I THE MONITOR s NEBRASKA’S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF COLORED AMERICANS __ THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor. jji $2 00 a Year—S Centi a Copy OMAHA, NEBRASKA, FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 1927 Vol. XII—No. 40 Whole Number 610 f MAN LEAtfES HALF-MILUON ESTATE Los Angeles, Calif.—Timothy Lee Woods, former Boley, Okla., store ^ merchant and farmer, died at his home recently from blood poisoning caused by an infected foot. Mr. Woods was perhaps one of the wealthiest Negroes in Southern Cali fornia. He had recently been of fered $100,000 cash for the hand some brick building at Ninth and Central, which he had paid $60,000 cash for five years before when he moved to Los Angeles from Boley. Besides oil holdings and a farm in Oklahoma, Mr. Wood owned a cotton ranch worth $40,000 in Calipatria, California, and numerous real estate holdings in Los Angeles, leaving his widow, Mrs. Hattie Woods, and young children, Helen Louise and Roberta Lee, an estate valued at more than $500,000. Mr. Woods was a member of the Eleventh Church of Christ, Scientist. He was born in Raleigh, N. C., 49 years ago, served with the U. S. Army in the Spanish American war and is also survived by a father and brother. LEM JOHNSON. COLORED LIGHTWEIGHT OF ENGLAND, | IS CONSISTENT WINNER Scores Third Successive Win in an Impressive Manner. Shows Remarkable Ability in Bouts —— London, England—For the third time in succession Lem Johnson, the colored middleweight of Manchester, outpointed George West of London in their recent encounter at Cardiff over a fifteen-round bout. Each of the two previous contests was a twenty-round affair fought at Man chester. The superior skill of John son was always apparent in the re cent bout. The manner in which he frequently scored with a remarkable accurate left hook was one of the features. ST. BENEDICT’S CHURCH Am a request has been made to the pastor of St. Benedict's to explain the attitude of the Catholic church toward dancing, the Reverend Thom as Martin will do this next Sunday evening at 8 o’clock in the church auditorium at Twenty-fourth and (jrant streets. The speaker is giving an exposition in popular style to an increasing congregation of the doc trines of the Catholic church as seen from the inside. Whenever anyone wishes to know the truth about any organization, he must go to its au thorized exponents. The pastor of St. Benedict’s, the Reverend Francis Cassilly, has ar ranged to have an interesting picture sermon on the life of the “Little Flower,’’ St. Teresa of Jesus, on Mon day evening, April the 4th. This date will be the feast of St. Benedict ahe Moor, who is the patron of the church. Teresa was a fascinating girl who died about twenty-five years ago, and on account of the many “roses” dropped to earth since her death, has been added to the list of the canonized saints. Persons who are interested in knowing something about the saints of the church will have a good opportunity to learn on this occasion. There will be no ad mission charges. There will be a band concert at St. Benedict's church, Monday even ing, April 4th. DR. BRITT’S SISTER RANKS HICH IN TEST Mrs. Anna Pratt ranked second in final test of educational psychology at Teachers’ College last week. A white teacher of the training depart ment of the college ranked first. In addition to the completion of the above course, Mrs. Pratt has finished several original literary productions. | —From Kansas City Call. Mrs. Pratt is a sister of Dr* L. E. Britt. She has visited in Omaha sev eral times. Mrs. Pratt has taught fif teen yqars in the Kansas and Missouri schools. f Overstreet's Lake Syncopators at Dreamland Hall, every Saturday night. Admission, 35 cents. MOST VALUABLE COLLECTION OF RACE LITERATURE Schomburg Priceless Collection of Rare Volumes, Documents and Manuscripts Placed in New York Library New York, N. Y.—The Schomburg collection of Negro literature and hi tory has recently been acquired by the New York Public Library through a purchase made by the Carnegie corporation. This collection, one of the largest and most complete of its kind, is housed in the 135th Street Branch Library, which for two years has served as a reference li brary for students of the Negro. 4,500 Volumes in Collection There are 4,000 volumes in the I collection, many written by Negroes, and 1,000 pamphlets and manu ! scripts, besides 250 old prints and en graved portraits, some very rare. African folklore, art, dialects and j the history of African and West In l dian Negroes are extensively covered in these books. Many of the vol i umes found in hand-tooled leather and printed on vellum, are fine ex amples of the early bookmaker’s art., besides contributing source materi als. Works in Many Languages Colonial possessions in Africa, South America and the West Indies are dealt with in books of historical, anthropological and general interest. The languages of these early books include Latin, Spanish, French, Ger man, Dutch, Portuguese and Arabic. Noted Works Included The noted Negro scholar and poet, James E. J. Capitein, who was born in Africa and educated in Holland, is represented by an elegy written in Latin and by a small volume of ser mons in Dutch that were printed in Amsterdam in 1742. “A New His tory of Ethiopia,” or “Des Kingdom of Abessinia,” is ITftted 1682 and bears the subtitle, “Vulgarly, though Erroneously called the Empire of Prester John.” Samuel Purchas’s book, “Purchas: His Pilgrimage, or Relations of the World and the Religions Observed in All Ages and Races Discovered from the Creation unto the Present, in four parts is in the collection. The date of publication is 1613. Illustrated Works Added An illustrated edition of “Resi dence in Ashantee,” by Joseph Du puis, is enlivened with illustrations of creatures and scenes worthy the adventures of Marco Polo. This vol-1 ume is dated 1824. The other vol ume is the Koran in Arabic, while “A Book on Physical and Medical Cli mate and Meterology of the West Coast of Africa, and valuable hints to Europeans for the preservation of health in the tropics,” is a detailed picture of living conditions that the colonizer and traveler to that coast might expect. Tells of Toussaint L’Ouverture Toussaint L’Ouverture, liberator of Haiti, is represented in the col lection by his original proclamation and address in which he struck for freedom. “An English History of Jamaica,” published in London in 1774, and the “History of the Ma roons at Sierra Leone,” by R. C. Dal las (1803) contribute to the early history of the Negro. Included in manuscript form are some of Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poems, sermons by Alexander Crum mhell and speeches by Frederick Douglass, abolitionist and editor who was born in Maryland about 1817. A fare first edition is that of “The Poems of Phyllis Wheatley,” who was one of the first Negro poets in this country. She was bought when very young by the Wheatley family in Boston. Because of her marked ability, she was sent to England to be educated. While there she wrote her poems, which were brought out in England in 1773. Give Interesting Accounts Another early race poet represent ed is Jupiter Harmon, the slave-poet of Lloyd’s Neck, L. I. He was born about 1720. Worn copies of his poems, which consists of quatrains of dialogue are among the earliest American books in the collection. The prints were gathered from all EDITORIAL Tuesday the primaries will be held. Primaries are very important. Many voters do not appreciate this fact. “Pri mary” means first, chief. Candidates must first be nominat ed, before they can be elected. At the primaries the voters nominate the persons whom they want to stand for election to office. If, therefore, there are certain men whom we want to see nominated for City Commissioners, it is our duty to go to the primaries and vote for them. We ought to help to nomi nate them. Voting is not only a privilege, but a duty. As a matter of fact, it is more important, who shall be elected to administer the affairs of our city, county and state, than who shall be president of the United States. At the present elec tion it is confined to City Commissioners, the men who shall govern this city in which we live and for the maintenance of which we are taxed. It is of supreme importance to us, as a distinct group of citizens who are very likely to be discriminat | ed against, that fair-minded men shall be placed in charge, or continued in charge, of our city government. It is of prime j importance, for example, that we shall have a man in charge of the parks and their recreational privileges, who shall see to it, that our people, in common with all citizens, enjoy with out limitation or discrimination those privileges. It is of chief importance that the Mayor be a man who shall have the DIS POSITION and the BACKBONE to see to it that all citizens be given a square deal; that the head of the police department be humane and insistent upon fair treatment to all classes and impartial in the enforcement of law. And so with the heads j of all departments. You see, then, do you not? how vitally in terested we ought all to be in our city government, and you will appreciate our contention that it is of much more importance to us who shall be our city, county and state officials than our president. If this be true, and it is, then you ought to see the necessity of your going to the primaries and voting for the men whom you honestly believe will do the right thing. Your ONE VOTE—did you ever look at it this way?—may elect the right man and defeat his opponent. YOUR vote, then, is a vital thing. Vote at the primaries and vote at the regular municipal election. Tuesday fourteen men are to be nominated. Then, in May, from these fourteen, seven are to be elected to adminis ter the government of this city. More than forty candidates tor nomination have filed. Several slates are in the field. Among the candidates are undoubtedly some who belong to an organization unfriendly to our people. Some of these we know, others we do not. The present City Commissioners we know are not Kluxers. Whatever else may be said for or against them, this fact, so far as we are concerned, is in their favor. The Monitor is chiefly concerned now in urging upon our people the importance of getting out and voting at the pri maries. If the people will do that we can safely leave it to their intelligence to vote right. But we do urge that every one of our people, whoever else they may vote for, should be sure to vote for Charles J. Solomon, one of our own group. The jtime has come for our people to be VOTED FOR as well as voting for the other fellow. Go to the polling places, then, on Tuesday and nominate the candidates whom you want to run for City Commissioners. Be guided by men’s past records. Those who have proven themselves efficient, friendly and fair in the past, in their re lationship with our people, be it in business or political life, can be safely trusted to be fair in the future. Use your brains, your common sense, your good judgment, and your conscience, and VOTE AT THE PRIMARIES TUESDAY. parts of the world and represent the habits and customs of Negroes in ; Guinea, the Congo, Abyssinia, Ashan ti and the West Indies. Pamphlets and manuscript material about the work of Northern Negroes in their effort to abolish slavery j from the early days