The Monitor
A National Weekly Np a<>0^ Devoted to the Interests of the Colored
Amt ^ of Nebraska and the West
THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor
$1.50 a Year. 5c a Copy Omaha, Nebraska, April 14, 1917 Vol. II. No. 41 (Whole No. 93)
Psychological Moment
to Demand Consti
tutional Rights
Dr. Clayton Powell, of New York,
Delivers Thoughtful
Address.
New York—The Negroes of the
United States should wage a bloodless
war for their rights at this crucial
period of the country’s history, was
the opinion expressed from the pulpit
by the Rev. A. Clayton Powell, pastor
of the Abyssinian Baptist church here
Sunday, March 25.
The speaker referred to the de
mands made by the 400,000 railroad
workers, who threatened to walk out
at a time when America needed ever>
car and the services of every rail
road man; of the fight of the Irish for
home rule during the present Euro
pean conflict, and of the overthrow of
the Romanoff dynasty in Russia by the
common people.
Dr. Powell’s views follow:
"In my opinion, this is the prope.
time for us to make a special request
for our constitutional rights as Ameri
iean citizens. The ten million Color
ed people of this country were never
so badly needed as now. They are not
only needed in the factories, busi
ness firms, and on the farms, to pro
duce the necessities of life, but they
are needed to help keep the Mexicans
quiet, to help sweep the commerce de
stroying submarines of the Central
Powers from the oceans, to help crush
German militarism, and perhaps they
will be needed sooner than some peo
ple expect to prevent the Japanese
from landing on these shores to ask
for a redress of their grievances that
have been piling up for the past few
years.
Get Assurances of Better Treatment.
"As a race we ought to let our gov
ernment know that if it wants us to
fight foreign powers we must be given
some assurance first of better treat
ment at home. Perhaps some will say
that this is an inopportune time for
such talk. Some may argue that to
emand our rights now when the na
tion is perhaps facing the greatest cri
sis in its history, would show a lack
of loyalty and patriotism. Those who
make such arguments are not ac
quainted with the rise and develop
ment of races.
All history will prove that most op
pressed people have secured their
rights when their oppressors were fac
ing a crisis.
The Irish people thoroughly under
stand this philosophy of history and
they are now making a supreme effort
for home rule. This effort Is being
made at a time, too, when the English
government needs all of its men and
all of its resources to fight enemies on
land and sea; and everything indicates
that the Irish are going to get the in
dependence for which they have been
seeking for years, because they know
how to seek at the proper time.
"Four hundred thousand railroad
employees secured eight hours’ work
with ten hours’ pay the other day be
I)r. L. K. Williams, of Chicago, who is Conducting Revival at Zion Church.
cause they threatened to walk out on
a day when America needed every sin
gle car and every railroad man in the
country. At a normal time the Amer
ican people would not have yielded
so readily to their just demands.
"For centuries the common people
of Russia have been depressed and
crushed by plutocracy and absolut
ism. In vain they have attempted to
secure their liberties in times of peace,
but a few days ago when surrounded
by foreign foes these people rose up
en masse and accomplished the com
plete overthrow of the colossal rotten
superstructure of the Romanoff dyn
asty, and in twenty-four hours suc
ceeded in abolishing all racial, social
and religious distinctions. The new
government has already assured tne
entire Russian people of their politi
cal freedom and equality before the
law.
Government Has Stood by With Arms
Folded.
"Why should not the Colored Amer
icans make a bloodless demand at this
crucial time for the rights we have
been making futile efforts to secure
for the past fiftfy years, instead of hur
rying telegrams and special deliveries
to Washington assuring the govern
ment that has persistently stood by
with folded arms while we were op
pressed and murdered that the ten
million Negroes may be used as tar
gets for German bullets and shells?
“It would not cost the President,
governors and representatives a single
cent to ask, in their speeches and
messages, the American people to
abolish ‘Jim-Crowism,’ segregation,
and the awful lynching institution, and
give to Colored men political equality;
but it would mean a new birth of free
dom for ten million people who have
always stood ready to give their life’s
blood to perpetuate American insti
tutions.
“In spite of all that the big Negroes
are saying to the contrary, this is the
psychological moment to say to the
American white government from ev
ery pulpit and platform and through
every newspaper, ‘Yes, we are loyal
and patriotic. Boston Commons, Bunk
er Hill, Gettysburg, Fort Pillow, Ap
pomattox, San Juan Hill and Carrizal,
will testify to our loyalty. While we
love our flag and country, we do not
believe in fighting for the protection
of commerce on the high seas until
the powers that be give us at least
some verbal assurance that the prop
erty and lives of the members of our
race are going to be protected on land
from Maine to Mississippi.’ Bet us
(Continued on Page 7)
The African Origin of
Grecian Civil
ization
Speech of George Wells Parker, De
livered' Before the Omaha Philo
sophical Society, April 1, 1917.
The Pelasgic races of the south
.raced their descent from Inachus, the
river god and son of Oceanus. The
son of Inachus, Fhoroneus, lived in
the Peloponesus and founded the town
of Argos. He was succeeded by his
son, Pelasgus, from whom the afore
mentioned races of the south derived
their name. Io, the divine sister of
Phoroneus, had the good fortune, or
perhaps misfortune, to attract the at
tention of the all-loving Zeus and as
a consequence incurred the enmity of
Hera. She is transformed into a
beautiful heifer by Zeus, but a gadfly
sent by Hera torments her until she
is driven mad and starts upon those
famous wanderings which became the
subject of many of the most cele
brated stories of antiquity. Aeschy
lus reviews her roamings in his great
tragedy, Prometheus Bound, and
makes Io to arrive at Mount Caucasus
to which the fire-bringer is chained.
It is here that Prometheus delivers
to her the oracle given him by his
mother, Themis, Titan-bom. He di
rects her to Canobos, a city on the
Nile, and tells her that there Zeus will
restore her mind.
“and thou shalt bear a child
Of Zeus begotten, Epaphos, ‘Touch
bom’,
Swarthy of hue.”
Aryan parents do not usually bear
black children and to show that Aes
chylus was thoroly cognizant of the
ethnical relationship here implied,
permit me to quote from The Suppli
ants, another of his tradegies. The
Suppliants were the fifty daughters
of Danaus, the Shepherds of Egypt,
and they described themselves as,
“We, of swart sunburnt race,” “our
race that sprang from Epaphos,” and
when they apepar before the Argive
king, claiming his country as their an
cestral home, their color causes him
to question their claims in the follow
ing words:
“Nay, stranger, what ye tell is past
belief
For me to hear, that ye from Argos
spring;
For ye to Libyan women are most like,
And nowise to our native maidens
here.
Such race might Neilos breed, and
Kyprian mould,
Like yours, is stamped by skilled ar
tificers
On women’s features; and I hear that
those
Of India travel upon camels borne,
Swift as the horse, yet trained as
sumpter-mules,
E’en those who as the Aethiops’ neigh
bors dwell.
And had ye borne the bow, I should
have guessed,
(Continued on sixth page.)