Vol. 4, No. 14 Lincoln 3, Nebraska
$372,000 Spent for Nebr.
Polio Care in 1949; More
Adults Among the Stricken
LINCOLN, Nebr.—Polio is no respecter of age.
In Nebraska in 1949 an 87 year old man was stricken
with the crippling disease and a two-week old baby died of it.
Statistics just released by the National Foundation for
Infantile Paralysis show, however, that an increasing num
ber of adults in Nebraska are being stricken with the disease.
In 1949, 176 persons over 20 years of age were attacked by
polio, 86 of them men and 90 women. Nineteen of these
cases—11 men and eight women, died.
“Polio among adults has gone
up from about 4 percent of the to
tal cases following World War I
to from 20 to 25 percent in 1940,”
according to Clinton Belknap, a
representative of the National
Foundation in Nebraska.
“This poses a very serious prob
lem since many of the victims are
either fathers or mothers
of families of small
children,” he said. “In 1949 Ne
braska’s county chapters, with
emergency assistance from Na
tional Headquarters, spent more
than $372,000 in emergency aid in
Nebraska alone. Chapter treas
uries, as well as the National Epi
demic Aid Fund, are exhausted.
The only way funds can be ob
tained to help Nebraska people
stricken with polio this year and
provide for continued polio re
search is through the donations we
make through the March of Dimes
Campaign now in progress. Need
for funds is double that of last
year.”
For all age brackets, 385 Ne
braska polio cases and 29 deaths :
from the disease were among
males, and 296 cases and 14 deaths
among women. The greatest con
centration of polio was in the five
to nine year age bracket which ac
counted for 171. The death rate
was highest, however, in the 20
to 24 year age bracket where eight
died.
“Many of us think that polio is
a disease which strikes only chil
dren,” Mr. Belknap said. “While j
it is true that about 75 percent of
Nebraska’s 1949 cases were chil
dren, we now know that the dis
ease strikes older persons as well
and in many instances even more
severely than children.”
Jewish Fraternity
Opens to Negroes
NEW YORK.—A national Jew
ish social fraternity has voted
to admit; Negroes as members.
At its 40th national convention,
Phi Sigma Delta delegates also
*^oted approval of the pledging by
the University of Wisconsin Chap
ter last spring of a Negro senior,
Weathers Sykes.
The fraternity, which has
nearly 6,000 members in 24 col
lege chapters, adopted over
whelmingly this resolution:
“No male undergraduate shall
be denied membership in Phi
Sigma Delta solely because of his
race, color or creed.
Only two chapters, from the
University of Texas and the Uni
versity of Miami, opposed the
resolution. Delegates turned down
£ proposal which opponents said
would nullify the resolution by
setting up an “unwritten gen
tleman’s agreement” that no other
Negroes would be asked to join.
Although voicing approval of
the Wisconsin chapter in pledging
Mr. Sykes, the delegates criticized
the chapter for not first contact
ing the national fraternity.
The Christian Science Monitor.
League Speaker
\
—Courtesy The Lincoln Journal.
DOWDAL H. DAVIS
Mr. Dowdal H. Davis, general
manager of the Kansas City Call,
discussed minority problems, with
particular reference to employ
ment and housing at the annual
dinner of the Lincoln Urban
League last night. He is also
president of the Negro Newspaper
Publishers’ association and has
held many posts of importance
about Kansas City. Mr. Davis is a
member of executive committee
of the Citizens’ Planning council
for Greater Kansas City, and in
1948 was one of the representa
tives assigned by Secretary of War
Royall for a tour of Germany,
Austria and France. He has also
written and produced several ra
dio shows for the major networks.
Henderson Case
Postponed Again
Till March 13
WASHINGTON. (ANP). The
case of Elmer Henderson against
the United States which was orig
inally scheduled for argument be
fore the Supreme court last year
and later stponed until Febru
ary, was postponed again this
week until the week of March 13.
Two other important cases deal
ing with segregation in graduate
schools, one involving Sweatt vs
State of Texas and the other Mc
Laurin vs. State of Oklahoma are
also scheduled for hearings dur
ing that same week.
These three cases plus the tide
lands oil case are considered the
four most important cases before
the high court during the 1949-50
term. For that reason they have
been postponed until Justice Wil
liam O. Douglas is able to be
back on the bench. The associa
tion justice injured himself in a
horseback accident last fall and
has been unable to be on his post
of duty during this court term.
He is now rapidly recuperating
and is expected to be back on
the bench by March 1. The court
has now gone into a two week
recess and expects to be back in
session by the first of the month.
Malone i ells Facts About
Lincoln's N on-W bite H ouse
Senator Lodge
Backs Civil
Rights Laws
BOSTON. (ANP). Speaking at
the Civil Rights Mobilization
meeting held at . the Union
Methodist church last week, Sen.
Henry C. Lodge, Jr., declared
! that “with the non-white people
constitution two-thirds of the
world’s population, our national
neglect of civil rights is the chink
in our armor, the delight of all
our enemies, and a cause of alarm
to our friends and allies.”
The Massachusetts senator
stated that Negro soldiers should
never have been regarded as a
problem in World War II. He
also stated that although the law
and administrative regulations
cannot solve the problem, they
can improve conditions and pro
mote the advancement of justice
in certain fields and to just that
extent they are worthwhile.
At one point in his spirited talk
Senator Lodge asserted: “We will
never admit it is unreasonable or
extreme to insist on legislation
which will, as nearly as possible,
protect the right of equal oppor
tunity to work and to advance in
life because of race, religion, color
or country of origin. Yet in the
southern communities where
about four out of five colored
Americans live the average fam
ily income of white people is es
timated at $1,100 as against $480
for the colored.”
I Popular Books
To Be Reissued
NEW YORK. (ANP). The Book
Find club announced last week
that it will reissue two of its
earlier selections due to the in
creasing demand from its mem
bers.
The two books, both of which
deal with the Negro in the United
States, are “Color Blind” by
Margaret Halsey and Rockham
Holt’s biography, “George Wash
ington Carver.”
Our Honor Roll
The following are some of
those who are New Subscribers
or have renewed their subscrip
tion to THE VOICE.
How does your subscription
stand?
Mr. Ben Parker.
Mr. George Saunders.
Mr. Wendell Thomas, Omaha.
University Y. W. C. A.
Mrs. J. O. Schon.
Mrs. Mary Stith, Detroit, Mich.
Mr. P. Hapline.
Mrs. John Reed.
Mrs. F. Posey.
Mrs. Virginia Johnson.
Mrs. Mabel Hawkins, Chicago.
Mrs. Floyd Seward, Columbus,
Ohio.
Mr. Leo B. McCabe.
Mr. Walter Young.
Mr. Walton G. Roberts.
Mr. Guy Wiley, Omaha.
Mr. M. A. Hyde.
Rev. L. S. Goolsby, Columbia,
Mo.
Mrs. Evelyn McGinnis, Kansas
City, Mo.
Dr. A. B. Marshall.
Mrs. Joy Lawson, Berkeley
Calif.
! Mr. A. H. Westendar.
. “Without going into great detail, it is interesting to note
that the 470 Negro families in Lincoln are housed in 311
dwellings. 148, or 48% were found to be substandard. Since
1940 there has been an increase of 700 Negro persons with
only 69 additional places to live,” said Clyde Malone January
17, as between 500 and 700 citizens heard arguments pro
and con on the proposed building of 700 low rent dwellings
in Lincoln. People from every walk of social endeavor aired
their views publicly to the council and told their story.
Two Negro M.D.s
To Staff of
Chi Hospital
CHICAGO. (ANP). Two Negro
physicians have been appointed
to the medical staff of Mandel
clinic of the Michael Reese hos
pital, it was announced here by
Dr. Maurice H. Keeger, hospital
director. The new appointees are
Drs. William E. Cunningham and
Harvey J. Whitfield, both mem
bers of the Provident hospital
staff.
Dr. Cunningham, 29 years old,
is a graduate of Howard Univer
sity Medical school, who served
his internship at Homer G. Phil
lips hospital, St. Louis. He joined
Provident in 1945. He will be
clinical assistant in the depart
ment of medicine at Mandel
clinic.
Taking the post as clinical as
sistant in the department of
urology is the 45-year-old Eh*.
Whitfield, a product of Meharry
Medical college, who has done
graduates work at the University
of Pennsylvania.
The two doctors are the first
Negroes to be appointed to the
hospital’s regular staff. However,
Dr. L. H. Berry is a member of
the courtesy staff and the famous
chemist, Dr. Percy Julian, is a
member of the Mandel clinic
board of directors.
Rev. Carey GOP
Choice for Rep.
Dawson~s Place
CHICAGO. (ANP). Rev. Archi
bald J. Carey, Jr., alderman of
the third ward, has been made
the GOP nominee for a seat in
the lower house as representative
of the First congressional district,
it was learned here last week.
Carey will be pitted against the
incumbent. Rep. William L. Daw
son, who is seeking his fourth
term.
Dawson, chairman of the pow
erful house expenditures com
mittee, is one of the leading fig
ures in the democratic party.
AME Laymen’s
Meeting Date Is
May 31 to June 2
The District meeting of the
A.M.E. Laymen’s league will be
held in Kansas City, Kas., May 31
to June 2, 1950, it was announced
by J. J. Parks, Conference presi
dent of the organization. The lay
movement has been gaining mo
mentum since 1948, and under the
leadership of the denomination’s
most able minds, has formulated
an augmented program of church
development.
The Rt. Rev. D. Ormonde
Walker, Fifth district bishop, has
set aside the fifth Sunday in April
as Lay Day and special programs
are being prepared for the oc
casion.
Mr. Malone, executive secretary
of the Lincoln Urban League, has
long been interested in the hous
ing situation and cited information
gained in the league’s yearly
spring clean-up in urging the
construction of the additional
housing units.
“The present housing problems
existing in Lincoln, and through
out the country is not of recent ori
gin with any of these minority
groups (Negro, Mexican and In
dians),” he stated. “Long before
the war they knew the depressing
and debasing effects of substand
ard housing with little hope of re
lief.*' He cited 1935 at the ap
proximate time that housing re
strictions became widely imposed
on local property. Since 1940 the
Negro population has doubled and
Mexican and Indian residents
number 175 more than in that
year.
Accommodation of these addi
tional people has been accom
plished “simply by crowding them
in with other families—houses,
77% of which are heated by space
heaters, with a total of 198 tubs
or showers for the 470 families.
Two dwellings are converted ga
rages, one a converted chicken
coop. Thei'e are three trailers.”
The league executive continued,
relating more extreme instances.
“A family of ten are living in a
dirt floor basement without toilet
facilities; three families totalling
14 persons are living in a five
room house with no modern fa
cilities; one building has 24 apart
ments of three rooms, each with
out central heat, no bath tubs or
showers and one toilet for each
four apartments, with an average
of 1.51 families per apartment. As
for the 100 Indians in Lincoln,
they all are house’d in substand
ard houses without modern fa
cilities. The same is true of most
of the Mexicans.
Mr. Malone pointed out that
such conditions were a health and
moral hazard to the entire city.
Because of job discriminations, the
average family (“average” in
come of about $1,900) cannot af
ford new housing at today’s prices
even if the restrictive clauses in
many of the property deeds were
not there.
In closing, Mr. Malone said that
low rent government housing was
definitely one of the best means
of assuring the minorities of Lin
coln an opportunity for a decent
standard of living.
Ark. Family 1st
%>
Negroes to Get
Housing Act Loan
PINE BLUFFS, Ark. (ANP).
Mr. and Mrs. Tom Stewart, own
ers of an 80-acre Hempstead
county farm, near Hope, will have
the distinction of being the first
Negro family in the country to re
ceive a farm housing loan under
the 1949 Housing act, here Friday,
Jan. 13. The loan will be used to
build a home which is estimated
at cost about $3,000.