Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The monitor. (Omaha, Neb.) 1915-1928 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 30, 1925)
F / . ; rtr ;;:§| the Monitor izlSr NEBRASKA’S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF COLORED AMERICANS V _ • THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor - I f~~"" - -- . ■' .'• .. $2.00 a Year— • SCopy OMAHA, NEBRASKA, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1925 Whole Number 537 Vol. XI—No. 17 5. *_ ____ - DUI'E DONATED MILLIONS TO EDUCATION Dr. Sweet Case Goes to Trial at Detroit Friday and Darrow Defends EMINENT LAWYERS WILL WAGE BATTLE IN SUPREME COURT Crucial Residentia! Segregation Case To He Argued by Moorfield Storey and Louis Mar ' shall in November It ARMAGEDDON OF CIVIL RIGHTS Fpon the Issue of This Case Depends the Future Status of the Race Touching Prop erty Rights. New York.—Two of the most emin ent lawyers in the United States will present the argument against segre gation in the case which will be heard before the U. S. Supreme Court the middle of this November. The two lawyers are Moorfield Storey, of Bos ton, president of the National Asso ciation for the Advancement of Col ored People, and Louis Marshall, of New York, eminent constitutional authority and a member of the N. A. A. C. P. board of directors. It has been arranged between Messrs. Mar shall and Storey, that Mr. Marshall will open the argument and present the case at length and that Mr. Storey will reply to the arguments of the op ponents and close the case for the N. A. A. C. P. The case to be argued concerns the right of white property owners to make agreements not to sell to Ne groes and to enforce such argreements at law. It is the contention of the N. A. A. C. I’, attorneys that since the Supreme Court in the Louisville case of 1017 declared segregation by, law or ordinance to be unconstitution- i al, it is equally illegal for the courts to enforce private segregation agree-! ments. The case arose out of a sale of j property in Washington, situated at j 1727 S street, N. W., to Mrs. Helen; Curtis, a colored woman. The prop- j erty had previously been included in i an agreement not to sell to Negroes. White property owners who were a j party to the agreement, went to court and enjoined the owner from selling the property and Mrs. Curtis from taking possession of it. On appeal j of the case from the Supreme Courtj of the District of Columbia to the Court of Appeals, the higher court upheld the injunction. The case was then appealed to the United States Supreme Court where it is now to be heard. A formidable array of counsel re tained by the N. A. A. C. P. will as sist Messrs. Storey and Marshall. Arthur B. Spingarn, vice-president of the N. A. A. C. P., and Herbert K. Stockton, prominent attorney, who is a member of the board of directors of the N. A. A. C. P., both of New York, are associated in the case, as are James A. Cobb, member of the N. A. A. C. P. board of directors, chairman of the legal committee of the Wash ington branch of the N. A. A. C. P. and leading attorney for the appell ants; Henry E. Davis, former U. S. attorney for the District of Columbia; James P. Schick of counsel for Mrs. Curtis; and William H. I^wis, former assistant attorney general of the Uni ted States. This case is regarded as one of the most important battles in behalf of the Negro’s civil rights that has ever been fought in the United States. De feat will mean the creation of segre gated districts for Negroes through out the country and the relegation of colored people to the position occu pied by Jews in Russia in the days of the “pale” or ghetto. Victory will mean a new affirmation that the col ored citizens of this country are en titled to equal accommodation and treatment before tha law with all other citizens of the land. \ It has been pointed out in connec tion with this case that not only are Negroes involved but all minority groups of the country as well. If Negroes can be segregated the way is opened for the segregation of Cath olics, Jews, Irish, Italians or any other religious or racial minority. BUYS LOT FOR $1,800; SELLS IT FOR $732,800 Beverly Hills, Calif.—John C. Neal, ■ who six years ago purchased a lot on the installment plan in Beverly Hills for $1300 has just leased it for 99 years for $732,800, $20,000 cash and a monthly rental of $600. Neal is chauffeur for King C. Gillette, safety razor magnate. V NEGROES SERVE WITH WHITES ON JURY Lexington, Miss.—Practically for the first time in the history of the state of Mississippi and the South as well, have Negroes been placed on the juries to serve with white men in the dispensation of justice. This week in making up the grand and petit juries several Negroes were selected and ac cepted. Fn Issaquena county there are only ose hundred and twenty white men subject to jury service. DIES AT 101; BURIED AT ARLINGTON Washington, D. C.—Keeping com pany with the late William Jennings Bryan and the nation’s heroes, Thom as Bell, a former slave, who died here Sunday at the age of 101, was buried in Arlington cemetery. He enlisted in the Union army in 1863 and served three years. For the past 30 years he lived in this city. The records at the pension office accounted for 88 years of his life. ELECTED EDITOR LAW REVIEW Boston, Mass.—Mrs. Clara B. Bruce, wife of Roscoe Conklin Bruce, has been elected chairman of the board of undergraduate editors of the Boston University of Law Review. The board consists of the ranking students in the senior and junior classes, eighteen in number. Mrs. Bruce is not only the first member of her race to hold this rank, but the first woman of any race to be elected: chairman of the board of editors. 1 FINE SOCIAL FUNCTION AT DREAMLAND HALL The outstanding social event of the sea son was the masquerade ball given Wednes day night at Dreamland Hall by Mesdames J. Bailey, William C. Haynes, J. H. Hut ten, Joseph LaCour, W. W. Peebles, Al | plionso Wilson and Miss Lena Paul, com plimentary to Omaha visitors including Mesdames Taylor of Davenport, la.; | Thomas of Baltimore, Md.; Slater of Atlan ta, Ga.; Smallwood of Washington, D. C.; I Mitchell of Los Angeles and Miss Lois ] Town of I-os Angeles, CaL The hull was beautifully decorated. More than 200 guests with a variety of masks, including the beautiful and grotesque, danced to the strains of Turner’s seven piece orchestra. Many guests were pres ent as spectators and enjoyed the fun as much as the dancers. Refreshments were | served and favors distributed. Mrs. Le | roy C. Brownfield was awarded the prize | in the balloon dance. KLAN BURNS CROSS BEFORE FRAT HOUSE Nashville, Tenn.—Two dozen klans men, the center of attention for sev eral hundred whites and Negroes wno remained at a distance, stood at at tention Friday night while a cross was burned in front of a building in the heart of Nashville’s elite residential section, which has been purchased by a fraternity of Meharry Medical Col lege. When the whites learned that the colored owners were about to move in, the klan placed a jar half filled with gun powder on the steps with the warning that if any Negro should move into the building, he would do so in the face of “death, hell and destruction”. The note was written by “white people who stay in their places”. W. 1). Hawkins, treas urer of the fraternity announced aft erward that the members of the or ganization would move in. The colored Protestant Episcopal churches of Washington recently pur chased property, containing fifteen rooms, which will serve as a home for widows asd aged and indigent mem bers of the church. NEW YORK IS THE LARGEST NEGRO CITY Washington, D. C.—Estimated col ored populations of some of the lead ing cities of the United States, as of July 1, 1925, have been made by the U. S. Census Bureau. The figures for eleven of the principal ones follow: New York, 196,199; Philadelphia, 163, 904; Chicago, 150,083; Washington, 119,645; Baltimore, 117,360; Cleve land, 49,856; Pittsburg, 46,166; In dianapolis, 42,117; Louisville, 40,478; Cincinnati, 35,152; and Kansas City, 34,966. TO DEVELOP AFRICAN GOVERNMENT BY TRIBES Nairobi, So. Africa.—It has been announced from this town that native councils and a native trust fund will lie inaugurated to assist the native Negro tribes to develop the beginning of a responsible government in the Kenya Colony. NEGRO INSURANCE COMPANY WRITES $250,000 POLICY Houston, Texas.—Perhaps the larg est policy ever issued by a colored in surance company to a colored organ ization, was issued here this week, when the International Longshore men Assocation, through Freeman Everett, president, insured its mem bership for $250,000 in the National Benefit Life Insurance Company of Washington, D. C. Insurance men here state that this is the largest single insurance contract ever handled entirely by race men, the deal being closed by Oscar J. Polk, manager of the South Texas district for the Washington company. The National Benefit Life Insurance Company is reputed to be one of the largest and strongest financial in stitutions of the race, operating in twenty-six states, with ninety-nine branch offices, writing health, acci dent, and ordinary insurance policies on men, women anql children. PASTOR SCORES RACE HATRED Atlantic City, N. J.—“Only patient and persistent application of Chris tian principles can solve the race prob lem in America”, it was declared Fri day night by Rev. Dr. Charles R. Erd man, Princeton, before the Afro-Am erican Presbyterian Council. “It is the duty of every individual to strive for a higher moral, intel lectual and spiriual development for himself and his race”, he asserted. TEXANS DESERT KLAN Dallas, Texas.—According to Z. E. Martin, this city, deposed Grand Drag on of the Ku Klux Klan in Texas, de clared upon receipt of an order sus pending him, from Clarence S. Parker, Dallas Exalted Cyclops, that thous* ands of Texas members of the organ ization are getting out of it by allow ing their dues to lapse, and in other ways, as a protest against the way the order is run in the state. DARROW STARTS SWEET DEFENSE New York.—Clarence Darrow, who has been retained by the National As sociation for the Advancement of Col ored People to defend Dr. 0. H. Sweet and ten other colored people in De troit for repulsing a mob from Dr. Sweet’s home, has obtained a stay ot proceedings until October 30 to give j him time to prepare the case. On i October 30 it is expected to go to trial in Judge Frank J. Murphy’s court. Judge Murphy recently released Mrs. Sweet in $10,000 bail. Association of Mr. Darrow with the Sweet defense has aroused enormous interest in the case, the Chicago Daily News sending a special correspondent, Gregory T. Dillon, cover the case. The cost of the Sweet case, it is conservatively estimated, will exceed $15,000, and possibly run up to $20, 000. On his visit to Detroit on Octo ber 16, when he was accompanied by Walter White, assistant secretary of the N. A. A. C. P., Mr. Darrow held i conferences with the local colored at torneys and others interested in the case, laying the grounds for the case. While in Detroit Mr. Darrow said: “I am going to receive $5,000 to fight this case, I would do it for noth ing if I could afford it because there is a principle involved. These colored people are entitled to a fair shake. It will cost me more than $5,000 to try this case. I do not want the peo ple to think that I am defending these Negroes because of an exorbitant fee. It will cost me more than I receive to try the case but I have a deep-felt in terest in the colored race dnd hope for an improvement m 'lheir condition.” The national office of the N. A. A. I C. P. has guaranteed the fees of Messrs. Darrow and Arthur Hays of New York, and Walter M. Nelson, travelling and hotel accommodations. The colored people of Detroit through the local branch of the N. A. A. C. P. and other agencies are endeavoring to raise as much money as possible to meet the expenses of the case. In connection with the case, Walter White who concluded the arrange ments with Mr. Darrow, said: “Dr. Sweet and the other defend ants are in jail not because they have committed a crime but because they are Negroes and dared to defend their home and their lives against a mob. They are in the forefront of the bat tle being waged for all Negroes in America and in a larger sense they are fighting for justice and fair play for all Americans. “The N. A. A. C. P. has retained the greatest criminal lawyer in the country and we were able to do so only because he is willing to sacrifice other business and devote himself to this case for a fee which is probably one-tenth of what he could get else where for a case of this magnitude. Even so, it is a heavy burden for the N. A. A. C. P. We must have money and have it at once to pay the bills. Our legal defense fund is exhausted. We urge every person who can pos sibly do so to send as large a contri bution as possible to the N. A. A. C. P. at 69 Fifth avenue, New York City. Please act at once.” COUNTEE CULLEN WINS ANOTHER PRIZE AS HIS BOOK “COLOR” APPEARS On the day preceding publication of “Color”, his first book of poems, Countee Cullen won another prize to add to the many that already stand to his credit. At Harvard, where Cullen is now studying, he was awarded the John Reed Memorial Prize, the announce ment preceding by one day the first appearance of "Color” which was pub lished by Harper and Brothers, Oc tober 20, 1925. PROMINENT LODGE WOMAN BECOMES MINISTER’S WIFE Pleasant Green Baptist church was filled to overflowing Monday night to witness the marriage of Mrs. Jennie Sellers, a pop ular member of the congregation and prom inent in lodge affairs, to the Rev. John Walker, a Baptist minister of Topeka. The ceremony was performed by the Kev. Z. E. McGee, pastor of Pleasant Green. Scores of friends showered felicitations and good wishes upon the happy puir. COMPLIMENTS GUESTS BY DANCING PARTY Mrs. T. P. Mahammitt entertained ut a largely attended dancing party Monday night at Hanscoin Park pavillion, com plimentary to her house guest, Mrs. Wil liam F. Mitchell and her daughter. Miss Lois Town of; Los Angeles, Cal. Eighty couples danced to their, hearts’ delight to the enticing strains of Dan Dcsdunes’ or chestra. FUNERAL OF CYRUS D. BELL HELD SATURDAY AFTERNOON The funcrul of the late Cyrus D. Bell was held last Saturday afternoon at 2 o’clock from the Church of St. Philip the Deacon, Rev. John Albert Williams offi ciating. The services toere the simple, but impressive rites of the Episcopal church, without sermon or eulogy. Two lavorite hymns of the deceased, “Just As I Am” and ‘,Oh Paradise, Who Doth Not Crave for Rest?” were sung. Interment was in Forest Lawn cemetery. The pall bearers were M. F. Singleton, Maynard L. Wilson, Henry W. (Slack, Dumas James, Jasper E. Brown and Dr. Craig Morris. REVISIT CITY AFTER ABSENCE OF MANY YEARS Two popular Omaha visitors are Mrs. William M. Mitchell and her charming daughter, Miss Lois Town, of Los An geles, Cal., who are the house guests of Mrs. T. P. Mahammitt, 2214 North Twen ty-fifth street. Mrs. Mitchell is pleasant ly rememhered by many Omahans as Mrs. Gertrude Town, who resided here some fifteen or sixteen years ago, after the death of her first husband. Lois who was then a little girl has grown into young womanhood, taken her university course, and is now a trained nurse, holding a supervisory position in a Los Angeles hos pital Mother and daughter have been tak ing a well-earned vacation which has in cluded an eastern trip to Detroit, Mich. They are en route west. Many social functions are planned for Mrs. Mitchell and her daughter during their fortnight visit here. MRS. FLORENCE KELLEY GIVES $200 FOR N. A. A. C. P. DETROIT DEFENSE Mrs. Florence Kelley, member of the board of directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and secretary of the National Consumers’ League, has sent in her check for $200 to be used in the legal defense of Dr. and Mrs. O. H. Sweet and nine other Negroes in De troit. Mrs. Kelley has been actively interested in the N. A. A. C. P. since it was founded, and has given liberally of her time and money toward the N. A. A. C. P. work. *,WCl£ WIGGILY’S TRICKS I know Im absents minded, but she " spoke| - VIRGINIA TOWN REPEALS SEGREGATION AFTER CON TEST BY N. A. A. C. P. James A. Cobb, chairman of the legal committee of the Washington branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peo ple, reports that the city council of Falls Church, Va., repealed a local segregation ordinance after they had been convinced of its unconstitution ality by Mr. Cobb’s brief. The case arose when James Spencer, a colored man, bought porperty and applied for a permit to build, which was denied him. Mr. Spencer applied for aid to the N. A. A. C. P., which challenged the constitutionality of the segregation ordinance invoked against Mr. Spencer. Mr. Cobb reports as follows, to the national office of the N. A. A. C. P.; “In our presence the city council unanimously on an aye and nay vote, repealed the city ordinance; after which they unanimously granted Spencer the permit to build. Then counsel for the corporation of Falls Church arose and said that he had re ceived the brief by special delivery as promised and that it was a very able brief and asked for a vote of thanks for counsel for the defense for the assistance and aid given them in reaching their conclusion. The vote was unanimous. In other words, the city council not only repealed the law but they did it in a big way.” ENTERTAIN FOR OUT OF TOWN GUESTS Mesdames Charles T. Smith and Philip Letcher were hostesses Tuesday afternoon from 4 to 6 at a delightful tea, at the attractive home of the latter, 3415 North Twenty-eighth street, complimentary to Mrs. Robert Taylor, of Davenport, la., house guest of Mrs. L. N. Peoples, and Mrs. Leon: Smallwood of Washington, D. C., house guest of Mrs. James C. Donley. Other out of town guests were Mrs. Rob ert Thomas of Baltimore, Md., and Mrs. William M. Mitchell and daughter, Miss Lois Town, of Los Angeles. Assisting the hostesses were Mesdames M. E. Overall, J. F. Smith and Isaac Bailey and the Misses Grace Dorsey, Elaine Smith, Edessa Banks and Virginia Jackson. JUNIOR GIRL’S FRIENDLY SOCIETY ENTERTAINMENT The Junior Girl’s Friendly Society of the Church of St. Philip the Deacon gave a unique entertainment Wednes day night in the Guild room. It was entitled “A Trip Around the World.” The countries represented by attrac tive booths and appropriately dressed misses were Japan, Italy, Liberia and the United States. Refreshments ap propriate to each country were seld at the booths; Japan, tea and wafers; Italy, spaghetti; Liberia, figs, nuts and fruit; United States, ice cream and cake. RETURN FROM HUNTING TRIP The Mars Hunting Club composed of Larry N., James and Jesse Peoples, Walter Stevens, Curtis Kirtley and Matthew Ran dall had a successful five-day hunting trip in the sandhills, thirty-five miles southwest of Elgin, at Goose Lake, where they bagged about 200 ducks and chickens. They left Sunday morning in Kirtley’s and Steven’s cars and returned late Thurs day night. The editor of The Monitor was promised some game if these Nimrods had any luck. No game has yet reached the editor’s sanctum. Less than $125 was contributed by the two hundred thousand Negroes in New York City to the defense fund for Samuel A. Browne, the Staten Island colored postman whose home has been attacked several times by audacious mobs. The Irving Fireproof Centering Company, of which Samuel A. Irving, a colored contractor, is president, is building the concrete foundation iur the $10,000,000 Columbia-Presbyter ian Medical Center in New York City. Native women of East Africa of the “flapper age” are using tons or miles of brass wire for personal adornment. They wind the wire around their arms, neck and calves of their legs. They roll their own. Mr. Sandy Trice, of Chicago, has been appointed chairman of the Trans poration Committee of the Imperial Council of the Ancient Egyptian Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mys tic Shrine and Daughters of Isis. JAMES B. DUKE, BENEFACTOR OF RACE, IS DEAD Born In Log Cabin, Built Up Gigantic Industry, Application and “Stick-to-ity” Secret of His Success WAS GREAT PHILANTHROPIST Gave $40,000,000 For Educational and Public Institutions. Remem bered Negro In His Gifts. New York.—James Buchanan Duke, formerly president of the American Tobacco Company, one of the nation’s leading philanthropists, died of bron chial pneumonia at his Fifth avenue residence recently. Duke was not only well known among the white race for his mag naminity in lending financial aid to their institutions, but he was also known as a helper of the colored race and its institutions. His gifts to colored educational in stitutions run up into the millions. He did much to elevate the facilities for the learning of the colored people. The owner of the white palace on the northeast comer of Fifth avenue and Seventy-eight street rose from much poverty that he is often called “one of the last of the log-cabin suc cesses of American life.” He was bom in 1857 on the small farm of his father where he and his brothers started the great tobacco industry through which he built up his vast wealth, which is estimated at from $100,000,000 to $150,000,000. He owns a 3,000 acre park around his home in Durham. Duke is survived by a daughter, Doris, 12, his wife, Mrs. Nannie Lee Holt Duke, and an older brother, Ben jamin. “I have succeeded in business not because I have more natural ability than many people who have not suc ceeded, but because I have applied myself harder and stuck to it longer. I know plenty of people who have failed to succeed in anything who have more brains than I had, but they lacked application and determination. “I had confidence in myself. I said to myself, ‘If John D. Rockefeller can | do what he is doing in oil, why should i I not do it in tobacco?’ I resolved from the time I was mere lad to do ' a big business. I loved business bet I ter than anything else. I worked from early morning to late at night. I was sorry to leave off at night and glad when morning came so that I could get at it again. Any young man with common intelligence can succeed, if he is willing to apply himself. Su perior brains are not necessary.” Mr. Duke’s gift of $40,000,000 is the largest benefaction ever made at one time by a single person excepting An drew Carnegie. Of the bequest ten per cent was assigned to go to Negro and white orphans in North and South Carolina, and four per cent to John son C. Smith University, a colored in stitution of Charlotte. In announcing his gift, Mr. Duke said that the $40,000,000 would in clude, among other securities, ap proximately three-fourths of his hold | ings in the Southern Power System. His reason for establishing the fund was thus expressed at the time: “I don’t believe that a college edu cation does a man much good in busi ness, except for the personal satis faction it gives him. But when you have a great community growing like the Carolinas, you’ve got to have five kinds of leaders whose minds are trained. The first is preachers, the second is teachers, the third is law years, the fourth is chemists and en gineers and the fifth is doctors.” I ENGLISH MAGAZINE QUOTES FROM N. A. A. C. P. LYNCHING STATISTICS The “Anti-Slavery Reporter and Aborigines’ Friend”, published by the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protec tion Society in London, in its October number has an abstract on lynching in the United States, based on the fig ures given in reports of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The average value of ail land in farms in Coweta County, Georgia, has decreased $33 per acre since 1920, and there has also been a decrease of 1029 in the number of colored farmers, mostly croppers.