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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 Coi | OMAHA, NEBRASKA, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1925 Whole Number 501 Vol. X.—No. 32
Sociologist Denies the Race Inferiority Theory
DEAR OF WOMER
HOWARD OHIVERSITY
COLRMBIA SPEAKER
Hiss Slowe Pleads for Better Relation
Between Colored and White
College Women of
Country
SCHOLARSHIP SHOULD BROADEN
_
President National Association of Col
ored College Women Would
Effect a Working
ltasis
New York.—Miss I>ucy D. Slowe,!
dean of women at Howard university,!
Washington, I). C., recently made a
plea before the women who are train-'
ing to become deans of women under
the direction of Hr. Sarah Sturtevant I
of Teachers’ college, Columbia univer-!
sity, for better race relationships be
tween colored and white college wo
men of this country.
Dean Slowe contended that only |
through the process of investigation, i
curiosity and open-mindedness could
white and colored people learn to
know each other. Prejudice can he
dissipated by turning the light of
knowledge upon those who suffer from
it, as well as upon those who Im
pose it.
Dean Slowe said further ‘hat the j
colleges of the country should be
places where students of all races
would come together for the purpose
of discovering that which is good in
members of different racial groups, in
order that misunderstandings, due to
ignorance, might not arise. She con
demned the policy of excluding from
an educational institution any person
solely on the grounds of race.
"A college should be one place in
any country where individual worth
and mental capacity would be the con
ditions of admission and not racial
identity,’’ said Dean Slowe. "The world
has a right to expect an educational
institution to live up to its (toasted
principle of liberality and rational
ism," she continued.
Dean Slowe suggested that white
and colored women in various com
munities should keep in constant
touch with each other through fre
quent conferences on matters of com
V man interest. They should lead the
way in bringing about better race
feeling through applying the method
of investigation, and information to the
race problems instead of the method
of evasions, indifference and ignor- J
ance.
Dean Slowe, as president of the Na
tional Association of Colored College,
Women, is attempting to effect a i
working basis between white and col
ored 'college women throughout our
country.
NO ANTI-LYNCHING BILL
Washington, I). C„ Feb. 13.—'Threat
of democratic leader, Garrett, to tie
administration legislation in a knot
will preclude the Dyer anti-lynching
bill from coming up before the House
this session, according to Represen
tative Ixjngworth, majority leader.
WEST VIRGINIA BUST
OF SOUTHERN STATES
TO NEGRO CITIZENS
Governor Morgan in His Animal
Message Diwwn Attention to
Economic and Educational
Advantages
STATE TOPS LIST IS CLAIM
Chaleston, W. Vh„ Feb. 13.—(By the
Associated Negro Press.)—Governor
E. E. Morgan, In his message to the
West Virginia legislature now in ses
sion took occasion to comment upon
the great opportunity afforded Ne
groes in this state. He said, “We
stand at the top of the list among
those states south of the Mason and
Dixon line in providing educational
opportunities for Negroes,” and he
closed his reference to the race by
stating that “the colored man in West
Virginia feels that he has political
and economic equality.”
The governor praised the work of
the Bureau of Negro Welfare and Sta
tistics, T. Edward Hill, director, for
its accomplishments on behalf of the
Negro race. The part of his message
referring to the Negro in full follows:
“Our Colored Citizens
"West Virginia has continued to pro
vide greater oppor*unities for the col
ored people who reside within her bor
ders. We stand at the top of the list
among those sta*es south of the Ma
son and Dixon line in providing edu
cational opportunities and our achieve
ment is reflected in the statls'ical fact
that the rate of illiteracy among Ne
groes is lower in West Virginia *han
in any other of the mentioned group
of states. We have provided a num
ber of charitable institutions for col
ored people in recen* years and they
are being conducted with efficiency by
citizens of that race. The Bureau of;
Negro Welfare and Statistics, estab
lished in 1921, has been doing an ef
fective work in ascertaining real con
ditions existing among tbc colored
people and it has been successful in
stimulating thrift and industry among
the Negroes. It has been a real aid
in co-operating among other races to
improve conditions with the result
that the colored man in West Virginia
feels that he has political and econom
ic equality.”
ATTENDS EXCLUSIVE BANQUET
Minneapolis, Minn., Feb. 13.—(By
the Associated Negro Press.)—The ex
clusive gridiron banquet, annual Btag
affair sponsored by the Journalist fra
ternity at the University of Minnesota
was attended this year for the first
time by a colored student in the per- j
son of Karl Wilkins, editorial writer
on the Minnesota Daily. The banquet [
was held at the new hotel Nicollet and
wag attended by Governor Chrlanson
and L. D. Coffman, president of the
university.
ROSEN WALD IN ST. LOUIS “V”
St. Louis, Mo., Feb. 13.—Julius Ro
seuwr.ld, white, and his wife who have
given $25,000 to a number of colored
Y. M. C. A. buildings throughout the
country, were honored guests at the
local Y. M. C. A. recently. Mr. Rosen
wald praised the manner in which his
money had been spent.
WHAT IS A RACE? ASKS BOAS IN
THE NATION OF JANUARY 28TH
Opening a series of articles on the
“Nordic Myth", to be published in The
Nation, Dr. Franz Bohb, professor of
anthropology at Columbia university,
analyses present concepts of race, and
race prejudice in the issue of January
28. Dr. Boas denies that hereditary
mental distinctions between races
have never been established. He says:
“Tlie occurrence of hereditary men
tal traits that belong to a particular
race has never been proved. The
available evidence makes it much
more likely that the same mental
traits appear in varying distribution
among the principal racial groups.
The behavior of an individual is
therefore not determined by his racial
affiliation, but by the character of his
ancestry and his cultural environ
ment We may Judge of the mental
characteristics of families and indiv
iduals, but not of races."
Dr. Boas points out that children
do not have race antagonism until
they are taught to have it: “As the
child grows up the dividing line be
tween the races is impressed upon
it and in this way the race conscious
ness develops until it becomes a pure
ly automatic reaction which ovokes
the same intensity of feeling an the so
called instinctive reactions.”
Dr. Boas further points out that it
Is impossible to frame such a descrip
lion of any race that all of i's mem
bers will be included: ‘‘A whole racial
group can never be described by a
few descriptive terms, because there
will always be many individuals of
deviating types. It is our Impression
that the Swede is blond, blue-eyed,
tall, and longheaded; but many
Swedes do not conform to this de
scription . . . We cannot assign one
individual to one race, another to an
other, because we do not know the
degree of variability found In the an
cestral isolated race, and on account
of the long continued mixture the
characteristics of the parental races
will appear in varying combinations
in each individual. All attempts to
establish among members of the same
social group correlation between men
tal character and bodily form have
failed.”
Asserting that “many hereditary
characteristics are not racial in char
acter, but must be assigned to . . .
family strains,” Dr. Boas concludes
that: ‘‘If this be true, it is clear that
any generalized characterization of a
race must be misleading. It may be
possible to characterize family lines,
but the assumption of general racial
characteristics, anatomical, physio
logical, or mental, excepting those
that belong to the race as a whole, is
arbitrarily made."
That Doubtful Age
BRIEF HISTORIC NARRATION OF THE
AFRICAN PEOPLE ANB AFFILIATES
The antiquity and far-reaching influence of African
civilization. The American Negro’s Origin and
how the slave trade was built up and
recruited. Other facts historical
and bibical
We have been reading of late in our
newspapers and magazines of the dis
covery of the tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amen
by the Ear! of Carnarvon, Pharaoh of
the eighteenth dynasty, who lived
about 3,400 years ago, and said to hav®
been a contemporary of Moses. The
civilization and splendor which are be
ing unearthed in thm tomb have mar
veled the world. The works of art are
said to have been among the finest
found and are intact. A photograph
published in the New York Sunday
Times of February 11, 1924, upon a
close examination from his Negro fea
tures and black face, shows lie is un
mistakably a Negro. In all this great
excitement of today, though unearthed
and preserved, very few Negroes or
people will even know Tut-Ankh-Amen
to be a Negro. Time and space will
not permit us going further into
Egypt.
The Negro Civilization of Babylonia.
Babylonia, contemporary with Egypt,
hoas‘8 of a civilization dating back as
far as 500 B. C. Like in Egypt, the
Anglo-Saxon has tried to claim and
rob the Negro credit of its civilization
or people. The ancient Sumerians,
the founders of Babylon, like in Egypt,
came from Ethiopia or the Sudan. The
language, gods and customs are akin
to those of Egypt and Ethiopia. So
are her gods and religion. Nimrod,
whose image is on the Babylonian
coin, characterized in ‘.he Bible “A
mighty hunter before the Lord”, said
to bn the Romulus, or founder of
Babylon, was a Negro. Trace his an
cestry in your Bibles to Canaan,
thence to Ham. The Babylonians were
beautiful to behold, a mixture of many
Negro complexions and shades. Think
of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,
as a Negro.
The Negro in Billie History
Negroes have not been given any
part or place by the Anglo-Saxon ini
Bible history. All of the pictures of
Jemis are white and the illustra*.ions
and scenes of the Bible are credited to
the Anglo-Saxon.
The original inhabitants of the
Promised land before ‘he JewB took
possession were Negroes. Exodus 3:8.
The land of the Canaanites, the Hit
tites, the Amonites, the Perlzzites and
Jebusites, which were African Negro
tribes. The land of Canaan, trace Ca
naan in your Bible direct to Ham.
(Genesis 10:60.) Sons of Ham are
Cush, Ethiopian; Mizarim, Egyptian;
Put, Egyptian, and Canaan, the found
er. The Jews, after taking possession
of the land, intermarried the Canaan
ites, thus making them a Negroid race
or Semitic mixed, and Negro blood flow
ing through the veins of our Saviour.
(By Rev. Reverdy C. Ransom, Jr.)
(Continued from Last Week)
Zipporah, the wife of Moses, was a
Negro. The Ethiopians claimed Mo
ses’ father was a prince of Egypt and
his name is recorded as being one of
the princes of Egypt. He was a brown
man in color, not white (read Ex. 4:7).
The prophet Zephaniah is said to have
been a Negro. Bath-sheba, the Hit
tite, the wife of David and the mother
of King Solomon, was a full-blooded
Negro. Solomon himself admits he
was “black and comely” (Songs of
Solomon 1:4).
Pubulus I^entus, the Roman scribe,
who is said to have given a descrip
tion of Jesus, the prisoner, according
to Roman law, gives this description
of our Saviour: “He was a man in
stature of about six feet. His hair be
ing wine-colored and overflowing the
shoulders. His countenance convinc
ing to behold, yet with a note of ten
derness and authority. He was the
color of a filbert,” a nut of reddish
hue. Thus making Jesus neither
white nor black. This record of Pubu
lus Lentus is only to be found pub
lished in the ancient church histories.
St. Augustine, one of the early church
fathers, was an African and of African
or Negro blood.
Negro Civilization on West Coast
Congo
Egypt and Plthiopia are not the only
contributions Africa has made in the
beginning of order and culture. Then
are evidences that the valley of the
Congo has also had a great civilization
that once flourished on the coast of
the Gulf of Guinea, that even Egypt
learned its culture from Sudan, the
land of her cradle, and the southern
lure drew masses there even to the
ends of South Africa to found a gov
ernment of some sort of culture.
In the fourteenth century Olbn Ba
tuta, the greatest Arab traveler of his
day, visited Kilwa, a city in East Afri
ca, which had three hundred Mogues.
Its houses were, beautiful and well
built. The Negro empire during the
reign of Ali-Ghajidena, that not only
were the pots, dishes and drinking
vessels of his household of pure gold,
but that the spurs and bridles of his
dogs were also gold. That was the
golden age of Central African Negro
culture. Here a Negro empire around
I-ake Chad and embracing 8,000,000
people was then the Rome of her day,
dominating a grea area.
We might mention Melle and San
ghay, in northwest Africa, and Yorula,
Bernln of Banghiritai, Wadea, Darfur,
iZeg-Zeg and the Bornu peoples. These
have been great African states whose
civilizations were remarkable in their
day.
Nummary
To hear the white man talk one
would think he has ruled since time
began. Tell him that when he was a
dirty and naked savage, painting him
self with blue mud and living in caves
in England when found by Caesar, we
were singing to our priests and pray
ing to our gods in Egypt and had a
form of music and sense of beauty he
has failed to attain. Tell him that we
were among the earliest races to lift
their faces to the chilly mystery of the
stars. When the white man points us
to skyscrapers he has built to fret the
domes of the heavens, tell him that
more marvelous, before he was, that
we built the Sphinx of Gizeh and the
pyramids of Egypt, which have stood
on the desert sands in God’s sunlight
in silence for over 4,000 years. Tell
him that when the world was young
and without ages to guide us, we in
vented the smelting of iron, without
which it would be impossible to erect
these great structures. When the
white man speaks of Julius Caesar,
Napoleou, Frederick the Great and his
mighty men of valor on the battle
| field, point him to Hanibal, Napoleon’s
understudy; Black Memon; Chaka, the
Zulu general, and the black Pharaohs
who ruled for centuries. When he
tells us of Shakespeare, Milton, Long
fellow and his great poets, tell him we
are not ashamed of Dumas, Pushkin
! and Paul Lawrence Dunbar. Negroes
have distinguished themselves in every
j age. The sceptre of the world’s civil
I ization was first in the hands of the
black and yellow races. Now it is in
i the hand of the Anglo-Saxon. He is
doing no better at it than we did in
our day. God has given different races
their turn at the wheel of obligation.
Time is not far off when the swamps
and the morasses of Africa shall be
drained and we shall come to our own.
I see the black giant arise and shake
off the dust of the ages from his eye
lids and claim his own among the chil
dren of men. I can see black men and
black women coming down the cor
ridor of time, rise to take their right
ful places and stand in God’s sunlight
among the children of men. Prophecy
must yet be fulfilled. God’s word will
prove true. “Ethiopia shall stretch
forth her hands unto God.”
St. Paul, Minn., Feb. 13.—Clyde
Steamship Company, by order of the
court, must pay Mrs. Ophelia Hare,
611 Lennox avenue, $17,000 for the
loss of her husband, a cook, who was
washed overboard in a storm last year.
NEGRO MEDICAL MEN
GIVEN ENLARGED
OPPORTUNITIES
Are Made Eligible for Appointment
on United States Employees
Compensation Com
mission
MORE GOOD WORK BY GAINEY
Washington, D. C., Feb. 13.—(By
the Associated Negro Press)—Through
the influence of John D. Gainey,
assistant chief clerk at large, railway
mail service, the medical director of
the United States Employees Compen
sation Commission has agreed to place
the names of Negro physicians and
surgeons on the accredited list of the
commission to whom employes of the
department can go when injured in
the performance of their duties in
their respective cities, if there are
no public health service physicians.
This commission is distributing an
nually $2,500,000 for the medical, hos
pital or surgical treatment of em
ployees of the United States, or to the
dependents of those who die as a re
sult of injury or accident sustained
while in the performance of their
duty.
All persons employed in the postal
service, except presidential appointees
and contractors or their agents, are
entitled to compensation unless there
is evidence of wilful misconduct, in
tention to bring about death to himself
or another, or intoxication.
The commission hr.' experienced
considerable embarrassmt it in certain
sections of the country i securing
hospital accommodations for colored
patients. Physicians are requested to
write to Mr. John D. Gainey, in care
if the second assistant postmaster
general, stating if they are the owners
of hospitals or sanitariums and the ac
commodations that can be secured to
treat injured patients in their respect
ive cities.
VASSAR PROFESSOR
ADDRESSES SORORITY
New York, Feb. 13.—(By the Asso
ciated Negro Press.)—Professor Mary
Redington Ely of Vassar College spoke
for Lambda Chapter A. K. A. recently
on the subject “Some Hopeful Ten
dencies in Modern Life”. She stressed
especially the attitude of young white
students toward problems of all races.
Music was furnished by Dr. Melville
Charlton, Messrs. Felix Weir, H. Leon
ard Jeter, T. F. Hickman, Mrs. Jessie
Andrews Zackery, Miss Olive L. Jeter,
Miss Lydia E. Mason and Miss Louise
Jackson. Mrs. Elizabeth Ross Haynes
presided.
THE KLUXIES NOT
OPPOSED TO NEGROES—BUT
Indianapolis, Ind., Feb. 13.—Under
Ku Klux leadership, the 74th Indiana
Assembly is sponsoring a bill to pro
vide Jim Crow cars on all railroads
and street railways in this state.
Prejudice has been growing in this
section against Negroes since the mi
gration. Separate schools have sprung
up in many towns where before chil
dren of all races went to the same
school.
HILL LEAVES CHICAGO
Chicago, Feb. 13.—Resignation of T.
Arnold Hill, from the local branch of
the Urban League was announced last
week. He has accepted a position
witn the national body in New York
as traveling secretary.
FIERY CROSS BURRS
BEFORE URIVERSITY
PROFESSOR’S HOME
Speech of Instructor in Sociology Who
Says Negro Race Is Repressed
Not Inferior Provokes
Protest
CALLS WHITE A HYBRID RACE
Makes Statement That Negroid Traits
and Characteristics Are
Discernible in His
Audience
Columbia, Mo., Feb. 13.—A fiery
cross was burned in front of the res
idence of Herbert Blumer, instructor
in sociology at the University of Mis
souri here, recently, according to res
idents in the neighborhood. The burn
ing of the cross followed a few hours
after the publication in a newspaper
edited by students of the university
of an address made by Mr. Blumer
to a meeting of members of a local
Bible class, in which he is said to
have declared that the Negro is a “re
pressed element in our society”.
Sees Negro Blood in Andience
“There is no proof that the Negro
is inferior,’’ Mr. Blumer was quoted
in the newspaper. “The white race is
the most hybrid race in the world to
day. I can see the Negroid blood
through characteristics of this audi
ence.”
Mr. Blumer denied that a cross was
burned in front of his home, but
neighbors insisted that the cross was
burned.
The report of the speech in the uni
versity paper follows:
“The Negro is a repressed element
in our society,” said Herbert Blumer,
instructor in sociology in the Univer
sity of Missouri, at a meeting of the
leadership group of the Burrail Bible
class last night at Stephen’s College.
“We segregate him in theatres, Btreet
cars and everywhere. There is no op
portunity for him to participate in
cultural things. He is repressed poli
tically, educationally, industrially and
socially.”
Is Given No Chance
Mr. Blumer then went on to tell
some of the many ways in which the
Negro Is repressed. He said that in
some parts of the South only $2 was
spent on the education of the Negro
as compared to $10 spent on whites.
He said that in politics the Negro did
not have a chance and pointed out the
fact that there was not a single Negro
senator or congressman and not a
single Negro representative in states
where they outnumber whites.
No Proof of Inferiority
“There is no proof that the Negro
is inferior. This has been proved by
the reports of anthropologists and
others. The white race is the moot
hybrid race in the world today. I
can see Negroid blood through char
acteristics of this audience. The Ne
gro invaded Southern Europe and
mixed with the native stock. There
fore many of the nations of Europe
show Negroid blood. Many people
think that the Negro race in Africa
had no culture, but that belief is
absolutely absurd because he has en
joyed high civilization,” said Professor
Blumer.
Mr. Blumer also brough out the im
portant part the Negro played in the
World War and also the Revolution
ary ar and the War of 1812.
“ANONYMOUS” WRITES “WHITE,
BUT BLACK” IN FEB. CENTURY
“White, But Black” is the title:
chosen by a nameless colored man of
light complexion, writing in the Feb
ruary Century Magazine (353 Fourth
Avenue, New York), who tells of his
experience in passing for white and
colored at will.
The man goes out with his wife to
a restaurant and is stared at because
hig wife is slightly darker than him
self; until he speaks to his wife in
French, whereupon the waiters be
come obsequiously polite. He travels
in the South on a Pullman car and is
assured by a Southern white man that
all persons with a drop of colored
blood can be distinguished by their
finger nails: “If you had a single drop
of nigger blood in you, you’d have a
dark-blue circle right there,” indicat
ing the colored -man’s finger nail.
He proposes to Join a white church
in a Southern city which displays a
sign inscribed “A hearty welcome to
all.” The minister welcomes him,
commends his Christianity, intellig
ence and character, but when inform
ed of his Negro ancestry, coldly de
clines to receive him because “we
can’t have social equality here in the
South.”
Another time, a conductor on a
Southern train, ignorant of the man's
Negro ancestry, offers to “fix it up"
for him with a white girl traveling on
the same railway car.
He refuses an invitation to dinner,
issued by a Southern white who de
clared: “I tell you, Sub, there isn’t
a Negro who ever lived that I con
sider intelligent and decent enough to
sit at my table.”
After giving a number of instances
of gross prejudice against trained
and intelligent colored men, the writer
tells of a visit to an Englishman of
prominence who looks bewildered at
seeing him. Says the Englishman:
“ ’Do you mean to tell me they class
YOU as a Negro In Americaf
“I assured him that I was so label
led.
" ‘What damned fools Americans
must be on the race question!’ he ex
claimed.”
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