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About The Omaha guide. (Omaha, Neb.) 1927-19?? | View Entire Issue (Jan. 9, 1937)
EDITORIALS THE OMAHA GUIDE Published Every nsisrday at 2411-2# Grant Strset, Omaha. Nebraska Phone*: Wfibster 1417 ar 111* Cntered as Second Clase Matter March 16, 1827, at th* Piatafflaa at Omaha. Nek. undet Act of Coogrea* of March 8, 1878. TERMS OP SUBSCRIPTION $248 PE* TEAR Race prejudice must go. The Fatherhood af God ond th* Brithw hood of Man meat prevail. Throe are the only principles which will stand the arid test of good. All News Copy of Churehea and all Organisations must be In our office not later than 6s00 p. m. Monday for current issue. All Adver tising Copy or Paid Articles not later than Wednesday noon, proceed ing date of issue, to insure publication. MORE DOERS, LESS TALKERS Husriitess men and women are needed. A crying demand fori men of ability and training in business exists; men who are will-j ing to sacrifice to build businesses. < (dored America is. cursed with too many experts who can tell other people wluit to do while they sit behind desks of sub sidizdod institutions. If some of these men of training and abil ity could be forced out of their security into .small struggling colored business ins itutiona, u, new day would come for colorec business. We I lave too many people who know what to do and too few who can do anything except work for someone else. They lack the courage to start something for themsielves. It requires more courage to attempt to build a business ;han it does to druw regular pay as a helper. It would be well for all of uis, on the threshold of the new year, td look abroad ati dictator-ridden Europe. In many gretait countries the free press has been shut down. Free speech has become a crime. All criticism of those in power has been silenced with imprisonment and death. In some countries tbt right to worship has been abrogated by law, the state has been made Divine, the dictator in power mustt be regardnd as a god and the individual has been reduced to an ao.ual stale of slavery. While we pity the citizens! of those nations, and wonder at the fact limit such things could eonue to pass in this century, we can learn a valuable lesson from their plight. We slill live uin-| der a Constitution that guaranties- ua freedom of religion, of, speech and of the press. Upon the preservation of that Constitu tion depends the future of the United Shuttles and of the Ameri can people. In the pursuit of an economic miUenium we must not sacrifice national ideals and principles that are the very life blood of democracy. National Ideals Preserve Democracy The nation has come to Ihe end of an eventful! year. For the first time since the worst days of the depression, industry has felt the stimuli of better times,of broadening markets, of in creased earnings. Prospects for the future nre immeasurably brightened. j ^ et we must not be blind to the vital problems till at all of u«t as individuals and as members of the economic and social order, istill face. The problem of unemployment looms almost as large today as it did at the abysmal low point. Industry has pledged itself to do all within its power to curb this intolerable conditon, and in doing that it must have Ihe help of government, to the extent, that110 legislation be passed which will frighten and discourage the investor—the source of all productive employment. THE CATHOLIC’S NEGRO DRIVE The recent letter of Pope Pius praising the work of Catho lics among colored people in the United States during the past few years serves to call attention to the graidual change that seems to have come over the Mother Church in the past de cade. The Catholic newspapers and magazines have been out spoken in their advocacy of a square deal and equal rights for colorexl citizens. Many of the highest Catholic officials have not minced words in supporting civil rights for Negroes. Catholics have been in the forefront of the fight against lynching and mob violence. The Pope urges greater missionary work among colored Americans, advises the establishment of more churches even in the rural South, and of parochial schools and more college ac tivity. This is commendable and reveals a determination not to permit the Roman church to continue being outdistanced by the Protestant, churches. Catholic officials should not interpret the Iloly Father’s letter as an invitation to extend segregation by setting up jim crow schools, churches and colleges. Sueh institutions belie the word Catholic, are contrary to every Christian principle, and in most parts of the country there is not even the excuse of legal requirement. There is no law which requires that the two so called races be jim crowed in private institutions. The Catholic Church in the United States will be carryiift out the spirit of the Pope’s lett 'er and of Christ’s teachings if it will begin by opening all its churches and educational in*sti tuitions to Negroes immediately on terms of absolutely equality and not establish institutions “for Negroes.” Some of these clerical institutions have either barred or discouraged Negro attendance, and there is no Christian excuse for it. Progress has been made of late years in the appointment of Negroes to the priesthood, but a dozen colored priests out of a quarter million colored communicants is certainly now'll ere near a fair distribution. The American Negro will rally to whatever ally attacks his problems in a fair and forthright manner. He looks askance at any effort that tends td sharpen and further emphasize racial difference. Protest for Insult Brings Apology from Broadcasting Station Boston, Jan (ANP)—While listening to a recent radio program being broadcast over station W7EET T. E. Richardson, a plumber of this city, heard the announcer use the expression, “There may be a nigger in the wood pile.” He immediately sent a letter of pro test to he company officials and Thursday received his re-ply from H E. Fellows, general manager or station WEEI: “You may be sure that the phrase crept into the advertising with out nny thought of malice or in tent of dispargement- Our adver tising client, the Glendale Coal Co. joins with us in extending to you personally and to your race our apologies and our assurance that you have served us both well in calling the mattdr to our attention ’ WPA Program In La. Pleases Hopkins Washington, D. C., Jan. 9 (ANP) —Visiting New Orleans recently, Harry L. Hopkins, WPA admin strator was particularly im pressed by the unique work being, done by a group of Negro writers at Dillard university, who are com piling a “History of the Negro in Louisiana” as part of the program of the Federal Writers project. The history, which already has required several months of inten sive research, will tell the story of Negro in Louisiana from of the anding of the first slave ship up to the present day. Its production is being supervised by Lyle Saxon state director of the Federal Wri ters project, with Horace Mann Bond, Dean of Men at the univer sity, directly in charge of the re search work. Preliminary plans for publication already have been made and it is expected that the history will form a valuable record of an important phase of southern his tory. Other Negro writers employed on the project in Louisiana have been engaged in collecting folklore for tho American Guide, the project’s forthcoming national publication. Much valuable material has been collected relating to tho folklore, folk medicine and folk customs of Louisiana Negroes f the past and of today. READ THE OMAHA GUIDE NEBRASKA’S COLORED NEWSPAPER JOHN BROWN exponent of Ameorican Freedom |K ELLY MILLER I SAYS ■THE OBLIQUE EFFECT OF SEGREGATION When segregation, in the. form I of rentderatial separatum of the I races, first manifested its purpose I the Negro faarfd that jt would I have the effect of setting him into I the ghetto and confining him to I th buck streets ^nti alleyp and I shade-places, and of excluding him the more dnsirabka residential ar eas. It might he said in passing, that the Negro always has been essentially segregated by his pro veo-ty. His financial abtbity, as a rule, shuts him cut of the more costly and expensive reservation* ind subdivisions. The purpose of segregation is to fhc t\*\> •aces >residentiaUy apart by air ight provisions, however financial y able tho exceptional individuai nay be. Ab°iit tw*o ddcejles ago theVe 'as a widespread attempt fco ac~ omplish segregation by law. This ttemptj was frusttratqd^ thb'ljgh ot effectively defeated, by a de sion of the supreme court. But ! a matter of fact, the process now equally effectively with or ithout the sanction of law. The recess is at present complete id extends across the continent ith geographical completion— om north to south, from east to est, and diagonally. No section the c<*untry is free from its oper ion. Its lines have gone out rough all the land—from Boe n to Key West, from St. Paul New Orleans, and from Seattfci > St. Augustinei. The blight co ers the whole nation like a blank t covers a bqd. I The first effect of segregation ppon the white race reminds on* pf the lines of Goldsmith: “Ths dog and mam at first were friends But when a pique began The dog to gain some privat* ends, Went mad and bit the man. The wound it was both sctra and sad To every Christian eye, And while they swore tht dog was mad. They svAnre the t| in wdjuld die. But soon a wonder came to ligiht That showed the rogues they lied. The man recovered from the bite; The dog it was that died. The first reaction of segrega tion has been adverse to its white sponsors. It has forced them to abandon expensive jiopeteties at an enormous sacrifice. The resi dences built a decade or so ago for men of fortune and income, have been turned over to a race wholly unable to purchase and maintain them. As a rule the whites have exiled themselves from the more commodious and convenient sections of the great cities and have taken flight to the suburbs and outlying districts This leaves the Negro in possession of magni ficent homes which he occupies but cannot command. Many a fairly well-to-do white family, afflicted with racial fright, has joined the hegira and abandoned their homes involving lifei-time accounts. The effect of segregation in the city of Washington is typical and illustrative of what is taking place in most of oqr large cities. The Negroes have come into possession of fully a square mile of the fair est portion of the very heart of the capital. The Negro reservation lies just north of the government buildings and business section and is traversed by the widest and beet paved streets and avenues, lined with the choicest shade trees and interspread with beautiful paths, circles, and parks. The white re sidents who have moved northward must needs traversed the Negro area to reach the great stores and shops, as well as the White House the Treasury, the Capital and other government tyulidings. So great is the cost of race pre judice, and so dearly does the white race pay for it. Kelly Miller GUARDS KILL TWO CONVICTS Tallahasssee, Fla., Jan. 9 (ANP) -M. L Perry and John Wright were killed and 10 other convicts wound ed when prisoners at a Negro convicts camp staged a rebelion Wednesday. The prisoner com plained of cruel treatment at the Lake City camp but their com plaints were ignored The wound ed convicts were returned to work after treatment by the camp phy sician.
