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About The monitor. (Omaha, Neb.) 1915-1928 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 18, 1919)
L-==j The MLonitor i_.= i % A NATIONAL WEEKLY NEWSPAPER DEVOTED XO THE INTERESTS OF COLORED AMERICANS. &/K>, 'o, THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor %, —-----—- %, - $2.00 a Year. 5c a Copy OMAHA. NEBRASKA. JANUARY 18. 1919_Vol. IV. No. 29 (W. te No. 184) 92nd Division Win Decorations Entire Unit and Individuals Cited for Bravery Under Fire of Hun Foe— Casualty List Comparatively Small —1,478 Take the “Long Trail.” VALIANT DEEDS BEFORE METZ Whole Battalion of the 367th Infantry Awarded the Croix De Guerre— Small Casualty List in Face of Fierce Fighting Considered Mirac ulous. By Ralph \V. Tyler. tV 7JTH the American Army in Vt France.—Marbach, Dec. 8.—By command* of General Martin, com manding the 92d division, general orders have just been issued com mending a number of Colored offi cers, non-commissioned officers and privates of the 365th infantry for meritorious conduct in action at Bois Frehaut, near Pont-a-Mousson, No vember 10 and 11, during the drive on Metz. Those named in this gen eral order were Captain John H. Allen, First Lieutenants Leon F. Stewart, Frank L. Drye, Walter Lyons, David W. Harris, Benjamin F. Ford, Sec ond Lieutenants George L. Gaines and Russell C. Atkins, Sergeants Richard W. White, John Simpson, Robert Townsend, Solomon D. Colston, Ran som Elliott and Charles Jackson; Cor porals Thomas B. Coleman, Albert Taylor, Charles Reed and James Con ley, and Privates Earl Swanson, Jesse Cole, James Hill, Charles White and George Chaney. In the same general orders the fol lowing were cited for bravery in ac tion: Sergeant Isaac Hill, bravery displayed at Frapelle; First Lieut. John Q. Lindsey, for bravery at I.es seux, both of the 366th infantry, and First Lieut. Edward Bates of the 368th ambulance corps, and Sergeant Walter L. Gross of the 366th infantry', for distinguished service near Homin ville. In another general order Second Lieutenant Nathan O. Goodloe, of the 368th machine gun company, was com mended for excellent work and meri torious conduct. During the opera tions in the Forest D’Argonne Lieut. Goodloe was attached to the 3d bat talion. During the course of the action it became necessary to reor ganize the battalion and withdraw part of it to a secondary position. He carried out the movement under a continual machine gun fire from the enemy. General Martin said: ‘‘Lieut. Goodloe’s calm courage set an example that inspired confidence in his men.” General Martin, the new commander of the 92d division, also cited for meritorious conduct near Vienne le Chateau, Tom Brown, a wagoiigs, who V. as driver of an ammunition wagon, displayed remarkable courage, cool ness and devotion to duty under fire. Brown hauled his wagon, even after his horse had been hurled into a ditch by shells and despite his own painful wounds, worked until he had extricated his horses from the ditch, refusing to quit until he had com pleted his work, even though covered with blood, from a painful wound. Entire Units Cited for Bravery in Batlte Line. The entire first battalion of the 36th (Buffalos) infantry has just been cited for bravery, and awarded the Croix de Guerre, thus entitling every officer and man in the battalion to wear the distinguished French deco ration. This citation was made by the French commission because of the s _«» splendid service and bravery shown by this battalion in the last engage ment of the war, Sunday and Mon day, November 10 and 11, in the drive * to Metz. This battalion went into action through a valley commanded by the heavy German guns of Metz, and held the Germans at bay while the 56th regiment retreated, but not until it had suffered a heavy loss. The first battalion was commanded by Major Charles L. Appleton, of New York City, with company command ers and lieutenants Colored. In the 92d division of the Ameri can army, 14 Colored officers and 43 Colored enlisted men have been cited for bravery in action and awarded /the distinguished service cross. This is a splendid showing, and especial ly when it is considered that prior to the drive on Metz, Sunday morning, November 10, this division, with the exception of the 368th infantry, had been in no big engagement. Up until November the 10th with the excep tion of the 368th, which got into action in. the Argonne, the 92d had to content itself with making daily ' atul nightly raids on the German i front line trenches to capture prison ! ers. This, however, required daring and courage, and, in some ways, was more trying and more dangerous than being in a big engagement. A total of 57 citations for meritorious service, with report from one brigade not yet in, is a splendid showing for the 92d division. 92d Has Comparatively Small Cas ually List. The total casualties suffered by the 92d (Colored division) since being in France has just been obtained by me. The division suffered a total of 1,478 casualties. Among the killed were six officers, and one officer died from wounds received in action, while 31 enlisted men died from wounds; 40 enlisted men died from diseases; 28 enlisted men were listed as “missing;” 16 officers and 543 enlisted men were wounded, and 39 officers and 661 en listed men were gassed. The division’s number of gassed is unusually large. A reason is, perhaps, that the Col ored soldiers in the front line trenches of this division were unusually dar ing in making raids into the enemy’s territory. Considering, especially, the desper ate advance the Colored soldiers of this division made out from Pont-a Mousson the morning of November 10, through a valley swept by the heavy German guns of Metz, and nests of German machine guns, the casualty is | slight; for on the morning I saw them make the advance, and know ing the dangerous ground they were to cover to make their objective, it appeared miraculous that the division ! was not wiped out. The casualty in i that advance was, perhaps, as light as it was because of the rapidity with I which their line advanced. Officers j could not hold them back, and the German guns and soldiers could not I stop them. They plunged on to Preny and Pagny, and they rushed into the 1 Ilois Frehaut, and held, for 36 hours, j after they took it, this place from which picked Morroccan and Senega lese troops were forced to retreat in i ton minutes after they had entered it. j Occupying this Boise Frehaut for 36 hours against a murderous fire from ! the enemy, remaining there until hos tilities ceased, it is surprising—a | miracle, that the casualty list of the 92d division did not mount to many I times 1,478. RACE REPRESENTATIVE AT FUNER AL OF COLONEL ROOSEVELT Oyster Bay, L. I., New York.—Em mett J. Scott, Secretary of Tuskogee Normal and Industrial Institute, of i which the late Colonel Theodore ; Roosevelt was a trustee, attended the funeral services of Colonel Roosevelt, seld here Wednesday, January' 8, in Christ Protestant Episcopal Church, and was one of the many sorrowing friends who joumeye to this quiet lit tle town to pay his last tribute of re spect to the memory of America’s ac knowledged “first citizen.” Mr. Scott came as the official representative of Tuskogee Institute, being so designat ed by the Executive Council of the school and by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees. He had previously sent Mrs. Roosevelt a telegram of condolence, which has been widely published. Since the death of Booker T. Wash ington, Mr. Scott has generally been regarded as the most intimate personal friend of Colonel Roosevelt among the Colored people uf the land. It so hap pens that Mr, Scott was the only of ficial representative of the race to witness the last sad rites in honor of the foimer President at Oyster Bay. It is an incident of no mean im portance that, notwithstanding the tremendous pressure for seats in Christ Church, which accommodates but a meager three hundred and fifty, Mr. Scott was readily handed an auto graph card, signed by Captain Archi bald B. Roosevelt, admitting him to the Christ Episcopal Church and Young’s Memorial Cemeter. PUPILS WALK OUT WHEN COURT MAKES DECISION Gallipolis, 0., Jan. 14.—White stu dents walked out of the city schools when the common pleas court decided that there could be no restrictions placed on the schools regarding the color of people who attended. The effort was being made by certain cit izens to exclude dark faces from the student body, but the courts refused to uphold the evil practice. The white students who walked out are children whose parents are employed in the local factories. THEODORE ROOSEVELT “Gentlemen:—I have never beer taught nor will I ever believe that it is right to close t he door of hope in the face of any man, on account of his color. QuaJificat ion is the only consideration.”—Im mortal lines of the lamented Roosevelt when approached by the South Carolina delegation in congress against the appointment of Dr. Crum, as Collector of the Port of Charleston. “Coming and Overthrow of the Negro in Congress” The Interesting History of the Negro in National Legislative Halls As Recalled in “Random Recollections of a Half Cenlury” by Colonel A. K. McClure, Published Nearly Twenty Years A.go in The W.ushington Post. rPIIE recent death of Ex-Congressman George H. White, natur ally brings to mind t he history of the Negro in congress. Those of the present generation know' nothing of this interesting his tory. it will be news to many to learn that several Negroes have been members of both the United States senate and the house of representatives. No one has told the story of the entrance and exit of the race to the national legislative halls better than Col onel A. K. McClure, in an article captioned “Random Recollections of a Half Century,” published in the Washington Post early in the present century. This interesting article will be reprinted as a serial in The Monitor and should he preserved for future refer ence. The sole surviving member of that notable galaxy of men of African descent, whq helped to shape national legislation and of whom Colonel McClure writes, is IVlajor John R. Lynch, U. S. A. (retired), author of “Facts of Reconstruction,” who is now an honored resident of Chicago. Covering the period from the surrender of the Confederate army until 1868, when J. Willis Nlenard of the second district of Louisiana, knocked for admission at the door of congress, Colonel McClure says: The Negro race is entirely unrep resented in either branch of the pres ent congress, and I cannot recall a Negro senator, representative or state officer in any one of the northern states. For the full period of a ven eration, with a single brief exception, the Negro was represented in one or both branches of our national legisla ture, but he is now retired and ap parently without hope of reasserting himself as a factor in national legis tion. The story of the rise and fall of the Negro in politics is one of the most interesting of the many strange chapters of our national history dur ing the last generation. "When re construction came after the surrender of the confederate armies only a few of the more radical leaders of the re publican party contemplated universal Negro suffrage in the south, and had Lincoln lived it certainly would not have been attained. It was only when the strong republican house and sen ate came in direct conflict writh Presi dent Johnson that it was found to be necessary to enfranchise the Nevro and disfranchises the confederates to a large extent to accomplish recon struction on a basis that promised the mastery of republican power in the south. I believe that Lincoln would have reconstructed the south with a universal Negro suffrave and made a majority of the southern states re publican, but when the issue came be tween congress and Johnson the radi cal element of the republican leader ship was doubly armed, by Johnson's apostasy, in the effort to force uni versal suffarge in the south, and it ereated a political mastery whose record is one of the most fearful blemishes in the annals of the repub lic. Universal Negro suffrage was first established in the District of Colum bia, where congress has supreme au thority, and a territorial government organized with legislative authority, chosen largely by the enfranchised f reedmen. A very few years made it ixn imperative necessity for congress to disfranchise the entire people of the District of Columbia solely to es cape the ignorant and profligate rule of the Negro. I happened to be present in the gallery of the senate when Senator Morton, the ablest all ixround leader of the republican party, made his final appeal against the pas sage of the bill repealing the right of ■suffrage in the District of Columbia. He was a man of broad, practical ideas, and he told the senate in plain terms that the disfranchisement of the Negro in the District of Columbia would be but the beginning of the end, as thereafter congress could make no accusation against the south o rn states for taking the same ac tion. His appeal was unavailing, as he well knew, and the said republican authority that' had enfranchised the Negro under the very shadow of the capitol of the nation was compelled to declare that his disfranchisement had become an imperious necessity to protect property and maintain social order. The southern states which have, by ingenious constitutional de vices, practically disfranchised the Negro have simply followed the teach ing of a republican congress and pres ident which disfranchised him in the capital city. The general newspaper reader of the present day knows little of the deep and widespread prejudice among the early republicans against univer sal suffrage for the Negro. The pre judice against the black man was as strong in the north as in the south. With all the earnest efforts of the re publicans to give the Negro freedom and all his legal rights, they shunned him as a political associate and shud dered at his fellowship in official po- ; sition. It is now more than a genera tion since the Negro was declared the equal of the white man before the law in every section of the union, and in every northern state the Negroes, as a rule, have voted solidly and uni formly for the republican party; but not a single Negro has ever been elected to congress in any northern state; none has been elected to any state office in the north, with the single exception of one of the western states where a Negro was elected to a subordinate office, falling many thousands behind his ticket, and I can recall hut two instances in which the Negro has been elected to any north ern legislature—one in Massachusetts and one in Ohio. In Philadelphia, where the Colored voters held the balance of power be tween the parties for twenty years, the highest position to which any one had been elected was that of council man, and only one reached that dis tinction. The first Negro placed on the police in Philadelphia was ap pointed by Democratic Mayor King fully twenty years after the republic ans had proclaimed the entire equality of both races before the law and in the enjoyment of civil rights. In one or two instances republicans of Penn sylvania have placed a wealthy Negro on the electoral ticket, being the only place where one of that race could be safely nominated, and today there are more Colored teachers employed in the single state of South Carolina j than are employed in the public schools of all the northern states of j the union. Next week! “The Rejection of the j Cultured Menard by a Republican j Congress and Revells’ Admission to j the Senate.” Watch for it. -- COLORED MAN AT GREAT BELLEVUE HOSPITAL i Dr. Ford Is First of His Race to Serve | on Ambulance There. New York, Jan. 14.—Dr. J. B. Ford, a graduate of Howard University, Washington, had'the distinction of be ing the first Colored doctor to take out a Bellevue Hospital ambulance i when he answered his first call Wednesday mominer. He is twenty-eight years old, and upon his graduation was assigned to Bellevue. The district in which he will answer calls for an ambulance comprises a large part of both the middle east and west side of the city. Dr. Ford will be assigned to serv ice in wards. He received his degree last October, following several years' study in surgery and medicine. MORE COLORED TROOPS ARRIVE — New York, Jan. 14.—The United States transport Louisville arrived in port today from France, carrying 964 troops and 573 civilians. Of the troops 878 are Colored soldiers, com prising casual companies No. 1008, 1009, 1068, 1070, 1071 and a head quarters consisting of four officers. These troops will be sent to Camp Mills. Thirteen casual officers and 73 sick and wounded also were aboard. WILL SERVE COLORED IN SOUTHERN DINING CARS Shreveport, La., Jan. 15.—Colored passengers on the Texas & Pacific railroad will be allowed access to din ing cars after all white passengers have been served, according to a bul letin issued from tbe division super intendent's office at Marshal. COLORED CITIZENS OF MEMPHIS TO HAVE COMMUNITY HOUSE Memphis, Tenn., Jar.. 14.—At a meeting of the board of directors of the Plymouth Community House, 762 Walker avenue, held Tuesday evening, a program for social activity among the Colored people of Memphis for the coming year was formulated. Annual Meeting of National Association Great Organization Composed of Broad-Minded Americans of Both Races Fighting for Justice Has Suc cessful Year. MEMBERSHIP IS QUADRUPLED Report of Secretary Shows Record of Praiseworthy Achievements. □iW YORK, Jan. 10.—The ninth annual meeting of the National | Association of Colored People was I held on Monday, January, in New j York. The business session was held , in the afternoon at the United Char i ities building and in the evening a mass meeting was held at Carnegie hall on the general 'subject, “Africa in the World Democracy.” The chief business of the afternoon session was the presentation of re ports on the work of the Association for the year by the Secretary, John R. Shillady, by Field Secretary James Weldon Johnson, and a statement of the findings of an investigation made by the Assistant Secretary, Walter F. White, into the workings of compul sory work laws and so-called “work or fight” ordinances as affecting Col ored people, particauarly women, in certain southern states. Election of Officers. At this session the following offi cers and members of the Board of Di rectors were elected: National Pres ident, Moonfield Storey, Boston; Vice Presidents, Archibald H. Grimke, Washington; Rev. John Haynes Holmes, Newt York; Bishop John Hurst, Baltimore; Captain Arthur B. Spingarn, New York; Osw'ald Garri son Villard, New York; Chairman of the Board of Directors, Mary White Ovington, New' York; Treasurer, Os wald Garrison Villard, New York; Di rector of Publications and Research, W. E. B. Du Bois, New York; Secre tary, John R. Shillady, New York; Field Secretary, James Weldon John son, New York; Assistant Secretary, Walter F. White, New York; Board of Directors (for three years) George W. Crawford, New' Haven; Bishop John Hurst, Baltimore; Paul Kennedy, New York; Joseph Prince Loud, Boston; Dr. William A. Sinclair, Philadelphia; Captain Arthur B. Spingarn, New York; Charles H. Studin, New York; Lillian D. Wald, New York; Rev. G. R. Waller, Springfield, Mass.; Butler R. Wilson, Boston. Previous to the annual meeting, at the December meeting of the Board of Directors, Robert R. Church of Memphis, Tenn., wms elected a member of the Board to fill the unexpired term of Dr. John G. Underhill (resigned) of Brooklyn. It was decided at the business ses sion to appoint a committee of seven to take under advisement the structure of the Association, its constitution, the constitution and by-laws provided for branches, the relation of branches to the National Office, including the re lation of branch organizations to the Board of Directors and to the nomina tion and election of board members, this committee to report its con clusions and recommendations to the annual Spring Conference of the As sociation which wdll be held some time late in May at a city centrally located yet to be selected, at which confer ence, lasting the better part of a w'eek, it is expected there will be a large representation of delegates from the Association’s branches in the thirty eight states in which they are now or ganized. Roscvelt Memorial. The following resolution in regard to the death of Colonel Theodore Roosevelt was passed: “The death of Theodore Roosevelt has removed one of the greatest fig ures of our country and our time and, in many respects, the greatest friend of the American Negro in public life. CoJonel Roosevelt was human and he made mistakes in this as in other mat ters, but he was always fundamentally right on the Negro. The National As sociation for the Advancement of Col ored People desires to spread upon its records its deep sense of loss at his death and its keen feeling of ap preciation of the passion for fairness and right dealing which characterized his thoughts and actions in all his re lations with his Colored fellow' citi zens.” Pledge Support to President. At the night meeting, resolutions were passed which resulted in the sending of a cablegram to President Wilson pledging him loyal support in his efforts toward the establishment , (Continued from Page 7)