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About The monitor. (Omaha, Neb.) 1915-1928 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 26, 1916)
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 $1.50 a Year. 5c a Copy. Omaha, Nebraska, February 26, 1916 Volume I. Number 35 Both Races Assemble to Honor Washington Carnegie Hall More Than Filled by Enthusiastic Supporters of the Great Leader. MAJOR MOTON CHIEF SPEAKER More Than Half Million Dollars Has Already Been Subscribed to Booker Washington Memorial Fund. Nearly three thousand men and wo men—colored and white—attended the big memorial meeting held last Fri day evening at Carnegie Hall in honor of the late Dr. Booker T. Washing ton; so great was the demand of cit izens to attend the meeting that hun dreds were turned away by the large force of police detailed outside of the hall. The spectacle presented inside Car negie Hall was unusual in many re spects, and the meeting could not have been more cosmopolitan in character. On the platform sat men of promin ence of both races; the Northerner and the Southerner vied with each other in lauding the life and achieve ments of Booker T. Washington, while in the audience the rich and the poor, the white and the colored sat side by side in boxes, orchestra and gallery. The meeting was held under the joint auspices of Hampton, Tuskegee and the Urban League. Seth Lowe, chairman of the Board of Trustees of Tuskegee Institute, presided. Music was furnished by the Music School Settlement for Colored People, J. Ros amond Johnson, director, and Roland W. Hayes, tenor soloist; the Fisk Quartet and the Tuskegee Quintet. Moton to Receive Loyal Support. In the opening address of the eve ning, after commenting on the great service performed by Booker T. Wash ington for both races, Mr. Lowe de clared that the Board of Trustees of Tuskegee Institute, the prominent white and colored people of Alabama and the influential white people of North and South generally had pledg ed themselves to loyally support Ma jor R. R. Moton, who has been chosen k I)r. Washington’s successor. Mr. Low urged the white and col ored people of the country to contrib ute to the Booker T. Washington Me morial Fund, and set the big audience to applauding by stating the white people had already subscribed $650, 000. He read a telegram from Em met J. Scott, secretary of the Tuske gee Institute, which told of the part the colored people of the country were playing in raising $250,000, the amount they are asked to contribute. Speakers Laud Washington. Dr. H. B. Frissell, principal of Hampton Institute, spoke of the early life of Booker T. Washington. Of how the Tuskegeean had come to Hampton presenting a none too hopeful appear ance and the novel manner in which he was admitted to the school as a Something to Make You Think FROM A SPEECH BY FREDERICK DOUGLAS AT LOUISVILLE, KY„ SEPTEMBER, 1883. “If the six million colored people in this country, armed with the Con stitution of the United'States, with a million votes of their own to lean upon, and millions of white men at their backs whose hearts are responsive to the claims of humanity, have not sufficient spirit and wisdom to organize and combine to defend themselves from outrage, discrimination and oppression, it will be idle for them to expect that the Republican party or any other polit ical party will organize and combine for them, or care what becomes of them.” (FROM A MAGAZINE ARTICLE, 1886) “The question is whether the white man can ever be elevated to that plan of justice, humanity and Christian civilization which will permit Negroes, In dians and Chinamen, and other darker colored races to enjoy an equal chance in the race of life. It is not so much whether these races can be made Chris tians as whether white people can be made Christians. The Negro is few, the white man is many. The Negro is weak, the white man is strong. In the problem of the Negro’s future, the white man is therefore the chief factor. He is the potter; the Negro the clay. It is for him to say whether the Negro shall become a well-rounded, symmetrical man, or be cramped, deformed and dwarfed. A plant deprived of warmth, moisture and sunlight cannot live and grow. And a people deprived of the means of an honest livelihood must wither and die. All I ask for the Negro is fair play. Give him this, and I have no fear for his future. The great mass of the Colored people in this country are now, and must continue to be, in the South; and there, if any where, they must survive or perish. “It is idle to suppose these people can make any larger degree of progress in morals, religion and material conditions, while their persons are unpro tected, their rights unsecured, their labor defrauded, and they are kept only a little beyond the starving point.” student, by sweeping a room, which he did well. William H. Lewis, of Boston, former Assistant United States Attorney General, spoke on behalf of the Na tional League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes. Mr. Lewis told of how he bitterly fought Dr. Washing ton while attending Harvard, then be lieving that Latin was more important to one’s education and well-being than labor, but that he later became an enthusiastic disciple of the Tuskegee an and his doctrine that “Labor Con quers All.” One of the most significant ad dresses of the evening was made by William G. Wilcox, a member of the Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees of Tuskegee Institute, who was elected president of the New York Board of Education only a few days ago. Mr. Wilcox stated that so fa vorably had he been impressed with the methods of education employed at Tuskegee that it was his intention to introduce them in the public schools of Greater New York. Dr. James H. Dillard, a prominent white educator from the South, who was closely associated with Booker T. Washington on many educational boards, spoke of the Tuskegeean as one of the great men of the South, re gardless of color, and denied the charge as absolutely false that Dr. Washington was a truckler, citing in stances of the renowned educator’s aggressiveness when engaged with white people on questions involving the rights of the Negro. It was after 11 o’clock when Maj. It. It. Moton, principal-elect of Tus kegee, and the principal speaker of the evening, began to talk, and those in the audience paid him a great com pliment by remaining in their seats at such a late hour. Major Moton occasioned no little merriment by stating he hoped no one would believe for a moment that he thought he could fill Dr. Washington’s place; that it will require the com bined energy and efforts of all the Negroes in America, who will need the co-operation and backing of the white people to carry on Dr. Wash ington’s work. “And then, I doubt whether it would be done as effective ly as he did it,” said the speaker. Maj. Moton’s Address. The following extracts are from Maj. Moton’s address: Negro Not an Accursed Race. “If any one us because of weakness and failings within our race, or be cause of unfairness, injustice and in convenience without, or because of the color of our faces and the texture of our hair have been hitherto lacking in appreciation of our race, or have been (Continued on third page) 0ROW QfllTH ^ROWING * Omaha <* Democratic Mayor Raps “Jim Crow” Bill Does Not See Why Races Should be Separated in Public Carriers of that City. WOMEN OPPOSE THE MEASURE. Leading White Papers Fighting Pro posed Law Through Their Editor ial Columns. ..Colonel Watter son Enters Fray. Louisville, Ky., Feb. 25.—Not only are the self-respecting members of the race bitterly opposed to the Knight Bill which is designed to draw the color line on street cars of this city, but the white citizens and the daily press as well are fighting the bill to be introduced in the legislature at Frankfort, Ky., the state capital. Ever since Louisville has been a city the two races have been friendly. Due to scrimmages in a day coach by mem bers of the race, the “Jim Crow” bill was first introduced some years ago. The people of the city and the press prevented its passage at that time. Louisville people said that a fight be tween two ill-bred race men on a train upon the mountains was no indication of the whole race’s lack of good man ners or gentility. Democratic Mayor Speaks. Mayor Buschemyer of this city, a “dyed-in-wool” Democrat, had the fol lowing to say on the proposed sep arate street car law: “I see no reason for the passage of a law by the Kentucky Legislature providing that members of the race and whites must occupy separate seats on the street cars, and, in the absence of a reason, such laws should not be adopted. “The existing relations between whites and blacks in Louisville are good, and I for one want them to re main so. Better street car manners are to be desired both by members of the race and white people. “I do not think the proposed street car law should pass. There is cer tainly no demand for such a law from Louisville.” Citizens Object Vehemently. Members of the race in this city are no cringers. As soon as the bill was first made known, such men as Editor Lee Brown, Dr. J. C. A. Latti more, Rev. C. H. Parrish, William Warley, Prof. A. E. Meyzeek, Dr. Walls, J. A. Emmerson, Leonard Haley, Dr. H. B. Beck, J. B. Cooper, Tom Young, Dr. Ivinslow, A. B. Mc Afee, Dr. Ballard, R. C. Simmons, Dr. P. R. Peters, and hundreds of others formed a strong organization to work vigorously against the bill. These men knew that if they “laid down” the bill would be passed. They knew that if public consciousness was allowed to remain silent on the ques tion, soon there would be “Jim Crow” cars on the streets of Louisville. These men went to work—they pulled every (Continued on seventh page.)