTURES— INDORSES SU
PREME COURT STAND.
Columbus, O., June 28. Governor
Frank B. Willis, of this state, who
proved his strong friendship for the
race hv having revoked the state cen
sors' permit given for the photoplay,
“The Nigger,” to show in Ohio, and
who declared that "The Birth of the
Nation" should not be granted a per
mit to show in Ohio, has again won
the plaudits of the colored people by
his splendid endorsement of the fed
eral supreme court’s decision fn the
Oklahoma case. Thus far he is the
Think on These Things
FOUR THINGS COME NOT BACK TO MAN OR WOMAN:
THE SPED ARROW; THE SPOKEN WORD; THE PAST LIFE;
AND THE NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITY.”
SILAS ROBBINS, Attorney.
First Colored Man Admitted to the Bar in Nebraska.
only state executive who has ex
pressed himself respecting this de
cision. When the decision was ren
dered he very promptly gave public
utterance to the following:
“The decision of the United States
supreme court against the "grand
father’’ clause in the laws of Okla
homa, and in the Maryland case, is
one of the most important and far
reaching in years. It is a vindica
tion of the principle that in this coun
try a citizen’s worth is to be meas
ured by his own merit, and not by
the qualifications of his grandfather.
The principle of the “grandfather”
clause was un-American, unfair and
altogether out of harmony with the
spirit of our institutions. The law
should encourage every citizen with
out regard to race or color to im
prove his own condition, not dampen
and kill his pnergy and ambition by
applying a rule of recognition as ar
bitrary and indefensible as ever
stained the pages of the history of
hereditary feudalism in the dark ages.
The fifteenth amendment meant what
it said when it proclaimed that the
right to vote should not be denied
on account of race, or color or pre
! vious condition of servitude. This
; amendment does noi prohibit a fair
| educational qualification applicable to
"all races alike, but it does prohibit
j unfair discrimination between races.
The decision of the supreme court will
be hailed with satisfaction by every
person who believes in a fair chance
j for all.”
YOUNG EMMETT SCOTT
WINS SCHOOL PRIZES
Boston, Mass., June 30.—In the
Boston Evening Transcript of Tues
day, June 22, report is made of the
graduation of 113 students of the
Phillips Exeter Academy, located at
Exeter, N. H., and also of the prize
awards for the year.
Emmett J. Scott, Jr., of Tuskegete
Institute, Ala., is reported in the prize
awards for the year as having won a
first Nathaniel Gordon prize of $20
for proficiency in knowledge of the
Bible; is also listed as an honor man
of the second group, being one of tne
only five students of his class who is
listed for such honors, having main
tained a yearly average of Grade B;
and also receives honorable mention,
having received Grade A in certain
studies during the whole of the year.
In the scholarship awards published
by the academy in the Transcript
some weeks ago, young Scott was
listed as having won a Phillips’ schol
arship award of $100 and a Kingman
scholarship award of $80.
He is the only colored student this
year attending Phillips Exeter Acad
emy; he last year received his di
ploma from Tuskegee Institute, hav
ing finished the academic course of
study and that of the machine shop
division. He is being prepared for
the Massachusetts Institute of Tech
nology.
BUSINESS LEAGUE
TO MEET IN BOSTON
The approaching meeting of the
National Negro Business League on
August 18, 19 and 20 will be its fif
teenth annual session, and quite ap
propriately it will be held in Boston,
Mass., where the league was organ
ized in 1900.
The Boston Local Negro Business
League, assisted by the local league
of Cambridge, has about perfected
arrangements for the meeting.
Reports to be submitted at the
meeting of the national league will
show approximately 45,000 Negro bus
iness enterprises, 51 Negro banks, 695
Negro drug stores, 1,000 undertaking
establishments, 240 wholesale busi
nesses and 25,000 retail businesses.
Farm property is valued at $492,892,
218.
Affiliated organizations which will
meet in connection with the league
are the National Negro Press Asso
ciation, National Negro Bankers’ As
sociation, the National Negro Funeral
Directors’ Association, the National
Negro Bar Association and the Na
tional Association of Negro Insurance
Men. Each of these organizations will
present a v.cll-prepared program.
New York business men will be
largely represented, plans under way
indicating that the city will probably
send the largest delegation it has ever
had to the Boston meeting.