THE MONITOR
▲ Weekly Newspaper devoted to the civic, social and religious interests
of the Colored People of Nebrasaa and the West, with the desire to eon
t-lbute something to the general good and upbuilding of the community and
of tha raca
Published Every Saturday.
Entered aa Second-Class Mall Matter July l. 1*1*. at the Post Offlea at
Omaha, Neb., under the act of March 3, in.
THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS. Editor and Publisher
Lucille Skaos* Edwards and William Garnett Haynes. Associate Editors.
George Wells Parker. Contributing Editor. Bert Patrick, Business
Manager. Fred C. Williams, Traveling Representative
SUBSCRIPTION RATES. *2.00 A VEAR: *1.00 6 MONTHS: «0c 3 MONTHS
Advertising Rates. SC cents an Inch per Issue
Address. Ths Monitor, 111» North Twenty first street. Omens
Telephone Webster 4243
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AN OPEN LEiTER OF TH ANKS TO PRESIDENT WILSON
nR. PRESIDENT: Please accept the grateful thanks of the
thousands of Colored Americans of Nebraska for whom
The Monitor has authority, primarily, to speak, and of its readers
elsewhere throughout the country whose gratitude we take the
liberty of voicing, for your long-awaited, eagerly desired, trumpet
voiced call to our fair land, America, to exorcise the evil spirit of
mobocracy by which she has been so long possessed.
How anxious, sir, we have been for you to speak! How your
silence and apparent indifference to the horrible, indescribable and
almost unbelievable atrocities of which we, a loyal and law-abid
ing people have been so largely and almost exclusively, the vic
time, has perplexed, pained and grieved us! Our amazement at
your silence has been indeed great, but greater than our amaze
ment has been our dismay at the growing, undisguised and dan
gerous discontent among our people, as lawless acts with in
creasing fiendishness and frequency against us multiplied and
you, our rarely gifted president, who with vehement righteous
indignation anathematized barbaric ruthlessness across the seas,
concerning these remained so strangely mute. Seemed we impa
tient for some word of protest from you, sir? If so. it was be
cause we knew the heaits and sentiments of our people. We knew
the heavy burden placed upon you and we wanted a united and
contented people to help you bear that burden. This it was im
possible to do while they construed your silence—even though
wrongfully—as condonement if not approval of the ills they keenly
suffered. It was not to embarrass you that we importuned you to
speak, nor from any sentiment of disloyalty, as you yourself must
know full well, but because we wanted to knit the heaits of our
people to you as the ruler of our nation in these times of peril
and anxiety.
You have spoken the words which we desire, and by that
utterance have lifted a burden from our heaits and we sincerely
thank you, and reaffirm our allegiance to you. our President, to
our Country and to our Flag.
fHE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
ON LYNCHING
~E are not ashamed to confess
W that we have shed grateful tears
of joy over President Wilson’s most
impressive message apealing for the
suppression of the lynching mania
which has made our beloved country
a stench in the nostrils of the nations
of the world.
For nearly thirty years we have
longed and hoped and prayed for
some chief executive of the nation to
speak in courageous denunciation of
this malignant evil. Always loathing
it and marvelling at the moral cow
ardice or most lamentable indiffer
ence which seemed to seal the lips
of broad-minded, merciful, kind
hearted, justice-loving, Christian
white men, with a few notable ex
ceptions, we were filled with dismay
and solicitude, after our entry into
the war at the mounting tide of lynch
ings, upwards of 300, including the
East St. Louis horror, which by their
frequency and indescribable brutality,
threatened to alienate the affection
and loyalty of our people to this the
land of our nativity. We knew, both
as pastor and editor, the effect these
atrocities were having upon our peo
ple. There was a growing bitterness,
not merely because of these brutali
ties which it was generally believed
were carried on by the baser element
of the several communities, but be
cause of the acquiescent silence of
those in 'authority from the president
down, which seemed to condone, if
not approve. The people believed and
rightly so, that if our great presi
dent would only declare his disappro
bation of these barbarities at home
as vigorously as he denounced ruthless
deeds abroad, this rising tide of law
lessness would be stemmed at home.
He remained silent. The lawless ele
ment of the land seemed to interpret
his silence as approval of their deeds;
as their multiplication testified. Our
own group from whom the victims
were so largely drawn reasoned, too,
SILENCE GIVES CONSENT, and
bitterness and resentment were at
work. We deplored this growing bit
terness, and implored the president
to make it clear that he did not ap
prove these deeds of blood, that he
was not indifferent to our sufferings.
This is what the united press of our
people, our leaders and white friends
besought the president to do. And
at last, thank God, the president has
spoken the needed word. And what
a magnificent message it is. It
leaves nothing to be said. It is a
clarion call to the people of these
United States to show ourselves to
be a humane, justice loving, law-abid
ing people. It iB an appeal that will
be heeded. Coming from a man of
southern birth, breeding and sym
pathy, it means infinitely more than
if such a message came from a man
imbued with northern traditions. It
will have a tremendous influence in
suppressing that evil, which has been
a blow at the heart of ordered law and
humane justice, and imperils the very
life and perpetuity of the republic.
It will have an imponderable effect
in enheartening our race in this coun
try and steeling the arms of our sol
diers who fare forth to fight for
democracy since they will feel that
their loved ones will be reasonably
safe at home.
We hail this message with joy, first
because it is the message so long and
sadly needed; and secondly because
it places our president right where
he as the leader in a great moral
cause belongs as the outspoken cham
pion of justice, righteousness and law
| throughout the world.
NO TIME FOR OVERCONFIDENT E
We have never for a single moment
doubted the outcome of this w ar. We
are going to win. That is certain.
We are inclined to believe that the
Berlin-ward drive of our gallant
troops on the western front is really
the beginning of the major offensive
which will ultimately result in unfurl
ing the standards of the allies above
the imperial palace of Berlin. At the
same time we must realize that no
overconfidence in the prowess of our
armies should make us insensible to
the gigantic task which still lies be
fore us. There must be no slacking in
war preparations or in the loyal back
ing up and suport of our troops. The
nation’s every demand upon us must
be willingly, gladly and cheerfully
met. Temporary reverses and heavy
losges must still be ours before vie
tory is achieved. Overconfidence may
invite disaster.
AGITATION AND AGITATION
Agitation for the mere sake of
agitation is always oat of place and
never more so than in times like these.
But needed agitation for the correc
tion of grave wrongs and for the en
thronement of justice is always right
and timely.
In this category- belongs all of the
: just demands the race press and re
ligious and other leaders and numer
ous friends among the white race have
been making for the fullest participa
tion of our people as American citi
zens .in all lines of activity, and for
the practice of genuine democracy
here.
__•
THK DAWN!
A. more and more the thoughtful
race man or woman ponders upon the
stealthy movement of events, the
more and more is he or she mindful
of a deep change that is permeating
the whole of this nation. It is a some
thing strange, a something which we
have never known before; the gradual
march of justice. Shall we call it the
awakening conscience of the Ameri
can people or shall we call it the im
press of real democracy being forced
upon us under the administration of
! democrats whose sense of responsi
bility to the nation is something more
than the regulation of dollars and the
dealings of patronage?
For twenty years under the repub
lican regime our race has begged and
plead and prayer for some voice of
authority to declare our wrongs in
the south unjust. For twenty years
; the republicans filled us with empty
! promises and whenever a case came
; before the supreme court, it sank
i into oblivion upon some technicality.
Six years ago the democrats swept
I into power and we trembled—and
i waited. We searched the pages of
| congre.-s for the awful bills we
i thought about to be passed against
i us. and miracle of miracles to such
I bills came forth. Somehow the
! tongues of the old southern fire
j brands who used to march back and
forth through the north under the old
j republican regime, were stilled. In
time the question of disfranchisement
came up before the supreme court
again and this time a democratic su
j preme court. We felt we already
j knew what it would say and we were
i thunderstruck when the chief justice
i read the opinion and said: “Dis
I franchisement is unconstitutional!”
A few weeks ago some Colored sol
] dier? raped a white girl near I>es
j Moines and were hanged. They should
i have been hanged, and none of us
i felt any remorse. But when the press
j told us that a white soldier in Texas
j raped a Colored girl and that one
morning the rising sun saw him hang
| ing by the neck by court martial or
i der, we gasped! For once in the his
j tory of America we are beginning to
| realize that there is not a law for
I the white and a law for the black,
I but law for Americans.
And so I say that we are beginning
I to see a light above the mist. We
j hardly comprehend it in the swiftly
moving events, but we are becoming
more and more aware that it is there
i and that it is something that we have
never known before. Fear is giving
away to content and content must
eventually give way to enthusiasm. It
is becoming plainer and plainer every
day that the Colored man’s duty is the
American’s duty and that the Ameri
can’s duty is to stand by the admin
I istratior. to the last.
race ever became a great race and
that all great races were pure races.
I asked permission of the editor to
answer and the permission was grant
ed. 1 opposed him diametrically and
claimed that every great race was a
mixed race and that no pure race
ever did become or ever can become
a great race. I shook the facts from
history as one shakes coal in a bag.
I left no stone unturned; no race un
forgotten. I treated every race known
to ancient history and races that be
longed to ancient history, but are
unknown save to the scholar ami
scientist. I built an argument that
was to stay, and when I closed I in
vited my opponent to answer. That
w as two years ago and he has never
answered yet. He never will now, be
cause death has claimed him. But I
mention this to prove to you how easy
it is for prejudiced men to build
theories and try to have men inhabit
them when there is no one to knock
their tenements to ruins. In our
rambles down the halls of time I have
given you a few facts with which
you may claim the majesty of our
blood, the greatness of our race, the
potentialities of our people. Use
them, study them and make them a
part of your daily thought. “As a
man thinketh, so he is,” and our race
is the only race that can think of
itself in centuries and centuries of
greatness, of thought and of accom
plishment- This boon may have been
granted to the white races, but upon
the fields of Europe they are wreck
ing their chances forever.
And go I am done for now. You
may safely use all that I have writ
ten. because it is all true. These
articles have spread over the range
of a Tew months, but the search to
find them has ranged over continents
and years. There were times when
I was in despair and did not believe
that I should ever find great authori
ties to' back up the truth of my peo
ple’s greatness, but I carried on the
quest and in the end came the re
ward. I have come to believe that
whoever dreams a dream and hides it
away in his heart to think upon for
days and months and years, will some
day find that dream a reality. Be
fore the beginning you and I and the
continents and seas and stars and
worlds were all dreams in the mind of
one and because God dreamed, we
are.
I "wish to thank the many friends
both far and near who have written
me, unknown to them though I may
be. for their kind words of appre
ciation for these efforts. I am only
too glad to have been the one to bring
them home to all so that the truth
may not remain hidden longer. Our
race is a great race and it numbers
more souls than all other races thrown
into one. Upon us the orb of day
has shone and left its mark and it
is a mark of pride and glory and
greatness. Ours is a great fraternity.
The Children of the Sun and no great
er challenge have we to give the world
thar that of the Moor, when he said:
Mislike me not for my complexion.
The shadow’d livery of the burnished
sun,
To whom I am a neighbor and near
bred.
Bring me the fairest creature north
ward born.
Where Phoebus’ fire scarce thaws the
icicles,
And let us make incision for your
love,
To prove whose blood is reddest, his
or mine.”
SKITS OF SOLOMON
Draftees
Well, they've done it. Unk Sam
has taken out his roster and looking
down the list has said: "Colored boys,
come on!” and the Colored boys have
answered: “Coming, Unk! For two
months we’ve been practicing the
right step, left step, goose step and
lock step and we’re ready to eat up
a regiment of bodies now.” Not a
one fell down. The circus grounds
look as dusty as the parade grounds
at Camp Funston. Every evening for
the last steen days the boys have been
practicing every stunt from hiking
over the French mountains to learn
ing how to capture a nest of German
machine gunners with their teeth. So
effective has been their training that
everybody in the neighborhood wakes
up in the middle of the night yelling
“Left Face! “Oblique, March!”
“Squad Halt!" One husband remarks
that his wife hauled off one night
last week and hit him so hard, in
the neck that it was three hours be
fore he could find his voice and ask
her what she hit him with. Her re
ply was that she didn’t remember hit- ^
1 ting him, but that if she did she must
have been practicing military science
with the boys.
And when they get ready to march
away there won’t be any slouches.
They will walk down the street like
men who have seen service. That’s
the way the Colored boys in this
draft are putting things across. They
are going to fight. They may not
whip the whole German army, but it
is corsets to catfish there’s going
to be a piece of the German army
that will scatter around for souven
irs. And boys, send a souvenir back.
We don’t care what you send. A
helmet or gun or skull or pair of
ribs or leg or ami will do. just so its a
souvenir.
The Children of the Sun
By George Wells Parker
We have been a long way together,
you and I. We started out on our
travels with ten thousand years ago,
and have come down to the age when
the old world closed and the new
began. Our quest has been for one
thing, the vindication of our blood
and I believe that it has been vindi
cated. I believe now that we look
back upon the long range of cen
turies gone by and watch them glow
against the horizon of time, our
hearts will beat a little faster and a
little warmer when they recollect that
the past, the whole great past, be
longs to us, The Children of the Sun.
They were our peopde who stood
upon the threshold of time and looked
first upon the stretch on eternity.
They were our people who first
learned the mysteries of agriculture,
the wonders of the crafts and the
blessings of society. They were our
people who wondered at the enigmas
of being, traced stories among the
stars, sang hymns to the sun and
talked about God- They were our peo
ple who first builded beautiful cities,
cut statues from stones, spanned
rivers, harnessed floods, planted gar
dens, reared palaces, dedicated tem
ples and tried to make earth the ret
rospect of paradise. They were our
people who first conceived the ideas
of the moral code, wrote laws, estab
lished seats of justice, and punished
wrong. They were our people who
first wrote books and music and
carved pictures. They were our peo
ple who first discovered what civili
I zation was and passed it on to men
i and nations struggling in the dark.
Ancient history is our history, an
! cient glory is our glory, ancient hon
! or is our honor. Let us then begin
j to write for ourselves a new name,
a name that shall make men pause
and wonder and think!
A few years ago a great scholar
wrote an article for the New York
Sun, the gem of journals. In this
article he maintained that no mixed
----
God speed you, boys, on your way ^
to Berlin, via Camp Funston and
Camp Dodge. Your city and your
country stand solidly behind you.
Buy War Savings Stamps
Thomas Kilpatrick & Co.
Reasons Why the Alamo Barber Shop
Is the Leading Shop of the City
ISergt -Major E. W. Killingswortl
At 0. T. Camp Pike, Ark.
Six Chairs
»
I
R. C. Price
At Home on the Job
if First, we are giving the people what they want. Second, the man- j[
agement has used discretion in getting the best barbers obtainable. The
.Alamo barber shop hasn’t waited to see what others could do, but has
stepped in the lead and given to the public things unheard of in Colored
1 shops in this city.
The Alamo barber shop was the first to hail the public attention
to a reading and rest room. The shower bath, which no shop is com
Iplete without, would never have been given to the Colored population
had it not been for the Alamo barber shop. To avoid confusion over who
may happen to be next we use the number system. No matter howr high
or low everyone is dealt with justly when their turn comes. A system
adopted by the Alamo barber shop. Experience has taught the manage
ment that a fatigued barber is not the best barber; to keep the barbers
fresh and in good trim at all times the shop is provided with stools so
arranged to the height of the barber, it is convenient to rest at will wdiile
at work. Never before known in the history of the city. We lead, others
follow. We advertise and don’t knock.
We will be glad to have the most fastidious give the place a thorough
inspection and see if this is true. The Alamo barber shop has done more
to further the barber business and bring to the people their very needs,
than all the shops put together have ever done.
1
*
iKillingsworth & Price, Props. ! V
C. B. MAYO, Foreman.
Phone Webuter 5784 2416 North 24th Street
et-tw. ,:- -T - ■ --
