E
HEWTOTHEUNEX
PHONE HA.0800
■jf -fg- "Largest Accredited Negro Newspaper West of Chicago and North of KC• ^ ^ ^
ES'riS *«£ o£T!;‘l.0SS s£ SSL^. Saturday. June 9,1945 * 10c Per Copy * Our 18th Year-No. 18 '
New Mayor Makes Statement
The assuming of public office
regardless of how minor or how
great, is an important undertaking
Each and every such public ot
ficial should recognize that he is
not all wise nor all powerful.
The office of City Commissioner
is tthe most important public office
of the city, and whether our city
is going to progress to a point of
one of the great commerical cen
ters of the Middle West is, to a
great extent, determined by our
City Council. ?
In our opinion, a go.,d public
official is one who recognizes not
oniy the limitations of man. but
more especially his own limita
tions No ,,ne man could possibly
be possessed of full knowledge of
any a.id all matters pertaiimng to
the various departments of the
city, nor even to one department
thereof. VVe must surround our
selves with competent assistants
and continuously seek information
from the best sources available.
We thank all of the voters of
Omaha for their confidence ex
pressed by the election, and hum
bly enter upon our responsibilities.
Our iiterature and our talks
previous to the election were n..t
just "campaign talk" and propa
ganda. We were sincere.
We propose to develop a firm
policy of law enforcement in the
Police Department, but at the
same time to use common sense
ifn that enforcement, ,We will
endeavor to see that all city em
ployees are paid a wage compar
able to the wage paid by indus
try in this locality. It is our plan
to inaugurate a program which
will compensate our policemen in
a sufficient amount in keeping
with the increased standards of
living and make ft unnecessary'
for them to be dependent upon
the public for any portion of
their support or income. We shall
insist on courteous treatment on
the part of all city officers and
employees
It is our duty to see that our
policemen extend every courtesy
to n. .n-residents, as well as resi
dents, the details of which we will
not go Into at this time.
Before aqy definite action is
taken on improvements for our
city, they should be well thought
out The very best of scientific
information assembled and a
study made, not -with just the
present in mind but anticipating
the needs in the years to come.
This includes public inprovements,
parks, recreation, sewers, streets,
boulevards, health, airport and
airports, transportation, and fi- I
nancing, as well as every other
activity. A site should be arrang- j
ed for, forthwith, to be used for '■
a new auditorium. This location!
should be close to the business
center where transportation faei-!
lities are ample and wnere suf
ficient area for parking can be
arranged. We have such a I oca
tion in mind.
A building should be exacted j
wherein there would be a mac
hine shop, a garage, and a re
ceiving department where all city
purchases and equipment, includ-!
ing the trucks and the cars of the
city, would be housed! excepting
the equipment that is being used
by the P..lice Department and the
Fire Depart met, but that equip
ment would all be repaired,
checked regularly, and under the
jurisdiction of that shop).
Statistics show that the cost of
providing sufficient recreation for
minors is much less than the pro
secution and the care of criminals.
No department in your city is
more important The passage of
the ordinance providing for re
creation proves the people of our
city agree. The activities thereof
should be <\irefully planned, all
of the ideas adopted insofar as
of the ideas and thoughts along
that line fill be solicited, and all
of the best ideas adopted insofar
as possible. In this regard, we ex
pect to call upon the clergy,
church workers and educators
quite heavily.
By action of our national and
state governments the sale of
liquor was legalized. The City
Council will endeavor to admin
ister the law to the point where
such business will be operated ac
cording to law without fear or
favor. We will not tolerate to any!
degree the violation of any of the
laws, such as dealing with minors
or otherw ise conducting the busi
ness in an obnoxious manner.
No doubt the public is waiting
for some definite statement with
reference to the Power contro
versv. Y,,ur City Commissioners,
notwithstanding wrhat some may
believe, will take no action until
all questions are very carefullv
weighed and digested, so that the
interests of the people of Omaha
are definitely known and protect
ed Regardless of the unfavorable
publicity and ill-feeling developed
n this controversy in the past, it
is the intent and purpose of the
present Commissioners to work
harmoniously on this undertaking
and at all times for the best in
terests of the city of Omaha.
Your City Commission will
operate as a Board of Directors,
and while each department will be
headed by a Commissioner, that
Commissioner will seek and re
ceive the counsel and advice of the
other Commissioners.
Returning veterans should have
priority on all city jobs. The of
fices and employees of the city
should be used in gathering data
and plans for utilizing and giving
employment to our men and wo
men returning from the Armed
Forces.
We accept our charge humbly
and wish to assure the people of
Omaha that we are going to en
deavor to render the very best
service that is humanly possible.
We solicit constructive criticism
and assure you that it will be ac
cepted in good grace.
I sincerely pledge to each of
you City Commissioners my whole
hearted support and hope for a
progressive and efficient adminis
tration. I am sure that we will
all work to that end.
PLAIN TALK
By Julius J. Adams
Editor’s Note: Mr. Julius Adams,
associate editor of N. Y. Amster
dam News, is the guest editor for
this week on a very timely sub
ject.
When the history of racial
achievement and interracial good
will in the United States during
the four decades of the 20th Cen
tury is written, no little of the
credit for its success will have to
go to the American Negro Theatre
(ANT), that once unknown group
of men and women who not only
brought a new' dignity to the Ne
gro actor and actress, but have
established a new tradition on
Broadway, theatrical center of the
world.
The theatre, for centuries, has
been the instrument by which pat
terns have been set, and ways of
life charted and maintained. It is
as true today as it was in Shake
speare’s time, for only recently the
Board of Motion Picture Censors
of Memphis, Tennessee, banned the
picture “Brewsters’ Millions,”
claiming that the play presented
too much racial mixture. Obvi-1
ously, this brazen action was in
tended to prevent the spread of
any knowledge that might disturb
the status quo of Negro-white re
lations in the South.
If the officials of Memphis were
simply preventing the people of
their own city from seeing “Brew
sters’ Millions,” with Eddie (Ro
chester) Anderson, it would not
be a particularly serious matter.
The real evil is that the attitude
of Memphis and the entire South i
controls the policy of the motion j
picture and theatrical industry, a j
policy which stereotypes the Negro '
as an underling and a buffoon. And
since the producers cannot film I
one picture for the north and an
other for the south, the more lib- j
eral people above the Mason and
Dixon Line are denied the oppor
tunity to enjoy the matchless tal
ent of scor,es of Negro stars. It
was, therefore, evident that some
other outlet would have to be cre
ated to balance the current biased
condition.
The place the ANT and its Di
rector, Abe Hill, occupy will con
tinue to occupy in the future in
offsetting the bigoted policy ac
quiesced in by the amusement in
dustry to appease the south, can
not be overestimated. For while '
Broadway has not been too seri- j
ously hampered by the southern*
attitude, the fact that so many
plays are written with an eye to
Hollywood means that playwrights
are cautious not to inject into their
stories anything they feel might
offend the deep and backward
south. The result has been that
parts written into plays for Ne
groes are usually put there to pro
vide fun and laughter, and while
individual actors and actresses
have achieved some prominence,
the prestige of the race has suf
fered immeasurably.
ANT’s ambition is to develop Ne
gro actors and actresses to play
straight roles in original standard
plays and to present established
plays with Negro casts. In doing
this, ANT could accomplish much
in the delineation of the role of
the Negro in the United States.
The first really successful effort
in presenting Negroes in an orig
\-E DAY ON OKINAWA—Kan Francisco. Calif -US. Marine Corps
Photo (Soundphoto)—This Marinecbserved V-E Day on Okinawa by
having his clothing blown from hisback by a Jap mortar shell Shock-?
ed and hurt but still on his feet, heig helped toward the rear by a com
panion on the line.
inal play was when AJ^T present
ed Mr. Hill’s story about a Harlem
debutante, titled “Striver’s Row”
in 1940. This is the play that
really produced Fred O’Neal, the
laboratory technician, who has be
come one of Broadway’s most dis
tinguished actors, having first
gained attention when he played
the father in John Golden’s “Three
Is A Family” in April, 1944, and
went on to achieve national fame
in the principal supporting role
in the smash hit, “Anna Lucasta,”
now on Broadway.
Alice Childress, housewife and
mother, also emerged from “Striv
er’s Row” with laurels, and scored
heavily in “Three Is A Family”
and has swept on to Broadway with
“Anna Lucasta,” where she was
runner-up to O’Neal who won the
Charles Derwant cash prize of five
hundred dollars for his excellent
characterization of “Frank” in
“Anna Lucasta,” which a commit
tee on judges declared to be the
best male acting job in a non-fea
tured role on Broadway during the
1944-45 season.
Helen Martin, who played Big
ger Thomas’ sister in Richard
Wright’s “Native Son,” is a pro
duct of ANT. A few others are,
Virgil Richardson, a teacher, who
supplanted Canada Lee in “The Big
White Fog”; Clare Leyba, dancer,
now an understudy in “Anna Lu
casta”; Sadie Brown, federal work
er, who had a prominent part in
Owen Dodson’s “Garden Of Time”;
and handsome William Greaves,
engineering student, who played a
featured role in “Garden Of Time”
and is being seriously considered
for the leading role in Mr. Hill’s
adaptation of the novel “Walk
Hard,” soon to be produced on
Broadway.
Perhaps ANT’s most illustrious,
to say the least, best known pro
duct, is Hilda Simms, pretty and
youthful star whose portrayal of
Anna in "Anna Lucasta” has been
characterized as one of the finest
performances on the Main Stem
in many seasons.
“Anna Lucasta” as is well
known, is not a play about a Negro
family, and could be performed by
actors and actresses of any race
or color. In the current produc
tion, the Negro players are allow
ed the full range of emotions,
which they prove are the exclusive
property of no one group. The
wayward Anna, her faithful mother
or her incestuous father might be
members of a family drawn from
any land or from any station of
our society. It is a human drama,
and thanks to ANT, an all-Negro
cast has been allowed to prove it
can breathe life into characters
to evoke pity and pathos as well
as it can make people laugh. It
should be noted that ANT disco\ -
ered “Anna Lucasta,” and present
ed it in Harlem at the 135th Street
Library theatre, before it was pro
duced on Broadway where it won
the distinction of being the most
important native American drama
in 20 years.
In presenting the Golden Play,
“Three Is A Family” last year,
ANT set a precedent, for in doing
so, a Negro cast stepped into the
shoes of a white cast to produce
with marvelous success a play that
had been written about a middle
class white American family.
The significant feature, which
made the event even more remark
able is that fact that the Negro
cast presented the play is the
same theatre on a night the reg
ular cast was off. The members
of the white cast saw the show,
and by their own statements, the
Negroes turned in a great perfor
mance, and in some roles the ANT
players did a much better job than
the whites.
Director Hill, perhaps, will now
know for many years the full ef
fect of his handi-work. This rangy,
bespectacled, Lincoln University
trained playwright, regards his
work with singular modesty. Asked
what his personal aspirations are,
Mr. Hill smilingly admits he would
like to spend his time writing and
directing plays. Whether he even
tually emerges as an established
American playwright may be I
answered when Broadway sees his |
play “Walk Hard.” But regardless
of what happens to “Walk Hard,”
Mr. Hill has already firmly fixed
his name in the theatrical firma
ment; his contribution to the cul
tural development of his race is
solid and beyond dispute.
But for the present, Mr. Hill’s
fondest ambition is to see estab
lished in Harlem a suitable theatre
where plays, concerts, recitals and
other events may be held. To this
end, ANT has initiated a campaign
to raise three hundred thousand
dollars, the amount the sponsor
believes is necessary to accomplish [
the undertaking.
Mr. Hill sees in the development'
of such an institution in the Har
lem community, a program that j
will have salutary effect on the
cultural life of every other com
munity. He regards such an insti
tution as being capable of pro
viding a wholesome center to lure
people outside Harlem to our com
munity for some purpose other than
to secure “local color” for a mag
azine article or a book; or simply
to see just how a Negro behaves
in his “native environment,” or
out of sheer curiosity. What is
being done in New York can and
should be done in other cities.
The accomplishments of ANT
have not gone without recognition,
although for a long time its activi
ties and struggles remained un
known because of an almost total
blackout due to a lack of first class
publicity. Part of this was due
to the modesty of the group, which
preferred not to “keep too much
noise” until it “had really ar
rived.”
In paying tribute to ANT, this
year the Schomburg Collection of
Negro Literature, which annually
honors 12 individuals or groups
for the most outstanding perform
ance in the promotion of inter
racial harmony, included ANT on
its list.
Riverdale Children’s Association
committee will give a similar
award to the group this month at
which time Technical Sergeant Joe
Louis also will receive a River
dale award.
Last year the General Education
Board of the Rockefeller Founda
tion made a grant of $9,500 for the
Theatre’s 1945-1946 season to help
continue the development of what
has been called the best experi
mental theatre in New York and
environs. i
Dillard University of New Or
leans cited ANT as being the pro
tagonist of the Negro Theatre
Movement, and the history of the
group was brilliantly dramatized
over Radio Station WMCA last
December.
So outstanding has been the con
tribution of ANT to the theatre
that Longman Green Publishing
House has arranged to publish an
anthology of ANT plays this sum
mer, which, when complete will
bring another first to the group,
since there is no record of such a
project ever before having been
either contemplated or finished.
Throughout its existence ANT
has produced seven plays, two of
which have been sold to Broadway,
“Anna Lucasta” and “Walk Hard.”
Now in rehearsal is “Henri
^ristophe” w'hich ANT plans to
present soon. And this should place
another star in the Company’s
golden crown of theatrical achieve
ment.
The Children’s
-COLUMN
(BY JOY\ MeCAW)
SYMPATHY EOH:
CHARLES DICKERSON. SR,
“JUNE”
June is the month of spring,
When all the robins love to sing.
It is the month when school is out,
And all the children run about.
Spring very seldom has a storm
But it is sometimes very warm.
June is the month of happy cheer,
And sometimes the month of a
happy year.
Valaria Joan McCaw, Editor.
“THE CIRCUS”
The circus is in town,
With many a clown.
The lions and tigers are there
The trapeze people are in the air,
All the people are sitting tight,
Waiting for the show with all
their might.
Gee I like the circus so,
But even better I like the show,
Valaria Joan McCaw, Editor.
VICTORY SWEETHEARTS
The Victory Sweethearts enter
tained the servicemen from Fair
mont, and Kearney, Nebr., camps,
Saturday, May 24, 1945, at the
home of Elizabeth Slupman and
Etteyle Hunter, 2116 Ohio Street.
The evening was spent in danc
ing. Refreshments were served
the boys.
Sunday, May 25, 1945, the club
held a dinner for the boys. There
were fifteen present. The boys
were served cocktails before the
dinner. The menu consisted of
segmented grapefruit with cher
ries, fried chicken, rice with gib
let gravy, buttered peas, buttered
hot rolls, candied sweet potatoes,
lettuce and tomato sahid, and cof
fee. The evening w'as spent in
dancing and playing Po Kena. The t
boys departed for their camp at
11 o’clock. An enjoyable time was
had by alL
Colleen St. Clair, Pres.
Ethigl Hunter, Sec.
WOMEN CIVILIANS IN BERLIN —
Berlin (Radiophoto. Soundphoto)
Women civilians in Berlin gather
around a vegetable market on Bod
dinstrasse to purchase their daily
food ration following the capitula
tion of German forces Soviet
troops held their victory march in
Berlin on May 20th during which
they carried the victory banner
which was first raised over Berlin
while the Red Army was still fight
ing.
FLUSHING A SNIPER— Washing
ton D<-' (Okinawa) Marine Corps
Photot Soundphoto CF1—After set
ting tire to this thatched shack on
Okinawa. Marine riflemen watch for
the Jap sniper who had been firing
from the house Realizing the fut
llity of the situation, the enemy
sniper killed himself witn a gren
ade Isolated pockets of resistance
like this did little to stem the leath
erneck drve to the northern tip of
the island
THE LIVING |
SOUTH ■
<HY HAROLD PREECE) Q
(Copyright, 1945. by New South
Features)
HAROLD PREECE
(Copyright, 1945, by New South
Features.)
I reckon that my fellow South
erner, P. B. Young, Jr., of the Nor
folk Journal and Guide, was tes
tifying for all the little people of
Dixie when he wrote from Sar.
Francisco on May 12th:
“So far as the little people of
the world and the United Nations j
Conference here are concerned, it
is to America and Russia of the
Big Five that they nflust look for
whatever deliverance is in store
for them.”
Now, Brother P. B. Young is
sitting up there with other news
papermen in the amen corner at
San Francisco listening to what
the big people, who are the diplo
mats, have to say about Russia.
Me, I’m sitting up here on a moun
tain top in Tennessee, trying to
get enough fencing for my five
acres, and listening to what the
little people who are my neighbors
I have to say about Russia.
My neighbors say that they’re
not going to help filthy little old
John Rankin, cuss-hollerin’ old
Pappy O’Daniel, and finaglin’ old
Bob Taft, who comes from Ohio
but who hangs in with the Dixie
landlord crowd, build any fences
to shut opt Russia.y
' “Wd'ce/-tearing down an awful
lot of old fences down here in our
part of the country,” said my
Scotch-Irish neighbor, Iva Lee
Eldridge, when she brought over
a jar of home made plum jelly for
my baby the other day. “We’re
tearing down the fences that kept
white folks and colored folks from
doing anything together.
Fence Out Rankin
“The only fencing out I want
to do is to fence out John Rankin.
I believe that you’ve got to put a
, wild man, like a wild bull, inside
a pen, and if anybody starts a
movement to pen up John Rankin,
I’ll help buy the fence.
“America and Russia are the
only two big countries where the
little people have a chance. I
reckon that the little people down
here in Tennessee will have a bet
ter chance when we learn from
Russia that you can’t put a bad
sign on a colored man without
putting a bad sign on your own
soul.”
Now, I’ve just come back into
my house from a talk with old
Brother Joe Tucker who used to
trade horses and who still rides
’em. Brother Joe came riding up
this morning, wanting to sell me
some hard locust fence posts to
tack that fencing on when I get
it. He s got lour boys in the army.
He thinks that those boys won’t
ever have to go out to fighting
again if America and Russia work
together to keep peace in this
world that the Lord made for folks
of all colors.
‘Ensign for the Nations
“I’ve quit making sharp horse
trades and I’ve got to be a Bible
man,” said Brother Joe. “I don’t
study no more about turning an
old horse into a young one to get
five dollars boot come first Mon
day. I read in the Lord’s word, |
this morning, that ‘He will lift up
an ensign to the nations.' Russia
saved all of us when Hitler was
cutting up worse than a horse
thief trying to shoot a sheriff. I
believe that Russia may be the
‘ensign’ for all them other nations
if they let her alone and let her
be.”
I’ve got another friend who is
a black man and who raises cotton
on the shares over in St. Frances
County, Arkansas. I won’t give his
name because the men who own
the land of St. Francis County are
like the rest of the Dixie ku klux
ers who red-bait the world’s peace
at the same time they black-bait
i the South’s people.
My friend has been reading of
the Russian cotton country and of
the black Uzbek people of Russia
j who raise the cotton. The Uzbeks
I grow cotton, not because they are
black but because they live in
LATIN AMERICAN NEGROES
MAKE GOOD CITIZENS
By Harold Preece
I’d like to be one of the first to
welcome into the many-tongued
and many-colored family of 130,
000,000 Americans, a Negro from
Latin America—Private Mel
bourne Owen Smith, who was born
down in Panama but who now
claims Brooklyn, N. Y., as his
home.
Maybe, it’s just a coincidence
that Private Smith and another
Negro serving in the American
armed forces, Diata Pierre Cam
pine, born in Senegal, should have
been naturalized by a Department
of Justice Official, Dr. Henry B.
Hazard, in old Mother Africa
where they shed their blood for
human freedom. Negroes every
where are proud that the War De
partment singled them out for
special mention in connection with
“I Am An American Day” ob
served Sunday, May 20th.
We are glad to have with us
Melbourne Smith, Diata Campine,
whose two boyonet scars are set
down as identifying marks on his
certificate of naturalization, and a
third young Negro soldier, Frank
lyn Emanuel Long, native of Trin
idad whom Dr. Hazard made an
American citizen in the New He
brides.
Three Negroes from three dif
ferent parts of the world—from
Latin America, from the West In
dies, and from Panama—who join
their strength to ours in that long,
but inevitably victorious fight, to
confer the diginity of man upon all
men. All of us are honored be
cause three men of the darker
peoples were given this special
recognition on an important Amer
ican holiday. It gives point to
something that Paul Robeson said
in an interview published in the
Modern Thinker Magazine back in
1935:
“We must remember that out
side North America, there are
three other centres of Negro pop
(Continued on Page 2, Col 1)
warm territory and cotton, the
way they produce it, gives them
something besides a slab of bacon
and a chalico bonnet for a year’s
work.
‘‘There’s a lot of talk here
among the big white folks about
whipping Russia to save our coun
try from what they call ‘commu
nism.’ But that scare about ‘com
munism’ leaves me as cold as a
watermelon in a well bucket. You
can admire a man’s honesty and
courage without wanting to wear
his suit of clothes. But you don’t
get mad at a man’s suit if you like
the man.
“I’ve been studying a lot about
these Uzbeks. They make me think
that there is democracy for black
people in Russia, and that gives
me hope that we will some day
have democracy for black people
in Arkansas.”
1 m sending this letter from an
Arkansas cotton cropper to one of
America’s greatest cotton scien
tists who is also one of the South’s
native sons. He is John Sutton of
San Antonio, Texas, favorite pupil
of Dr. George Washington Carver
and sent by Dr. Carver who ad
mired the folks in Russia to help
them develop their farms.
I reckon that John Sutton might
tell you a whole lot about the folks
in Russia. I reckon he might tell
you that not in all the thousands
of villages in all the eight million
square miles of Russia is there
any sign reading, “N-r, don’t
let the sun go down on your head
here.”
John Sutton, John Sutton, of San
Antonio, Texas. I remember a
Mr. Bonnie Sutton working for
the Omaha Guide and he took a
vacation and went home. Yes it
was San Antonio, too, to visit with
his home folks. We wonder if
John Sutton and Mr. Bonnie
Sutton know anything about each
other?
—QUOTES—1
Of THE WEEK
“This is no time for windy
platitudes.”—Prime Minister
Winston Churchill.
“We don’t go tor women ho
boes!”—Hoboes of America, Inc.,
barring them as members.
“Government can’t put 60,000,
000 people to work — there
wouldn’t be anyone left to pay
the bills.” — Warner & Swusey
Co., Cleveland.
“In this nation and in this
State the right of the individual
holds the basic priority.”—Gov.
Dwight Griswold, Nebraska.
“I am for a free press in Cer
many, and everywhere else.”—
Director Elmer Davis, OWI.
“Never did so many wait for
so little!”—Spokesman for
Washington reporters, awaiting
OWI handout.
