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About The monitor. (Omaha, Neb.) 1915-1928 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 23, 1927)
L f 1'NG LI l TOO > o ■"••••••v n ... > rJ1 o \ ? \ The Monitor NEBRASKA’S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF COLORED AMERICANS THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor. GROWING — THANK YOU $2.00 a Year—5 CcnU a Copy_Omaha, Nebraska, Friday, December 23, 1927 Vol. XIII—Number 25 Whole Number 647 A Merry Christmas To All DIFFICULT TO FIND EMPLOYMENT FOR NEGRO WORKERS — Industrial Relations Department of National Urban League Reviews Labor Conditions in Its Recent Bulletin GOOD SPOTS HERE AND THERE New York City—“Not in recent years,” says the National Urban league through its most recent bul letin of the industrial relations de partment, of which T. Arnold Hill is director, “has there been exerted so much effort to find jobs for Negroes with so little success. In the import ant industrial communities of the north and west men and women ex perienced in this field have made fu tile attempts to secure work for the large number of unemployed Negroes whose conditions have been practical ly unchanged throughout most of 1927.” Among the important efforts made to meet this situation was the crea tion of a committee in New York of white and colored citizens which had its first meeting at the Park Avenue Community church, of which Dr. John Haynes Holmes is minister. This committee, formed by the New York Urban league, and comprising a num ber of important persons heretofore not actively interested in a program of this sort, began its work with an appeal to the United Cigar Stores, the United Electric Light and Power com pany, the New York Edison company, and the New York Telephone com pany, with the hope of securing em ployment for colored people in ca pacities in which these companies do not employ them. The committee set out earnestly to secure telephone op erators, readers of electric light and gas meters and clerks in stores. Two other ventures in this same direction were industrial campaigns, one in Milwaukee and one in Spring field, Illinois, when the attention of business men and women through the service clubs, the Manufacturers’ as sociation, and the Association of Commerce and the Business and Pro essional Women’s club was called to the need of additional lines of em ployment for Negroes. The person ell managers of p’ublic utilities and department stores were interviewed and general managers of industrial corporations were appealed to with the result that calls from five places not before employing Negroes were received at the headquarters of the Urban league of that city. Two large corporations have initiated new poli cies favorable to the employment of colored people. One of these, the Ford Motor company, has employed a salesman in one of its New York agencies; the other a reputable oil company operating in the west, has reached definite decision to give jobs to colored men when the spring weather increases the volume of gas and oil business done by this com pany, in ten cities in which large numbers of Negroes live. Here and there occasional happen ings throw light on the ebb and flow of employment affecting members of the Negro race. Two steel plants in Milwaukee have closed temporarily, thereby forcing into unemployment 125 colored men, and two other plants in this city, in which 20 per cent of the working population were Negroes, have suspended business un til January 1st. In the Pittsburgh district where mines are operated on a half-time basis, some 4,000 colored mineis have been affected. In several cities there have been replacements of col ored by white help. Chicago reports the loss of 100 positions formerly held by colored girls in a pencil com pany who have been 'replaced by foreign help. The other side of this picture is re flected in St. Louis, where many col ored building tradesmen have found employment in the tornado asone. In Chicago, the opening of the Savoy ball room was the occasion for the employment of nearly 100 men and women. In Baltimore, a cleaning and dyeing concern recently hired TEN COLORED AND THREE WHITE STUDENTS FROM HOWARD KENNEDY SCHOOL Children Preient Interesting Program Including Class Play. Miss Belle Ryan, Assistant Superintend ent, Delivers Address. Ten colored and three white stu dents were graduated from the eighth grade of Howard Kennedy school, Wednesday, December 14. An inter esting program was rendered by the graduating class, assisted by four pu pils from the eighth A class and one from the first grade, the latter be ing necessary to fill out the cast for the class play, “Graduation of Any Child.” The program consisted of the fol lowing numbers: Piano solo, Edrose Willis; song, “The Boat,” eighth grade; school poem, Grace Godwin; class prophecy, Harry Brown; song, “Elegy”, eighth grade girls; song, “Merry Life,” eighth grade boys; class play, “Graduation of Anychild,” in which Sylvia Adams took the chief role. The cast of characters was as follows: “Anychild,” Sylvia Adams; Amy, Marie Petersen; Clare, Alyce Gardiner; Conscience, Eula McIntosh; Alma Mater, Grace Godwin; Cheer fulness, Joe Brown; Harmony, Roset ta Larkin; Love, Edrose Willis; Work, Marvin Howard; Indolence, Lewis Vann; Frivolity, Frances Peter sen; Selfishness, Vilma Valk; Pover ty, Harry Brown; Industry, Robert Washington; Knowledge, Wayne Car sey; Vocation, James Hunter; Inde pendence, Richard Alexander; Small Child, Otelia Gordon. Miss Belle Ryan, in her address to the class on “The Outstanding Char acteristics” stressed personal appear ance, judgment, ability to see both sides, honesty, good manners and politeness, and efficiency. Flowers were presented to the prin cipal and to Miss Ryan by pupils of the eighth grade. The graduates were Sylvia Adams, Richard Alexander, Joe Brown, Har ry Brown, Wayne Carsey, Alyce Gar diner, Grace Godwin, Marvin Howard, James Hunter, Rosetta Larkin, Marie Petersen, Vilma Valk, Lewis Vann, and Robert Washington. About 65 per cent of the enroll ment of Howard Kennedy school is colored. * MILLS MEMORIAL FUND GETS $5,000 New York City—The first $5,000 toward the Florence Mills Memorial fund was secured from two benefit performances which were given at the Alhambra and Lafayette theaters recently. The performances were participated in by many prominent stage folks and were declared real successes. The fund will be used to erect a home for Negro actors and actresses which will be named the Florence Mills Memorial Home, after the fa mous “Little Blackbird,” who died recently. The home is expected to cost $500,000 and the funds will be derived from the proceeds of mid night benefit performances to be giv en in Negro theaters throughout the country for the next three months. KENTUCKY’S RICH WOMAN DIES AT 84 Lexington, Ky—Mrs. Bettie Pat terson, who is known as Kentuck’s richest woman of the race, died in this city at the age of 84, leaving a son, Robert Patterson, her only child. Mrs. Patterson received a great deal of advertisement some years ago up on her inheritance of a large fortune, consisting of cash money, race horses, a large farm, and a beautiful man sion fully equipped. Relatives of her former employer tried to break his will, but the courts decided in her fa vor. Many visitors visited her at home. colored workers for the first time. A popular hotel in Jefferson City, Mo., has dismissed its colored help. From many parts of the south re ports indicate that there is practical ly no change from the quiet condi tions that existed at the beginning of the fall. * EDITORIAL Sunday afternoon a simple event of far reaching signifi cance took place in Omaha. It was more far reaching in proph ecy, perhaps, than in immediate fulfillment, for it foretells the kindly and co-operative relationship between all races and kindreds of the earth which must ultimately obtain when the spirit of Christ shall truly reign in the hearts of those who pror fess to love and serve Him. Who, as a matter of fact, really do want to manifest His spirit, but who through moral coward ice, generated and sustained by racial and religious prejudice, belie Him and thereby rest under the charge of hypocrisy. The Christian religion is the true panacea for all the ills of the world. It is the only panacea. There is nothing the mat ter with Christianity. Its motive power is love. Its product and fruitage brotherhood. Despite our imperfect application of its principles and our failures to practice what it teaches, we must not forget that the world and humanity have made great advancement since that never-to-be-forgotten birthday in Bethlehem of Judea, which the world still celebrates with festival and song.- Faint ly, but growing louder through the advancing years, the world is giving back the song which the angels sang on Judean hills two thousand years ago, “Glory to God in the Highest and on Earth Peace, Good Will to Men.” “Peace and "good will” are growing among men. A back ward glance through the ages shows this to be true. The ideal has not yet been reached. There is much yet to be attained; but we art. diking progress, it may be “with painful step and slow” and yet the important thing to remember is that mankind is moving toward the far-off divine intent for which the Saviour of mankind was born, “Who for us man and our salvation was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary and was made man.” To make all men realize that they are children of a common Father and shoudl live as such in their relations one with another. Inis we know is not yet realized. We know that men and women yet look askance upon God’s children of different color from their own. This is keenly felt in the United States of America, nominally a Christian land. There are few com munities, even among the most liberal ones, in which, for ex ample, there is any real contact or association between Chris tians whose skins are called “white,” and whose skins are call ed “black.” There are prejudices on both sides of the line which retard, in a larger measure than we realize or think, the progress of Christian principles. Suspicion, dislike, hatred and ill-will are foreign to the Christ spirit. Isolation fosters these. Association and co-working banish them. It is in the light of this truth that we have noted an obscure event as one of far reaching significance, because it manifests the true spirit of Christ, the spirit of Christmastide, which is that of peace and good will. The event to which we have alluded to is this: The Central branch of the Young Women’s Christian Association held its Christmas vesper service Sunday afternoon. They invited the North Side branch to unite with them in this service. Both groups took part on the program and in the social activities. There was no evidence of patronizing, but a genuine spirit of fellowship prevailed. The white girl reserves and the colored girl reserves, each group equally neat and trim in their simple uniforms, and equally sedate and well-mannered, graciously waited upon the guests, naturally and without embarrassment, Such helpful association and contact as prevailed upon this occasion, as indeed, has upon others, makes for “Glory to God in the Highest and on earth Peace, and Good Will to Men.” This is the Christmas Evangel. May there be more and more practical manifestation of it throughout every community not only in America, but the entire world. McGILL GIVES ANNUAL FREE CHRISTMAS DINNER For several years Eugene McGill has made it his practice to give a free Christmas dinner to all unemployed persons who apply at McGill and Davis restaurant, 2616 Q street. The same custom will be followed this year. Mr. McGill is one of the enterpris ing business men of our race who has built up a substantial restaurant | business on the South Side. ANNUAL SESSION OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO ACADEMY The thirty-first annual meeting of the American Negro Academy will be held in Washington, D. C., Wednes day, December 28, 1927. The Academy was organized on March 5th, 1897, having for its ob ject, the promotion of literature, sci ence, and art; the culture of a form of intellectual taste; the fostering of higher education; the publication of scholarly works, and the defense of the Negro against vicious assault. Mr. Charles S. Johnson, editor of “Opportunity,” a journal of Negro life, published monthly by the de partment of research and investiga tion, National Urban league, will read a paper, the subject of which is “The New Negro,” at the open meeting at 8 o’clock Wednesday, December 28, in the parlors of the Mu-So-Lit club, 1327 R street, N. W. The officers of the Academy are as follows: President, Arthur A. Schomburg, Brooklyn, N. Y.; vice presidents—J. R. Clifford, L. M. Her shaw, W. P. Dabney; recording secre tary, Thomas M. Den; treasurer, P. H. M. Murray; executive committee Leonard Z. Johnson, chairman, Kelly Miller, Henry P. Slaughter, Alain LeRoy Locke, and William Cook; cor responding secretary, Robert A. Pel ham, Washington, D. C. SHEFFIELD PILOTS AIRSHIP OVER CITY FOR PHOTOGRAPHER Los Angeles, Cal.— (ANP)—Maceo B. Sheffield, lieutenant of detectives, and one of the most daring and fa mous colored officers of the west, was tendered special honors by be ing selected by the city officials to pilot the airship bearing the city’s official photographer. The flying cop, as he is called, was not only the only officer-aviator on the force, but also the only Negro among the hundred or more under consideration for the hazax'dous and important service. A survey of city improvements and the great civic center now in process of building was made and it was nec essary to fly very low at times, cir cling the tower of the new Hall of Justice as well as high over the sea and mountains to get a panoramic view of the surrounding country. Miss Robbie Turner, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James S. Turner, 2514 Corby street, is home from Washing ton, D. C., where she is a senior at Howard university, to spend Christ mas with her parents. Miss Turner attended the National Students’ Council, which convened in Lincoln, Neb., as one of the delegates chosen to represent Howard university. CHRISTMAS VESPER SERVICES ARE HELD AT CENTRAL BRANCH North Side Branch Invited to Co operate. Furnishes Part of Pro gram and Takes Part in Social Hour Last Sunday afternoon at four o’clock the spacious auditorium of the Central Y. W. C. A. was comfort ably filled by the audience that at tended the Christmas vesper service. An invitation had been extended to the North Side Branch to unite with the Central branch for this service and the cordiality with which the in- , vitation was accepted was manifested by the large number of our people i who attended and also contributed to 1 the delightful program rendered. Several Christmas carols were heartily sung by the audience and a beautiful Christmas Litany, led by, Mrs. James Patton, with sung re sponses by the audience. Beautiful tableaux, featuring the coming of the Magi, the shepherds and the Na tivity, were impressively presented. The music for the tableaux was fur nished by the ladies’ quartet of Zion Baptist church. The Bel Canto chor al club rendered two spirituals, “Look Away” and “You Gotta Crown,” and \ Mr. Joseph Thomas, gave two num bers on the stro violin. Miss Ruth White, on furlough from | China, where she has been engaged in the work of the Y. W. C. A., gave an illuminating address on China. Miss White characterized the people of China as peace-loving, home-lov ing, and courteous. The disturbed conditions there are due to the de veloping of a new life, incident to all transitional periods, the develop ment of nationalism, which rebels against unjust conditions imposed on i her by western nations. Christian- ! ity is finding welcome there by learn- j ing to work with the people of China, rathfer than for them. Following Miss White’s address, the service was fittingly closed by i singing “In Christ There Is No East Nor West,” and prayer by Mrs. Har ford, one of the pioneer presidents of the Central branch. A social hour followed, during which refreshments were served by the Girl Reserves of the Central and North Side branches, tea being pour ed by Mrs. M. McFarland of the Cen tral branch, seated at one end of the table, and by Mrs. Hiram Greenfield of the North Side branch, at the other end. _ i 10 NEGROES IN DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR SERVICE There are ten Negroes in our dip lomatic and consular service, accord ing to official records. They are the Hon. William T. Francis, minister resident and consul general to Li beria, American legation, Monrovia, Liberia; Clifton R. Wharton, third secretary, American legation, Monro via, Liberia; William H. Hunt, Amer ican consul, Guadeloupe, French West Indies; James G. Carter, Amer ican consul, Calais, France; William J. Kirby, American consul, Oporto, Portugal; Carleton A. Wall, clerk, American legation, Monrovia, Li beria; Lorenz B. Graham, consular clerk, attached to the American le gation, Monrovia, Liberia; Napoleon Bonaparte Marshall, clerk, American legation, Port au Prince, Haiti; Miss Lillie Marie Hubbard, clerk, Amer ican consulate, Oporto, Portugal. THE VIRUS SPREADS _ I Phoenix, Ariz.—Arizona’s jim crow school law has been sustained by the state supreme court, in an appeal from the action .of the Douglas School Board in refusing a race boy admis sion to the city’s high school. The supreme court upheld the board’s power of race segregation, this not to be considered racial discrimina tion. Mrs. Owen Jones, formerly of Oma ha, who has been residing in St. Paul, Minn., for some time, arrived Sunday and is at the home~of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Middleton, 2122 North Twenty-sixth street. LEADERS UNITED IN APPEAL FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT Representatives of Religious tCivi! Rights, Fraternal and Welfare Organizations Stand for Constitution ALL AMENDMENTS ARE EQUAL New York City—Leaders of frater nal, religious, welfare and civil rights organizations of Negroes throughout the United States, meet ing in conference in Washington un jder the auspices of the Elks, have ! united in an appeal to the congress ■ of the United States, to leaders of American thought and to the Amer ican people, for enforcement of the ! entire Constitution. The appeal, drafted by William i Pickens, field secretary of the Na tional Association for the Advance ment of Colored People and vice chairman of the Washington confer ence, was signed by representatives of the following organizations as well as by many individuals: The Elks, by J. Finley Wilson; the National Equal Rights League and Races con gress, by W. H. Jernagin; the Na tional Association of Republican Col j ored Women, by Nannie H. Bur roughs; the National Association of /Colored Women’s Clubs, by Mrs. | Mary McLeod Bethune; the Shriners, by Ceasar R. Blake; the True Reform jers, and the A. M. E. Church, by John R. Hawkins. I The appeal deplores “the danger lous policies of those time-serving political leaders of any party or sec |tion, who are disposed to compromise t with the sentiment that certain of lour laws and constitutional provisions I cannot be enforced because of the fact that a minority, even a power ful minority, is opposed to such laws and provisions.” The appeal states that the thirteenth, fourteenth fif j teeth and eighteenth amendments are as vital to the Constitution and “should be as honestly enforced as | .he fifth or sixth.” The appeal con tinues: “In the last analysis, white I people and black people have a com j mon interest in the sacredness and I the security of the ballot and of all constitutional rights.” Besides its meetings, participated I in by Negro leaders from every part of the United States, the conference called upon republican national head quarters and met in banquet cement ing the program in which all Negro organizations of the country are now co-operating. COLLEGE WOMEN IN ANNUAL SESSION Washington, D. C.—More than two thousand women in all sections of the country are preparing to attend the annual session of the grand chap ter of Delta Sigma Theta sorority which will convene December 27 to 30, 1927, at Howard university, where the organization was founded in January, 1913. It will be the ninth annual convention of the grand chapter and as usual delegates and visitors from the 34 active chapters are expected to be present. Despite a full program of social activities announced by Beta Sigma, the hostess chapter, the convention promises unusual opportunity for real accomplishment with the inter est of officers and delegates centered upon individual chapter problems, re ports of chapter progress, and plans for chapter accomplishment. The daily business sessions, which will be held in Library hall, Howard university campus, will be presided over by Ethel L. Calemise, of Cincin nati, who is the president of the grand chapter. The other officers are as follows: First vice president, Anna G. Thompson, Washington, D. C.; sec ond vice president, Vivian O. Marsh, Berkeley, Calif.; secretary, Beatrice Morton. Cincinnati, Ohio; treasurer, Annie M. Dingle, New York City; journalist, Madree Penn White, St. Louis, Mo. Miss Grace Dorsey, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. S. H. Dorsey, arrived home this morning to spend the holi days.