iss The Monitor mi
NEBRASKA’S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF COLORED AMERICANS
I THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor.
stop it Year—:> § ts a Copy. OMAHA, NEBRASKA, FRIDAY, JULY 2, 1926 VoL XII.—No. 1. Whole Number ~>7I
NEW BEDFORD GIBLS WIN ft VICTORY
CONGRESSMAN DYER
RAPS REPUBLICANS
FOR DEATH OF BILL
( liarues Defeat of Anti-Lynch Kill to
Insincerity and Supineness of
0. I*. Members in United
States Senate,
—- »
FAVORABLE ACTION IN HOUSE
Senate Judiciary Committee Comes
in for Cordial Condemnation From
Solon. Norris Is Member.
Chicago.—Speaking before the 17th
annual conference of the National As
sociation for the Advancement of Col
ored People, Representative I,. C. Dyer
of Missouri, blamed Republican sena
tors, especially those on the judiciary
committee, who failed to support the
McKinley-Dyer anti-l>(nching bill,
which would make lynching a federal
offense and provides for a fine of $10,
000 to he imposed upon uny county in
which a lynching occurs, such sum to
lie recoverable by dependents of the
mob's victim.
"A sincere and earnest effort has
been made by the house of represen
tatives in the past several congresses
to pass this measure.” said Congress
man Dyer. “In the 67th congress, this
legislation passed by a very large ma
jority. The United States senate
failed in that congress to pass it- The
house of representatives has been
ready and still is, to pass this legis
lation at any time. It has been con
sidered useless, however, to do so, in
view of the action of the senate when
this legislation went before them in
the 67th congress. They allowed a
small number of senators to put on a
filibuster and stop its passage there.
We all know that the senate could
then, and could now, if it wanted to,
adopt a cloture rule which would limit
debate and enable its members to vote.
With the house in favor of it, it could
have become a law signed by the pres
ident, who has stated many times that
he favors it.
"A hearing was held by the judi
ciary committee of the senate upon the
bill introduced by Senator McKinley,
in the senate, the same one that I
introduced in the house. At the hear
ing on February 16, a number of
friends of this legislation appeared in
favor of it. Among them was James
Weldon Johnson, secretary of the N.
A. A. C. I’. He made a very splen
did address and furnished very com
plete data and reasons for the enact
ment of the legislation into law. In
addition to that, he furnished an able
legal brief shwing the constitutional
ity of the legislation. No one appeared
at the hearing in opposition to the
hill. Not withstanding this, the judi
ciary committee of the senate not only
has failed, but it has refused by a
vote of its members to favorably re
port this bill to the senate.
“Since the judiciary committee of
the senate has had this legislation di
rectly before them, as stated above,
and as they have had a hearing upon
It, and then refused to report it to the
senate, it is apparent to everyone that
the fault lies entirely with the senate,
and that it would not only be foolish
from a legislative standpoint, but that
it Would be insulting to those who are
especially urging this legislation to
keep repeatedly passing it in the
house.
“A number of the senators who re
cently have failed of renomination
had my opposition. The chief respon
sibility and the chief foilure t<> act,
far as this congress is concerned,
lie- with the judiciary committee of
the senate. That the friends of this
legislation may know who these sen
ator.s are and where they are from, 1
give information touching this, to-wit:
Republican members: Senators Albert
II. Cummins (Iowa), William E. Horah
(Idaho), George W. Norris (Nebras
ka), Richard P- Ernst (Kentucky),
Rice W. Means (Colorado), J. W. Har
reld (Oklahoma), Charles S. Deneen
(Illinois), Frederick H. Gillett (Mas
sachusetts), and Guy D. Goff (West
Virginia). Democratic members: Sen
ators Lee S. Overman (North Caro
lina), James A. Reed (Missouri),
Henry F. Ashurst (Arizona), Thomas
CALIFORNIA VETERANS ELECT
TWO COLORED OFFICERS
Monterey, Cal.—At the state con
vention of the United Veterans of the
Republic, which closed recently at
Monterey after a four-day session,
N. L. Montgomery, commander of
Unit No. 112, and Harry Beal, a gov
ernor, were elected to important posts.
N. L. Montgomery is now a state
vice commander and Harry L. Beal
a member of the executive committee
of the state of California.. Commander
Montgomery is a world war veteran,
/commander of Benj. J. Bowie post of
the American legion and vice com
mander of the Inter-City Council of
the Ix>s Angeles American Ia>gion
post*.
Only three colored veterans attend
ed the convention—one from Salinas
' ear Monterey, and the two veterans
from Los Angeles, Beal and Mont
gomery.
COLORED ACTOR HEADS
LITTLE THEATRE CAST
Los Angeles—The director of the
Pot Boiler Art Theatre of Los Angeles
has announced that James B. Lowe
will be seen in Eugene O’Neil’s “The
Dreamy Kid.”
Lowe recently created a sensation
with his interpretation of Brutus
Jones in the play “Emperor Jones."
Because of his great work in this last
play, Lowe has been mentioned for
pi eminent parts in "Uncle Tom's
Cabin" and De Mille's “Porgy.”
“The Dreamy Kid” will be one of
several one-act playlets to Ik* pre
sented at the Pot Boiler Theatre dur
ing July.
•OPPORTUNITY’ EDITOR INVITED
TO CONDUCT NEGRO SURVEY
Los Angeles—The Community Chest
officials of Los Angeles who are plan
ning a Negro industrial survey, have
teen asked by Mrs. Katherine Barr,
head of the local branch of the Ur
ban league, to bring Charles S. John
son, editor of the Opportunity maga
zine, to i/os Angeles to supervise the
taking of the survey.
F unds have been appropriated for the
survey and if the proper arrangements I
are made between Mr. Johnson and |
the survey board, work should be j
starter! under the supervision of the i
brilliant easterner the first of July.
Urban league officials are insisting
upon Charles Johnson being employed
'for the work because of his success in
the game lines of endeavor in Chicago
.an/I other cities.
' A survey was conducted last year in
Los Angeles hut it Is deemed advisable
that a new and more thorough one
he made this year. I he survey is
being made with the object of deter- !
'mining the status of the Negro wag'*
earner in this city in industrial plants.
N. A. A. C. P. LEGAL COMMITTEE
MEETS ON SEGREGATION DECISION
New York—The National Legal com-j
inittee of the National Association for die
Advancement of Colored People, ha^ held
a meeting to discusa further steps in the
segregation fight, following tie* I . S. Su
preme Court’s decision in the Curtis srg
gregation case in Washington, D. C. I lie
meeting was held in the offices of Louis
Marshall, 120 Broadway, and besides Mr.
Marshall there were in attendance Aithur
B. Spingarn. chairman of the committee,
James A. Cobh of Washington, Herbert
K. Stockton and James Weldon Johnson,
secretary of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People.
Because of the fart that the Supreme
Court did not pass u[H>n the merits of
I |he case hut deelared itself to he without
I jurisdiction, the committee decided to take
up another case as soon as it may in
' possible that will force a conclusive proof
upon the fundamental questions involved.
J. Walsh (Montana), Thaddeus H. Car
away (Arkansas), William H. King
(Utah), and M. M. Neely (West Vtr
ftinia).”
Mr Dyer quoted from a press state
p ent of the N. A. A. C. P., showing
that four senators had voted for the
measure in committee: Cummins,
Ernst and Denecn, all Republicans and
A- hurst, Democrat.
For Negroes, No Republicans or Dem
ocrats---Only Friends and Opponents
Chicago, III.—Declaring that for Negroes
in America “there are no Republicans anil
no Democrats, only friends and oppo
nents." Moorfield Storey, of Boston, presi
dent of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People, in a mes
sage read at the opening mass meeting,
June 23rd, at the Association’s Seven
teenth Annual conference, urged colored
people to unite in hehulf of their citi
zenship rights. Mr. Storey, who was sec
retary during the reconstruction days to
Senator Charles Sumner, and has been
president of tbe American Bar Associa
tion, could not come to Chicago because
of the strain of such a journey in his
advanced years, sending the message read.
“We represent more than twelve mil
lion persons of Negro blood,” Mr. Storey's
message continued, “entitled under our
Constitution and laws to every right that
belongs to any American citizen, sure
eventually to receive those rights, and de
termined to fight for them until they are
secured.
“The need of the hour is union. We
must act together, work together, and vote
together. We ask no charity, no privi-1
lege, only the rights of every American
citizen, the right to live unmolested in
any house where we have a legal right
'o live, the right to he protected in our j
persons and our property against mob j
violence, the right to a fair trial if ac
cused of crime or involved in uny civil
controversy, the same rights that any other
citizen has in public parks, public schools,1
and all public institutions supported by
taxes of which our taxes are a purl. We
ask equal rights in public conveyances,
public hotels, public places of amuse
ments and above all we want the right
to vote, for otherwise we are taxed and
drafted without representation, the cause !
of the Revolution which established the !
United States.
“How shall we use our votes? The
answer is: vote together for men who
Will work for our rights and Tor no
others.’ There are for us no Republic
ans and no Democrats. There are only
friends and opponents. We are tired of
promises, pleasant words, appeals to our
gratitude for the acts of dead men fifty
years ago. We want what those men up
held now, we want constitutional amend
ments which they passed and enforced, we
want the rights which they gave us rec
ognized, and no man who will yield any
jot of those rights will receive our sup
port. Let us make this clear and even '
the fraction of our votes which we can J
cast will be found a mighty weapon.
“Our next weaiHiti is the courts of the
country. Our experience has abundantly
satisfied us that the courts are our surest
allies, and we have won many substantial
Victories. Our rule must be that wherever
any right is infringed our organization
must be ready to take the case into court i
and there seek appropriate redress.
"Finally there is the never-failing ap- I
peal to public opinion, and now especially
at this anniversary time when men's minds ]
will be recalled to the great principles I
of \merican freedom. When the words of
Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln,
and the great band whose spokesmen were
Sumner, Phillips, Garrison and their as
sociates, are quoted on every side, it is
time to ask our fellow citizens what those
words mean, and if they are proud to
repeat them, whether it is only as a fa
miliar jingle or as words of vital meaning
by which they wish to live. The great
commandment, the golden rule which is
the very essence of Christianity, does not
ibid us love our white neighbors as our
selves, Christ does not ask that little white
children come unto him ‘for of such is
the Kingdom of Heaven,’
We flatter ourselves that we are the
most enlightened people on earth and are
free with our criticism of Euro|)ean na
tions. Yet we are the only people on
earth where human beings are burned
alive at the stake, where men, women and
children look on with approval and where
the murderers go unwhipped of justice
and walk the streets, while the smell of
burning flesh still pollutes the air, with
heads erect exulting in their barbarism.
Go through this country and open your
eyes. If yod are civilized and Christians
you cannot help being horrified at the
treatment which is visited on our Negro
fellows, and at the indifference with which
it iB regarded.
“The good people of this country must
get together and uproot these abuses or
the day will come when the whole coun
try will suffer the bitter consequences.
Abuses like those which the National As
sociation for the Advancement of Colored
People is formed to combat cannot long
be tolerated without bringing the pun
ishment which may 'have leaden feet but
surely has iron hands.’ My friends, let
us close up our ranks and press on."
NEWARK PUBLIC LIBRARY SHOWS
COLLECTION OF NEGRO BOOKS
Newark, N. J.—The Newark public li
brary is showing during the months ot
June and July, a collection of books, pain
phlets, pictures and playbills illustrating
the Negro’s contributions to American
culture. Most of the material shown has
been lent for the purpose by Eugene
Gregory, Newark lawyer.
Among the exhibits are editions of the
poems of Phyllis Wheatley ineluding the
poem in her own handwriting, manu
scripts of the poems of Paul Lawrence
Dunbar, books, letters anil autographs
of Frederick Dotigluss, and many biogra
phies, pamphlets and letters from slavery
and Civil War days. Among contemporary
colored writers represented in the exhibi
tion are Matthew Henson, the late Booker
T. Washington, Countee Cullen, Langston
Hughes, Claude McKay, Jessie Fauset,
Walter White, W'. E. B. Du l&is, Jean
Toomer, and James W'eldon Johnson.
A feature of the exhibition are signed
state papers of the Haitian liberator,
Toussaint L’Ouverture.
MAYOR APPOINTS COLORED MEN
ON N. Y. CITY SURVEY COMMITTEE
New York Mayor Walker has appointed
a number of prominent New York colored
citizens members of a committee of 500
who will help the officials of the city of
New York in discovering and planning
to meet the needs of the growing metroplis.
The colored members of the mayor’s com
mittee are: James Weldon Johnson, sec
retary of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People; Dr. W.
E. B. Du Buis, Editor of The Crisis;
Eugene Kinckle Jones, secretary of the
Urban league; John K. Nail, of the firm
of Nail & I*arker; Dr. Louis T. Wright;
terdinand Q. Morton, Civil Service Com
missioner; and Lester A. Walton, journal
Ut
The committee comprises many of the
outstanding persons in New York civic
and social life, including bank presidents
and industrial leaders jurists, educators,
welfare workers, engineers and represent
atives of all walks of life. Among the
prominent members of the committee arc:
the presidents of the New York and Co
lumbia universities; the director of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, the director
of Rockefeller Institute for Medical Re
search, the presidents of the N. Y. Life
Insurance company, of the N. Y. Times,
of the Herald-Tribune, of the Parks and
Playgrounds Association, etc.
The duties of the committee will be to
report on housing and zoning, port fa
cilities, traffic regulation, sanitation, high
ways and bridges, parks and playgrounds,
and new sources of municipal revenue.
' Newport, Ky.—School teachers of
this city, while on duty, were ordered
by the board of education to wear
their dresses “with the lower edge not
more than 11 inches from the ground,
1 “after a mothers’ club had protested
that short skirts distracted the stu
dents from their studies,
I White Oaks, Ky.—Officer G. S. Mc
: Neal said he dreamed several nights
ago that there was liquor in the Bap- j
tist church here. Investigation later
'revealed 20 gallons of “red” liquor
in the belfry, much to the amazement
of the congregation. None of them,
however, was arrested.
VICTORY FOR COLORED GIRLS
IX USE OF NEW BEDFORD
SWIMMING POOL
New York.—New Bedford (Mass.)
branch of the N. A. A. C. P. has es
tablished the right of colored girls to
use the Y. W. C. A. swimming pool in
that city, according to reports re
ceived by the national office of the
N. A. A. C. P.
The vote of the Y. W. C. A., accord
ing the swiming pool rights to colored
girls was taken after a conference
equested by Mrs. Joseph Webster,
secretary of the New Bedford N. A.
A. C. P. It was voted that: “The
board of the Y. W. C. A. wishes to
go on record and states that there will
be no discrimination in race, creed or
color as long as girls and women
i ve to uphold the purpose of this
Association.”
The fight by the N. A. C. C. P.
against the swimming pool discrimin
ation was upheld by both the New
Bedford Evening Standard and the
Newr Bedford Times, local dailies.
NEGRO EXHIBITS AT SESQUl
Philadelphia. Pa.—The collective Ne
gro exhibit in the Palace of Agriculture
is rapidly nearing completion. Decoration
is now being put on by Miss Laura
Wheeler, race artist, who has spent much
lime abroad in the study of her profes
sion. The scheme of the decoration is
taken from ancient African art, and will
be unique.
1’he booth of the "Sesqui-Dressmakers’
Club” has been worked out with splendid
design under the supervision of Mrs. Fan
nie Jones, a practical dressmaker and a
leuder in artistic fashions. The club con
sists ot 2.i persons who have combined
to pul on a splendid exhibition of race
efficiency in that line.
Cheyney Normal school is featuring the
subject of education, particularly as relates
to the history of the Quakers in their
aid to colored people.
Among other features developed will be
a medical exhibit in the form of a mini
ature emergency hospital under the super
vsion of Dr. John P. Turner. A trained
nurse and an interne have been detailed
from local hospitals to be constantly in
attendance and to attend emergency cases
as well as to exhibit hospital achievements
of our group.
Hie manager of the exhibit, T. J.
Calloway, announces that this exhibit,
when completed will be the most unique
of its kind in that all features are being
worked out on the basis of excellence in
detail. No exhibits have been shown whicli
oo not stand out as representing distinc
tive contributions to the race advancement.
The pageant “Loyalty’s Gift” under the
direction of Mrs. Dora Cole Norman, will
be held in the magnificent auditorium,
wth a seating capacity of 20,000 on July
12th.
DENSITY OF COLORED POPULATION
Washington—In the 1920 population of
the United States averaged 35.5 inhabi- j
tants per square mile of territory. The I
Negro population averaged 3.5 persons for ;
, each of the 2,973,774 square miles that
constitutes the total land area of the
United States.
Leading uR other areas was the Dis
trict of Columbia with a colored popu
lation of 1,832.7 persons per square mile,
followed in the order named by states
in which there are ten or more colored
inhabitants per square mile: South Car
olina, 28.3; Maryland, 24.6; Georgia, 20.5;
Mississippi, 20.1; Alabuma, 17.5; Virginia,
17.1, North Carolina, 15.7; Delaware and
Lousiana, 15.4 each, and Tennessee, 10.8.
In the northern states, New Jersey
ranked in first place in the density of
the colored population with an average
of 15.6 persons per square mile, fol
lowed by Pennsylvania with 6.3; Ohio
with 4.5, New York, 4.2; Illinois, 3.3;
and Missouri, with 2.6 colored inhabit
ants per square mile. Since 1920, how
ever, decreases in the South and in
creases in the North have followed as a
result of the continued migration; and
it is probable that Pennsylvania has
now joined New Jersey and that these
are the only northern slates in which
there are ten or more colored inhabit
ants per square mile of land area.
ADVANCEMENT
ASSOCIATION BE
GINS CAMPAIGN
Militant Civil Rights Organization
Launches Drive for Large Fund
to Fight Segregation and
Disfranchisement.
SECRETARY SOUNDS SLOGAN
James Weldon Johnson Urges Race to
Mobilize Financial Strength to
Maintain Fundamental Rights
Chicago.—A million-dollar fund to
fight segregation, Jim Crow and dis
franchisement, “the last vestiges of
slavery,” was launched Sunday after
noon in the Auditorium Theatre at a
mass meeting of the National Asso- *
ciation for the Advancement of Col
ored People, holding its 17th annnual
conference here. The fund was launch
ed during an address by the secre
tary of the association, James Weldon
Johnson of New York, ex-U. S. consul
j to Nicaragua and Venezuela, writer,
and editor of compilations of Negro
! poetry and spirituals.
‘What American Negroes need and
what we propose to begin raising
now." declared Mr. Johnson, “is a
fund of one million dollars to fight se
j gregation, Jim Crow and disfranchise
ment, these being the last vestiges of
j slavery.
“Such a fund will be a demonstra
i lion of the mass power which the
! Negro intends to use and will serve
j notive upon the country of the Negro’s
I determination to secure and maintain
every fundamental right which should
be his in common with other Amer
icans.
“It is possible and feasible for
American Negroes to raise this mil
lion-dollar fund. The race has given
the money and can give. The demon
stration was recently given in the
quick raising of a legal defense fund
of more than $70,000.
“The American Negro asks no al
lowances, for what may be his short
comings or his lapses. But he does
demand equality of treatment. Ig
norant white men have rights; pover
ty-stricken white men have rights;
and even white criminals have certain
rights; and these rights belong to
them regardless of their condition. We
intend to see that unhappily circum
stanced black Americans have the
same guarantees and opportunities as
unhappily circumstanced white Amer
icans.
“We shall, moreover, use this power
to smash the practices which allow
the most unkempt white persons to
travel under first class conditions
while the neatest colored person must
travel Jim Crow; that allow the most
ignorant white citizens to vote and
bar the most intelligent black citizen;
that allow a white man charged with
a crime to be tried by a court of law
and a black one to be burned by a mob
at the stake.”
BISHOP JOHN A. GREGG
DECLINES HOWARD PRESIDENCY
Washington — Bishop John A. Gregg,
former president of Wilberforce University,
Wilberforce, Ohio, following an informal
conference of bishops of the African M.
E. church at the recent commencement
exercises at Wilberforce, has declined to
accept the presidency of Howard Univer
sity, recently tendered to him by its
trustees, of which Colonel Theodore Roos
evelt is chairman. Separation of Bishop
Gregg from his parochial duties was found
to be beyond the jurisdiction of the Board
! of Bishops of the church. It is said
that the acceptance of the Howard presi
dency by a Bishop would be an act of
"inversion” inasmuch as the bishops of the
\. M. E. Church are usually required to
serve first as college presidents.
Paris—A large part of this city is
built on the water-soaked soil of the
River Rhine, and in consequence, pile
foundations have been used extensive
ly. The wooden piles hitherto em
j ployed are now being replaced by
concrete.
