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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 Ye -5 Cents a Copy
... "■'iimn % i ..
Omaha, Nebraska, July 6, 1928
Vol. XIV—No. 1
Whole Number 674
'Demented Porter Shoots Two Women
L ___. _
LOS ANGELES DONS
GALA TOGS TO WEL
COME CONFERENCE
Streets Are Decorated With Flags
and Banners; Prominent Citizens
Meet Special Trains Bearing
Delegates
WELCOME ADDRESS BY MAYOR
Los Angeles, Cal. — Two special
trains bearing the national office
staff of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People
and delegates and friends from the ,
eastern, southern and western states j
to the N. A. A. C. P. conference were |
met by prominent white and colored I
citizens of Los Angeles and with a i
special escort of Los Angeles police
were escorted through the streets of j
the city which were decorated with
flags and banners to the Hotel Som
erville.
The Hotel Somerville, of Spanish 1
Mission style, and the most elaborate !
hotel owned and operated exclusively
by Negroes in America, was formally
opened to the public on the opening
day of the conference, and will house
the national office staff, delegates,
and friends to the conference, during
their stay in Los Angeles.
Mayor George E. Cryer of Los |
Angeles, delivered the address of wel
come at the opening mass meeting of
the conference on the night of June
27th in the Philharmonic auditorium,
which is located in the heart of the
city’s downtown district. It is fa
mous for its symphonies and concerts
and outstanding artists have perform
ed there, including Roland Hayes, and
many others. A crowd of more than
3,000 jammed the building to the
doors and more than 1,000 were I
turned away.
Moorfield Storey of Boston, na
tional president of the association,
sent a letter to the conference, hail
ing the brilliant achievements of the
association during the past year,
which was read at the opening meet
ing by James Weldon Johnson, ex
ecutive secretary.
Dr. H. C. Hudson, president of the
i/os Angeles branch, in his address,
recited some of the many achieve-'
ments of the association during the j
19 years of its existence.
Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois, editor of j
The CrisiB, delivered an address on j
“The Presidential Election, Black j
Votes and Democracy in the United J
States,” and was given a big ovation
which lasted for many minutes at the
close of his speech.
Dr. Miriam Van Waters, referee of
the juvenile court of Los Angeles,
who also addressed ‘ th. conference
on the opening night, said: “Galifor
nia had been favorable for the prog
ress of the Negro,” and traced the
history of the Negro race in Los
Angeles since the early Spanish ex
plorers and Negro pioneers, and de
clared that Negroes owned and oper
ated the first steamship in the San
Francisco bay.
SAVES THREE GIRLS
FROM DROWNING
Pass Christian, Miss.—The name
of Joe Pallotie will be sent to the Car
negie Hero Commission with the
recommendation that he be awarded
a hero medal as a result of his brav
ery in saving the lives of three small
white girls here Monday. A fourth
child was drowned before the heroic
Race man could reach her.
The children were playing in the
gulf when Margaret Pouydeau, 12
year-old daughter of a wealthy plant
er, suddenly stepped off into deep
water. The other children went to
her rescue, but they, too, sank. Pal
lode, who was working near the scene
of the accident, heard their screams
and rushed to their aid.
lie dived into the water and res
cued three of the children, but the
Pouydeau child had sunk before he
could reach her. The body was re
covered several hours later by use of
a trawl net.
It is conceded that all four of the
children would have been drowned
had it not been for Pallode’s bravery.
SOUTHERN MISS WINS M. S.
DEGREE AT W. R. U.
Cleveland, Ohio—Eliza Redd has
the distinction of being the first girl
of her race to receive the degree of
master of science from Western Re
serve University, Cleveland, Ohio.
Miss Redd attended the graduate
school of Western Reserve for two
years, at the same time working as
part time case worker at the Butler
branch of the Associated Charities.
The last year she spent as full time
worker and in preparing her thesis,
which, she has just been informed,
has been accepted. The subject of
her thesis is “A Comparative Study
of Sixty Retarded and Non-Retarded
Migrant Negro Children.”
Miss Redd was born in Savannah,
Cla., and is a graduate of Fisk Uni
versity. She will continue her work
as case worker at the Associatedj
Charities in Cleveland.
PORO COLLEGE HETD
HERE FOR LECTURE
NEXT FRIDAY NIGHT;
The Founder and President of An (
Outstanding Racial Commercial
and Cultural Enterprise To
Visit City
Mrs. Anna M. Malone, founder and
president of Poro College of Beauty
Culture, St. Louis, Mo., will visit
Omaha next week and give an illus
trated lecture on the wonderful in
stitution she has developed. Mrs.
Malone is not only noted for the great
million dollar commercial enterprise
with its cultural features and indus
trial opportunities which it affords,
but for her generous benefactions to
so many worthy educational and
charitable organizations of the race.
Her delight is in doing well. With all
of her success she has maintained a
democratic spirit and most gracious,
charming and winsome personality.
Her lecture will be instructive, illum
inating and inspiring and the pro
ceeds are to be divided between three
of the local churches. It is to be
given at Pilgrim Baptist Church.
LYNCHING RECORD FOR
FIRST SIX MONTHS OF 1928
Tuskegee Institute, Ala., July 1.—
Editor of The Monitor: I send you
the following information concerning
lynchings for the first six months of
this year. I find according to the
records compiled at Tuskegee Insti
tute in the department of records and
research, that in the first six rrionths
of 1928 there were five lynchings.
This number is four less than the
number (9) for the first six months
of each of the years 1925 and 1926;
It is the same as the number (5) for
the first six months of 1924; 10 less
than the number (15) for the first
six months of 1928; 25 less than the
number (30) for the first six months
of 1922; and 31 less than the number
(36) for the first six months of 1921.
All of the persons lynched were Ne
groes. The offenses carged were
murder, three; being brothers of a
man who had killed an officer of the
law, two.
The states in which lynchings oc
curred and the number in each state
are as follows:'Louisiana, two; Mis
souri, one; Texas, two.
K. R. MOTON, Principal.
The J. M. F. Bridge club held a
moonlight picnic at Big Lake, Council
Bluffs, la., Wednesday, July 4. A
very enjoyable time was spent by all.
EDITORIAL
The Omaha Branch of the National Urban League, an or
ganization formed in New York City, in 1910, to improve in
dustrial conditions for Negroes in that teeming metropolis and
gradually extended to more than forty large cities, where it
has done effective work, is now ready for active functioning.
The executive secretary in the person of Mr. James T. Kerns,
who has been in charge of the Milwaukee Urban League, has
arrived and gone to work. Of course it will take time to get
matters well in hand and in this we feel sure he will have the
sincere co-operation of all broad-minded and right-thinking
citizens and especially those of our own group.
While the work of the Urban League concerns itself pri
marily with the improvement of industrial and cognate con
ditions among Negroes, short sighted indeed must he be who
thinks that either its influence or its benefits lodge within and
affect only this group of the population. Whatever improves
the condition of any segment of any city’s population improves
in a corresponding scale the status of the w'hole population.
Our social fabric is so closely interwoven, whether we are will
ing to admit it or not, that what affects one strand helps to mar
or beautify the whole pattern. Therefore if you better the con
ditions of the Negro group, or of any other strongly differentiat
ed group, iike those of foreign extraction, in the urban popula
tions the whole city is bettered thereby. This is the reason that
all classes of citizens should be interested in whatever makes
for improvement of social conditions for any group of the
under-privileged.
But what is everybody’s business is nobody’s business and
so special agencies are of necessity called into being for focus
ing attention on specific needs. The Urban League was born
of this necessity. It has justified its genesis by its growth and
the comparative success it has achieved wherever adequately
tried. It has been believed by many of the socially minded
that Omaha needed this organization. A branch was organized
here in March with an official personnel of both races, but
there was delay in securing an executive secretary and so prac
tically very little work could be done until such an official
could be on the grounds. He is now here and we express the
hope that all will heartily co-operate with him in making the
Omaha Branch of the Urban League as efficient an agency in
our city as it has proven itself to be in other communities.
COMMENDATION OF PRESS AND POLICE
The Monitor desires to comme'd the daily press of Omaha,
the World-Herald and Bee-News, for the manner in which they
reported the deplorable act of an insane Negro who shot two
women and endangered the lives of other persons in the Wool
worth store Thursday morning. We desire also to commend
the police department for the good judgment and ability with
which they handled the situation, quite tense until the truth
was known. Any sensational playing up of a case of this kind,
where the two races are involved, naturally and easily leads
to disastrous results. Regrettable though it be, the fact re
mains that race prejudice is so strong, even in a community like
this where race relations are normally sane, that the report of
an act of violence by a black person against a white person and
especially where women are involved, that the murderous mob
spirit is easily aroused. Omaha is still paying a heavy penalty
for its insane madness of nearly ten years ago. All right-think
ing citizens must therefore rejoice that there was no distorting
of the truth or sensational playing up of wild and unfounded
rumors in this case which would undoubtedly have led to
serious and regrettable results. The power of the press for
the maintenance of law and order has been clearly demon
strated in reporting this deplorable incident.
“Economics Create Race Problem,”
Says William Pickens In Address
Los Angeles, Cal.—The notion of
“superior” and “inferior” races is
closely linked with the economic dom
ination of the “superior” group, de
clared William Pickens, field secre
tary of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People,
speaking Friday night at a mass meet
ing here at the association’s 19th an
nual conference.
“Those with the economic advan
tage are always the ‘better’ people,
the upper caste,” declared Mr. Pick
ens, “the masters, the rulers, the ‘su
preior race.’ The economically ill
situated are the lower caste, the serv
ants. the subjects, the ‘inferior race’.
“The sentiment that grows around
a class is subsequent and secondary;
the economic fact is precedent and
primary. Primarily, a slave is a fel
low to do the work; next it becomes
very disgraceful to be a slave because
of his economic disabilities: he gets
the lowest possible wages, his mere
‘keep’; he cannot strike and he can
not change his boss. He is lowest in
the social scale because he is lowest
in the economic scale, and for no
other reason. Serfs, ‘common peo
ple,’ working classes, are determined
by their relation to the economic
goods of society. Aristocrats, blue
bloods, ‘dicties,’ capitalists, kings,
have their status determined by their
relation to the same goods.
“Dirty slaves and ignorant personal
servants seem more acceptable to the
dominant race than clean and eco
nomically independent colored free
men. Atlanta and South Carolina try
to legislate Negro barbers out of
white barber shops, but allow Negro
chambermaids and bellboys in white
hotels. A clean and intelligent Ne
gro eating his own biscuit in the hotel
dining room is more of an annoyance
to the average white American than
is the soiled and sweating Negro back
in the hotel kitchen, who is actually
handling everybody’s biscuits. The
ruling caste in Mississippi makes
passionate speeches and drastic laws
against any legitimate and honorable
mixing of the blood of the two races,
but produces a hundred thousand
mulattoes by illegitimate contacts.
Negro maids may arrange a white
woman’s hair, brush her teeth and
suckle her babies, but may not sit on
the far end of a long pew in her
church.
“These seeming inconsistencies no
longer puzzle us when we apply the
law to them: for Negro slaves, Negro
cooks, and other Negro servants rep
resent economic subjugation; while
the Negro freeman, the Negro hotel
guest and even the Negro sister-in
the-Lord, if in the same pew, repre
sent economic equality. And why is
a Negro wife objectionable and a Ne
gro concubine acceptable? There is
certainly no physical difference be
tween a wife and a concubine, but
there is this important difference:
the concubine is but an economic
underling, while the wife must be an
economic partner.
“This same iaw of economic grav
itation adequately explains that
otherwise mystifying phenomenon
called ‘racial superiority.’ Now, ra
(Continued on Page Three)
JUNE FROLIC WAS
A PLEASING AFFAIR
The June Frolic given by the Serv
ice Committee of the North Side
Branch of the Y. W. C. A., under the
chairmanship of Mrs. S. B. H. Canty,
at Dreamland hall, Thursday, June
21st, was a very delightful affair,
which merited a larger patronage
than it received. A delightful pro
gram was given under the direction
of Miss Ruth Seay, whose young la
dies’ orchestra furnished numbers for
the program and the music for the
dancing which followed. The beau
tiful May Pole dance was presented
by a group of young girls who had
been carefully trained by Mrs. Lizzie
! Buford, whose talent in this line is
.well known. Vocal numbers were
[ contributed by Thomas Dooley, Mrs.
Addie Bell Moore, Gordon Hopkins
; and Forrester Scott. John Jackson
j gave a violin number with Miss Cath
! erine Williams at the piano.
: EXECUTIVE SECRETARY
[ OF OMAHA URBAN LEAGUE
PLEASED WITH OUTLOOK
| Trained Social Worker Comes From
Milwaukee, Where He Has Ren
dered Good Service for Race
and Community
J. Hawley Kerns, Executive Secre
tary of the Omaha Urban League,
who arrived in the city Saturday, is
highly pleased with the outlook for
constructive social work here.
A native of Wilmington, N. C., Mr.
Kerns took his degree from Livings
| ton College at the early age of 19,
and took Social Science and Econom
!
lshhhhbi
ics at Western Reserve University,
Cleveland. He has been employed in
social service work for ten years in
Cleveland and elsewhere and for the
last 4 V2 years as Executive Secre
tary of the Milwaukee Urban League
where he has done very effective
work, serving on many civic and edu
cational organizations. He comes to
Omaha with high testimonials of out
standing social service work and will
prove a valuable asset to our city.
Mr. Kerns is married and has two
children. His family will join him
here in August.
NEGRO GETS BIG JOB
The contract for the construction
of a ten million dollar apartment
house in Philadelphia, Pa., has been
given to a Negro contractor, Fred
erick Massiah. It is the largest beam
and girder building ever erected in
the city, and is to be twelve stories
high, with 220 apartments. Mr. Mas
siah, who is a native of the Barba
does, has made quite a reputation in
engineering and architecture in Phil
adelphia. He studied civil engineer
ing at the American School of Art.
VOICE FROM ACROSS WATER
There can be no doubt that the
American Negro is conquering Eng
land as he has conquered America.
How proud the American Negro must
feel nowadays when he visits our an
cient cities and finds our intelligent
sia singing, or more usually listening
to his spirituals on the gramophone,
and the rest of the country dancing
his inspired steps to tunes inspired by
him. As Bret Harte once asked, “Is
the Caucasian played out?” — The
Manchester Guardian.
GRAZED NEGRO RUNS
WILD WITH PISTOL
IN A DIME STORE
Several Persons’ Lives Endangered
When William Lewis Empties
Gun In Department
Store
HAD BEEN INSANE PATIENT
Two women were injured and sev
eral persons’ live3 endangered when
William Lewis, aged 23, porter in the
Woolworth Dime store for the past
two years, staged an orgy of pistol
shooting in the cafeteria Thursday
morning. Not only were the patrons
and employees in the dime store base
ment menaced by the madman’s bul
lets, but also those in the basement
of the Brandeis store.
Miss Nina Dobson, clerk, was shot
by one bullet through the breast, and
Mrs. Julia Connor received a bullet
wound in the leg. Miss Marie Ma
loney, employed in the store kitchen,
at whom the first shot was fired, fell
and fainted at the shot, but was un
harmed. A bullet passed through the
apron of Eva Walker, lunch counter
waitress, and another cut through the
clothes of Leland Bunten, assistant
manager of the store. Lewis pointed
his gun at Virgil Davis, store mana
ger, and pulled the trigger, but his
ammunition was exhausted.
William Lewis and his brother,
Henry, aged 21, had been employed
in the Woolworth store for the past
two years, and according to the
manager, had given good service.
For the past two or three weeks,
Bill, as he was called, had been “act
ing queer.’-’ He had not seemed to
be quite himself since the death of
his mother in April. Recently he had
brought a pistol to the store and the
manager had told him to take it
home.
Thursday morning, Marie Maloney
had spilled some gravy on the floor.
Lewis told her that she should be
more careful as he had to clean it
up. “Oh, I couldn’t help it, Bill,” the
girl replied. Lewis is alleged to have
muttered, “I’ll get ’em for talking
about me,” and going to his locker
he got his pistol and opened fire on
Miss Maloney and others with the re
sults named.
I
He was arrested by Detectives
Harry Buford, Paul Haze and T. J.
Ryan. The detectives entered by
different doors and Lewis seeing Bu
ford said, “Here I am” and offered
no resistance.
Lewis had been a patient in the
asylum for the insane for nearly a
year prior to his employment at the
Woolworth store, but had been re
leased as cured.
Had Been In Asylum
Theodore Mallory, 4518 Saratoga
street, Lewis’ brother-in-law, a postal
clerk, said Thursday afternoon that
recently he had asked Judge Charles
Foster, Lewis’ guardian, to take steps
to have Lewis returned to the state
hospital for the insane at Lincoln,
where he formerly was an inmate.
“He had been acting queerly since
his mother died last April,” Mallory
explained. “He imagined that every
one was making fun of him and plot
ting against him. Three weeks ago
while visiting at my house he flew in
a rage over nothing and threatened
my wife, who is his sister.
“I asked Judge Foster to have him
put away until he had recovered his
faculties.”
I The victims of the insane man’s
bullets are recovering at Lord Lister
hospital.
I
E. A. CARTER APPOINTED
OPPORTUNITY EDITOR
New York, N. Y. — The National
Urban League, through its executive
secretary, Engene Kinckle Jones, an
nounces the appointment of Elmer
Anderson Carter executive secretary
of the St. Paul and Minneapolis Ur
ban Leagues, as editor of “Opportun
ity” magazine, to succeed Charles S.
Johnson, whose resignation takes ef
fect September 15. Mr. Johnson goes
to take charfge of the Department of
Social Sciences of Fisk University, at
Nashville, Tenn.