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VOLUME IX OMAHA, NEBRASKA, SATURDAY, MAY 18th, 1935 NUMBER TEN
_ __
Texas Negro Business Man Writes 7Letter* To Senator Huey Long
HERB SALESMAN MURDERED IN SO. OMAHA
XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX
Leibowitz Seeks Pardons for Scottsboro Boys
SUGGESTS A
METHOD OF
_ (
Tries New Tactics
In Scottsboro Case
New York Lawyer Follows Supreme
Court Ruling With New Plan_
Suggests a Fact-Finding
Committee
Montgomery, Ala., May 14—An
attempt to put the state of Alabama
on its honor was seen last week in the
action of Samuel S Leibowitz, chief
of counsel for the Scottsboro boys,
when he asked Governor Bibb Graves
to pardon all nine defendants.
■In his plea to the governor, Mr
Leibowitz sought to rob the state of
its claim that the cases had been used
and were being used by Communists
to foment revolutionary propaganda.
Leibowitz, last summer broke with
the International Labor Defense, Com
munist affiliate, and charged that that
organization was injuring the cases
by the methods employed to exploit
them in behalf of the radical program.
He asked the governor for full par
dons.
In the event the governor could not
see his way clear to grant pardons,
Mr. Leibowitz suggested a second
method of procedure: that a “fact
finding" commission be appointed to
study the case and return its decision
to the governor- He further suggest
ed that if such a commission is named
it be composed “of such men as Bis
hop W. G- McDowell of the Alabama
diocese, of the Episcopal Church, and
some of the heads of the colleges of
the state.
“Subversive elements,” Mr Leibo
witz wrote, “have exploited the un
fortunate plight of these hapless
youths for the purpose of raising
huge sums of money with which to
carry on political propaganda avowed
ly seeking to tear down our form of
government and to substitute for our
cherished American ideals and tradi
tions the bolshevism of Moscow.”
Prior to sending his appeal to the
governor, Mr. Leibowitz had sought
unsuccessfully to have a conference
with the chief executive.
Public Invited to Attend
Grand Opening of
Omaha’s Finest
Beauty Salon
On Friday evening. May 17th.
the public is requested to attend
the formal opening of Omaha’s
most beautiful modernistic beau
ty salon, under the sole manage
rs ent of Mr. Homer MeCraney.
T1 s Salon is located at 2037 N.
24th St. just two doors south of i
the Ritz Theater. Assisting Mr.
MeCraney will be one of Omaha’s
most popular hair stylists.
Secial Announcement to the
Ladies.
As a special courtesy on the op
ening of this salon for your ap
proval. the management cordially
requests you to attend a “Tea”
; * the salon from 4 until 6 p. m.
and from 7 until 9 p. m. FViday
evening as our special guests. You
are assured of a most charming
and enjoyable evening while in
specting this beautiful salon.
Watch our windows for further
announcements concerning the fu
ture activities of this service in
stitution.
This is your beauty salon in
your own town, opened for your
convenience.
r—~—.
SECOND
PROCEDURE
Rush Plans for New
Anti-Lynching Fight
Secret Lnfer-racial Conferences
Perfect Strategy
Washington, May 16.—The
fervent hope of senatorial op
po? ents of the Costigan-Wagner
Anti-Lynching: Bill that no furth
er effort would be made this sea
son to renew the fight for its pas
sage, was blasted this week when
interracial s rategy committees
privately conferred here and in
New York and rushed plans for
a fresh battle. While the plan of
attack has not been divulged, it
is believed a renewed effort will
b<> made to line up laggard senat
ors.
Asserting that “Important is
sues of human welfare are not to
be settled by parliamentary man
euvers. ” Senator Edward P. Oot
tiean. eo-author of the bill de
clared: “The Senate’s refusal to
take up and consider on its merits
the anti-lynching bill, and the
regrettable resulting failure to
secure an expression without de
lay of the Senate’s judgement on
hat measure must be viewed as
era nor ary, not final.”
“Xow that the southern senat
ors have killed the anti-lynching
bill, probably they will be in a
hurry to get e res of eeaoinsrdlu
hurry to get the rest of the busi
ness of the session done so they
can get back home to their favor
ite sport.”
—Decatur. III., Herald.
X. Y. TELEPHONE COMPANY
RECEIVES HARLEM COM
MITTEE: MAY HIRE CLERKS
Forty Race Clerks May Get Jobs At
Harlem Phone Exchange Following
Conference—Company Shown That
They Get S2.000.000 Annually From
Black Belt.
New York, May 14—The New York
Telephone Company is considering
hiring 40 colored clerks, who may be
placed in two of the company’s ex
changes in Harlem, as the result of a
conference with the director of per
sonnel of the company by Ben Roman
and Victor Cooley, owner and vice
president of the Renaissance theater
in Harlem, at the main office of the
company, 114 West street.
The point was made by Mr. Ro
man that Harlem pays 8225,000 per
month service and toll charges to the
company, about $2,000,000 annually
It was suggested that 20 girls be
trained for the 124th street and Con
vent avenue branches of the company,
and that twenty young men be hired,
and the combined salaries of the group
would turn back $50,000 per month
to the community.
No definite commitment was made,
but the company representative seem
ed to be favorably impressed with the
idea.
Fraternity Contributes
to Scottsboro Defense
New York—C’NA—The local
chater of the Phi Beta Sigma, a
Greek letter eollege fraternity,
voted to contribute $25,000 to the
International Labor Defense in
defense of the Seottsboro boys
and Angelo Herdon.
The fraternity turned down an
appeal for funds from the Lieb
owitz-eontrolled American Scott
boro Committee.
CUTS WOMAN
IN A DOWN
TOWN STORE
Mrs. Henrietta Mickens, 2409 N.
29th Street, was slashed with a razor
from her right eye to her ear last Sat
urday, May 11, while shopping in W.
T. Grant's Store Mrs. Estelle Irv
ing, 1831 N- 23rd Street, is accused
of cutting Mrs. Mickens. The cause
i of the disturbance has not been made
known.
Mrs. Mickens was taken to Lord
: Lister Hospital and treated by Dr.
Atwood, Police Physician.
FIVE INJURED
IN COLLISION
Five persons were seriously injured
last Thursday when the jitney in
which they were riding, driven by Mr.
Fred Frazier, 2853 Miami Street, col
lided with a four ton tramway truck
at 24th and Leavenworth Streets. The'
jitney was a five passenger Buick Se
dan, travelling north on 24th Street, j
and the tramway truck was going east
on Leavenworth.
Those injured were Mr. Frazier. |
driver, who suffered internal injuries |
and is still confined to Lord Lister
Hospital, Mr- Thomas, cuts and j
bruises, Mr- Porter, Mr. Turner and!
Mrs. Isom. Mr. Frazier sustained j
the most serious injuries. However,
Mr. Thomas and Mr - Porter were con- \
fined to the Lord Lister hospital un- j
til Wednesday, May 15, when Mr.
Porter was released- Mr. Frazier
and Mr. Thomas are still there. Mrs.
Isom and Mr Turner were under the
care of the doctor at their respective
homes.
The driver of the tramway truck
was not hurt. He was booked on
charges of reckless driving and held
over until the trial.
Suffers Bodily Injuries;
Limb Amputation
On May 8th, Dr. Lennox received a
card from Lester Price, crack high
school track athlete of a decade ago,
and more recently a student of Oma
ha Municipal University, saying that
he was alive, safe and sound. He
stated that he planned to be in Omaha
around the 15th of this month
A few days later word was received i
that Mr- Price suffered grave bodily
injuries and lost one leg while at
tempting to board a freight train in
Corsicana, Texas, enroute to Omaha,
Texas. It seems that the leg was
crushed and had to be amputated just
below the knee. His condition is re
ported as being serious.
_
Ex-Slave, 114 Still
Receiving Pension
Washington, D. C. May 16th
—AXP—An investigation by the
Civil Serviee Commission has dis
closed that Mark Thrasa. 114
vear-old former slave, is still re
ceiving a pension and living at
Chickamauga Park. Tenn. Wiih j
his pension, Mr. Thrash imports
his fifth wife and a step child. He j
has 27 children, the eldest of
whom is 92 years old.
A’Capella Choir
Appears in Tekamah
The A’Capella choir of Central High
School appeared last week in Tekamah
Nebraska. Included in the choir were
Vonceil Anderson, Dorothy Bell, Mary
Ellen Dickerson, Harold Biddiex, Wal
ter Rhoades and Carlett Lewis.
f---—--v
OPEN LETTER
to HUEY LONG
-—---/'
Reader Sends “Open
Letter” to Huey Long
Senator Huey P. Long,
United States Senate,
Washington, D. C.
Honorable Sir:
As editor of the Negro Labor News
and executive head of the Texas Negro
Business and Laboring Men’s Associa
tion, I am trying to make the voice of
some ten million Southern Negroes
heard in behalf of the continued op
portunity to earn a living.
A very large number of Negroes are
dependent on the production and sale
of a normal cotton crop for a liveli
hood, but we notice that the cotton
which our country produces seems to
pile up in our ware-houses, while the
cotton producers in Brazil, India.
Egypt and other countries do practi
cally all the selling to the consumers
of the world
■T notice that statistics published
recently in the United States News
show that Brazil has increased her
production 68 per cent, India 8 per
cent, Egypt 22 per cent, while the
United States has decreased her pro
duction 43 per cent. When I ask what
the trouble is I am told that our high
t-tariff prevents the sale of commodities
to us which in turn prevents cotton
consumers abroad from buying our
cotton. I am also informed that the
12 per cent loans are causing cotton
to be held in the United States instead
of being sold in exports.
I have read with interest your
“Share-the-Wealth” plans, and J
have also visited your State and noted
with interest and enthusiasm the
measures that you have instituted by
which my people are greatly benefit
ed . But while waiting for your plans
to work out as you desire, our people
need work, not only to keep body and
soul together but to maintain their
morale.
If the South loses its cotton busi
ness more than 700,000 N-^gro tenant
farmers and thousands of long-shore
men, cotton compress, oil mill, gin
workers and other employees of cot
ton industries will be adversely af
fected. many of whom will be thrown
on charity.
Won’t you please help save the cot
ton business of the South so that a
still greater calamity will not come to
my people?
Respectfully,
C. W. Rice,
President-Manager
Georgia State Officials
Threaten Secession
tlanta. Ga.,—CNA—“We still:*
have the right to secede’’ was the!
reply of Tom Linder, leading!
state official, to the recent Scotts-;
boro decision holding unconstitu
tional the exclusion of Negroes!
from injuries.
Democratic Party is White Man,s
This statement appeared in an
article published in the ‘Market
Bulletin.’ official organ of the
Georgia State Department of Ag
riculture. The article continued1
‘‘The Democratic Party is sup
posed to be a white man’s party.
Let's see how far we have wan
dered from this.
“The United States Supreme
Court a few days ago reversed all
the courts of Alabama in a case
where some Negroes had been
convicted of an assault on two
white women, on the grounds that
no Negroes were on the jury or in
the jury boxes.
“I notiee where the Governor
of Alabama has ordered names of
Negroes to be put in the jury
boxes.
“It is extremely difficult for
white men in Georgia to realize
that this has happened in the
sister State of Alabama.
“I ask you men and women of
Georgia—do you intend to sub
mit to this kind of a proposition?
Do you intend to submit to the
proposition that no Negro can be
convicted of assault on a white
woman unless Negroes sit on the
jury to try him ?
“Remember. No question is
ever settled right. We still have
the right to seeede.’’
Linder and Governor Eugene
Talmadge are leaders of the anti
Negro Democratic political mach
ine in Georgia.
It was this machine which rail
3.
roaded a young working class
leader to an 18-20 year sentence
on the Georgia chain-gang. Hern
don is free today on $15,000 bail
riased from members, followers
and friends of the International
Labor Defense. His case is now
on appeal in the United States
Supreme Court.
In the state of Georgia, the un
constitutional exclusion of Ne
groes from juries is a matter of
common knowledge. Herndon was
indicted and tried by grand and
petit juries from which Negroes
were brazenly excluded in open
defiance of the United States con
stitution.
Negroes Not Good Enough
When this question was raised
and fought in the Herndon ease,
by John H. Geer and Ben Davis
jr. I. L. D. attorneys the answer
of the Fulton County Atlanta
jury commissioners was, “we
know of no Negroes in Fulton
county competent to serve on
juries.”
Thus when Mr. Linder speaks
in defense of the lily white jury
system of Alabama, he is protect
ing the lily white government of
Georgia wheih prides itself on the
Ku Klux Klan oppression of its
Negro citizens.
Court Uses Novelty
To Avoid Decision
Judge Says Negro Must Prove
His African Descent When
Jury Question is Raised.
Wichita Falls, Texas—CNA—
Attorneys for Luke Greear, ac
cused of murder, are seeking to
- - - - - -----—-- -
POPE ARRESTED AND
PLACED IN CUSTODY
——_v
2^ -
DIXIE SENATOR
EXPOSED
REFUTES THE STORY THAT HE
FAILED TO FAVOR BILL
Senator Black of Alabama Challenges
Statement by Senator Costigan That
Moton Had Endorsed Measure—
Moton Replies In Substantiating
Northern Senator’s Claim
Washington, May 14.—Proponents
of the Costigan-Wagner anti-lynching
bill which was sidetracked in the
United States Senate last Wednesday,
were not well enough qualified with
information about the crime of lynch
ing to dispute and expose all the mis
representations made by southern sen
ators who contributed to the senate
deadlock which caused some of the
friends of the measure to desert.
One of the most persistent misrep
resentations concerned the attitude of
Negroes toward the bill- Senator
Hugo Black of Alabama, after telling
a fancy-dress story about the Willie
Peterson case in Alabama, persistently
sought to create the impression that
everything was hotsy-totsy between
whites and blacks in his Utopian state
and that the Negroes in Alabama
were not interested in the anti-lynch
ing bill. On Tuesday he challenged
Senator Costigan. one of the authors
of the bill, to show that Dr. Robert
R. Moton, president of Tuskegee In
stitute, had endorsed the measure. As
one of the directors of the Southern
inter-Racial Commission, Dr. Moton
had already gone on record in favor
cf the measure, but Senator Black in
sisted that Dr. Moton personally gave
the bill no favor.
In response to this charge, Dr. Mo
ton Wednesday sent Senator Costigan
the following telegram:
“In the absence of adequate meas
ures by state action to protect pris
oners threatened with mob violence,
to put an end to lynching, and to iden
tify, to arrest, to indict, and to convict
the leaders and participants in lynch
ing parties. I am heartily in favor
of such legislation as will register the
Nation’s disapproval of this crime
against humanity and insure the
prompt investigation of every lynch
ing and the conviction of those who
thus take the law in their own hands,
and the impeachment and penalizing
of officers of the law who fail in their
duty to protect prisoners committed
to their charge. When state officers
and state courts persistently and re
peatedly fail in their duty to guaran
(Continued on Page 3)
quash the indictment on the
grounds of violation of the Four
teenth Amendment.
C’reear. a restaurant keeper, j
was indicted for the murder of
his wife by a grand jury com
posed of white men.
Must Prove African Descent.
In an effort to defeat the move
of the defense, the prosecution
haled C’reear into court and went
through the solemn farce of mak
ing him prove his African descent.
Ordinarily, when a Negro is ac
cused of any offense in Texas,
his African descent and strict
punishment are taken for grant
ed.
Excluded Prom Jury
Although Negroes constitute at
least ten per cent of the city’s
populaion. they are rarely sum
moned for jury service.
There is but one school, located
in the slum district, for all the
Negro children. Thus, in a city
which boasts of its civic progress,
several hundred pupils must walk
from one to three mile in order
to receive instruction .
CHASES MASON INTO STREET
WITH GUN
James L. Mason, 52, 5219 S. 29th
Street, herb salesman, was shot to
death Saturday night, when William
Pope, 37, entered Mason’s home, bran
d.shing a gun. An argument followed
Pope’s entrance and Mason, breaking
loose from Pope, ran into the street.
He entered Foxall’s Fish Market, at
5221 S. 29th Street, with Pope follow
ing closely on his heels. Pope struck
Mason over the head with the butt of
the gun, then fired on Mason, grazing
his left forearm and striking in the
side, causing death.
Mason was carried to Lord Lister
Hospital and pronounced dead by Dr.
Humpal.
Those in the Fish Market at the
time of the tragedy were Pitman and
Collins Foxall, Titus Alston and Na
thaniel Davis. Other witnesses are
Ben Gray, Rufus Borton, William Wil
liamson and Edna Loftin.
No mot.ve for the crime has been
revealed. Pope was arrested and
taken to jail. The body was taken to
the J. D. Lewis Mortuary.
ADMITTED TO
HOM’R SOCIETY
Out of fifty-five students of the
senior class at Central High School,
who were admitted to the Omaha
chapter of the National Honor Society,
alter Rhoades, 3015 Manderson
Street, was the only colored student.
Membership in this society is based
on the high scholastic standing of the
student.
Following a program by the A’Ca
pella choir, E. E- McMillan, principal
of North high school, made the charge
Tuesday morning in the auditorium of
Central high school.
Aside from his scholastic standing,
Rhoades has made quite a record for
himself as a track star.
Carolinians Protests
Bailey’s Opposition
To Anti-Lynch Bill
Bailey Will Have Plenty of Time To
Read His Article After The
Next General Election
The following wire, sent to Senator
Joseph W. Bailey of North Carolina,
one of the chief opponents of the
Costigan-Wagner Anti-lynching bill,
speaks for itself:
“Honorable Josiah W. Bailey,
Uniter States Senate,
Washington, D. C.
“We certainly voice the sentiment
of Negro North Carolina, when we say
we are surprised and disgusted with
your leading opposition to the Costi
gan-Wagner bill and believe the bet
ter element of white North Carolina,
concurs in our opinion. You seem to
have forgotten the Christian spirit
professed whenever you appeared be
fore Negro audiences in the State and
you seem unmindful of the functions
of the U. S. Supreme court to deter
mine the constitutionality of laws
passed. In the final analysis, it seems
to us that the barbarians who perpe
trate lynchings get much of their in
spirations from the attitude manifest
ed by men in your position and we
wonder if, under the circumstances
you can face your God with a clear
conscience. Consider the matter as a
Christian, Mr. Bailey, and your con
stituents will think none the less of
you”
ROCKY MT. CITY-WIDE FORUM,
B. F. Byers, Pres.
Carolinians Protest Bailey’s Opposition to Anti-Lynch Bill