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About The Omaha guide. (Omaha, Neb.) 1927-19?? | View Entire Issue (July 24, 1937)
COMMENTS EDITORIAL PAGE opinions THE OMAHA GUIDE Published Every Saturday at 2418-20 Grant Street, Omaha, Nebraska Phones: WEbster 1517 or 1518 Entered as Second Class Matter March 15, 1027. at the Postoffice at Omaha, Neb,, underAct of Congress of March 3, 1879. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION $2.00 PER YEAR Race prejudice ntihl go- The Fatherhood of God and the Brother* 'Sood of Man mud prevail. These are the only principles which will ‘ itai.rl (he acid test of good. All News Copy of Churches and all Organizations must he in our sffice not later tnnn 5:00 p. m. Monday for current issue. All Adver tising Copy or Paul Articles not later than Wednesday noon, proceed ing date of issue, to insure publication. I ..EDITORIALS.. Dorah—What Does He Stand For? By Louis L. Redding—Reprint from The Orisis, March 1936 Ji would seem from this analysis of the senator from Tdalio. that Negro citizens can place little dopendene® in him a • a statesman and none at all in him as h man having nnv conception of the hopes, ambitions and rights of Negro Americans ! ST * TI’S TINTS, LVNOHTKa AND PROHIBITION— Thai he has listened to tin* requests of “Southern friend-:” | when h- In twice Indued slay so called federal an i-lynehing lulls h; ■ 1«' n unite aj'i'i'i1' ui to Kpon or, anil friends of that; legislation. I lien, jv- usual, lie cloaked his opposition in venera tion nr he Constitution, “To my mind” he said, “if that sort 1 of lull can he pus d and sustained by the Supreme Court, we I have ufteih annihilated all sta e sovyreienty; we have broknen 'down state line.-, eomplidely.'' Recently, reaffirming bis eons i tutioual objection, lie avowed tint “should the unexpected and great lmuor come to me of being President of the Cni ed States and m b a bill should reach me. . , I would unhes itatingly ve n it,’ Borah's frequently displayed lack of integ rity in maintaining a position always casts doubt upon bis sincerity. I n it lie is genuinely prepossessed by some abstract theortv ot the relations between the stale and national giv crnments, there is, in this in. ance, ample answer. Statutes de signed either to prevent or pimb-li mob violence in l'or.y states including tin with the wors lynching records, have not cheek-] ed lyneliing. A study of the Cuiven-hly of North Carolina shows tha only eighteenths of one per cent of the lyneliings sijn-e ! 1900 have been followed by conviction of the lynch ere* Sttae on-1 forcement officials, inseusifcive to their state’s default in afford-' ing equal protection to eitizerM, have publicly applauded mobs which have usurped the finie ions if the Synte and dealt our \ anarchaie Judge Lynch’s barbarity in place of due process, of! law. A eonsciention legislator should not be criticized for de clining to support a measure palpably unconst itutionnl and impolitic. But there can be no ipiestion of the good poliev of the an.i-lvnch legislation. And where able and d Nut crested constitutional lawyers urge the validity of the proposed legis lation, u construe ivc legislator would not block the possibility •of the highest test judicial examination. AVIiat the Supreme Conn would do with the anti-lynching law cannot be prelicted. It is interesting to recall that, the present Chief Jus.ice If llu* Supreme Court, in 1919, was a, leading spirit in a National ‘Conference on Lynching which unanimously palsscd a resolution to the effect that lyneliing be made a federal crime punishable by the United States court*). “Status’ rights” gave the Idahoan no trouble when it came to supporting federal prohibition. The smug opportunists who seized upon the emotionalism and patriotism of war to dry up all the states by national action found in Borah li champion. Later, when the nobility of the prohibition experiment had been Varnished by the bootleg racket and its bloody cone ini it’ants, when wholesale and contemptuous disregard'of the prohibition amendment was sapping respect for laws generally, Borah rang the air with pleas against “nullification.” Speaking at Washington, in 1923, on “Shall the Constitution of the United States Be Nullified” he declaimed: The subject which has been assigned to toe does not devolve upon me the duty of arguing the wisdom or unwis dom of any provision of the Constitution. That question was settled when any particular provision was placed in the Constitution. I ta|ke the instrument as I find it—*het cryStal ised views of a nation and mea4. to insist that it shall be maintatined and enforced as written. Startling is the comparison of this idealism with words ut tered by M)r\ Borah in a, colloquy in the Senate Wi4h \ John Sharp Williams of Mississippi, a few years before. Borah after pointed out that the Mississippians had kept the Negroes from voting in evasion of the Fifteenth Amendment, added: ‘Npw, 1 am not discussing' at this time the question as to whether or not the South qould submit to the domination of the inferior raoe. I am not diatcnstfuig' the justifica tion of what you have done. We would do the same thing in the North if the situation was the same.’’ Bight, indeed, Was Borah when in thq nullification speech already quoted from, he said: “We need to have constitutional morality declared as was the gospel of old tfc the higl^and the low, for1 against this neither “things present nor things to come shall prevail."’ It is a,need William E. Borah may himself he charged with. (Continued Next Week)) DELINQUENT SUBSCRIBERS—PLEASE NOTICE The poetoffloo department does not permit the delirery <ot papers to delinquent subscribers. If your payments are not up to date, please mail or brinf amount dne to The Quids offtoe or call W1B1017 for repraeeotatfro: Tour cooperation will be greatly appreciated' TRo Mamaf ement Prize Winning Washington Block . 1’Jioto shows prize winning block in Washington, 1). at 1200 Wal or Man*. Southeast, in the ('oan-1 p eunipaigu spon sored by ihe Ai'ro-American, a newspaper, ui Baltimore, Mil., < «r| Murphy, president and ' editor. More that 5,000 people joined the campaign in Washing.on, and 120,00 in Bal timore. The drive was undertaken as a com munity service by the newspaper. (C) Editorial of the Week (From tlu> Elkin, \. (’.) Tribune, .July I, l!K!7 WE HAVE INVITED IT The Wagner-VanNuys anti lynohing bill 1ms been approved by the Senate judicial commit tee, and once more this, issue will furnish the opportunity f<»r Southern members of Congress to throw a fit. Idealizing that a vote on the issue would mean their defeat, it would not sur prise me IT some of our South ern s.atesmen do not employ that silliest of all Legislative procedures the filibuster, and talk the proposal to death. There are some provisions in the propo ed legislature that might work a hardship on lo cal government uni s. if and when lynchinps occur. Butt these can he avoided by diligent law enforcement, and that is some thing we ought to have, with or without a federal law. Some Southern States, and North Carolina is among them, have laws sufficiently severe to deal with lynchings. But they are not enforced. We still have lynching**, in spite of the and seldom is there anything ever done about them. Men eon tinue to take the law in their own hands, but because thev are socially and politically nm minent. nobody is able to identi fy them, and the solicitor, after a few high-sounding threats, let the matter die the usual death. That has happened here in North Carolina, |nd is llfs rule all over the South. These mobsters would thinW twice before undertaking their dastardly work if there was certainty that they would have to answer to the federal govern ment, for the federal courts are not in the habit of covering up with white wash. As much as th» next one we deplore the crime lint usually is the basis for a lynching party hut equally do we deplore a meting out the punishment. If we are to have this anti lynching law, it will come be cause of our own deliqueney, We have only ourselves U blame, and our representatives in Congress, remembering that the law applies to all states alike, could curb their inclina tion to knife It, without muefc hurt to themselves and theii state. Norris Convicted (Continued fm.nit Page 1) opinion” of the ease. Names oL'| the other two were struck by the state. Prosecutor Thomas F. Lawson said that the mere drawing ol‘ their names on tlie panel fulfilled the cnsfitution iil requirements and contended .he state had, a right to strike anybody it chose, regardless of race, in selecting the jury. Opening witness for the stale was Victoria Price, who again told ti story of how site and I in by I >;t os were assaulted by the nine Scot I shorn you lis aboard a freight train in March T1931. She said the Negroes came up yelling to their white companion'-1. “All you white boys unload.” She swore two of them had pistols ami the others had knives, and that Norris Tireatened to kill her is she did not yield. Victoria asserted that she was ravished by Norris and five others and that she and Ruby were hoboing aboard he freight to their home in Hunts villjp, Ala., after an unsuccess ful attempt to find work in Chattanooga, Tenn. To refute the woman’s story that she was so brutally treated * ■she was bleeding and bruised. ihe defense counsel read into ( the record the testimony of I>r. It. It. Bridges of Scottsboro. j now deceased, given at the last trial of Norris in November, 1933. The physician was called by the state in the original trial but because his testimony did not show cither woman was at tacked, he has since then been ignored by the defense. To further refute Victoria’s story, Ijcibowitz brought in a suprize witness. Mrs. Emma Bates, mother of Ruby, who la ter repudiated the attack yarn and said th,e whole thing was a frameup. Wouldn’t Convict White Watts led off for the defense. He dwelt at length in his sou thern birth and pride in Alaba ma justice. Ho would like to feel, he said, that Alabama was a state where even - handed justice was administered to white and black alike, and de clared no white man would con vict another white man on such testimony as that offered by Victoria Price. Taking up where Watts left, Leibowitz enumerated the many discrepancies in her story and pointed especially to the tes'ii mony of J)r. Bridges, lie told the jury it was up to them to decide whether the physician or the woman had lied. “Dr. Bridges was your doc tor and neighbor,” he declared, “lie was brought to testify by the officials of your state. ' yet he damns that woman’ story as a lie. There is nothing to this case but damnable lies. For six and a half years she lias been crying for blood—the blood of these Negroes she framed to protect herself—and I hope to God there is not prejudice and passion here as well.” The trial was marked by several clashes between Calla han and Leibiwitz. Monday af- j ternoon the later renewed ;lie | old defense motion to transfer ing of the trial to the federal district court on the ground that the defendants were being deprived of their constitutional rights by the Alabama staiute limiting changes of venue to one. It was denied. A warning against the dis tribution of any literature on the case in courtroom was is sued by the judge who said he would cite such disiributors “for contempt of court.” I THE LOW DOWN —-from-- ; HICKORY GROVE Writin’ about gals and wives now and then, or often even, it seems to be something 1 have the most fun doing. ’Course ev erything is lcinda funny to me, but 1 guess any lazy duck lias more time to see funny sights and not be a gloom year and rear out, and never see anything comical. The girls, they are O. K., and some of ’em are better than a show. But the keen ones, you don’t see them ou; there doin’ all the monkey shines, like crowdin’ the men out of the bar rooms, and shovvin’ off. T’hese wise one they are over at , the cooking school findin’ out something about how to season ; up the old roast, so as to help cm, may, cap.ivate for them selves, a permanent meal tick- , 't. i And the thin young fellers ' standing around and wut bin’ the other kind, tlid whow-nF ' gals, do all sorts of stuff like 1 i few of ’em learin’ to swe uid to spit through their teeth, 1 he young fellers are just there to see what happens next., and they are not there pickin’ on4 1 gals fir wive*1. These young bloods, they are pr.etty wise geezers. Yours with the low-down. Jo Serra Bishop N. W. Williams Speak to 5,000 at Open Air Union Services Kansas City, Mo., July 22 (ANP) — Bishop Noah W. Williams, AM B church prelate, addressed more than 5,<)()<• las Sunday night at an open-aid , union service held at Muehl- ( bach park, his subject being ( “The Christian Church and , Present Day Problems,” Speak- ( ing of labor condi ions as af feeding Negroes, the Bishop declared: “My opinion is thai j we as « racial group should j stand by those who can give ( us gainful employment. The 1 American Negro should stay ^ out sit-down and prepare him- ( self to fill any place of employ- ( inent. The 12,000,(XX) Negroes ; in the United States furnish a ] mighty good market for the ^ products of factory, shop and ( farm—if given employment ] where he may earn money with ] which to buy—and the captains j of industry know if the la- j bor unions do not.” 1 ;V£l/Wt£iY<C' ®« I* NOW CONOUCTlNG A ^1 lAMOllC. CLASS - ^ .* *. , " j SENSATIONAL O-OLLEtL SKATE *BAnC%.%. M Does pamo* m» act cm fopor*^ 04 IMC.H TA6L€. HE IS MOW TOUA.\Ma XH? M'OWtST WITH AJMfWHI-TBZ^ •IfcOUPE* ”, A -^- -r—t t « m » m m • 9 t-f ! AnEcho ♦ | From ,My Den * By S. E. Gilbert As 1 sit. here in my den wiih pen in hand meditating as it were: there comes to my mind a lamentable fact: one that I regret to recognize as such, but facts are facts, and inasmuch as 1 know it to be a fact, 1 am passing that fact on to you. Hearing that the Negroes of Omaha were patronizing a cer tain ice cream shop on the South Parkway of Omaha, an establishment in which not one black American can be found as aii employee, but where hun dreds may be seen consuming its delicacy 1 set out to see for my self this lamentable scene. As 1 stood across the street in the vicinity of 24. h and Lake, I saw car after car stop; doors open and Black Americans si p out and into this ice cream sho t, void of Blacky American emplov ecs, to purchase a delicacy that a Black American originally gave to the world. After count ing in sixty minutes over one hundred such entrances, my heart yearned for an awaken ing, a race awakening that would cause those who no doubt unconsciously, arc perpetrating a gross injustice upon the eco nomic opportunity of hundreds of boys and girls of their own race, by spending their mom v where they receive in return only a cone or a carton of froz en milk. To stop and think, this lamentable scene, as viewed by your correspondent, could (be turned from a picture of pity into one of joy and pride. How? By merely driving or walking one and one-half blocks south ami entering the portals of a creditable Black American’s enterprize where one can viz ualize not only a beautiful place owned and operated by a Ne gro but can find the hands of Negro youths busily engaged in the manufacturing of the del icacy called ice cream, for your consumption. Now I have pic tured to you the, two sides of the fact which came to my mind as I sat meditating in my den. One a picture of pity, that car ries in its wake continued eco nomic bondage ; the other a pic ture of joy and pride which should the Black American of North Omaha support, would mean not only a bigger and bet ter enterprise, but an outlet for economic opportunities for the boys and girls whom you, dear readers ar^ uacrifiring to educate. -o Ky. School Teacher Receives M. A. Degree _ • Miss Willette Embry, school teacher of Richmond, Ky. who matriculated at Omaha univer sity last September working to ward her Masters degree, suc ceeded in receiving her goal, July 16th during the summer school semester. Mian Embry received her Master of Arts degree majoring in education and minoring in physicology. Dean Holt gave Miss Elmbry a a cretificate showing gradua tion; she will receive her di ploma at the next convocation >f Ohio university, June 1938. Miss Embry left last f rid ay for tier home in Richmond, Ky., to spend the summer with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Emmett Embry. While in Omah.':, Miss Embry made her home with tier aunt, Mrs. H, R. Greenfield in Ihmdee.