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, November 27, 1915 Volume I. Number 22
i - i
ChicagoWomen Reply
to Prof. Kelly Miller
- i
Members of the Frederick Douglas
Social Center Disapprove of His
Views on Suffrage.
WOMAN’S CAUSE IMPORTANT ,
Arguments Advanced Against It
Neither New Nor Weighty. Same
Used by All Advocates of
Special Privileges.
Chicago, 111., Nov. 26.—Recent ut
terances by Kelly Miller of Howard
university in opposition to woman
suffrage have not met the approval ;
of the members of the Frederick
Douglas Center, 3032 Wabash ave
nue, an organization formed “to pi.u
mote a just and amicable relation be- j
tween the white and colored people.” '
A committee from the center, com- I
posed of Celia Parker Wooley, head
resident; Addie Robinson and Georgi
ana Whyte, has addressed an open let- j
^ ter to Prof. Miller, which is as fol
lows:
Dear Professor.
The undersigned, appointed to ad- ,
dress you in this manner by the
Douglas Center Woman’s club, wish
to express their deep appreciation of
your past services, not only in the '
educational field, but as an able and, '
hitherto, impartial advocate of hu- J
man rights and of a growing de- |
moeracy which draws no lines of race j
or sex or creed. It is because these
feelings have been so strong that we
are the more surprised and pained
over your recent statement on woman
suffrage. Up to this time we have ^
followed your course without hesita- i
tion. We have listened to your elo
quent appeals from the platform, have
read your masterly essays in behalf
of larger opportunity, as we believed,
for every restricted class. Now we
are filled with a deep sense of less
and mental confusion over what
seems to us a grave moral defection.
We feel it hopeless to try to an- 1
swer arguments like yours against
woman’s right to the ballot, which,
begging your pardon, are neither new j
nor weighty. They are of the same .
V nature as those which holders of spe
cial privilege always use in defense
of class rights, the same as certain
women suffragists use against the
Negro’s political and social advance
ment.
The cause of liberty is as wide as
the earth’s area. The friends of free
dom must learn to walk abreast. ■
When the attempt is made to turn |
one group against another, seeking j
the same goal, to exclude others from 1
rights and privileges we ourselves j
have attained, the spectacle is a sorry j
one. i
The woman’s cause is as large and
important as the man’s, as the black
man’s, as the laboring man’s. Sex i
has as little significance as race in j
just minds and in the distribution of i
(Continued on firth page)
Thoughts From Our Own Authors
“The highest function of a great name is to serve as an ex
ample and as a perpetual source of inspiration to the young who are
to come after him. By the subtle law known as ‘consciousness of
kind,’ a commanding personality incites the sharpest stimulus and
exerts the deepest intensity of influence among the group from
which he springs.’’
KELLY MILLER.
JOSEPH CARR, LL. B„
Attorney and Well-Informed Student of History.
Booker Talliaferro Washington
(Editorial in New York Age.)
Booker T. Washington is dead! The man who for nearly a quarter of
a century stood before the world as the foremost representative of the
Negro race, is no more. His death comes as a shock, for he had just
reached the age when his powers for service to his race and to the nation
nere at their fullest development.
And yet, how much more fortunate he was than most men who havd
undertaken great things; he lived to see his dream come true. Perhaps,
the fulfillment even exceeded his great dream, for with all of his optimism,
with all of his faith—how, when he first looked over those bare, red hills
ot Alabama, could his vision have reached beyond the Tuskegee which
crowns them today.
His life reads like a story from wonderland. It is as marvelous as a
tale from the Arabian Nights. Born a slave, he was at Emancipation a
mere ragged, penniless bit of humanity; but he lived to make himself the
honored friend of rulers. He was born without a right to a name, but
today there is, perhaps, only one other great living American whose name
is so widely known throughout the world. He was born in the south when
its laws placed Him on a level scarcely above the cattle of the fields, yet
I he became the most illustrous citizen that the South has given to the nation
since the Civil war. But more wonderful than the fame which he achieved
(Continued on third page)
Whites Not Negroes
Are Responsible
Conditions depicted In Photo Drama
a Serious Reflection Upon
Dominant Race.
THE OMAHA WORLD-HERALD
Frankly and Fearlessly States Un
popular Truths in Note
worthy Editorial.
In its issue of Saturday, November
20, the Omaha World-Herald, of
which the Hon. Gilbert M. Hitchcock,
democratic United States senator
from Nebraska, is owner, published
the following unique and remarkably
frank editorial:
That stupendous photo play, “The
Birth of a Nation,” is now showing in
Omaha, and in Omaha as elsewhere
industrious and respectable Negroes
are moved to protest against its pic
sentation because they believe it op
rates to create prejudice against
their race. In one sense they are
right. The play does tend to create
a prejudice against the Negro of the
time and place with which it deals.
Just in the sam way does “Uncle
Tom’s Cabin” tend to arouse feeling
against the whites of the ante-bel
lum South. Neither, it should be un
necessary to remark, is a strictly ac
curate and truthful and impartial
record of that lamentable portion of
American history with which it con
cerns itself. Even the most carefully
and scientifically prepared history is
replete with errors and unfairness,
conscious and unconscious on the part
of the writer, of both commission and
omission. Quite naturally a novel,
such as “The Clansman," on which
the play is based—a novel written
from a violently biased viewpoint,
must contain the same defects mul
tiplied a thousand fold.
Station a dozen of Omaha’s best
trained and most experienced citi
zens at Sixteenth and Faraam streets
for an hour. Require them, on their
departure, to write down fully and
truthfully everything that they ob
served at that tiny pin-point on the
map of Omaha—itself a pin-point on
the map of the republic—within that
little bit of time. You will have a
dozen different reports, no two in ex
act agreement, some of them differ
ing radically. What, then, can be ex
pected of the written history of a
continent, of a race? And how much
less is to be expected of a dramatic
plea such as “The Birth of a Na
tion!”
But there is another angle from
which to consider this truly remark
able production. It shows us a cer
tain element of the Negro population
of the south after several generations
of slavery. It shows us Negroes who
had had no voice or share in the
shaping of their own destines, in the
control of their own lives and acti
vities. It shows us the Negro with no
(Continued on fourth page)