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About The monitor. (Omaha, Neb.) 1915-1928 | View Entire Issue (May 4, 1918)
p=an The Monitor ~n A National Weekly Newspaper Devoted to the Interests of Colored Americans \ THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS. Editor ^ - -% . $1.50 a Year. 5c a Copy _OMAHA. NEBRASKA. MAY 4. 1918 Vol. III. \ 44 (Whole No. 146) Spingarn Medal To Be Awarded 9 - The National Association for the Ad vancement of Colored People An nounces That the Coveted Medal Will Be Awarded Friday, May 3. NEW YORK, April 26.—The Na tional Association for the Ad vancement of Colored People an nounces that the Spingarn medal, given each year to the man or woman of African descent and of American citizenship who shall have made the highest achievement during the pre ceding year in any. field of elevated or honorable human endeavor, will be presented on the evening of May 3 at tre First Baptist church, Providence. R. I. The Spingarn medal has been donated annually since 1915 by Major Joel E. Spingarn of New York, chair r ian of the board of directors of the National Association fcr the Advance ment of Colored People. This medal has been awarded in previous vears to E. E. Just for re * searches in biology, to Colonel Charles Young, U. S. A. (retired), for services in organizing the constabulary of Li beria, and to Harry T. Burleigh for excellence in the field of creative music. The medal will be presented by Gov ernor R. Livingston Beeckman of Rhode Island. Moorfield Storey of Poston, national president of the As sociation for the Advancement of Col ored People, and Major Spingarn will deliver addresses suitable to the occa sion. Announcement of the winner of the medal is withheld until the date of presentation. The committee of award consists of Bishop John Hurst of Baltimore, chairman; ex-President Taft; Dr. James H. Dillard, director of the Jeanes fund; Jonn Hope, presi dent of Morehouse college, Atlanta, and Oswald Garrison Villard, presi dent of the New York Evening Post company and treasurer of the Nation al Association for the Advancement of Colored People. COLORED WOMEN TO MEET IN DENVER IN JI LT Denver.—The National Association of Colored Women will convene in Denver July 8, one of the local repre sentatives of the organization. The convention, it is stated, will mark the greatest gathering of Colored women in the history of the country. Woman suffrage will be one of the problems taken up during the conven tion. Many of the members are ac tive in civic and patriotic work. These subjects will be discussed and a plan of greater co-operation in all of these endeavors will be formulated. One or more prominent suffragists will speak. Literary and musical convest3 will be among the features. WOULD SUCCEED PROFESSOR KEALING The Peck Brothers Are Rivals For Presidency of the W'estem I niver sity; One Prominent St. Louis Pas tor; the Other Resident of Topeka. Kansas City, Mo.—Revs. W’. H. Peck and F. Jesse Peck, brothers, are being urged for the presidency of Western university at Quindaro, and one of them seems reasonably sure of land ing the position. The presidency has been vacant since the recent death of Dr. Hightower T. Kealing. Rev. Wil liam H. Peck is pastor of an African Methodist church in St. Louis and was educated at the old M Street High school, Washington; Lincoln and Wil berforee universities. The other broth er lives in Topeka, Kan. He was edu cated at Storer and Oberlin colleges. SEEK AID FOR COLORED ROMAN CATHOLICS Cleveland, O.—An appeal for aid in erecting Col • red schools and churches, separate from the whites, in the South was made here recently in St. John’s cathedral by Monsignor John E. Burke of New York. Bishop Farrelly and the Rev. D. J. Bustin also spoke at the meeting. VOTE FOR THIS TICKET JAMES C. DAHLMAN, JOSEPH B. HUMMEL, GEORGE B. PARKS, WALTER S. JARDINE, DAN B. BUTLER, CHARLES H. WITHNELL, HARRY B. ZIMMAN. NATIONAL COLORED LIBERTY CONGRESS To Be Convened in Washington Lat ter Part of Month to Secure Democ racy for All, Regardless of Race or Color; Eminent People to Attend. Boston, Mass., May 3.—The Na tional Colored Liberty Conference, which was organized in this city June 13, 1917, has called a national con gress of Negro citizens at Washing ton, D. C., from May 29 to June 2. The meeting will be named the Na tional Colored Liberty Congress and its sole purpose will be to secure from congress guarantee of the establish ment of true democracy for all, re gardless of race or color, in this coun try, in connection with the world-war democracy. The Rev. A. Clayton Powell of New Y'ork is president of the congress; the Rev. M. F. Sydes of Rhode Island, re cording secretary; Mrs. S. J. Allen, corresponding secretary; the Rev. D. S. Klugh of Boston, treasurer; Her bert H. Harrison of New York, chair man of the executive board; Prof. Allen W. Whaley of Boston, national organizer, and William Monroe Trot ter, executive secretary. Heroic Deeds When Steamer Sinks Another Colored Hero Win* Place on Roll of Honor; New York Woman Gratefully Tells How James Wal lace of Savannah Rescued Her and Her Baby; Saves Two Others. N ATLANTIC PORT, May 2.— ._, Survivors of the coastwise steam er City of Athens, sunk in a collision with a French cruiser off the Dela ware coast yesterday morning, with a loss of sixty-six lives, related here to day many tales of heroism by the crews of the two vessels. All praised the efforts of the French sailors especially, who launched small boats within a few minutes after the accident and aided by the cruiser’s searchlights picked up many of the su.vivors from pieces of wreckage. The survivors agreed that the speedy sinking of the steamer—with in five minutes after being rammed ty the warship—was responsible for the heavy toll of life, although some asserted that the City of Athens’ life saving apparatus failed to work prop erly. There were 135 persons, includ ing twenty-four United States ma rines. on board the steamer, which was bound from New York to Savan nah with a $2,000,000 cargo. Negro Proves Hero. Mrs. Florence Pickard Harrison of New York today told how her life, that of her 2-year-old baby and two others were saved through the bra very’ of a Negro fireman on the City of Athens. Awakened from her sleep, Mrs. Harrison barely had time to put a coat over her nightdress and hurry to the deck with her child. “I saw a life boat," she said, “but no one was pay ing any attention to it except a United States marine, who lifted the baby into the boat. I was about to climb in with h*s aid when the steamer top pled and my grasp on the gunwale slipped. 1 caught up the baby as the ship sank under the swirling waters. When I came up, choking and almost unconscious from the water, with the little one in my a'ms, we were direct ly under the bow of a lifeboat. Many Thrilling Rescues. “A man, whom I afterwards learned was James Wallace of Savannah, lift ed the baby from my arms. When I regained consciousness I found myself in the lifeboat, covered with a piece of canvas, which I wrapped around the baby. My coat and nightgown were tom from the struggle to drag me in. After that Wallace rescued one marine and a civilian, lhat bl*ave Negro deserves a hero’s medal. “We were in the lifeboat for about two hours before we were picked up by the ;rew of the French cruiser. I cannot r.neak too highly of the gal lantry and kindness of the French of ficers and men during our rescue and the time spent on the cruiser.” GARY’S COLORED COLONY Gary, Ind.—Gary’s Colored colony is increasing so fast that it has al most become a city in itself and the number of Colored business and pro fessional men in the steel city’ is larger than the white total in many nearby communities. Editor J. D. Cooke, who directs one of Gary’s two Colored newspapers, estimates that there are between 7,000 and 8,000 of the race in Gary. I*-*--.■-.. •«• «. .I j Poem Dedicated to Stanley j Mackay William Cressy, one of the stars at the Orpheum this week, brought tears to the noon-day crowd at the Omaha Chamber of Commerce last i Thursday when he read the poem entitled, “When Blue Stars Turn to | Gold.” Mr. Cressy said that he composed the poem following his f breakfast that morning. He dedicated it to Stanley Mackay, son of I the Rev. T. J. Mackay, who died in service. Following is the poem: j WHEN THE BLUE STARS TURN TO GOLD | Rev. T. J. Mackay'* Son. I We don’t seem to know ’till we’ve lost it | Just how much a thing is worth, i And then when it’s gone we discover ITwas the most precious thing on earth. Something we prized in its newness Grows dearer as it grows old, And that which we treasured as silver * * We discover is purest gold. Perhaps today you are treasuring A wee flag of red and white; f It is hanging in your window 1 Through the day and night, l And on its white heart is gleaming A star of heaven’s own blue— • A star for your boy, who is fighting For his country and for you. I Our service flags are crimson: ! | How we glory in each star! How we love our boys and miss them, ♦ And how proud of them we are! ! And if God, in His infinite wisdom, Should call them to His fold, We still fly the flag of crirrr n— i But the blue star now is gold! i | ♦ Oh, boys! In the flush of your manhood, IHow you answered that call to arms! How you came from the towns and cities, From the villages and the farms!* How we glorified in your going! * And we ask, dear God, to hold [And to help us if the time comes When your blue star turns to gold. 1 I :: * And we’re sending you this message * To that land across the foam, i To tell you how the home folks J Are praying for you at home. ♦ And if you should never come back, You must know that as time grows old { We shall treasure that flag of crimson, • With the blue stars turned to gold. *. J The Children of the Sun By George Wells Parker / _ 1AST week I wrote of the Sphinx * and tried to explain why that wonderful monument must ever re main the emblem of Egypt. I told you that the face was the face of one of that race which men call Negro, or to use a better term, the face of a typical African. These same features are to be found related to everything belong ing to ancient Egypt. All we have to do it to examine carefully the mum mies, the many statues, the intaglios and monuments, to become Convinced that Egypt was African in the sense of race as well as in the sense of lo cality. The Egyptians tell us them selves that they were autochthones of the soil—that is, a race springing from the native earth, made from the black mud of the Nile—and that they called their country Chemi, meaning “the land of the blacks.” We know, too, that the Egyptians were well known to all ancient nations and that men and wanderers of all the earth visited Egypt because of her repute as the abiding place of wisdom and knowledge. Herodotus, Lucan, Pliny, Strabo, Homer, Aristophanes, ^Eschy lus, Livy, Virgil and a host more were acquainted with the Egyptians from personal contact and verify more than once the racial relationship of the Egyptians in their writings. How, then, you may ask, do historians say that the Egyptians were a white race? Why does Ridpath classify them and the Ethiopians as a branch of the Cau casian race? Why does Myers say that the Negro was never anything but a hewer of wood and a drawer of water? Why does Hart of Harvard say that no African race ever rose to the eminence of an organized and civilized government? There is but one answer to these questions. Of late years men have realized more and more that Egypt has made wonderful and lasting con tributions to human civilization. “An cient Egypt itself,” says Sir Arthur Evans, the world renowned archeolo gist, "can no longer be regarded as something apart from general human civilization. Its influences are seen to lie about the very cradle of our civili zation." Such being the exact truth, or.e of us need not search far to ex plain the reason for such historical discrimination. The historians of Eu rope have often hesitated to attribute to the African race the mighty civili zation of Egypt; the historians of America have absolutely refused to let any such great credit even be hint ed for men of dark skin. The latter have found their country steeped in jrejudice against the black man and would perpetuate it, even at the cost cf truth. They would persuade them selves and our country that civiliza tion is the gift of the white race alone and that any other claimant to a share of glory is an imposter and a liar. But it is an axiom of history, no less than of life, that error cannot al ways triumph. What the historian has been unwilling to do, the archeolo gist insists upon doing. The historian is generally an armchair savant and the scope of his information does not pass beyond the four W'alls of his li brary; the archeologist is a worker and his information is gathered by digging with the spade upon the sites of ancient civilizations. When the lat ter draw's a conclusion he draws it from tangible things, from stones, statues, manuscripts, palaces, coins and a hundred other things which he digs from the sands. They are the soundest and most convincing proof in the world of who an ancient people have been and what they have accom plished. There is no need of argument, proof and voluminous histories to fur nish the proof of their truth. They are truth themselves. It is not my purpose today to re view the mass of remains which archeologists have excavated in Egypt. It is so great that even archeologists themselves have been unable to reduce the whole to complete understanding. Their efforts were begun for the rea son that historians’ efforts to escape the truth had made history a hodge podge of a thousand opinions. Sincere men wanted to know the truth and could not be satisfied with the duck ing and doging indulged in by pseudo historians to bolster up one race to the utter discredit of another. In Eu rope that battle raged more fiercely than elsewhere, and eventually the German Anthropological association | determined to settle the question once and forever, if it admitted itself to settlement. At one of its meetings the members unanimously requested Dr. Rudolph Virchow to spend a year in Egypt and bring back to them the answer to the question of the racial relations of the ancient Egyptians. Dr. Virchowr at that time was one of the most famous men of Europe, an eminent scientist and the discoverer of cne of the most important branches of medicine. He accepted the honor and went to Egypt. During that year he worked harder than at any time in his entire life. He visited the sites of every ancient city, every ruin, every monument and examined every article recovered from the country and cared for in the museums of Egypt. He was convinced of the truth and when he returned to Europe and stood before the great scientific society to give his answer these were his wards: “I thought that I could find by compara tive examination of the living and the remains and pictures of the dead some points establishing the change of the ancient Egyptians into the Egyptians of historic times, but I have returned with the conviction that ancient Egypt and its neighboring countries have not essentially changed during all these periods. If Menes really existed then they ware in his times NEGROES, si ice quite all ancient remains and mural paintings show NEGROES w'ith all their peculiarities.” This answer settled the question once and for all with the greatest scientific body of the modem world, and surely it should answer it for all men. The Egyptians were of the same blood that courses through our veins. What wa must learn and expound is the wonderful influence which this black-skinned race has had upon all succeeding nations of the earth. When you have learned something of this you wrill no longer wonder why the Anglo-Saxon has hated to admit the truth and still tries to hold it a secret. He knows that if the African had never produced any civilization but that of Egypt it alone would entitle him to be held in honor forever and forever by all the children of men. Opposing American Lynching Mania Law and Order League of Memphis, Tenn., Sends Protest to Governor Rye; Declares That Such Unrestrict ed Lawlessness Will Undermine Morale of the Colored Troops. _ V TVTKW YORK.—The National Asso 1 1 ciation for the Advancement of Colored People is authorized to make public the following telegram ad dressed to Governor Tom C. Rye of Tennessee by Bolton Smith of Mem phis, Tenn., secretary of the Law and Order league, which was organized two months ago, following the Estill Springs burning, to put a stop to lynching: San Antonio, Tex., April 23. Hon. Tom C. Rye, Governor, Nash ville, Tenn.: The lynching of Berry Noyes at Lexington, Tenn., April 22, cannot but sow disunion among our people, un dermine the morale of our Negro troops and lessen the effectiveness of (ur propaganda among Colored people for food production and conservation. It will therefore tend to prolong the war and increase the price in dead and wounded we have to pay for victory. I have been visiting the Texas camps and witnessed the self-sacrificing work of our splendid young men who are preparing to risk all for us. It i3 strange our own people will not help them by exercising the self-control necessary to give a Negro charged with crime such a trial as our own laws provide. The government of the LTnited States is controlled by South ern men. It has called the Negro to the defense of the colors and the American people will demand that a race thus honored shall be granted the justice of a fair trial when accused of crime. We all know that when guilty there is no doubt of full punishment. The Lexington lynchers cannot have realized the extent to which their act furnishes aid and comfort to the enemy. As secretary of the Tennessee Law and Order league, organized to stop lynching, I urge you to issue a proclamation to our people pointing out the treasonable effect of such act and that you call upon the president of the United States as commander of the nation to reinforce your words, for it is plain we are threatened with a nation-wide increase of this crime. BOLTON SMITH. ProX L Against the Army Edict Meeting Opposes General Ballou’s Re cent Order Counselling Command to Temporarily Waive Legal Rights. SEND RESOLUTIONS TO BAKER Chairman of Meeting Reluctantly Consents to Singing “America,” Stating That the Only Bar He Sings Is, “Land Where My Fathers Died.” BROOKLYN, N. Y.—More than 400 men and women were present Monday night, April 22, at a meeting in the Concord Baptist (Colored) Church of Christ, Adelphia street, near Myrtle avenue, at which resolu tions were adopted protesting against the recent order of Major General George Ballou of Camp Funston to the Ninety-second Division, advising Negro soldiers to refrain from visit ing places and amusements frequent ed by whites. The resolutions will be sent to Secretary of War Baker. The Rev. George Frazier Miller, rector of St. Augustine’s Protestant Episcopal church, presided and out lined the purpose of the meeting. He declared that Negro soldiers were be ing denied the privileges of exercising their legal rights. This, he said, in the last analysis makes the German sol dier superior to the Negro. “God made me a man,” he said. “I feel like a man, and only a man’s treatment of me will be satisfactory. The Negro is called upon to shed his blood upon the field of battle so that the white man may be free, and still he is denied the right of the funda mental principles upon which this government is founded. “The black man has won many a victory'. The Negroes saved Roose velt and his Rough Riders at San Juan Hill. They fought at Carizal. Now they are asked to fight to make the world safe for democracy and still they are denied the privilege of en joying this democracy right here at home.” George W’ibeean, president of the Frederick Douglass Forum and of the Citizens’ club, declared that if it had not been for this prejudice the Negro would long ago have enlisted in the National Guard and that there would be more than 83,000 Negro men and 1,000 officers fighting for the cause of this government. The Rev. Frederick R. Cullen, pas tor of the Salem Zion A. M. E. church of Manhattan, took exception to state ments of the Rev. Mr. Miller regard ing a meeting that had been held in that church, in which he accused the men there of cringing in their pro test. He declared that all differences should be forgotten in the crisis. So many requests were made upon Mr. Miller for the singing of “Amer ica” that he finally consented, but stated that he did not feel disposed to do so, as the only bar of the hymn that he sings is “The land where my fathers died.” Brief addresses on the necessity of organizing were delivered by John A. Shilliday, secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of the Colored Race; Walter White of the same association, and R. M. Me roney, secretary of the Carlton Ave nue Branch Y. M. C. A. The resolu tions were signed by all present. The following were in charge of the meeting: The Rev. George Frazier Miller, Mrs. Charles H. Lansing, Miss M. W. Ovington, Dr. W. H. Buckley, Emory Jones, Dr. Franklin Myers and F. W. Morton. PATRIOTIC SONG WRITTEN FOR COLORED SOLDIERS New Orleans.—Prof. W. J. Nicker son, a local Colored music teacher, has composed a patriotic song, “The Col ored Soldier Boys of Uncle Sam,” which is being sung with great en thusiasm by the Colored population. The words are full of patriotism and greatly aid and encourage the soldiers in their patriotic duty to their country. The music is published by the Grunewald company and the piece, it is said, appears destined to become the song of the Colored troops. The music gained such popularity that it was necessary to order a second edi tion two weeks after the first. Gary, Ind.—Ras Bar, said to be the only Ethiopian rabbi in the United States, was here recently from Abys sinia and proposed the establishment of a synagogue for the race. The movement is being seriously consider ed.