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pacp rom Established 1875 By J. H. DEVEAUX SOL C. JOHNSON Editor and Publisher MRS. WILL A A. JOHNSON. Asst, to Pub. & Mgr. J. H. BUTLER Asso. Editor —------- PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY 1009 WEST BROAD STREET Telephone. Dial 5338 ~" ~ - Subscription Rates m Advance One Year _____________ _________ $3.00 ... Six Months ______________________ $ 2.00 Remittance must be made by Express, Post Office Money Order or Registered Mail. Entered as Second Class Matter at the Post Oflice at Savannah, Ga., under the Act ot March 3 , 1919 “King out a slowly dying cause, And ancient forms of party strife; King in the nobler modes of life, With sweeter manners, purer laws. “King out false pride in place and blood, The civic slander and the spite; King in the love of truth and right. King in the common love of good. “Ring out old shapes of foul disease; King out the narrowing lust of gold; Ring out the thousand wars of old. Ring in the thousand years of peace.” —Alfred Lord Tennyson A HISTORIC DAY January 1st is a day of momentous and signitieant memory to American Negroes. It commemorates a day chat is unforgettable in the life of a people whose ancestors prayed and toiled and suffered to see. While not particularly unique in the history of races and peo¬ ples, it was a day, the like of which only people who had emerged from a most cruel form of human slavery, could appreciate. It was a day full of inex¬ pressible joy and full of implications of which the emancipated slaves could have had no awareness. They could have had no vision of the suffering and disappointment the immediate years ahead held for them. There was no way for them to foresee what 30 or 40 years 01 reconstruction would mean to them, and it is one of the cruel tragedies of the nineteenth century that these freedmen and their children should have been penalized because they acre the scars of a system that was imposed upon them by the very culture that was erected upon their blood-stained un¬ requited toil of 250 years. A bit of irony in the whole thing is that comparatively few of the descend¬ ants of former slaves give serious thougnt to the meaning of January 1st. the date of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation; few of them know why the names of the following should be remembered: Abraham Lincoln, Charles Sumner, John Brown, Wm. Lloyd Gar¬ rison, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, and other important person¬ ages of the time. This is understand¬ able since 90 years after emancipation, scarcely any of the former slaves, in¬ deed when very few of their children are alive to tell how freedmen reacted to the news of physical release from slav¬ ery. Some of them dropped whatever they were doing, whether it was baking biscuits, tending the babies, making the beds, or feeding the stock. Some were confused and could not believe what they saw or heard; some ran to the union soldiers and became camp- followers ; some, perhaps many, went for days without food or shelter or cloth¬ ing; others stayed or returnd to their former masters. We do not blame the young folk of this generation for want¬ ing to forget the accounts of the terrible suffering their ancestors went through, but because of it, the very important significance of emancipation to them in all the years since that great event and in lhe great possibilities it has opened to them, should not be forgotten. The emancipation was the culmination of many years of bitter controversy and four years of bloody fratricidal war. Its significance should be as indellibly stamped in their heritage as the eman¬ cipation of another people to whom it is a religious observance. SAVANNAH’S MILITARY GLORY Some weeks ago, a citizen w rote about Savannah’s pride in its long record as a city of military tradition. We were in¬ terested because Negro citizens share in that pride. We recall with more than casual interest that one of the important events in Negro life in Savannah, fifty, sixty years ago, was the celebration of the signing of the Emancipation Procla¬ mation. An important factor in the celebration was the Negro militia which played no small part in the civic and social life of the Negro community. The existence of eight military organizations was the pride oi Negro citizens who looked forward to .New Year’s Day when they would witness the parade of their soldiers and the festivities that took up a whole day and culminated with maneuv¬ er-, . r.d :pcc:h-making in Forest City National Advertising Representatives Associated Publishers 31 West 46 Street New York 19, New York Whalcy-Cahill Company 0513 Hollywood Boulevard Los Angeles, California Whaley-Cahiil Company 440 Russ Building San Francisco, California Park Extension. In resplendent and appropriate uniform, led by two bands and one or two fife and drum corps, these units participated in the show; The Savannah Light Infantry, I he ( ol- quit Blues, The Forest City, The (.'nut- ham Light Infantry, The Lincoln Guards, The Lone Star Cadets, The Georgia Ar¬ tillery and The Savannah Hussars. One of the bands had the distinction of being the band that played for the Savannah Volunteer Guards, a white company, whenever that organization went out on parade. We recall Capt. Augustus Law' and William Allen of the Chatham Light Infantry, Henry Walton and Ju¬ lius Maxwell of the Savannah Light In- lantr.v, Frank Jones and J. C. Simmons of the Savannah Hussars and Georgia Ar¬ tillery, respectively, Robert West of the Lone Star Cadets and John Bell of the Savannah Cadets. There were also Ma¬ jor W. H. Royall and Cols. E. K. Des- Verney, and John H. DeVeaux who was in command of the First Regiment ot Negro troops when they were disband¬ ed. One of the problems which confront¬ ed the militia after the Negro troops became a part of the state military, was what to do about the question of rank: As is usual, jn southern thinking, there was only one thing to do, one choice to make, to solve the problem of what to do about Negro officers who have attained senior rank: abolish the Negro militia. An important and unifying influence in Negro life was destroyed when this was done. The abolition of Negro mi¬ litia and the denial of the opportunity to Negro youth in schools and mlleges to benefit by the discipline of ROTC are of the same pattern. These action?: are taken in spite of the fact that Ne¬ groes were expected to and did fight in every war, including the Spanish war. World war I, and World war II. They will be expected to fight in future (?) wars. Fairness dictates that they shout I have the same opportunity of becoming as well prepared as any other citizens who volunteer or are drafted to serve their country in time of need. This comment would be incomplete if it omitted to name Sol C. Johnson, ad* jutant to Col J. H. DeVeaux and the one Negro Confederate soldier we knew, the late (Rev.) Alexander Harris. Only the memory of the Negro’s participation in the military glory of Savannah re¬ mains. OUR NEW YEAR WISH We join in expressing a sincere wish for a happy and prosperous Nineteen- fifty-four. Our wish for the coming* year is .more concerned with community welfare and is influenced and determin¬ ed, more or less, by the successes or failures of events and aspirations of the past year. There have been several things of vital and passionate concern' to us. We have wanted our city to be free of rackets that have been the scourge of many other cities, of the in- intobrances and misnderstandings, of the destructive divisions among Negroes in business, civic enterprises and in pol¬ itics. In hardly any of these areas was our accomplishment anything to brag about. The record reveals that boledu wasn’t dead and that bootlegging had become “big business”; that while Ne¬ groes made little but not notable gains in business; that our situation political¬ ly was woefully impotent (and still is); and that our leaders in politics, religion and civic affairs were not big enough to place the welfare of the people and the whole community above selfish interest to avoid distressing embarrassment to those who are continually pleading that Negroes be given opportunity to parti¬ cipate in the stream of community life. Our wish, then, is that in 1954 our city become a cleaner and more orderly city free from boledo and bootlegging rackets; that a new vision come to our Negro business men; and that all the several and sundry leaders forget their ambition to head a little empire of their own and put their hearts, heads and hands together to reach the type of achievement that alone can develop the sense of civic and social responsibility good citizens must have. If we can achieve acceptable success in these things, we shall have a happy New Year, our wish will come true. Happy New Year. • tmk ‘UvavNaii tribune ENLIGH fLNED COURT DECISIONS ARE BREAKING THEIR GRIP" SOUTHERN /:• T ■ | mi PRESSURE . GROUPS IGNORANCE wm iahcew^ iLLSJ WiMi feel m&^m Ala. Votes 3 To 1 To Cut Poll Tax BIRMINGHAM. Dee. 24— Ala- bama voters, responding to annuls bv the National Asso- ciation for the Advancement of Colored People and other organizations, have voted three 0 one to reduce drastically the cumulative feature of the nob tax. The new amendment j awaits the governor’s procla- | mation to become law. j Under terms of the amend- j ment, approved by the voters in a state-wide referendum on , December 15, the tax which has been emulative from the’age.' of 2i through 45 at a si.50 year will be required only for a two-year period in advance of | each election. Citizens who for- • merly may have had to pay as much as $30 or more in order to register and vote may now vote upon payment of two years’ back taxes Throughout the pre-election , , campaign, supporters of the old constitutional provision, which disfranchised thousands of low-income whites as well as Negroes, played up the role of the NAACP in spearheading the drive for revision of the constitution. By this means they hoped to induce enough white citizens to vote against the amendment to insure its defeat. Advertisements were placed in Alabama papers publicizing the NAACP support of the amendment and recounting the Association’s fight against seg¬ regation and efforts to Increase the Negro vote. The Democratic Executive Committee of Jef¬ ferson County (Birmingham) inserted a large display adver¬ tisement in the Birmingham News which proclaimed: “NA¬ ACP urges adoption of Poll Tax Amendment (No. li and seeks death of racial segregation in Alabama and in the South.” The advertisement quotes pub¬ lic addresses by NAACP officials and statements from its publi¬ cations. The advertisement, designee to undermine the NAACP pro- t gram and defeat the amend- j ment, was so accurate thal Walter White. NAACP executive 1 secretary, wrote to the commit j tee expressing thanks for the POLIO SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS “tie** -'“-jA Left to right: Miss Jeannr Ackiss. Oklahoma City. Okla imedical social work): Jewel Berry. Kansas City. Kans (parasi tology >: Miss Jessie Abbott. Tuskegcr Institute. Ala. (physical therapy), won scholarships made available by contributions to the March of Dimes. Join the 1954 March of Dimes, Jan. 2-31. I ( , | 1 j 1 j RECEIVES AW ARD Dr. James | L ' Stuart, chairman of the A.s< r college business department, jwas awarded’the Delta Pi Epsi- L, i on research award for 1952 for 1 a study on „ A gcale lor De _ the Attitudes.of High .’School Business Education Stud- 1 Toward Certain Aspects of Office _ Work. , „ He TI received , the award at the annual banquet of the organization held in connection with the annual meeting oi the National ness Teachers Association held i n St. Louis, Mo., last Tuesday, December 29. Dr. Stuart assumed his pres¬ ent position at A.yT last fall. He is the first Negro to win the coveted research award. :/r. SIMMS IN CITY FOR HOLIDAYS Lt. Robert Jackson Simms is in the city spending the holi¬ days with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wendell P. Simms, and other relatives. Lt. Simms is stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas. PERSONAE MENTION A-2-C Charles A. Jr., left Tuesday night for Brooks Air Force Base, San An¬ tonio, Texas, after spending the holidays with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Simmons, Sr., of Fellwood Homes. next time you publish an ad or us would you be enough to include a coupon urging your readers to send in heir memberships or ^ HEADS COMMITTEE—The Rev. R. J. Cliffin, prominent local minister, who has accepted the chairmanship of the local host committee for the Second An¬ nual Southeast Regional Con¬ ference, NAACP, which will convene here on February 26- 28. The appointment of Mr. Cliffin- was made last week by W. W. Law, president of the ocal branch. The new NAACP appointee is the popular pastor of the Frst Mount Bethel Baptist church, located on Fahm street in Yamacraw. He is proceeding to organize a large committee of citizens to entertain the two hundred or more delegates who will come her for the three day meeting. All persons interested in working on the committer are requested- to call Mr. Clif¬ fin at his residence phone number 4-6766. The time is short, Mr. Law said, and those who desire tc serve will have to call the gen¬ eral chairman, Mr. Cliffin, ai once. It is expected that the chairman will announce hi' full committee next week. SAVFS WHITE WOMAN FROM SUICIDE WILMINGTON, N. C,-r-<ANP> —A fish house worker last week prevented an attractive white woman from committing suicide in the Cape Fear River here. The worker. Bill Sessoms. pulled Mrs. Fannie Hardison 35. from the river after she had jumped in because of what she termed “domestic trouble.” A deputv sheriff who was in the fish house said Mrs. Har¬ dison calmly walked into the fish house, walked to the river opening and jumped in. Sessoms saw her, jumped in a boat and grabbed her arm. She was said to be unconscious when pulled out. She was taken to a hospital. MRS. SMITH AND DR. EBERHARDT UNITED IN MARRIAGE (Continued from Page One) Mrs. Mary E. Smith, on °r e “eS ceremon, perforemd by Rev. E. E. O. O. S. S. Cleveland, pastor of St, John Baptist church, in the presence of relatives ahd a few close friends. The house was decorat- i ed with holly, poinsettias, gladi- j 0 li an d mums. j pherhardt JIt wore a / s with •ab . detailing , . ..... at the collar. Her corsage was a w ... 1 e ore vLj 1 Her only ornament was a 5rooch, a gift from the groom. Following the ceremony, a reception was given. The table was centered by a three tiered wedding cake. Miss Euleta Smith served punch. Assisting in ser¬ ving were Mrs. F. J. Smith and Miss Rosemary King. Dr. and Mrs. Eberhardt will reside at 1139 East Wright St. Local Doctors On Health Committee e The Savannah Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has created a Health Commit¬ tee composed of Doctors Carl Rankin Jordan. Stephen M. McDew, Jr., and Charles N. Collier, it was announced by W. W. Law, the branch presi¬ dent. The South Atlantic Medical society, of which Dr. Richard W. Moore is president, has co¬ operated in the appointment of the local NAACP health com¬ mittee. The committee will work on health problems affecting the minority group in this area, especially discriminatory prac¬ tices in local health facilities. Mr. Law said that the local NAACP committee was ap¬ pointed following a recommen¬ dation from Dr. W. Montague Cobb, Howard university, Wash¬ ington, D. C., who is chairman of the NAACP national health committee . It is hopcd that the NAACP will be ab i e to obtain the support 0 f all members of the medical, dental and nursing P iofessions through the corn- mittee just appointed, he stated. TO ATTEND CONFERENCE (Continued from Page Fivei Bowdoin college, will give one of the principal addresses. Other speakers will be Dr. Wilson Compton, president of the Council for Financial Aid to Education, William W. Tomiln- son, vice president of Temple university, and Milton Christie, editor of the Kiplinger Letter in Washington, D. C. Raymond Burkley, chairman of District II and secretary of the General Alumni Association of Temple university, will pre side at the conference. Mr. Donnelly is a former Beach high school (Savannah Ga.» teacher, _ Send The T RI RUNE j To Your i Friends SALUTE MARCH OF DIMES Left to right: Carl Murphy, Baltimore. Md„ president of the National Newspaper Publishers Association; Mrs. Jane Morrow Spaulding. Washington. D. C.. assistant to the secretary, U. S. De¬ partment of Health, Education and Welfare; Mrs. R. Stillmon Smith, Macon. Ga.. president. Women's Auxiliary to the National Mediral Association, and Dr. J. H. Jackson. Chicago, president of the National Baptist Convention, Inc. These leaders praised polio I campaign to raise funds for Polio Prevention Program, research I patient care and professional education. They urge evervone to respond liberally to bring nearer the day when polio will no longe.v be a threat to any home. 1954 March of Dimes, Jan. 2-31. TTH'RS., DECEMBER 31, lfcfe PRESIDENT CDC APPEALS FOR VIORE VOTERS II Leroy Wilson, president of the Citizens Democratic Club, lac., makes an appeal to lead¬ ers of all organizations to now join hands in trying to get Ne¬ groes to register to vote, es¬ pecially the leaders of religious and fraternal groups, as well as the labor and social groups, when we join hand in hand to . accomplish this, then we will be able to tell the orld that we are mong the rest of the world who are trying to make democ¬ racy work. We will be almost on the level with South Africa and all the rest of the “civil¬ ized” countries. Yes, we need to get together Savannah, not in some other place. We are still trying to climb—no matter how much , , ve k now we do not know any¬ thing until we know the way to the Court House to register, and that is not enough; carry some one with you and when the time comes to vote, carry vour friends and your acquaint¬ ances with you to the polls and see that they vote—no matter how they vote, but get them to the polls and to vote. This is especially to the re- ’igious groups. I know that you and your followers are bound for the Promised Land, and so am I. but will you please, for me, add just one more little stop on your long, tediotis jbur- ney, and let that stop be the ballot box. You will find that when we do this in great Strength, when we do land on the other side of Jordan, we will arrive with a full .stomach. The Citizens Democratic club will meet on the second Wed¬ nesday night in ‘each month at the Recreation Center, 37th and Ogeechee Road, the time 8:30 p. m. We will always’ wel¬ come the public to come ajhd meet with us, and we will :be glad to meet with any group or groups as long as they are for the betterment and best inter¬ est for our people. 5 MORE PHYSICIANS LOUISVILLE—(ANPi - Five more physicians were admitted to the Jefferson County Medj _ cal g ociety hcre last week The organization t00k place in Us {irst meeting last month | Among the latest to bc ac ' cepted was Dr - Gra “ M - James, ecen Dy appointed a clinical i ns tructor in pediatrics at the i u n j vers it;y 0 f Louisville Medi¬ cal School. Other new members are: Dr. J. H. Walls, Dr. J. B. Bell, Dr. Gerald Hart and Dr. E. M. Hubbard, Jr. The Jefferson County Medical Society changed its bylaws to allow Negroes to become mem¬ bers. Dr. Maurice F. Rabb was the first admitted.