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S. NEBRASKA’S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF COLORED AMERICANS
^ _ THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor
$2.00 a Year—5c a ^ y OMAHA, NEBRASKA, FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 1925 Whole Number 498 Vol. X—No. 30
AN OMAHA PREACHER HAS WIFE ARRESTED
STANDARD LIFE AND
^SOUTHERN IRSUR’CE
COMPANIES MERGE
Combination of Colored and White
Organization!* la Effected
Making a Powerful
Corporation
IS AN I NI SEAL COMBINATION
Officers and Ihrectors of Standard
Ke-eleeted with Three Exceptions
and Will Co-operate with
Others
\ -
Atlanta, Georgia, January 23.— (Ex
11 naively by the Associated Negro
Press) Announcement was author
ized here recently that the Standard
Life Insurance Company of this city,
one of the giant Negro companies, had
been merged with the Southern Insur
ance Company of Nashville, Tenn., a
white organization. This simple state
# merit issued after a Joint meeting of
the officials of the two companies ac
quainted the public with the fact that
a climax had been reached in the dif
ficulties which the Standard and its
allied institutions have been battling
and lifted the curtain on another scene
in a drama of Negro financial endeav
or which the country has watched in
terestedly for the past year.
According to the spokesmen for the
two groups, President. Will G. Harris
of the Southern and President Heman
E. Perry of Standard, the two com
panies will operate for the present as
separate institutions with the prob
ability that, later they will be consol
idated into a single organization
which will he known as the Southern
and Standard Life Insurance Com
pany. Officials and directors of both
will be on the hoard of the new com
bination. Mr. Harris pointed out that
the merger brought together assets of
over five million dollars and said that
there was outstanding business of
nearly $75,000,000 covering some three
hundred thousand policy holders. He
further stated that the move made
doubled the protection behind Stand
ard Life policies, and gave birth to an
inter racial control and co-operative
business endeavor on a scale never
before attempted.
^ Officers ajid directors of Standard
were re-elected with three exceltions:
Bishop R- E. Jones, his brother, Da
vid Jones, secretary of the company,
and J. R. Pinkett, director of agen
cies. Their withdrawals were volun
tary; they remain as stockholders and
are said to be in accord with tbe mer
ger as affording the best solution of
the problem facing the company. The
merger took place after the stock
holders and directors ha/1 met in their
y 12th annual meeting and canvassed
the critical situation brought about
by tbe failure of Mr. Perry and his
associates to raise sufficient money
to discharge the $400,000 obligation
owed by the Service Company, an or
ganization which held the majority of
t« outstanding 2,500 Standard Life
shares of stock and which had hy
pothecated them to the Southeastern
Trust Company of this city as secur
ity for loans.
Premature reports given to the ra
cial and daily press of the country
several weeks ago hazi heralded the
fact that white northern capitalists
and philanthropists ha/1 agreed to ad
vance the money needed after hercu
lean efforts made by Dr. Robert R.
Moton, president of the National
Business League. Later disclosures
are said to reveal that this effort
failed, contributory causes being first
that a greater amount of money was
required than originally was stipulat
ed second, that affairs of the Service
Company due to the demands for
liquidation forced by the insurance
commission were more involve/1 than
a cursory examination indicated, and,
thirdly, a disinclination on the part
of officers of the Standard and Ser
vice Companies to resign from what
they considered their life’s work. Mr.
Rosenwal/1 and the eastern group are
then said to have withdrawn cheir
offer.
1 —
APPOINT KANSAS CITY
MAN ASSISTANT PROSECUTOR
(By the Associated Negro Press)
Kansas City, Mo., Jan. 23. Attor
ney Duane Mason of this city has
been appointed assistant prosecuting
attorney of Jackson county. This is
the first time an appointment of this
kind has been tendered to an attorney
of the race. Mr. Mason is one of the
younger members of the local bar.
Don’t lose your head in traffic or
you may lose a limb.
| PREACHER HAS HIS
WIFE ARRESTED
i Rev. John I'nion Charges That Widow
Whom He Married a Few Years
Ago Is Insane.
Mrs. Mary Shelton Union, 3410 No.
29th street, a highly respected resi
dent of Omaha for several years and
prominent in religious, charitable and
fraternal circles, was arrested Monday
night on complaint of her husband,
[ Rev. John Union, to whom she was
married two or three years ago, on an
j insanity charge. Friends learning of
1 this got busy and interested Attorney
j John Adams in the case, as it was al
leged by them that this was an at
tempt niton the part of Union to se
cure her property and Mrs. Union was
released. Oreat indignation has been
expressed by Mrs. Union’s friends
over her husband’s actions.
NEGRO SHOW ON
COLUMBIA CIRCUIT
(By the Associated Negro Press)
New York, Jan. 23.—On February
first the Seven-Eleven company of
I Negro performers will take a place
on the Columbia burlesque circuit
! where it will replace the Hurtig and
Seamon Temptations of 1925. The
i colored attraction opens in Chicago
taking up the time of the show that
closes in Omaha. The troupe may
' find it expedient to change the name.
This has not yet been determined.
Hurtig and Seamon who are mak
ing this remarkable opening for a
Negro attraction are the same people
who sponsored Williams and Walker’s
presentation and who took them to
Europe. They also were the produc-,
ers who sent Roseanne on tour with
a colored cast, but were obliged to
close the show at Shubert’s Riviera,
New York, an Upper Broadway house,
after a brief season.
This firm has long been noted for
its friendliness to the race, and today
the picture of Williams' and Walker’s
big show is the principal adronment
of their private offices in the Strand
building, New York.
Sam Cook, Speedy Smith, Garland
Howard, and May Brown are the prin
cipals in the show that has been se-1
leeted as the first complete Negro
unit on the big burlesque wheel. Their
advent on the circuit upon which the
race has been excluded, except as in-1
dividuals, acts or units, marks with
success a persistent effort that has
been waged by the Billboard in the i
interest of colored shows.
NONOGKNARIAN GIVES
RULES FOR LONG LIFT?
(By the Associated Negro Press)
Van Huron, Ark., Jan. 23.—After
working nearly eighty years as a
blacksmith and being now still active, j
Richard Douglas, has Just celebrated
his 05th birthday and handed down his j
rules for a long life. Mr. Douglas'
has a colorful history, one of the out- |
standing periods of which was hiB
life as a free Negro before the Civil |
War.
His rules for long life are:
Go to church.
Do not argue with a woman. A
woman has got to talk and when she
does—go away and let her alone until
she gets over the spell.
Man is boss of everything, just as
long as he can keep his nerve and
look them in the eye. He can look a
Jion in the eye and bluff him. But if
he loses his nerve, Lord help him.
Woman's place is in the house ex
cept on Sundays. Let her get out
then. I do all the housework and
cooking on Sundays. That’s the way
a man should do.
When a man doesn’t love his mother
he is not fit for the dogs to drivel
out of the country.
Live right and be right.
Do lots of hard work, it won’t hurt
you.
Sleep regularly. I go to bed at
eight every evening and get up at
four the year around.
Laugh a whole lot—and be a friend
to everybody.
FRANCE STUDIES FURTHER
USE OF BLACK TROOPS
(By the Associated Negro Press)
Paris, France, Jan. 23.—Significant
phases of France’s future military
policy are suggested in the sailing for
Bakar, French West Africa, of Mar
shall Petain, recently, to study mili
tary reroganizations and the possibil
ities of recruiting native troops l’or
the colonial army. Transportation
will also be a subject considered.
Marshall Branchet de’Esperey is now
crossing the Sahara with six-wheeled
cars, studying the organization of
military automobile transport across
the desert.
" - —-— -■ . ■ .. J . -
1
RENAULT OUT TO REGAIN PRESTIGE
BY A WIN OVER ROPER ON JAN. 30
i
What is probably the most impor
tant heavyweight boxing bout ever
staged in Omaha is the one between
Jack Renault and Bob Roper, which
will be the headliner on the Amer
ican legion’s fistic show at the city
auditorium next Friday evening.
The bout is especially important be
cause of its bearing on the world’s
heavyweight title, which, it is report
ed, Jack Dempsey is about to relin
quish.
Until recently, Harry Wills, Tommy
Gibbons and Jack Renault were con
sidered the three outstanding con
tenders for Dempsey’s title.
But the dope was upset about a
month ago, when Romero Rojas, the
South American slugger, won a re
feree’s decision over Renault at Bos
ton. The defeat by Rojas hurt Re
nault’s standing as one of the ‘‘big
three”s contenders.
To make it worse, on New Year’s
day. Bob Roper met and decisively
defeated Rojas at Grand Rapids,
Mich., which according to comparative
performances would rank Roper above
Renault in the present ratings.
Renault is out to win back his
standing among the ‘‘big three”. To
do this, he ' must win over Captain
Roper in the fight here next Friday,
and there must lie no doubt about the
victory.
Sounds simple, but can Renault do
it?
Omahans who saw Roper cut Andy
Schmader to ribbons here, and later
saw him defeat Tiny Herman only to
have the bout declared a draw, have
a great deal of respect for the dem
onstrated ability of Roper. He has
never been knocked out and had never
even taken a count of one in a ring.
He has taken special delight in
stopping the championship climbs of
a number of youngsters who, previous
to the time of meeting Roper, had
won practically all of their bouts. For
instance, Schmader, right here in
Omaha, was going like a house afire
until he met Roper. After his defeat
at the hands of the captain, Schmader
began to sink.
Bob Martin, former A. E. F. cham
pion, was another blooming hope un
til Roper met and defeated him. Then
there were Tony Melchior of Chica
go, Dan O’Dowd of Boston, Tiny Her
man, who had won every fight he en
gaged in in Omaha until he fought
Roper, and last but not least, Romero
Rojas himself, the man who just de
feated Renault.
The tickets were placed on sale
Wednesday at popular prices of $3, $2
and $1, tax free, and the fans have
been snapping them up.
In the semiwindup, Henry Malcor,
a knockerout from Kansas City, who
is after Morrie Schlaifer’s hide, will
meet Johnny Nichols of St. Paul.
Nichols, it will be remembered, de
feated Schlaifer three times, losing
one to the Omaha boy.
Malcor has won more than half his
bouts by knockouts. He has been
defeated only one, that being by Bert
Colima, Pacific coast middleweight |
champion. He has knocked out such
good men as Harvey Thorpe, Anthony
Downey, Battling Ortega, Gordon Me-!
Kay, Jimmy O’Hagen and a score of
lesser lights. He is the only fighter
to knock out three opponents on three
successive nights, his victims being
Ortega, McKay and O’Hagen.
Kansas City sports are backing
Malcor heavily. They believe he can
ilefeat Schlaifer, and Malcor has taken
this fight with Nichols to prove that
he is capable of giving Schlaifer a
real fight.
Nichols has been fighting in the
east and has been going great. He
recently defeated K. O. Phil Kaplan
and fouhgt a draw with Billy Wells,
so it can be seen that he is in great
condition.
COLONIST PRAISE PRES
IDENT KING OF LIBERIA
(By the Associated Negro Press)
Monrovia, Liberia, Jan. 23.—At the
prospect of the visit of President C.
I). B. King of the Republic of Liberia
to Sierra Leone, the papers of that
British colony have taken the oppor
tunity to laud the work of President
King in maintaining the cordial rela
tions which have so long existed be
tween the neighboring territories.
One of the papers of Sierra Leone
remarks: “We are proud of the way
that republic has been pulling through
the difficulties that were strewn on
its path since the great war. And
much more so for that exhibition of
precision and determination over a
misguided movement that threatened
to have embroiled the republic with
foreign states. President King has
shown extreme tact and courage in
the manner he has dealth with that
political agitation. We are hopeful
that his stay in this colony will be
one of very great mutual profit.”
STATE SUPREME COURT
DECIDES NEGRO ELECTED
(By the Associated Negro Press)
New York, N. Y., Jan. 23.—The ap
pellate division of the New York
state supreme court has just unanim
ously decided that George W. Harris,
editor of the New York News, and
not John W. Smith, white, was elect
ed alderman in the general election
held in November, 1921, and that
Smith, held office without warrant
from the voters of the district
Mr. Harris may now sue Smith if
he so elects to recover the salary
which was paid to the latter as aider
man.
The appellate court found that 206
votes for Harris had been thrown out.
MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
HOLDS ANNUAL ELECTION
The Negro Medical, Dental and
Pharmaceutical Association at a meet
ing held last Friday night, held their
annual election with the following re
sult: Dr. D. W. Gooden, president;
Dr. J. J. Jones, secretary; Dr. G. B.
l^ennox, treasurer.
GEORIGIA COMMERCIALIZES
RACE HATRED WRITES DR.
DU BOIS IN “NATION”
Georgia is the state which com
mercializes race hatred, according to
Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois, writing in “The
Nation” of January 21st.
“It is usual," he says, “for the
stranger in Georgia to think of race j
prejudices and race hatred as being
the great, the central, the unalter
able fact and to go off into general
considerations as to race differences
and the eternal likes and dislikes of
mankind. But that line leads one
astray. The central thing is not race
hatred in Georgia, it is successful in
dustry and commercial investment in
race hatred for the purpose of pro
fit.”
Dr. Du Bois declares that white and
colored labor were played against one
another, the whites being used to dis
franchise the Negro and Negro labor
being used to force down white wages.
He continues:
“Then fallowed the curious and
paradoxical semi-disfranchisement of
white labor by means of the ‘white
primary’. By agreeing to vote on
one issue, the Negro, the normal split
of the white vote on other questions
or the development of a popular move
ment against capital and privilege is
virtually forestalled. Thus in Geor
gia democratic government and real
political life have disappeared. None
of the great questions that agitate the
nation—international or national, so
cial or economic—can come up for
free discussion.”
White labor, says Dr. Du Bois, is
bribed by flattery which declares it
socially superior to the Negro. The
result is that every white man be
comes a potential mobbist determined
to keep the Negro “in his place”. Out
of this attitude grows the Ku Klux
Klan.
The salvation of Georgia, Dr. Du
Bois declares, lies in an eventual
union of white and black labor: “They
hate and despise each other today.
They lynch and murder body and
soul. They are separated by the
width of a world. And yet—and yet,
stranger things have happened under
the sun than understanding between
those who are bom blind.”
DOUGLAS AND LINCOLN
WERE GOOD FRIENDS
(Hy the Associated Negro PresB)
Springfield, 111., Jan. 23.—The Il
linois Historical Society has just pub
lished records which reveal an inter
esting phase of the relationship be
tween Stephen A. Douglas, the poli
tical rival of Abraham Lincoln, and
the martyr president. So intense was
the political enmity between these
two men that it has become to mean
the same thing in human discord that
the story of Damon and Pythias does
in human friendships.
But it is now learned that, despite
their fights on the rostrum and the
decline of Douglas due to the rise of
Lincoln, the two men maintained a:
strong and tender personal friendship
which was exhibited in many acts of
kindness by the one for the other.
——————
Better counterfeit money than «
spurious front.
ROLAND HAYES’ VOICE
PLEASES CANADIANS
(By the Associated Negro Press)
Toronto, Can., Jan. 23.—The press
of this city has been a unit in praise
of the work of Roland Hayes, who
appeared in recital at Massey Hall
last week. Critics agree that he pos
sesses one of the most perfect lyric
tenor voices among living artists and
that his art is as great as his voice.
They have also expressed a fine ap
preciation of the work performed by
Mr. Hayes’ accompanist, William
Lawrence.
One critic writes: “In his own
sphere as a vocalist, Mr. Hayes is as
perfect as an artist can be. He has
a lyric tenor voice of almost flawless
beauty, the tone limpid and clear and
filled with vitality. One cannot re
member ever having heard another
tenor whose soft notes combine color
and transparency in such a remark
able manner. He sings without tricks
and with a direct sincerity, interpret
ing perfectly the mood of each song.”
PUBLISHER HAS ANNIVERSARY
(By the Associated Negro Press)
New York, N. Y., Jan. 23.—The
first issue of the New Year of the
Indianapolis Freeman marked the be
ginning of the thirty-eighth year of
the Race Journal that was first to
accord recognition to the amusement
world. The paper was established on
New Year's day, 1887, by a man then
well advanced in years, for George L.
Knox was bom in 1841. At the time
his paper was started and for many
years after he was the political dom
inator of his group in the state of
Indiana and was a familiar figure
wherever the famed Marion club was
seen at national conventions. His
snow white hair then as now distin
guished him even when in the com
pany of then physically large figures.
It was in 1890 that he installed J.
Harry Jackson on the staff to do
show news. It was an innovation in
race journalism. Jackson has long
since gone to his reward, but his work
goes on. Today more than twenty pa
pers of the race have theatrical de
partments and all of the more than
two hundred carry some amusement
news; and the Negro performer is ac
corded his share of attention in the
general press. Tho now 83 years of
age Mr. Knox continues as president
of the Freeman Publishing company,
although his son, Elwood, is the active
manager; and when they visit Indi
anapolis, all of the older group of
showfolks give themselves the pleas
ure of a visit to the pioneer theatrical
editor.
ROOSEVELT POST OFFICERS
ENTERTAIN LOCAL COLORED
MINISTERS AND EDITORS
The colored ministers and editors
were entertained at a banquet Fri
day evening at the North End Branch
of the Y. W. C. A. by the executive
committee of the Roosevelt Post of
the American Legion.
The purpose of the meeting was to
inform the leaders of the colored com
munity of the work, objects and pur
poses of the Legion and to obtain
their aid in putting over its program
and in making a success of entertain
ing the delegates to the national Le
gion meeting here this year.
Opening remarks were made by E.
W. Killingsworth who introduced Dr.
W. W. Peebles, past commander, who
made an excellent toast master. Ad
dresses on “Hospitalization”, the “Na
tional Convention", Employment” and
“Insurance and Bonus” were made by
R. C. Long, Dr. Andrew Singleton,
R. L. Williams and H. J. Pinkett.
The officers of the post made it
clear that their first aim and duty is
to serve ex-service men who are in
need of service, and then to co-oper
ate with all organizations in the com
munity which are helping human be
ings to help themselves.
A delightful menu was served con
sisting of oyster coctail, celery, olives,
roast turkey, giblet gravy, cranberry
sauce, potatoes, English peas, head
lettuce, mayonaise dressing, ice cream,
cake and coffee, prepared by Jack
Bell, vice-commander of the Post, and
served by the Ladies’ Auxiliary of the
Post.
The ministers and editors pledged
their aid to the Post in its effort
to grow and serve their comrades and
the community. Musical numbers were
rendered by members of the Post, Dr.
Jno. A. Singleton and Rufus C. Long.
Announcement was made of the com
ing of Madame Lottie Murray in con
cert the latter part of February un
der the auspices of the Roosevelt Post.
Mr. E. W. Killingsworth is com
mander of the Post and Mr. R. C.
Long is Adjutant.
LAST OF ELAINE
PRISONERS HAVE
BEEH RELEASED
National Advancement Association
Sees Successful Outcome of Its
Great Battle For
Jnstice
WINS VICTORY OVER PEONAGE
Wonderful Fight to Save Lives of
Men Whom the State Would •
Railroad Cost Over
$16,000.
New York, Jan. 23.—The National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People has announced receipt
of a telegram from Scipio A. Jones, of
Little Rock, stating that the last of
the prisoners jailed in connection with
the Arkansas riots of 1919, has been
released.
This marks the end of a six-year
fight brought to a successful conclu
sion by the N. A. A. C. P., in the
course of which twelve colored farm
ers of Arkansas were saved from the
death penalty and sixty-seven prison
ers, who has been sentenced to life
and long term imprisonment have
been freed.
The famous “Arkansas Case” was
undertaken by the N. A. A. C. P. in
October, 1919, immediately upon re
ceipt of news in New York that a riot
was in progress. While the riot was
still going on Walter White, Assist
ant Secretary of the N. A. A. C. P.,
arrived on the scene and gathered
facts showing the condition of peon
age prevailing in Arkansas, out of
which the trouble sprang. The N. A.
A. C. P. published Mr. White’s find
ings to the country, meeting the prop
anganda put forth by Arkansas whites
about a plot by Negroes to “massacre
whites.” Mr. White reported that Ne
groes were being hunted and 250 shot
down like wild beasts, in the Arkansas
cane brakes, because they had organ
ized to employ a lawyer in an en
deavor to obtain settlements and state
ments of account from their landlords
under the share-cropping system.
In farcical and summary trials, dur
ing which torture was employed to
make colored men testify against each
other, twelve colored farmers were
sentenced to death and sixty-seven to
life and long terms in jail.
The N. A. A. C. P. at once under
took to liberate these men and thus
strike a blow at the peonage system
in Arkansas. Attorney Bratton, the
white lawyer whom the peons had
hoped to employ, a former U. S. at
torney; together with Sciopo A. Jones,
with the co-operation of Moorfield
Storey, president of the N. A. A. C. P„
carried the cases through the courts
and before the governor of Arkansas
to victory.
The cases of six of the men sen
tenced to death passed through four
state and federal courts, the men hav
ing been twice sentenced to death and
dates for their execution set five times
when the U. S. Supreme Court in
January of 1923 reversed their convic
tion. The other six men under sen
tence of death were twice tried and
sentenced and twice had their con
victions reversed by the Arkansas Su
preme Court. Dates for retrial of
these men were set on four occasions
but despite the readiness of the N. A.
A. C. P. attorneys, the state of Ar
kansas each time announced itself
unready and asked for adjournment.
Under the Arkansas law, the failure of
the state to act, automatically entitled
the men to discharge. A motion to
dismiss hem filed by the N. A. A. C.
P. was granted.
This long fought legal battle re
sulted not only in the saving of the
lives of twelve innocent men and the
release of 67 others from prison but
in the opening up and placing before
the people of the United States the
whole nefarious practice of peonage
in the South; in the exposing of the
conspiracy which had been formed to
ustify the massacre of more than two
hundred and fifty colored men and
women, and which would have been
used afterwards as an excuse for sim
ilar crimes; and in the winning in the
Supreme Court of the United States
a decision which stands as a protec
tion for white men as well as for
black men who may thereafter be
tried under the conditions which sur
rounded the Negro poens of Arkansas.
Gufport, Miss., Jan. 23.—One of the
subjects taken up at a conference
among state superintendents in south
ern states was that of the training of
colored teachers, text books for and
development of colored high schools.
Colored supervisors were In attend
ance at the conference.
