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vm.mra U OMAHA, NEBRASKA, FEBRUARY 29, 1936 NUMBER FIFTY
EMPLOYEE KILLS COUPLE FOR S50
DR. HAYNES LECTURES
AT DRAKE UNIVERSITY
The Crisis Magazine
Barred By Board
Washington, Feb. 27 —The
board of education of the Dis
trict of Columbia today decid
ed that The Crisis, official or
gan of the NAACP, was “mili
tant propaganda'1 and there
fore unsuitable for schools of
the District of Columbia. The
board is reported to have ruled
that another Negro magazine
contained “sociological data’’
and was therefore all right for
the students in the District. It
wtas reported that, the board's
action was taken upon the re
commendation of Garnet C.
Wilkinson, assistant superin
tendent of schools in charge of
Negro schools, but this could
not bo confirmed.
In a telegraphic statement to
newspaper men here, Roy Wil
kins, acting editor of The Crisis
in New York, said: “Feel con
fident Garnet Wilkinson would
not of his ow*n free will pre
vent circulation of Crisis to col
ored school children in Wash
ington, D. C. As for action of
board of education can say only
that colored citizens may be cer
tain whatever white people do
not wish them to read is good
for them. Regard action of
board as sincerest compliment
to editorial policy of Crisis paid
in recent years.
’ MAKES HISTORY
Dee Moines, Feb. 27—For the
first time in the history of
Drake university a Negro con
ducted a lecture course at thje
institution this week when Dr.
George E. Haynes, executive
secretary of thje Federal Coun
cil of Churches, opened a series
of lectures Tuesday.
Dr. Ilaynes, am outstanding
leader in interracial and church
work lectured three days at the
university on the general theme
of “Land Tenure and Social
Problems in South Africa and
Southern United States.'' In ad
dition to being one of thl? guest
lecturers at Drake university,
he will otlso be one the principal
speakers during the six weeks
forum sponsorietd by the Board
of Education.
John H. Buffkins Dies
(Easy Walking Tom)
John H. Buffkins, 2426 Patrick
Ave., died Saturday, Feb. 22, in a
local hospital, a victim of double
pneumonia
Mr. Buffkins, commonly known
as "Easy Walking Tom” was a
familiar character to everyone. He
was to be seen pushing his cart
up and down the streets
Funeral services will be held at
the Lewis Mortuary Monday, Mar
2, at 11:30 A- M. Burial wil be
made in Forest Lawn cemetery.
Survivors are the widow, Mrs
W. Buffkins: two children, Maggie
and Idalia., and five step-children—
four girls and one boy.
CORTEZ W. PETERS
3 _1
I --—■——
Former World's Amateur Champion Typist and Director
of Business Schools in Washington and Baltimore, shown as he
demonstrated his technique before an audience in Chicago,
whore he is planning to open a similar school. Mr. Peters dis
played his ability before several Chicago schools and businesses
last week.
Former Omahan
Dies At Lincoln
■ " ■■
Lincoln, Neb.,-Mr. Thomas
Watts, father of Mrs. Jennie Ed
wards, 2420 P Street, died at the
given address Monday, Feb- 17th.
Since the death of his wife, some
years ago, Mr- Watts has made
his home with his daughter, Mrs
Edwards.
Mr- Watts was born in Glasgow,
Mo-, March 10, 1830. Had he lived
to see March 10th of this year he
would have been 106 years old.
Bound into slavery on the Dr.
Watts’ plantation in Virginia,
many were the stories he had to
tell of slave days and conditions.
Mr. Watts came to Omaha, Neb.,
some fifty years ago, but later he
moved to Fremont, Neb. At this
place, he worked for many years,
with the masons.
Later he became custodian of the
public library there, a position he
held until he was 101 years of age
Funeral services were held in
the little church Mr. Watts built
in Fremont—St. James A. M- E
church Thursday, Feb- 20th.
Rev Metcalf officiated. BJiri&l
was made at Fremont
Mrs- Edwards’ many friends
'sympathize with her in her grief
I -
Race Wrote WPA
6,000 Complaints
--
Washington, Fob. *6, (C) No
groes o# the nation Iwrote the
about 6,000 letters concerning re
lief problems in 1936, according to
' Alfred Edgar Smith, administra
! tive assistant to Harry L. Hojv
kins, in a special statement to Cal
vin’ Newspaper Service.
Mr. Smith, whose office is in
the Walker-Johnson building, 1734
New York Avenue, has three as
sistants, John W Whitten, Leona
M- Cobb and Charlotte S. Price. In
his statement Mr. Smith outlined
his duties as follows: (1) main
tain close contact with our various
state WPA and provide accurate,
up-to-date picture of status of
Negro on relief or in WPA em
ployment; (2) furnish other offi
cials data toguide them in form
ation of policies in which the ra
cial question is involved; (3) make
detailed study of Negroes on relief
(4) receive individuals and dele
gations and secure interviews with
proper officials.
..— - ■" -
The Negro
Middle Class
Dr. Robert C. Weaver, adviser
on Negro affairs in the U- S- De
patrment of Interior, recently com
piled significant data to show how
tho Negro middle class has lost
out economically. While the num
ber of white men in a selected
business was reduced from 154,510
in 1910 to 126,291 in 1930, the num
ber of Negroes in the same period
fell from 1,713 to 862. 20 2 per
cent of all employed white work
ers are in clerical and similar po
sitions, while only 15 percent of
employed Negroes are so placed.
In 1929, there were 25,701 retail
stores operated by Negroes, com
pared with 833,581 such stores in
the country.
Georgian Selected
For Jury Service
Leesburg, Ga-, Feb. 26, (ANP)
For the first time in the history of
Lee county a Negro has been se
lected for jury service, the juror
being Samuel Chapman, well-to-do
farmer, who will serve in the fed
eral court to be held at Americus
next week.
Others eligible for service are:
B. L. Jordan, Furlough Adams,
Frank Murray and J. H. Griffin
For Re-Election
John Adams, Jr, announces that
he will be a candidate for re-elec
tion to the State Legislature from
;the 5th District
Mussolini Prepares
For A Second
Winter Of War
Having failed to conquer Ethio
pia during the first winter, Mus
solini is preparing to subject the
Italian troops to a second winter
of war. Fascist Italy’s armed for
ces will total about 1,650,000 men
by the end of Februauy. The air
force is being augmented daily,
being already 20 per cent above
peace-time strength. The navy is j
to be reinforced by the completion j
of six submarines. Mussolini’s road 1
construction plan resulted in 60,000 j
additional workers being sent to j
East Africa All wool has been j
requisitioned for military supplies.
Every male Italian between the j
ages of 11 and 32 must keep a
record of his physical condition i
and his degree of military train- ,
ing. Such information is to be kept ;
up to date under the threat of
punishment for failure to do so.
To pay for all these prepara
tions, the tax on consumption of
household gas and electricity was |
increased, ns was also the tax on
coal and its by-products. There
was also a 50 per cent increase in
the tax on bachelors.
—
TELLING FACTS
The number of British unem
ployed has risen to a new total of
2,169,722. Their families live on a
weekly dole of $6. —N. Y- Times,
1-4-36
Prof. Bogart of the University
of Illinois estimates the cost of
the World War at $337,000,000,000
The cost to the United States was
about $23,000,000,000 plus about
$22,000,000,000 of war debts—
Fight, Feb. 1936
The number of deserters from
foreign ships arriving in the U
8- inereastd to 1,212 in 1936, com
pared with 972 in 1934, as a re
sult of the Jtalian war in Ethiopia.
N. Y. Times, 2-6-36.
The cost of the Chaco War to
Bolivia alone was $196,000,000.
About 40,000 to 46,000 men were
lost by Bolivia. — World Events,
1-16-36.
Dr. Wrisrht Lauds
Five Nesrroes
Cincinnati, Feb. 27,—(ANP)
—-Five Negroes, born the same
month as Lincoln and Washing
ton, were praised and their con
tributions enumerated before
the Century club at the Negro
YMCA here last week by Dr.
R. R. Wright, Jr., president of
Wilberforce university.
Those given special praise
were lleury McNeil Turner,
born February 1st, 1831, first
Negro chaplain in the U. S.
army, and AM!E bishop and mis
sionary to Africa; Joseph C.
Price, born Feb. 10,1858, found
er of Livingstone college and
called by Dr. Wright the race's
best known orator; Bishop Dan
iel A. Payne, born February 24,
1811, who taught Negroes in
South Carolina to read and
i write and a founder of Wilber
,force; Bishop Richard Allen,
born February 14, 1850, a
founder of the AME church
and first ordained bishop, and
Frederick Douglass, greatest of
Negro abolitionists.
London Calls Up
Alabama Sheriff
On Seottsboro
Birmingham, Ala-. Feb. 26, (A
NP) Alabama officials learned last
week that world interest in the
famous Seottsboro case is still keen
when British papers called up
Sheriff McDuff of Birmingham on
the Trans-Atlantic telephone.
It developed that the first ca
bled reports reaching London of
tho horrible burning alive of 20
Negro chain gang prisoners on
Jan 31 had given rise to the be
lief that the Seottsboro boys were
among the victims.
One of the first London papers
to make a check-up of the report
was the London Daily Mail. Just
a few hours after the tragedy, in
which twenty convicts died like
rats locked in a steel cage and
chained together, the sheriff was
informed that London was on the
wire. Amazed, he lifted the receiv
er to hear: “This is the London
Daily Mail calling. We understand
that the Seottsboro boys were tak
en out and burned. is it so?
Oxley Urges Negroes
To Prepare For Jobs
Cincinnati, 0,Fleb. 26, (ANP)
If Negroes are to receive the bene
fits to be accorded them in the
New Deal program they must pre
pare tor jobs that will be available
was the declaration of Lieut
enant Lawrence A. Oxley, Chief of
Negro Labor in the U. S. Depart
ment of Labor, in an address be
fore a city-wide mass meeting
here Wednesday.
“The administration’' said the
speaker, “h a s established the
Works Progres Administration to
provide emlploymtent-f' The Na
tional Yrtuth Administration the
CCC corps, the Resettlement Ad
ministration, the Federal Security
Board, the Federal Housing Ad
ministration and the Public Works
Administration have all been es
tablished to provide work oppor
tunities for America’s unemploy
ed
ANNOUNCEMENT
We are pleased to announce to
our South Side friends that Mrs.
Wm. Alston, 2627 Jefferson St-, is
our news reporter for that vicin
ity.
EMPLOYE PAID TO KILL
HUSBAND AND RIVAL
-
Dr. John Hope,
President Atlanta
University Dies
Atlanta, Ga., Feh. 25, Follow
ing an illness of less than a week,
67 year old president of Greater
due to pneumonia. Dr. John Hope,
Atlanta University, and one of the
foremost Negro educators of the
country, died Thursday, Feb. 20,
at Spelman College infirmary.
In the chapel of Sale Hall, where
for many years he presided as
head of Morehouse College, the fu
neral services of Dr. Hope, were
held, Feb. 23. in the presence of
more than seven hundred of his
colleagues in the field of educa
tion and friends from all walks of
me. his body was earned by his
students to a simple grave on the
nearby campus of Atlanta Univer
sity, the scene of his last labors.
Bom June 2, 1868, in Augusta,
Ga-, the famous educator gave
practically all his life to teaching
and college administration except
a year during the World War days
when he did Y M- C. A- work
among Negro soldiers in France.
Dr- Hope was educated in the
North, graduating from Worces
ter Academy in Massachusetts in
1890; receiving his A- B. from
Brown University, Providence, R
I- in 1894; studied at the Univer
sity of Chicago summer sessions
of 1897-98 and got his A. M from
Brown in 1907
Surviving Dr. Hope are his wife,
Lugenia, whom he married in 1897;
and two sons. John, Jr-, and Ed
ward
Of the 20,1000,000 young people
in the U- S between the ages of
16 and 24, 4,700,000 or 23 per cent
are out of school, unemployed and
seeking employment. This is an in
crease of over 160 per cent since
1930—SchoolLi fe, Jan. 1936.
INVESTIGATION
IS UNDERWAY
Ruston, L&., Feb. 25—(ANP)
—Incensed by her husband’s
refusal to sever relations with
his Negro sweetheart, Mrs. R.
II. I>aird, wife of prominent
white pi an tier, paid Robert
“Smoky" Hill fifty dollars to
murder her husband and her
paramour, Mary Harris, accord
ing to the confession of Hill to
Sheriff A. J. Thigpen, here
Tuesday morning.
The sheriff said that Hill had
maae u eompietje confession
that he shot and killed Laird
and Miss Harris near the Laird
farm last Friday night as they
were seated in an automobile.
The bodies of the murdered
couple were discovered Satur
day morning by a passing mot
orist and two days later Hill
was arrested as a suspect duo to
the fact that he had been seen
approaching the parked auto
mobile in which Laird and his
sweetheart were seated, armed
with a shotgun.
Accuses Laird’s Wife
At the inquest Mrs. Laird
denied any knowledge of the
cause of her husband's dca/Lh
and feigned ignorance as to his
relations with Miss Hill, who
was a comely brown-skin wo
man several ytcars her junior.
She urged a complete investi
gation of the dual slaying and
rumor has it tba/t she stated
that she would pay a reward
(Continued on Page 5)
TODD DUNCAN AND ANNE WIGGINS
The NBO radio presentation “Genius of Color'' is the latest
weekly program of all-colored artists. With a cast of 50 artists
headed by Chick Webb and his Orchestra each Wednesday ev
ening, 10:30 to 11:00 p. m. EST on its coast to coast network,
this aggregation is highly received. (Photo above.) The Four
Ink Spots a novelty instrumental and vocal quartet is one of the
popular features along with Ella Fitzgerald, a blues singer
that is a sepia Connie Boswell and one of the season's latest
“finds’’: Hamtree Harrington, comedian, a vest-pocket edition
of Bert Williams; Charles Linton, who possesses a Morton
Downey tenor and Cecil McPherson's celebrated Jubilee Choir.
It is conceded to be one of the greatest all-Negro programs ever
arranged for the Nation-wide hook-up.—NNF
