Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The monitor. (Omaha, Neb.) 1915-1928 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 1926)
"mss The Monitor | NEBRASKA’S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF COLORED AMERICANS X THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor _ $2.99 a Year—5§ a Copy OMAHA, NEBRASKA, FRIDAY, JANUARY 1, 1926 Whole Number 546 Vol. XI—No. 26 ____——„—» AWARDS OFFERED -I TO STIMOLATE CREATIVE WORK Harmon Foundation Fixes Fund For Distinguished Service in Various Fields of Activity SERVICE COVERS LARGE AREA Seven Awards are Open to Negroes and One to Either White or It Colored Contestants for Honors Washington, D. C.—To give recog nition and stimulus to creative work the Harmon Foundation on behalf of William E. Harmon has provided $4,000 annually for awards for dis tinguished achievement. There are seven first awards of $400 offered annually to Negroes who have made A distinguished achievements in various fields of endeavor, and one award to any person, white or colored, for out standing achievement in race rela tions. Announcement was made Dec. 23 by George E. Haynes, secretary of the Commission on Race Relations of the Federal Council of Churches, to which has been committed the ex ecutive direction of the awards. Seven awards are open to all Ne groes of American residence of both sexes; the eighth award to the per son white or colored ‘‘who has made the greatest contribution towanl improving the relations between white and Negro people in America." There is also a gold medal for the first award in each of the seven di visions and a second award of $100 and a bronze medal; the eighth award will carry with it $500 in money and a gold medal. The classes of awards are to be as follows: Literature, music, fine arts, industry including business, .science including invention, educa tion, religion, and the award for im provement of race relations between the white and Negro peoples in Ameri ica. The purpose of the “William E. j Harmon Awards for Distinguished! Achievement” is “to give recognition | to persons who have made some worth-while achievement who have not yet received such recognition.” Awards are to be made January 1st, which is the (iate Lincoln signed the Emancipa tion Proclamation, and will apply to work done or completed during the twelve months ending June 1st, pre ceding. There will Is- five judges for each award. Three of the five judges will lie persons recognized as out i standing in their articular fields. At ' least one will be a Negro. The two other judges will represent the Har mon Fundation and the Commission on Race Relations of the Federal Council of Churches. The decision of the judges will be final and neither the Commission on the Church and Race Relations nor the Harmon Foundation will be in any way responsible for expenses or losses to candidates in connection with any award. The first award—in literature — i includes poetry, short story, essay, book, newspaper editorials, or a play qf two or more acts. Painting, sculpture and allied sub jects are included under fine arts. The award in industry includes cre a t i v e achievements in agricultural, manufacturing or mechanical pursuits or trade and commercial enterprises. In science any of the physical, bio logical or social sciences, or inven tions of provdti utility or promise may be presented. Education includes achievements in the field of educational organization, content, method of practice or educa tional publicity. The award in religion is for achieve ments in religious organizations, re lig'ous education, social service in con n e c t i o n with recognized religious agencies or any outstanding contri bution to personal religion or theolo gy The eighth award concerning race relations will be given without dis tinction of co't-r. No award will be made except for some achievement of an outstanding character that is a distinct contri bution within its given field. As these awards are to be given for achieve ments of national significance and in terest, in case there are no entries in any class having this outstanding character, no award will be given. Applications and recommenda tions for this year (1926) may be filed on and after January 1st and must be filed not later than June 1, 1926, with Dr. George E. Haynes at the pffices of the Federal Council of Churches, 106 East Twenty-second street, New York City. All written matter or other ma terial submitted wih an application must have sufficient postage for de livery or must be prepaid by express. No manuscript will be returned or other material submitted will be re turned unless full postage or express charges are enclosed. Further detailed information will be available from the same address or from literature available at many schools, colleges, churches and sim ilar places. N. A. A. C. I'. PASSES *30,000 MARK NEEDED TO MEET GARLAND OFFER New York, Dec. 23—The National As sociation for the Advancement of Colored People, 60 Fifth Avenue, today announced that in a period of seven weeks, beginning October 30, it had raised the *50,000 fund set as an objective, obtaining in contri butions more than *30,000 required to meet the Garland Fund's offer of *15,000 and, together with the *5.000 given outright by the Garland Fund, completing the *50,000 total. The amount sent to the National Office to date is *30.470.81. The N. A. A. C. P. with contributions still pouring in has advanced its goal fiom *50,000 to *65,000 und hopes to go to the Garland Fund with *50,000 instead of *30, 0<X) raised mainly by colored people of the United States, independent 'of the Fund’s -contribution. The decision to carry on the campaign was reached when it was learned that a second trial in the Sweet case would he necessary, thus practically doubling the original cost of the case. Ill announcing the attainment of the goal thus far, James Weldon Johnson, seereatary of the N. A. A. C. P. said: ‘ We were confident that colored Ameri cans would rally to their own cause be ing fought in the courts of the land by tin National Association. They have ral lied magnificently. In less than eight weeks, the colored people of the country have justified the faith of those, like Clar ence Harrow und Arthur Garfield Hays fighting in their behalf. The N. A. A. C. P. in view of the fact that the second trial of the Sweet case will just about double the cost of it, has announced an advance in its goal from a *50,000 Legal Defense Fund to *65.000. We are confident that this objective will be reached with ' flying colon. Our triends must not for get that in the same week, the first week in January, which sees the opening of the second Sweet trial in Detroit, the N. A. A. C. P. legal forces will be marshalled in Washington before the United States Supreme Court to contest the issue of re sidential segregation by white property own ers' agreements, and in addition, we shall j soon argue before the Supreme Court the ; issue ol d i s f r a n chisement of Negroes j through the Southern “white primary”! laws. So no matter how large our fund, there will be crying need of it and more. Let us go on with increased energy until there is money enough not alone to fight these three major cases involving the Ne groes citizenship rights, hut also to serve notice on the country that the Negro is at all times prepared to defend his rights in die courts of the land.” The N. A. A. C. P. announced that during the month of December many gifts to the Fund hail been received from fore ign countries, one of them coming from H. O. Tanner, foremost painter of his race, now living in Paris, who sent *25. Other foreign contributions include the fol lowing: L. A. Amponsuh, Edinburgh, Scot land, I pound 12 shillings (about *7t; II. T. Jason, Corozal, Porto Rico, *5; *E. Fi. Skeel, I’au, Basses Pyrenees, France, *25; T. FI. Greer, *5 and S. R. Maples, *10, both of Honolulu, Hawaian Islands; M. R. Suydam, Avignon, France, *5; W. O. Ware & Friend, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. *5; John N. Lightbourn, St. Thom as, Virgin Islands, *2; Jacob McCallister, Limay, Bataan, Philippine 'Islands, *5; Esteban, Cuba, *2. Beyond the *30,(XX) mark the N. A. A. C. P. was expecting an additional *2,000 shortly. The second *1,000 promised by Julius Rosenwald of Chicago is now due and the following telegram announcing *1,000 check in the mail was received from 1/js Angeles, California: "Check and report from the Los Angeles Branch for *1,000 in today’s mail. Con gratulation on your splendid work. Carry on the fight. Los Angeles is with you.” (Signed! DR. 1L C. HUDSON Joseph B. LaCour, head of the adver tising department of the Kansas City Call, accompanied by Robert A. Greene, formerly of The Monitor, but now also of the Call, motored over to Omaha to spend Christmas with Mr. LaCour’s par ents, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph LaCour, 2421 Maple street. They left for Kansas City Sunday morning. Court Absolves Colored Comptroller From all Blame as Result of Testimony Given by Mem ber of Ring New Orleans—W alter Cohen, United States Collector of Cusoms of the Port of New Orleans has been absolved of the sensational charge of conspiracy to violate the Volstead Act brought against him and 33 others, whites, last August. United States District Court Judge N. I. Grubb, pre siding at the trial, Saturday directed the jury hearing the case to deliver a verdict freeing Cohen. Accuse White Officer Instruction for the acquital of Co hen followed a startling development in the case when two of eight white defendants being tried, Alonza Pat terson, and Arthur Battistella plead guilty and baring the operations of the rum ring from the stand impli cated Henry De Deaux acting survey or of customs, as the ring leader of the band. Directed Smugglers Patterson and Battistella swore that De Deaux had invested $25,000 in the smuggling , syndicate. Patter son, who had been previously convict ed of bribing prohibition officers test ified that De Deaux directed the pat rolling of the revenue cutters so that liquor belonging to the ring could be brought inside the 12-mile zone and landed in New Orleans without dan ger of confiscation. Cleared Cohen As a result of the testimony Cohen, who had been charged with complicity in directing the patrol boats to other sections when a “syndicate” shipment was due to arrive, was absolved of blame and the court directed a ver dict of acquittal. De Deaux immediately was placed under arrest by departemnt of jus tice agents and furnished $10,000 bond on a liquor conspiracy charge. Four Plead Guilty After the sensational confessions of Patterson and Battistella, Fred Jeanfreau, Robert Spar and Albert Morris changed their pleas to guilty and threw themselves on the mercy of (he court. .Joseph Conrad, former New Or leans police sergeant; Fred Haab, Joseph Thompson, and Salvadore Guissamo entered pleas of not guil ty. Cohen's Second Victory The acquittal of Cohen was the second significant victory of the dis tinguished colored citizen. The first triumph came when attempts to prove that he was an alien, and that it was unconstitutional for him to remain in the office were overthrown. Both President Harding and Coolidge up held his right to the office. Oliver Willis Killed By Boiler Explosion Omaha friends were shocked to receive the sad news of the death of Oliver E. Willis, 2712 Maple street, Monday night at Lord Lister hospital as the result of injuries sustained Monday morning when a boiler exploded at the McArdle Millin ery shop, 1613 Farnam street, where he was employed as a janitor and fireman. Few knew of the accident until they read ! their evening papers which told of the injured man being in the hospital. Mr. W illis had left home at the usual j lime Monday morning for his work. While he was firing the boiler it exploded, said to be due to frozen pipes. He was hurl ed into a corner by the force of the ex plosion and badly scalded from head to foot. Windows were shattered and flumes spread in the back part of the store. Employees of the Central market across j the alley rushed to Willis’ rescue, who J was taken to the Lord Lister hospital.! Though suffering intense pain, the hos pital attendants commented on his pa tience, good nature and cheerfulness through it all. His wife and sister, Mrs. Jasper F . Brown were the constant at tendants at his bedside, to whom he ex presped confidence that he believed he would pull through. Mrs. Willis and Mrs. Brown left the hospital about half-past 7 leaving Mr. William Lewris, a warm personal friend with him, themselves ex pecting to return later in the evening. They had hardly more than reached home when they were advised of his death. Oliver Willis who was1 38 years of age, was born in Atchison, Kans., and had been a resident of Omaha for the past 15 years. Thirteen years ago he was mar ried to Clara Smith. He was ambitious and industrious and was buying a home at 2712 Maple street where the family has resided for the past ten years. He was devoted to his family which consists of five lovely children, four girls and a boy, Edrose being 11 and the youngest, 6 months. For fourteen years he bad been employed by C. M. Wilhelm, holding his position with the McArdle people also, lie was a member of the Dan Desdunes band. Oliver was of a sunny, friendly disposition and was well liked by all who knew him. He is survived by his widow and five children, five sisters, Mrs. Kenner. Mrs. | — lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll jj. E. Brown, of Omaha; Mrs. Jeanette i Carter and Mra Austin Serrant of Chica-1 go; and Mrs. Kathryn Brown of Atchison, Kans.; one brother, Ralph, of Atchison, other relatives. 1 he funeral was held Thursday after noon from the Episcopal Church of St. Philip the Deacon, the Rev. John Albert Williums. officiating. Interment {Was in Forest Lawn cemetery. — JUDGE ALBERT E. GEORGE TO SPEAK HERE NEXT WEEK The citizens of Omaha are to have the privilege of hearing Judge Albert E. George of Chicago, who two years ago was elected to the municipal bench of ! the great Illinois metroplis by a large j majority. Judge George will deliver an i address at St. John s A. M. E. church | nexf Friday night at 8 o’clock under the auspices of the Negro Business and Pro fessional Men’s Club. An active commit tee has the arrangements in charge and every effort is being made to give Judge George, who has the reputation of being an excellent speaker, a large and repie sentative audience. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILH I The Monitor f | Wishes l]ou [ 5SZ » —— | cl j 1 Uenj Happq 1 New l]ear [ 1 ' 1 1 I IlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllM SEGREGATION “FROM THE CHRISTIAN STANDPOINT” (For the Associated Negro Press) By William Pickens “Can white people be Christian,— like Christ?”—Many sane colored people have asked us that question. Often we have replied: “Yes,—and we have known some that were meek in justice, like Jesus, and mighty in mercy, like Christ.”—For even one case is a complete answer to such a question: ONE is a demonstration of fact and a prophecy of possibiity. But our faith has steadily grown less firm in the long-boated, high salaried religion that fills most of the great white church. We, too, often find such pastors dominated by the spirit of the refined mob which is their particular flock: if they have a rich congregation, they are subservi ent to wealth; if they have a Klan congregation, they toady to intoler ance. In Indianapolis, Indiana, for ex ample, we found some of the white pastors joining (not leading) their beloved “flock” in, the low business of racial segregation movements. The segregationists of that city publish a weekly paper, “The Spectator,” which they boast of giving free to six thou sand homes. In a December issue oc curs a leading article of news and comment on the “White People’s Pro tective League, which had met on the preceding Saturday night “at the usual place, the M. E. Church.” And this meeting had been addressed Dy two other pastors (of North Avenue Christian and Capitol Avenue Method ist Churches), who made “rousing ad dresses in favor of keeping this part of Indianapolis white. They did not explain how, after feeding their flocks in a white world, they proposed to arrange for their eternal comfort in a white heaven.—And the article went on: “While each approaching the matter from a strictly Christian standpoint, each maintained that it was the duty of every white person in the district to resist the confiscation of his home and property rights by Negro inva sion.” Do you get that language of the hypocrite “(Christian standpoint)” coupled right up with that lingo of the mob (“resist,” “confiscation”, “in vasion” ? Isn’t that fine for the fol lowers of “the meek and lowly Jesus?” And listen further how they spoke to the mob spirit: “Quick, decisive ac tion.is necessary;” white people will “lose millions in property val ues,” unless they “take the matter in hand without delay;” “the sooner the city is districted for white and black the better it will be for all. Legisla tion is not necessary for such dis tricting,” etc.—That is, the 1917 de cision of the Supreme Court makes “legislation” non-effective, and so the j mob power of the Lord’s “white” [ lambs is to be invoked. These and such white pastors have fallen further from Christ than Satan fell from Heaven when he landed in Hell. Are white Christian leaders going to make league with the devil of race prejudice and all the demon brood that it entails? Colored people everywhere are noticing the fact that the best and most willing defender they could find in the white race against mob persecution and official injustice in Detroit, is a non-Christ ian, Clarence Darrow, a man who snaps his finger at creeds of words and accepts only creeds of deeds. The “Garland F'und,” which also is not controlled by orthodox white Christians, gave the first and most substantial aid from the white world to the defense of these cases. And no body doubts that if Robert G. Inger soll were alive today he would at least be Darrow’s colleague in defense of these persecuted colored citizens. Must colored people reach the con clusion that only the non-Christian, or at least the unorthodox, of the white race can do justice to black people? White Protestant churches have largely fallen under cuspicion of being Klux hot-beds. If the Negro’s suspicion is permitted to grow, ere long he will have no confidence in any praying white man; when the white preacher offers him heaven from the one hand, he will suspect that he holds hell in the other. We have some times made the white audience laugh, and perhaps think, when we remarked! that our experience with the alliance of the church with race prejudice has produced in us such a state of mind that when we sit down on on% end of a seat in a street car or other com mon carrier, and, a sneering white bigot gets up off the other end be cause we sit down, we involuntarily ask ourselves this question: “Wonder MISSISSIPPI MOB LYNCHES YOUTH FREED BY COURT Unmasked Mob Takes Lindley Cole man From Sheriff at Prison Door and Riddles His Body With Bullets WOMEN DENOUNCE MURDER Special Session of Grand Jury Called and Several Men Are Arrested; Charged With Conspiracy to Murder Clarksdale, Miss.,—(Bulletin). De nounced by Coahoma County League of Women Voters as “high-handed murder,” the lynching of Lindley Cole man, Negro, was made the subject of investigation by a grand jury, Dec. 23. | Four men, one of them a planter, were i arrested on charges of conspiracy to I murder and warrants were sworn out I for four other persons. Judge W. A. Alcorn, before whom the Negro was tried, called a special session of the grand jury, and when I it assembled he exacted a pledge from the jurors that indictments would be returned against any person found involved, regardless of his standing in the community. Clarksdale, Miss.,—The good spirit of Christmas time and the peace of Sabbath morning were forgotten in the town of Clarksdale, Miss., and brutality and lawlessness reigned while a frenzied mob of white men lynched a colored youth, who a jury had just a few hours before acquitted of a charge of killing Grover C. Nicholas, a plantation store manager, October 15 last. Little Action Against MfbB The stir created by the murder was passed almost as quickly as the crime was committed. No efforts were made by authorities to apprehend the mob ists. The Governor sent a weak mes sage expressing his regrets, but made no suggestion that he would act. The only definite signs of efforts to bring the criminals to justice were shown by the County League of Women Vot ers of Coahoma County. Stopped At Jail Door The victim of the mob was Lindsey Coleman. He was just one of five colored citizens held in connection with the slaying of the store man ager. Meager description of the lynching of Coleman state that a band of unmasked white men forci bly took him from Sheriff S. W. Glass, within the shadow of the pris on from which he was being released after a jury had declared him inno cent. With little ceremony, the whites took Coleman to the back of the jail and riddled his body with bullets. Sheriff Silent An attempt to get some informa tion that might lead to the arrest of the members of the mob was treated as a thing out of the question. Sher iff Glass turned aside all questions relating to the affair, by declaring he didn’t “care to get into print.” He de clined to comment upon the lynching of Coleman. He would not say wheth er any arrests had been made, and steadfastly declined to saw whether he recognized any member of the mob. Governor Comments “It is with the greatest regret that I learned of the tragedy at Clarks dale” Governor Whitfield said when advised of the lynching of Coleman after he had been found not guilty of the murder of Grover C. Nicholas. “I know nothing of the facts that led up to it,” he said. The Negro evi dently hail had a trial in court accord ing to law, and it is to be very much reprehended that a few people should have so far forgotten the highest in terest of the state as to commit so horrible a crime. “I have received no official advice in regard to the matter and, of course, had no opportunity to prevent its commission.” Miss Alice Thompson of 2913% Lake street and Sherman Ward were quietly mar, ried piristmas Eve by Rev. T. W. Kidd, pastor of Bethel A. M. E. church and left immediately for Chicago where they will make their future home. whose Sunday School he’s superin tendent of!” If racial segregation, with its con sequent misunderstanding, suspicion, hate, and war, is for white pastors the “Christian standpoint,” then in the name of the Devil, we would like to ask, where in the devil will the Devil “stand?’’