THE MONITOR Es
NEBRASKA’S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF COLORED AMERICANS
\ THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor.
Jj $2.00 a Year- % lent* a Copy . OMAHA. NEBRASKA, FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 1927_Vol. XII—No. 39_Whole Number 609
BEAUTIFUL BLOHPE IS BOLD BANDIT
Lady, Nordic, Used Colored Aides in
Various Holdups
St. Louis, Mo.—A white woman
who used two Negroes as accomplices
recently admitted to police that she
was the young woman robber who
held up a restaurant and two stores
i d who figured in six filling
and store robberies.
The 'Oman said the name of “Mrs.
Millie Smith” which she gave was
fictitious. She is 29 years old, tall,
blonde and slender. What dramatized
her as a robber were her coolness in
handling a revolver and the fact that
she changed hats between holdups.
Her arrest at a rooming house fol
lowed the arrest on suspicion of Ler
ry Smith, 28, Negro renter of the
room. Smith had several checks,
together with a bogus railroad bond
which identified him as a man want
| ed in recent bad check deals.
“I’m a check man, not a stickup
man," Smith declared. “The woman
at my room is the stickup woman.
She pulled those jobs and two Ne
groes helped her.”
POPULAR SOUTH SIDE
MAN ENTERS CITY
COMMISSION RACE
Long Record of Public Service; Pres
ent Prosecutor at South
Side Police Court
Mr. John Marcell, 2415 F street,
has, after many entreaties by a host
of friends, consented to file as a
candidate for the city commission in
the coming spring election. Mr. Mar
cell bears the indelible stamp of ap
proval, because of hiB well known
efficiency and experience in city gov
ernment affairs, having been deputy
city clerk from 1910 to 1915, holding
the prosecutor job in the Omaha
i-ourts from 1915 to 1918, holding
the same position at this time in the
South Side court. He has been a
resident of this city for over 36 years
and it is said of him, that his ac
quaintances all over Douglas county
exceed that of any other candidate,
who has never before held elective
office.
His cundidacy is very popular with
colored citizens, because of his em
inently fair and impartial dealings
at all times, where and when his rare
judgment has been called into play.
The appointment of Officer Jones
on the Metropolitan Police Force and
it of two other race men, who are now
holding good positions, were in each
case accomplished by his insistent de
mand that our group should have
equitable representation in all
branches of civic, federal and busi
ness enterprises.
L We predict his success, not only in
™ the primaries, but also in the May
election, as John Marcell’s record for
the last eight years in the interest of
our group is not to be successfully
disputed.
BISHOP SHAYLER CONFIRMS
CLASS AT ST. PHILIP’S
Alto Civet Inttructive and Interett
ing llluttrated Lecture on
the Life of
Chritt
The Rt. Rev. Ernest V. Shayler,
D. D., bishop of Nebraska, visited
the Church of St. Philip the Deacon
Sunday morning, where he was greet
ed by a large congregation, confirm
ed a class of six young people, ad
dressed them and preached a thought
compelling and heart-searching ser
mon from the text, “When the un
clean spirit is gone out of a man,
he walketh through dry places, seek
ing rest; and finding none he saith,
I will return unto my house whence
I came out. And when he cometh
he findeth it swept and garnished.
Then goeth he and taketh to him
seven other spirits more wicked than
himself; and they enter in and dwell
there and the last state of that man
is worse than the first.”
He emphasized the fact that un
clean spirits dwell in men today just
| as certainly as they indwelt men in
the days when our Saviour walked
the earth. And they must be driven
out. If, however, the heart is left
empty, other spirits will enter in.
The heart must be filled with God’s
love and attributes so there is no
room left for the evil.
The confirmees were Sylvia Wini
fred Adams, Theodore Jerome Bell,
Anna Jean Dorsey, Nonence Ellen
Gibsorf, Georgine Marjorie Hall and
Helen Marvel Redd.
Wednesday night Bishop Shayler
gave his interesting and instructive
lecture on “The Holy One and the
Holy Land,” illustrated by pictures
taken by himself on his recent visit
to Bible lands to a large and appre
ciative congregation. Following the
lecture a delightful social hour was
held in the Guild Room.
OFFERED $1,000 FOR
BEST RACE NOVEL;
NONE^ WORTH PRIZE
-*— I
New York, N. Y.—The Albert and j
Charles Boni, Inc., 6(1 Fifth Avenue, ;
offered a prize of $1,000 in March,'
1926, for the best novel submitted
by September 1st, by any Negro
author. Recently the dute was ex - ■
tended to July 1st, 1927, inasmuch!
as they claim “no manuscript which
we have received has seemed to us
to be sufficiently finished as to war-'
rant publication as the finest novel
written by a member of the colored
race.”
The authors who submitted nov
eles however, are very much dis
gruntled; as they claim the original;
offer did not say the novel had to
be the finest novel written by a
colored author, but that the best
of the lot would receive the $1,000.
No matter how poorly the manu
scripts were written, there had to
be one that would be considered the
best; and the author of that best
should receive the $1,000.
CHEAP GRAFTER POSING
AS METHODIST MINISTER
A tall, slender, brown-skinned
Negro, calling himself the Rev. J.
S. Williams, and claiming to be a
Methodist minister, with a congrega
tion of 700, is busy among political
candidates canvasing them for small
amounts. During the last campaign
the editor of The Monitor ran across
this “ministerial” gentleman and told
him that unless he desisted from his
grafting The Monitor would expose
him. He stopped his game, so far
as we were able to learn. But he is
at it again. Two candidates for city
commissioner have called us and re
ported him to us. He told one of
the gentlemen that he was our
brother. This shrewd “minister’s”
church must be on wheels, for it is
alleged that he has given two or
three different locations for it. The
truth is he is only a cheap grafter
seeking to obtain money under false
pretenses and that is a misdemeanor
punishable by the law.
The race is not always to the swift.
Many a fellow runs into debt who
has to crawl out.
Editorial Comments On I
White Primary Victory
Letters and telegrams of commen
dation have been coming to the Na
tional Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People commending
the victory before the United States
Supreme Court in the Texas White
Primary case, among the first to
comment being Col. Theodore Roose
velt, who wrote: “That was a great
vidtory.” Among other comments
received by the N. A. A. C. P., in
cluding newspaper editorials, are the
following:
N. B. Young, president of Lincoln
University, Jefferson City, Mo.: “I
stand in the presence of your assoc
iation uncovered this morning be
cause of the sweeping decision of
the United States Supreme Court
against the white primaries.”
Dr. W. G. Alexander, chairman on
national program, National Medical
association: “The wonderful victory
which has been recently announced
stimulates faith in our government
and renews faith in the N. A. A. C. P.
as an absolutely essential organiza
tion. I herewith enclose check for
$25 as a small contribution towards
the work of your great organiza
tion.”
Congressman L. C. Dyer: “Please
accept my congratulations in the vic
tory achieved in the supreme court
as regards primary voting in Texas.
Victories of this kind are all of great
benefit all along the line.”
Albon L. Holsey, secretary to the
principal, Tuskegee Institute: “The
National Association in my opinion
reached the highest ‘water mark’, of
its service to the race in the success
ful outcome of the Texas primary
case. I have never seen such won
derful reactions as has been true
among the Southern papers.”
N. J. Frederick, attorney for the
Lowmans in South Carolina: “I
wish to congratulate the N. A. A. C.
P. on its splendid victory in the pri
mary case. It, in my opinion, is pur
suing the rights of the colored Amer
ican citizens.”
The executive committee of the
Boston branch voted unanimously to ;
send the'National Office congratula- [
tions on the Texas decision, accord
ing to a letter from Butler R. Wilson,
president of the Boston branch.
Telegram* and Editorial*
The N. A. A. C. P. has received
warm telegrams of congratulation
from the Detroit and Columbia, S. C.
branches, signed respectively by M.
L. Walker, president of the Detroit
branch and H. E. Lindsay, president1
and R. W. Jackson, secretary, of the
Columbia branch. A number of >
quotations from newspaper editori
als follow:
Hot Springs, Ark., Echo: “The
Negroes of America owe to the N.
A. A. C. P. a debt which they can ;
repay only by becoming members or
u part of the association which stands
only for justice and right."
Detroit, Michigan, Independent:
"This is a great legal victory that
will doubtless have far-reaching ef
fects in protecting the suffrage of
colored citizens in the South.”
Rome, Georgia, Enterprise: “This
is another bright star in the crown
of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People
which had the case in charge.”
Omaha, Nebraska, The Monitor:
"There is one outstanding militant
organization that is waging an unre
mitting and uncompromising fight
against discrimination and denial of
opportunity and for the maintenance
of his constitutional rights of which
the Negro is largely deprived. That
organization is the N. A. A. C. P.”
Richmond, Va., Planet: “No act
of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People has
tended to emphasize the necessity foi
its existence more than this supreme
court decision in the matter of dem
ocratic primaries. This great organ
ization is not only entitled to praise
but it should receive the necessary
financial support to enable it to con
tinue the good work.”
Louisville, Kentucky, News: “There
would have been no such case before
the supreme court had it not been
for the N. A. A. C. P. We have
never been able to see how any in
telligent Negro man or woman could
refuse to join the N. A. A. C. P.”
Chicago, Illinois, Bee: “Dr. L. A.
Nixon, of Texas, in whose name the
case was carried up, the local Texas
and national N. A. A. C. P. whose
backing won the case and the at
i torneys who so valiantly and effi
; ciently fought the winning fight, to
gether with the honorable judges of
the supreme court, have earned the
permanent gratitude and thanks of
the whole nation.”
Pittsburgh, Pa., P e n n s y I vania
Guard: “Much credit is deserving to
the organization which brought this
matter to the attention of the su
preme court. The N. A. A. C. P. has
worked on the case of Nixon, the
plaintiff, who was barred from the
primaries in Texas in 1923, ever
since the matter occurred.”
Albuquerque, New Mexico, South
west Review: “The National Associ
ation for the Advancement of Color
ed People has scored another victory
for the political freedom of the col
ored citizens of this country
There are thousands of white people
without the narrow view who long
have realized that the purpose of this
great Negro organization is not alone
to better the chances for Negroes but
to keep clear on the solid rock of
liberty this republic . . . .”
Columbia, S. C., Palmetto Leader:
“Once again the N. A. A. C. P. scores
in its battle for American rights for
colored people.”
Among the many editorials on the
decision in the Southern white news
papers is one in the Columbia, S. C.t
State, of March 12th, containing the
following paragraph:
“The Texas case is one step and
the first in a campaign instigated
and supported by an association of
Negroes in the North and assisted fi
nancially by a few Northern white
men. This association will make at
tacks from time to time, upon the
whole line of defenses set up by the
white men in the Southern states.
Some of the Northern Negroes have
become politically and socially ag
gressive, and they and their white
allies are encroaching wherever they
see or think they see a possible
opening.”
HOLD MORON FOR ATTACK
ON 18-YEAR-OLD RACE GIRL
Louisville, Ky.—Charles Falone, a
26-year-old white man, was indited
for criminal assault by a grand jury
Friday in connection with hiB brutal
attack upon Miss Alberta Hyde, pret
ty 18-year-old colored girl, Saturday
night, February 12.
Miss Hyde, who appeared on the
witness stand with her face showing
signs of the rough treatment that she
received at the hands of the moron,
told of the vicious attack. She stated
that she was on her way home, when
she was attacked by the man and
dragged to the canal near 26th street,
where she made desperate efforts to
fight him off. She was stripped of
her clothing and badly beaten by her
attacker before an officer heard her
screams and came to her rescue. The
crime was called one of the most
brutal that has occurred in this city
in a long time.
__ I
GRADUATES OF TECH HIGH
SCHOOL—WINTER QUARTER
Among the graduates of the win
ter class of Technical High school
who were given their diplomas Tues
day morning were four colored stu
dents, the Misses Hallot Allen and
Marietta Hill and Messrs. Clarence
Desdunes and Thomas S. Phillips.
The Monitor extends congratulations.
* Clarence Desdunes was on the pro
gram with a vioiin solo.
HOUSECLEAHER WHO
WOH PAIHTIHG PRIZE;
SAILS FOR EUROPE
Palmer C. Hayden, Whose Oil Paint
ings Recently Received $400
Award from Harmon Foun
dation to Study Abroad
FINANCED BY UNKNOWN DONOR
Several Harmon Award Recipients
Have Devoted Them to Special
Educational and Charitable
Purposes
New York, N. Y.—Palmer C. Hay
den, the 33-year-old Negro house
cleaner whose landscape paintings re
cently brought him the Harmon
Foundation’s first award in art, sail
ed for Europe March 12 on the
France. An anonymous donor,
whose attention was attracted by
Hayden’s sketches at the time he
received the $400 of the William E.
Harmon awards for distinguished
achievement among Negroes, is fi
nancing his trip and making it pos
sible for him to spend two years
there studying art.
Although Hayden has known of
this donation for nearly a month, he
continued to work at his usual oc
cupation of scrubbing floors and
washing windows almost until the
hour of his departure. He sailed in
a third class cabin.
The paintings which have attract
ed wide notice were executed in a
tiny room at 29 Greenwich avenue
where Hayden lives. But in order
to have time to do this artistic work,
the sacrifice of a real job was nec
essary. That is why he became a
housecleaner about three years ago,
working mornings for his various
“clients’,, and spending the after
noon sketching. His earnings, he de
I dares, were seldom more than five
! dollars a week—“unless I had a spe
cial job painting walls and for this
I got $25 or $30, but this is too
strenuous for regular work. I paid
$3.50 for my room and occasionally,
when money was scarce, I had to
let p. day go by without eating.”
When he received the $400 from
the Harmon Foundation, he imme
diately made plans for a trip abroad.
“I knew it was not enough to enable
me to stay there for study very long,
but I also knew that I could never
get that much money together all
at once again. I was able .to bring
it up to a little more than $500 by
borrowing on my bonus check. Now
that I have this gift, I will be able
to spend some time in an art school
at Paris, and later to visit the art
centers in Italy, Spain, England and
Germany.”
This will be the first time that Mr.
Hayden will have had an opportunity
to study without the necessary in
terruption of remunerative work.
Since he left the grammer school in
Widewater, Va., where his parents
live on a small farm, he has sketched
in his spare time—first when he was
serving in the regular army, then
when he was a New York mail car
rier, and finally, when more time
was needed than that left from a
full day’s work, as a housecleaner’s
job “on his own.” His instruction
has come through correspondence
courses and from one of his employ
ers, Victor Perard of Cooper Union.
Hayden was one of the twelve Ne
groes to receive recognition from the
Harmon Foundation in Decertlber in
the first year of its series of awards
for exceptional achievement in the
arts, science, business and religion.
Persons prominent in the several
fields judged the entries and awards
were only made where work compar
ed favorably with the best of its
kind, rather than with the best Ne
gro work. This year’s series, also
designed to bring to public attention
t those who are doing creative work of
outstanding merit, opened on Lin
coln’s birthday and announcement of
the successful candidates is to be
made on January 1, 1928, Emancipa
tion Day. Dr. George E. Haynes,
secretary of the Commission on the*
Church and Race Relations of the
Federal Council of Church is admin
istering the awards.
OMAHA RACE ATTORNEY
DELIVERS ADDRESS
ON RACE PREJUDICE
H. J. Pinkett Given Opportunity to
Place Pertinent Facts Before
White Congregation
Mr. H. J. Pinkett, well-known at
torney, addressed a large and en
thusiastic audience on “Race Preju
dice” Wednesday evening at Grace
Evangelical church, white, 5112 No.
Twenty-seventh street.
Mr. Pinkett traced the history of
race prejudice from the earliest
times, and asserted that all races
have ben guilty, in some measure, of
this evil. He declared that it re
mained for the modern world to give
the worst example and practice of
race prejudice.
“The proud Anglo-Saxon,” he said,
“is the worst offender in applying
race prejudice. He has forgotten the
time when his ancestors wore bear
skin, lived in caves and subsisted on
raw meat and green herbs; when
they were too ignorant and imbruted
to become good Roman slaves. He
is leading a movement to make all
non-white races contemptible by
branding them as inferior and, there
fore, proper objects of exploitation
and oppression. He is teaching the
lesson of injustice and oppression.”
“Apparently, this view of fellow
human beings has meant but little
to the so-called Nordics. But it will
mean world tragedy in the coming
years, unless abandoned; for it may
be that some day the sceptre of
power shall pass to the darker peo
ples and when that day comes, these
people will apply the lesson they shall
have learned. If that lesson be one
of justice and equity and good-will,
all will be well for the world. But
if that lesson be one of injustice and
wrong; of hate and prejudice, the
lighter races of mankind will be the
victims, as the darker peoples are
now, of the evil of race prejudice.
And this would not be well for the
world and civilization.”
The speaker declared that the ap
plication of the Sermon on the Mount
would solve the problem.
Later in the year, Mr. Pinkett is
to speak at this church on the “So
cial Evil.”
LOVETT FOR-WIGHTMAN TO
VISIT THE CITY LATER
Lovett Fort-Wightman, organizer
of the American Negro Labor Con
gress, who was to have spoken at
Bethel Baptist church, South Side,
Saturday night, March 26th, and at
Zion Baptist church next Sunday aft
ernoon, has been compelled to post
pone his engagements here owing to
demands made upon him for speak
ing in the east. He will visit Omaha
at some later date soon to be an
nounced.
The Riggs Optical company, start
ed in Omaha 18 years ago, now has
53 branches in the western half of
the United States. Four new
branches have been established with
in a year and twelve new branches
within two years.
Several of those beside Mr. Hay
den who received the Harmon awards
in 1926 have made a special use of
the sum given them. C. C. Spauld
ing of Durham, North Carolina, who
was accorded the first award in Bus
iness, donated the $400 so received
plus $100, to the establishment of
an educational foundation for stu
dents at the North Carolina College
for Negroes. Arthur A. Schomburg,
of Brooklyn, who won the second
award in Education of $100 is ap
plying the sum toward the publica
tion of a bibliography of books by
Negroes; and A. A. Alexander of
Des Moines, Iowa, who recived the
second award in Business of $100
has made this the nucleus of an
annual scholarship award to Negro
boys and girls in the DeB Moines high
school.
Will W. Alexonder of Atlanta, Ga.,
a southern white man, who received
the award of $500 in the only field
of the series which was open to both
white and colored people, that of
Race Relations, presented the amount
to an orphanage for Negro children
at Atlanta, Ga.
SIX COLORED DRAMAS
ON BROADWAY
IN NEW YORK
New York, N. Y.—The promin
ence given “In Abraham’s Bosom,”
the drama by Paul Green depicting
Negro life in the south, directs at
tention to the number of plays deal
ing with Afro-Americans which have
found their way to Broadway this
season. Among the more conspicu
ous are “Lulu Belle," “Deep River,”
“The Bottom of the Cup,” "Stigma,”
and now Professor Green’s opus.
MEASURE STRIKES AT
FRATERNAL ORDERS
Trenton, N. J.—A bill introduced
in the New Jersey Senate by A. Cro
zier Reeves, would prohibit colored
] fraternal order members from ap
* pearing on the streets with their re
galia, emblems or any signs pecu
liar to the orders to which they be
long.
Counselor Isaac H. Nutter, At
rtorneys J. L. Jordan and C. Williams,
Rev. I. L. Roundtree and other prom
\ inent Negroes are leading a fight
against the measure. Senator Reeves
is president of the Trenton Inter
racial Committee.