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About The Omaha guide. (Omaha, Neb.) 1927-19?? | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 1941)
GOOD READING i The *j | OMAHA GUIDE | gc /JUSTICE/EQUALITY at your Drugstore largest accredited negro newspaper west of Chicago and north of Kansas city —member of the associated negro press Under Act of March 8, 1874—Business Phone^WE.Nebraska. Qmaha Nebraska, Saturday, November 1, 1941 OUR 14th YEAR—No. 33 City Edition, 5c Copy 41 Leaders Sign Statement Repudiating Request For Jim-Crow Training of Officers MUTUAL SYSTEM NEWSCAST-* ER SAYS EDGAR G. BROWN AND OTHERS ASKED FOR SEPARATE SCHOOLS NEW YORK—Emphatically re pudiating the appeal allegedly made to President Roosevelt ex pressing opposition to the Army's present system of training Negro and white officers in the same schools, forty-one distinguished Negro churchmen, editors, lawy ers. business and porfessional nun signed a statement to the Presid ent today, urging him to resist any ‘ backward step.-’ The statement came after a checkup on a broadcast by news caster Fulton Lewis, Jr., on Octo ber 20 over the Mutual Broadcas ting system, during which he sa>d, “A laige group of the most res ponsih'c Ntgro leaders in the coun try has appealed to President Roosevelt m a formal, official let ter opposing the present policy of the Army whereby Negro officer* are beinw: trained in the same schools as white officers.” The newscaster’s assistant, Da vid Stick, in answer to an inquiry from ihe XAACP. about the source of his information, replied: “In formation from Edgar G* Brown, president, Ignited Government Em ployees” a”d others. Anti-Negro forces m Washing ton and particularly in the War Department are reported to be de lighted at the request of Edgar G Brown for Jim Crow officers’ training camps since it permits them to justify segregation on tne ground tl at Negroes themselves have asked for it. The statement opposing separ ate officers’ training schools reads: “We repudiate any and all requests that the nresent success ful method of training white and Negro officers in the same camps be changed and that Negro officers be sent to segregated officers’ training schools. Segregation has always led to discrimination and widening of the chasm between races whch menaces our country in this hour of peril- We petition you as Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy to resist any back ward step and to push forward in the national defense program to ward the truest democracy without distinction of race, creed, color cr national origin.” Among the signers of the state ment are A- Philip Randolph, in ternational president of the Broth erhood of Sleeping Car Porters, New York City: Dr. Dorothy Pou'dmg Ferebee, president, Al pr.a Kappa Alpha seioity; Wash ington, D. C-: T. G- Nutter. Char leston, W. Va-, fraternal leader and former West Virginia State leg:slator; Euclid L. Taylor, presi dent, National Bar Association, Chicago, 111- Rayford W. Logan, president, Alpha Phi Alpha frat ernity, Washington, D- C.; J. E. Smith, chairman of the executive committee of the National Negro Insurance Association, Louisville, Ky; Leon A. Ransom, acting dean Howard University Law school, Washington, D. C. Also, Bishop John A- Wegg, pre siding bishcp of the Fourth Epis ccpal District, African Methodist 'v scopal Church. Kansas City. Kans.; Bishop W. J, Walls, of the Chicago District,A frican Meth odist Episcopal Zion Church, C .C Spaulding, president, National Negro Insurance Association, Dur ham, N. C.; Roscoe Dunjee, editor the Black Dispatch, Oklahoma City. Okla-; W. Robert Ming, J1-, professor, Howard University law school, Washington, D. C.; Judge Jane Bolin of the Domestic Rela tions Court, New ork City; Frank R. Crosswaithe, Chairman of the Negro Labor Committee, New York City; Fred R- Moore, editor the New ork Age, New York Citp; Dr- George Haynes, race relations committee of the Federal Council of Churches, New ork City: Judge Charles E. Toney of the Municip al Court, New York City; the Rev. O- Clay Maxwell, Mt. Olivet Bap tist Church, New' York City. Others are Ira F. Lewis, pub WHERE TO GO TO CHURCH SUNDAY • (See Page Three) Usher, the Pittsburgh, Pa., Cour ier; E- Washington Rhodes, pub I lisher, the Philadelphia, Pa. Trib une; C. A. Franklin, editor, the Kansas City, Mo., Call; C- A- Scott editor, the Atlanta, Ga. Daily World; Carl Murphy, publisher the Afro-American, Baltimore, Md Walter White, executive secretary National Association for the Ad vancement of Colored People. Roy Wilkins, editir of The Crisis mag azine; Dr. Rufus E- Clement, pres ident, Atlanta University, Ga.; A. C. MaicNeal, editor, the Chicago, 111. Defender; Judge James C. Wat sin of Ithe Municipal Court, New irk City; Dr. Dwight O- W. Holmes president, Morgan College, Balti more, Md.; Miss Elsie Austin, president, Delta Sigma Theta sor ority, Washington, D- C.; Louis Martin, editor, Michigan Chron icle, Detroit, Mich.; Charles H. Houston, attorney, Washington, D. C.; Louis L. Redling, attorney, Wil mington, Del.; Elmer A. Carter, editor of Opportunity magazine, NeW York City, Eugene Kinckle Jones, executive secretary, Nat ional Urban league, NeW York City; James E. Scott, grand pole march, Kappa Alpha Psi fratern ity. Washington, D- C.; Earl J. Dickerson, member of the Presi dent’s Commitltee on Fair Employ ment Practice, Chicago, 111.; John W. Davis, president, West Virginia State College, Institute, W. Va. Among the (telegrams which came into the New York office of the NAACP-, endorsing the state ment to President Roosevelt in re pudiation of Ithe request for a Jim Crow officer’s training school are these.— “You may have no misgivings a bout where the Pittsburgh Cour ier stands on the question of se gregation in the entire defense program. If Negro officers are being trained in the same units as white officers, it is reasonable to assume that they are receiving bet Iter training than it would be pos sible to secure under any type of segregated setup. You may use my name to that effect-” Ira F. Lewis, The Pittsburgh Courier. “You have full authority Ito sign my name to the petition you pro pose to present to the President of the United States as outlined in your telegram of today. Any such mawkish diatribe from socaUcd ; Negro leaders is treasonable to the equality and justice for which sound Negro leaders have been striving.” Euclid Louis Taylor, President, National Bar Assn “I join enthusiastically with you and others in statement set forth in your telegram this day with ref erence to training of Negro and white officers in (the same camp You may place my name as one of the endorsers of such a statement” Earl B- Dickerson. “Will be glad to join you and ethers in protest to the President and Secretary of War against ail foims of segregation of Negroes in the Army, including training, etc.” Philip Randolph "Repudiate emphatically any suggestion Negro leaders in fav or segregated officers’ training camps. Use my name on your pro posed petition. You know my sentiment and can quote me as un alterably oppose-i ” L. A. Ransom. “The orinciples expressed in 'he proposed statement to the Presid ent I gisdly endorse- They reflect mv !i*e long attitude on the ques tion. \ou may add my signature.” Frank R. Crossw.v H “S’gn my name twice to idte mtrt opposing segregation in Ar my diners’ training.” Roscoe Dunjee V “You may sign my name to your telegram. Present system of trod leg in this section has prove a x ru-’i ess. I am opposed to ?. Ji an - c.’ C. A- Franklin, The Kansas City Cail “[ repudiate Jim Crow’s state ment- Sign my name to protest NEBB. POLITICS The greatest American game, pol itics, is now getting underway for 1942 Already, several senatorial candidates have been mentioned; Kenneth Wherry Republican State Chairman, who last year brought the Republican pany back to life in the state, Governor Dwight Griswold, a product of the “RESURRECTION”, and former Gov ernor, Arthur J. Weaver. Each man has his following xnd — hopes, but the decision will be made by Mr. arid Mrs. Public, who let us fer vently wish, will base their decision on grounds best designed to advance the highest interests of the state and the nation. Two of the candidates, Messrs. Griswold and Weaver, are supporters of the New Deal Domestic and Foreign Policies, whereas Mr. Wherry, while supporting some phases of the Foreign Policy, points out that a $60,000,000, 000.00 ‘‘WAR DANCE” requires many fiddlers, who must be paid. And he in sists that much of this vast sum is be ing spent merely for “fiddlers”, with very little preparation for war or peace. The public should hear all of them and ascertain what they know a bout DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN PROBLEMS, rather than their agree ment or disagreement with Roosevelt, for the time is coming when men and women in American Public Life will have to stand on their own feet; when a mere “me too” will be unavailing. It will be remembered that Neb raska in 1940, even with a candidate like Wendell Willkie, voted against Roosevelt and the New Deal. What will happen in this respect in 1942? Will the fact that we are at war change the political picture? Will the moth ers and fathers in Nebraska be more willing in 1942 to send their sons to foreign lands to fight and die than they were in 1940? We have an opinion on this mas ter, but will withhold it for the pres ent. Which shall it be: Wherry, Wea ver or Griswold for United States Sen ator in 1942. Nebraska Politics are “humm ing” again. Watch out. MRS. BETHUNE SAYS NEGRO YOUTH CONFERENCE COMES AT JUST THE RIGHT TIME Washington, D. C.—Describing the present crucial period as one in which our country may well re gard as an “asset a militant youth able to keep its feet on the ground’ in the fight to defend democracy, Dr. Mary McCleod Bethune, dir ector of the NY A’s Office of Ne gro Affairs, char acterized the forthcoming Na tional Conference of Negro Youth as "timely, pert inent and neces sary”. More than one * thousand repres entatives of Ne gro youth groups throughout the country are ex pec-tea to attend gjA.N.F. the three day eon m*ry m. bethune ference which opens in Washing ton Friday November 14th, at the Metropolitan Baptist Church, ac cording to Miss Marie Richardson, acting secretary of the local init iating committee. The committee has opened offices at 903 You St. Northwest. “The call for the convening of a National Conference of Neg,o Youth, seems to meet these three challenges,” Dr. Bethune said. “It is timely, pertinent and necessary “A militant youth, able to ke°p its feet on the ground, but its head high and its eyes clear, will be an asset to America as our country bears itself to the rapid tempo re quired for the defense of democ racy- Today it is just as true as when Lincoln spoke these immort al words: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” ‘‘Inasmuch as I understand the purpose of this conference is to point the way toward greater unity by integration of the Negro into all the practical aspects of demo cracy—not just in theory—I be lieve it will serve a real purpose.” The conference will give special attention to the problems facing two million Negro youth in the Un ited States, approximately eighty thousand of whom are in the army as regards their integration in na tional defense industries, the var ious branches of the armed forc es, and civilian defense activities. More than eight hundred thousand Negro young people between the ages of 20 and 24 years, are un employed, according to govern ment statistics, despite the dire need for workers in defense in dustries. A cultural iestivai will be one of the highlights of the confer ence. Thomas Richardson, author of “Pace: America”, a dramatic history of the National Associat ion for the Advancement of Color ed People; and Waring Cuney, col laborator with Joshua White on the new blues album, titled “Sou thern Exposure”, will direct the festival. W C Handy, famos author of do 'umtnt. Am with you one hun dred percent.” W- J. Walls. ‘‘The Negroes of Michigan wi’l repudiate any effort to further jim-erowism in the armed forces of the nation. Will gladly sign your statement.” Louis Martin the St. Louis Blues, whose 58th birthday occurs on the date of the festival, is scheduled to appear. Duke Ellington, famous Orchestra leader and a sponsor of the confer ence, is also scheduled to appear. Other artists who are also sponsors of the conference include 01 Har rington, famous cartoonist, aud Aaron Douglass, well known mural painter. NAACP BRANCH HELPS FREE MAN ON MURDER CHARGE San Bernadino, Cal-,—Because they were able to prove that John Oscar Hayes, picked up in San Di ego, California ,and brought to San Pernadino as suspect in the com mission of a murder in that town, was a victim of mistaken identity attorneys Marshall Denton, Jr, and William Guthrie, retained in Hayes’ behalf by the local branch of the NAACP- secured his release here on October 14th. Immediately after Hayes’ arrest in March, the branch investigated the case and was convinced that Hayes was not the criminal. His case was first put on the calender for September 10, and because he had no funds, two ‘‘inexperienced” lawyers were appointed by tne court to defend him Alton-Oys Denton and Guthrie after healing the facts and at the request of the NAACP, took over the case a» d proved conclusively that Hayes was mistakenly identi fied as the murderer. As a result of their defense the Mai resmteu in a hung jury. A retrial was ses for November 18, but on October 14th the case was dismissed . FORMER CIVIL SERVICE EMPLOYES MAY GET WORK Washington, Oct. 22 (ANP)— A new* ruling of the civil service commission paves the way for hundreds of veteran employes of the government to reenter the ser vice, regardless of their age or length of time since they were separated from the civil service rolls. Any worker who was on the payrolls and had civil service sta tus during the last was is eligible for reinstatement and should make application immediately for such work as he is qualified to do, pro vided he is already in possesion of civil service status. COMMANDANT SAYS NAVY ORDERED “N” BADGES FOR PHILADELPHIA YARD WORKERS Philadelphia—According to Rear Admiral A- E. Watson. Command ant of the Philadelphia Navy Yard the order to use the leter ‘‘W” for white employees and “N” for Ne gro Employes on identification badges at the Navy yard, came from the Navy department at Washington. The Rear Admiral made this known after a strong protest against the practice from Theodort Spauding, president of the Philadelphia branch of the N AACP But the Washington Navy De partment in answer to a report on the race-labeling from the nation al office of the NAACP replied simply that it would make “ap-' propriate inquiry”. The NAACP letter was addressed to Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox and was answered by Ralph A. Bard of the Office of the Assistant Secretary. The identification badges which label workers according to race are new ones. The NAACP- com pared them to the labels used by IN SEARCH FOR MISSING GIRLS. POLICE UNCOVER VICE - DEN 3 LOS ANGELES PLANTS DENY DIS CRIMINATION AT OPM PROBE- BUT ADMIT FEW NEGROES HIRED the Nazis to single out Jews in Germany and occupied countries. PRES^ ASKED PROSECUTION OF ARK STATE TO DIRECT TROOPERS New York—President Roosevelt has been asked to settle the dis pute between the War Department and the Department of Justice ov er jurisdiction in prosecuting Ark ansas state troopers who threaten ed and insulted members of the 94th Engineers division last Aug ust 10, and slapped Lieutenant Donald Curry, an officer in com mand In a letter to the Chief Execu tive Friday, October 24, the Nat ion Association for the Advance ment of Colored People declared: “There seems to be no dispute as to the fact that a crime has been committed. If it is true that the state troopers were deputized by the military authorities and if CURRIER CO, DENIED CONTRACT, CLAIMS 60 RACE WORKERS • Detroit, Mich.,—The P- J. Curr ier Lumber Company here which was denied a defense housing con tract etspite its low< bid, is an em ployer of Negro labor without dis tinction as to types of jobs- This cl;.im is contained in a letter to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People frcm Donald F. Currier, treasurer. Denial of the contract to the Currier company by Sidney Hill man, Co-Director of the Office of Production Management, in favor of A- F. of L- building trades un ions means that the huge housing job will be done by unions whiefy generally bar Negroes from mem bership. Hillman stirred a storm of j.re test by his so-called stabilization agreement with the A. F- of L. un ions. It has been charged that this gave the A. F- of L. a virtual monopoly in defense construction. The letter from the Currier com pany to the NAACP- dated Octo ber 22 states: “At the present time we have approximately 60 Negro employees. These men do the same type of work at the same rate of pay as any other employee Some of them are employed as truck,drivers, operators of cement block machinery, cement block stor age plant workers, masons and any other capacity for which their talents fit them.” It also states that this is not a new policy with the company and +hat Negro workers are said to re ceive all benefits such as group , insurance, and membership in cred^ it unions on a basis of strict equal ity. they acted as military police, then they violated the articles of War, especially section 1536 of title 10 of the United States Code. “Regardless of whether the state troopers were deputized or not,” the NAACP said, ‘‘they viol ated Section 54 of Title 18 of the United States Code which provid es: “If two or more persons in any State. Territory or District con spire to prevent, by force, intimid ation, or threat, any person from accepting or holding any office, trust, or place of confidence und er the United States, or from dis charging any duties thereof; or to induce by like means any officer of the United States to leave any State. Territory, District, or place, where his duties as an officer are required to be performed, or to in jure him in his person or property on account of his lawful discharge of the duties of his office or while engaged in the lawful discharge thereof, or to injure his property so as to molest, interrupt, hinder or impede him in the discharge of his official duties, each of such persons shall be fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more than six years or both.” The Association pointed out that failure by officials to take af firmative action when Negroes had (Continued on pagej^’2) 1 Los Angeles, Oct. 27 (ANP) — Defense industry personnel chiefs Tuesday testified that no racial barriers exist at their plants but admitted that only a decimal per centage of “minority races” are on. their payrolls. The testimony was given at the first daj’s session of the comm ittee appointed by President Roose velt to investigate charges of rac ial discrimination in the hiring of workers for national defense in dustries. Personnel officers of aircraft and shipbuilding stands accounted for the scarcity of Negro workers on their payrolls in several ways. One executive said his company hired through union hiring hails and that no Negroes were sent when his company called for men. Another testified that white workmen had threatened to go strike if Negroes or Mexicans were promoted from lower labor brack ets Still another said his company received very few applications from the so-called “minority races’ Barry A- Neal, personnel man ager of Douglas Aircraft Co., said that out of 33,000 persons, his company had hired 10 Negroes, 10 to 25 Mexicans, several hundred Jews, four of five Japanese, five Chinese and several Indians. Neal said that at no time had his company practiced ny discrim (Continued on page jp^3) V 2 MISSING GIRLS FOUND DISROBED IN MARIJUANA HIDEOUT; BRILLIANT POLICE WORK DONE BY WOMAN— Chicago, Oct. 25 (ANF) Police men of the fourth district made a raid upon two vice dens on the south side last week in seirch of two girls who had been missing from their homes for over a fort right. The two girls whom the officers were searching for were Yvonne Jean ReChard, 14 and Jan ith Reese, 18. Yvonne had been missing from home snce October 15. The parents of Janith had not seen her since the latter part of September. Both girls were found Wednes day lying across a bed in a one room apartment in company with Isaac Byed 19, and John Earl 19. All were disrobed The finding of the girls climaxed a three day search carried on by Policewoman Rachael Brght, who, accompanied by Officers Thomas and McGuire, went to the apartment and threat ened to break in the door when no response was made to their first knocks Lieut. Robert Harness had assigned Mrs. Bright to the case with instructions to see it through. The first raid, also led by Pol icewoman Bright, accompanied by Detectives Krisan and Michael Brennan, was made Tuesday on the roach-infested two-room apart ment of Charles Montgomery, 22. Here policemen found marijuana weed and $200 worth of morphine pellets cached about the place. Montgomery was placed under ar rest for violating the narcotic act. A policeman was kept posted in the flat to answer the door and ad (Continued on page 15^*3) BUY $25,000 IN DEFENSE BONDS ill I Wl—ii"l1 --- " 1 i'll III ■■ ' '■ Officials of the Afro-American Life Insurance Co., Jacksonville, Fla., shown last week as they pur chased $25,000 in defense bonds through officials of the Barnett National Bank in Jacksonville. In the picture, left to right, are A. L Lewis, chairman of the board and Janies H- Lewis, president, Ai'ro American Life and C. S. L’Engle and Powers Williams, vice presid ents, Barnett Bank. The Afro also owns nearly $200,000 in fed eral government bonds previously purchased. (ANP photo* Louis Armstrong, Mid-nite show,SMS*"!m .