LARGEST ACCREDITED NEGRO NEWSPAPER WEST OF CHICAGO AND NORTH OF KANSAS CITY “Entered as Second-class Matter at The Post office, Omaha, Nebraska, Omaha, Nebraska, Saturday, November 16, 1940 OUR 1.4th YEAR—No. 36—City Edition, 5c Copy _Under Act of March 8. 1874—Business Phone: WE. 1517 _ _ ___.__ FIRE PARTIALLY DES TROYS OLIVET AS THOUSANDS AWAIT WILLIAMS’ FUNERAL CHICAGO, Nov. 11 (ANP)—Tragedy, which struck eight days before when Dr. L. K. Williams, president of the National Baptist Convention, Inc., was killed in an airplane crash near Charlotte, Mich-. * truck again Wednesday morning when fire partially destroyed his toric Olivet Baptist Church and drove into the streetfe 4,000 miurners awaiting the funeral services for Dr. Williams, also its pastor. Dam age was estimated, at $50,000. The crowd, including distinguished leaders from all parts of the nation, began assembling before 9 a. m. Services were to start at 11 o’clock that morning. Around 10:30, with every available seat filled and other hundreds standing inside the auditorium, the Rev. Joseph Bjtaham, assistant pastor discov ered flames in the third floor class room. Running downstairs, he found three policemen on duty there Sgt Carl Nelson, former bodyguard for Joe Louis; Sgt. Thomas Chapman and Patrolman Louis! Frank, the latter two white. All returned to the classroom to try and subdue the blaze but it had gained too much headway. A fire alarm was turned in immediately by Officers Louis Steinberg and Robert White on duty outside, who noticed wisps of smoke trailing from the steeple. Ml.Vinwhile, Sat. Nelson had gone to the control panel of the public address system in the choir loft and cut in on the organ mus ic being played over the speakers. “There has been a fire in the church but it’s out now’’ he said, although the flames were steadily mounting in the upper part of '.he cjhurch. ‘‘However, the firemen want the building cleared. You will please leave, single file.’’ At the same time, some persona in t'he balcony had noticed smoke and had broken out windows ore paring to jump to the street- But officers stopped them and made them leave through the door. Nobody believed at first there really was a fire, thinking those outside had concocted a scheme to get inside the church. When no attempt was made to leave Sgt. Nelson repeated his instructions and the crowd stood up and start ed moving toward the exists. From the choir loft Sgt. Nelson controlled the crowd, belling the people to “quit pushing” and stop ping them when congestion was too great at the doors. As a i es" ult, the thousands got outside in perfect order. The only injuries sustained were by two men who suffered minor cuts from broken glass and by a woman, Mrs- Arn etta Jones, 41t whose* ankle was broken. As the last of the crowd was leaving, the flames broke through the ceiling. Deacons then remov ed the casket from the front of the church, where it had been laying in state since Monday evening. There were four carloads of flow ers banked around the altar but they were not removed. Later, when part of the ceiling fell in from the weight of debris falling' from above, tthe floWers were par tially buried. The tons of water shot into the Iblaze knocked them all over the floor. The casket was taken to the Hell Funeral Home on Michigan aven ue, a few blocks away, whice it remained unt^l open air funeral) services were held in front of the church starting at 2 p. m More than 30 fire trucks rush ed to the scene as a 5-11 alarm was sounded, and at least 10,000 persons stood watching the blaze which was brought under control within an hour. Many of those who watched remained on the streets outside until services in the afternoon. Some had left their overcoats in the building. It was around 40 degrees above zero at the time of the conflagration. Defective wiring is generally believed responsible for t/he firo( al though the church organist, who said the huge electric instrument had been played almost continu ously for twod ays while thous ands viewed Dr. Williams’ body, > .— asserted she had felt heat from ihe organ Tuesday night and had re ported it but nobody did anything about it. Much of the rich walnut and mahogany woodwork of the church was a total loss and the roof, part of tlhe floor, and much of the up Istairs rooms will have to be re built- Most of the church records were saved. The loss was covered by insurance and rebuilding is to start soon. Olivet has the largest member ship of any Protestant church in America, around 10,000. It was .built to its present size mainly through the efforts of Dr. Wil liams. The building is 80 years old and was once a station on the “underground railroad’1 of pre Civil war days. ART’S LAUNDRY UN DER NEW MANAGER Art’s Luandry, 2627 Cuming Ft. has been taken over by Mr. Wil liam Lyman. w*ho has had twelve years experience in the dry clean ing and laundry work and who is at present operating two plants, one at the above address and the othed at 4909 North 42nd street or 42nd and Grand Ave. Mr. Lyman’s experience and qualifications have always be.n O .K. to the pubilc. We sincere ly offer our services to all. Give us a trial and be convinced. Call Ait’s Laundry> 2627 Cuming St., JA. 7746. Nebraska Clothing Co. Gives Valuable Certificates 54TH ANNIVERSARY EVENT A MONEY SAVER FOR ALL Everyone is pretty well acquaint ed with the Nebraska Clothing Co. idea of selling clothing and wear ing apparel. The Nebraska al ways strives to sell at the lowest possible price for strictly FIRST grade merchandise. But right now the Nebraska is Celebrating il^s 54th Birthday—and is giving Appreciation Certificates witlh purchases all over the store. These Certificates are redeemable in merchandise in any department at the Nebraska up to Dec. 31st, 1940. In a display announcement on page three in todays’ Omaha Guide, the above liberal proposit. ion is explained in detail. Book Review By Dr. F. Smith At Clair Chapel A book review by Dr. Frank G. Smith, will be given Tuesday eve. November 26th at 8 p. m. at the Clair Chapel Church, 22nd and Miami Sts., Sponsored by the Mo dern Priscilla Art and Study club Literary Dept., for the benefit of their shoe fund. I We wish to take this pppomm j ity in thanking all of you for the splendid cooperation you 'have giv en us in the past. Dr. Smith will review “How Green Is My Valley” by Llewellyn. Our motto “Lifting As We j Climb’’ For further information call— WE. 0624, or W'E. 1658 “Let Us Be Tharktil” Chrysanthemum Festival mammmm m Two of last year’s younger visitors found the Chrysanthemum Festival at Forest Lawn, too beautiful for words—but their eyes spoke 'olumes! -- r, JETS N .Y. CASE WORK APPOINTMENT Miss Annie D. Singfield. 1940 giaduate of the Atlanta Univers ity school of Social Work, has re cently been appointed case work er on tlhe staff of The Five Points House, New York Ctiy. She is also a graduate of Paine College, Augusta, Georgia, and has taken special courses at the North Car olina A. and T. College, Greens boro. Miss Sinafield taught for a number of years in various high schools of North Carolina before entering the Atlanta University School of Social Work. She brings to her present position an excel lent cultural and educational back ground Tries 3 Years For Two Jackpots; (Jets 158 In Draft Nashville, Nov. 6 (ANP) Albert Teas ley, 32, holder of No. 158 in Fr^m November 17 to 21 One of the outstanding things about Thanksgiving week in Om aha—especially to the City’s thou sands of flower lovers—is the an nual Forest Law nChysanthemum Festival, and this year will be no exception. The Tenth Annual Foi est Lawn Festival will be held from Sunday .November 17th through Thanksgiving Day, Nov ember 21st, at tihie Forest Ltavvnj Conservatory Every year from Omaha and vicinity, twenty to twenty-five thousand persons vis it thig unusual display which fr»uuri ui u»s anniversary, the Republic of Liberia has issued a special of postage stamps. Collectors are said to regard them as one of the most interesting and col orful sets of stamps recently issued. (ANP) $ionul Association for the Advance ment of Colored People, NAACP. attorneys in the case who were invited to the conference( not only declined to attend but urged the Nepro representatives not to par ticipate in any such conference while the case was pending before the court, unless the city attorney made a specific offer in writing, preliminary to the holding of the meeting. Those who attended the confer ence were: P. B. Young, president of the Norfolk Journal and Guide; L. F Palmer, principal of the Huntington High School, Newport NeWa, Va.,. Thomas H. Henderson a teacher at the Armstrong high school, at Richmond, representing the Virginia State TeaChers As sociation and City Manager Bor land. j It was following this conference that the City attorney made a written offer to the Norfolk tea chers Association, to equalize the salaries of Negro and white tea chers over a period of three years On November 7. the teachers ac cepted the offer, which amounted to $129,000 on condition that they be given an increase of not less than $,'10,000 of the money this year, and higher increase^ during the next two years with the total differential to be removed by Sep tember 1942. They further in sisted that the NAACP. attorneys put the offer in such legal lang uage as to be binding. Iaist Junfc, NAACP. attorneys, who are representing Alston won r. victory, when the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, revers ed the ruling of a lower court, and established the principle that dis crimination in the payment of sal aries solely on the ground of race or color, is unconstitutional. The United States Supreme Court af firmed this decision Qdtober 2b, when it refused to review the 1 case. It was at this stage of the case, while a hearing w% pending before the local federal court, that a Conference of representative Negro citizens of Norfolk, was held in the office of the City Man ager, Charles B. Borland on Mon day t November 4. American Pilgrimage To Home of Booker T. Washington HARRIETT BEECHER STOWE INCLUDED IN SERIES New York, Nov. 10 (AND — Officials of NBC announced this week the ‘route’ ’of the American Pilgrimage to be made by Ted Ma lone, famous broadcaster ,to the hemes of America’s best loved men and women of letters. The series will include visits to the homes of Booker T Washington at Tuske gee, Sunday .February 2 at 2 p. m .,EST and to tihe home of Har > riet Beecher Stowe whose home was visited on Sunday, November 10. Noah Webster, Mark Twain, William Dean Howells ,Ed;ar Al len Poe, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Benjamin Franklin are among the 31 authors whose homes will be visited . LEADERS SAY ELECTION RE SULTS SHOW NEGRO’S POL ITICAL P’WER STRENGTHEN - ED • •• ASK UNITED FRONT NEXT FOUR YEARS; SOME THINK RACE WILL GET BETTER TREATMENT I BUT WARN OF PLENTY OF HARD WORK N EXCESS AIRY CHICAGO, Nov. 12 _ Outstanding leaders of the race, both Democratic and Republican, hurled aside the masks of partis anship this week to ask that Ne groes presient a united front in fighting for further integration in to national life, acocrdinff to a survey conducted by the Associat ed Negro Press. At the same time they said results of the re cent election showed the race’s strategic political importance, while somepo inted to general At- ' ramerican satisfaction with the policies of Roosevelt as expressed by the vote and foresee even great er benefits. According to Atty. ^Julian D. Rainey of Bostont head of the col ored Democratic eastern division, “The reelection of Roosevelt will affect the Negro a* it will affect a great majority of the people in the Negro’s economic group. It means uninterrupted progress for underprivileged people. I am sure we have made enormous political gains and under the President will make further economic and social gains.” Somewhat similar lUtitimenta were expressed by Dr. C. B. Pow ell of New York, eastern Demo cratic publicity director, who de clared, “In New York and the east the new Democratic victory stren gthens the Negro’s k-'uds and presages hope for til* future. It points to many lessJiui the first i f whidh is the need for political omanization which really repres ents the people. Such an organ ization will supersede the welfare workers who frequently usurp it* position and will be in independ ent position to present to the ad ministration the authoritative views of the Negro voter without reference to any individual’s pers onal future” Calling for an end to the bitter ness of the recent campaign, Mrs. Eunice Hunton Carter, assistant district attorney of New York City, said, ‘‘It is my sincere hope that the Negro, like all other good American citizens will unite in an » effort to achieve that national har mony without wlhieh we shall not be a nation strong enough to with stand the enemies boring from within and battering from without On the other hand all democratic governments need strong minor ities to keep those in power aw are of their ultimate responsibil ity to tine people of the country. It is to be hoped Republican Ne groes will, he next four years, con tinue to work for and be articulate concerning the defects in the pol icies of the Democratic pa>ty in regard to the Negro. The New Deal must be kept aware of the fact that the Negroes of the coun try gave it no sudh sweeping man date as it did in 1936.’’ Atty. S. R. Redmond of St. Lou is, Republican western director, asserted, “The Negro in America thinks and acts very similarly to his white fellow man which ex plains in part our vote. It i3 en couraging to note that in most states in the western division the Republican candidates got at least 50 percent of the Negro vote- The future course slhould be to keep up the educational fight. In fhe eential west alone we captured states with one-third the nation's vrtes. With Mr. Roosevelt’s plur ality cut down 7,000,000 the Dem ocrats are on their way out." A Democratic editor( |J. E. Mit chell of the St. Louis Argus thinks “The 'election of Roosevelt assur er Negroes a more substantial place in the body politic. The President’s election for a th>rd term also gives assurances of the continuation of his social legisla tion which has meant so mudh to the poor, especially to the Negro. However, it is a sign of progress to see Negroes divided politically just asot her races and groups are” In a letter written to the White House, Dean William Pickens of the NAACP. said he was opposed to the third term but congratulat ed Roosevelt on his reelection with • continued on page|^=2)