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About The Omaha guide. (Omaha, Neb.) 1927-19?? | View Entire Issue (June 22, 1946)
1 LOCAL AND NATIONAL NEWS J Per Copy AND WORTH IT - «To Sell It, ADVERTISE” /JUSTICE /EQUALITY EQUAL OPPORTUNITY _ _ PHONE HA.0800 2420 GRANT ST SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 1946 Our 19lh Year—No. 20 -A 10c Per CflDV -*• " P°’'' °”aha', Nebr . Under An ol __’___^ \J\jyy m March 8, 1874. Publishing Offices at 2420 Grant Street, Omaha. Nebr i OUR GUEST Column Edited by Verna P. Harris SEGREGATION BAPTIZED By Dr. Buell G. Gallagher, former President, Talladega College; Prof, of Christian Ethics. Paci fic School Religion, Berkeley, California. NOTE TO READERS: Recently "Our Guest Column" presented views on the church and race relations by a noted Negro churchman, Dr. George E. Hay nes. This week we offer a discus sion from the point of view of a white clergyman who was as mil itant while heading a Negro col lege in Alabama as he is today in a California interracial church. Dr. Gallagher’s books include Color and Conscience: The Irre presible Conflict, an indictment of white Christianity. I write as a clergyman and as a theoligical professor. I know, from the inside, what it means to work and serve in an institution which affirms the exact opposite of what it practices. We preach the fatherhood of God and toler ate anti-Semitism; we preach bro therhood of man and practice se gregation. The Christian Church is the leading candidate for the Jim Crow badge of dishonor. There are 6.500,000 Negro Protestants in the United States Less than one half of one per cent of them are members of congregations which Include other races. There is no major social institution in Ameri ca which has more completely se gregated itself on racial lines. How did we get this way? It is a long story—much too long for 500 words. For seven [centuries, the church was inclu sive, not exclusive. From its Afri can and Egyptian church early Christianity boasted such men as Augustine. Clement, Athanasius, Arius, Cypriam, Origen. But the attitudes and practices of arro gant superiority at the centers in Rome and Constantinople so alie nated the African and Egyptian churches that they readily went over to Mohammedanism in the | I seventh century. The subsequent conversion of the barbarian peo ples of central and northeren Eu rope made it a white man’s own church. For eleven centuries, long enough to forget its former glory as an inclusive fellowship, s The partnership of Christianity and white supremacy in the con quest of the Americas is the next chapter in the story. The pious Fathers- of the American colonies first fell upon their knees and fell upon the Indians. And they brought the black man in slavery to the land of the free also with the blessings of Christianity. With the eighteenth and nine teenth centuries Negroes began once again to be admitted to the circles of Christianity—but they were never taken in on a basis of equality, just as they were also denied the privilege of organizing separately. Fearful of the power of the Christian religion w’ith its truth of brotherhood, the mas ters compelled the slaves to stay in their churches—in the back of the gallery. The meetings in the swamps and cane breaks after dark were the nucleus of the later Negro churches. Then, with Em- j ancipation, the tune suddenly j changed. The former masters now emphatically demanded that Ne- [ groes get out of their churches; | and Negroes, having fought des- [ perately to attain a position of eq- j uality within the Christian fold, ' now turned to building up the Jim Crow Negro denominations to j powerful strength. The sixty-four dollar question is j whether the white man can forget ’ that he is white long enough to remember that he is a child of God. If not. he will have to admit q that 'The 'Man’ Bilbo was correct when he stood before a Mississi ppi legislature and said, “The white man is the custodian of the j gospel of Jesus Christ’’, That’s a lie; and the way to prove that it ( is a lie is to make it impossible for men like Bilbo to point to a i ‘white’ church anywhere. We have white churches, Ne gro churches, Filipino churches, Mexican churches, Chinese chur ches, Japanese churches; some day we will have Christian chur ches! That day is closer than you think. It is dawning right now. I * affirm that within this decade the churches of America will be con vulsed with a controversy the like of which they have not seen since the debates on slavery that pre seded the Civil War. The conflict between minority baiting and co lor caste on one side and con science on the other side is irre pressible. The issue is joined, and the sledgehammer is already be ginning to pound against the mid dle wall or partition. There remains one other quest ion. Will the blows be delivered on both sides of that wall of se j gregation? Or will we find Negro clergymen and ecclesiastics and church members grown so content with their separate churches that they will resist the effort to help break down the wall ? Will they j raise the cry that they like to be by themselves? Or will they un ite in the demand for a single church, where all men stand on a basis of equality? Will the big sledgehammer of righteousness pound mightily on both sides of the wall. BAY STATE PASSES THE FEPC LAW A fair employment practice law has been passed in Massachusetts. It forbids discrimination in em ployment, upgrading or dismissal because of race, color, religious creed, national origin or ancestry. The law sets up a three-man commission charged with elimin ating discrimination by concilia tion, persuasion and education. If conciliation fails, the commission Urban League Asks |f Full useof Negro Build ing jTrade Workers NEW YORK—The National Ur ban League urged Emanuel Ler ner, Labor Branch Director of the National Housing Agency, to act to insure the proper use of Negro Labor as mechanics in the emergency housing program re cently authorized by Congress, Ju lius A. Thomas, the League’s In dustrial Relations Director, re vealed today. NHA has already estimated that more than one million additional workers must be recruited and trained for the new emergency housing program for veterans. A shortage is anti cipated in the bricklaying, elect rician, and plastering occupations and other phases of building con struction. Reviewing the experiences o£ Negro building mechanics during the public housing program of the thirties, the Urban League stated that unless definite action is taken by the Labor Expediter to protect the job rights of Negro veterans and other building tra des workers, discriminatory hir ing and union practices would el iminate many competent men. The League statement, sent to Mr. Lerner in the form of a re port, named the International Brotherhood of Elictrical Workers and the United Association of Journeyman, Plumbers, and Steam fitters, as building trades unions which manage either to exclude Negro workers or limit the num ber employed in these fields. Other mechanics in the industry the statement read, while not en tirely excluded from union mem bership, will be disadvantaged be cause of the tendency on the part of union officials to discourage them in their efforts to secure union status. Although records show the num her of Negro mechanics declined steadily during the past two de cades, the League reported that because a majority of the Negro people were used in engineering units a considerable number were trained as carpenters, electricians, plumbers, and sheet metal work ers. These Negro veterans should qualify for employment in the housing construction program with much less Additional training than is required in the regular appr entice program, the League point ed out. To give the Labor Branch Di rector a partial picture of Negro employment in the building trad es field the Urban League submit ted summarized reports from 21 League affiliates. Only nine of the 21 cities—Akron, Boston, De troit, Chicago, Cleveland, New York. Newark, Philadelphia, and Portland, Oregon—reported a fairly consistent policy of Negro integration in trade unions, and where there were exceptions the electricians and plumbers unions were named. The Cleveland Urban League reported that through an off the record agreement with these unions (electrical workers and plumbers) Negro plumbers and electricians are permitted to work freely for Negro clientele in the Negro areas. Mr. Thomas stated that all lo cal Urban Leagrues, m 54 cities throughout the country, are reg istering veterans who received training in the building instruct ion- crafts while serving in the armed forces, and are contacting local home builders and represen tatives of construction firms who are expected to receive contracts for new houses under the emer genc program. Much of the effort to facilitate the employment of Negro mech anics should be concentrated at the level of actual construction—in the local community, Thomas said but this task will require all of the support that can come from the National Housing office. may hold hearings, and it has the power to subpeona and may issue cease and desist orders. Its actions are reviewable by the courts, which may impose penal ties of up to a year in jail or $500 fine, or both. KANSAS SUPREME COURT RULES AGAINST DISCRIMIN ATION IN LABOR UNIONS TOPEKA—The ruling last week of the Kansas Supreme Court that labor unions could not establish rules that create racial discrim ination when the organization is named the collective bargaining agent for all workers in any in dustry, set the pace to end all racial discrimination in the state of Kansas. The opinion of the court, writ ten by Associate Justice Homer Hoch, which held that discrimina tion because of race or color was a violation of the fifth amendment to the Constitution of the United States was hailed by Negroes over STASSEN, WALLACE SPEAK AT KAT’L AVC. Bishop Says "Red ’ Scare Used To Thwart Social Improvements By W illiam R. Simms Howard News Syndicate Feature DES MONIES, la_The Ameri can Veterans Committee (AVC) meeting in its first constitutional convention here Friday thru Sun day adopted a constitution and li beral platform which strikes a blow at tolerance, bias and unde mocratic action in America. More than 800 delegates, forty of which were Negroes, from forty-four states and areas outside the Uni ted States representing 32,000 veterans of World War II partici pated in the three day convention. Appearing before the convent ion were several of the country’s outstanding political, religious and labor leaders. They were: Har old Stassen, former governor of Minnesota and since the war nas been one of the Republican Par ty's outstanding liberal spokes i man, xienry a. v\anace, secy. ox Commerce and outspokent New | Dealer; Col. Campbell C. Johnson. ' executive assistant to the director of Selective Service: Walter Reu ther, president of the United Au tomobile Workers; James B. Car ey, national secretary of the CIO. Bernard J. Shiel, D. D., Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago; Mike Monron I ey. congressman from Oklahoma, and J. Donald Kingsley, former Professor of Political Science at Antioch College and at present working in the Office of Recon version. Speaking at Friday’s opening session, Bishop Shiel received thunderous applause as he refer red to the FEPC as “one of the most vital pieces of legislature ever written” and said that it “has languished in the House for these many months, because it actually has the affrontery to espouse eq uality of jobs for Negroes, for Jews, for all men...” Continuing, he said. “Many men raise the red scare of Communism wherever plans for social improve ment are proposed. But America has nothing to fear from Com munism if we have here a social ; order that regards man as at the same time the beginning and the j end of life in human society. Peo pie who are well fed, well clothed and well housed are not interest | ed in Communism’’. ‘Another problem still facing the ' thoughtful citizen is the explosive question of racial discrimination and prejudice. Our school children like their elders before them, j swear allegiance to the flag every day; and pray that our nation will I remain one and indivisible, with ; liberty and justice for all. What j a mockery!”—Perhaps a cynical 1 smile plays around the Negro’s | lips as he recited the pledge, and | he thinks of the lynehings by sa • vage mobs, the restrictive cove ' nants the second rate schools, the filthy hoves; the legal tricks by which he is disfranchized in so many states of this Union, dedi cated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” The bonus issue came up quite unexpectedly on Saturday night at the Shrine Auditorium while many of the A VC leaders were out of the meeting. Bolte immediately rushed to the floor of the conven tion and told the delegates that he was unalterably opposed to a bonus of any kind as a matter of principle. In reminding the con vention of their slogan: “Citizens first and veterans second”, he was given a great ovatiof. How ever, the fate of the bonus issue could not be decided until the platform votes could be tallied which was not expected until on Sunday. The planks on labor were the center of much controversy. At one subcommittee meeting, mem bers succeeded in getting endorse ment of a plank pledging support to the CIO-AF of L drives to or ganize the workers of Tne south. At a later meeting, supporters of the previous plank were absent and a substitute plank omitting the state as one of the greatest victories toward establishing real freedom and putting democracy to work since the day that John Brown started his movement for the freedom of all peoples. Many of the old timers expressed the sentiment that Kansas had hit back on the trail of years gone by when the state was free from southern practices. mention of CIO and AF of L and the south was rode through. The substitute read: "We support the right of all or ganized labor to unionize any or all workers anywhere in these United States”. However, proponents of the ab ove statement agreed that we might do much to give aid thru the machinery of AVC without an open statement which would stand to harm the njovement. The convention adopted a con stitution which makes it perfect ly clear that the American Vet erans Committee will not tolerate discrimination within or without its ranks and makes a strong bid for Negro and other minority group membership. In the Pream ble. the very first sentence reads: ‘ We as veterans of the Second World War associate ourselves re gardless of national origin, creed or color—” Under Article III deal ing with members. Section one states that “persons shall be eli gible for active membership re gardless of national origin, creed or color—’’ And Section six re quires a person to subscribe in writing to the principles set forth in the Preamble as a prerequisite to membership. In the platform, the convention delegation wrote in a strong plank on discrimination and civil liber ties: We oppose Jim Crow laws, anti Nisei restrictions and all other forms of racial discrimination. We forbid it in our ranks and we shall fight it in law and in practice wherever it is found. We strongly and actively oppc-'j any laws, prac tices, customs or usages whereby any person or group by virtue of discrimination due to race, reli gion, color or sex attempts to pre vent another from obtaining em ployment, being paid at a fair rate for the services performed, We urge laws to make discrim ination illegal and punishable. We strongly urge and support all move ments for a permanent federal Fair Employment Practice Law. We urge that veterans organize to cooperate with other similarily minded groups and with govern ment law enforcement authorities to protect civil liberties particu larly such regions where they are now threatened Several Negro delegates were very active on the convention floor and in the committee meet ings guiding resolutions and leg islation important to minority group veterans. Outstanding of these is Franklin Williams, chair man of the New York Metropoli tan AVC Area Council and assist ant counsel for the NAACP. Such was Williams popularity and de monstrated ability the he is, one of the few nominees whose elect ion to the National Planning Board is virtually conceeded. An other very vocal delegate who had some support for the NPB was Arnold Johnson. Edward Brusch from Los Ange les was spokesman and leader for his mixed delegation. Burch’s stir ring statement in opposition to a bonus was widely acclaimed by the convention delegation. WALLACE SPEAKS Highlight of the Saturday nite panel of speakers was the address of Henry A. Wallace as he specif ically commended the organiza tion’s fight for more housing, for l continuation of price control, for the full employment bill ’ and against racial discrimination. “In your own organization you have allowed no place for discri mination. And I am sure you wMl fight against discrimination in every area of our national life. For you know, we must outlaw racial discrimination on the job just as we must outlaw racial dis crimination at the polls. You know that the one is as much a part of our economic insecurity as the other is of our political insecurity. “But the enactment of perma nent Fair Employment Practices Act, and the abolition of the poil tax, are only the beginnings of our efforts to achieve an economic as well as political democracy. Those of us who believe in full democracy have many other jobs to do in implementing the Em ployment Act of 1946. We must fight for better health and better education for all—and social se curity for all—just as we have fought for better housing for all. And we must fight for a mini mum wage law just as hard as we fight for the conservation and de ---— ■ ■■ -.. - "■ "1 I r Fight for Democratic Community Rights velopment of all of our natural! | resources", said Wallace. The American Veterans Commi ttee meeting: here in its first na tional convention, demonstrated that it meant what it said in the plank it adopted opposing Jim Crow less than six hours before. More than a hundred delegates picketed the Rose Bowl Cafe, 1015 Walnut Street, Saturday night after the cafe manager refused to serve two Negroes, one a delegate. Former Omaha Girl— MRS ERNESTINE POSTLES ADDRESSES, STUDENTS, FACULTY AT WILBERFORCE As part of the cost of living ; committee program at Wilber force University, Ohio, students and faculty members last week heard Mrs. Ernestine Postles of the Michigan District Office of Price Administration. Cost of living committees were set up in many leading colleges and universities throughout the country to increase understand ing of the economic forces oper ating in favor of or against the buying public. Colored schools having these committees include beside Wilber force, A & T College in Greens boro, N. C.; State Teachers Col lege at Cheyney, Pa.; Howard U. in Washington D. C.; Virginia! North Carolina State College in Durham, and Tuskegee Institute. Mrs. Postles told her audience j at Wilberforce of the shafts re cently aimed at OPA by the Na- , tional Association of Manufactu-1 rers and other pressure organiza- { tions seeking to abolish price con-1 trol. Their charges, she said, that | OPA is stifling production and preventing industry from flood-1 ing the market with goods is! comepletely unfounded. She cited | recent reports of the Civilian Pro djction Administration on high current production to prove her point. nrp 2?5 billion dollars of I 1Protest CIO Strikers Conviction Under Pappy O'DanieFs Anti Violence Law of Arkansas LITTLE ROCK. Ark_Laurant Frantz, southern field director of : the Civil Rights Congress (second I from right! talks with key figu res in the fight for democratic! rights in this community in front ■ of the office of the Arkansas State Press, weekly Negro News paper. Both the publisher and ed itor are appealing jail sentences imposed because the paper criti- ; cized conviction of CIO strikers under Pappy ODaniel’s Anti-Vi olence Law. b Landing behind her six-year old daughter is Mrs. Ella Mae Campbell (second from left), wi dow of Walter Campbell, mem ber of the Food and Tobacco Wor ker’s Union murdered by a strike breaker at the Southern Cotton Oil Company where a six months ■ strike is still in progress. Louis Jones (center), shop , chairman of FTA workers at the ; plant, is under sentence of one - year on a frame-up following j Campbell's murder. Two other strikers have received similar sen- ] tences. Three more are awaiting ; trial. Mrs Bates (left) is editor , of the paper of which Mr. Bate! (right) is publisher. Both were sentenced on contempt charges , for printing a story ten days af- : ter the trial of Jones and other 1 strikers which charged that the i trial was ‘hand-picked’ by an of- 1 ficial of the Free Enterprise As- j sociation. sponsor of the Anti- 1 Violence Law. i All convictions are being ap- 1 pealed to the Arkansas State Su- i preme Court. Contribution to sup- 1 port of the local defense commit tee and aid in freeing the defen- < dants should be sent to the Civil ] Rights Congress. 205 Sast 42nd i < St., New York 17, N. Y. j all kinds of savings in this country 1 to buy that extra meat; to buy i all the things that people have 1 been waiting for throughout the1 i Omaha Fraternity Adopts Youth Problem As Order of Business Alpha Pi Sigma Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc, met at the home of Mr. John Ander son, 2010 North 25th Street, Oma ha, Nebr, May 31 and organized Alpha Phi Sigma Chapter of Om aha. The following officers were elected to head the newly organi zed chapter; Mr. Chas. H. Davis, president; Mr. D. C. Riddle, vice president; Dr. A. K. Hines, secy; and chairman of Bigger and Bet ter Business; Mr. J. H. Robinson, treasurer; Atty. Vernon C. Coffeyl Chaplain and chairman of Edu cation; Prof. G. H. Clark, Deon of Pledges and Sgt.-At-Arms; Mr. D. C. Riddle, chairman of Social Action. Alpha Pi Sigma Chapter pledged among other things to give one or more scholarships to Omaha youth annually and adop ted as their number one order of business for 1946 and the future to take over the youth problem of Omaha. Plans are now under way to perfect a. complete pro gram to help the young citizens of Omaha thereby reducing the juvenile delinquency which is * burden which is largely due to inattention to youth and youth problems. Chaplain Coffey stated that my organization will labor to get distinct ideas of law, right, wrong, justice, equity. Search for them in our own mind, and will aim at an exact knowledge of the nature, ends and means of go vernment. Compare the different forms of it with each other and each of them with their effect on public and private happiness for youth. And says that everybody talks about helping youth, as they talk about the weather, but most of those who does C>e talking do nothing about it, we are going to do something about youth and beg the citizens to coopearte with us in our programs. T5he STREET and thereabouts -- —by LAWRENCE P. LEWIS - Few of have ever seen a person STARVE TO DEATH. If you don’t believe it is a horrible death just try to go without food for one day. I say it again, JUST ONE DAY. Most of us could live many days without food, but it is hard to imagine one enduring the ter rible suffering those days must be, before death, a welcoming death, comes. The bread that we throw away, those extra pieces of meat we eat, the fats we so carelessly waste, could very easily give some mother's child a chance for life, the life that should be theirs to enjoy. Surely we cannot afford to be the cause of their dying. It has always been a SIN to waste the necessities of life that men ind women of this world must lave in order to survive, but to jvaste food now in these trying :imes, is not only a sin against Jod’s Will, but a crime against nankind. CONSERVE FOOD— SAVE A LIFE. There are very few people in Dmaha that I have known as long is I have known Mrs. Elese Tur ler, who operates the Grow Gloss 3eauty Shoppe, 2512 North 24th Street. I had been in Omaha only i few weeks when Mrs. Turner’s leceased husband gave me my 1st job. I stopped by to talk with Mrs rumer for the first time since be ng separated from the Army. Of :ourse it is hard for me to talk to ler without mentioning one of the ’inest men I have known, Mr. J. 3. Turner, her late husband. I wanted to talk to her about lerself and her Beauty Shoppe, >ut I found myself answering piestions about my life in the irmy, ‘There is really not much to vrite about me’, she said. “I am var. That money would bid up he prices of all goods, if controls vere abolished”, she told the 'roup. It has worked that way in he past—after World War I— i md it will work that way again his time if prices are allowed to ise unchecked without any con-' rols at all. I Bringing in OPA speakers who :an emphasize the everyday im >ortance of keeping down the cost >f living to students, faculty and >ersons invited from the commun y is one of the program aims of he cost of living committees. Si nilar programs are geing and will >e conducted at other colleges and ; miversities. HI, NEIGHBOR ___. —■— - -i—n 11■ Mwnn —ii r— mz i Courtly Appreciate America. Im. still just a hard working woman’ W e talked for some time, and I must confess it, I was doing most of the talking, because I was tel ling her about India, the Led® Road, the Indians, and the way they existed. ,. 1 bade her goodbye I kept thmking of that phrase (There is really nothing to write about me;. I thought about her husband, about her son, Streeter, and her daughter, Mrs. Davis. I thought about the twenty-five years that she had spent in beauty work. I thought about all the times she had invited me to have dinner and I was too bashful to accept until her husband almost had to hold me to get me to eat. I know that in her life there must have been some struggle, some tears, but I can only pray to our God, that my nfe will be lived as well. Yes, I was tired, because it was seven o’clock in the morning, and I couldn t sleep, so I decided t® take a walk dowm Twenty-fourth Street. The missus .was asleep, but she could have been faking, a® 1 lightly kissed her on her cheek, tiptoed down the steps, and out ia to the bright morning sun. A cup of coffee should do me some good”, I said to myself. Se I walked down to Neals’s Cafe, watching the people on the street car as they journeyed to work sa early in the morning. Before I entered the cafe. I could hear the music box sounding off. Some singer was singing “Hey Ba A Re Ba” on the record that wai nlavina-. Miss Evelyn Valentine, one of the cafe’s most efficient and cha rming waitresses, greeter me with a cheereful “good morning-*. “I see you are feeling good this morning. You must have just come on duty?’’ I asked. “Certainly not”, answered she, “I have been working since 12 o’clock last night”. I felt ashamed as I said “May I have a cup of coffee?’’ Looking around and seeing others who were eating bacon and eggs, pa* cakes, and the many other fun breakfasts, and I began to won der why I did not have an appe tite for them this morning. Mrs. Horterise Johnson, a very good friends of mine, came up to me, a little surprised at seeing me so early in the morning, and what do you think she said. Mrs. John son, in a soft tone, said “Been out all night Lawrence”. That ended it all. Just because I come down the street and look like I feel is no reason that mjJ good friends should think that no one could look like I did unless he had been out all night. I said, “No, Mrs. Johnson, I couldn't sleep, that is all.” I couldn’t tell for sure if she J “ievel me or not, and as I finished my coffee, paying the young lady who waited on me, she quietly gave me my change, a* she hummed the music that was playing on the record, and the ti tle of the record was “SNEAKING OUT”. ‘ The Whole Town’s Talking* has been duly presented, and t have been duly convinced that I’m no Fonda or R. Taylor..Be tween cues and ad-libs, I met a. very charming young lady who seemed to sympathize with my ef forts. Although her talented mo ther was up on the stage, and doing a good job if it too. thi* young lady still did not want t» be an actress. Miss Beverly Ann Madison, age 12 next birthday, and as pretty as any girl aged twelve can bev sat quietly, while her mother was performing. “What do you want to be whec you grow?”, I asked. “I want to be a stenographer”, she answered. “A stenographer! Do you want to work for a doctor, lawyer, or business man”, asked I. “It doesn’t make any difference, just so I am a stenographer”, she answered. “What school do you attend?" I asked. ‘ I go to Howard Kennedy", she answered. “And what studies do you like best" I asked. “I like history and geography the best?”, she answered. “What are your hobbies and re creation after school?’’, asked L. Most of all I like to ride my bicycle, and then I like to play the piano. I have always liked mniur I would like to learn to swim, aafl, I guess I will sometime”, ahe answered. “On stage”, somebody yelled. X frowned because it was my tiaM to make-believe again. ____