Newspaper Page Text
page four
fchf $mmm\iQvkvM
Established 1175
MRS. W1LLA A. JOHNSON.-Editor A Publisher
EZRA JOHNSON________Promotion A Adv. Rep.
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY
1009 WEST BROAD STREET
Dial ADams 4-3432 — ADams 4-3433
Subscription Rates In Advance
One Year ............ $4.12
Blx Months______________________ $3.09
Single Copy ______________________________ .10
Remittance must be made by Express, Post
Office Money Order or Registered Mall.
Second Class Mail Privileges
Authorized at Savannah, Georgia
EDITORIAL OPINIONS FROM THE NATION'S PRESS
(Compiled by Associated Negro Press)
Here are reactions of some of the na¬
tions daily papers to the • wave of sit
down demonstrations against jirri crow
lunch counters;
POST DISPATCH, ST. LOUIS:
‘‘It is a little unfair therefore, to ask
that the leaders of the sit-downs call off
their demonstrations. If any commun¬
ity wants to be comfortable, the way to
do it is to remove the basic cause for the
demonstrations.”
THE STAR. WASHINGTON, I). (’.
“We think the “sitdown” tactic is
both wrong and potentially self-defeat¬
ing.”
NEWS AND COURIER, CHARLESTON,
S. C.
“We find it regrettable that Negro col¬
lege students, supposed to be on the road
to maturity, should risk community ex¬
plosion.”
THE POST, DENVER, COLO.:
“And, after all, what is so proper or
gentle-manlv about segregation? Or
group discrimination of any type for that
matter ?”
MORNING NEWS. WILMINGTON, DEL.
“The American Negro’s gentle revolu¬
tion against gross racial injustice is one
of the most remarkable revolutions in
history.”
THE JOURNAL. WINSTON-SALEM, N.
Cj “For the present, at least, the fourth
course of action-closing counters which
»$• «$•*£-• *<• v ****** *!* * 1 * v v *!* *'* •** v v v v v *!* *«* *»•* *!* *!* * 1 * *!* v* *1* *!• v *»* *»■* *•* *•’ *»* *»* *»* *«* *»* ^
2 )o 2 H*ops
By R. W. Gadsden
The lives of many of the world’s
greatest personages have borne
eloquent testimony to the role of
good family life played in shaping
the couvs4 of civilization. Abra¬
ham Lincoln, the great humani¬
tarian, has stated as succinctly
as it can be stated what his moth¬
er’s influence on his life meant
to him when he says, “All I am or
all I hope to be, I owe to my
angel mother.” For the point in¬
tended here, the implication is
plain.
E very boy or girl, man or worn -1
an, who gets into trouble with |
the law, had a mother or father
and began his life in a family
which is the crucible-- the training
ground—for the offsprings’ fu¬
ture. If it is what it should be,
good. If not, what have you?
The following quotation taken
from the report of the S t a t e
School Superintendent to the gov¬
ernor and General Assembly,
shows, very properly, the school’s
concern for the home’s role and
responsibility in training children
for today’s a n d tomorrow’s
world.
“ ‘People never get beyond the
influence of their first homes.
They may grow and live in big¬
ger, finer houses. Hut they carry
the influence of the first home
with them as long as they are
alive upon the earth. If it was
a place of older and beauty no
matter how simple they are se¬
rene and secure. If it was full
of jangled confusion, they go rest-
less and seeking through the earth '
as long as they live, perhaps nevei :
Federal Intervention Sought
In Student Protest
ORANGEBURG, S. (’.—Presi¬
dent Eisenhower has been called
upon “to act immediately to have
the Department of Justice and the
Attorney General join in the de¬
fense of the 450 Negro students
from South Carolina State and
Claflin colleges” who have been
arrested for participating in peace¬
ful demonstrations for the elimina¬
tion of Jim Crow at lunch count¬
ers in this city.
The appeal was sent to the Pres-
iuerO t.y I, DeQuineey Newman,
NAACP field secretary for South
National Advertising Representative*
Associated Publisher*
55 West 42nd Street
New York 36. New York
166 W. Washington 8t.
Chicago 2, 111.
Mr. Robert Whaley
Whaley-Simpson Company
6608 Selma Ave.
Los Angeles 28, California
Mr. Gordon Simpson
Whaley-Simpson Company
700 Montgomery St.
San Francisco 11, California
ft
provide seats for customers—may be the
wisest. Those store managers who choose
to provide eating facilities could then
serve all customers standing up.”
THE MANNER, NASHVILLE, TENN.
“There is no place in Nashville for
flannel-mouth agitators, white or colored
—under whatever sponsorship, imported
for preachment of mass disorder; self-
supported, vagrants, or the paid agents
of strife-breeding organizations.”
COMMERCIAL APPEAL, MEMPHIS
“Any claim that the demonstrations
are planned to be “nonviolent” is spe¬
cious.”
THE NEWS, DETROIT
“It is obvious now to everyone that the
Southern Negro, and particularly the ris¬
ing generation, does not approve of the
sacred Southern “way of life.” He does
not now want to be a second-class citi¬
zen, no matter what Uncle Toms of the
past wanted.”
ADVERTISER, MONTGOMERY, ALA.
“The Negroes are as misled by King,
Abernathy and busy vankee missionaries
as were the slaves by promises of 40 acres
and a mule.”
THE POST. WASHINGTON, I). C.
“Anyone has a right, of course, to in¬
vite whom he pleases to his home. But
when he invites the general public to pa¬
tronize his premises on paying basis, be
has an obligation to conform to public
standards of health, safety and decency.”
knowing why, or what it is their
heart® are seeking, and too often
never finding.’ ’’
it implies the inescapable in-
teraetion and interdependence of
these two imperatively important
institutions home and school; its
implications for the heads of these
institutions is obvious.
Of equal concern for the home
life of children is the church whose
benedictions usually solemnize the
union out of which the f a m i 1 y
springs. The interaction and in-
teidependence of the church and
home have paramount significance
for the rearing of children, and
the family which fails for any rea¬
son, to accept the moral and spir¬
itual undergirding that union with
the church makes possible, is tak¬
ing a terrific gamble with the
lives of children, the future citi¬
zens who will soon he on their
own; who will soon have to make
choices in a world which offers
many opportunities for making
choices, in a world where there
is a high way and a low, a right
and wrong way, the real and the
make-believe. As a rule, chil¬
dren who are reared in a well-
ordered and wisely disciplined
home and family, do not become
law breakers and criminals. Nat
King Cole in the current issue of
Ebony expresses beautifully the
kind of home that will solve the
delinquency problem, the kind of
home children are entitled to. The
home, school and the church can
do something about our problems
if they accept the challenge of in-
teraetion and interdependence.
Carolina, following Mr. Eisenhow-
cr’s declaration at his news con¬
ference on March 16 that the stu¬
dent demonstrations “are unques-
tionably a proper expression of a
conviction of the group which is
making them.”
The President further said that
he was “deeply sympathetic with
the efforts of any group to enjoy
•the rights, the rights of equality
that they are guaranteed by the
Constitution.”
In a tc-hgram to pre-ident Eis-
enhowc>, Mr. Newman charged
that “America's image as a citadel
of liberty has been dealt a serious
blow both at home and abroad by
the cowardly and bestial actions of
the Orangeburg police officers who
used tear gas and other Nazi-like
tactics to subdue a helpless crowd
of defenseless Negro students.”
Meanwhile, Gov. Ernest F. Roll¬
ings made clear his intent to prose¬
cute the students to the limit. He
assigned his chief legal aide,
Harry Walker, to join Assistant
Attorney General James Vevnor
and the local district attorney in
prosecuting the cases against the
students.
Magistrate D. Marchant Culler,
in whose court the trials are being
held, overruled defense counsel’s
plea for continuation of the cases
in order to allow time for proper
preparation. However, he grant¬
ed the motion for jury trials. The
panel from which the jury is to be
selected is all-white.
Determined to push through
with speedy trials, Magistrate
Culler announced that he would
hold court night and day and try
the students in groups of 15 each.
Representing the students are
NAACP attorneys Matthew Perry
and Lincoln Jenkins.
* Addressing a student mass meet¬
ing here on March 16, Herbert
Wright, NAACP youth secretary,
expressed pride in “each and every
one of you for the well-disciplined
and peaceful, non-violent protest
which you are making against the
continuation of segregation in
places of public accommodation.”
He denounced the use of “a
high pressure fire hose to subdue
and beat to the ground by the
force of the water, a blind, helpless
17-vear-old co-ed from South Car¬
olina State College, whose only
‘crime’ was that she joined in a
crowd of her classmates to dem¬
onstrate peaceably for the exercise
of her constitutional rights.”
In the meantime, Rev. H. Prince
I Sharper, president of the South
j Carolina NAACP branches, State Conference issued of
a state¬
ment condemning the “fascist-like
j tactics of police officers seeking
j lo deny citizens the right of order-
i ly protest,” and concluding “that
appeal to federal agencies is our
] last resort. Regretfully, these ap¬
peals will be made immediately, for
j officials of our state and munici-
j palities have shown no inclination
to hear the student grievances or
to seek a democratic solution to
; t hr problem., po„ed by their pro-
l test.”
THE SAVANNAH THIBUNE, SAVANNAI1, GEORGIA
A STRONG CIVIL RIGHTS BILL WILL PROVE TO THE WORLD IT’S NOT SO
NEGRO EDITORS- Eleventh in A Series
EDUCATE FOR FREEDOM
Informer Newspaper’s Success Due to
Militant Editorial Teamwork and
Dynamic Personalities
THE INFORMER GROUP OF
PAPERS is the product of the ef¬
forts and responsibility of C. N.
Love, longtime editor uf the
TEXAS FREEMAN; W. E. King,
founder and publisher pf the
DALLAS EXPRESS; C. F, Rich¬
ardson, Sr., founder and editor; of
THE INFORMER; J. Alstp*, At¬
kins, longtime editor of THE IN¬
FORMER, and Carter Wesley, pre¬
sent publisher of THE INFOR¬
MER CROUP OF PAPERS.
D. E. King and C. N. Love es¬
tablished their papers in 1892 and
1893, respectively. They fought
'off the efforts to stifle the Negro’s
votes arid activity in the Republi¬
can Partjt; : then later the efforts
to isolate the vote of Ne¬
groes in a weakened Republi¬
can Party, us the. scheming iMders
of Texas worked toward making
the Democratic Party lily-white.
These two men exposed lynch.*
ings, they worked in the forefront
of winning the right to simple jobs
for the lately-freed Negroes. They
worked to corral the meager means
of their race for such park facili¬
ties and other conveniences as they
could get. They rallied the forces
of their race behind the NAACP,
when it came to life in 1909.
In 1919 C. F. Richardson, Sr.,
entered the lists and became nation¬
ally known for his courageous
fights for the rights of Negroes
to participate in the Democratic
Primary, but he went into the
courts as plaintiff himself on sev¬
eral occasions. From 1919 through
1938 C. F. Richardson was known
over the nation as one of the most
militant protagonists of the rights
of the Negro race in the South.
In fact, C. N. Love, W. E.
King and C. F. Richardson set a
mark of courageous service to their
people, which has not been surpass¬
ed anywhere in the South.
In 1927 J. Alston Atkins and
Carter Wesley came into the pic¬
ture as they joined up with C. F\
Richardson and George Webster to
incorporate THE INFORMER
and extend its services and volume.
[ Veteran C. N. Love was still active¬
ly publishing his TEXAS FREE¬
MAN, but W. E. King had gone
to his reward.
The active responsibility of Wes-
Y-Teens
Begin Annual
Potato Chip
(Continued from Pasre One)
tered teenagers, the Y-Teens, greet
I them with smiles, and ask them to
purchase potato chips.
School buys and girls, arc ask¬
ed to make their potato chip pur-
CARTER W. WESLEY
ley and Atkins in the newspaper
field began in 1930, shortly after
THE FREEMAN^iad been merged
with THE INFORMER.
It is not possible to successfully
separate the work of Atkins and
Wesley as they worked together in
this paper over the years. From
the beginning J. Alston Atkins \yas
the editor, and remains connected
with paper in that light until this
day.
Atkins’ contribution was not only
in editorial writing, but he served
as lawyer for many a plaintiff who
attacked the Democratic Primary
my mandamus on the local level,
and it was he who conceived the
Grovey vs. Townsend Case and
carried it to the Supreme Court of
the United States, in an effort to
, break , the , Democratic . Primary. . As ,
to the breadth and the ceaseless
ness of his fight against wrong,
and his struggle for opportunities
for his race, readers over the years
need but reflect back over the
I many years, when they found
leadership in the fight for equal
! rights for all men. Most of these
years Texas has led in the fight
the rights of , .. Negroes . the
to win m
South , to vote, and , ; indeed, . , , up
until 1954, , ,,, Texas led all the states . .
the ., South o ... the ,, tight , . for , equal ,
in in
t ^
Perhaps the contribution made
by Atkins and Wesley through the
newspaper chain was due to the
chases at their homes or on the
streets as no potato chips will be
sold at school.
The two distribution points for
fact that;both of' them were train-
j ed work in in law. the Much of th‘e basic
| Primary Cases was
dont; by Atkins, and it was freely
given to any lawyers who were
I bringjpg sirqjlar fights, including
Nixon’s lawyers in El Paso, and
many other lawyers of our group
| irt the state. Even when
: the Supreme Court would render
| a decision against Negroes enter-
j mg' the primaries, it was never
long before Texas would have de-
J again vised another the attack road and gone back
; on to the Supreme
! Court.
It was not any accident that the
Sweatt Case became the leading
| case for opening up Southern uni-
| vei-sities on the graduate level. At-
j kins and Wesley not only helped
to'get this case ladnched, but The
I Informer guaranteed Sweatt em-
1 ployment against any reprisals that
might be taken as a result of his
being a plaintiff in tj^e case, and
actually gave him employment.
J The Informer, under the leader-
I ship of Atkins and Wesley, served
as the thread for most of the drives
to raise money for these various
suits for advancement in the state..
I Throughout the history of the
,
j | papers that make up the Informer
Group, the men responsible for the
chain have attacked Wrong wher¬
ever they found it, w'hether in the
office of the Chief of Police, the
Mayor, the Governor, or the in¬
grained political parties.
It is an interesting commentary
| that C.* N. Love, our first editor
! and publisher, as plaintiff carried
i lap to , the ,, Supreme „ Court _ . of . the
United States the first suit against
the primary in Love vs, Wilcox
(1924); J. Alston Atkins, current- j
against ly editor, Townsend handled from Grovey’s the Justice case j I
| of the Peace Court to the Supreme
j I Court Heman of Sweatt, the United plaintiff States in 1936;
in the
.
I j Sweatt Case, not only was an em-
ployee , on the editorial side of the
>
| paper as the case wound its way
J
' to the , Supreme Court, _ , but the
was
| beneficiary ... of , the ,, action . of* , The
1 Informer’s having helped to raise
! the money for the suit, and sub-
sequently helping to raise the
; money to send him to school.
j the Y-Teens to receive chips are
J the YMCA West Center, Yamacraw and
i Village, Bryan Street,
I Robert Hitch Village, Community
I Building, 840 Hull Drive.
Our Past This Week
By Fannie S. Williams
An ANP Feature
March 22, 1950 — Charles E.
Toney died at the age of 72. One
of the 1st two Negroes elected
judges in Manhattan’s Municipal
Court.
March 24. 1941 — “Native
Son" opened at tin- Si. .1 mu t! . ..
ter in New York City. Based on
Richard Wright’s novel by the
same name it starred Canada Lee.
j The play ran 114 performances.
March 26, 1948 — Dr. Donnely
j H. Turpin of Nashville died at
! 55. He was dean-ememitus of
Meharry Medical College and past- j
pr< id. rt of the National Dental j
association. I
SATURDAY, MARCH 36, 1960
Between The Lines
By Dean Gordon B. Hancock for ANP
THE NEGRO REVOLTS AGAINST TYRANNY
Segregation is a form of ty¬
ranny. It stems from race prej¬
udice that feeds on the miseries
and degredation of others less for¬
tunate. The current sit-down of
Negro students in many states, is
a mild form of protest to be
sure, but it symbolizes the Ne¬
groes revolt against the tyranny
>f segregation.
This great nation of ours w*as
fouaded in an atmosphere of re¬
volt against tyranny. The young
Colonists said that “Taxation with¬
out representation is tyranny” and
if that was true in Revolutionary
times it is true today.
The fact that the Negroes of
the South are taxed without rep¬
resentation cannot be successfully
controverted. Neither can the fact
that force is employed to keep the
Negro in a state of semi-subjuga¬
tion.
It is true that the mob is al¬
ways available to keep Negroes
within the line that segregation
has prescribed. Every Negro born
and reared in the South and lives
to get out, and every Northern-
born Negro who comes into the
South and lives to get out, suc¬
ceeds because he lives within the
prescribed rules that segregation
has laid down.
There are no exceptions to these
rules. The fact; that Negroes
have made progress in spite of
these rules is one of the highest
! tributes to the Negroes genius and
abilitfy.
But the miracle of miracles is
happening today in ways that in¬
dicate that no longer is the Ne¬
gro afraid to make known his dis¬
satisfaction with second rate citi¬
zenship. Armed with the asurance
that he who suffers for the right
is abetted by Time and God and
Right, the Negro refuses to be
afraid to take a stand against
tyranny, even though such stand
resembles the contest between
David and Goliath.
Strength was on the side of
Goliath so far as physical as¬
pects were concerned; but so far
as the moral aspects were con¬
cerned, the strength lay with David
with his consecrated sling-shot and
small stone.
A new day dawns in this coun¬
try when' Negroes refuse to be
frightened into submission with
the tyranny of segregation. There¬
fore the current revolt is a healthy
sign for the nation and the Ne¬
gro.
What is significant indeed is the
evidence that Negroes are not
NAACP Urges Nationwide
of Jim Crow Chains
NEW’ YORK — Members and
friends of the National Associa¬
tion for the Advancement of
Colored People throughout the
country have been urged, as a
matter of “racial self-defence . . .
to withhold retail patronage from
all units of the chain variety stores
in all sections of the country which
maintain a policy in their southern
stores of refusing to serve Negro
customers at lunch counters on the
same basis as other customers.”
In a memorandum to officers of
NAACP state conferences, local
branches, yputh councils and col¬
lege chapters, dated March 16, Exe¬
cutive Secretary Roy Wilkins cit¬
ed the previous day’s developments
in the civil rights struggle. These
included the announcement of chain
store owners that they intend to
continue to refuse to serve Negro
customers at lunch counters in the
South, the mass arrest of students
protesting this discrimination in
Georgia and South Carolina, and
the whittling dowm of civil rights
legislation in the Congress.
“It is apparent,” he said, “that
the full power of southern state
governments including special laws
rushed through the legislatures, as
well as state, local and county
police forces, is being used to sup¬
port chain variety stores in their
anti-Negro lunch counter policies, |
and that at the very height of this ,
persecution the federal govern-
ment, through the Congress of the
United States, is steadfastly refus¬
ing to legislate adequate relief.”
In the face of this onslaught, Mr.
Wilkins pointed out, “Negro
Americans are forced to fall back
upon their own resources — spiri¬
tual, economic and political . . .
in their campaign for equality and
human dignity.”
The Association’s Board of Di¬
rectors at its meeting on March 14
agreed “to support fully the pro¬
t e ®t demonstrations aimed at the
humiliating policy of chain variety
stores and to resist persecution
alone in the struggle against the
tyranny of segregation. Negro
students are being abetted by white
students in divers parts of the
United States. In a letter re¬
ceived a few days ago, we are
told that students on Harvard Uni¬
versity campus built a snow man
and hung upon him signs and
slogans which lent encouragement
to the Negro’s current revolt
against the tyranny of segrega¬
tion.
What is more, students were
making plans to picket the Wool
worth stores in Greater Boston.
These white students know that
the fight against segregation is
the fight for this nation’s sur¬
vival and well-being.
One of the things which should
hearten the Negro is the convic¬
tion that he is revolting not only
against segregation but against
the enemy of this country’s sur¬
vival. ,
When white students in Rich¬
mond and Boston join hands with
Negro students in their revolt
against segregation they are
strengthening the moral defenses
of the nation and if not now,
there will rise up a generation
which will hallow and bless th^ir
names.
The thing that makes the
Negro formidable in his current
struggle for freedom is his strong
moral position which in the end
will be most conclusive.
When Jesus Christ was battling
against the scribes and pharisees
and the powers of Rome, his cir¬
cumstantial position appeared
weak and untenable, but it was
his moral strength that carried
the day and set aburning the Gos¬
pel fires that have burned these
nearly two thousand years.
The thing that the revolting Ne¬
groes are doing will outlive those,
who are currently trying to con¬
tain them. : •
“We are beaten back in many a
fray,
But never strength we borrow;
The gates of hell are strong to¬
day, i,
But Right will rule tomorrovy.”
Who knows but that these re*-
volting young Negroes have come
to the scene for such a time as
this? What they are doing may
seem far-fetched and useless b^t j
they are pioneering in ways and
means to free themselves from the
tyranny of segregation. . .
It is fervently to be hoped that ,
oldsters, hungry for notoriety, will
get out of the way!
connected therewith,” the NAACP
leader reported to local units.
Accordingly he asserted, “all or¬
ganized units of the NAACP are
advised that a racial self-defense
policy on an expanded scale is in
effect as of the date of this mem¬
orandum.” “That policy, he ex¬
plained, encompasses the withhold¬
ing of patronage from the offend¬
ing chains.
In addition to the F. W. Wool-
worth, S. S. Kresge, S. H. Kress &
W. T. Grant chains, the memoran¬
dum named Thalhimer’s Depart¬
ment Store in Richmond, Va.,
“which was the first to swear out
individual warrants for students
by name and where, outside the
store, Richmond police, using a
huge police dog, dragged the wife
of a national Board member off to
Exempted from this national
policy of withholding patronage
are “stores in several southern
cities which have changed their
practices and are now serving
Negro customers at their lunch
counters.”
In a list of procedures designed
to guide the local units in theiT pro¬
tests, a separate memorandum
warns against attempts of out¬
siders to infiltrate the movement.
Other elements, including Com-
munist and related groups, un-
doubtedlv will try to 'muscle in’
with their slogans,' picket signs and
literature. Every reasonable and
firm effort should be used to pre¬
vent such intrusion,” the memoran¬
dum warns.
However, the supplementary
memorandum urged the local
branches to seek the cooperation
such non-Communist groups as
churches, lodges, trade unions,
social and civic clubs. Ministers, it
out, “can be especially help¬
ful in interpreting the purpose of
protest to their congregations.”
Register to Vote Today!