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About The monitor. (Omaha, Neb.) 1915-1928 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 4, 1921)
«Row™i i nrtJT- l\/l fYMTTYYD LlFriNG thanktww X n I v 1V1U1M11 UJ\ _LiFr,..!^L_. A NATIONAL WEEKLY NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF COLORED AMERICANS THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS. Editor $2.00 a Year 5c a Copy PART ONE OMAHA, NEBRASKA, THURSDAY, Aug. 4, 1921 PAGES ONE TO EIGHT Vol. VII. No. 6. Whole No. 318. SPECIAL MONITOR EMANCIPATION EDITION BY FEkvMRIHR FROOBESS OF AMERIOAR HERRO IB LAST HALF CEHTHBY GAVE WORLtl NEW DEFINITION OF NEGRO Founder’s Day Speaker at Tuskegee Declares That This Was One of Booker T. Washington’s Greatest Contributions to Humanity. Famous Educator Defined It In Terms of Supreme Accomplish ment Demonstrating Ability To Compete With World Leaders. INSPIRING MESSAGE FOR YOUTH OF OUR RACE Early Conception of Negro, Which In a Large Degree Continues To The Present Was That He Was a Creature Incapable of Develop ment Beyond a Very Narrow Limit.—Deadly Indictment Against Slavery, Crime, Against Free Personality. Tt'SKEGEK, Ala., Aug. 4 On the Fifth Anniversary of Founder's Day which was observed with fitting exer cises here a few weeks a^o, Dr M. Ashby Jones, pastor of Ponce de Leon Baptist church of Atlanta, Ga., deliv ered an eloquent address on the life and influence of Dr. Washington, J which should prove an inspiration to (lie youth of our race throughout the land. Dr. Jones spoke in part as fol lows: ( "Today has been with tne a day of deep, and high, and broad emotions. A- I have walked over ti.is beautiful i campus; glimpsed the horizon of your fertile fields; looked at your modern workshops; walked through your tfc academic halls, and now siand upon this platfutrm, facing this splendid audience of young life, I have had tie fore me a picture. It is the picture of a ragged Negro boy walking, and working, kill way to >. and then in after years standing upon the commencement platform of Harvard University receiving from President Klliott his Master's Degree with the words, ‘Teacher, wise helper of his race, good servant of God anil Coun try.’ •'The astronomers count distance bv light years. the number of years it takes a ray of light rushing at an un believable speed from star to star, to finish Its course. But the distance which that young slave boy accom plished from the coal mines of West Virginia to Die commencement plat form of Harvard, is greater than the distance that any ray of light ever ac complished in it* radiant rush from ^ planet to planet It is with that ac complishment this afternoon, that I would challenge your thoughts, larly Conception of Negro. "In 1X72, even among the friends of the Negro, the question was yet up answered I the Negro capable of development into Independence and efficiencyT Are there In the Negro personality, those faculties and forces sleeping within his spirit which muy i be summoned into expression so Dial lie may attain a self-sufficient man hood. Bemember that up to that date every definition that had been made for the Negro had been In terms of sdavery As I have said elswhere I say today, that the damning sin of slavery cannot he stated in the fact that one man owns another man: it cannot he told in any terms of physical cruelty. Granted the most benevolent patern alism that ever held a people in slav ery, and 1 still say that the deadly Indictment against the system is that the child of a slave, even before it e horn, has already had the definition of Its personality predetermined for it. and the metes and bounds of its ae complisbments fixed. No greater crime can be committed against a person ality than to rob him of the right to make the definition of his own man hood and to determine the pathway of his own destiny. ■•Up to this time, except a few im practical theorists who believed that a government proclamation could un do the work of generations, (he world was saying, 'A Negro is a slave kind of personality, incapable of develop ment beyond a certain point, and he can only do that which he 1s told to do.’ . Hooker Washington (ontrlblltes New Definition. "I do not believe that we ean ever understand the significance of the coming of Booker T Washington inio ,he world's life until we understand that his really supreme contribution ; to his race, and to America, was that for the first time, with striking and compelling force, he made for vour race and for the world, a new defin ition of Negro. And he made that def inition in terms of supreme accom plishment, worthy to be. com pa red with the leaders of any race In the world jj I am anxious that you should get the significance of this achievement. Hill, erto, men were saying. 'A Negro is one incapable of self development.' And then came Hooker T. Washington, and so lived that his life said, ‘to be a Ne gro Is no barrier to any accomplish ment'; so lived that today he stands out silhouetted against the background of the past, saying by his very person ality, 'A Negro can be a Hooker Wash ington. and to be a Booker Washing ton is to demand that tile world give the Negro a definition In terms of man hood unbiased by limitations of race.’ To Be a Negro Is No Harrier to Achievement. "Youth of Ttiskegee, I do not want to be misunderstood. Booker Wash ington's life does not prove that every not a dream so beautiful that you can not make it real. There is not a pro phecy of your soul so splendid that it cannot be fulfilled. There is no am bition of your heart that is inspired hy the God of your creation, too high or too holy for you to dare to accom plish, Since Booker Washington lived, the best Is possible for the Ne gro race. Hooker Washington’s fontrflmHon More Significant Than Thai of Abraham Lincoln. ‘1 say no government can give free dom. Freedom is the unhampered ex pression of life and the Impulse must come from within. And for this rea !son, I dare say that Booker Washing J ton, when the last of the story is told, : made a more significant contribution to the freedom of your race than even i Abraham Lincoln. He did what no ! other man could do. In his own life all too short he so lived that he absolutely reversed the verdict of the world in regard to the Negro people, i He so lived that he removed one of the supreme barriers from the pathway of I the progress of his people. "The psychologists tell us that life . Itself is after .all only the reaction to the stimuli of the life about us. I will out that in more homely phrase, and 1 think it profoundly true the latent faculties and forces of a man s life that which he can be, only respond to the invitations of the world out side. What can baby boy be? A | mother is hovering over him with eyes all expectant. The radiant glory of her faitli anil ambition is the first light that pours itself in beauty into his spirit. And she is calling, calling to him with her soul, ‘Conic! come' ! come out, oh wondrous man, come out : into the light!’ And Ibis call is the in alienable right of every baby. "Here was the tragedy of the six ties and early seventies. A child race was born Into freedom, and the world all around was saying, 'You can t, you ,-an't you must not! you are not men Type* of Leaders. We have reached another critical hour in the relationship of our races. I speak not as an alarmist. Crises i recur ever and anon where folks move i forward. So we have reached an other crisis in this supreme task of democracy. And now is the critical | question Of the right of leadership There are two types of men offering | for leadership of the two races in i America today One is the man with no failh. When he is white he is 1 ever pointing to (lie menace of the massed ignorance of your backward people. He never tires of telling of I the long list of crimes of the idle and degraded members of your race. He is doing his best once again to pull I the World hack to Its old definition of a Negro. ‘ But if this would-he leuder Is black, then he Is searching for every example of cruelty and Injustice whic h is (lone to the Negro, and God knows they are too easy to find He spends his time gathering statistics to prove the prejudice and hatred of the white people for the Negro. He knows no | glad news, but is seeking to pour bit terness into your souls. He would blind your hearts, lake away all vis ion of accomplishment; and throw I your world into Bhadow. “Then, there is the Booker Wash i ington type, who with unclouded vis ion sees all the wrongs and nevei ceases to try to right them, hut win refuses to allow the bad to rob hi: vision of the good. One who believe. (Continued from Puge 1.) 1809 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 186C THE VOICE OF DESTINY. (By Lyman Whitney Allen) The hour was come, and in that hour he stood iiesponslve to the sacred voice that spake From heaven and earth and sea. He heard the dusky toiling multitude Plaintively pleading Hint Ills hand should break Their bonds and set them free. He heard the voice of Cod from shining height. Who, for the reason of the Nation's sin. Had held her armies hack In failure and defeat, till she should right The wrongs herself and sanctioned, and should win Justice unto tier track; When, girded with the strength of righteousness. Cod for her, with descending seraphim, Above the battle's tide, .'lie then would march to triumph, and possess \ land united to the farthest rim. Through sorrow purified. THE STROKE OP JTSTH I . (By Lyman Whitney Allen) * The hour was mine, the Nation’s eruelal hour: V crisis ol' the world, n turn of time; The ages’ hope and dream. And one undaunted soul, sinewed with power, freedom’s nniioinled, rose to height sublime. Imperial and supreme; And. lifting lilull o’er groaning multitude IIis sovereign sceptre, smote with such a stroke The chains of centuries. That earth was shaken to its farthest rood: That millloneil manacles asunder broke. And myriad properties Hem me, in one immortal moment, men; free with the free in all the rounded earth; Redeemed by martyr blood: To stand with faces to the light again. Attaining through their resurrection birth, To hiiuini! brotherhood. FREDERICK DOUGLAS 1 Born February 14, 1817; Died February 20, 1895 The man whose voice and pen help liberate the slaves after he had himself escaped from slavery. ........ SIGNS OF PROGRESS SHOWN AT CAPITOL Washington Correspondent Contributes Interesting Facts Concern ing Important Personages, Events And Institutions Within The Shadow Of the Golden Dome of the National Seat of Government Which Indicate Substantial Advancement During the Last Half Century. JNDGE TERRELL IS THE OUTSTANDING FIGIRE Has Presided For Nineteen Consecutive Years With Wisdom And Dignity Over Municipal Court of District Winning Esteem And Approbation From Members of Bar.—Many Others Prominent As Men of Affairs—Freedman’s Hospital, the Industrial Savings Bank And the Whitelaw Hotel Mark Progress. (Special To The Monitor by Walter J. Singleton,) Washington D. C.. July 2K. 1921—1 The Capital City of Washington has a population of. approximately, four hundred and twenty-five thousand of which one hundred and twenty-five thousand are of the colored race. This high ratio of almost thirty per centum is the result of a continuous progress during the past fifty years and which is still in progress of growth. The race has acquired a greater degree of recognition than, probably, has existed at any time since the short period of affluence immediately following the close of the Civil War. This public recognition, as it exists at present, takes on a national character by plac ing race men in federal positions of responsibility. Every field of endeav- ; or, talent and education is covered, and the names of those occupying po sitions of trust and distinction are for tunately too numerous to be recorded I here. A few' may be mentioned ! (though il is difficult to do so without j omitting scores of others equally en-] titled to mention) as follows: At-j torney William L. Houston, member of j the Board of Education: Philip Brown, of the Department of Labor: Henry] Lincoln Johnson, nominated for Re corder of Deeds; Prof. L. M. Kershaw, examiner. General Land Office; Dr. Edward D. Williston. professor of Howard University; and Dr. Emmett J. Scott, secretary-treasurer of Howard University. Judge Terrell. Foremost among the personages ranking highest in official recognition j and public esteem is Judge Robert J-l. j Terrell of the District of Columbia j Municipal Court. Judge Terrell has | served five successive terms covering j a period of some nineteen years. Orig inally appointed by the late Theodore Roosevelt, and re-appointed, in turn, bv Presidents William H. Tafl and \ Woodrow Wilson. His further re-ap pointment (at the expiration of the present term, a few months hence) by ] President Harding. is absolutely assured. Judge Terrell is intensely a j race man, and always identified with j every substantial movement tending! toward the betterment of the race. ; Though a republican, he is not an ac- i live politician, especially as regards j activities calculated to promote his I own interests. He has never been known to engage in any public ven ture in his own behalf. His position is ■ due, solely, to his own attainments— , his thorough education, high intellec tual endowments and his deep knowl edge of the law, all of which have es tablished him permanently in the re spect and esteem of his superiors and in the confidence of the general pub lic of all races. Officials of every pol itical belief have acknowledged his ability and unhesitating’y supported him. He has the hearty endorsement of the great Bar Association of the Dis j i riot of Columbia, which embraces in I its membership some of the leading | jurists of the country. As dean of the District of Columbia Municipal Court Judges, and established no less in the confidence of the white race than in his own. Judge Terrell occupies a po sition as unique as it is honorable, for seldom, indeed, does a man enjoy the supreme confidence of both races at the same time. Freedman’s Hospital. Washington may claim one of the finest hospitals in the country. Freedman’s Hospital, the most modern equipped hospital in the city, covers an entire block. All classes of patients are accommodated. Every branch of medicine and surgery is practiced with the highest degree of scientific skill. Dr. William A. Warfield has served as Superintendent of this institution for nearly twenty years.. Under his able and efficient administration it has grown and flourished to a state of ex cellence that is a great credit to the race. The Industrial Savings Bank in corporated in 1913. of which J. W I^wis is president, carries resources estimated at more than half a-million, WALTER J SINGLETON The popular newspaper correspondent who keeps thousands In touch with af fairs at the National Capital. While a native of Washington, Omaliu is proud to claim him as one of her eitlzens. and is an active hanking institution enjoying well merited confidence and support. The Whitelaw Apartment Hotel, a handsome and imposing struc ture, fireproof in construction, beau tifully furnished and well ordered in management, is a great monument of race industry and resource. This building, the first venture on so pre tentious a scale, is a most convincing evidence of material progress. Signs of Progress General. Time and space unfortunately cur tail this sketch and exclude numerous other enterprises equally worthy of mention. Industry, progress and well earned prosperity are well in evidence j every where, and out of these have grown a social life second to none in the country. Social activities of every grade and rank keep the visitor in a state of constant movement, and make ' the hours fly on happy wings. The Mu-So-Lit Club, with its sumptuous quarters, is conspicuous among the leading social centers that, enrich the happy recollections of people, from all over the country, who have visited i Washington—the great national cen ter where all Americans may read the history of this country in bronze and I marble. HIES IN CHAIR WITHOUT FRAIL McALESTER, Okla., July 15—Ell Thomas, was electrocuted shortly af ter midnight Thursday night at the state penitentiary for the murder of , Selnm Mayfield, a while hoy, at a pic nic near Calhoun, Okla., more than a year ago. The condemned man walked to the t'death cell unaided and without the least trace of fear, and after a short 1 speech to the spectators, in which he acknowledged his guilt, and warned young men against the same fate, and thanking the prison ofifcials for their I many acts of kindness, he took his , seat in the chair that was so soon to snuff out the last vestige of life. NEW YORK. July 28—The National I Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 70 Fifth Avenue, New Y'ork, today anounced that the re ceipts to date of Its fund for the relief and legal defense of the Tulsa riot victims amounted to $2,248.87. In connection with the an nouncement that funds were being distributed through a local committee of the Association in conjunction with the recognized Tulsa Colored Citizens | Committee, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peo ple issued a warning to the public ' that frauds were being committed by people traveling over the country and soliciting funds, alleging that they * were working for the relief of the Tul •sa riot victims.