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About The voice. (Lincoln, Nebraska) 1946-195? | View Entire Issue (Feb. 16, 1950)
Vol. 4, No. 17 Lincoln 3, Nebraska Freedom With Opportunity Seen As Unfinished Task of Democracy Says Historian (The week Feh. 12 to 19 has been designated as Negro History week. In Observance of this week. The Voice prints the following article written by Dr. Woodson, professor of history at Howard University, author, and the founder and director of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History.—Ed.) BY CARTER G. WOODSON The celebrants of Negro History Week, from Feb. 12 to 19, will emphasize freedom with opportunity as the un finished task of democracy. In the effort to translate into action the program of democracy set forth in the Declara tion of Independence and the Constitution of the United States this nation has had a hard road to travel. The main difficulty has been selfishness. What men have desired for themselves they have denied to others. As Thomas Jefferson once said, “What a stupendous! what an incomprehensible machine is man! who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment and death itself an indication of his own lib erty, and the next moment be deaf to all those motives whose power supported his through his trial, and inflict on his fellowman a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that he rose in rebellion to oppose.” All Americans, however, did not give up in despair because of a majority to the contrary, as did Thomas Jefferson. The abolition ists decided to do something to ad vance the cause of freedom. The climax was the outcome of the sectional conflict which resulted in nominal emancipation, leaving freedom with opportunity as an unfinshed task of democracy. A citizen without equality before the law was a citizen in name only. Of what value was it to be called free and be confined to the ghetto, subject to injustice in the courts, denied the opportunity to obtain an education, to acquire property, and to learn an honest living and at the same time be victims of lynching and massacre? Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens endeavored to secure the passage of laws necessary to grant Negroes all the rights of citizens and to protect them in the enjoy ment of such rights. For so doing these reformers were libelled and slandered by so-called statesmen and historians as the greatest vil lians in the history of the United States. Books written, in de nunciation of Thaddeus Stevens especially, would make up many trainloads if thus assembled. Yet these men were the greatest statesmen of their day. Sumner (Continued from Page 1) USDA May Purchase Chilly Cave From Kansas Family; Saved Government $700,000 ATCHISON, Kansas. (ANP). The U. S. Natural cooler, the huge refrigerated storage cave located here at Atchison and owned by Lloyd and George Ed Kerford, may be pur chased by the U. S. Department of Agriculture. The Kansas U. S. Department of Agriculture council has gone on record as recommending that the government buy the big cooler which it has been leasing since 1944. The cooler, a giant limestone rave, was created through the un derground mining operation of the George W. Kerford company. It now has stored in its carnerous depth 700 carloads—about 8,500 tons of dried eggs, about 588 carloads of prunes and raisins and various other products such as Alfalfa meal and experimental amounts of wool and cotton, the whole amounting to about 1,300 carloads. It is the largest na tural cooler in the world. The late George W. Kerford, pioneer colored resident of Atchi son, began his quarry business producing crushed rock, ballast, limestone, sand and gravel, shortly after his arrival here 30 years ago. The organization which is one of, if not, the largest single business owned and operated by Negroes in the United States, was run by the senior Kerford who later brought his two sons, George and Lloyd, into the business. The founder and then George, his eldest son, died but the business remained totally owned by the family. Lloyd and George Ed, * his nephew, are now the operating partners. , The first customer of the Ken ford quarry was the Burlington railroad, It is still one of their important customers. They sell the Rock Island and Santa Fe railroads, the U. S. Army engi neers, the navy, the states of Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri for their highway departments, the U. S. Department of Agricul ture and many big contractors. The Kerfords operate their busi ness merely as a big scale enter prise. There are no race or color angles in it. All of their cus tomers are big white concerns and they succeed in a highly competi tive field. Recognized as experts in their line, they employ both colored and white personnel. Most of their workers are highly skilled. Before they completely mechanized their plant with their large fleet of bulldozers, earth moving machines and high pow ered trucks, they frequently em ployed at peek periods from 400 to 500 men. During the war, viewing the cave with its smooth ceilings and level floor with a constant tem perature of 51 degrees, the Ker fords conceived the idea of using it to store surplus food commodi ties. The idea was sold to the U. S. Department of Agriculture which leased it for a period of 20 years. The government installed two million dollars worth of refriger ating machinery, tracks, and elec tric equipment. The operation has pi'oven so successful that- a federal spokesman declared re cently, the cave had saved the government more than $700,000 since it began operation. When the government leased the mine, the Kerfords merely moved to another section of their ( Continued on Page 4) Truman Asks For FEPC As Filibuster Backfires Governor Sets j Negro History Week For Neb. This week, Gov. Val Peterson issued a proclamation setting aside the week of Feb. 12-19 as Negro History Week for Ne braska. In the proclamation, the governor noted the contribution that citizens of the Negro race have made in the past and urged schools, churches and civic or ganizatians to observe the week. In Lincoln, Negro congregations will observe the week by hear ing special sermons and tradi tional spirituals. Several civic organizations will review the record of the race with some evaluation of its present status. Most of these will take place at regular meetings, like that of the Mary Bethune Literary and Art club. Clara Moody In Missouri Sanitarium Clara Moody, 11-year-old daughter ol Rev. and Mrs. Robert L. Moody, 2123 S st., is a patient at Dr. Nichol’s sanitarium at Sav annah, Mo., where she was taken by her parents Feb. 6. The trip resulted after local physicians diagnosed a superficial growth as a skin tumor. Rev. and Mrs. Moody have returned home, but Clara will remain for treatment. While waiting for a full cure, which will take about three weeks, she would like very much to hear from her many friends. Methodists Name Dr. Raymond L. Archer Bishop NEW YORK. (ANP). Word has just been received in Methodist headquarters here that Dr. Ray mond L. Archer, associated secre tary of the Board of Missions of the Methodist church, has been elected bishop of the new South eastern Asia conference. The conference held its meeting in Singapore. Dr. Archer is presi dent of the board of trustees of the Booker Washington insti tute in Kakata, Liberia. Our Honor Roll The following are some of those who are New Subscribers or have renewed their subscription to THE VOICE. How does your subscription stand? Mrs. Kathryn Conway, Chey enne, Wyo. Mr. Paul Fields, New Bruns wick, N. J. *. • Mr. Joe Foltz. Miss Esther Montgomery. Mr. Samuel Bell, Tacoma, Wash. Lincoln City Library. Thomas A. Edison wras dis missed from a job as a young man for sleeping while on duty. “---tf ; i j Herbert Hoover is the only man of Swiss descent to be president kof the United States. WASHINGTON, D. C. (NNPA). The President every Monday morning asks his Big Four Congressional leaders —Vice-President Alben W. Barkley, Senator Scott W. Lucas, of Illinois, the Majority leader; Speaker Sam Ray burn of Texas and House Majority leader John W. McCor mick, of Massachusetts—for congressional action on fair employment practice legislation. That is what Mr. Truman told his press conference last Thurs day morning in reply to the ques tion of whether he had plans for giving FEPC a “boost” in the House, such as speaking to Ray burn. At the Big Four meetings every Monday morning, the president said, Rayburn hears that. He told the reporter that he should at tend those meetings. When the reporter asked the president how would he get in, Mr. Truman replied by special dispensation. The subject came up later in the conference when a reporter asked Mr. Truman whether he meant by his answer to the first question whether he had asked his congressional leaders to pass FEPC. Why certainly, the Presi dent replied. Mr. Truman was asked point blank whether he had asked Speaker Rayburn to recognize Representative John Lesinski, of Michigan, chairman of the House Education and Labor committee, for the purpose of bringing up the FEPC bill under the 21-day discharge rule. The President replied that he had not asked Rayburn to recog nize anybody, but had asked his congressional leaders to consider passage of FEPC in both houses. He added that the Speaker was absolutely in charge of recogniz ing members in the House under the 21-day discharge rule and that nobody can tell him whom to recognize. After leaving the White House on Jan. 23, the last 21-day dis charge rule day, Mr. Rayburn told reporters that the subject of. FEPC had not even come up dur- ■ ing the conference of democratic congressional leaders with Mr. Truman. It was later on that day that Mr. Lesinski sought recognition to call up the FEPC bill under the rule giving committee chairmen the right to call up bills on the floor of the house if the Rules Committee had not acted within 21 days after the legislative com mittee had approved a measure. Instead of recognizing Mr. Le sinski, the Speaker recognized Representative J. Hardin Peter son, of Florida, chairman of the Public Lands Comittee twice— once to call up the Alaska state hood bill and later to call up the Hawaii statehood bill—and then recognized Mr. McCorback to move adjournment of the House. Dixiecraft Filibuster Meanwhile, in the House last Wednesday, a southern filibuster against House “Calendar Wednes day” legislation actually worked in reverse to ward off a serious blow to the FEPC bill. The Dixieerats were unaware that Mr. Lesinski was absent from the House under a court summons to testify at the trial of Harold Christoffel, who is charged with perjury for swearing before the House Labor committee, March 1, 1947, that he was not a com munist. j Mr. Lesinski is the only! fnem ber of the House ^Education and Labor cominittee> empowered to t call up the resolution to bypass Aide Trainee BEVERLEY HOLCOMB Beverley Holcomb, pretty Whit tier junior high student, is filling in her electives with training as a nurse’s aide at Bryan Memorial hospital. Bright and personable, Beverley goes about her training duties with interest, enthusiasm and with unaffected modesty. Asked why she selected nursing for a career “Bev” says that she has always thought that she would like to work with people. After failing to find suitable em ployment last summer and since she really wanted to do some thing, Beverley was admitted to training in September after get ting special permission from school and hospital authorities. She will graduate from Whittier in June. Beverley, who is 14, lives with her family at 2300 "R” street. Newman, Havelock Pastors Exchange Services Feb. 12 Two Lincoln Methodist churches observed Race Relations Sunday, Feb. 12 by exchanging services. Rev. William Greene, pastor of Newman Methodist church, to gether with his congregation and choir were guests of the Have lock Methodist church for 11 a. m. worship. In the afternoon, the Havelock pastor, Rev. Clar ence Smith and his choir and congregation provided the serv ices at Newman church. Assisting the Newman choir Sunday morn ing was the quartet from Omaha. the llules Committee and bring FEPC to the floor for debate. By discontinuing their filibuster and speeding the calendar Wed nesday call of committees, the Dixiecrats could have possibly sidetracked the FEPC bill for the remainder of this season. Only three committees, all of them by southern or border state chairmen, had priority over the House Education and Labor com mittee when the House convened at noon last Wednesday for its ! weekly call of committees having legislation to present. Once a [ committee is called and “passed'’ j it has to take iffe place at the bottom of the alphabetical list of committees and wait months for | another opportunity.