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VoL 3, No. 60 Lincoln 3, Nebraska Official And Legal Newspaper _ Thursday, September 15, 1949
Mrs. Elizabeth Davis Pittman
Will Be First Negro Woman
To Episcopal Law Body
OMAHA. (ANP). Mrs. Elizabeth
Davis Pittman, active Episcopal
laywoman in the Diocese of Ne- ;
braska, has been elected to at
tend the General Convention of
Episcopalians to be held in San
Francisco, Calif., from Sept. 26
through Oct. 7. The last triennial
general convention held in 1946
at Philadelphia marked the first
time in the entire history of the
Episcopal church that a woman
had ever been seated in the House
of Deputies, which is law making
body of the Episcopal church and
is composed of laymen.
At the 1949 convention, three
women will be seated in the leg
islative body, and Mrs. Pittman
is the first Negro woman to be
so honored in the many centuries
of the existence of the Episcopal
church.
She is a practicing member of
the Omaha bar. Admitted last
year, Mrs. Pittman has formed a
partnership with her father, Atty.
Charles F. Davis.
Mrs. Pittman is the wife of
Dr. A. B. Pittman, one of Omaha’s
leading veterinarians. She is a
member of the Vestry and sec
retary of St. Philip’s Episcopal
church, and a partner in the law
firm of Davis and Pittman, which
was formed about a year ago
when she was admitted to the
bar after graduating from the
Creighton law school.
She is also a member of the
Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, the
Y.W.C.A., Cherokee Temple No.
223 and the Nebraska Kennel
club.
Librarians to Study
At U.S. State Dept.
Service Institute
MONROVIA. (ANP). Three
attaches of the Liberian State de
partment are going to the United
States for study. They will spend
from three and six months at the
Foreign Service institute con
ducted at Washington, D. C., by
the U. S. State Department.
Those selected are Dudley
Lawrence, Lloyd Whisonant and
David Thomas. *
Mass. Senate
Passes Fair
Education Bill
BOSTON, Mass. (ANP). By^i
voice vote, without debate, the
Massachusetts senate approved
last week a bill designed to pro
hibit discrimination in educa
tional institutions on account of
race, creed, color or national
origin.
The House of Representatives
had previously endorsed the bill.
However, the act as passed in
cludes an amendment which re
moved the enactment powers of
the original bill and placed the
administration of the act under
the State Department of Educa
tion. As originally proposed, the
act would have provided penal
ties for infringement and would
have been administered by the
state FEPC.
Men’s Day Al
I Chapel Features
I Spirituals
Men’s day at Quinn Chapel
gave the men of the congrega
tion a chance to demonstrate their
abilities last Sunday, Sept. 11.
The programming was under the
direction of Mr. Clayton P. Lewis
and Rev. J. B. Brooks. Special
messages were brought by Rev.
Elenge Edwards in the morning
and Rev. William Greene, of New
man Methodist church in the
afternoon.
The singing of the men’s choir
was quite remarkable. Raymond
Botts was music chairman for the
day. The men of the Mt. Zion
Baptist choir also helped with the
singing in the afternoon, which
included a number of classical
spirituals. Renditiorts of “Soon
One Morning” and “Get On
Board” were unique and effec
tive.
Sunday, September 18, has
been designated Women’s Day,
but the program had not been
announced last Sunday.
Robeson, Officials Differ
iOn N. Y. Concert Clashes
I --——— ----
Clement Paige
To Address British
Science Ass’n
SILER CITY, N. C. (ANP).
The nation’s youngest Negro
Ph. D., Dr. Clement Paige, 19,
will fly to Great Britain this
week to address the British As
sociation for the Advancement of
Science. He will be the first Ne
gro ever to speak to this learned
| group.
! A native of Siler City, Dr.
Paige is the youngest Negro in
| the nation’s history to attain a
| doctor’s degree. He gained his
education through hard work and
scholarships. He holds his degree
j as a physioligical psychologist.
One of eight children of a
farmer, he worked hard to save
enough money to attend high
school in New York. He then re
turned to North Carolina where
he studied for his bachelor’s de
gree at A & T college in Greens
boro.
At this time his money ran out,
but Mrs. Mary McLeod Bethune
heard about him and helped him
to attain scholarships which fi
nanced him through graduate
study at the City College of New
York and at McGill university in
Montreal, Canada.
His next study will be in Eu
rope as the recipient of the
$4,000 Elizabeth Crompton Me
morial award of the American
Institute of Psychonanalysts.
- When this study is completed
he will become head of the
biology department of Fort Val
ley State college in Georgia. At
present he is professor of biology
at Bethune-Cookman college, the
school founded by Mrs. Bethune.
Mrs. Koosevelt
Bids Farewell to
Howard U. Players
NEW YORK. (ANP). Mrs.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, widow of
the late president, was among
the persons wishing the Howard
university players good luck on
! their trip to Scandinavia where
they will present plays by Ibsen
this month.
The school theater group left
New York last week on the Nor
wegian-American liner, Stavan
gerfjord, under the sponsorship of
the Norwegian government and
Blevins Davis, a theatrical pro
ducer. The 12 men and nine
women students will act on stages
in Norway, Sweden, Denmark,
and perhaps Germany.
They are being accompanied by
three drama professors, Dr. Anne
Cook, Owen Dodson, and James
Butcher. Mrs. Roosevelt is a
member of the university’s board
of trustees.
Claude Holman
Chosen Master in
Chicago Chancery
CHICAGO. (ANP). Claude
W. B. Holman, local attorney, and
one time secretary of ex-Rep.
Arthur W. Mitchell, was ap
pointed master in chancery of the
Superior court in Chicago last
week by Judge Wilbert F. Crow
ley.
Holman, who is 45, served as
Mitchell’s secretary from 1935 to
1938. He is an associate of Rich
ard E. Westbrooks, local Chicago
lawyer.
j Singer Says ‘Storm Troops’
Stirred It; Prosecutor Hails the
;Work of Police; 145 Injured
BY CHARLES GRUTZNER.
NEW YORK.—The number of
certified casualties in the wave
of violence that swept upper
Westchester on Sunday mounted
yesterday to 145. Paul Robeson,
political storm center, blamed the
state and local police for the sit
uation that resulted in the ston
ing of buses and automobiles
filled with persons who had heard
him sing near Peekskill. District
Attorney George M. Fanelli, how
ever, said the 900 policemen had
done “a magnificent job” in pre
venting fatalities.
Governor Dewey let it be
known that he would have no
comment on the disturbance—the
second in eight days in the Peeks
kill area—until he received full
reports from Mr. Fanelli, Sheriff
Fred W. Ruscoe and John A.
Gaffney, Superintendent of the
State Police.
Praising the work of state and
local policemen and deputy
sheriffs, Mr. Fanelli said: “There
would have been mass killing if
they hadn’t kept control at the
danger center in the concert
area.”
A check of physicians in upper
Westchester and of hospitals in
that county and in New York
showed that 145 persons were
treated for injuries received in
connection with the concert. Mr.
Robeson’s followers set the figure
at more than 200, saying many of
the injured had received no med
ical treatment until they went to
their own physicians in this city.
Several of the more seriously
injured were in hospitals in
Peekskill, White Plains, N. Y., and
New Haven with fractures, con
cussions or glass splinters in eyes.
The charge against the state
and Westchester police was made
by Mr. Robeson at a meeting with
reporters here that was arranged
by the Emergency Committee to
Protest Peekskill Attacks. The
baritone said the massed police
had permitted hostile demonstra
tions to stone the concertgoers,
expecting that Mr. Robeson’s sup
porters would fight back.
“That’s all they were waiting
for,” he declared. “They would
have shot us down then. They
were ready to massacre us.”
Mr. Robeson said the men
among the concertgoers, who out
numbered the hostile demonstra
tors, had shown “tremendous self
discipline” in not fighting back.
He made clear his determination
to make political capital, through
out the nation, of the Peekskill
disorders.
Announcing that emergency
committees would be formed all
through the United States,” he
declared: “This has to do with
every American who has any pre
tense to thinking that he still
lives in a democracy.”
Charging that the disorders
near Peekskill and their concom
itants were “complete evidence
that the arms of the government
—police, judicial, even the Goyer
nor himself—are being used by
powerful minority forces to sup
press American democracy,” Mr.
Robeson intoned challengingly:
“These things will not m any
way terrify us in the struggle for
a free America. I am prepared to
To T5 Position
MISS KATHRYN THOMP
SON, 2137 “R” Street, will leave
Wednesday for Pittsburgh, Pa.,
where she has accepted Hie
position of Teenage Program
Director for the Centre Avenue
Branch Y.W.C.A. Miss Thomp
son, who received her masters
degree in group work at the
University of Pittsburgh this
year, will assume her duties on
September 16.
face the dangers. I was in Peeks
kill. I’ll be anywhere that I’m
called to be.”
Declaring that “Dewey must
answer for this,” Mr. Robeson,
with a reference to the Gover
nor’s order to Westchester offi
cials several days ago to furnish
all available police protection for
the concert said: “He sent the
storm troopers. He gave the illu
sion they’d be there to defend us,
but they were really there to beat
our brains out.”
The committee of Robeson sup
porters, which met at the Coun
cil on African Affairs, 23 West
Twenty-Sixth Street, demanded
the suspension from duty and
trial of District Attorney Fanelli,
Sheriff Ruscoe, Superintendent
Gaffney and other public officials.
It called also, for the indictment
of leaders of veterans’ groups
who organized the anti-Robeson
demonstration, and of “all those
in the mob who can be identified
through pictures or by those
present.”
The committee demanded also
a Federal investigation of viola
tions of civil rights. Similar de
mands were made of President
Truman and Governor Dewey
by several other organizations.
The Civil Rights Congress sent a
request to President Truman to
“intervene to restore law and
order in New York State.” It
called also for a special session
of the State Legislature to in
vestigate the happenings and
“take all steps to restore law and
order and to punish the guilty,
up to and including impeachment
of the Governor.”
The statement of the Civil
Rights Congress alleged that
“the guilt of public officials,
from the Governor down, is be
yond question in the face of the
lynch-terror let loose on a sim
ilarly peaceful assemble#* on
Aug. 27.”—N. Y. Times.