\=.±. The Monitor
A NATIONAL WEEKLY NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF COLORED AMERICANS
THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor ]
- - _ . , ■■ — - -A'ta(80S - - ..
te $2.00 a Year. 5c a Copy OMAH, NEBRASKA, FRIDAY, JULY 6, 1923 Whole Number 417 Vol. IX. No. 1
NEGRO HOSPITAL IS
ENTIRELY IN HANDS
OF SOUTHERN RING
_
Personal of Defunct Institutions Be
ing Rapidly Transferred to Posi
tions at Tuskegee Plant
SOUTH PROVIDES FOR OWH
—
Executive Order From President
Harding Believed to be Only
Method of Employing Race.
(By MELVIN CHISUM)
Tuskegee, Ala.,, July B.—The As
sociated Press dispatch recently to the
contrary notwithstanding, there is no
intention of the Vteerans’ Bureau of
placing volored people in charge of
the work at the Tuskegee Veterans
Bureau Hospital.
The releases sent out from the
White House and appearing in the
papers are pure buncombe. The
crackers in the Veterans’ Bureau ran
Forbes until they wrecked him and
they are doing the same thing to Gen.
Hines.
Gen. Hines sits in his office and
calls upon them for this report and
the other and they lie to him as they
lied to Forbes, tell him one thing und
do another. I am sure that Mr. Hines
thinks that he knows what he is writ
ing about, but the crackers in the
Bureau are running the thing.
The application blanks sent out to
the doctors and nurses is a technical
test and is the only examination given
them This is the only regulation em
ployed to qualify white people and all
this noise about colored people not
being able to qualify is pure bun
combe.
There is not now and never has
been the slightest intention on the
part of the crackers who run the
Veterans' Bureau to allow colored pro
fessionals to operate the Tuskegee j
Hospital.
Almost a year ago, it was decided
to curtail expenses by closing up two
of the hospitals in the South because
they have two for one in every other
section of the country; the ones to be
closed are one at Mobile, Ala., and
one at Greenville, S. C., and the per
sonnel officer of the bureau acting
under the orders of the clyest, most
poorly informed official in the bureau,
Col. ljams, the executive officer of the
Bureau, has shifted the personnel
from these defunct institutions to the
Tuskegee Hospital.
They have been very skillful in the
manipulation, by shifting some of
them to other places temporarily, but
they are all billetted to eventually go
to Tuskegee.
Col. Ijams at r null.
Delay and disinclination on the part
of Colonel George A. Ijams, a North
Carolina white Democrat, to staff the
hospital with colored people,, is held
responsible for the situation at pres
ent. Field letter, Number 78, issued
by Ijams from the U. 8. Veterans’
Bureau states:
The chief nurse, chief aids, chief
dietitan, and their assistants will be
white. The staff nurses, aides, and
dietitians will probably be colored.
' The medical officer selected to take
charge of this hospital will be from
the Reserve Corps of the Public
Health Service, of Southern birth, and
one who thoroughly understands the
Negro.
Mrs. L. H. Payne, 1114 E. Deigh
street, Richmond, makes public the
following letter showing how she was
turned down when she applied for
one of the positions at the hospital:
■‘On March 13, I received reply
from W. M. Cobb, chief of personnel,
advising that I take the matter up
with the American Red Cross.
“This I did, and on March 17, I re
ceived two application blanks from
this headquarters, directing that they
be filled and return one to that office
and forward the other to Miss Eliza
beth Wisner, Atlanta, Ga.
‘This was done immediately. On
March 23rd, Miss Wisner informed
me by official correspondence, .that
the plan was “to use only white work
ers on the social service staff.”
More than fifty such letters ad
dressed to both nurses and physicians
by officials in the Veterans’ Bureau
and Civil Service Commission indi
cates that these applicants are being
turned down In order to prove that
the colored race has not sufficient
qualified niurses and physicians to
take charge of the hospital
With a known prejudice existing
In the Civil Service Buseau and the
U. S. Veterans’ Bureau, it becomes
plainer every day, that it will require
an executive order of the President to
cut the red tape and place colored
physicians and surgeons in charge of
the Veterans’ Hospital.
55,522 PLOWS IDLE IN GEORGIA
Atlanta, July 6.—Within the past
thfee and a half years, 228,938 colored
people have migrated from Georgia
to the north, according to figures
compiled here by the Georgia Bank
ers’ Aseoclation.
During the first six months in 1923,
77,500 Negroes have lpft the 'state,
and for the same period 29,513 whites
have left the farms of Georgia, the
figures show.
As a result of this exodus, the re
port stated, from the rural commun
ities, 46,674 farm dwellings have been
left vacant, and estimating thirty
acres to the plow there are 65,522 idle
plowB. Labor shortage on the farms
is estimated at 70,743 on June 15.
$15,000 EOK MONUMENT
Chicago, 111., July 6.—Governor Len
Small signed the bill passed by the
state legislature appropriating $15,000
for a monument to colored soldiers
killed in the World War, last Friday
afternoon. The Governor said it was
the only bill for a monument he had
signed this session.
500 IN SUMMER SCHOOL
Greensboro, N. C., July 6.—A. and
T. summer school hae broken all pre
vious records by enrolling 500 teach
ers for summer work Among the in
structors are Prof. Miles W. Conner,
of Union University and Prof. Benja
min Brawley of Shaw.
SUPREME COURT
ORUERS RELEASE
OF ELAIHE FARMERS
Men Twice Sentenced to Death Are
Released After Determined Fight
of More Than Four Years
JUSTICE FINALLY TRIUMPHS
Action Believed to Mark Beginning
of End of Infamous Arkansas
Riot Cases of 1919.
Washington, D. C, July 6.—Flash
ing over the wires from Arkansas to
New York and Washington came the
news late Monday. June 25th, that six
Elaine farmers, held for more than
four years, following the fatal Arkan
sas race riot, had been ordered re
leased from prison by the Arkansas
Supreme Court.
The news of the release of these six
men is believed to really mark the
"beginning of the end," for all the
men, and has brought to its final
stage one of the most unique and
tragic injustices the race has ever
been forced to undergo.
Influential colored citizens, civic
and fraternal organizations, .headed
by the N. A. A. C. P., have staged
an unceasing barrage of protests ever
since the men were arrested. More
than $14,000 has been spent in a
mammoth effort to keep the ends of
justice unthwarted, and to release the
sixteen unfortunate men who had
been slapped into prison at the height
of the disorder.
Twice convicted by the Phillips
County Court, and with the decision
twice reversed by order of the State
Supreme Court, the case was brought
to a head early this year, when Moor
field Storey, former president of the
American Bar Association, appeared
before the United States Supreme
Court in a final plea for justice.
In his speech, Attorney Storey
charged that the sixteen men had
been practically “railroaded" to the
electric chair. The courts of Arkan
sas, newspapers, leading citizens, the
Rotary Club, .American Legion and
other organizations were included in
the startling revelations.
Storey declared in his brief that
torture of the most vicious nature was
employed “to make the prisoners
testify falsely, mob hysteria domin
ated their trial, which is alleged to
have taken place in less than an hour.
At that time, he declared that he
had “distinct evidence” that 200 or
300 colored men were killed during
the rioting,, that the citizens of He
lena “were determined that these men
should be convicted,” and that “they
manufactured the evidence for the
purpose.”
The sixteen men for whom Storey
pleaded at that time were first sen
tenced to death in 1919, following
their alleged participation in the riots,
when it is said white fanners tried to
Marcus Garvey: Interpreter of Discontent
An Editorial by John Albert Williams
y^K DO NOT know the man. We
only know that he was, nay is,
the central figure in a great move
ment. His conviction in our judgment,
may temporarily impede, but it will
never stop the great social movement
to which he has given the impulse.
His conviction and imprisonment may
give impetus to that movement. We
believe it will, for his enthusiastic
followers and disciples, either right
fully or wrongfully, will look upon
him as a victim of persecution and
hence a martyr. That “the blood of
the martyrs is the seed of the
Church,” is a truth that has been ver
ified in social and political move
ments, no less than in the Christian
Church. It is therefore, not improb
able that Garveyism may be advanced
by the same influence; for Garvey
ism is a great social movement, which
cannot be ignored. It would not have
gained the magnitude it has attained
but for the fact that Marcus Garvey
has made articulate, whatever ,hii*
mistakes may have been, the discon
tent at exploitation by dominant
groups in all parts of the world, of
the black race. Dissatisfaction with
this domineering domination undoubt
edly exists and is growing. There
are those who believe that the black
man can never come into the full pos
session and enjoyment of his rights
as a man where the vaunted "white
man’s civilization" exists. There be
those, for example, who look upon the
black man's status in the United
States as virtually static and hopeless.
They maintain that here he will al
ways be an underling and the victim
of galling discrimination. We are not
of those who share this belief. We
believe that here on this American
continent, in these United States, tne
black man or Negro, aB he is gener
ally called, will work out his destiny
and attain his full manhood rights.
•Less than this he ought not and will
not be contented with, More than this
he ought not and does not expect. De
spite much that would seem to augur
against thjs we have the faith to be
lieve that it is even now coming to
pass, surely but slowly. There are,
however, many who hold the opposite
opinion, that expressed by Garvey
that the hope of the Negroid or black
races of the world lies in the erec
tion of a great black empire or re
public, in which the race will be su
preme. Garvey sees this Empire or
Kingdom in Afrida. .Many of our
American youth of color are looking
to the I^atin republics of South Amer
ica as the meoca of their dreams and
ambitions. Others have a dream of
the colonization of one or more of the
thinly populated western states where
■a sovereign state controlled by the
rai^T from the governor down may be
come a reality. Inchoate anil indefi
nite as all these dreams may appeal
they are more substantial than the
things of which dreams are made.
Garveyistn is the groping for this
ideal. To realize this Garvey conceived
gigantic commercial enterprises, the
Black Star Steamship line and the
allied industries and succeeded In
raising vast sums to finance them.
That they failed is to be regrettea.
But commercial and industrial success
among the white race is strewn with
failures. So will it be with us. He
was convicted upon one count: using
the mails to defraud, by continuing to
sell stock in the Black Star Steam
ship line when he knew it was insol
vent. Illegal, true. Dishonest, granted.
Yet much depends upon the motive. He
gambled for a big stake. Doubtfess
he hoped to win. Could he have se
cured sufficient capital to have fi
nanced his great .projects perhaps
none w'ould have lost. Inexperience
and ignorance were causes contrib
utory to failure. Garvey fought
against tremendous odds. Being an
egotist and a u tew rat he doubtless al
ienated many who could have helped
him. But after all is said andl done
the significant fact to bear in mind
is this, that Garvey impersonates the
growing consciousness of the black
races of the earth that they must unite
and unify their forces, commercially,
industrially, politically and religious
ly to resist exploitation and attain
| their place in the sun. This spirit is
abroad. It cannot be ignored. Where
unto it will grow, who dare prophesy'i
Garvey’s violation of the law is to be
regretted. His fall should cause no
rejoicing upon the part of any of our
group no matter how widely we may
differ from him or question the wis
dom of his methods. We believe he was
actuated by the best of motives and
moved by a sincere desire to help the
race. Whatever of truth there may
be in Garveyism it will survive and
triumph even though its founder pays
the full penalty of the law’s violation
within the walls of the ederal Pri
son at Leavenworth.
Men die, but great social move
ments survive.
place colored workers in a state of
bondage and peonage.
Brief Review of Case.
It was contended at the trial in be
half of the accused colored men that
they had assembled in their church at
Hoop Spur, in Phillips county, Octo
ber 1, 1919, to devise means as tenant
farmers to relieve themselvs of con
ditions which they asserted amounted
to peonage. While so assembled, the
men claimed that armed whites sur
rounded the church and fired upon
them, killing a number.
'this marked the beginning of one
of the fiercest race riots in the his
tory of the country For days armed
posses of men of both races hunted
each other as one would hunt an ani
mal. Scores were killed in the out
burst, ,and it is claimed that colored
women were subjected to the most
brutal torture and suffered untold In
dignities.
On behalf the State, it was asserted
that the condemned men had assem
bled in connection with a plot to mas
sacre white men, and that the firing
was done by a posse sent to quell the
riot.
Decision Marks Real Triumph.
The decision of the Arkansas Su
preme Court marks a real triumph,
not only for the organizations which
interested themselves so unsparingly,
but for the entire race.
The petition was based on a statute
which provides that unless Pu date
for trial is set by the court within
two terms from the indictment, the
defendants are entitled to dismissal.
1%e attorneys for the men con
tended that their cases had been pend
ing for two terms, and that, although
they had filed motions in each term
to have the day set for trial, the court
had not set th<* day and that they
were, consequently, entitled to dis
missal under the statute.
GARVEY’S EFFORTS
TO SECIRE BAIL
HOT SHCCESSFBL
Third Application For Release of Con
victed Head of U. N. I. A. on
Bond Pending Appeal Denied.
PRISONER MAKES STATEMENT
Has Nothing to Regret and is Willing
to Serve Any Sentence Imposed
Conscious of .Service to Race.
New York, July 5.—Attempts by
Marcus Garvey to obtain his release
on bail, following his conviction of
using the mails to defraud in the sale
of Black Star steamship stock, failed.
Judge Rogers, in the Federal Cir
cuit Court of Appeals, denied without
prejudice the application for bail
made by Garvey’s lawyer, Armin
Kohn.
Judge Rogers gave no reasons for
the refusal. The dismissal without
prejudice will enable Garvey’s lawyer
to make further efforts to obtain his
freedom pending appeal.
. Mrs. Garvey was present when the
new attempt to get her husband’s re
lease was made. Garvey remained in
his ceH-at the Tombs.
l/esideg the $11,000 fine and the
five years in the penitentiary, the
/osts in the case, amounting to about
$5,000 have been assessed against
Garvey. Upon his own request he
was allowed to go back to the Tombs
prison, rather than to the Atlanta
Penitentiary pending the appeal of
his case to a higher court.
Like Stage Tragedy.
The closing scenes of the trial were
reminiscent of the end of a stage
tragedy. The Garvey who faced the
Court to hear his sentence pronounced
was not the Garvey of summer linens,
gold monocle, fancy leather shoes,
strident voice and blustering manner.
Not the Garvey who discharged a
lawyer to act as his own attorney,
who transfixed witnesses with his
belligerent stare and pointing finger
and who demanded of the Court his
constitutional rights. Instead he wa>
the SaSamson shorn of his power
awaiting his doom from the Philis
tines.
A dozen deputy marshals, 20 De
partment of Justice agents, a force
of bomb squad men, at least fifteen
Secret Service men and six uniformed
patrolmen were scattered thru the
court room and corridor. Known
friends of Garvey were not among
the few hundred admitted unless they
had passes Mrs. Garvey was there
and they exchanged glances frequent
ly
Garvey Makes Statement.
“We are a low-abiding people,”
' said Garvey, when asked if he had
anything to say before sentence was
passed. “We have done and rresire
to do nothing contrary to the laws of
the United States, which is the great
est country on earth and whose laws
are the fairest and most just of any
land in the world. There have been
reports that I would do or incite some
thing contrary to law (meaning in re
taliation for his conviction), but as I
am a man of intelligence, that is too
ridiculous for consideration.
“I have absolutely nothing to re
gret. 1 am willing to serve any sen
tence the court may impose, secure
in my knowledge of the service I hare
rendered to my race, whose day will
yet have its dawning.”
Regretted Outbreak
He expressed regret for his out
break against Assistant District At
torney Mattuck when he was con
victed. and Mattuck responded that
there was no vindictiveness on his
part.
“I am glad the defendant made the
statement he just uttered," said Judge
Mack. The Court took offense at
no time to anything during the trial
realizing that patience is required
when a man acts as his own lawyer.”
Judge Mack granted a stay of exe
cution of the sentence to Atlanta, ex
plaining that he wished to give Gar
vey the choice of going to Leaven
worth if he preferred, but that the
original sentence must be to the Geor
gia prison and a transmer could only
be effected by application to the At
torney General. Prosecutor Mattuck
said he would make the application
personally.
YEAR’S GRADUATES
NUMBER MORE THAN
ELEVEN HUNDRED
I
Several Bank High in Scholarship and
Secure Special Honors at Their
Respective Schools
MARKER INCREASE IS NOTER
Poll Taken by Crisis Discloses Over
5000 Colored Students in Vurions
Colleges of Country.
New York, July 6.—Colored stu
dents numbering 1152 finished various
schools and colleges throughout the
Unites State last month, according
to a poll made by the Crisis Magazine.
This poll reveals 1,740 colored stu
dents in Northern colleges and 3,289
in colored colleges this year.
From colored institutions were
graduated, 514 bachelors; 3 masters;
90 physicians; 1156 dentists; 55 phar
macists; 37 lawyers; and 25 ministers.
From the white schools there were
129 bachelors; 20 masters; 1 doctor
of philosophy; 24 lawyers; 25 den
tists; 46 pharmacists; 7 ministers;
and 5 engineers, etc.
Most prominent among the grad
uates is Charles H. Houston of Wash
ington, D. C., who graduated from
the law department of Harvard Uni
versity. He was a member of the
Harvard Law Review Editorial Board
and winner of the Sheldon Travelling
Fellowship for next year which will
take him abroad to study in Spain.
Edward Porter Davis received his
Ph. D. degree in Germanic languages
and literature, magna cum laude, from
the Chicago University. During the
year, Dr. Davis was chairman of the
Germanic Club, of the University of
Chicago, composed of graduate stu
dents and instructors.
He is spending the summer in Eu
rope and will return to his work as
head of the department of German at
Howard University.
Miss Sonoma Tolley was the first
colored girl to receive an artist’s dip
loma from the Damrosch Institute of
Musical Art In New York. She had a
place on the program and received a
$500 prize.
Miss Clarissa M. Scott, daughter of
Emmett J. Scott, of Washington, D.
C., was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate
of Wellesley College. She won schol
arships each year and a college letter
in athletics.
REQUEST MADE FOR
FEDERAL TROOPS TO
GUARD TUSKEGEE
National Advancement Association
Wires President Harding to Pro
tect Head of Famous
School.
FOLLOWS PARADE OF KLAR
Alabamans Have Threatened Lives of
Moton and Colored Doctors
If Sent to Veterans’
Hospital.
New York, July 6.—Because of the
stand taken by Dr. Rusa R. Moton,
principal of Tuskegee institute, who
favored a colored personnel for the
Negro Veterans hospital, which was
promised when it was decided to erect
this institution, his life has been
frequently threatened and only a few
months ago Tuskegee was virtually
in a state of siege. The South has
i insisted, and the Veterans bureau, as
available correspondence shows, has
acquiesed in the plan, that whites
should man the hospital aad protest
ing against the employment of colored
physicians and nurses.
It has been openly threatened that if
colored physicians are certified and
attempt to take their place in the hos
pital they will be killed. A parade
of the Kul Klux Klan was pulled off
Tuesday evening and it was asserted
by spokesmen for the Klan that the
demonstration symbolized the protest
of 50,000 klansmen of Alabama against
the placing of a Negro personnel to
man the hospital. The previous threats
of mob violence and this demonstra
tion has lead the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored Peo
ple to wire President Harding request
ing that federal troops be sent to
guard Tuskegee. The telegram was
sent Thursday and reads:
“National Association for Advance
ment of Colored People, representing
100,000 American citizens, asks that
federal troops be sent to Tuskegee,
Ala., to protect colored doctors sent
to United States Veterans’ hospital
to care for Negro world war veterans.
Lives of these United States doctors
and security of Tuskegee institute, an
internationally known agency, mak
ing for inter-racial good will, should
have protection against lawless defi
ance of government. , We urge espe
cially federal protection for R. R.
Moton, successor to Booker T. Wash
ington, whose life has been threat
ened.”
MITCHELL RESIGNS AS
PYTHIAN HEAD
Petersburg, Va., July 6.—John Mit
chell, Jr., grand chancellor of the Py
thians of Virginia, resigned his office
at the state meeting last week.
Mr. Mitchell is under a sentence for
three years, pending an appeal, on
charges growing out of the receiver
ship of the Mechanics Bank.
Attorney William Reed, of Ports
mouth, was elected to fill his place
under orders of the state insurance
department Into whose hands the af
fairs of the Pythians have been placed
since the loss of its funds in the bank
failure.
PLANNING FOB ELKS’ EXCURSION
Marshall Craig, passenger agent for
the Chicago, Great Western railroad,
which will run a special to Chicago
for the Elks National convention, is
actively and energetically planning to
make this a big affair Letters have
been sent to passenger agents in the
west urging them to route delegates
toy Omaha, so that they may reach
here by the morning of August 20 and
spend the day, leaving on the special
at night- Iroquois Lodge is planning
a big feature for the entertainment
during the day of their western
brethren.
ONE-NIGHT CARNIVAL
, Come and enjoy the one night car
nival in the beautiful grounds of the
North Side branch of the Y. W. C. A.
given Wednesday evening, July 18th,
under the auspices of the Garden
club. Admission ten cents.
MRS. T. P. MAHAMMITT,
Adv. Chairman.
WILL PRESENT
PUPILS IN RECITAL
Mrs. Jack Pinkston will present ber
pupils in pianaforte recital at the
North End branch Y. W. C. A. Satur
day afternoon at 2 o’clock The public
is invited.