VOL. 5, NO. 35 Lincoln 3, Nebraska Official and Iitjal Newspaper Thursday, June 21, 1951
Four Freed, 2 Sentenced
To Life in Trenton Case
TRENTON, N. J. (ANP—Four
members of the Trenton Six
were freed, and two more
found guilty of charges of first
degree murder, last week, as
the most expensive and longest
case in New Jersey history came
to a close.
A jury of six men and six
women, all white, delivered the
verdict. Found guilty and sen
tenced to life imprisonment by
Judge Ralph J. Smalley of Su
perior court were Collis Eng'ish,
27, a navy veteran, and Ralph
Cooper, 26. j
Their attorneys said they
would appeal the case, and
hinted that it could eventually
reach the U.S. Supreme court.
Declared innocent were Mc
Kinley Forrest, 38, Jack Mc
Kenzie, 27, Horace Wilson, 40,
and James H. Thorpe, 27. The (
jury deliberated six minutes less i
than 20 hours before announcing j
what defense lawyers call a
“comprimise verdict”
This was the third trial of the
six Negroes, all accused of the I
murder, Jan. 27, 1948, of a white
second hand dealer, William
Horner, 73, with intent to rob,
and the beating of his common
law wife, Miss Elizabeth Mc
Guire, who lived with him.
In the original trial, all six
men were found guilty and sen
tenced to death in six weeks. The
Civil Rights congress, headed by
William D. Patterson, a group
labeled subversive by the justice
department protested what it
called “lynching northern style,”
and appealed, the case.
Its battery of lawyers eventu
ally took the case to the New
Jersey State Supreme court
which ordered a new trial. The
CRC named the defendants “The
Trenton Six.”
When time for the new trial
came up in February, 1950, the
CRC was pushed into the back
ground by other groups who de
cided to take an interest. The
second trial, however, was de
clared a mistrial when the prose
cuting attorney, Marie H. Volpe,
Mercer county prosecutor, was
forced to have an operation.
The third trial, which finally
ended Thursday morning, be
gan March 5, 1950.
Today, the Princeton Commit
tee is planning to raise $75,000 to
appeal the sentences of English
and Cooper. Their attorney,
George Pellettieri, said he will
appeal the case in 30 days. Dur
ing the trial he served as coun
sel for English, Thorpe, and
Cooper. Also serving these three
men was Arthur Garfield Hays,
general counsel of the ACLU.
Serving as attorney for Mc
i Kenzie and Wilson were NAACP
lawyers Raymond Pace Alex
! ander, J. Mercer Burrell and
Clifford H. Moore. Frank S.
Katzenbach, jr., a former judge,
was appointed by the court to
defend Forrest.
THIRD TRIAL BITTER AFFAIR
The third trial, itself, was a bit
ter one in which testimony pre
sented by the prosecution and the
defense clashed. Key evidence in
the case was provided by the al
leged confessions of five of the
six accused men and statements
by Miss McGuire, an eyewitness
to the murder.
In the first trial the confessions
were accepted as evidence, but
police records were not allowed
to be presented to the court. The
state high court sent it back be
cause of these and other irregu
larites.
The defense challenged the ad
See Trenton Case, Page 3, Col. 1.
Election To
Be Held July
10 by Council
A group of public spirited
citizens have met at regular in
tervals for the past few months
to discuss the problems and needs
of the city.' They organized
themselves into the Citizen’s
Council and are sponsoring the
charter amendment which will be
submitted to the voters at special
election on July 10th.
The purpose of the amendment
is to change the city charter so
that additional money (up to ap
proximately $400,000.00) can be
obtained to run the city ade
quately.
A campaign to enlist popular
financial support behind Citizens’
council efforts to inform voters
on the need to amend Lincoln’s
tax-revenue ceiling in the city
charter is being launched.
The campaign was announced
by Burnham Yates, chairman of
the Citizens’ council.
* * *
THE COUNCIL’S program is to
inform residents of Lincoln of the
city’s urgent financial situation.
“The urgency of the city’s
needs is recognized by everyone
but the task of informing the pub
lic just what these needs are is a
big one and we need money to
accomplish it before the July 10
election,” said E. J. Faulkner, fi
nance committee chairman.
“The Citizens’ council, a non
profit educational association, has
members from all parts of the city
. . . but we need more,” Faulkner
said. “Our only goal is for a bet
ter Lincoln. We can only get
that better Lincoln now by voting
for the city charter amendment.”
The Citizens’ council has estab
lished temportary headquarters at
731 Stuart bldg. Information on
the city’s financial situation is
being distributed throughout the
city from that office.
June 29 is the last day open to
registration for the special city
election to be held July 10. Total
registration is now 46,292. The
office of the election commis
sioner will be open until 9 p.m.,
on Wednesday, Thursday and Fri
day, the last three days of the
final registration week. Only is- |
sue before the voters will be the
proposal to increase from 7%
mills to 9% mills, the maximum
to be levied each year for gen- >
eral operating purposes. It would
also eliminate the stringent dollar |
limitation.
J. E. Johnson, 69,
Here Six Years, Dies
John Edward Johnson, 69, of
1955 Vine, died Wednesday after
noon, June 13, at a local hospital.
A native of Oregon, Mo., Mr.
Johnson moved to Elwood, Kas.,
with his family at the age of
nine. He later lived in St.
Joseph, Mo., where he married
Miss Alena Butts who preceded
him in death in 1942. He lived
in Chicago for 43 years, and
moved to Lincoln in 1945.
He was a member of the Mount
Zion Baptist church in Lincoln.
Surviving are three sisters,
Mrs. Walter “Birdie” Artis of
Lincoln, Mrs. Samuel “Essie”
Roy, Lincoln, and Mrs. Frances
Wilson, Chicago; four nieces and
one nephew.
Burial was in St. Joseph.
Wide Spread Damage
From Flood of 3 Creeks
Iowa State At
Arnes ToHonor
Dr. Brown
AMES, la.—(ANP)—Dr. Rus
sell W. Brown, professor of bac
teriology and chairman of the
graduate school at Tuskegee
institute, was honored at Iowa
State college on Saturday, June
16, when he received the Chicago
Alumni Merit award.
Inaugurated in 1932, the award
is bestowed upon outstanding
alumni for meritorious service in
their fields and contributions to
their fellow men.
In addition to his departmental
work and his duties with the
graduate school, Dr. Brown is also
director of the Carver founda
tion and Agricultural Research
and Experiment station at Tuske
gee institute.
Dr. Brown has been actively
engaged in research during the 15
years he has been associated with
Tuskegee institute. He has made
a number of contributions to the
literature in bacteriology and bio
chemistry. His greatest contribu
tion has been his effort toward
developing research at Tuskegee
through the Carver foundation.
When he was appointed direc
tor of the foundation in 1944,
there was no staff and no active
research projects, but there was
a budget of $2,500 allocated by
Tuskegee institute. Since that
time ,the growth of the research
program and development of the
Carver Foundation has been note
worthy. From 1944-1945 through
1950-1951, more than $100,000 has
been received from 15 industries,
government agencies and founda
tions for research and an equal
amount appropriated by Tuskegee
institute for salaries, equipment
and supplies. Th^ staff now con
sists of 11 senior members and
eight graduate fellows in addition
to the director and secretary.
Dr. Brown is the third man of
his race to receive the Alumni
Merit award. Others were Dr.
George Washington Carver, class
of ’94, and Dr. Fred Patterson,
class of ’23.
Sewer System Causes
Major Damage in Areas
The city was practically cut in
half Thursday night (June 14)
when tremendous rains sent three
creeks over their banks and across
town.
Two major contributing factors ^
to the flooding were inadequate
bridges and gaps in the big Ante
Negro GI Gets
Medal of Honor
WASHINGTON —( ANP)— The
Congressional Medal of Honor,
the highest military award given
by the United States to members
of its services for “gallantry above
and beyond the call of duty,” will!
be awarded posthumously to Pfc.
William Thompson, 22-year-old |
machine gunner of the 24th in
fantry regiment in Korea, who
: was killed by a grenade last
I Aug. 6.
Thompson is the first Negro to
receive the medal since the Span
ish-American war and is the 43rd
of the race to be given the medal
in all of this country’s military
history. He is the 15th soldier
to win the coveted award in the
Korean fighting.
Thompson’s act of bravery,
which cost him his life, occurred
(near Haman, Korea, when his!
machine gun platoon was sur
prised and cut off from the main |
body of U.S. forces by an over
whelming number of communist
troops. In the fight to extricate
itself from the attack the platoon
began the costly withdrawal to a
more tenable position. A squad
leader, Cpl. Washington and an
other man sought to pull Thomp
son away from his gun position,
but he fought them and succeeded
in getting back to the gun and
commence firing again.
Although wounded many times
by enemy fire and grenade frag
ments, he stuck by his gun. A
blast of a grenade snuffed out his
life, after he had declared that if
he could not get out alive, “I’ll
take a lot of them with me.”
Thompson, a native of New
York, whose address was given
as the Home for Homeless Boys,
enlisted in the army in 1945 when
he was 17. The award will be
given his mother, Mrs. Mary
Henderson, 39, in ceremonies at
the Pentagon building here June
21. His stepfather, Harry Hen
derson, will also attend.
lope conduit which extends from
a half block south of N to a half
block north of Vine.
Many streets were turned into
streams, and the streams turned
into yards and basements, and
tragedy followed. The flooding
was the worse in many years in
some areas.
The usually insignificant Ante
lope creek, hardly big enough at
most times to be called a rivulet,
was suddenly turned into a rag
ing torrent of swollen, muddy
fury from A to the State Fair
Grounds and Court or Holdrege
streets.
Basements were flooded, some v
being filled to the brim; foun
dations of a number of houses
were washed away and many
streets were impassable for hours.
Policemen were kept busy
directing streams of sightseers,
and private citizens took over
when there were no uniformed
men available.
All along R, S, T, and U on
19th and 20th, cars were stalled
in several feet of water, many
were pulled to safety. Rescue
workers took trucks to assist
stranded persons. Where cars
couldn’t go boats were used.
Several inches of water covered
floors at the Urban League build
ing at 2030 T Street.
j For the second time in less than
! two weeks, overflowing of storm
sewers in the 8th and Park street
areas caused many basements to
be filled again. The drainage
area from the Country Club down
Lake street was a virtual torrent,
hiding the island in the Lake
street lake.
8th & Park Sewer Problem
Discussed at Meeting
Property owners have com
plained on several occasions of
the difficulties attributed to the
sewer situation in the vicinity of
8th and Park. A meeting was
held Saturday evening and a
plan of procedure was discussed
whereby the matter would be
presented to the City Council.
George Randol was present and
explained the program of the Citi
zens’ Council and what benefits
they might derive by being a
member.
DOG ENJOYS A SWIM—Near the peak of the
highwater level at 8th and Park, a dog was seen j
enjoying a little swim (See circle. A sewer l
Courtesy Lincoln Journal and
opening was completely covered. Scene is
rectly in front of the J. S. Burks’ home.