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, March 11, 1916_Volume I. Number 37
United StatesSupreme
Court May Decide
The Colored People of St. Louis Will
Fight Segregation Measure Re
cently Passed.
RACE UNITED AND DETERMINED
Legal Authorities Claim Ordinance
Unconstitutional. Many Voters
Favoring Not Property Owners.
St. Louis, Mo., March 10.—At last
St. Louis, a republican city, has voted
to segregate blacks from the whites,
an ordinance having been passed to
that effect Tuesday, February 29, at
a special election which resulted in a
vote of 52,000 for the vicious meas
ure and 17,000 against.
For once the colored people of St.
Louis, usually apathetic, have donned
fighting clothes and are determined to
fight this un-American ordinance to
the bitter end. They are united, have
funds and have already decided to
>. carry the question to the United
States Supreme Court for adjudica
tion. A long fight is in prospect, with
the Colored Americans having every
assurance from legal authorities that
the segregation measure will be de
clared invalid in the higher courts.
About five years ago real estate
dealers began to agitate the question
of segregating Colored people, and
with ample funds to create sentiment,
soon crystalized a sentiment in favor
of such a measure. At first an effort
was made to get the City Council to
pass a segregation ordinance, but
without any favorable results.
Nowhere in the United States do
Colored people own and live in finer
homes than in St. Louis. They can
also boast of having some of the finest
school buildings in the United States.
They have always lived in any section
desired and are confident that this
state of affairs will continue.
Many Favoring Ordinance Do Not
Own Homes.
One of the features of Tuesday’s
election was that most of the whites
voting for segregation were not prop
erty owners.
Two ordinances were voted upon,
one providing that a white person or
Colored cannot become a resident in a
block occupied entirely by those of the
opposite race. The other imposes the
same restrictions on blocks where 75
per cent of one race lives.
The ordinance becomes effective in
ten days unless an injunction is ap
plied for, which is almost a certainty.
The question has arisen as to what
> effect the adoption of both ordinances
would have, some attorneys holding
that there is a conflict between the
two. Other authorities, however, hold
that the more stringent one super
sedes the other.
The election was unusually quiet,
with no disorder. One hundred and
thirty-five challengers who appeared
at various polling places for the anti
(Contlnued on eighth page)
Use the Monitor to Reach the
Colored People of Nebraska.
It’s their Only Newspaper.
THE REV. JOSEPH W. LIVINGSTON
Rector of Emmanuel Church, Memphis, Tenn.
Something to Make You Think
SOCIALISM.
Editor Monitor: Ah per your request, I shall endeavor to set forth in as
concise, clear and brief a manner as possible a simple exposition of Socialism;
and as an introductory I wish to admonish those of you who read this to forget
that you are a Negro or a white man. Think of yourself as you really are:
either a useful member of society or you are a parasite living off the toil of
others. Think of yourself as a WORKING MAN, and if you are, your inter
ests are identified with, and are one with other working men, be they black,
white, brown, yellow, tan, red or a pale pink.
When an exploiter of labor needs you to make him profits, he does not
question you as to what your color or religion is. All he cares for is your1
back strong and your head weak? Race antagonisms do not buy bread, beef
steak or potatoes. There is only a slight veneer between wage slavery and
chattel slavery and if forced to choose all class-conscious wage slaves would
prefer chattel slavery, because then they take on an economic value the same
as a horse or mule, and that forces their master to take care of them when
sick, disabled or a surplus has been produced, whereas now, when you pro
duce a surplus of good and useful things they shut down the factory and call
it hard times, and you, a fool for producing so much for so little in return.'
Take my advice as to the following; join your craft union. Shun the politician
and join the Socialist Party. Now, read on:
Socialism is an economic science. Socialism is Christianity with its
overalls on. Socialism is neither religious nor irreligious. It cares nothing as
to whether a man is a church member or no. It cares nothing as to his race,
creed, color or previous condition of servitude. Socialism aims at the abolish
ment of poverty and the establishment of social and economic justice. Social-;
ism is pre-eminently an educational philosophy and in proof of that fact it
can never be established until a majority of the people become intelligent.
Socialism believes that no matter what the color, race or creed of the child,
its place is in the school instead of the field, factory or mine.
(Continued on tlilrd page)
From Nebraska
to Tennessee
Incidents of the Trip and Impressions
Received by Editor on First Visit
to the Southland.
MEETS MOST KINDLY PEOPLE.
Pleased With Spirit of Hopefulness,
Courage and Progress Manifested
by Race.
This is the first of a series of ar
ticles on the Editors Impressions and
Observations on his recent visit to
Memphis, Tennessee, where he spent
ten very busy and delightfully happy
days the latter part of last month.
It is believed that they will prove of
some little interest at least to many
jf our indulgent readers. If they
jive the pleasure our friends are con
fident they will, we shall be amply re
warded for our temerity in writing
".hem.
When we were about to leave for
Memphis an admiring friend said:
‘I’ve heard so many things about the
fouth and I’ve wanted to know just
how things there really are. I am
;o glad you are going for now we’ll
enow all about it. You will tell us
ill about the South in The Monitor.
We shall look most anxiously for your
articles in The Monitor, for we know
you’ll tell us all about the South just
as it is, and we can rely upon what
you say.”
When we were told this we felt very
much like the old Colored wood-saw
yer—and you know we belong to the
wittiest race on earth—who was asked
f he could change a ten-dollar bill.
The old chap drew himself up to his
full height and with a Chesterfieldian
bow, he replied:
“No sah, no sah; but I thanks you
foh de compliment, jes de same.”
We thank our admiring friend for
the compliment, but we confess our
inability to deliver the goods. We
shall not attempt to tell “all about the
South,” for that were impossible even
for one who is “to the manor born”
and a life-long resident of the land of
mocking-birds and magnolias. How
preposterous, then, would it be for one
who spent only ten days in one of the
larger cities of the South to even at
tempt to do more than to give his
wholly inadequate and necesarily im
perfect impressions of even that city.
We know there are people who ride
through the country on a train and
can give expert ( ?) testimony and tell
you all about the country and people.
We are not in that class. It may be
our misfortune, but we are not in it.
In this same category fall those of
the “superior race!” who know “all
about the Colored people” from a very,
very superficial observation of some
familiar street type.
But what of the trip from Nebraska
to Tennessee Be patient and we’ll
tell about it.
(Continued on seventh page.)