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About The Omaha guide. (Omaha, Neb.) 1927-19?? | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1937)
COMMENTS EDITORIAL PAGE OPINIONS iiti t air r t ■* > > * *'* ..EDITORIALS.. ^ THE OMAHA GUIDE Published Every Saturday at 2418-20 Grant Street, Omaha, Nebraska Phones: WEbster 1617 or 1618 Entered as Second Class Matter March 16. 1927, at the Poatoffice al Omaha, Neb., underAct of Congress of March 3, 1879. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION 12.00 PER TEAR Race prejudice must go. T he Fatherhood of God and the Brother hood of Man must prevail. These are the only principles which will ttaad the acid test of good. All News Capy of Churches and all Organizations must be in oui office not later than 6:00 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. WE REVERSE OURSELVES (From The Danville (Va.) Register) When a mob of 100 white men seize two Negoes in Miss issippi, haul them in a bus to the scene of a murder they had just denied committing, and torture them to death by searing their bodies with a blow torch, congressmen with legalistic minds can still get up in the House of Representatives to argue that an antilynching 1 >fj 1 constitutes an unconstitutional iuva sion of tlw* rights of states. On the morning of the very day two men were fiendishly murdered near Duck Hill, Miss., an editorial appeared in this paper reiterating our opinion that though the objectives of the antilynchilng bill pending in congross were commendable, we did not believe that tjhe enactment of such a law would curb the evil. , But though we still hold these doubts, we herewith re verse ourselves completely and call upon the Congress of the United States to take any action whicth in its opinion gives any promise of checking such barbarism of the South. It is no long er a question of what w0 think. So long as t(ijy considerable group of men believe that a plan they propose has any chance of preventing such fiendish acta or punishing such fiends, we will hereafter throw whatever influence we have behind theiir plan. And we call on every fair minded mam and every warm hearted woman among our more than 10,000 readers, who are proud that they are Southerners, to join us in doing our part to remove this stigma from the South. Today, if you do not rel ish the stencil of burning flesh and do not enjoy the wereams of tortured men, telegraph or w'rite Hon. Thoma^p O. Burch, Member of Congress from the Fifth1 Virginia Ilistriit, and the ITon. Carter Class and the Hon. Harry F. Byrd, Senators of Virginia, and ask them to support the Cavngan Bill or any oth or bill which offers n'ny hope of preventing lynchings. Tell them that the honor of the South is more import ant than the rights of the Southern States, Tell them the South earnestly implores the Federal Oov eminent to do what the Southern States have failed in doing. Tell .t,hem the Southern people are decent and honest and human nnd not fiends as a Mississippi mob represented them. Tell them that a blow torch has convinced you, as it. con vinccd The Register, that representatives of a disgraced South should how their heads in Congress and vote in favor of the most drastic anti lynching bill submitted. NEGRO STRIKE PHENOMENON (By William Pickens for A N P) __In Ohicago, as elsewhere, colored mothers, like other mothers, are hired to be wot nurses and to suckle babies whose own mothers are unable to nurse them. But these colored moth ers had reoenly to go on strike because they found tha,t. white women were being paid at. a higher rate to give ,their milk than the colored women. This was an absolutely excuseless discrim ination, with economic repressive aims solely; for many of the most noted white men of American history were nurtured in infancy outlie milk of black women. Colored women have never been known to give inferior milk. Nobody would be silly enough to propose such a discrimination among the cattle of the field; that milk from a black' herd should bo sold a,t a lower figure than milk from a white herd. Humans may be sane toward low er animals and insane toward each other. Which reminds me that when Frederick Douglass and othe Nego Abolitionist agi tators were visiting in Janesville, Wis., the hotel put; the color ed men at a separatetable in the dining room; whereupon Doug white horses and black horses eating out of tl\e same trough in lass; who had just been out to the hotel stables where he ‘*saW peace,” remarked: “From which I conclude that the horses of Janesville are more civilized than its people.** Another Negro strike phenomenon is illustrated by the recent case in Cairo, 111., There a body of relief strikers, DO per cent Negroid, went for a “sif down" in ,the relief headqular ters. What happened! Well, ,the officers of law and order and the “possess" of citizens simply marched in and made the “sit downers" “git up." That shows what officers can do when Ne groes violate the rules; in other words, it proves what offi cers c-an do when they want to do it. American police, sheriffs and courts would within 30 days devel op the beat technique for handling mobs and lynch ers inn the history of the world, if a few foolhardy black mobs would just start; out and try to lynch white people. So, whatf Selah! \ 1 KELLY MILLER I SAYS GAVAGAN ANTI LYNCHING BILL SPLITS DEMOCRAT PARTY The Gavagan Anti Lynching Bill has passed the House of Representatives by un over whelming majority, composed chiefly of Northern Dtmoeratic votes. The split of the northern and southern Democrats on the issue follows the same line of cleavage which has continued to thrust the country apart ever since the adoption of the cons .ti tut ion. The place of the Negro in the body politic has been the bone of contention. The Mason and Dixon Line was traced by .two famous British surveyors (from the Deleware Ray to the | Ohio River. Thence it was push | ed along the Ohio to the Miss issippi River by ,the ordinance of 1784, and was extended still further to the Pacific Ocean by I the Missouri Compromises of 1820 and 1850: this isothermal line drawn across the continent haa taken on great political sig nificance. AntilyncJiing legislation in the very nature of the case, ahould be actuated by moral rather than political consideration. Un less Democracy destroys the mob, the mob will destroy de mocracy. Unfortunately, the nnti lynch ing bill is made to assume the appearance of race legislation. Those who support it are moti rated largely by the .thought that they are rendering a favor to the Negro race instead of to the national existence, but as a matter of fact the Negro, tho more numerous victims of the mob spirit, is by no means i.ts only victim: More than 1500 'yhite men and women have been lynched and burned at the stake by tho maddened mob in the past fifty years. If not a single Negro had been lynched in the meantime, the enormith of this evil should be the chief concern of national legislation. Whenever action of any kind involving the Negro is broach ed, the South reverts to its trn ditional attitude of negation and assumes the doctrine of states1 rights and local self gov eminent as its protective phil osopny. Lynching, unlike its twin in iquity, kidnapping, is not np proached in the national spirit, but its condemnation or condo nation follows fixed geographic boundary. Lynching does not constitute a political issue be tween the two great major par ties, The Democrats of the North and the Republicans of that section are of one favor able mind on .this question. On the contrary, the Democrats of the South and the lily white Re publicans of .that section are likewise of one unfavorable opin ion. The lily white Republicans of Virginia exclude the Negro from participation in their par ty conventions as effectively as do the Democrats of Texas by their white primaries. The Dyer Anti lynching bill and the Gavagan Bill have both passed the House of Represent atives by a practically solid northern vote, composed of both Democrats and Republicans as against the solid opposition of he southern vote, composed mainly of Democrats. Both the Dyer Bill and the CoatiganWag ner Bill were defeated by the southern senators who resorted to filibustering .tactics for that purpose. The Gavtigan Bill may be headed for the same fate. J My virtue of the more libera ! rule of the senate, a few detei mined senators can defeat an\ measure to which they are ur alterably opposed. The sponsors of the Coatigau Wagner Bill committed the er rqr of first submitting it to fhe senate, thus depriving the house of representatives of register ing the attitude of the prepon derant majority of .the Ameri can people on the necessity of I ridding the nation of a nation I al atrocity. If an yfeasible mea 1 sure to put down lynching and mob violence ever comes square | ly before the senate for a vote, ! it will pass that body by the ■ same overwhelming majority i as it passed ,the house, and by 'substantially the same nonparti sail vote, so far as the northern stutes are concerned. From the days of the recon struction ,to the World War, the southern wing has constitu ted the controlling factor of the Democratic Marty, but since the election of 1932, the nor.th ern wing has gained the ascend ancy, which is reflected in par ty alignment on the anti lynch ing bill. In both houses of the present congress, the northern Democrats are twice as numer ous an their southern copati sans. r Because of the historical at titude of the two great parties towards the Negro's political status, the race has clung to the Republican party, which it has bowed down to and wor shipped as the man Friday, did. his ma&ter’s gun which had res cued him from a situation of great peril. For fullly a generation the Negro was considered a traitor who deserved the GOP for a Democatic adversary as much as one who gives aid and abet meat to the enemies during a time of war. The triumph of .the Democrat ic party under Cleveland, Wil son and Roosevelt has gradual ly opened t lie Negro’s eyes to the actuality of the political sit nation When he looks about him and applies the acid test of rea son instead of the touchstone of emotions to the political situn tion, he finds there exists no discernable difference between Republican and Democrat ex eept as they are influenced by geography. The vote on the Gav agnn Bill clearly demonstrates this proposition. As soon as the Negro voters arrived at the stage of self eon sciousness they began to align .themselves with the party, men and measures, whiih promised the greatest advantage and ad Calvin9s Digest By Floyd J. Calvin Benny Goodman Seeing is believing; and this writer saw Benny Goodman, famed “swing" maestro broad cast on the "Jqck Oakie Col lege" program for Camel cig arettea at the CBS broadcast theatre, 54th street and Broad way, New York, Tuesday from 9 30 to 10:30 p. m. The remark able thing about this boadrcast was .that Goodman, a young white man who is admittedly on top, is so democratic and tol cnant that he carries as an in tegral part of his oganization, two colored youths—Teddy Wil son, wizard of the piano, and Lyonel Hampton, vibraphone expert. There has been some criticism of Mr. Goodman's arrangement and adaptation of certain songs blit we are willing to overlook a good many things after see ing the lesson this young man is teaching America, on race re la t ions. This was our first time to see a coast to coast broadcast, with vancement to ^he race and na tion, regardless of traditional partisan endearment or animos ity. The drift began with a northern migration brought on by the World War. The effective Ne gro vote in the North began to split more and more evenly be tween the two parties. Many Negroes cast tlieir ballot for Davis against Coolidge; many more for A1 Smith against Her bcrt Hoover; and still more for Itoosevelt against Hoover. The drift to Roosevelt against Lan | don assumed the proportions of a landslide. In the last two elections the overwhelming majority of the Negro votes wereeast for Roose volt and the New Deal. If the OOP ever hopes to regain its former Negro following it will have to formulate a new appeal, different from that upon which it has relied since the days of reconstruction. It must outbid the Democrats in wooing his support. The New Deal lias effected re markable changes in political attitude and alignment The Re publican party which tradition ally upheld strong federal auth ority against the claims of state rights, has now reversed itself in the opposite direction. The southern Democrats have out stripped their northern copart isans in tho opposite direction; m « ISSUlMMUl AMERICAS FIRST LADY OF SWlN'B. FEATURED WITH CHICK WEBB £ HIS BAND ON RADIO WITH JUAND UEANANK2 HECORDED wWi BENNY 6000MAN m MILLS BROTHERS .TFDDY WILSON MOTHERS I | A PRODUCTS ^ Of AMATEUR BAILEY RITE IN HARLEM THE PAESENTTAP DANCE STAR AT tfJ \SUL‘"m<J COTTON CLUB RipUctcl (1l(L Qoltnso* ® itv- iKTONmam nmoma part of the program coming from New York and the other from Hollywood, Calif. As Good rnaji “stands by“ and then goes “on the air“ with his two colored coworkers, and as all America “eeits it up“ in mil lions of homes, and the audi ence in the broadcast .theatre “brings down the house11 with applause after seeing the two colored lads perform, £t is enough to make one hopeful that the future bolds lugger and better things for Negro youth. Marian Anderson’s Rise The story of the rise of Mar ian Anderson is now being told on all sides. The latest and most thrilling account fo found in the New York Post—a special feature article by Michael Mok, who tells how Miss Anderson came up from humble eireum stances in her Philadelphia home, to her present world re nown. In fact, it wins only twel ve years ago that Mi*s Ander son had won in a competition which started her definitely on the road to fame. We are getting a new set of heroes, and we are proud. Ne gro youth is taking its place in the present scheme of things: Joe Lonis, Jesse Owens, Fred D. Patterson, William H. Has tie, Hubert T. Delany, Marian Anderson, Jane Bolin, Elsie Aus tin, and many others. It is well that we furnish new evidence of our ability, as a group, to achieve. President Rhoads Upheld We are happy to note a pub lie statement signed by several individuals, appearing in ,the Houston Informer which says in part: “President Joseph H. Rhoads lias spent eight success ful years at Bishop College. IIe came to the college following the administration of members of the white race who had led us successfully for 48 years. This humble son of (lie Negro race who Avas educated at Bis' [ hop College stepped out upon! the scene and took the task! * ith courage, dignity and honor- j During his administration we] have seen many changes and de • -: out while ike South lias revers j td itself on economic policies, it still maintans stubborn atti tude on states’ rights and local Sovereignty so far as the Negro is concerned. But the wiser minds of the South know fully, well that this section must eitli er keep step with the liberal movements which are sweeping throughout the nation and the world, or be left behind in its provincial isolation. By slow stages toward en lightened policy, the South lias been led to approve and to ap plaud the 13th amendment, abolishing slavery. It has tar dily accepted the overthrow of the doctrine proclaimed in the Dred Scott decision. It still balks at the 14th and 15th amendments, intended to place the Negro on terms of political and civil equality with the rest of the nation. It was unfortu nate that the acid test was ap plied to this essentially moral question. It puts the South on the wrong side of the moral equation. Democracy will stultify itself unless, or until mob rule is des troyed a^id ibroadly epeakirtg until all sections of the coun try cheerfully acknowledge that the Negro is entitled to equal rights under the law, and to the equal protection of the law, jAn Echo | _ jFrom My Den * By s. E. Gilbert As I sit here in my den, med itating as it were, there is still ringing in my ear the echo of the Third Annual Spring Mu sical, which was innate in the mind o£ Mr. L, L. McVay and for three years has indeed been a. tremeuduous success. Sunday it was my privilege to observe this young man in all his splendor, as he went about his work. His sincerity of purpose was indeed exemplified in his response to perhaps the greatest ovation that has ever been given an individual in Oin aha, when 1500 black Ameri cans sang the name of McVay to the tune of “Blessed Be the Tide” so vehemently, that lit erally the walls of Pilgrim Bap list church rocked in the spirit of praise to a greiat man, one who had the vision to bring in to being a project designed ac cording to his own response; “Folks 1 will be satisfied if by these services there can be brought about between the choirs of Omaha, harmony and a spirit of goodwill toward all mankind.” Closing lie uttered, “Forget McVay and strive to carry oat a spirit of harmony. To me this statement, com ing from the originator of such a ‘colossal affair, was indeed a crowning climax to the most wonderful song program of the season, proving that a man can render an invaluable service to the community in whioh he lives in an unselfish way. May McVay continue to work with a spirit of unselfishness and by his work be able to realize the propagating of such a spirit in to the lives of every black Arner iean in Omaha. vclopments take place. The col lege has grown with the times. The Oscar A. Fuller Memorial Hall has been dedicated to our services. The gymnasium which brings pleasure to thousands of college and high school students as well \as friends of athletics was erected in 1935. The cam pus has been converted into a veritable garden of flowers.. “Again under the adminis tration of President Rhoads, the School of Religion has become an outstanding feature of the college. “President Rhoads is a for ward moving character and he stands for all that Is best for humanity." This testimonial ,to the worth of President Rhoads as an ex ecutive and educator with vis ion is .timely and true. No one should be allowed to besmirch this record of constructive ser vice. Honoring Irving H. McDuffie The United Govenment Em ployes of Wasliington, D. C., hqwe seen fit to honor Mr. Irving Henry McDuffie, person al aide ,fo President Roosevelt. Judge Ormond W. Scott and Dr. Wm. J. Thompkins, Record er of Deeds, were among those attending the testimonial and banquet to this White House at tache. We are pleased to see mem bers of our group who are closs to the * * powers that be'' accord ed due and ju*t recognition and appreciation. Often they render the race as a whole greates service than any but a few even know about. This is true in th« case of both Mr. and Mrs. Ms Duffie.
