The Monitor
—
A Weekly Newspaper devoted to the civic, social and religious
interests of the Colored People of Omaha and vicinity, with the desire
to contribute something to the general good and upbuilding of the
community.
Published Every Saturday.
Entered as Second-Class Mail Matter July 2, 1915, at the Post
office at Omaha, Neb., under the act of March 3, 1879.
THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor and Publisher.
Lucille Skaggs Edwards, William Garnett Haynes and Ellsworth W.
Pryor, Associate Editors.
Joseph LaCour, Jr., Advertising and Circulation Manager.
SUBSCRIPTION RATES, $1.50 PER YEAR
Advertising rates, 50 cents an inch per issue.
Address, The Monitor, 1119 North Twenty-first street, Omaha.
Telephone Webster 4243.
A NOTABLE EDITORIAL.
A highly esteemed Omaha friend,
who is an enthusiastic Socialist, has
thoughtfully sent us a notable editorial
on Booker T. Washington, which was
published in The Call, of New York
City, the leading Socialist daily of the
country, in its issue of November 16.
The editorial discusses Washington’s
influence and the future task before
race leaders with a breadth of vision
rarely found among the newspapers
of the day.
The Call perceives clearly that there
is still a task before the race in this
country and that is the securing of
equality of opportunity and privileges
as American citizens.
That contest is here and now. The
American Negro, because he is an
American, with American ideals, will
never be satisfied until he receives
every right to which he is entitled. He
will not shirk his duties, but he will
be and must be, insistent for his
rights.
The Call well says: “It IS necessary
to fight, that the rights of citizenship,
of the franchise, of education, of the
right to live their lives be given to the
Negroes.”
But here is the editorial. Read it,
meditate upon it and take courage:
“It is difficult to speak of the late
Booker T. Washington without en
thusiasm. The story of his life is a
romance, a miracle. The story books
tell of such careers as the one that has
just closed at Tuskegee, but real life
shows few of them.
Washington was one of the most
vital leaders of a great race, and he
came in a time when leaders like him
were needed. He made his mark. And
long before he died other leaders,
other messages and other ideals were
the need of his race.
The South never loved the Negro
unless he was a slave. Today the
South hates the Negro unless he.is a
good lickspittle. After the civil war
had closed its murderous course the
Negro was in a position that would
have meant massacres on a terrifying
scale if it were not for leadership of
the kind that Washington furnished.
At the close of the war the Negroes
were free men and women, and the
Confederate soldiers, were, temporar
ily no longer citizens. That meant
that practically every white man in
the South was without a vote and that
every Negro had a vote. The Negroes
had just come up from slavery; the
whites were'thrown into spasms at the
sight of their former slaves in the
saddle politically. Hence, the Reign
of Terror of the Ku-klux bandits;
hence the blood that was shed.
The Federal Government was in the
hands of Union veterans, and the
motto was: ‘To the victor belong the
fruits of victory.’ And that meant
the degradation of the South and ‘the
galling yoke of Negro domination’ on
the high-spirited Southern Bourbons,
slave holders, aristocrats and sublim
ated gangsters. Into this atmosphere
surcharged with electricity, into this
country full of hate and terror, came
Booker T. Washington with his mes
sage to the Negroes to be gentle, to
cease being arrogant, to learn to be
good workers in various trades to fit
them for their new citizenship before
learning the classics and the frills of
education.
That was Washington’s message,
and it was well taught. The Negroes
who followed him, the thousands of
children who went through his school,
the hundreds of thousands who looked
up to him, felt that the one thing to
be desired above all else was the good
will of the Southerners. And they
proceeded to get it. They got it by
personal service. They got it too often,
by making themselves nothing but
men and women -with the souls of
servants and Pullman porters.
Washington’s work is done. Other
men and women with the broad out
look of life that Washington never
had are taking it up and teaching the
Negroes to be men, to demand the
rights of American citizens.
The war is fifty years in the past.
It is over. The wounds have healed.
It is no longer necessary to lick the
boots of lynching parties in order to
be allowed to live. It IS necessary to
fight that the rights of citizenship
of the franchise, of education, of the
right to live their own lives be given
to the Negroes. That fight was not
Washington’s fight. Other men are
taking that fight up. But when Wash
ington began his work his task was
as great as the task of the present
day’s fighters for absolute equality of
opportunity for the Negro. And for
the courage, the intrepidity, the hero
ism of that fight there is the great
est honor due the former illiterate,
fatherless slave.”
BETTER HOUSING CONDITIONS.
We publish elsewhere in this issue
an item from New York City dealing
with an effort to provide better hous
ing conditions for the colored people
of that city. To one who is only
slightly acquainted with rental condi
tions confronting the race in all large
cities and especially where there is
such congestion as obtains in New
York, the need for such a movement
cannot be questioned.
In Omaha such congestion does not
obtain, but the situation control
ling proper housing conditions for
respectable colored tenants is rela
tively as acute here as elsewhere. This
condition must be met here sooner or
later. Morality depends to a large
degree on proper housing conditions
and the segregation of the vicious and
depraved.
Press dispatches from Muskogee,
Okla., tell how two colored men ac
cused of shooting a policeman, while
resisting arrest at his hands, were
prevented from being lynched by the
presence of 200 armed men of the
race who announced their intention
of opening fire on the mob should the
mob obtain custody of the prisoners.
The presence of these determined men
prevented the lynching. The author
ities managed to get the militia on the
ground, the sheriff managed to re
move the accused. If these “200
armed Negroes” had not been on the
ground, the same old bluff of pre
tending to protect the accused would
have been given to the public and the
bullet-riddled, dangling bodies of two
Negroes, murdered by a civilized
American mob, of “the superior race”
would have been “viewed by thou
sands, etc.” We are pleased to note
in Oklahoma this evidence of manhood.
If this spirit is manifested elsewhere
lynchocracy will go.
February 1st we raise our subscrip
tion price to $1.50 a year. Send in
your subscription now and get the
benefit of the $1.00 rate.
Make one good resolution and keep
it. Don’t attempt too much at one
time.
A happy and prosperous New' Year.
^!
Our JANUARY WHITE SALE
Begins Monday, January 3
This sale is going to be the greatest of its kind in our history.
Although cotton prices are at a great height, we placed our orders
months ago under favorable conditions, and we have plenty of the
fine, dainty materials for this great sale.
It comprises the following departments, which will offer their
best values and best assortments: American Muslin Underwear, White
Petticoats, Kimonos, Corsets, Boudoir Accessories, Negligees, Yard
Goods, Linens, French Underwear, Silk Petticoats, Infants’ and Chil
dren’s Underwear, Lingerie Dresses, Blouses.
And all departments in which- white merchandise is a feature.
And, quite as important to the success of the sale, we found
some of the best manufacturers more than willing to co-operate and
make concessions to secure large and early orders. The results of
patient and painstaking preparations are splendid and well assorted
stocks of white goods at prices that make it well worth while to buy a
plentiful supply.
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