^ The Monitor ss
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NEBRASKA’S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF COLORED AMERICAN®
I' THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor.
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$2.00 a S ir—5 Cent* a Copy OMAHA, NEBRASKA, DECEMBER 31, 1926Vol. XII—No. 27 Whole Number 597
Annual Survey of the Asso
ciated Negro Press for 1926
Looking Back on the General Pro
gress of Colored America—Look
ing Forward to the Possi
bilities of 1927
Curfew tolls the knell of the part
ing year. In America, 12,000,000—
Colored America—cross the threshold
of the New Year, facing the future
with mingled hopes and desires. The
year 1926 has lifted and lowered
faith in many avenues, but upon the
whole, there has been progress, and
Colored America takes deep breath
to continue the race, handicapped
■ohly too often by the hurdles of no
understanding, misunderstanding and
prejudice; and cheered, betimes, by
good will and co-operation by those
within and without the fold. The
souls of those who lead the way are
sorely tried most often, but there
can be no giving up in the struggle
to find the way out. Colored Amer
ica goes on—and SINGS
Education
Immediately following slavery,
when for 250 years it had been a
crime to educate a Negro, wise men
and women resolved that the first
duty following liberated bodies was
liberated minds. Schools were estab
lished in all sections of the South,
and Negroes were admitted to those
North, already established. The war
poor South, per se, could not help,—
was not so inclined. The white South
could not help her own. The blacks’
cause appealed to the heart, and af
forded an outlet for religious zeal.
All religious organizations, arid many
private philanthropies, o p .e n e d
schools. Many of these flourished;
some were short-lived. Some of them
still exist, but they are suffering,
even the best of them, including At
lanta and Fisk, for immediate finance
for current requirements. There are
few Negro schools in the South to
day equal to, or beyond, financial
aid.
Education is the big fundamental
in understanding and progress. The
new white South sees this. More
than ever before, through city, coun
ty, and state, the white South is back
ing Negro education in better schools
and better teachers. The surface is
merely scratched in most places.
North Carolina, as a state, remains
the shining example in encouraging
and helping Negro education. The
results are gratifying in a better feel
ing between the races, more content
ment, and finer economic develop
ment for both races.
North, there is the problem of as
similation. Migration in many sec
tions increased the enrollments to the
point of real problems. Separate
schools have become not only a sub
ject of discussion, but in many in
stances, a reality. Colored America,
in the aggregate, opposes separate
schools North, where there have been
mixed schools. The solution is in
sympathetic adjustment to the new
conditions. Not only must Colored
America be educated, but new out
lets must be found for those who
qualify for service.
Religion
Colored America is religious.
Church property has been our great
est investment. Religious obligations
are regarded as sacred, and there
are thousands who will “give to the
church’’ when they are in personal
need. The leadership of the church
is not keeping pace with the congre
gations. The number of educated
young men going into the ministry
is far below the need. In the South
the Negro minister has been the real
leader and guide to the people in his
flock, and his influence has been far
reaching.
It is interesting to know that in
all the Metropolitan centers of the
North there are few of the “big
churches’’ that are not filled to over
flowing on Sunday, and other times
in the week the organizations func
tion. Many of the churches have
constant overflow services. Yet,
North and South, there are many
thousands who do not attend church.
This may be accounted for in two
other ways, besides the religious and
personal appeal. First, the call of
the outside world, automobiles and
radios. Colored America is no dif
ferent from white America. Second,
thousands within the race continue to
grow in skepticism tecause of the
white man's religion falling down, so
frequently, at the “color line.”
Home
The HOME of Colored America
has been revolutionized! This is a
fact that neither group fully com
prehends. A larger realization of*
this would help in many ways. There
would be more general respect.
There are three distinct types of
homes in city and rural districts: The
Humble, the Middle Class, and the
Exceptional. These three types must
constantly be reckoned with in all
consideration of the homes of Color
ed America. The humble home must
be improved and sanitized.
The great Middle Class furnishes
the real background of our general
progress and future possibilities.
These people not only represent sta
bility, but loyalty; and they look with
faith on the future. They are the
ones, more than any others, who help
Negro business to thrive, who keep
up their insurance and savings ac
counts in banks, who buy and im
prove their property, and educate
their children at least as far as the
grades and high schools. They sus
tain the churches and lodges, and are
loyal to the govesnment. If there be
real faith in the future of Colored
America, it is to be observed in the
careful study of-this great class.
The home of the exceptional Negro
is to be reckoned with. He has weav
ed through the morasses of American
handicaps, and found a firm footing
He has bought, or builded, an ex
ceptional home and furnished it ac
cordingly. He sees life with the same
vision of the exceptional white citi
zen, and chafes bitterly under any
imposed limitations. In some re
spects he is handling the estate of the
second or third generation; in most
instances, he is enjoying the fruits of
his own sacrifices and labors. Of
taste in furnishings as well as taste
in living there arc hundreds of these
homes that could be shining examples
for any who wish to know of the
standards of culture and refinement.
They are North, and South, East and
West, and to be denied any of the
rights of an American because of
color, makes those of this class, who
pay large taxes and serve humanity,
think deep thoughts.
Social
The social standards of Colored
America are growing. An exclusive
or formal event in any city of Amer
ica, except probably in wealth, can
not be excelled in standards of beau
ty and excellence. There is but lit
tle snobbishness, thus far, in Color
ed America; therefore, there is a gen
erous share of democracy. Standards
are measured by personal worth and
character rather than by natural
gain. If there is any assembly of hu
man beings more beautiful and in
spiring than a formal cultured group
of Colored Americans, it is yet to be
discovered. Back of the culture and
luxury of the growing social stand
ards is Service. There is yet no leis
ure class among us.
Industry
Colored America is a factor in in
dustry, and becoming more so each
year, because of migration laws. He
is not yet a factor in labor unions so
far as membership is concerned, ex
cept in isolated instances. For many
years to come, because of the atti
tude of unions in their policy of dis
crimination, the Negro workman will
be no appreciable part of them. Em
ployers employing Negro workmen
have shown, in notable instances,
such an improved inclination to be
fair, that the worker has made him
self satisfied with conditions, always
indulging in the hope that improve
ments will continue. There are cer
tain groups, notably this year, the
Pullman group, that seek organiza
tion for betterment. Efforts of this
kind are proving beneficial by indi
rection, if not by direction. There
are a number of large employing con
continued on Page Two)
AFRICA NO PLACE FOR
THE AMERICAN NEGRO
SAYS WOMAN AUTHOR
White Men’* Morals So Low That
Natives Refuse to Permit Their
Women to Work for
Them
Los Angeles, Cal.—“I would not
advise any American born Negro to
go back to Africa,” Vera Simonton,
author of “Hell’s Playground,” from
which the much discussed play'
“White Cargo,” was dramatized, told
the correspondent at the Biltmore
hotel here recently. “The lines be
tween the races are strictly drawn;
there are no hotel or rooming house
accommodations and while the na
tives would welcome them, their
primitive customs would be unbear
able to the American Negro. It
would be slaughter to send them
there. “Yes,” she answered to my
question, “every foot of ground in
Africa is owned or claimed by some
country.”
As to female domestic servants,
there are none, according to Miss
Simonton, who is considered an au
thority on the African, "you always
hear the foreign explorer refer to
their ‘boy’ servants. The reason for
this is because the morals of the
white men are so low the natives re
fuse to permit their women to work
for them.”
Opposed to Mixed Marriage*
“The Negroes of America are very
loyal to their country; there are no
traitors among them, and they have
no other home,” explained Miss Sim
onton, who is known among her inti
mate friends as “Africanus.” “The
Negro who has been fortunavj
enough to leave Africa is done with
the country forever. Yes, I am bit
terly opposed to mixed marriages for
they always mean damnation for
both parties concerned.
“I believe in every educational and
economic opportunity for the Negro;
I have the highest and most sincere
respect for them and believe there
are no heights which cannot be ob
tained by them. The younger gen
eration is breaking away from the
oppression of other years. They
should keep their race pure like the
Chinese and Japanese; the past is
past, but the present and future can
be controlled. There is no folklore
like the Negro Spirituals. Negroes
can and should write about people
other than themselves, brains cannot
be controlled.
Condemn* Odium*
“I would not be ashamed of the
use of the word ‘Negro’ or ‘Ethiop
ian,’ they both mean black, but I
hate the word ‘nigger.” In Africa it
is worth a person’s life to call a free
man ‘nigger,’ which means slave.”
Miss Simonton is leaving here this
week for a tour of the world and is
paying California her first visit.
"This climate is so wonderful, I won
der why the whole East doesn’t move
here,” she said. She is gathering ma
terial for a new book, “The Great
White Eye,” which is a story of the
Ju-Ju hoodoo) Portuguese Angola of
West Africa. Miss Simonton was
born in Pittsburgh, of Pennsylvania
Dutch and English extraction; she is
a public lecturer for the Board of
Education of the state of New York,
and has written the following books:
“Thumbnail History of the West
Coast of Africa,” “Life and Customs
of the Savages of Central Aprica,”
Housekeeping in Savage Africa,”
Christianity Vs. Mohammedanism in
Africa,” “My Experiences in the Ca
nary Islands,” and others.
SPEAKER BURNS UP
"NIGGER HEAVEN”
New York, N. Y.—In order to show
his disgust for Carl Vun Vechten’s
novel of the Harlem Negro, “Nigger
Heaven,” Prof. S. R. Williams, direc
tor of the National Negro Center Po
litical party, which held a meeting
at the Imperial Elks Auditorium,
took a copy of the book and burned
it in front of the hall.
Mrs. Ruth Whitehead Whaley drew
great applause when she told the as
sembly that lynching would stop in
the South when every person lynch
ed took a lyncher with him.
RACE EDITOR TELLS WHITE
AUDIENCE OF INSULTS
TO RACE WOMANHOOD
_
He Addresses 1,500 Women of the
Pacific Northwest on the
South’s Insults to the
Negro Race
Portland, Ore.—“When the civili
zation of the South gets through with
the black man then it impoverishes
him of practically every grace with
which God endowed him. Men in the
: South are not addressed as ‘Mister’
nor women as ‘Mistress’ or ‘Miss’ and
white men do not tip their hats to
Negro women. As a black man, no
one can expect that I feel good to
i ward anyone who insults the woman
hood of my race,” said Dr. Lorenzo
II. King, editor of the Southwestern
Christian Advocate of New Orleans,
La., recently, when before 1,500 wo
men at the recent women’s session
of the Methodist Men’s Council held
at the First Baptist Church (white
Temple), he spoke his mind in a plea
for a Christian social program in the
inter-racial relations.
Southern Woman Resents Remarks
Dr. King’s remarks met with
flurries of applause. When the large
audience disbanded, discussion seem
ed to center upon what he had said.
One Southern woman was heard to
.say: “I could not approve of Dr.
King’s remarks. I come from the
South.”
Shares Honors with Ralph Connor
Sharing honors with the noted nov
elist, Ralph Connor, author of the
“Sky Pilot” and other novels of early
life in the middle west, Dr. King ad
dressed many audiences throughout
the Northwest, including the Ladies’
Aid Society of the Spring Methodist
Episcopal church, also of Seattle,
where he delivered an address on
“Methodism and the Negro Race,”
and also nearly 2,000 women at the
First Baptist church, Portland, Ore.
WHITE DAILY URGES
PASSAGE OF FEDERAL
ANTI-LYNCHING LAW
The Philadelphia Daily New* Con
tend* That Since State* Will
Not Stop Lynching, Con
gre«a Muit
Philadelphia, Pa. — Attention is
called to the fact that Congress has
been asked to pass the anti-lynching
bill now pending before that body.
The President, in his annual message
to Congress, has referred to it, and
leading metropolitan dailies are edi
torially speaking of it, one case in
point being the Daily News (Phila
delphia), which says, under the edi
torial caption:
ANTI-LYNCHING LAW IS GOOD.
“The lynching of Negroes is a na
tional disgrace. In the South it is
engaged in as part of the policy of
‘keeping the blacks in their place.’
Negroes in the South are regarded
as inferior to whites, no matter how
depraved, cruel and useless a white
may be. Any white man, they be
lieve, is better than a black or a col
ored one.
“The idea is wickedly and cruelly
false,” continues the editorial. “It
therefore produced nothing but wick
edness and cruelty. And in doing so
it brings world-wide disgrace upon
the United States.
“The South will not correct the
evil itself. It becomes necessary,
therefore, to make the crime of
lynching a federal concern. It be
comes more necessary to do this be
cause there have been incidents of
lynching in the North and the steady
migration of Negroes from the South
appears to be encoraging the evil.
"The crime of lynching must be
abolished from America. Since the
South, the chief offender, will not
stop it, the nation, through CongresB,
must assume the responsibility.”
THE N. A. A. C. P.
TO MEET SUNDAY
The Omaha Branch of the N. A. A.
C. P. will hold its regular monthly
meeting Sunday afternoon at four
o’clock, at the North Side “Y.”
Mrs. Mary Morris is reported con
fined in the hospital.
SUCCESSFUL RACIAL
ENTERPRISE PLANS
BROAD EXPANSION
North Carolina Mutual Fire Insur
ance Company With $45,000,000
of Insurance in Force, En
ters New Fields
Durham, N. C.—In response to the
urgent demands, stretched over a
period of some seven years, accord
ing to President C. C. Spaulding, the
North Carolina Mutual Life Insur
ance Company, with home offices in
this city, will open up branches in
several northern states at the begin
ning of the new year.
After having built up one of the
largest enterprises owned and con
trolled by Negroes, with more than
$45,000,000 worth of insurance in
force, an income annually of more
than $2,000,000 and a reserve total
ing $3,000,000 to protect its one
third of a million policy holders, the
officers and directors of the company
feel that it can now comply to the
requests that have been made by
many of the policy holders now liv
ing in the North and of prospective
policy holders in that section.
This action, according to Mr.
Spaulding, was taken to carry out the
policy upon which the company was
founded and has developed, that of
rendering the greatest service to the
largest number possible. The field
in the North has been surveyed and
studied carefully and the need is ap
parent and it is the opinion that
North Carolina Mutual should help
in supplying this need in the North
ns well as in the South.
OXFORD WINS BUT LOSES
DEBATE WITH LINCOLN
Baltimore, Md.—Oxford Universi
ty debaters in a word-tussle with rep
resentatives from Lincoln University,
here Thursday night, figured on
everything but the audience, and, as
a result, when the audience had vot
ed Oxford found that Lincoln had
won the debate, 803 to 376.
The question was: “Resolved, that
this house opposes any change in the
Eighteenth Amendment.” Lincoln
defended the affirmative side and
Oxford the negative. Lincoln’s de
baters were: Richard Hill, Balti
more; Mark Gibson, Oklahoma; Es
trah Turner, Arkansas. Oxford’s
were: Patrick Monkhouse, Michael
Franklin and Gyles Isham.
Oxford actually won the debate by
a large margin. Its men were master
platform artists with an experience of
30 debates on the same subject be
hind them already with United States
colleges. Monkhouse, as a wit, seem
ed to be the equal of Will Rogers.
He declared that the prohibition
trouble started in the Garden of Eden
with cider—that Eve pressed an ap
ple on Adam and both afterwards
saw snakes.
“If we contend that wine should be
abolished because it wrecks homes,”
asked Monkhouse, “why not abolish
water because it sometimes wrecks
ships?”
Isham, another of the English de
baters, paid a tribute in his intro
duction to Turner of Lincoln, who,
he said, made the best address he had
heard from any American opponent
on this visit to America.
Hill, of Lincoln, riled the British
ers with the suggestion that England,
instead of taking 60 years to pay off
its American debt of four billions,
liquidate the debt with her annual
liquor bill of a billion and a half.
Hill also quoted a western daily which
had the English debaters expressing
their distaste for American whisky
upon their arrival, and urged the
Englishmen to discuss the question
with their brains and not their stom
achs. Monkhouse countered with the
rejoinder that the question should be
discussed with brains, not tongues.
Lincoln was weakest in rebuttal,
her men being handicapped by their
lack of experience and their set
speeches. Oxford had more experi
ence, more polish, more wit. While
the ballots were being counted Monk
house kept the audience laughing for
fifteen minutes with quibs based on
his observations in America.
COLORED WOMAN SUES
PULLMAN COMPANY AND
ATLANTIC COAST LINE
Arthur G. Hayes, With Clarence Dar
row Associated, Retained by
Negro Advancement As
sociation
Damages Asked for Expulsion Last
July From a Pullman
Sleeper at Palatka,
Florida
New York—Suit for damages ag
gregating $25,000 against the Pull
man Company and the Atlantic Coast
Line Railway was announced last
week by the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored Peo
ple, in behalf of Blanche S. Brook
ins, a colored woman who was eject
ed on July 18, at Palatka, Fla., from
a Pullman sleeper on which she had
purchased through accommodation
from New York to Orlando, and by
a Palatka court, was fined $500 and
costs after a night in the county jail
for alleged violation of Florida’s “Jim
Crow” law which prohibits use of
railway accommodations set apart for
whites within the state by Negroes.
Arthur Garfield Hays has been re
tained as attorney in the case by the
National Association for the Ad
vancement of Colored People, with
Clarence Darrow as associate. Dam
ages are asked in the sum of $25,000
each, on four separate causes of ac
tion. Papers in the case were served
on December 21, by Hays, St. John
and Buckley, 43 Exchange Place.
The complaint, drawn by Mr. Hays,
recites that Mrs. Brookins, on July
16, purchased a through ticket for
Pullman accommodation from New
York to Orlando, Fla., on a car at
tached to the Havana Special, operat
ed by the Atlantic Coast Line Rail
road Company. Mrs. Brookins, the
complaint continues, began her jour
ney south on July 17, and when the
train reached Jacksonville a railroad
ticket collector demanded that she
leave the Pullman because she was
riding in a car with white persons, in
violation of the Jim Crow law of the
state of Florida.
This Mrs. Brookins declined to do,
being a passenger in interstate com
merce not subject to the provisions
of the Florida law. The following
day, July 18, the complaint recites,
Mrs. Brookins was “violently, forci
bly and rudely ejected” from the
Pullman car by order of and at the
request of railway and Pullman em
ployees by Florida law officers sum
moned for the purpose, was asked to
ride in a day coach, and upon declin
ing to do so was forcibly taken and
imprisoned in the county jail at Pa
latka, Fla, After being compelled to
spend the night in the Palatka jail,
Mrs. Brookins was found guilty un
der Sections 4556 and 4556 of the
Florida statutes, known as the Jim
Crow law, of riding in a car set apart
for whites with no accommodation
for colored people, and was fined
$500 and costs amounting to $18.17,
which was paid under protest.
Damages of $25,000 are asked for
on the grounds that the defendants
violated their contracts as common
carriers, with Mrs. Brookins, thereby
subjecting her to insult, mortification
and injury to her nervous system and
general health; that their agents act
ed “carelessly, negligently, forcibly
and unlawfully” in having her eject
ed from the thorough accommodation
she had purchased as an interstate
passenger; and that they caused her
to be unlawfully imprisoned causing
her inconvenience, expense and in
jury.
HARLEM NUNS OPEN
A NEW CHAPEL
New York, N. Y.—A new chapel
was opened here this week by The
Handmaids of the Most Pure Heart
of Mary, an order of nuns organized
in 1917 in Savannah, Ga. The Right
Rev. Thomas M. O’Keefe, pastor of
the Church of St. Benedict the Moor,
officiated at ceremonies attendant on
the opening. Mother M. Theodore is
Superior of the order.
Mrs. Willie Vann, 2403 Blondo,
is improving after a five weks ill
ness.