Nebraska Newspapers

    s The Monitor =
NEBRASKA’S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF COLORED AMERICANS
S THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor.
ji. _ _ , „ . _ ,u. .1,....... .. „ II .1 .. —
$2.00 a Year $ ? ate a Copy OMAHA, NEBRASKA, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1927 ~ Vol. XIII—No. IS Whole Number 637
PORO COLLEGE THROWN OPEN TO
ALL ST. LOUIS TORNADO VICTIMS
St. Louis, Mo.— (A. N. P.)—Poro
college at St. Ferdinand and Pendle
ton avenues is temporarily a lodging
house and relief center where 6,000
meals are supplied daily by the Red
Cross to members of our race who
were victims of the storm.
Lodging 100 Sufferers
Mrs. Annie .Malone, founder and
owner of the college, is in the east on
business. As soon as she heard of
the tornado and the havoc it wrought
in St. Louis, she notified Charles S.
Stone and Edgar E. McDaniel, her
representatives, by long distance tel
ephone to throw open the college to
storm victims and devote all its re
sources to relief work. Mrs. Malone
insisted that Poro college should be
kept open until all refugees have
been provided for.
In addition to thise service, lodging
for more than 100 individuals has
been provided in the auditorium of
. the institution, together with a nur
sery for women with babies. The
overflow of lodgers from this place is
housed at Sumner High school, Cot
tage and Pendleton avenues, Central
Baptist church, Washington and
Ewing avenues, and Lane tabernacle,
C. M. E. church, Newstead and En
right avenues.
Equipped for Emergency
The Poro college building is ad
mirably adapted for an emergency of
this kind, as it is modern in every re
spect, with a medical department and
a staff, an operating room and a
kitchen and a dining room large
enough for hotel requirements.
At Poro, first aid is administered
to the slightly injured, and clothing,
food, and lodging are provided for
others.
Through the Red Cross and with
the aid of Cfiarles Stone and Edgar
McDaniel, supervisors of the college,
relief measures have been quickly or
ganized.
AitonUh Red Cron Workers
Red Cross workers express amaze
ment at the fortitude and spirit of
our people as they have found them
in distress. They cite a case of a
man and wfrfe with 13 children in a
badly damaged home on Enright ave
nue, who, although without provi
sions, could scarcely be induced to ac
cept food, this family urging that
others could be found in greater dis
tress more deserving of the aid.
Among others cared for at Poro
were Mrs. R. L. Tapp, 4024 Finney
avenue, who with her two children,
3 and 4 years old, was imprisoned for
three days in the basement by the col
lapse of their home. They escaped
injury, but were ill from shock and
hunger.
Mrs. Lucille Blackman, 4044 West
Belle Place, who found a refuge at
Poro, was on the third floor of her
I home when the storm came. The in
! terior of the house collapsed. The
I floor on which Mrs. Blackman stood
stopped at the street level, and she
stepped out through the front door
uninjured. Those on the lower floor
were killed.
THIRTY-SIX YEARS PRIEST
Tuesday, October 18, St. Luke’s
Day, will be the thirty-sixth anniver
sary of the ordination of the Rev.
John Albert Williams to the priest
hood. There will be a celebration of
the Holy Communion that day at 7
o’clock in the morning. Sunday, Oc
tober 16, however, the anniversary
will be marked by a special service at
11 o’clock at which all the members
of St. Philip’s and other friends of
the rector are invited to be present.
ST. LOUIS ROMAN CATHOLICS
CREATE HEALTH BUREAU
St. Louis, Mo. — Negro Roman
Catholics of this city are rejoicing
over the fact that the St. Louis Arch
diocesan Council of Catholic Women
has agreed to raise $12,500 a year
for the maintenance of a health bu
reau for the parochial schools of the
city. There are a large number of
Negro Roman Catholics in St. Louis
and the mortality rate among Negro
children has been relatively high. Ne
gro Roman Catholic children who are
eligible to health care by the pro
posed bureau, and who have hereto
fore been treated merely by volun
teer workers, will doubtless climb to
a splendid health status in the com
ing years under the painstaking at
tention of Roman Catholic physicians
and nurses.
New York, N. Y.—The Los Angeles
branch of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored Peo
ple held a dinner conference October
7 to arrange for the nineteenth an
nual Bpring conference of the associa
tion in that city next June.
IS RACE MAKING PROGRESS?
ENERGY PROPERLY DIRECTED?
Durham, N. C.— (A. N. P.)—Is the
Negro standing still or going for
ward? Is prejudice increasing or on
the wane? As the tide of migration
moves northward are conditions im
proving or is proscription advancing?
What is the actual economic status of
the race? How nearly are our organ
izations functioning in the various
fields, doing an effective job? Is the
church living up to its opportunity?
Are we getting somewhere or just
kidding ourselves?
These and kindred questions are
the subjects which are to be tossed on
the table for discussion at the Stock
Taking and Fact Finding conference
to be held at Durham, N. C., Decem
ber 7 to 9, when leaders representing
different phases of Negro activity,
various organizations and schools of
thought will gather around a round
table to look the issues squarely in
the face, attempt to take stock of the
situation and using the facts pre
sented by experts in different ave
nues of Negro life as a basis, try to
see just what the present day status
is and what we as a group need to do.
An executive committee on which
Dr. R. R. Moton, Dr. W. E. B. Du
Bois, Mrs. Mary McLeod Bethune, Dr.
James E. Shepard, C. C. Spaulding,
Rev. L. K. Williams, John R. Hawk
ins, W. G. Pearson, and J. M. Avery
are arranging the meeting which is
being planned in a fashion that is
hoped will make it definitely result
ful. Dr. James E. Shepard, president
of North Carolina college for Negroes
at Durham is secretary of the com
mittee and able to give the public
any information desired.
DR. E. W. LOMAX PASSES AWAY
Bluefield, Va—(A. N. P.)—- Dr.
E. W. Lomax, founder and head of
the Lomax hospital, died here Friday
after an illness of two or three
weeks. His passing was wholly un
expected and was a great shock to
the community which he has served
for a number of yeara.
Since coming to Bluefield, Dr. Lo
max has gained quite a reputation as
a surgeon and was active in civic af
fairs, always working for the ad
vancement of his race. He is sur
vived by his wife, Mrs. Olive Wright
Lomax and two children.
Band concert Monday night, Tech
High. Going? Sure!
EDITORIAL
The supreme need of the Negro in the United States is
UNITY and then intelligently directed and sane mass action.
“All our weakness lies in discord, all our strength is in our
union.”
No doubt you are familiar with the story of the old Indian
chief who was anxious to teach his sons, who were inclined to
be quarrelsome with one another, a much-needed and useful
lesson. Calling his sons around him, he bade each one of them
pick up a twig. He then told each one to break his twig. Of
course, each twig snapped under Blight pressure in the hands of
the brawny braves. He then bade each one pick up another
twig and hand it to him. Binding the several twigs in a bundle,
he passed the bundle to each one of his sons in turn and bade
him break it. The strongest was unable to do so.
“See, my children,” the wise old chief said, “one twig, alone,
has little strength and a child can break it; many twigs put
together in one bundle have great strength and a strong man
cannot break it. Be a bundle; be a heap big bundle, and your
foes will not overcome you.”
We, as a people, need to learn the lesson taught by this
Indian chief. We must become a bundle, a heap big bundle.
United we can withstand foes, for we have them, and aid our
friends, for we have them, too.
The policy under the slave regime, was to keep the field
hands suspicious of and spying upon the house servants, and
vice versa; to encourage the slaves upon one plantation to be
suspicious and unfriendly to those on other plantations. It was
the old Roman policy of dividing and conquering, but only
under a little different form. The psychology acquired under
this system is a difficult thing to eradicate. That accounts for
the inherited suspicions and jealousies which have long kept
our group from united action. It explains why it is still com
paratively easy, although fortunately becoming more difficult,
for this one and that one to array our people, in little groups,
one against the other, in almost every community. Why we
remain mere weak twigs and not strong heap big bundles.
We need to pool our money in a heap big bundle and de
velop commercial enterprises; to put our votes in one heap big
bundle and make them count; to put our opposition to the cur
tailment of our civil rights by discrimination and segregation
in one heap big bundle and make its influence felt.
There is no need of our living in a fool’s paradise, or blink
ing the fact, that as we rise in intelligence, wealth and self
respect, prejudice, instead of abating, rises proportionately and
efforts to humiliate and suppress our just and laudable ambi
tion for progress become more strongly organized, entrenched
and determined. Instead of this causing us the least dismay
it should only make us the more determined to be and “dare
to do everything that may become a man.” It indicates clearly
what we must do and that is organize and unite our racial
forces, since America seems detrmined to have it so, in every
community in which we exist in any considerable numbers, and
also rationally and make a mass attack upon evils within and
without which would stay our progress.
Individuals, be they however intelligent, learned, influen
tial or wealthy, can accomplish but little alone. Their efforts,
however, united with those of others, tied in a heap big bundle,
can bring mighty things to pass.
We believe that in this community there is a growing rec
ognition of the need of such unity as we have suggested and we
hope the day is not far distant when such will become a reality
and not a dream.
Freedom brought responsibilities. When white men owned
colored men, they cared for their every need because they rep
resented a cash investment and so much profit. When colored
men’s problems are settled, they will now be settled by colored
men themselves, if colored men are to own themselves.
WHY NATIONS DECLINE AND FALL
A few days ago a student of social phenomena and social
facts, delivering an address to a group of social workers in this
city, said- that history reveals that the one outstanding cause
of the decline and fall of nations is the increase of the inferior
man and the decrease of the superior man. He argued from
this premise that it is the duty of society through the Church
and welfare and social agencies to raise the status of the in
ferior man to approximate as nearly as possible that of the
superior man.
The speaker is absolutely right. For the preservation of all
that that is highest and best in civilization, for the preserva
tion of civilization itself, every effort should be made to raise
the inferior to the level of the superior, and thus increase the
number of the superior and decrease that of the inferior.
This being true any country or community which would per
petuate an inferior caste among any group of its inhabitants
or citizens by giving them inferior schools and placing them
under other disadvantages, civil and residential, is displaying
suicidal short-sightedness. It is inviting its own decline and fall
according to the infallible teaching of both history and
prophecy.
CHINESE PREMIER
HAS WOMAN AIDE
Peking—Premier Pan Fu has ap
pointed Miss Nadine Ilwang of the
Chinese Bureau of Economic Infor
mation as his “press secretary.”
Miss Hwang, daughter of a former
Chinese diplomatic representative in
Spam, who died last year, is an ac
complished linguist and holds the hon
orary r&.ik of colonel in the Shantung
army.
DESDUNES’ BAND TO
GIVE CONCERT
The famous Dan Desdunes’ band,
which is an organization of which
Omaha is justly proud, will give a
band concert Monday night in the
Technical High school auditorium.
In addition to the fine musical pro
gram which Desdunes’ band always
gives, there will be special features
by high-class and popular entertain
ers, among them being Miss Irene
Cochran, soprano soloist, and Mr.
Levi Broomfield, tenor. Others on
the program are Mr. Dan Morton and
Mr. Samson Brown.
The Elite Whist Club held its open
ing meeting at the residence of Mrs.
H. J. Pinkett, 2218 North Twenty
fifth street, Tuesday afternoon. The
highest score was made by Mrs. T. P.
Mahammitt.
MRS. ALMA WRIGHT
TRIED FOR MURDER
AND IS ACQUITTED
Woman Accuted of Shooting Her
Husband on Twenty-Seventh
Street After a Quarrel at
Home Goes Free
SEVERAL STATE WITNESSES
Many Testify to Seeing Defendant
Hunting With Gun for Husband.
Fourteen-Year-Old Boy Saw
Her Shoot
The jury in the Wright murder case
brought in a verdict of “Not Guilty"
Thursday night after a trial which
lasted several days.
Mrs. Alma Wright, charged with
first degree murder for the alleged
shooting of her husband, Ailns
Wright, May 24, went on trial Mon
day morning in district court, before
Judge Fitzgerald. The large court
room was well filled with interested
spectators, who manifested great in
terest in the trial.
In the face of what was considered
damaging evidence against the ac
cused, the coroner’s jury freed her,
May 2B. As there had been several
homicides among Negroes in which
the accused had been exonerated by
coroner’s juries, committees waited
upon the county attorney requesting
a thorough investigation of this case.
As a result Mrs. Wright was rearrest
ed, charged with first degree murder
and bound over to the district court
and has been confined in the county
jail.
In the trial which began Monday,
the defendant was represented by
Judge Ben Baker and Ralph Wilson.
John Yeager and Ross L. Shotwell of
the county attorney’s office appeared
for the state. Monday morning was
occupied in empanelling the jury and
with the opening statements by the
attorneys for the prosecution and de
fense. Monday afternoon witnesses
for the state of which there were sev
eral began giving their testimony.
The first witness was Jessie Wright,
daughter of the defendant, who testi
fied to the relation existing in the
family in the last few months and as
to the quarrel in the home preceding
the shooting which occurred on the
street. She testified that she did not
hear the shots and knew nothing of
the shooting.
Several witnesses testified to see
ing Mrs. Wright leave her home with
a gun, apparently going in quest of
her husband and two or three of these
also testified to hearing her say, “I’m
going to kill him.”
Mrs. Lightner, next door neighbor,
testified that she heard her crying
and making threats and leaving home
with a gun. The Rev. Charles Light
ner, also testified that he saw her
leave home with a gun, and he also
saw the defendant at the scene of the
shooting.
Mrs. Theodocia Rouhlac, who lived |
directly across the street from the
Wrights, at the home of her parents,
the Rev. and Mrs. Russel Taylor, tes
tified to seeing her coming out of her
home carrying a gun and asking some
children “which way he went,” going
first east on Charles street and re
turning, going west towards Twenty
seventh street.
T. B. Dyson, to whose home Wright
had gone after the alleged quarrel in
his own home, testified to her burst
ing in his screen door, with a gun in
her hand, and of his wresting the gun
from her as she and her husband were
tussling and of her returning later,
demanding the gun, saying it was her
brother’s and of his returning it to
her, when she went out the alley and
shortly thereafter three shots were
heard. His testimony was corrobor
ated by Mr. and Mrs. Alonzo Smith,
who were making their home at Dy
son’s. Smith testified that he and
Wright were sitting on the screen
porch and seeing Mrs. Wright ap
proaching with a gun in her hand,
Wright went into the house. Mrs.
Wright burst open the screen door
and started after her husband when
Dyson intercepted her and took the
gun. Mrs. Smith, who was formerly
Mrs. Kellogg, while corroborating the
testimony of Dyson and Smith, added
further that she asked Dyson why he
was so foolish as to return the gun
to Mrs. Wright, while she was in
such an angry mood. Neither Mr.
nor Mrs. Smith were acquainted with
the Wrights.
Mrs. Russel Taylor testified to see
ing Mrs. Wright with the gun as also
did the Rev. Russel Taylor, whom
she called a vile name, when she
heard him laughing as he was joking
the World-Herald carrier, evidently
thinking that he was laughing at her,
Mrs. Wright.
Stephen Taylor, the 14-year-old
son of Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, tes
tified that he was going west on
Charles street and just as he neared
Twenty-seventh street, he saw Mrs.
Wright point a gun in his direction
and shoot, and he scooted for home
and ran under the porch. He didn’t
see who she was shooting at. “It
looked like she was shooting at me.”
Dr. Scott, Mrs. F. L. Barnett and
Mrs. Scott, testified to hearing three
shots fired, and hastening to the
sccene of the shooting, saw a gun
passed between a woman and a man
and the man run up the alley. Scott
and Mrs. Scott further testified as
Wright fell Mrs. Wright struck him
with some square object.
The chief witness for the defense
was Douglas Munson, Mrs. Wright’s
brother, who testified that Wright
left home with a gun wrapped in a
towel, and that hearing the shots, he
ran up the alley and saw Wright
holding the gun in his hand with Mrs.
Wright under him, and Wright said,
“I shot myself, get a doctor,” and
when Wright dropped the gun, he,
Munson, picked it up and ran up the
alley with it to the Wright home,
where he attempted to call a doctor.
“I called one doctor,” he testified,
“but getting no answer, I returned to
the scene of the shooting.”
Olga Turner, Mrs. I. B. Johnson,
and Rev. A. Waggoner were called as
character witnesses for the defendant
and Dr. A. L. Hawkins testified as to
the nature of the wounds.
The opening argument to the jury
for the defense was made by Attor
ney Ralph Wilson and for the state
by Ross L. Shotwell, who in closing
said, “there ought to be a closed sea
son for going gunning for husbands.”
Judge Baker closed for the defense,
caustically castigating the witnesses
for the state as prevaricators and
painting the defense witnesses par
agons of truth. He closed dramatic
ally with the question, “Who fired the
shot?”
Attorney Yeager made a masterly
argument in closing for the state.
He agreed with Judge Baker that the
important question was, “Who fired
the shot?” He reviewed the testi
mony of the witnesses who saw Mrs.
Wright with the gun, of her going to
the Dyson home. According to all
these witnesses, reputable people,
“Mrs. Wright went gunning for her
husband.” He riddled Munson’s testi
mony. He showed how impossible it
was for Wright to hold the gun in hla
right hand as Munson testified he did,
and shoot himself through the left
thigh without being an expert con
tortionist.
Judge Fitzgerald instructed the
jury, stating that there was either
one of four verdicts that they might
render, guilty of murder in the first
degree, guilty of murder in the sec
I ond degree, guilty of manslaughter,
or not guilty.
C. C. SPAULDING
A GRAND DADDY
Durham, N. C.— (A. N. P.)—In
surance, banking, educational, frat
ernal, and social circles in this busy
community all paused last week to
extend congratulations to C. C.
Spaulding, widely known and revered
presdient of the North Carolina Mu
tual company, because of an event
which gladdened his heart and those
of all his friends. A bouncing baby
boy was born to his daughter, Mar
garet, and her husband, A. Moore
Shearin, jr., general manager of the
Southern Surety and Fidelity com
pany. Mr. Spaulding, who has re
gained his health, was jubilant over
the occasion and Durham predicts
that a new star has arisen to carry on
in the financial world.
Hear Desdunes’ band in concert at
I Tech High school Monday night.—Ad.