Volume 2, Number 51
Lincoln < Named
• To Staf' ' / Nebraska U
Experii.. Station Here
First Negro Employed Full Time
In Long History of University
By CHARLES GOOLSBY
[ Mrs. Maude Stiles Coggs, 1952 “U” Street, become pos
sibly the first Negro ever employed full-time as a staff mem
ber of the University of Nebraska, when on August 16, she
was appointed research assistant in the animal nutrition
department of the University of Nebraska Experiment Sta
tion in Lincoln. Mrs. Coggs’ appointment marks a most
significant milestone in the advancement of the race in our
/ p- state and a most heartening demonstration of democracy by
the university.
A native of Little Rock, Ark.,
Mrs. Coggs received her B.Sc. de
gree in home economics at Tus
keegee Institute in 1945. Later
that year she entered the Grad
uate College at the U. of N. and
earned her M.Sc. degree in Foods
and Nutrition in 1947. Durihg
the past year the attractive co-ed
matron has plirsued additional
studies and worked as a graduate
assistant in the foods and nu
trition laboratories on the Ag
college campus. The experiment
station conducts a great deal of
4 research of benefit to Nebraska
and American agriculture. At
present Mrs. Coggs says she is
working on a bacterial essay for
identifying vitamin B-12 (animal
protein factor).
In addition to being an excel
lent scholar, Mrs. Coggs is a
gracious homemaker. Her hus
band, Granville Coggs, is also a
native Little Rockian. A veteran
flier, he is an honor student in
pre-med science at the univer
sity.
Popular with her associates,
Mrs. Coggs is a member of Phi
Upsilon Omicron, home econ
omics honorary; Alpha Kappa
- Mu, national honorary society
and Delta Epsilon chapter of the
Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. At
Mt. Zion church where she Is a
member, she is editor of the
church bulletin and sings in the
choir.
7 Roped Into
‘Slavery’ Deal
By Contractor
MUNCIE, Ind. (ANP). Seven
men, four of whom are ex-serv
icemen, filed suit here last week
against Sebastian B. Albergo,
white contractor for the Chesa
peake and Ohio railroad, charg
ing that he roped them into a
^ modern “slavery” deal in a rail
road labor gang, on a promise
to pay them $11 a day for road
bed construction work.
According to the men, they
signed up with the Lewis Burton
employment agency in Chicago
on Aug. 14 for the job. They said
they were promised $1.10 an
hour or $11 a day, with “free
shipping” to the place of work.
Albergo, *fhe contractor, herded
24 men into a truck, “like cattle
so that we could not sit down,”
and took them to Peru, Ind.,
where they put in a day’s work.
■% Part of the group was then
taken by tfain to Lpsantville,
midway between Muncie and
Richmond, where they worked in
conditions “resembling a Nazi
concentration camp.”
According to the men, they
MRS. MAUDE COGGS.
Lott Garey
Convention in
Columbus
COLUMBUS, O. (ANP)—More
than 1,200 delegates from 19
states, the District of Columbia
and three foreign nations at
tended the 51st annual session of
the Lott Garey Foreign Mission
Convention of Aiherica in Co
lumbus at the Shiloh Baptist
church last week.
The group approved a $100,000
building program in Liberia to
be started at once and an over
all $340,000 building program.
A grand total of $162,069.21
was contributed to the Conven
tion from all sources during the
past year. Of this, $89,598.12
came from public contributions.
The Woman’s auxiliary con
tributed $10,000. First Calvary
Baptist church of Norfolk, Va.,
led the churches in contributions
with $3,002. The organization
has no liabilities, and has assets
of $72,577.06.
never knew what time it was
when they started to work in the
morning nor when they quit in
the evening. Living quarters was
a railroad car without' bath
ing facilities. Toilets were hastily
and crudely constructed affairs
outside. All supplies were fur
nished by the contractor at
double the market price, and they
were forbidden to seek recrea
tion in nearby towns.
At a recent mass meeting, at
tended by representatives of the
NAACP, Whitely Community
council, Business and Profes
sional Men’s club and several
churches, Atty. Clarence L. Ben
aduman, associate of Golden, de
clared “This is a $lear violation
of the 13th and 14th amendments
of the constitution. It is a case
of involuntary servitude."
NAACP Will
Launch Fall
\iembershipBid
October l6t, the city chapter of
the NAACP will hold its Fall
dinner meeting and membership
drive. The local branch, which
has been encouraging citizens to
register for the coming elections,
will render the additional service
of a mass meeting at which the
views of all the active political
parties will be aired. This prom
ises to be a unique occasion and
a type seldom encountered by
voters, according to the Rev.
Robert Moody, Branch President.
Tickets are now on sale by mem
bers of the NAACP and all are
invited to attend the meeting.
Meantime, don’t forget, there are
only a few more days to register.
Postal Clerks
Want Trials In
Loyalty Cases
BY JAMES B. LaFOURCHE.
MIAMI. (ANP). Old Jim Crow
took the beating of his life here
last week at the 25th convention
of the National Federation of
Post Office Clerks, and suc
cumbed when he observed three
Negro delegates being accorded
every privilege extended to the
1,500 other members attending
the conclave.
And to cap the climax (poor
old Jim won’t know until the
ants bring him the news), that
the convention went on record
in their approval of anti-lynch
legislation and civil rights for all
Americans. —
The three Negroes who saw
Democracy 'at work at the Miami
convention were all from Wash
ington, D. C., and were members
of NFPOC, Local No. 148. They
are Ernest C. Frazier, delegate
and organizer; William J. Clay
tor, delegate and president, and
Royal R. Robinson, delegate from
financial secretary.
From the day of registration
until the adjournment of the
convention, the three Negro
members, according to their own
statements, had never experi
enced before such showing of
brotherly affiliation.
Mr. Claytor said, “I never ex
pected to find this kind of demo
cratic treatment in Miami.” It
was equally puzzling to Frazier
and Robinson that they should
come south to see democracy at
work, and in the city where they
hoped least to find it.
Resolutions pertaining to the
civil rights of all Americans were
introduced and approved by the
several committees and without
hesitation.
George Ernewein, N. Y. State
Federation, read a resolution, the
tenets of which follows:
1. Enactment of a federal anti
lynching law; 2, Enactment of a
federal anti-poll tax law; 3. En
actment of a fair employment
practice law; 4. Statutory prohi
bition of federal grants to any
National Urban League Meets
In Richmond; Cites Jobs, Goals
W orltlChurclies
Reject Racism
AMSTERDAM, Ho Hand.
(ANP). Led by a group of active
American delegates as well as
colored delegates from other na
tions, the World Council of
Churches meeting here for the
past two weeks passed a resolu
tion denouncing segregation and
racial discrimination.
This meeting, the first in
which churches of the Protestant
faith ever met in a single body,
met Saturday here Aug. 22
Sept. 4.
Race relations and the color
Issue were given major concern
by the council in two of its four
study sections. Negro church
leaders from the United States,
and others, fought what they felt
to be a subtle but determined
effort by certain European
churchmen (especially the Eng
lish and German) to ignore the
race problem.
Dr. E. P. Murchison, editor of
the Christian Index, official or
gan of the C. M. E. church, led
the fight for a race relations res
olution. He succeeded in get
ting the Council to amend its re
port on race relations to adopt
a stronger, more definite and di
rect pronouncement against seg
regation. The amended resolu
tion of the council read:
“The church knows that it
must call society away from the
racial prejudices and from the
practices of discrimination and
segregation as denials of justice
and human dignity. Therefore
we recommend that the churches
take steps to eliminate these
from the Christian community
because they contradict all that
the church believes about God’s
love for all His children.”
Besides the work of Dr. Mur
chison, the efforts of Dr. W. H.
Jernagin, Baptist; Dr. Julian
Smith, CME; Bishop W. J. Walls,
AME Zion; Bishop J. A. Hamlett,
CME; Bishop D. Ward Nichols,
AME; Dr. Benjamin E. Mays,
Baptist, and Dr. J. Bracy, Bap
tist, all helped bring on the pas
sage of a strong resolution.
Through speeches and com
mittee work, these American Ne
gro leaders, along with delegates
from India, China, Africa and
other colored groups of the world
helped the council to see that a
strong statement against dis
crimination was needed rather
than a toned down' one.
These hundreds of church
leaders from every part of the
world all expressed hopes that
the voice of the World Council
will be an effective one in elimi
nating race prejudices all over
the world. ,
public or private agency permit
ting discrimination on race, color
or creed; 5. Legislative bans on
discrimination and segregation in
the armed forces, transportation,
hotels, restaurants and theaters;
6. Full trial rights for federal
employes whose loyalty has been
challenged with a clear and pub
lic announcement of loyalty
standards.
The co nvention adjourned
naming Cleveland, Ohio as the
. site of the 1949 meeting.
Negro Community
Disorganized Says
League Director
By ALVIN E. WHITE
RICHMOND. (ANP). The old
| “Capital of the Confederacy” put
i on its best front last week to
entertain and educate the dele
gates of the National Urban
league annual conference, Sept.
6 to 10.
Meeting in the south for the
first time in many years, the
Urban league carried a direct
challenge to the area where its
work is most needed, stressing as
the conference theme “Race Re
lations, the Essential Spark of
Liberalism.”
Registrations at the conference
headquarters, Virginia Union uni
versity, showed a representative
group of liberal minded persons
of both races.
Lloyd K. Garrison, president of
the National Urban league, was
chairman for the opening mass
meeting held at historic Ebenezer
Baptist church.
Arnold Walker, president of the
executive secretaries’ council and
executive secretary of the Cleve
land Urban league, discussed the
organization with emphasis on
programming services and profes
sional leadership. He listed the
important jobs the national of
fice was doing: fact-finding, pro
gram development, establishment
and improvement of standards,
co-ordination and facilitating in
ter-local relationship, education
and public relations and the en
listment of adequate public sup
port and participation.
The Negro community, dis
cussed by Nelson Jackson, direc
tor, National Urban League South
ern Fiel£ division, was described
as a disorganized entity because
of many factors.
“Economic restrictions are pre
valent beginning with higher
rents,” he said, “greater food
costs, lower wage scales and dead
end jobs. Schools are similar to
cast-off clothing for use of the
Negro as he takes over at the
bottom rung of the socio-economic
ladder. Health services are in
adequate, distsfnt or out of finan
cial reach.
“Frustration and mental upset,
while not measureable, are pres
ent as a direct result of discrim
inatory practices leveled at resi
dents of Negro communities.”
Mr. Nelson said the treatment
of several of these problems is
the Urban league responsibility,
especially improving the living
and working conditions of Ne
groes which include the use of
community organization processes
to provide better jobs, better
housing, more adequate health
services, vocational opportunities
and welfare needs.
“We also seek to make com
munities better living places fof
all citizens by working dynam
ically for racial peace,” he con
cluded, we work therefore in dis
organized communities because if
they were organized and func
tioning, there would be no need
for the Urban league program.”
Mr. Clyde W. Malone, execu
tive secretary of the Lincoln Ur
ban League attended the meeting
to represent the local organiga
