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I NEBRASKA’S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF COLORED AMERICANS
£ THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor
$2.00 a Year—5c a Copy g OMAHA, NEBRASKA, FRIDDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1924 Whole Number 493 VoLX—No. 25
m - — -----
I ALPHA PHI ALPHA
COHVEHTIOH TO BE
1 BIG GATHERING
Challenges Attention of New York
City—1,000 College Men Are
Expected to Attend
Sessions
MANY PROMINENT SPEAKERS
New York, Dec. 19.—The great city
of New York with all its bustle and
hurry has had its attention challenged ;
by the preparations which are being!
made for the entertainment of the |
delegates and visiting members and
friends of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fra- |
temity who will swoop down upon it j
during the days of December 27th to j
31st, 1924, for the annual convention ]
of this leading Negro college frater- j
nity.
Other Organizations to Meet
In addition to the Alpha Phi Alpha,
delegates and members of the Delta
Sigma Theta and Zeta Phi Beta So- 1
rorities will be present in New York
City at that time in attendance upon |
their annual conventions. Alreadv, j
there has been much interest aroused
because of the fact that this will be
the first time for such a large and
representative number of Negro col- i
lege men and women ever to assem- j
hie at the same time in New York
City—the metropolis of the world.
Local Alpha Phi Alpha Plans for 1.900
According to information received
from the National Secretary Norman 1
I,. McOhee, of the Alpha Phi Alpha, j
by local committee of Eta Chapter,
composed of Dr. P. F. Anderson, Mr.
W. B. Allison, and Attorney Thomas
B. Dyett, not less than 1,000 members j
of this fraternity will be in attend
ance at its annual convention. It is
also predicted that there will be pres- ;
ent more than 100 members of the1
Delta Sigma Theta and some fifty odd
members of the Zeta Phi Beta Soror- ^
ity.
Pilgrimage, Public Session, Banquet
Among the interesting features of j
the Alpha Phi Alpha convention w ill I
be a pilgrimage to the grave of Wil-1
liam Hunton, the first International,
Secretary of the Y. M. C. A. of his |
race, at which place a short memorial i
service will be held and a short ad
dress given by Dr. C. H. Tobias, the
present colored member of the Inter-1
national Committee of the Y. M. C. A.,1
and an honoraray member of the fra
ternity. The public session of the j
convention will be held at the Abys
sinian Baptist Church, Sunday after- i
noon, at which time an address will J
be delivered by Mr. Emory B. Smith,
field and alumni secretary of Howard j
University, and a member of the fra- .
temity. Many social functions are
scheduled.
DR. JOHN HOPE ELECTED
TO “Y” GENERAL BOARD
Buffalo, N. Y., Dec. 19.—The Na
| s tional Council of Young Men’s Chris
tian Associations of the United
States, at its meeting here, has given
deserved recognition to the colored
associations by electing President
John Hope of Atlanta, Ga., to the
highest governing board of the Coun
cil.
In being elected to this body, known
as the General Board of the National
Council, President Hope is one of
thirty-one men drawn from the coun
try at large. The Board as selected
is a remarkably representative body.
Fits members come from many parts
of the country, from many lines of
business and professional life, and
from many denominations.
Dr. Hope is a graduate of Brown
university, from which he received a
Phi Bet Kappa scholarship rating.
For fifteen years he has been pres
ident of Morehouse college. He was
associated with the war work of the
American Y. M. C. A. in France.
H1USTMAS SERVICES
AT ST. PHILIP’S CHURCH
Following itfc usual custom, St.
Philip’s Episcopal church will usher
in Christmas Day with a midnight
celebration of the Holy Communion
Christmas eve, Wednesday night. The
service will begin at 11:45 with the
singing of Christmas carols, followed
by High Mass and brief sermon. The
other services will be Holy Commun
ion at 7:30 a. m. and full morning
service at 10:30. Public invited to
all services.
MOREY LENDERS
SCHEME THWARTED
j DY BUSINESS MEN
Philanthropic White Men Come to the
Rescue of the Standard Life
Insurance Company
in Crisis
PROMPTLY ADVANCE $500,000
Atlanta, Ga., Dec. 19.—(Preston
News Service.)—A group of white
money lenders was about to strip
holdings valued at about $18,000,000
| from Heman E. Perry, Negro finan
cier, when he was rescued by
| a group of white philanthropists oper
! ating through the Title Guarantee and
j Trust company.
His rescuers told him they did it
in recognition of his achievements, be
| ginning with nothing, born ten years
after his parents had been freed from
I slavery and raising himself, at the
age of fifty-one to his present posi
! lion.
Heman E. Perry is president of the
Standard Life Insurance company j
here, which he founded; chairman of j
j the Citizens’ Trust company and of
the Penny Savings Bank and presi
dent of eleven corporations; his life
is insured for $1,000,000, and he is
estimated to be worth about $8,000,
000.
Faced Loss of Fortune
Yet an emergency need of $500,000
in liquid capital put him in the hands
of a group of money lenders, and
they were just about to foreclose on
the network of valuable undertakings
which he had established, all under
the control of men of his own race.
During the last few days, however,
j his rescue was arranged quietly at
I the offices of the Title Guarantee and
Trust company, and he was provided
with the money he needed to get out
of the hands of the money lenders.
The meetings were attended by Per
ry, Dr. Robert Moton, principal of
j Tuskegee Institute, Clarence H. Kel
sey, chairman of the Board of the
Title Guarantee and Trust company,
which will manage the loan, and Ju
lius Rosenwald, multi-millionaire and
philanthropist, chairman of the
board of Sears, Roebuck and company
of Chicago.
Mr. Rosenwald is noted for charities
extended to the Negroes, chiefly in
the founding of the Rosenwald Fund
for Rural Negro schools which has
been responsible for the establishment
of more than 1,500 Negro schools dur
ing the past decade. He is known to
have provided half the funds which
have just saved Heman E. Perry.
SPECIAL INVESTIGATOR
Mrs. Grace M. Hutten has been em
ployed as special investigator for the
Associated Charities and has entered
actively upon her work.
MIDNIGHT MASH AT
HT. BENEDICT’S BOHAN
CATHOLIC CHURCH
High Mass with special music will
be celebrated at the Church of St.
Benedict the Moor, Twenty-fourth and
Grant streets, at midnight Christmas
eve. Rev. Francis J. Cassily, 8. J.,
pastor. Public invited.
In The Lion’s Claw
; ... .... ____ _
The ink had scarcely dried upon the
pages of the world’s newspapers,
which in turn told the story of the
League of Nations formed for the
purpose of protecting weaker nations
1 against the strong, and how Great
Bitain—who proudly boasts, “wher
ever waves the cross and bars reigns
justice to all mankind"—had recog
nized the independence of Egypt.
The world read and believed, but
I people who knew the British Lion
watched the twitching of his tail and
clutching of his paw, and saw, hooked
within his grasp, the enthusiastic
E Egyptians, one paw resting on the
Sudanese in the south of Egypt, and
the other on the Suez Canal.
To the world the claws were
sheathed, but the natives constantly
! felt their prickings as they worked
k quietly to tighten their grasp. Then
K came a rebellious group who took the
^HE life of an English officer because
ML they said he was cruel and uniust.
||The “Lion” roared, bared his teeth,
patched away the independence of
this helpless and weakened monarchy,
and for the life of one of his sub
jects and wounding of several others,
he wrung from these helpless people
all of their money, and all of their
privilege, and even violated the rules
of Christian warfare, “out-Hunning
the Huns” by shelling and destroy
ing a hospital.
The enraged “Lion" behaved like
the beast that he is: took advantage
of his prey, wreaked upon it his
vengeance, then bared his teeth and
growled with menacing attitude at
those—other nations — forming the
League of Nations, who seemed in
clined to carry out the principles for
which they had been joined together,
but Great Britain has stultified the
league, destroying by this wanton act
the organization with which it ex
pected to guarantee its retention of
all of that world which it had been
able to grab off and pin down.
The world is watching Egypt in the
grasp of the Lion’s Claw.—The Pa
cific Defender.
! r - ~*n
|_Greetings_
0 MeR«y CHRISTMAS'
H tv)ERy0opy///
URBAN LEAGUE CONFERENCE DREW EMINENT SPEAKERS
Delegates from twenty-one cities
attended the sessions of the National
Urban league Conference in Cleve
land, Ohio, December 2nd and 5th.
Speakers nationally known and com
manding influence in social and gov
ernmental affairs addressed large
mixed audiences.
Owen It. Lovejoy, director of the
National Child Labor Committee, told
the delegates that under the present
conditions in the South, colored chil
dren are scarcely more crushed down
by the exploitations of business and
industry than the white children. “It
is up to social service agencies, such
as the Urban League, to see that ev
ery child who is not an imbecile
should have every chance to develop
himself to the limit of his capacity.”
“A man may travel over the world
and scatter it thick with friendship,"
said L. Hollingsworth Wood, presi
dent of the National Urban League,
always an inspiring talker, and he
pointed to this idea as the one aim
of the Urban League.
Mrs. Mary McLeod Bethune, presi
dent of the National Association of
Colored Women, discussed the "Prob
lems of the City Dweller”. The migra
tion has brought an upheaval in the
living habits of southern colored peo
ple”, she stated, “and has thrown
upon them new difficulty of living a
helpful life in a wholesome surround
ing and in a normal and moral tone”.
She plead for the unprivileged child of
the South threatened with this new
condition.
James Weldon Johnson, executive
secretary of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored Peo
ple, explained that both the Urban
league and the Advancement Associ
ation proceeded to the same end by
different routes: one prepared the Ne
gro to assume his rights and the
other insisted on his getting them.
"Negroes must make themselves fit
for all the common rights of Amer
ican citizens—morally, educationally,
economically and physically,” hei
said, “and they must find the way to
compel the recognition of this fitness.
There is no panecea. Neither educa
tion nor economic prowTess can do
it alone. Publicity, backed by money i
will go a long way towards getting
a hearing.” The greatest danger, he
feared, was that in submitting to Jim
Crow arrangements as they are com
pelled to under the present laws, that
they Jim Crow their souls and feel
that they are where they belong.
William J. Norton, president of the
National Conference of Social Work,
warned against being so absorbed
with building up mere machinery as
to destroy the rf .in objectives of the
work. “CharitJ like a drug, can be
as dangerous / , useful if unwisely
used.” I
Dr. J. D. Wi damson, vice-president
of the Society for Savings, Cleveland,
Ohio, said, “I would be false to my
heritage if I did not find myself with
a deep interest in the problems of the
colored population. They are the
same now as in the days of the Aboli
tionists, only in a new form requiring
new adjustments.”
Secretary of Labor James J. Davis’
message was read by the Hon. Fran
cis Jones, director-general of employ
ment of the U. S. Department of La
bor, who pledged the interest and
practical assistance of the Depart
ment of Labor to the program of the
Urban League.
Eugene Kinckle Jones, executive
secretary of the National Urban
T/eague, presented a remarkably in
formative report of the accomplish
ments of the League. Its expansion
from a combined budget of $8,500 per
year to $300,000 yearly; from two
paid workers to 175; its 27 function
ing organizations with executive sec
retaries in charge; its inclusion in all
cities with a community chest; the
operation of its program in softening
the process of assimilation in indus
try; its training of twenty-eight ape
cial workers; its work in securing 19
places on the program of the National
Conference of Social Work; its re
search work and its new industrial de
partment which is perhaps the most
significant development of recent
years.
One of the most scholarly discus
sions presented was that by Prof.
Herbert Adolphus Miller of Ohio
State University on “Psychology of
the Race Problem”. “We must know,”
he said, “that what is accustomed to
be accepted as racial, is in large part
social and cultural; that if the prob
lem of 10,000,000 Negroes and 100,
000,000 whites in the United States
were solved, it would be but a small
portion of the problem, that the main
thing is that people should learn to
live together and to do this we must
be able to analyze into their elements
the things which make living together
difficult. There is no such thing as
race conflict unless presons of differ
ent races come into contact. Only re
cently has this contact come, and
hysterical persons would have us be
lieve that we are meeting new prob
lems which are definitely racial.
When by accident one group •\ttains
dominance over the other, it is as
sumed this to be due to an inherent
superiority. There is no evidence of
any such inherent superiority for
when conditions are reversed, we find
the former subordinate race falling
into the same habits. Nothings has
happened to Negroes that has not re
cently happened to women. More
Jews have been killed since the war
than there have been Negroes lynched
in the United States since Emancipa
tion. Prejudices are very much alike.
If we must live together, we must
look within to develop self-respect
and solidarity and look without for
co-operation.”
The daily sessions were devoted to
the internal problems of the organiza
tion.
THIIU) ANNUAL RACE
RELATIONS SUNDAY
February 8th So Designated by Fed
eral Council of Churches—
Universal Observance
Is Urged
Atlanta, Ga., Dec. 19.—The Feder
al Council of Churches, through its
Commission on the Church and Race
Relations, has designated February 8,
1926, as Race Relations Sunday, and
is asking that the Churches of Amer
ica dedicate it to the promotion of
mutual understanding and good will
between the races. The interchange
of pulpits between white and colored
pastors of the other race, special ser
mons and addresses on race relations,
studies of Negro achievement, poetry
and music, and the singing of Negro
spirituals are some of the suggestions
offered for the observance of the day.
Dr. George E. Haynes, secretary of
the commission, has prepared a 12
page pamphlet suggesting programs,
themes and hymns appropriate to the
occasion. Copies of this pamphlet
may be had for five cents each from
the Federal Council of Churches, 105
East Twenty-second street, New York.
Race Relations Sunday was first
observed in 1923 and more widely In
1924. Good results were reported. It
is hoped that the third observance of
the day in both colored and white
churches will be more general than
ever before.
GIRL, FOUR, LOSES LIFE,
BUT SAVES BROTHER, TWO
Indianapolis, Dec. 19.—While Mrs.
Alberta Donahue, living on the sec
ond floor of 428 Wade street, was at
a grocery store, her four-year-old
daughter was suffocated and her two
year-old son badly frightened by a
fire of unknown origin. The latter is
said to have been saved only through
the deed of his sister.
Mary is thought to have tried to
save herself and her brother Forest
by fleeing the house, but the door
was locked.
The firemen found Forest under a
dresser where Mary had evidently
placed him before she climbed into a
cupboard and closed the door. The
fact that he had been placed on the
floor where there was a current of
air saved his life, while his sister
shut off by the walls of the cupboard
was suffocated.
CHARLES SATCHELL MORRIS
PLEAES OMAHA AUDIENCES
Wellknown Speaker Is Heard at St.
John’s A. M. E. Church and
at the University of
Omaha
Charles Satchell Morris, the bril
liant young journalist and orator, who
is filling lecture engagements
throughout the country, spoke at St.
John’s A. M. E. Church Monday night,
under the auspices of the Excelsior
I
Club of the church. Mr. Morris sus
tained his reputation as a thoughtful,
inspiring and brilliant speaker. His
subject was “The Measure of Man”,
which he defined as character, cour
age, faith and hope. He enlarged
upon each topic and embellished them
with illustrations drawn from the his
tory of the Negro race. It was an
alble and thoughtful presentation of
a well-chosen subject.
Monday morning Mr. Morris ad
dressed the students of the University
of Omaha. His addresses were all
well received.
SCHOOL BOARD ADMITS
PUPIL—ACTION DROPPED
Arma, Kas., Dec. 19.—When the
school board here, a mining town in
southeastern Kansas, agreed recently
to admit Negro children mandamous
proceeding pending in the supreme
court were dismissed.
The suit had been brought by Mrs.
Amanda Richards to compel admis
sion of colored children to the school
in district No. 95, which includes the
town of Arma.
The action was filed some weeks
ago. Later the school board changed
its mind about drawing the color line
and Negro children were admitted to
the school. The court held that the
proceedings were automatically dis
missed and ordered the school board
to pay the costs of proceedings, in
cluding attorney’s fee of the plain
tiff’s lawyer.
FAMOUS NEGRO INFANTRY
MOVES INTO NEW HOME
New York, Dec. 19.—The famous
369th Infantry, N. G., of this state has
at last moved into its new $800,000
home, which is on 143rd street, just
east of Lennox avenue. This is said
to be the second largest armory in
the country. The Eighth Coast De
fense being the largest down in the
Bronx.
KLAN THREATENS
NEGRO TENANTS IN
THE QUAKER CITY
Residents of Aristocratic Vicinity
Turn Letters Over to Police—
Their Homes Will Be
Protected
THREATS FRIGHTEN NOBODY
Philadelphia, Dec. 19.—Negro res
idents of the aristocratic 20(J block of
Siegel street received letters from the
Klan threatening them harm if they
do not move. Wm. Pettyman, a suc
cessful garage man, who is buying
his home, and Albert Gist, were
among those warned.
The letters were all similar in con
struction and in the one sent to the
Gists a vulgar and unprintable post
script was addressed to Mrs. Gist per
sonally. The letter minus that post
script, reads as follows:
Philadelphia
Imperial Office of the Ku Klux Klan
South Philadelphia Chapter
12-8-24
To Our Enemies
Philadelphia, Penna.,
Mr. Albert Gist and Family,
243 Siegel Streets.
Our First and Last Warning.
We have been informed by our fel
low Kluxers residing in the vicinity
of Siegel street bounded on the east
by Second street and on the west by
Moyamensing avenue that you have
taken and rented a home in the above
mentioned vicinity. As you are well
aware of the fact that the KKK are
your bitter enemies and as you are
also aware of the fact that the KKK
only issues a warning to its enemies
once before it strikes we would like
this to serve as our warning for you
to vacate or suffer the consequences—
Death without warning.
Home burned up in the dead of
night.
Your children mobbed in your im
mediate vicinity.
The above three mentioned means
are only a few of the many that you
may expect if you do not vacate
within the near future.
We hope that you are also aware
of the fact that the KKK has police
protection in this city as ninety per
cent of the city and police officials
are members of this imperial organ
ization.
We do not wish to injure any one
but as enemies of this organization
and of the white race you will always
remain as such. Therefore take heed
and vacate before we have to act in
the extremes.
Yours very truly,
KKK
On receiving the letters the colored
families reported the matter to the
police at the Fourth and Snyder
street station but were given scant
consideration here, and were directed
to lodge complaints at the thirty-third
district station at Seventh and Car
penter street.
Mr. Pettyman visited the City Hall
where subordinates of the Marine Di
rector of Public Safety assured him
that the matter would be brought to
the attention of the chief.
GIFTS OF MILLION
FOR HAMPTON AND
TUSKEGEE SCHOOLS
Princely Donations of Kodak King
Constitute Two-Thirds of
Endowment Fund to
He Raised
CAMPAIGN ACTIVELY STARTS
Boston, Mass., Dec. 19.—To make
possible a broader educational pro
gram whereby Hampton and Tuske
gee Institute will be able to offer
courses in business, teacher training,
natural science and agriculture, the
! trustees and friends of these two in
stitutions launched in Boston Mon
day, December 1, a national campaign
for an endowment of $5,000,000. The
support of both the white and Negro
population is sought. Boston’s quota
is this drive is $165,000. The New
England quota is $365,000.
Following the announcement of this
drive, Mr. George Eastman of the
Eastman Kodak Company, and Mrs. J.
B. Duke, the “Duke's Mixture’’ tobac
co manufacturer, have come forward
offering a million dollars each to both
Tuskegee and Hampton on condition
that the amount of $5,000,000 is raised
by the end of 1925.
A Notable Gathering
A dinner preliminary to the open
ing of the campaign was held in Bos
ton at which many of Boston’s oldest
and most prominent families were
represented. Charles E. Mason, Bos
ton trustee of Tuskegee and chairman
of both the New England and Boston
campaign committees, presided. The
speakers were Principal Robert R.
Moton, of Tuskegee; Principal James
E. Gregg, of Hampton; and Dr. Fran
cis G. Peabody, of Harvard, senior
trustee of Hampton, of which Board
Chief Justice Taft is chairman. More
than 100 special friends of Negro ed
ucation attended the dinner. Such
names as the Higginsons, the Shaws,
and the Hallowells were represented
by the sons and daughters and the
grandsons and granddaughters of men
and women who were identified with
the early abolition movement. Among
those at the head of the table were
Miss Alice Longfellow, the daughter
of the noted poet of the same name;
Rev. and Mrs. Paul Revere Frothing
ham; Mrs. N. Penrose Hallowell, wid
ow of the late Col. Hallowell who led
Negro troops in te Civil War; and
Mrs. Charles E. Mason, the grand
daughter of John A. Andrew, the Civil
War governor of Massachusetts.
Dr. Moton paid high tribute to a
number of„particularly liberal givers
to Hampton and Tuskegee including
Julius Rosenwald, of Chicago, who
has given $3,000,000 and is spending
$1,000,000 a year in building school
houses for Negroes throughout the
South, and the late Miss Anna T.
Jeannes of Philadelphia, who gave
large sums to provide common schools
for Negro boys and girls in the coun
try districts of the South.
ELECTED CAPTAIN
OF CAGE TEAM
Brookings, S. D., Dec. 19.—Ross
Owen, Negro four-sports student, was
elected captain of the South Dakota
State basketball squad for the 1924
25 season.
Owens has played against Creigh
ton during the past three years in
football, basketball and track.
Besides starring in these sports, he
is also a crack baseball player.
The new captain plays a guard on
the cage squad.
Owens earns his way through col
lege by delivering milk from the col
lege dairy.
A Scientist Extraordinary
Think of producing the yolk of an
egg from a sweet potato, or treating
tuberculosis with peanut extract, and
you can twist your imagination to
parallel the visions of members of
the Women’s Board of Domestic Mis
sions of the Reformed Church of
America (white), who were privileged
to hear Dr. George W. Carver, of
Tuskegee Institute, deliver a remark
able lecture in New York recently.
They saw exhibits of rubber, coffee,
molasses, paint, ink, vinegar and 94
other useful products which the black
scientist had created out of the lowly
sweet potato. They gazed upon con
vincing proofs that Dr. Carver had
extracted 165 products from the hum
ble “goober”. They listened attent
ively as he told them of the 300 dif
ferently-colored paints which he had
worked out of the country clay at
Tuskegee. And last but not least,
according to Dr. Carver himself, they
learned that Thomas A, Edison, white,
the electrical wizard of Menlo Park,
N. J., had vainly sought to have the
black scientist become his associate
at a princely salary, but that the Tus
kegee chemist had decided to continue
his wonderful work upon the soil and
amid the sympathies of his own peo
ple.
The skepticism of the white audi
ence at the beginning of his lecture
quickly turned to concentrated inter
est, especially when it was divulged
that “war bread” had been made of
products of the scientist's discoveries
during the flour shortage.
In all, it was a wonderfully in
structive afternoon for the white
folks, who closed their conference by
listening to a solo sung by Harry T.
Burleigh. Skull-testers and others,
who continue to insist that the brains
of black folk are composed of inferior
stock, should have been present to
hear Dr. Carver, a living realism of
science, Christianity, modesty and
gentility. The Royal Arts Society of
London, England, of which Dr. Car
ver is a member in good standing,
cares naught for his African descent
Its membership is glad to worship at
the shrine of his scientific achiem
ments.—The Pacific Defender.