The Omaha Guide
A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER + 1
" I
I Published Every Saturday at 2)20 Grant Street
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Entered as Second Class Matter March 15. 1927
at the Post Office at Omaha, Nebraska, under
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Booker T* Washington Birthplace
Memorial Endorsed Nationally
Rocymount, Virginia, March 31—1046—S. J. Phillips, 1
President of the Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memor
ial, announces that the State of Virginia in the General As
sembly which closed on March 9 appropriated $15,000 to
wards the $2,000,000 Memorial, which is planned for the
birthplace of Booker T. Washington. This appropriation
was made towards the establishment of permanent build
ings and to promote the general idea of the Memorial.
The idea of establishing a Memorial to Booker T. Wash
ington at his birthplace in appreciation for his contribu
tions to National welfare has been endorsed by 33 Gover
nors over the Nation, the Press, the Church, Departments
of Education, organization leaders, women’s groups, and is
being heartily received by the general public.
Much publicity si being given the movement by the rad
io. A Booker T. Washington Memorial Quartet, compos
ed of men who recently served with the Army Corp Group
at Ft. Benning, Georgia, has been organized and is broad
casting daily in the interest of the Booker T. Washington
Birthplace Memorial. These singers will also make per
sonal appearances before groups over the country.
On April 5, the day which is celebrated at the birthday
of Booker T. Washington, “ground breaking'” ceremonies
will mark the beginning of the establishment of the $200,
000,000 Memorial was held at Booker T. Washington’s
birthplace. Arrangements were made with the All Ameri
can News Company to make pictures of these ceremonies
to be shown in Negro theatres over the country. Other
news producers were also invited to film these events. Rad
io broadcasts were made on that occasion, trustees of the
Memorial were present on the grounds, together with
groups of outstanding individuals from various organiza
tions of white and colored over the country. The public
was invited to attend this epoch marking event.
The Strength of Freedom
by RUTH TAYLOR
The first time I heard that phrase it came from the lips
®f one of the truly great elder statesmen. There was a life
time of experience in his tone when he said, “We under
estimate the strength of freedom.”
What he had learned in his years of struggle to improve
the conditions of his fellow Americans, is the secret of the
power of democracy. It is the vital spark of reserve pow
er of our republic.
There is a hidden strength to freedom, an innate power
which is invincible. Fearful souls have spoken and writ
ten much of the might of totalitarian nations—of the speed
with which they can act, of their cohesive power. But all
of these are as nothing beside the strength of freedom.
Fredom has powers beside which the powers of dictators—
either of the left or right—crumble into their native noth
ingness.
There is a balance of power in freedom because it is
applicable to all without regard to class, color or creed.
Without equal rights for all there is no freedom for any—
no liberty, just license to oppress for the favored few.
Freedom means the possession of self initiative and the
exercise of the powers of deliberation. It takes courage to
be free, because it demands the acceptance of duties as well
as of rights.
A man who is free is a strong man. He is free from the
ehains of hate or prejudice, from fear, selfishness and des
pair. The man who is free has learned to walk alone, to
think and decide for himself. He does not lean on others.
He stands firm by himself.
We have underestimated the strength of our freedom. It
is like the education of a child. If a child has been prop
erly trained, he can be trusted as an adult to make correct
decisions. Those who have been trained to freedom have
the strength to use it wisely. This is our salvation as a
nation. This is the cohesive quality of democracy.
/
Share Your Easter Joy!
Buy and Use Easter Seeds!
Editorial: “fln Idea!”
“WE-WE THOUGHT
MAYBE, IF WE HAD
A UNITED STATES
ORGANIZATION
HERE IN OUpT
OWN COUNTRY
WE'D GET ALONG
BETTER, TOO!
J - •'V
. f ,v V
PLAIN TALK—by Dan Gardner- . .
Washington, A Racial Panacea
Another gentleman with the “interest of the Race” at
heart has come forward with a panacea for solving once and
for all the American Negro’s dilemna. He is a Dr. Wil
liam A. Brown, “La Casa Willadora”, Cave Junction, Illin
ois Valley, Oregon.
I don't know Dr. Brown and I don’t know whether he is
white or colored, but his program labelled “Washingtonia:
Land of the Free Born” came to me in a mimeographed
tract and that is the reason for this piece. Washingtonia,
according to Dr. Brown, “is envisioned as a living memor
ial to the great American Educator, Dr. Booker T. Wash
ington. It takes the form of a vast cooperative Negro
Community Enterprise in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, op
posite Port Arthur, Texas. As projected, it contains 400
square miles withni a proposed city named Washingtonia
and 600 square miles contiguous thereto, this area to be
served absolutely for every sort and size of Negro-Initialed
INDUSTRIES to be Negro-Owned and Negro-Managed. In
developing W ashingtonia the Gulf of Mexico is to be made
the Mexieo-America Inland Sea.
Dr. Brown's W ashingtonia harbor woultl be made large
enough to provide for all the shipping in the Mexieo-Amer
ican inland sea and establish ample anchorage for ihe Am
erican Navy.
In 1950, Dr. Brown wants to stage a Golden Jubilee of
Booker T. W ashington’s launching of the National Negro
Business League with a most fittingly inaugurated interna
tional, interracial exposition of the 60 colored nations;
thus making W ashingtonia the cultural, commercial, fiduc
ial, industrial, recreational, educational, musical, spiritual
center of the 1,600,000,000 colored people of all the wide,
wide world. Brother Brown waxes further eloquent in
discussing this brand new dream of racial advancement by
concentrating on two names—George W ashington, the first
President of the United States, and of course, a white man.
and Booker T. Washington, a Negro Washington who' a
dopted the name of the white man and later became world
famous for his endeavors in racial advancement through
the race working with their hands. Dr. Brown’s program
is solidly nationalistic and was set up within the American
system, the monster black belt sent to the reservations of
the W est upon which the Indian braves are allowed to roam
in the most prejudiced section of the United States outside
of Florida and Mississippi. The Jim Crow Wrashingtonia
would be hemmed in on three sides by various mixtures of
the raker redneck element, with Uncle Sam’s Navy manned
as per custom by whites anchored at a business-like distance
off shore so that all that could happen in Washingtonia
would be loud hosannas, hand-clapping, singing of spirit
uals, picking cotton and other activities the white man
ascribes to us as our purely racial inheritance.
His scheme calls for “the requisition, development,
disposition and control of all W ashingtonia property,
with the approval of all enterprises and personnel to be
vested in a Board of Trustees composed of nine busi
ness and professional men well known as thoroughly
capable and trustworthy, incorporated under the laws
of the State of Louisiana and a Washington National
Bank of Commerce with $1,000,000 paid up capital,
organized and managed by experienced men self; ted
from Negro banks in various centers of population.”
The Washingtonia Certificates of deposit maturing in
1950 a tthe time of Brother Brown’s international, in
terracial exposition would show $3.75 purchasing a $5
bond; $7.50 purchasing a $10 bond; $15, a $20 bond;
$37.50; a $50 bond and $75, a $100 bond which at
compound interest would yield about 5%.
Washingtonia would teem with institutions. I) >ctor
Brown’s elaborate vision encompasses with one full
sweep the University of Washingtonia (the Brown
Man s Oxford) with professional studies equal to those
common to the greatest universities anywhere in the
world. He would have Marian Anderson School of
Music; a cappella choir, symphony orchestras, military
bands, artist courses, pring and fall festivals, tours of
Metropolitan cities hi permanently equipped streamlin
ed trains which Mr. Brown neglects to say, but may be
presumed to be a strictly coal-car proposition since Mr.
Brown has yet to indicate in his prospectus that Louisiana
will allow trains to run through their state without custom
ary Jim Crow regulations. He would have in Washington
t ♦
' v'- ■ '■ 11 - - - — ■ -- .. - - ^
la exclusive publications of Negro music and spirituals,
Negro magazines, Negro stories, publications, dailies, books
by Negro authors, a 25c popular library of pocket books
for circulation in all public schools and appropriate for
family reading and culture. The Washingtonia radio
would reach the entire world and every program would fea
ture a Marian Anderson selection (by that time poor Mar
ian would have sung herself to death) and there would be
hourly news comments from Negro reporters from the cap
ital of the Nation, where they have yet to get in the Congres
sional press roll despite vehement agitation.
The laborate panacea calls for Washingtonia in Texas, I
some place near Brownsville, and* Corpus Christi. Then1
Dr. Brown would invade Mississippi, stamping ground of j
the Bilbo-Rankin-Eastland coalition where a health resort l
similar to Mayo’s in Minnesota would be built. This is a- \
bout all he could figure up for Mississippi. In Alabama,
he would set up a George Washington Carver Laboratory in
which much cotton picking and sweet potato planting would
be very much in evidence since his plan does not call for
any further incursions into elaborately lai dout racial lines
of this birth state of the late Booker T. Washington.
Brown's W ashingtonia in Florida “conspires to beckon
the American Negro to his native heath”. Here the Negro
would be placed in close contact with chickens, mules,
sheep, goats, cows, hogs, turnip greens and other vegeta
tion of the garden variety which “will lure the naturally
ambitious.”
Thus, we have the picture of our immediate future. We
can rear back in our swivel chairs and enjoy belly laughs,
as usual, for the self-sufficiency of the race. That is the
natural tendency among us since few are as brave as Dr.
Brown in the origination of any kind of idea that might
have a sound basis.
The scheme of Washingtonia may be one in a long line of
crackpot shakedowns that frequently rise to plague our
well-being, but it is safe to say that where Brown may in
terest thousands in the South and elsewhere who are inter
ested in being wholly Negroes, there will be twice that many
who will not willingly concede the hard-earned privilege of
marrying white women, eating in white restaurants, going
to mixed summer camps, etc., for any idea of this nature.
They take and stand on the issue of integration or nothing.
“THE NEGRO IN LATIN AMERICA” by Harold Preece
So You Want to Go to Brazil
Several Negro servicemen have written me that they
would like to take a try at living in Brazil, once they get
their discharge papers. They have asked me for inform
ation about job conditions in the country and about pass
port requirements 01 the
Brazilian government.
Well, Brazil is on a big in
dustrial boom and needs
skilled workers. But that's
only half the story—the new
Brazilian industries are large
ly controlled by the same A*
merican monopoly capitalists
who have always fought full
and equal employment for
Negroes in this country. Al
though fully half of Brazil's
40,000,000 people have vary
ing percentages of * Negro
blood, Jim Crow is making
headwav in that country be
Harold Preece cause the Americans who con
trol the money largely control the country.
JOB REQUIRED
Here are the rules for getting a permanent or a tempor
ary visa to Brazil. The rub comes in the requirement that
anybody wishing to settle permanently there must have a
job already lined up and letters from his employers to
prove it—and that may work against American Negroes
wishing to get started in this big and almost wholly unde
veloped country.
The rules for a permanent visa are as follows:
1. Passport;
fTHEY’LL NEVER DIE u £(**?**{
SOBDnHHr-1
mmr ,ra aldrid&e,
WWB/ BORN BELAIR.MD. I90A,
gaa^ ROSE FROM A HUMBLE ^1
CW CARPENTER TO ONE OFTHE N
W FINEST SHAKESPEAREAN
W ACTORS OFTHE WORLD//
|f HIS TALENT WAS DEVEL
| OPED BY THE GREAT ACTOR,
I EDMUND KEAN, WHO TOOK
■ IRA TO EUROPE WITH HIM
|\ THERE ALDRIDGE
f»\ REACHED THE HEIGHTS/
BBL HIS OTHELLO PLAYED TO
CAPACITY AUDIENCES
AND WON HIM BOTH
^P^WEAUH AND FAME/
/UMUD5E
SHAKESPEAREAN
ACTOR/
_Cwf1rwrt*l_FMiiir
L- —mi -ILilt - -JLUL ——mi — • Jl II - it li HU -
2. Police certificate of no criminal record;
3. Two letters from officials of reliable firms stating
bearer is not harmful to public order, to the national se
curity or to the public institution;
4. Certificate of health (form furnished by the Con
sulate) ; t ,
5. Certificate of vaccination against smallpox, issued in
last five years; *•
6. Proof of lawful occupation (not needed for married
women accompanying their husbands) ; this may be letter,
in duplicate, from applicant’s employers and should state
that he is in their employ and that they will be responsible
for his maintenance in Brazil;
7. Birth certificate;
8. Marriage certificate;
9. Two application forms, furnished by the Consulate;
10. Four photographs, on white background for each
adult or child;
Fee for visa—$10.00.
According to the Brazilian Bulletin of Feb. 1, official
Brazilian government publication issued at 551 Fifth Ave
nue, New York and from which this information is taken,
all persons desiring to enter Brazil in a permanent charac
ter must appear in person at that country’s consulate near
est to them or having jurisdiction over the locality in which
they have resided for the last six months. If you don’t
know the name of the nearest Brazilian consulate, write
and ask Ambassador Carlos Martins, Brazilian Embassy,
Washington, D. C.
If you want to go to Brazil on a tour or a business mat
ter, you will need only a temporary visa. And here’s what
is required:
«
1. Passport;
2. Certificate of vaccination (smallpox) ;
3. Certificate of Health, stating that bearer is not suf
fering from any communicable disease;
4. Police certificate of no criminal record;
5. Letter in duplicate, stating the purpose of the trip;
6. Four photographs, for each adult and child (pass
port size) ;
7. Two application forms, furnished by the Consulate.
These rules for both temporary and permanent visas
will be changed when Brazilian Decree—in Law 7967 of
September 18, 1945, goes into effect. I do not have a
copy of the decree before me, but-1 am told that it makes
no mention of rare or color in its provisions regarding
qualifications for new settlers in the country.
Even so, I’d like to hear the results, good or bad, of any
application made by a Negro for entrance into the country.
If Negroes are being admitted on an equal basis once they
are assured of jobs in Brazil, we ought to know about it. If
they are being refused admission, we ought to know about
it too.
Drop me a letter in care of Continental Features, 507
Fifth Avenue, New York, letting me know what happens in
case you ask for a visa to enter Brazil.
DO’S AND DON’TS:
\
P'fo
Vo^
_ __ 0^
>
1
I
i.
Little women, if you would be called ladies, avoid
profanity.
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