GOOD < READING The v OMAHA GUIDE # _:* j- L ^ hewtotheuneX at your ( LARGEST ACCREDITED NEGRO NEWSPAPER WEST OF CHICAGO AND NORTH OF KANSAS CITY —MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED NEGRO PRESS _ ^Under Ac^of'MarchV 1874—Business Phone: WE. 1517 • Ncbragk>- Omaha, Nebraska, Saturday, March 7,1942_OUR 14th YEAR—No. 51 City Edition, 5c Copy 'wit ELIO COLORED AMERICANS AGAR WARNS U.S. MUST BE STRONG OR DIE Alton, HI., March 1—“Life has put a pistol at our heads and saiu "You’ve got to be better or you’ve got to be dead." Thus Herbert Agar .editor of the Louisville Courier Journal summ ed up the position of the United States when speaking at Monti cello colelge here. Agar believes we have to be “better” very short ly or that China will be lost to us because of widespread Japanese propaganda which tells of our treatment of the Negro. Until we can fight against our own sins of racial hate and stop being divided on picayune issues we can do little about the world revolt going on. Its causes must be understood and removed if we would preserve icvilization, he de clared. Addressing the closing session of a conference of 25 midwestem col leges on mobilization of college woman power, he explained the most important subject before A mericans today is “knowledge of what this war is about." “The significance of our striving must be brought to a great pro portion of the American people—• and quickly,” he said. CORONERS JURY FINOS MURRAY ACTED IN F DEFENSE IN CAFE BRAWL MAN FATALLY STABBED IN FIGHT Mr. Frank Trammel age , 28 packing house worker was stabb ed in the head Sunday noon in So. Omaha, with an ice pick in the hands of Wm. Murray and died shortly afterwards in a local hos pital. An argument taken place in a restaurant at 2516 Q Street after Trammel had been served a piece of pie he did not like and according to witnesses, he attack ed Murray. A Coroner’s jury meeting Tues day March 3, 1942, found Murray acted in self defense and he was freed by the police. Mr. Trammel who lived at 3016 R St., had lived in Omaha for two years. He is survived by his wifi Mrs. Odessa Trammel and two small children of Omaha, father Mr. Frank Trammel and other lei atives of Texarkana, Texas. The body is at The Thomas Funeral Mortuary. PROMINENT BUSINESS MAN SUED FOR DIVORCE FEARS HUSBAND’S GUN HOBBY; ASKS DIVORCE Because her husband, Marcus (Mac», 42 a barber, has a hobby of collecting guns, his wife, Mrs. Constance McGee, fears him and wants him restrained from com ing to their home at 2207 Burdette streets, her divorce petition filed in district court declared Friday. She charged cruelty. SIX NEW NEGRO MILITARY POLICE BATTALIONS AUTHORIZED BY ARMY Formation of six Negro Military Police Battalions for service in the Zone of the Interior has been authorized the War Department announced. The Battalions w'll guard factories, warehouses, bridg es, power houses and similar in stallations. 'fj Each Battalion will include a bout 500 enlisted men. Member^ of the Battalions must be at least five feet nine inches tall, must weigh at least 165 pounds and are required to have a high intelli gence quotient. One of the Battalions, the 732nd is already in process of formation. It will serve in the Sixth Corps Area with headquarters in Chic (Special to the Omaha Guide fromi Pearl S. Buck:— • •• I venture to write this letter di rectly to you, the colored citizens of our country. Some of you may know how frankly and constant ly I have spoken to white people about their obligations to you. Now I should like t° speak to you of the responsibility resting at this moment upon the colored Americ ans for the survival of human freedom. For the colored Amer ican stands today as a symbol, not merely for his own race in one country, but for the hundreds of millions of other men and women, colored and white, who are wait ing for freedom and for the life which democracy promises. Who are these hundreds of mil lions? They are the people of In dia who on their own soil wait for the opportunity to work out their own national life in their own way. They are the peoples of all colon ies in Asia and Africa, some more fortunate, some less fortunate in their dependence upon govern ments. They are people Who are under no foreign rule but who are ruled without freedom by certain classes and groups of their own race and kind. They are all those people, Wherever they are, who long for a society which gives them opportunities not lessened be cause of blood and birth. I know that there are those a mong you who in natural bitter ness think, if they do not say, that it might be as well if Japan should win this war so that tha white man would be forced out of the lands of the colored people. But this is to misunderstand tha fundamental meaning of this war. It is true that white people say they believe in freedom and still do not go on to make everybody free, and yet the real issue in this war is a single one... .it is a war between the democracies who ad mit the priniciple that men and women should think and speak and work in freedom and the Axis rul ers who deny freedom even as a principle. If the democratic peoples win, there wall be a chance to work out true democracy. If jhe democrat ic peoples lose, there will be no further chance for a long time ev en to try anything like freedom. Japan’s whole culture ,ancient and modern, is based on stern subjugi ation of the individual. And there* is no reason for anyone to expect freedom from the German rulers. This war, therefore, belongs to the colored American as much as to the white American and they stand or fall together with the rest of humanity. Never before has race meant so much and so little... so much because it is upon this point of equality that the democratic FOPULAR SOCIETY GIRL WEDS Miss Leeta Lewis, daughter of Mrs. Harry B. Lewis, was wed to Mr. Fredrick Eubanks of Spring field, 111., son of Dr. John Eubanks of East St. Louis, Misouri on Sat-> urday February 28, at 8 p. m. The wedding took place at the home of the bride and just the immediate family were present. The newlyweds left Sunday for Springfield, enroute to Chicago, where they will spend a short honeymoon. They will reside in Springfield where Mr. Eubarks has a position as clerk in the Of fice of Public Instruction for the State of Illinois. ago. The 730th Battalion is to be formed by May 1, _&nd the 731st by July 1, both for duty in the Second Corps Area with head-* quarters in New York City. The 733rd and the 734th Battal ions have been assigned to the Ninth Corps Area on the Pacifiq coast. The former will be organ ized July 1, and the latter May 1. The 755th Battalion has been as signed to the Seventh Corps Area headquarters in Omaha. This Battalion is to be in service by June 1 « PICKENS NOT FIRED TO EXPLAIN NEWSPAPER COLUMN TO NAACP BOARD New York.... Dean William Pickens, veteran staff member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, now on leave with the U. S. Treas ury department, has not been fir ed from his position with the NA ACP as has been reported by some, newspapers. Dean Pickens wrote a column entitled “Pursuit Squadron”, date lined from Tuskegee, Ala., and car i ried in the New York Amsterdam I Star News for January 31. In the column as printed in the Star News, were some assertions about racial segregation general ly, and particularly about racial segregation in the Army, which caused the board of directors at its regular meeting February 9, to vote that Mr. Pickens in this article had taken “a position dir ectly opposite to that maintained by the Association.” The official . language of the moeion, as voted follows: “That Mr. Pickens be notified that his stand on the matter of se gregation in the United States Army is so contrary to the repeat ed stand taken by the NAACP and officially taken by the Association Board of Directors that the Board feels he cannot be reappointed to the executive staff; that Mr. Pic kens be informed of his rights un der the resolution passed by the Board at this meeting.’’ According to the resolution on tenure of office for executive staff members adopted by the board at the February meeting, any executive, when notified of a possible dismissal for cause, shall be given an opportunity for a hear ing and appeal to the board of di rectors. Upon receipt of the official no tice of the board’s action at its meeting February 9, Mr. Pickens offered to appear at either the March 9 or April 13 meeting of the board and it was agreed that he should appear April 13. NEGRO TANK FIGHTERS AT INSPECTION— Here is a group of “tankers” from Company C, 758th Tank Battal ion, GHQ light .ready for inspect ion of their tanks and weapons at Camp Claiborne, La. The sturdy young men in this tank unit have undergone Rigorous training and are prepared for active service. peoples have failed most disast rously to practice full democracy, and so little because if the Axis win, color would not save or damn, anyone. The freedom of colored and white together would then be lost. Faulty as our democracy is, the United States must be the leader in this war for the right of peopl es to be free.... there is no other leader to whom we can look. We have as our great ally the old de mocracy of China. But China is not equipped except as we can e quip her for a military war. The main burden rests upon our own country. It is inevitable, too, that after this war the United States must be the leader in the peace. China will be deeply concerned in that peace, but there are concern ed also the peoples of India ancj Malaysia, the Philippines and all the conquered peoples in Europe and Africa. The United States must be prepared in mind and spir It to lead all these toward freedom We are not prepared now. The division between colored and white; in our own country is dangerous, not only for ourselves but for that new world after the war to which we all look with hope. You have a peculiar responsibility to that world, a responsibility to think in terms of the whole human race, to think of freedom in the ladgest pos sible sense, and to consider likely means by which freedom may be established as a common human principle. As for the white people of our country, you know them very well. There is one group among their, who have no race prejudices. All over this country I know there arc men and women who have an hon est determination to work for real freedom and equality. They are aware of how much and how wrongly the colored American suf fers from racial and economic dis crimination. These you must up hold by every means in your pow er. for should democracy not he victorious, they will have to givei their lives because they spoke and worked for your freedom, too. If the enemy is the victor, you wi’l return to slavery, but they will be killed. The mass of the white Americ ans belongs to a second group. These willingly or unwillingly ac knowledge prejudice ,but they are beginning to believe in varying degrees that their prejudice is wrong. They are beginning to see or at least to suspect that dis crimination on the unjust ground of color works evil not only to those who bear the burden of dis crimination, but to those who har bor it, just as in the old days, which permitted slavery, not only the slaves were harmed but the slave owners too. Slavery is a double edged knife in any society where it exists and race discrim ination s the aftermath of slavery. The third white group in our country is smaller than the second but not so small as the first. It is made up of those white people in whom race prejudice is deeply ingrained because traditon still holds them bound, or because their lack of intelligence and economic opportunity demand a class yet lower than their own so that they can feel superior to somebody. These white people are the enem ies of freedom. Should the Axis win, these would be its friends. They would rule this country un der the guidance of Hitler and the Japanese. If the American white people belonged mostly to the first group there would be no need for this letter. The work would be done. Those conditions under which you are now living, rich and poor, ed ucated and uneducated, would al ready have disappeare. If the A merican people belonged mostly to the third group this letter would not be printed at all. We would now be fighting on the side of the Axis and against the democracies and we would be planinng a com plete subjugation of all the colored peoples in the world. But the American white people belong mostly to the middle group those who have inherited or been trained in prejudice, but who be cause they have also inherited and been trained in the American ideals of human freedom and e quality now find a serious conflict within themselves. For the most part they honestly w’ant to do right, but they are afraid, because they see that this right will make great changes in our national life. It is true of all human beings that they dread that which they do not i know, and it is especially true when what the white people have known has been a tradition which has given them te advantage. But still just at tis moment our chance of freedom for all people is in these troubled, undecided, vet on the whole honst white Americ ans most of whom hate their in ability to make practical their be lief in freedom for all. You see how great a thing I am asking. I am asking you to help this uncertain white Americ an to understand you as a human being, trust you as his equal so that he may be convinced that if you are given freedom equal to his, you will not think of revenga and liberty Only for yourselves, but still of ordered freedom and equlity for humanity. I do not excuse in any way those injustices and those cruelties which you have borne. There is no ex cuse for them. Yuo must neither forget nor forgive them, but rath er remember them, so that this re membrance, like the bread and wine, may fill you with fresh cour age and new resolve. But when you remember the suffering, wnicn you have not deserved, do net (Continued on page ^5^*3) _ THE CIO AND THE NEGRO WATCH THIS COLUMN EACH ..WEEK FOR THE TRUTH A BOUT THE NEGRO AND THE CIO; DIRECT FROM H. Q, WASHINGTON, DC. — **** THE CIO’S STAND The objects of the organization are: “To bring about the effective organization of the working men. and women of America regardless of race, color or nationality, and, to unite them for common action it to labor unions for their mutual aid and protection.” —From the Constitution of the Congress of Industrial Organ izations. WHEREpAS, The history of or ganized labor in the United Stat es replete with instances in whicn reactionary employing interests have sought to divide the workers by playing on the prejudices and special interests of whites against Negroes, or the reverse; and One of the great contributions which the CIO has made to toe strength of organized labor in the ‘United States has been to break down the barriers which have ex isted in the past between Negroi and white workers in labor organ izations! now, therefore, be it PESOL.VED, That the CIO re affirms the position which it has consistently maintained from be ginning in opposition to any and all forms of discrimination be tween one worker and another based upon consderations of race, creed, color or nationality, and pledges itself to work with vigor toward the elimination of outworn prejudices of this kind wherevei they may be found in American life; and That the CIO condemns the pol icies of many employers of dis criminating in their hiring and other employment condtions ag ainst Negroes, which constitutes a direct attack against our nation's policy to build democracy in our fight Against Hitlerism. Pevolution of the fourth conven tion of the CIO held in Detroit, Michigan, November 1941. (To be continued next week) T PAVE THE WAY l _!_ • Willard Combo cartoon nourtaay ot CUetlmmd Pram NEGROES GREATEST OPPORTUNITY At HAND SAYS CME. SEC’Y REAL ESTATE MAN IN CUTT ING SCRAPE BEAUTIFUL GIRL HIS DOWN FALL In an argument over a beautiful girl, Mr. Fred Walker, a real es tate broker, stabbed Mr. Joe Hill three times in an argument about a girl. Mr. Hill who lives at 2409 Caldwell street, was stabbed in the left arm, breast and when he turn ed to run Mr. Walker got him a gain with a stab in the back. The cutting took place Sunday morn ing March 1st, 1:15 a. m. in Mr. Cecil Smith’s restaurant on 24th and Hamilton. Last report Mr. Hill was in a serious condition,, suffering many pains from the serious cuts made by the real es tate broker, Mr. Fred Walker who lives at 984 North 25th St. The entire police staff have not been able to locate Mr. Walker, so re ported Thursday morning at 8:30. It is said Mr. Walker is in hiding awaiting the outcome of his vlc tme, and the young lady is in tears over the misfortune of her two friends. POPULAR YOUNG MAN PASSES Frances Gerald Parks, of 2302 North 25th St., died Feb. 27 at ,Emanuel Hospital following an operation. He worked at Hermans Grocery for many years. He was a member of Bethel AME Church and also a member of the Bacch anite Club. He leaves a wife Opal Harris Parks, a little daughter Joyce Ann Parks, his mother Mrs. C. B. Par;