The Crisis 1925-12: Vol 31 Iss 2

Page 1

-IFTEEN CENTS A COP’

\ Ph ise eka

Cs b % < 63) ~ < pk < x= < a z < om < — 3 a ny

Page 2

Winning through our Superior Contract and Service the approval and confidence of Policyholders and Public. THE SOUTHERN AID SOCIETY OF VA., Inc., Richmond, Va. is entering the closing period of an uncertain year with new high rec- ords for New Business Production, Premium Collec- tions and Service to Policyholders. The following expressions attest the points emphasized above: EXPRESSION FROM A WELL-KNOWN 612 Jackson Street AND DISTINGUISHED DENTIST Lynchburg, Va. ieee ! June 12, 1925. Southern Aid Society of Va., Inc. 2505 Nicholas Ave., S. E. 527 North Second Street Washington, D. C. Richmond, Virginia . July 15, 1925 Dear Sirs: aoe ° Your letter of the 10th inst., advising me Southern Aid Society of Va., Ine. ae . he oe nanan ae aes : ° ( e rs ha en mailed to me District Olice: 2901 - Wh St., N. W. settlement of the death claim of my husband, Washington, D. C. George E. Reide, has been received. Your Gentlemen: representative, Mr. R. D. Burton, gave me lh your check for Three Hundred and Sixty-five erewith record my commendation of your ($365.00) Dollars, which was the full amount businesslike method in paying benefits to my covering the life of my husband, George E. late wife, Mrs. Georgianna Hamilton. Also for Reide. Your company was the first one to . respond out of the many that he belonged to. your promptness in paying the death claim. I heartily thank you for your prompt co- Your company was the first to notify me that operation in such matters and I wish for your check awaited my call. company all of the success that is due it. Very truly yours, Respectfully yours, W. E. HAMILTON, D.D.S. VIRGINIA J. REIDE. Southern Aid Society of Va., Inc. Home Offices: 525-27-29 N. 2nd St., Richmond, Va. INSURES AGAINST SICKNESS, ACCIDENT AND DEATH. Operating in Virginia and District of Columbia.

Page 3

THE CRISIS A RECORD OF THE DARKER RACES PUBLISHED MONTHLY AND COPYRIGHTED BY THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE AT 69 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, N. Y. CONDUCTED BY W. E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS; JESSIE REDMON FAUSET, LITERARY EDITOR; AUGUSTUS GRANVILLE DILL, BUSINESS MANAGER. Vol. 31 No. 2 DECEMBER, 1925 Whole No. 182 COVER Page “The Sermon on the Tower’”’. OPINION “The Sermon on the Tower’, !Now or Never’, “The Black Man and Labor”, “The Terrible Dilemma”, “Philippine Mulattoes”, ‘Church, Fraternity and Social Uplift”, “The go Es PP ae ee 59 ON BEING YOUNG, A WOMAN AND COLORED. A Prize Essay by Denia Ch peene. DIO TK... cc aS etdek bon wee ald beh) obel'bee bs % 63 CANTABILE. A Poem. Effie Lee Newsome ........ ee ee ee 65 PRIZE POEMS. Langston Hughes. Illustrated.............0.2--2-0- 66 Sn IN x6 5a 6 5 om sidD eels Fists Se Colk sigan wb els. e:bibistan alae’: Ke eae 67 THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COL- Ge Peer tee. TRGRUREE 6 vivre Ceres CESS He Ce er Eee Teer ETS 68 “THERE NEVER FELL A NIGHT SO DARK.” A Prize Story. Mary Louise French. Illustrated by John Henry Adams................ 73 ee EE Eee OR UTE TRE ee er eee 77 THE LOOKING GLASS. Illustrated-................ ay ible aie vibip he 84 THE LITTLE PAGE. Effie Lee Newsome ........cccecccccccccecers 89 EUGENICS AND THE RACE PROBLEM. E. Franklin Frazier........ 91 CO-OPERATION AT BLUEFIELD. R. P. Sims... 26... cccccssccscsive 92 THE NEW YEAR We have many new plans for 1926 which we shall announce in January. That month will bring articles on Negro Art and Howard together with prize fiction and essays. FIFTEEN CENTS A COPY; ONE DOLLAR AND A HALF A YEAR FOREIGN SUBSCRIPTION TWENTY-FIVE CENTS EXTRA RENEWALS: The date of expiration of each subscription is printed on the wrapper. When the subscription is due, a blue renewal blank is enclosed. CHANGE OF ADDRESS: The address of a subscriber can be changed as often as desired. In ordering a change of address, both the old and the new address must be given. Two weeks’ notice is required. MANUSCRIPTS and drawings relating to colored pote are desired. They must be accom- panied by return postage. If found unavailable they will be mailed carefully to the sender but we assume no responsibility. Entered as second glass, setter November 2, 1910, at the post office at New York, New York, under the Act of March 3 S-

Page 4

6 THE CRISIS PAINE COLLEGE | AUGUSTA, GA. STANDARD COLLEGE COURSES Approved Two-Year Normal Accredited Senior High School Up-to-Date Junior High School “To develop leaders you must have the best possible equipment for literary training and that is what we are striving for at Paine College”, said one of the leaders of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. This Church contributes largely to the support of Paine College. A Good School at Reasonable Rates For further information, address RAY S. TOMLIN, President, PAINE COLLEGE. Virginia Union University is now a Class A College Excellent courses are offered in College as well as in Theology and in High School Work. The summer session is for college students only. For full information address the President at Richmond, Virginia. School of High Standards and a Rigorous Pace WILEY COLLEGE Marshall, Texas Recognized as a Class *‘A’’ College by Standardizing Agencies. Has operated on the basis of four quarters @ year since June, 1921. Graduation in June and August. Entrance any quarter. Leading colleges and universities represented on its faculty. More than two hundred .nd fifty enrolled in college department. $35,000 invested in scientific laboratory and library research equipment. Due prominence given te musie and te wholesome athletics. M. W. DOGAN, President. Lincoln University Pioneer in Collegiate and Theological Education Accredited by the Association of Colleges of the Middle States and Maryland. Lincoln Graduates are Leaders in the various professions and in al) parts of the country. Address: The Dean of the University LINCOLN UNIVERSITY CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA ‘The Cheyney Training School for Teachers (A State Normal School) Cheyney, Pa. A Pennsylvania State Normal School offering, in addition to the regular Normal Academic Course of two years, professional three year courses in Home Economics and Shop Work. A diploma from any of these courses makes a graduate eligible to teach in the public schools of Pennsylvania. Registration Day, Tuesday, September 15, 1925. First semester began Wednesday, September 16, 1925. For further information and catalog, write LESLIE PINCKNEY HILL, Principal Cheyney, Pa Mention Tue Crisis

Page 5

——— Vol. 31 No. 2 THE CRISIS DECEMBER, 1925 Whole No. 182 INION “of WEE Du Bais THE SERMON ON THE TOWER gummm) NI) seeing the multitudes He it went up into the Woolworth Tower and when He was set He opened his mouth and said: “Poor-spirited men are successful be- cause they will live after death. “Sorrowful people are lucky because friends comfort them. “Meek folk will be rich because they will own the land. “If you are hungry to do right, you'll do right. “If you don’t get even with others they won’t try to get even with you. “Only the Pure see God. “Pacifists are God’s children. “If you are good, you'll see Hell and deserve Heaven. “When men call you names and make faces at you and lie about you, laugh; all prophets always are treated that way. “Salt must be salty and lights must burn. “Don’t kill people—don’t even be angry at them. “Don’t force women—don’t buy men. “Don’t hit back. “Love your enemies. “Be as perfect as God.” , Thus spake Jesus Christ. And the people in the Woolworth Tower were dumbfounded. NOW OR NEVER ) THOUGHTFUL woman was speaking to me. “What dre these law cases?” she asked. They are three: 59 1. District of Columbia: Can a group of landholders contract never to sell their land to a Negro and then be able to punish in the courts any one of their number who changes his mind, or any subsequent buyer of the land who wishes to sell to black folk? 2. Texas: Can a political party hold a primary election and exclude a member of the party from voting because he is of Negro descent? 3. Detroit: Can a black man de- fend his home from a white mob? “And what will these cases cost?” she asked. At least $20,000—possibly $50,000. “And you have to beg for the money? Is it possible that 12 million people are not willing to give five cents apiece for the right to buy a home, the right to defend it and the right to vote? Is it possible?” No, it is not possible. Now or never the Black Folk of America must strike for freedom. No listless foolishness, no carping criti- cism, but to the. Work. Pay! Give! Sacrifice! Be men and women! Be free! We have secured the best legal tal- ent in the United States—Story, Marshall, Darrow; we have associat- ed with them the best colored law- yers obtainable: Lewis, Cobb, Perry, Rowlette and Mahoney. We are going to win. But to win we must pay. The cost of Freedom to the Negro today is $50,000. Is it worth it?

Page 6

60 THE If it is, pay and pay now. As we write the first gun booms. The American Fund for Public Service gives us $20,000; $5,000 is given outright and $15,000 will be added if we raise $30,000, and thus complete the $50,000 fund. The first gun booms. But it is not our gun. Our gun must blaze with $30,000. Who starts? THE BLACK MAN AND LABOR WO significant movements have recently taken place fH among us. The Pullman a) Porters are organizing a trade union and the colored Com- munists have met in Chicago. Both movements have found opposition and from the same source. So in- telligent and skilled a group of men as the Pullman porters ought to have long since adopted collective bargaining with their employers. But the Pullman company and other white capitalists have discouraged this with threats and propaganda and lately they have hired a silly black lawyer, who holds a_ small job in. Washington, to help them. Why is this? It is because since the days of slavery the black laborer has been allied with the white capi- talist. Since emancipation he has been bribed by philanthropy so that he thinks the thoughts of the rich, the powerful, the employing class. At the same time he has been kicked out of the major part of the white labor movement and his resultant re- sentment has helped his alignment with capital. Today he is beginning to awake. The Pullman porters are going to have a union. But beyond that if black men with to meet and learn what laborers are doing in England or in Russia and sympathize with these movements they have a perfect right to do CRISIS so; it is unjust of white men and idiotic of colored men to criticize the attempt. We should stand before the astounding effort of Soviet Russia to reorganize the industrial world with open mind and listening ears. Rus- sia has not yet failed and Ne- groes must not swallow all the lies told about her. She may yet show the world the Upward Path. THE CRISIS does not know the persons back of the Chicago convention, but it asserts the right of any set of American Negroes to investigate and sympathize with any industrial re- form whether it springs from Rus- sia, China or the South Seas. THE TERRIBLE DILEMMA r ERE is a church—a black man enters; her> is a college—a black man applies; here is a Y. W. C. A.—a black girl would sleep in the dormitory; here is a block—a black family moves in. And then! O Heaven! The dismay— the writhing and the prayer. The t__rible, terrible dilemma. What shall be done? What can be done? Please withdraw—don’t ask us—wait, go elsewhere, die, anything, anything but—and then the solution. The black man worships; the black student. stu- dies, the black girl sleeps and the black family breathes and sings and cooks. So simple. So normal. What was the cause of the rumpus any- how? Black ielente tried to enter the dormitories at Columbia. A few were admitted. Then by hook or crook, de- ception or deliberate lies all were excluded. Then Columbia grew ashamed. Putting up an impartial standard she began to admit black students. This year a group of col- ored girls was received inte a dor- mitory. The result has been simple and gratifying. They were called on and welcomed. about their work. They went quietly ln os net ao oe ab oe be eee OO

Page 7

DECEMBER, “Why didn’t we try it before?” gasped the overjoyed matron. Again a friend has received this letter from the University of Wis- consin : “Shortly before I left Madison—the last Sunday—I went to a picnic given for the industrial girls group at the University summer school—a group similar to the one at Bryn Mawr. I thought of you and of how it would delight you to see the two Negro girls playing ball with the other girls on terms of friendly equality. When the two colered girls applied there was quite a furor for a time and the problem of what to do with them was very real. It was decided to take a house and to try having the girls tive together. Two uni- versity girls, one Esther Silberman, Jewish from New York, the other Lois Bacon, Isa- belle LaFollette’s sister, expressed their wil- lingness to live in the house with the col- ored girls and to attempt to keep things going smoothly—and it worked out beauti- fully, with no evidence of race feeling what- ever. I didn’t stay at the picnic on the moonlight evening by the lake, so missed the Negro spirituals sung by a trio of the two colored and one white girl.” Just song and moonlight and hu- man beings; but.add a Fool and you have an insoluble race problem. PHILIPPINE MULATTOES MOU will have noticed in the press a delicately worded ap- peal for funds. It would seem that there are some little chil- dren in need in the Philippines. Major General Wood, Governor of the islands, is speaking in their be- half : “Chief Justice William Howard Taft of the Supreme Court of the United States, former Governor General of the Philip- pines, W. Cameron Forbes, Major Gen. James G. Harbord, Major Gen. Hugh L. Scott, Martin Egan, Vice-President Charles G. Dawes and dignitaries of the Catholic and Protestant churches are typical of the men who have pledged their support to this drive for funds.. General Wood has cabled: ‘The American people have been so gen- erous in their responses to the cries of children all over the world that I have no hesitation in appealing to them for chil- dren of their own blood who are in need of help. Especially do I have profound con- fidence, as the problem involves the honor of the American nation.’ ” What is all this about? In plain, cold English, the American people in 1925 61 bringing Peace and Civilization to the Philippines have left 18,000 bas- tards in the islands! Isn’t this fine work? Can you not see the Godly White Race struggling under the Black Man’s Burden! Can you not see how Americans hate Social Equality with brown women? Why is America asked to support these illegitimate victims of white men’s lust? Because the United States government, the War Depart- ment and Governors Wood, Taft and Forbes have somehow let Ameri- can skunks scuttle from the island and leave their helpless and innocent bastards to beg and perish, and their deserted mothers to starve or serve as prostitutes to white newcomers. Send, in God’s name, America, two million dollars to Mary Frances Kern at 8 West Fortieth Street, New York, now; and send simultaneously two million protests to Washington to lambaste the heads of Congressmen who permit the holding of the Philip- pines as a house of prostitution for American white men under the glori- ous stars and stripes. 5 CHURCH, FRATERNITY AND SOCIAL UPLIFT ‘ ae) ited hearty approval in many HE CRISIS suggestion that the church provide scholarships for Negro students has elic- quarters. And it should bring fruit. It is so easy a matter to initiate. Greater New York has at least 50 Negro churches which could add $500 annually to their bud- get for a scholarship. There are fifty others that could give partial scholar- ships of $50—$250. In order to avoid internal jealousies, an annual city ex- amination of high school graduates should be held somewhat similar to the college entrance examinations and conducted by the school authorities with some colored persons of promi- nence and known integrity coéperat- ing. Then at a great spring or sum-

Page 8

62 THE mer assembly the scholarships could be awarded. This would add tre- mendously to the prestige of the church among the young and among scholars and more than pay its ex- pense in increased revenues. What city will be first to try it? Again the Columbian Press Bureau suggests that colored fraternities might finance housing for Negroes with profit to themselves and des- perately needed aid to the race. It points to the five millions which the white Maccabees have invested in home building. Our fraternities need some such plan of social uplift. They have furnished fraternal insurance with profit to themselves and the peo- ple. They have built public halls and their annual conclaves are vast sources of entertainment and social contact. Why not now initiate a step forward and upward in a wide com- prehensive program of building new modern homes and apartments? It will call for honesty, push and ability but it would open a magnificent pros- pect and lead our fraternal organiza- tions away from the temptation to waste time in internal politics. One lodge of Odd Fellows in New York City is financing a hall and apartment in New York City; The Red Caps of Grand Central Station are main- taining a student at Howard. THE FIRING LINE m N the fight for human rights across the color bar where is the firing line? In the United States, in the West Indies, or in Africa? Many sincere persons seem to think that this line is in Africa. This is not so. It may be so one hundred years from now but today Europe has so manipulated matters that the fight for rights in Africa is exceed- ingly difficult. The European coun- tries with the army, the navy andthe CRISIS police in their hands; with their dom- ination of the courts; with their own- ership of capital and commerce and all lines of communication make any effort at uplift and reform a matter of disloyalty and rebellion which can bring summary punishment of the most violent sort. Free speech is im- possible. There is no right to vote in the larger part of Africa. Con- sequently the fighting line-in Africa reduces itself to appeals to far-off powers who may perhaps never hear the appealing voices. Or it is a mat- ter of revolt with every chance in favor of the oppressor. No, the fir- ing line today is not in Africa. Is it in the West Indies? Again, no. In the West Indies we have an overwhelming majority of Negroes and a large number of Negro leaders of wealth and education, but the ownership of land and capital is pre- dominantly in the hands of Euro- peans while the political power of the Negro is so small that the fight is unequal; and again, as in Africa, the West Indies are a long way from the centers of power in the world. ' The real fighting line for the Negro, then, is in the United States. Here he faces his foe. Here he can use unmolested the modern weapons of writing, talking and voting. He can make the world listen because he is right in the world. With his mil- lions of votes no presidential candi- date, few congressmen and fewer senators dare altogether to ignore his demands. They may play upon his ignorance and prejudices but as he becomes intelligent, sincere and clear-headed his phalanx marches forward. America, then, is today the firing line of the Negro. And now may Peace, Courage, Sacrifice and Confidence uplift and keep you in sweet Thanksgiving ali this joyous Christmastide,

Page 9

ON BEING YOUNG—A WOMAN— AND COLORED Ge ARITA O. BONNER, winner of the first prize essay in our contest, was born and educated in Brookline, Massachu- setts. In her junior year at Radcliffe she was admitted to the famous course in writing given by Professor Charles Town- send Copeland, a rare distinction since this course is limited to the sixteen best writ- ers, graduates and undergraduates in each college year. One of her sketches, “Dan- delion Season,” was selected to be read an- nually to Radcliffe classes. She holds the degree of A.B. and is a teacher of English in the Armstrong High School of Wash- ington, D. C. OU start out after you have gone frora kindergarten to sheepskin covered with sundry Latin phrases. At least you know what you want life to give you. A career as fixed and as calmly brilliant as the North Star. The one real thing that money buys. Time. Time to do things. A house that can be as delectably out of order and as easily put in order as the doll-house of “playing-house” days. And of course, a husband you can look up to without looking down on yourself. Somehow you feel like a kitten in a sun- ny catnip field that sees sleek, plump brown field mice and yellow baby chicks sitting coyly, side by side, under each leaf. A de- sire to dash three or four ways seizes you. That’s Youth. But you know that things learned need testing—acid testing—to see if they are really after all, an interwoven part of you. All your life you have heard of the debt you owe “Your People” because you have managed to have the things they have not largely had. So you find a spot where there are hordes of them—of course below the Line—to be your catnip field while you close your eyes to mice and chickens alike. If you have never lived among your own, you feel prodigal. Some warm untouched current flows through them—through you— and drags you out into the deep waters of MariITA O. BONNER 63 a & Oe MARITA O. BONNER a new sea of human foibles and manner- isms; of a peculiar psychology and preju- dices. And one day you find yourself en- tangled—enmeshed—pinioned in the sea- weed of a Black Ghetto. Not a Ghetto, placid like the Strasse that flows, outwardly unperturbed and calm in a stream of religious belief, but a peculiar group. Cut off, flung together, shoved aside in a bundle because of color and with no more in common. Unless color is, after all, the real bond. Milling around like live fish in a basket. Those at the bottom crushed into a sort of stupid apathy by the weight of those on top. Those on top leaping, leaping; leap- ing to scale the sides; to get out. There are two “colored” movies, innum- erable parties—and cards. Cards played so intensely that it fascinates and repulses at once. Movies. Movies worthy and worthless—but not even a low-caste spoken stage. Parties, plentiful. Music and dancing and much that is wit and color and gaiety.

Page 10

64 THE CRISIS But they are like the richest chocolate; stuffed costly chocolates that make the taste go stale if you have too many of them. That make plain whole bread taste like ashes. There are all the earmarks of a group within a group. Cut off all around from ingress from or egress to other groups. A sameness of type. The smug self-satisfac- tion of an inner measurement; a measure- ment by standards known within a limited group and not those of an unlimited, see- ing, world. Like the blind, blind mice. Mice whose eyes have been blinded. Strange longing seizes hold of you. You wish yourself back where you can lay your dollar down and sit in a dollar seat to hear voices, strings, reeds that have lifted the World out, up, beyond things that have bodies and walls. Where you can marvel at new marbles and bronzes and flat colors that will make men forget that things exist in a flesh more often than in spirit. Where you can sink your body in a cushioned seat and sink your soul at the same time into a section of life set before you on the boards for a few hours. You hear that up at New York this is to be seen; that, to be heard. You decide the next train will take you there. You decide the next second that that train will not take you, nor the next—nor the next for some time to come. For you know that—being a woman— you cannot twice a month or twice a year, for that matter, break away to see or hear anything in a city that is supposed to see and hear too much. That’s being a woman. color. You decide that something is wrong with a world that stifles and chokes; that cuts off and stunts; hedging in, pressing down on eyes, ears and throat. Somehow all wrong. A woman of any You wonder how it happens there that— say five hundred miles from the Bay State —Anglo Saxon intelligence is so warped and stunted. How judgment and discernment are bred out of the race. And what has become of discrimination? Discrimination of the right sort. Discrimination that the best minds have told you weighs shadows and nuances and spiritual differences before it catalogues. The kind they have taught you all of your life was best: that looks clearly past generalization and past appearance to dissect, to dig down to the real heart of matters. That casts aside rapid summary conclusions, drawn from primary inference, as Daniel did the spiced meats. Why can’t they then perceive that there is a difference in the glance from a pair of eyes that look, mildly docile, at “white ladies” and those that, impersonally and perceptively—aware of distinctions—see only women who happen to be white? Why do they see a colored woman only as a gross collection of desires, all uncon- trolled, reaching out for their Apollos and the Quasimodos with avid indiscrimina- tion? Why unless you talk in staccato squawks —brittle as sea-shells—unless you “champ” gum—unless you cover two yards square when you laugh—unless your taste runs to violent colors—impossible perfumes and more impossible clothes—are you a femi- nine Caliban craving to pass for Ariel? An empty imitation of an empty invita- tion. A mime; a sham; a copy-cat. A hollow re-echo. A froth, a foam. A fleck of the ashes of superficiality? Everything you touch or taste now is like the flesh of an unripe persimmon. k Do you need to be told what that is beta <u 68 Old ideas, old fundamentals seem worm- eaten, out-grown, worthless, bitter; fit for the scrap-heap of Wisdom. What you had thought tangible and prac- tical has turned out to be a collection of “blue-flower” theories. If they have not discovered how to use their accumulation of facts, they are use- less to you in Their world. Every part of you becomes bitter. But—“In Heaven’s name, do not grow bitter. Be bigger than they are”,—exhort white friends who have never had to draw breath in a Jim-Crow train. Who have never had petty putrid insult dragged over them—drawing blood—like pebbled sand on your body where the skin is tenderest. On your body where the skin is thinnest and tenderest. You long to explode and hurt everything white; friendly; unfriendly. But you know

Page 11

DECEMBER, 1925 that you cannot live with a chip on your shoulder even if you can manage a smile around your eyes—without getting steely and brittle and losing the softness that makes you a woman. For chips make you bend your body to balance ‘them. And once you bend, ou lose your poise, your balance, and the chip gets into ‘you. The real you. You get hard. - And many things in you can OORT si 5 > And you know, being a woman, you have to go about it gently and quietly, to find out and to discover just what is wrong. Just what can be done. You see clearly that they have acquired things. Money; money. Money to build with, money to destroy. Money to swim in. Money to drown in. Money. An ascendancy of wisdom. An incalcu- lable hoard of wisdom in all fields, in all things collected from all quarters of hu- manity. A stupendous mass of things. Things. So, too, the Greeks And the Romans. ; And you wonder and wonder why they have not discovered how to handle deftly and skillfully, Wisdom, stored up for them— like the honey for the Gods on Olympus— since time unknown. You wonder and you wonder until you wander out into Infinity, where—if it is to be found anywhere—Truth really exists. The Greeks had possessions, culture. They were lost because they did not under- stand. The Romans owned more than anyone else.Trampled under the heel of Vandals and Civilization, because they would not understand. Greeks. Things. Did not understand. Romans. Would not understand. “They.” Will not understand. So you find, they have shut Wisdom up and have forgotten to find the key that will let her out. They have trapped, tram- meled, lashed her to themselves with thews and thongs and theories. They have ran- sackéd sea and earth and air to bring every treasure to her. But she sulks and will not work for a world with a whitish hue because it has snubbed her twin sister, Understanding. You see clearly—off there is Infinity— Understanding. Standing alone, waiting for someone to really want her. But she is so far out there is no way to snatch at her and drag her in. So—being a woman—you can wait. You must sit quietly without a chip. Not sodden—and weighted as if your feet were cast in the iron of your soul. Not wasting strength in enervating gestures as if two hundred years of bonds and whips had © really tricked you into nervous uncertainty. But quiet; quiet. Like Buddha—who brown like I am—sat entirely at ease, en- tirely sure of himself; motionless and knowing, a thousand years before the white man knew there was so very much differ- ence between feet and hands. Motionless on the outside. Silent. Still woman.” So you too. Still; quiet; with a smile, ever so slight, at the eyes so that Life will flow into and not by you. And you can gather, as it passes, the essences, the over- tones, the tints, the shadows; draw under- standing to your self. And then you can, when Time is ripe, swoop to your feet—at your full height— at a single gesture. Ready to go where? Why Wherever God motions. But inside? “Perhaps Buddha is a CANTABILE (Seen holly has a lovely leaf To make the Christmas bright, Green cedar gives a spicy smell On Christmas eve at night. Green candles wear a joyous look, Each with its golden light. EFFIE LEE NEWSOME a & Good holly, cedars, Candles gay! Come Christmas sprite! Come Christmas fay! You’ve never known a brighter day For joining childhood in its play! Ue

Page 12

POEMS Uy a LANGSTON HUGHES ANGSTON HUGHES whose poems won third prize in the Spingarn Con- test has spent his brief twenty-three years in travel. He was born in Missouri and re- ceived his secondary training in Kansas, Colorado, and Ohio. After high school days he taught English for fifteen months in Toluca, Mexico. New York and Columbia University saw him for a brief year, then there was a summer at a farm on Staten Island and thereafter eighteen months on ships which bore him to the west coast of Africa, the ports of northern Europe, Paris, Italy and the Mediterranean. Now he is in Washington reading the proof of his first book of poems which Knopf publishes in January. CROSS Y old man’s a white old man And my old mother’s black. If ever I cursed my white old man I take my curses back. If ever I cursed my black old mother And wished she were in hell, I’m sorry for that evil wish And now I wish her well. My old man died in a fine big house, My ma died in a shack. I wonder where I’m gonna die, Being neither white nor black. SUMMER NIGHT HE sounds Of the Harlem night Drop one by one into stillness. The last player-piano is closed. The last victrola ceases with the “Jazz Boy Blues.” The last crying baby sleeps. And the night becomes Still as a whispering heartbeat. I toss Without rest in the darkness, Weary as the tired night. My soul : Empty as the silence, Empty with a vague, Aching emptiness 66 a LANGSTON HUGHES Desiring, Needing someone, Something. I toss without rest In the darkness Until the new dawn Wan and pale, Descends like a white mist Into the court-yard. MINSTREL MAN ECAUSE my mouth Is wide with laughter And my throat Is deep with song, You do not think I suffer after I have held my pain So long. Because my mouth Is wide with laughter You do not hear

Page 13

My inner cry. Because my feet Are gay with dancing You do not know I die. DISILLUSION WOULD be simple again, Simple and clean Like the earth, Like the rain. Nor ever know,— Dark Harlem,— The wild laughter Of your mirth, Nor the salt tears Of your pain. Be kind to me, Oh, great dark city, Let me forget. I will not come To you again. TO THE BLACK BELOVED H, My black one, Thou art not beautiful, Yet thou hast A loveliness Surpassing beauty. Oh, My black one, Thou art not good, Yet thou hast A purity Surpassing goodness. DECEMBER, 1925 67 Ah, My black one, Thou art not luminous, Yet an altar of jewels, An altar of shimmering jewels, Would pale in the light Of thy darkness; Pale in the light Of thy nightness. TO A NEGRO JAZZ BAND IN A PARI- SIAN CABARET LAY that thing, Jazz band! Play it for the lords and ladies, For the dukes and counts, For the whores and gigolos, For the American millionaires And the love-night painted faces Of American millionaires, And the school teachers out for a spree. Play it! Jazz band! You know that tune That laughs and cries at the same time. You know it. May I? Mais oui, Mein Gott! Parace Una rumba. ! Que rumba! Play it, jazz band! You’ve got seven languages to speak in And then some. Can I? Sure. KRIGWA 1926 UH se se WJ HROUGH the kindness of Mrs. Amy B. Spingarn THE Crisis is enabled to offer for a second year a series of prizes for writing and drawing. TiME.—The manuscripts and drawings must be in THE CRISIS office on, or before May 1, 1926. The names of the prize win- ners will be announced in the November number published October 15, 1926. CONDITIONS.—These prizes are offered to persons of Negro descent in order to en- courage their aptitude for art expression. PRIZES FOR WRITING.—Prizes are offered for fiction, plays, essays and verse as fol- lows: For Fiction—Prizes of $100, $50 and honorable mention. The stories should not exceed 8,000 words. For Plays—Prizes of $100, $50 and honorable mention. For Essays—Prizes of $75, $25 and honorable mention. Essays should not exceed 5,000 words. For Verse—Prizes of $75, $25 and honorable mention. All of the manuscripts should be type- written or legibly copied on one side of the 2 EE Rese) oie tee ees

Page 14

68 THE paper. The pages should be numbered and on the top of the first page in addition to the subject should appear the pen name under which the author is writing. The same name should appear on a sealed en- velope accompanying the manuscript and in the sealed envelope should be the real name and address of the author. If the author insists upon the return of his manu- script then he must also inclose within the sealed envelope an envelope large enough to contain the manuscript, carefully ad- dressed to himself and with suflicient first class postage pasted on this envelope. We trust, however, that no one will ask for the return of his manuscript. Always in send- ing away manuscripts it is best to keep a copy. Manuscripts are liable to loss in mails and the physical labor of returning them is too great for an ordinary office to undertake successfully. All manuscripts will be acknowledged by postal-card when received and may be sent in any time after October 1, 1925. They must be plainly addressed to us as follows: The Crisis Prize Contest, 1926, care of The Crisis Magazine, 69 Fifth Avenue, New York City. All manuscripts must be original, never before published in any form and at the time of entering this contest they must not be in the hands of any other publisher. THE CrIsis will reserve to the author all rights of publication and reproduction in any way except the rights to first serial CRISIS publication. THE Crisis shall have the right to return or publish at its regular rates of compensation any of the manu- scripts submitted. ILLUSTRATIONS.—Illustrations may be for covers of THE Crisis or for decorations of THE CRISIS page, cartoons or general illus- trations. The prizes will be $75, $25 and honorable mention. Especial care should be taken carefully to pack the illustrations so that they will not be broken or spoiled in transit. They should have permamently at- tached or written upon them the real name and address of the artist. No pen name is necessary. All drawings must be original, never before reproduced in any way and no copies of them must be in the hands of any other periodical at the time of submis- sion to THE Crisis. THE CRISIS will re- serve to the artist all rights of reproduc- tion except the rights to first serial publi- cation in THE Crisis. THE Crisis shall have the right to return or publish at its regular rates any of the drawings sub- mitted. Send sufficient money to pay for the return of the drawings. During the years 1926 and 1927 THE Crisis will publish the prize manuscripts and drawings and produce the plays. Further announcements concerning the prizes will be made in ‘successive numbers of THE Crisis. All persons interested in any form of art expression are invited to enroll with Krigwa. Correspondence is invited. National - Association -for- the --- Advancement. THE BATTLES OF WASHINGTON AND DETROIT LOWLY yet inevitably there has risen the tide of segregation of Negroes all over the United States. When in 1917 the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that city ordinances forcing Negroes to live in restricted areas were unconstitu- tional, many of us believed that this issue had been settled for all time. But with the migration northward of Negroes during -Colored-People. and immediately after the war, and particu- larly with the spread of the Ku Klux Klan through Northern states, there came into being offort after effort to gain the same end by private restrictive ordinances, or by mob action.. In the now famous case of Curtis and Corrigan versus Bulkley which at the time of writing, is just about to be heard in the United States Supreme Court, that court will pass upon the question as to whether

Page 15

DECEMBER, 1925 69 individual property owners shall have the right to covenant among themselves that property, even after it passes out of the hands of the original covenanters, shall not be sold to Negroes; and further, whether state and Federal courts can be called upon to enforce such private agreements. The consequences of an adverse decision are evident. As is so ably pointed out in the brief prepared by the N. A. A. C. P. attorneys: “But why need this discussion be limited to a covenant restricting the sale, convey- ance, lease or gift of land to Negroes or to any persons or persons of the Negro race or blood? Following the precedent created by the decisions rendered in the Court below, similar covenants have made their appear- ance in various parts of the country restric- tive of sales and leases of land not only to Negroes, but also to Jews. It will not take long before the prohibition will be extended to Catholics, and the entire Ku Klux Klan program of elimination might be made ef- fective by means of restrictive covenants. By means of like covenants differences might be made between rich and poor, between members of different churches, between the adherents of different political parties, be- tween the descendants of those of different origins, between native and naturalized citizens, between those who have come from the North and the South, the East and the West. It would lead to positive public mis- fortune and were our Courts to sanction such covenants it would give rise to untold evils. : “It is also significant that the covenant forbids the use or occupancy by or the sale, conveyance, lease, rental or gift to ‘any person or persons of the Negro race or blood’, That would mean that a person who has flowing in his veins a single cor- puscle of Negro blood would come within the prohibition of the covenant. It would have included Alexander Dumas, and thou- sands of men and women, one of whose re- mote ancestors, not only of an antecedent third or fourth generation, but of the tenth generation back, might have been a Negro. How is that damning taint to be ascer- tained? Who is to determine when Negro blood changes its color? Are the courts to make the microscopic and biological tests which will determine whether an intending purchaser or occupant of premises coming within the scope of this covenant is to be precluded from the ownership or occupancy of so sanctified a piece of land?” It is because of these very obvious evil consequences that the N. A. A. C. P. has secured the very best attorneys in the United States to contest this case. The mere recital of their names is sufficient: Moorfield Storey of Boston, Louis Marshall of New York, James A. Cobb of Washing- ton, Arthur B. Spingarn and Herbert K. Stockton of New York, William H. Lewis of Boston, Henry E. Davis and James P. Schick of Washington. Just as the N. A. A. C. P. in the most important civil case handled by it during the year obtained the very best civil law- yers in the country, so in the most serious criminal case of the year it obtained one of the best criminal lawyers in the country. That lawyer is, of course, Clarence Darrow of Chicago, who has been retained to head the counsel defending Dr. O. H. Sweet, Mrs. Sweet, and nine other colored people charged with first degree murder because they repulsed a mob from Dr. Sweet’s home in Detroit. The association of Mr. Darrow with this case electrified public opinion throughout the country. It was realized that with such a champion, the cause of Dr. Sweet and the ten other defendants would become a matter of national concern and that it would be difficult even for a jury in a Klan-ridden city to railroad these people to long prison terms with a farcical trial. Assisting Mr. Darrow, are Arthur Garfield Hayes of New York and Walter M. Nelson of Detroit, as well as Messrs. Perry, Rowlette and Mahoney, the Detroit attorneys associated with the case from the beginning. Mr. Darrow announced that he was un- dertaking this case at a financial sacrifice. Although the fee of $5,000 to be paid him by the N. A. A. C. P., is a heavy burden for the Association, it represents only about a tenth of what Mr. Darrow would or- dinarily charge. As Mr. Darrow announced when he consented to defend the Detroit colored people, he was doing so because he wanted them to have a square deal, or as he put it “a fair shake”. The N. A. A. C. P. concentrated its at- tention upon the Detroit case and under- took the heavy financial obligations it in- volved, because that case has become a dramatic focus of the segregation issue in the United States. If colored people could be convicted of murder for defending their own home from a riotous mob in a north- ern city, it was felt that no colored home anywhere in the United States would be safe from the attacks-of self-appointed segregationists. Suppose, on the other hand,

Page 16

Bernard Render, Jr. Terre Haute, Ind. 3rd Prize Harriet Hines Champaign, Ill. ist Prize Flora Williams Stockton, Calif. ist Prize Florence Erwin Harrisburg, Pa. 2nd Prize Agnes Taylor Okmulgee, Okla. ist Prize Betty Holms Springfield, Ill. 2nd Prize Geraldine Walker Gary, W. Va. ist Prize Edgar Curry, Jr. Terre Haute, Ind. 2nd Prize Helen Williams Muskegon, Mich. Prize Oweta Wilson Okmulgee, Okla. 2nd Prize C. Brooks Neal, Jr. Herman Mosby Gloucester, Pa. id Prize

Page 17

DECEMBER, 1925 71 the colored defendants were freed, that would be serving notice on potential mob- bists everywhere that only at the peril of their lives could they attempt forcibly to oust peaceable and law-abiding colored citizens from their homes. The Sweet case, therefore, is not merely a fight undertaken in behalf of eleven in- nocent colored people unjustly charged with . murder. It is as well, the culminating in- cident in a series of Detroit outrages, which include the ousting of Dr. Turner from his home, the piling of his-furniture on a van in the course of which many of his possessions were badly damaged and the driving of it all back to the house he had moved away from. The Detroit case, also is similar to other episodes, bombings, threats and attempted terrorization in such cities as Chicago, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Baltimore, which did not however result in death to any mobbist. That is the significance of the Detroit case. One person of the mob was killed and one was wounded. The mob received a decisive check. Will that check be sustained by the courts of law? That is what the N. A. A. C. P. is putting forth its entire power and energy to ascertain. FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR DEFENSE 6¢QQ,IFTY thousand dollars for defense” is the objective set by the N. A. A. C. P. in its nation-wide campaign against the menace of residential segregation of Negroes. On October 30th, the day that Clarence Darrow appeared in court in De- troit to defend Dr. O. H. Sweet and his co- defendants, the N. A. A. C. P. announced that a $50,000 Legal Defense Fund had been begun with an outright contribution of $5,000 from The American Fund for Public Service sometimes known as The Garland Fund. The Garland Fund in addition of- fered $15,000 provided that the Association would raise $30,000 to meet it thereby com- pleting the $50,000 for legal defense. Al- though the expenses of the Detroit Case are heavy, not all of this fund is planned to be spent on Detroit. It is to be used as well in paying for the Washington Segregation Case and for the White Primary Case which is coming before the Supreme Court on appeal from Texas and which will chal- lenge disfranchisement of colored voters in the South, and other cases affecting the Negro’s citizenship rights that may arise. The appropriation and the offer of the Gar- land Fund constitute a challenge to every colored man and woman in America. The fight is on on many fronts. Eminent white lawyers such as Moorfield Storey and Louis Marshall, not to speak of Arthur B. Spin- garn, Herbert K. Stockton and colored at- terneys like James A. Cobb, William H. Lewis and James P. Schick, are giving their services free to the N. A. A. C. P. cause which is the cause of all colored as well as of white Americans. In the cases now confronting colored citi- zens, powerful agencies are on the firing line in behalf of the common citizenship rights of colored Americans. It remains to be seen whether colored people themselves throughout the country will realize the magnitude of this struggle and the impor- tance of the issues. The National Office has received most encouraging results. A mass meeting held by the Washington Branch at which the Assistant Secretary and Samuel A. Browne who successfully resisted a mob on Staten Island, were the chief speakers, contributed a substantial sum toward legal defense. Other meetings held in various cities of the country as well as the gifts of numerous private individ- uals have begun to swell the Association’s resources but the Association feels that in the present situation sporadic effort is not enough. We must within a limited time raise $30,000 in order to meet the offer made by the American Fund for Public Service, and thus secure a Defense Fund of $50,000. We therefore call upon our branches, the religious, fraternal and busi- ness organizations of the race and upon all individuals who value American citizen- ship to aid in passing the $30,000 mark. It is now or never. Negroes must unite and provide the N. A. A. C. P. with the necessary sinews of way. For those who need to be reminded again, checks should be sent to J. E. Spingarn, Treasurer of the N. A. A. C. P., 69 Fifth Avenue, New York.

Page 18

THE THE WHITE PRIMARY FIGHT NE of the most favored means of southern whites for disfranchisement of colored citizens in defiance of the United States Constitution is the so-called White Primary Law. In Southern states where the Democratic Party dominates, designa- tion of a candidate in the primary election virtually means election to office. There- fore, to bar anyone from voting in the pri- mary election is in effect a nullification of the right to vote for candidates for office. This so-called white primary system is in vogue throughout the South and effectually deprives most Negroes of the ballot. One colored man, Dr. A. L. Nixon, challenged this white primary. It happened that he was a Democrat and when he attempted to vote in the regular primaries of his State, the Texas statute was invoked against him and he was denied the right to vote. That Texas statute passed in 1923 reads as fol- lows: “Any qualified voter under the laws and constitution of the State of Texas, who is a bona fide member of the Democratic party, shall be eligible to participate in any Democratic primary election, provided that such voter complies with all laws and rules governing party primary elections; however in no event shall a Negro be eli- gible to participate in a Democratic party primary election held in the State of Texas and should a Negro vote in a Democratic primary election, such ballot shall be void and election officials are herein directed to throw out such ballot and not count the same.” Dr. Nixon, backed up by the local N. A. A. C. P., took his case to the courts. On appeal, the case has gone from State to Federal Courts and during October the N. A. A. C. P. received a telegram from Mr. Fred C. Knollenberg, an attorney of El Paso, saying that the case had been dock- eted in the United States Supreme Court under the title of “Nixon vs. Herndon” and would be argued there. : The N. A..A. C. P. intends to make this case the third in its trio of citizenship rights cases, the first two being the Sweet Case in Detroit and the Segregation Case in Washington. The’N. A. A. C. P. feels that the white primary is now the corner stone of Negro disfranchisement in the Southern states and that if this Texas stat- CRISIS ute is held unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court, that will be a seri- ous blow to the present control of votes by the white oligarchy dominating Southern politics and Southern life. The N. A. A. C. P. has for years been thinking about and dealing with this mat- ter of disfranchisement. It participated through Mr. Moorfield Storey in the case before the Supreme Court in which the so- called Grandfather Clause was held uncon- stitutional. In 1920, the N. A. A. C. P. col- lected statistics and facts about the elec- tion showing the terrorization of Negroes and published its findings in a pamphlet entitled “Disfranchisement of Colored Americans in the Presidential Election of 1920”, which Representative Tinkham of Massachusetts declared to be a permanent contribution to the subject. The N. A. A. C. P. feels that the Negro must gain his right to vote in the South; that this is a primary step in achieving tolerable condi- tions in sections where the Negro is now deprived of any or all of his rights as a citizen and as a human being at the will of dominant whites. ANNUAL MEETING HE Annual Meeting of the N. A. A. C. P. will be held on Monday, January 4, 1926, at 2:00 P. M., at the offices of the Association, 69 Fifth Avenue, New York City. This business meeting will be preceded by a mass meeting on Sunday, January 3, at the Renassance Casino, 138th Street and Seventh Avenue, New York. At the business meeting on January 4 the annual reports of the Secretary, the Director of Publications and Research, the Director of Branches and the Treasurer will be read and voted upon. At the same time thirteen members of the National Board of Directors will be elected. The following persons have been nominated: Jane Addams Chicago, Ill. Dr. Charles E. Bentley Chicago, III. Rev. Hutchens “ Bishop New York, N. Y. Hon. Arthur --apper Topeka, Kans. Robert R. C!..ich Memphis. Tenn. Dr. W. E. &. Du Bois New York, N. Y. Florerce Keiey New York, N. Y. Mary White Ovington New York, N. Y. John E. Nail Jz. New York, N. Y. Charles Fs vard Russell Wash.. D. C. Herbert K. Stockton New York, N. Y. Magyie I... Walker Richmond, Va.

Page 19

WS IIIS second prize story in our contest is the work of Mary Louise French of Colorado Springs, Colorado, where she was born and educated. Subsequently she com- pleted a musical course at Oberlin. cently she composed and produced a play of living pictures, oriental dances and vaude- ville. USK was falling, slowly hovering over earth, as a veil being gently dropped. Birds twittered. A soft wind stirred— night would soon be here with its millions of stars. Night—brooding and sweet. He wondered how long she would sit there. He looked at his watch—three hours—and more, perhaps. But he had watched her for three hours and still she sat. She was well dressed. He could not see her face, but he knew that she was not very young or very old—there was an air of desolation around her—he dared not leave her alone. He was afraid. Years ago, he had waited—in this same park—motionless —waited for night. He felt responsible for this woman—sitting there—at the edge of things waiting for the night to help her on across. He knew; Life could treat one badly, make one long for the eternal dark- ness and yet, if one could smile, one could endure. Well, he would stay on a while longer, and if she continued sitting there so still, so very still, he would approach her— even if she misunderstood. He had taken her in for three hours, at least her clothes. Dark clothes. Her dress was blue and soft and dark. He liked dark blue—always made him think of “sensible” and “independent”. Well dressed but so still, so statue like. Dusk had turned into darkness, night had stolen upon them. He would have to say something to her, to break that desolate spell around her. He approached her quickly, so tall and self- assured, so used to living to the edge of loneliness and misery. When he stood before her he was unpre- pared for what he had thought would never happen. In the darkness the dim outline of her face was beautiful but her eyes were “THERE NEVER FELL A NIGHT SO DARK” Mary LOovuIse FRENCH Re- - ae WJ MRS. M. L. FRENCH cold, lifeless and black like black marble. She scanned his face—and met eyes that were eternally young. A smile—pleading and irresistible. There was something vaguely familiar about this man—and yet, —he drew a breath and seemed to steady himself. He sensed her torture. It was going to be harder than he had thought it would be. He was disconcerted to realize how unemotional she was. Surely, ah, surely she could not miss the beauty of the night. The night with its vast stillness and stars and somewhere a pale moon hang- ing low. It was hard to meet the misery in her eyes. She spoke unemotionally, dully. “Do you believe in God?” she asked slow- ly. And on hearing her voice his heart almost stifled him. “How can you doubt? You can’t look at that moon and the stars and doubt. Is it as bad as that, my friend?” He answered and took a place beside her. After all nothing mattered to her. She 73

Page 20

74 THE was at the end. Let him sit, let him talk. It would make her last night shorter, make the hours pass more quickly. “Tell me about it, won’t you?” he asked patiently. He knew.. He had watched the night come on—years ago—alone. Strange—she felt no fear of this tall man beside her and there was something about him, something indescribable, some- thing that made her want to sob and sob her heartbreak aloud. His smile perhaps reminded her so vividly of some one; his voice was an echo of some one’s she had heard dimly, an echo of the past. “Yes,” she said bitterly, “Life is beau- tiful, beauty all around us; but I can’t be- lieve that there is a Just God. If there is, why does He make us suffer like this?” She was decidedly intense, and he felt that there was depth to her sorrow. “Like this?” he asked, staring at the woman beside him. “Whatever it is, don’t lose faith in yourself. Life without faith is indeed deplorable. One needs faith to live, you know.” His voice went on: “When sorrow touches us the first thing that we are so willing to believe is that there is no God, or that He is angry and will not help—” “But,” she interrupted quickly, “suppose there were reasons that He should be an- gry, and suppose that His punishment was too severe, and suppose that one tried hard to make up for wickedness and finally found that it was useless—absolutely. What then?” “You have lost your faith in yourself and life gets you on all sides. Unless,” he paused for a second, “unless you smile, en- dure and go on and on. That’s Life, you know.” “But I can’t go on, I can’t!” she said em- phatically, in a low voice. Her lips trem- bled and he wished that she would cry, instead of fighting the sobs back. “You have lost some one, I know,” he said quietly. He knew. She nodded. “And I cannot bear it; you don’t know, unless you have lost all your own too. This loneliness is unbearable and there is nothing—nothing—to go on for.” “I understand,” he said soothingly. “I have seen and felt frightful things too.” “But your God took them! I know one has to pay. I deserved some punishment but not this—not this!” CRISIS He lighted a cigarette; somehow he wanted desperately to help her, perhaps be- cause he had known loneliness; perhaps be- cause her voice did not seem strange. “You are pent up; tell me about yourself; it will help you to talk.” She did, she told him of the years of struggle, of work everlasting—no end; of the man that deserted her with two chil- dren, a boy and a girl; of the eternal grind to give them a good education. And after all those years of work and sacrifice the war claimed her boy—so splendid. “And when the war took my boy, al- though something went out of me, out of my life, I kept my courage. That sorrow was made beautiful because of the way he went. Brave! He went west smiling. My sorrow was made glorious! And then, and then there was my girl; young, wonderful- ly sweet to me, happy. How she could sing —so young, so unafraid; ready to meet life—and I lost her! How,” she said, “can you tell me that God is somewhere?” Silence, nothing but the wind softly blow- ing through the trees. Lights were dotting the darkness of the city. “Just as you see me now I went to her. She was at school, nearly finished. They told me that she could not live and I left to go to her. All the way on that hot train I prayed, I pleaded with God to let me see her alive; I promised I would dedicate my life to Him if I could just see her alive. Torture! Endless hours of riding —ah!—Merciful God!—If you have to take her only let her know that I am with her; let her eyes look into mine and let me know! He didn’t hear. I was too late; she had gone; only a little while—such a short time—before I arrived. I was alone, utter- ly alone. Why, can you tell me, did He do that? Why could she not live a few hours longer? Tell me that, if you can!” She sobbed. At last she sobbed. She thanked him inwardly for his si- lence. But he was thinking. “Of course,” he thought to himself, “she cannot under- stand why, since this girl of her heart had to be taken, why she could not have been spared a while longer. That is where the real hurt is; the one is deeper than the other. Funny we can never remember that time has not the slightest regard for one individual and Death not one favorite.”

Page 21

“After all,” he said quietly, “there are so many things worse than death, so many sorrows deeper than yours, my friend.” Silence. He did not expect a reply so he continued, looking far out into the dark- ness. “You have lost courage. Sure, Life has treated you badly and it’ll get you if you don’t buck up, smile and endure.” She opened her lips and was going to speak, but his voice went on. “T once knew a man. His name was. Jim, steady, slow moving, decent. Married a girl, the only girl he ever loved. To him there never could be any one like Sue. They were happy for a while. She soon tired of the monotony. The town was small. The work was hard. Days of loneliness, drab days of drudgery, and the inevitable happened. There was a man that had always wanted Sue. Fool that Jim was, he gave her the divorce because he wanted her happiness. Providing that she would never interfere with the children; he thought that he would touch her mother- hood, but—she failed him: She left him and the kids, and went her way. He was sure that he could not endure days alone. Days with his kids wanting their mother, But—he did; he had to—for them, you know. He suffered. But the years passed on, as they do. Jim worked hard. He was proud of the boy; real pals, he and that boy of his. And the girl, his heart. Friends all of them and that is something, to be friends with one’s children. But dim’s boy is in prison; innocent—consider that—innocent!” The woman trembled. But she was silent. “Jim’s boy worked for a rich man that had a good-for-nothing son, always in some kind of a jam. He gambled and lost. Was heav- ily in debt. And his father refused to help him longer. So his son came home one night to take what he claimed would be his own some day. They quarreled; Jim’s boy heard and came to see what it was all about. Just in time to see the old man fall—and foolishly in his horror over what had hap- pened, he picked up the smoking revolver and paid—and pays—for a crime that he did not commit. “Jim was like a man fallen in a puddle. He knew not what to do. He couldn’t eat; he couldn’t sleep; he could do nothing but curse an unjust God. His boy—innocent— in prison—not for a day—not for a month DECEMBER, 1925 i 75 —but for life. God!” The woman’s low sobs had ceased; she drew her breath in shortly, but could say nothing. She was still, too still, like the night. He went on in the same low voice. “Jim, of course, was unable to comprehend how such injustice could be meted out and he thought that he could not go on after that. But he did. Much worse that than the kindness of a death—a glorious death—is it not?” He turned to the silent figure be- side him. “And the girl?” she asked, wip- ing her eyes. “Ah! I am coming to her,” he said. “The girl, as I told you, was sent to a good school and she came home, one day, unex- pectedly. It was not long before he knew why. Insupportable calamity! Tragedy be- yond realization! His boy, and now this— this .’ The man bowed his head in his hands for a fleeting second and it seemed to the woman, so very still beside him, that she could see a garden and a Man of Sor- rows long ago. But his voice went on dog- gedly. “When her time was upon her one night, it was Jim that went down into some place of pain, some horrible place of darkness with his little one. She was so young, so frail to suffer so much. And it was then that he bargained with God, as you did. He must have been heard—because when the dawn came Jim’s girl went, smiling and unafraid, taking back to Him the cause of all her suffering. And,” he turned to the woman quickly, “your girl went without pain, didn’t she?” he asked, a bit savagely she thought. “Yes,” she answered softly, “she went like a flower in the evening time. But Jim, what happened to him?” Her eyes were tear-dimmed. “Jim,” he said, clearing his throat. “Jim of course knew that God was a Myth. Nothing mattered. Life was at its lowest ebb and dark as dark could be. He decided that the quickest way out of the darkness would be the happiest. So he sat, one day, and watched for the sunset, and after the night came he knew what he was to do. It was winter and it was cold and Jim was sick, body and soul, so he turned to his little room which was almost as cold as the night itself. Turned on the gas as he hov- ered between this world and some place of

Page 22

76 space, he was revealed to himself, he saw things he -had never thought about. Dark- ness, one step on over, and he would be lost. And as he was wondering about the sweet coolness of that darkness, he seemed to hear some one say, ‘How about that boy of yours that you are leaving, the years ahead of him with no one to care, no one to keep him smiling and help him through? Coward! Fight to get back!’ And Jim tried as hard as he could to get back. He did not want to leave that boy of his alone, he wanted to help him live through the years that might be ahead, endless years of hopelessness. But try as he would, he was slowly being drawn on over—the blackness would soon envelop him. Only a miracle could save him. Oh, if God would only let him go back, and lo, when he raised his voice and cried aloud, ‘Merciful God, let me go back. not for my wicked soul’s sake but for the others that need me’, the miracle happened. Slowly he came back, with his landlady and a doctor over him. The cold night wind that reached him through the small window was sweet and he knew that le had been very close to the easiest way out; had been on a precipice with just a step between himself and the twilight. But he did not forget why he had been per- mitted to come back and he has been merci- ful too. A restlessness drives him at times and it is then that he finds peace, only by searching for someone that finds loneliness unbearable. And so,” he said, turning quietly to the woman, “Jim learned.” “But the boy?” she interrupted huskily. He could feel her fingers gripping his arm. “Has reason to hope for freedom soon. But Jim has been able to help him endure these horrible years unto the end.” She gave him her hands and in the dark- ness he could read the pleading in her eyes. “Could you forgive me, Jim dear, could you?” THE ble. CRISIS Taking off her hat he searched her face. Her voice he had known, but so long ago, so many years. How could it be possible? And yet it was. In his heart, he had known, from the beginning. “My dear, need you ask?” folding her hands in his own. She was no longer unemotional and dead; her eyes were no longer eyes of black mar- She was thrillingly alive. “Jim,” she said, “I have paid; teach me to smile and to endure. I have lost him and his children—yours and you; I know the thing that I did—to leave like that—is an injury irreparable; but my punishment for being wicked is more than I can bear. The days are so long and the nights—the nights—” “‘There never fell a night so dark that it could put out the stars,’” he quoted. “And Life is big; but Love is great, and greater.” There were tears in her eyes of black, but as they stood together and he looked deep into them, to him they were sweet and there was something deeper than under- standing, something indescribable in his slow smile, as he said: “Life gets you on all sides—if you lose courage; so smile, dear; there is so much for us to do—to- gether.” He answered Triumphantly they passed into the night. °

Page 23

“HOLY CHRISTMAS-TIDE” Catholic Children at St. Benedict’s, Milwaukee @ School children at May’s Landing, N. J., have seen demonstrated the extraordinary possibilities of casting bread upon the waters. For years they have been the mainstay of a small candy business .con- ducted by John W. Underhill, an aged Ne- gro living in a two-room shack. Now he is dead but his money goes to the local school board with the instruction that it is to be so spent that “the children may enjoy the fruits of my years of labor.” His gift of $100,000 is to be put into the construc- tion of a gymnasium. @ The Washington colored schools are to be congratulated on the acquisition of Na- thaniel R. Dett as head of their Department of Music. Mr. Dett who for years has been connected with Hampton is famous both as director and composer and has recently been made president of the National As- sociation of Negro Musicians. @ In asking Mrs. Mary McLeod Bethune to speak before its student body, Vassar College honored not only the speaker but itself. The famous educator discussed the struggles and aspirations of colored Amer- ican women. @ In Philadelphia colored druggists have organized the Philadelphia Codperative Re- tail Druggists’ Corporation including four- teen stores. The officers are Dr. M. B. Dabney, president and organizer; Dr. E. Howell, vice-president; Dr. J. C. Alexander, Business Manager and Treasurer; Dr. G. Linsay, Secretary; Dr. Ramsey, Corre- sponding Secretary. . @ Benglia, famous Senegalese actor, who played the part of the Emperor Jones in the French version of McNeill’s play is now starring in Paris in the world-renowned Folies Bergéres. Although known on this

Page 24

78 THE side of the water for his ability to interpret tragic réles he is often styled in Paris “the king of comedians”. @ The Howard High School of Wilming- ton, Del., has received a gift of five hun- dred volumes representing the largest donation ever tendered to this institution. The donor of this library is Dr. Henry Stevens, a colored native of Virginia, and a graduate of Bennett College in North Carolina and of the Howard University Medical School. He has also pursued grad- uate work at the Polyclinic Hospital which is now part of the University of Pennsyl- vania. Since the appointment of Dr. Stev- ens to the Wilmington Board of Education he has created and filled the positions of Physical«Director, School Nurse and At- tendance Officer. ( The city of Cleveland, Ohio, boasts a Phillis Wheatley Association similar to such institutions as the Y. W. C. A. Its founder and general secretary, Miss Jane Edna Hunter, recently promoted a building campaign for a new and larger establish- ment; as a result of this in a single year, six hundred and forty-nine thousand dol- lars were raised in cash and subscriptions. For this remarkable piece of work and for other civic activities Miss Hunter received many recommendations from her fellow cit- izens for the 1925 Spingarn medal. @ The colored people of St. Paul, Minne- sota, have ‘lost a staunch white friend through the death of Judge John W. Willis, president of the local branch of the N. A. A. C. P. In addition to his philanthropic and his law activities the Judge was a pro- lific writer in his own field, contributing to many periodicals. He was a member of the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and the Knights of Columbus. @ McGill University of Montreal, Canada, numbers among its graduate students Pro- fessor Philippe Boden, head of the French Department of Johnson C. Smith Univer- sity. His thesis, on which he is now en- gaged, deals with “The Social and Intel- lectual Life of the Negro in North Caro- lina”. Professor Boden, who holds a Bac- calauréat és Lettres and has done post- graduate work at the Sorbonne, has been classed as the best writer of French in his department at McGill. Some of his work has been read there in public. CRISIS C One of the thirty successful candidates out of three hundred competing for a Juil- liard Fellowship in music is Miss Cornella Lampton, daughter of the late Bishop Lampton. This young lady was a student of Roy Wilfred Tibbs of Howard University and was the first pupil to receive a degree from that conservatory. Since then she has studied at Oberlin and under such in- structors as Percy Grainger, Lee Pattison and Glenn Dillard Gunn. (@ The Pullman Company has paid a sig- nal honor to the memory of Oscar J. Dan- iels, the Pullman porter whose bravery was so outstanding in the Rockport wreck on the Lackawanna Railroad last June. The ruined sleeping car, “Sirocco”, on its re- turn from the repair shop will bear the name “Daniels”. In announcing its tribute to the dead hero the company publishes this citation: At the time of the wreck Daniels was seated in the forward end of the first Pull- man, which left the rails, halting near the locomotive, from which dense clouds of steam poured in through a door. Daniels braved the steam to close the door. He suc- ceeded but fell mortally injured. He still was alive when rescuers entered the car, but after being taken outside he refused first aid, saying, ‘“‘Attend to that little girl first.” The doctors obeyed and when they returned they found Daniels dead. @ The ownership of a barber shop at the age of seventeen was one of the outstand- ing accomplishments of the late Dr. Ed- ward N. Perkins of Indianapolis, Indiana. He was born and reared on a farm but at an early age became interested in business and owned and operated barber shops in various localities. In 1903 his interest switched to chiropody and he continued to operate several leading establishments with marked success until his death. In civic and social affairs he was especially capa- ble, distinguishing himself particularly in Y. M. C. A. and church work. He died at the age of 52, leaving a widow and daughter. @ Charles L.: Oswell, a substitute half-back of the Boston University football team, was barred from the main dining room of the Boston Athletic Association because of color. A seat was offered him in a private dining room but this he indignantly re- fused. The incident has caused a great stir in Boston athletic and club circles. Not only were his college-mates greatly in-

Page 25

Philippe Boden Oscar J. Daniels Charlies L. Oswell Cornella Lampton Judge J. W. Willis Jane E. Hunter Henry R. Wilson Henry Clay Stevens E. J. Perkins

Page 26

te CRISIS THE AUDITORIUM OF THE NEW “MOTHER” A. M. E. ZION CHURCH, N. Y. censed at the cruel and needless slight but prominent clubs and organizations have filed protests. The Somerset, Algonquin, University and Boston Art Clubs have gone on record to the effect that no discrimina- tion would be shown in their portals to guests on account of color. @ Many of us have forgotten the persistent propaganda that went on in the city of Chicago in 1922 to drive the colored em- ployees out of the Post Office. There were at the time 1400 colored clerks in the Post Office and certain efficiency engineers re- commended the dismissal of some or all of them. The colored employees and their friends made a spirited defense and par- ticularly they pointed out the fact that since there were no colored supervisors the clerks often received deliberately lower ratings. Finally the controversy died down but the aftermath came this year when a half dozen colored supervisors were ap- pointed. Among them was Henry R. Wil- son. He was born in New Orleans, edu- cated at Leland and Howard and has been a member of the postal service since 1899. He was made a supervisor July 21, 1925. He has four children, one a clerk in the Post Office, two in college and one in law school. @ The New Mother A. M. E. Zion Church of West 137th Street, N. Y., has been for- mally opened with dedicatory services which lasted a month. The Rev. James Walter Brown is the minister in charge. @ Cortez W. Peters, holder of the Under- wood diamond medal shattered his own record for high typewriting speed recently at the exhibition held at the Lincoln Thea- tre, Washington, D. C. His speed was 165 words a minute. Mr. Peters hopes in the near future to enter the Madison Square Garden contests. C The fifth annual Cheyney Day has been celebrated with appropriate exercises at Cheyney Training School, Cheyney, Pa. There were three sessions. Among the par- ticipants in the program were Dr. Francis B. H. Haas, State Superintendent of Edu- cation, Marion Anderson and Carl Diton.

Page 27

“wonsDg “D2 “f &q of0yg VNVIGNI ‘SIIOdVNVIGNI ‘A4WOH NVHduO GaxOTO) ‘.ADV.LLOD .STHID,

Page 28

82 THE MOTHER ZION, NEW YORK Laura Wheeler, who has just returned from a year’s sojourn in Paris held an exhibi- tion of original paintings. ( Residence in the regular student dor- mitory of the University of Michigan was denied Marjorie Franklin, a colored stu- dent nurse. The case was taken up by the local N. A. A. C. P. and through the action of Oscar Baker, attorney, was laid before the Board of Regents. Miss Franklin was admitted and writes: “so far affairs have gone very smoothly.” @ Nearly two years ago Evelyn Preer ap- peared for a brief sojourn on Broadway. Then she drifted away but friends and ad- mirers predicted her return. Now David Belasco has engaged her for a réle which will also require several white artists. Re- hearsals will begin in December. Edward Thompson, her husband, will also appear in the cast. @ Julius Bledsoe has appeared in recital at Town Hall, New York.. His program, which he interpreted with marked artistic effect, consisted of songs rendered in Eng- lish, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Russian. q@ Mr. and Mrs. Thomas E. Isbell of Columbus, Ohio, have celebrated their fif- tieth wedding anniversary, at an informal reception at which two hundred of their friends and relatives were present. of their fifty years they have spent in their present home in Columbus and Mr. Isbell still plies his trade as carpenter. They have been the parents of twelve children, of whom three survive, and they are the grandparents of seven. Forty CRISIS C “Little Farina” star of “Our Gang” comedies has been placed on the bill at Keith-Albee’s Palace and Hippodrome, New York. The film is entitled “Stay In Your Own Backyard”. It is not generally known that the little star, whose home name is Allen Clay Hoskins, is really a boy. C Honors are still crowding on youthful Countée P. Cullen whose book “Color” has just ‘been issued by Harper and Brothers. Mr. Cullen who is now at Harvard Uni- versity has been awarded the John Reed Memorial poetry prize. @ William H. Carter once Cost Accountant of Tuskegee has been elected treasurer of the Institute succeeding Warren Logan who recently retired. @ Metz T. P. Lochard, formerly assistant professor of French at Howard University has received an appointment as substitute teacher in the colored high schools of Wash- ington, D. C. @ Under the auspices of the Protestant Episcopal Church a school for the training of women for religious and social work has been opened at Raleigh, N. C. The cur- riculum will cover two years with special emphasis on religious work, case work, com- munity organization, recreation, club work, hygiene and sociology. The charges are $175 a year for board, tuition, books and uniform. @ The Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Board of Education has changed the name of the Lincoln Colored High School to that of the MR. AND MRS. T. E. ISBELL

Page 29

DECEMBER, 1925 A GROUP OF SUNDAY SCHOOL CHILDREN COMPOSED OF EGYPTIANS, ABYSSINIANS AND SOUTH AMERICANS OF THE AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, KHARTOUM, SUDAN, AFRICA John S. Cobb School, thus honoring its late principal who served for thirty-eight years. His son Robert S. Cobb, Secretary of the Missouri Negro Industrial Commission, has been invited to deliver an address at the coming dedicatory exercises. @ Mrs. Susan B. Evans, once president of the Minnesota Federation of Colored Women’s Council, is dead. Formerly she was secretary of the Duluth branch of the N. A. A. C. P. and state representative appointed by the Republican party for col- ored women during the last presidential campaign. @ When mob violence was threatened to two Negroes who had killed some white men in a controversy held near Marshall, Texas, plucky Sheriff John C. Sanders dis- persed all but thirteen members. The thirteen persisted and the sheriff locked them all up. @ Fort Valley High and Industrial School of Fort Valley, Georgia, has received a val- uable addition in the shape of a two story brick structure, the gift of Mrs. Royal C. Peabody for whom the building is named, and of her son Charles S. Peabody. It was erected by student labor at a cost of $25,- 000 and will be used for the teaching of car- pentry, bricklaying, plastering, painting, shoemaking, blacksmithing, auto repairing and other trades. @ Through a grant from the Laura Spel- man Rockefeller Memorial a Bureau of In- ternational Research has been established at Harvard and Radcliffe, the fund to be used for five years to develop research of an international and advanced character. Among the subjects to be considered is “the native African under self-government, co- lonial administration and mandates”, @ Colored physicians of Harlem have pur- chased buildings worth $50,000 known as the Brunor Sanitarium. These are to be operated conjointly along with the Booker T. Washington Sanitarium. @ The Pullman porters have organized locals 1 and 2 of the Brotherhood of Sleep- ing Car Porters in Harlem. The member- ship already consists of 200 and it is hoped that 1800 more will be enrolled in the vicinity and 12,000 throughout the coun- try. The principal demands of the men include a 50 per cent increase in pay based on 240 hours of regular work per month, pay for overtime and for making the cars ready for occupancy. The minimum salary is now only $67.50 per month and the maxi- mum less than $90.00.

Page 30

Zhe Looking Glass LITERATURE ee HE NEGRO SOUL” by Guy Fitch Phelps in the Southwestern Chris- tian Advocate: I lie upon no natal breast, I have not yet been born; I struggle in the womb of time Full length, unshaped, forlorn. Strike not my laboring mother down E’er I shall come to birth, To gather in my share of stars, And claim my part of earth. Within the common human sum My destiny is cast, And Adam knows me for his son, The first one and the Last. And oh, I have a gift to give When I shall come to birth, A soul, a vision, and a heart,— Accept them, oh, my earth! + * * We have received “Principes d’Education Nationale” by Dr. Francois Dalencour. It is a volume of 151 pages, printed in French by the author at Port-au-Prince. * * * General Gouraud, Military Governor of Paris and member of the General Staff, writes June 17 to Martha Gruening: Je n’ai pas lu les Mémoires de Guerre du Général Bullard. Je ne doute pas qu’ils ne soient fort intéressants. En ce qui concerne les troupes noires Américaines, il ne m’appartient pas de prendre parti dans la discussion. Tout ce que je puis vous dire, c’est que le 369° Noir Américain sous le Commandement du colonel Hayward, s’est trés bieri conduit a la bataille du 26 Septembre, notamment a la prise du village de Séchault. BROTHERS AND KEEPERS WISE word on Christianity and Labor comes from Dr. Norman Leys in the Brotherhood World: The work of the Church in Asia and Africa is difficult. The Europeans who are in political or financial control of these countries do not see disguised blood rela- tions in Chinese, or Indian, or African la- bourers. They regard themselves as inher- ently their superiors and so cannot even conceive of a time when both will behave like members of one family. This belief in the superiority of their own race is the decisive fact in the lives of those they gov- ern. Hence it is impossible for the Church in these countries to practice fraternity. The owner of thousands of acres in Kenya, for example, cannot, however sincerely he may desire to be a Christian, treat his labourers, paid twelve shillings a month, as the New Testament teaches. It is a mere hypocritical pretense to deny, not only that social, political and industrial arrange- ments which individuals are powerless to change make the practice of New Testa- ment Christianity impossible, but that the people who have created these arrange- ments prove thereby that they regard the ideal of the New Testament to be a false one. For these arrangements compel both Euro- peans and Africans in Kenya to behave in certain ways. The Europeans in that country decide how the natives shall em- ploy themselves. They have bestowed the best of the land on themselves and have made it impossible for any African indi- vidual or tribe to own an acre of land. They themselves have votes and Africans, of whatever character and ability, have none. They have a law under which it is a criminal offense for an African to en- gage in any business away from home ex- cept working for wages. All these arrange- ments taken together decide how Europeans and Africans in Kenya must behave to one another. They express the real religion of the Europeans of Kenya, reveal what they really think and feel. These thoughts and feelings are not what those members of a family who have had great advantages think and feel about other members of the family who have had no such advantages. Brotherhood may be preached from pulpits in Kenya, though in actual fact it is not. It cannot be practiced, except partially by the more saintly kind of missionary, so long as these other influences determine men’s lives. Individual missionaries are powerless to change these arrangements, designed as they are for the profit of those who have gained control over the country. Corporate action by the missionaries, on the other hand, would have great result in Britain and America. Unhappily missionaries in positions of importance too often are afraid to do anything that would endanger the influence they have, or fancy they have, over their fellow countrymen. Some of them behave exactly as did the bishops a hundred years ago, who during the long fight against slavery always voted in the House of Lords in support of it. And many prominent Nonconformists, like John New- ton, the writer of hymns, not only defended slavery, but owned slaves themselves. * * * Is not the failure of the stronger brother to “keep” his weaker brother the sin against the Holy Ghost? Dr. Leys asks gravely: The modern Lazarus no longer sits at Dives’ gate. Dives now lives in the suburbs

nn. eo ee. ao a! an tk oh ek 2 ae ee ee <—e— me et hel oie tee ba i ee eet

Page 31

or in the Riviera. But the Lazarus of the city slum and his. brother in the eastern plantation still live on Dives’ crumbs. The essential relation between them is the same. For the Dives in the story in Luke is not described as being what we should call a bad man. The sole offense that sent him to Hell was that he took advantage of the privileges his wealth offered him and spent in luxuries on himself what might have been spent in meeting the necessities of others; that, in a word, he took from the world more than he gave it. * * o* Miss Eleanor MacNeil, writing in the magazine of the national Y. W. C. A. of China, says: Once upon a time Empire meant Mr. Kipling and the White Man’s Burden. It meant vague and glamorous pictures of tall, white-clad fair men with clear blue eyes moving majestically among inferior but grateful natives, dispensing justice, kindly and firm. . . . But somehow after coming out East Mr. Kipling seemed not quite adequate to the situation; bit by bit one peeled off assump- tions as values changed with the angle of vision. The point of view of the under- dog was gradually forced upon one; doing things for people for their good, willy nilly, ceased to be the highest form of serving Geek: 3. se. Odds and ends of impressions drift through the mind. Harbors full of warships and gunboats, gray and threatening. A half-baked, pink-faced youth kicking a ricksha coolie. A foreign woman in a street car saying to a decent Chinese woman who pressed against her, “Don’t touch me, dog.” An official in a passport office keeping two Indian ladies standing for half an hour while he shot questions at them in a dis- courteous voice. Meeting a Chinese friend on the street with her eyes full of tears; a foreign man had insulted her in a shop. A stout and comfortable gentleman in snug dress-cothes saying, “The only thing the East understands is force’—the East, the home of hospitality and religion! A missionary saying, “You must not be intimate with the Chinese; they do not un- derstand it”. The tone in which many “nice” women spoke to their servants. A hotel on the Peak in Hongkong which re- fused to allow a party of four Indian stu- dents travelling from Peking to eat in the public dining room, and the sharing of their meal in the servants’ room. A Negro gentleman who said simply, “The hospital- ity I have received in people’s houses here has meant so much to me. When I get home I can only go to the back door”. A church committee meeting in the room next to mine, where three foreigners talked for two hours on what the church in Korea needed in the way of literature, and the DECEMBER, 1925 85 one Korean present said not one word, nor was his opinion asked. THE BETTER SOUTH HE SOUTH has recently been im- pressed by certain Negro meetings in their midst. The Manufacturers’ Record of Baltimore for instance, says of the Baptist Convention in Baltimore: Nearly 15,000 delegates and visitors as- sembled in Baltimore and, coming from all sections of the land, afforded a fine cross- section view of the race as a whole. Men and women, old and young, in wide ranges of occupation and financial prosperity, they foregathered for the business management of one of the really great religious organi- zations of the country, level-headed in their business work, sincerely fervid in prayer and praise. Even the delegates’ ways of travel to Baltimore from their homes were of sig- nificance. Probably 50 per cent rode in their own automobiles, some from very long distances, of whom some camped in the open air en route and others patronized hotels and boarding houses. Of the hun- dreds who traveled by rail, a major per- centage used standard or tourist sleeping cars, while those journeying by water en- joyed equally comfortable accommodations. Round-trip railroad fares ranged, for in- stance, from $42 from Nashville and $50 from Jackson, Miss. No shacks sheltered them in the convention city, but comfortable houses with every reasonable convenience, or decent, clean and respectable hotels. Yet only 62 years ago the parents of many of these delegates were slaves. * * * The Memphis, Tennessee, Commercial Appeal has an editorial: Went out to the Colored Fair. It was amazing. The progress the Negroes have made in this territory in the last twenty- five years should be of immense joy to them and it should be gratifying to their white fellow citizens. + x The Durham, North Carolina, Herald says of a meeting there: It was quite an honor paid to the Dur- ham Negroes, and whites, too, for this body of leaders in the educational progress of the Negro to come here. It was an evi- dence of the appreciation that Negroes of the country have arrived at concerning the splendid type of colored people living in Durham, and also a tribute to the splendid and proper relationship existing between the races here. We do not believe that there is better relationship between the two races in any place than to be found in Durham. Neither do we believe that any other city has a better type of Negroes than Durham. It is small wonder, then, that the

Page 32

86 THE National Association of Teachers in Col- ored Schools selected Durham as its conven- tion city. » a * The Parkersburg, West Virginia, Senti- nel says: Colored people of West Virginia are among the most intelligent and industrious of their race. The remarkable increase in the number of Negroes operating farms in this state during the past five years is one of the chief points of inierest in the 1925 farm census of West Virginia just released by the division of agriculture, bureau of the census, in Washington, according to T. Edward Hill, director of the bureau of Negro welfare and statistics. Oo Es cK The meeting of the Elks at Richmond is still causing comment. The Wilmington, Delaware, News says: The Chamber of Commerce exerted it- self to have the visitors entertained, and they were welcomed by the mayor and the governor. The meeting was such that a leading colored pastor in Washington high- ly praised the Virginia officials and de- clared that if what they got in Richmond was a sample of how the South was going to treat his race the Negroes would stay in the South, and many of those who had gone North would return. . + The Richmond Times Dispatch declares that N. A. Morel, the colored organizer of the Elks Convention, “put to shame all previous arrangements for any convention ever held in Richmond by white or colored people”. * * * This leads a columnist in the Los An- geles, California, News, to assume: Is it possible that the race prejudice of the South is at last breaking down? In- formation from Richmond, Va., indicates that it is possible for Southerners and Ne- groes not only to mix, but that they have reached a point where one will co-operate with the other. In light of the dispatches which we read daily concerning lynchings and murders in places having,a large col- ored population, it certainly is gratifying to learn of a change in feeling. * * OK Then a colored writer in the New Haven Union adds: Instead of arousing America to a sense of Richmond’s greatness, her Elk week conduct has merely raised the questions: If these things were possible during the Elk convention, why aren’t they possible all the time? If Richmond can abolish Jim Crow law for 100,000 members of our Race for one week without injury to anyone, CRISIS why can’t she extend the same decency to the 54,000 citizens, almost half the popu- lation of the city, who live there and pay taxes to help support Richmond? If the white people of Richmond are so proud of her “Negroes” why must they sub- ject them to insults and humiliations with no other cause than that they are not white? Why are these people forbidden the theaters, restaurants, hotels and - other places that mean so much to a free citizen in a free country? Richmond, by dressing herself up for the Elk convention, while leaving a pleasant sensation in minds of. her visitors from the four corners of the United States, did not make the impression she thought she did, for by her own hospitality she has de- stroyed her main argument for prejudice and a race problem. She has shown the rest of the South just how easy it is to live in peace with our Race where the attitude is one of fairness. Here, also, was pre- sented a strong argument against “white America”. THE WORST SOUTH HE following advertisement appeared in the Greensboro, North Carolina, Daily News, July 12, 1925: Wanted—Cook. Must be a regular South Carolina or Georgia “nigger” and not a North Carolina colored lady. For break- fast and evening dinner. Must know something about cooking. The writer of this ad knows a “nigger”? when he sees one. Phone 3787 or 1302-J. * * * The colored people of Louisville, Ken- tucky, are voting against a five million dol- lar bond issue for schools: HAS THE ATTITUDE OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION IN THE PAST TOWARDS COLORED PEOPLE BEEN SUCH AS TO INSPIRE US WITH CONFIDENCE THAT WE WILL GET A FAIR DEAL? What about the attitude of the BOARD WHEN SOME OF OUR TEACHERS WERE BEATEN UP BY PARK GUARDS AND ARRESTED? WHAT ABOUT THE ABOLISHMENT OF THE COL- ORED NORMAL,—which at the time ex- cited indignation. WAS IT NOT INTEN- TIONAL THAT IN BUILDING CEN- TRAL COLORED HIGH SCHOOL,— BOTH THE OLDER AND NEWER SEC- TION—THAT THE MAIN ENTRANCE FOR THE CHILDREN WAS PUT IN ONE CASE ON A SIDE STREET, AND IN THE OTHER CASE ON THE SIDE OF THE BUILDING? Architectural plans of white schools do not seem to call for such an arrangement. It should be the pride of ANY citizen of Louisville to go to Brook and Breckenridge

Page 33

DECEMBER, Streets and view the magnificent plant erected there as a Male High School. There are other wonderful High School Buildings of which each citizen should be proud. Mr. Altsheler stated he believed that among other things the Board of Education in- tended to build another magnificent High School for WHITE PUPILS somewhere in the West End at estimated cost of $700,- 000.00. What school building in the entire city of Louisville can colored citizens point to with pride? Name any one to which children can go and from the physical building and equipment receive inspiration. If you name the Lincoln School, it’s built on a side street and is already inadequate. If you name Central Colored High School, it’s merely a reworked building,—with what is regarded by many colored people, as a “Jim Crow” entrance. Colored people are really entitled to more than a proportionate share of any $5,000,- 000.00 Bond Issue, because they are already ten years behind the white schools. What would really give inspiration to colored boys and girls, and enthuse colored voters to support and help pass the Bond Issue would be for the Board of Education to devote a portion of the Bond Issue to the building of an administration building for themselves; tear down the building in which they are housed (next to a colored school); wreck the unsightly buildings housing Central Colored High School and using the entire square between Eighth and Ninth for the purpose, erect at LEAST ONE HIGH SCHOOL IN CONNECTION WITH JUNIOR COLLEGES THAT WOULD COMPARE FAVORABLY WITH THE MANY BEAUTIFUL BUILDINGS ALREADY BUILT FOR WHITE CHILDREN. This would some- what approximate justice to the colored school children and the colored tax payers of Louisville. It would, however, probably not be necessary to go to this extreme to satisfy colored people. What have colored people to lose in case the bonds do not pass? If they pass, they must pay increased taxes, and unless the Board of Education makes some definite promise, we must pay these extra taxes just the same, and we will have no as- surance as to what extent we are to bene- fit from the spending of $5,000,000.00. If the Bond Issue fails to pass, then we’re little worse off than we are at the present time. If the Board of Education wants $5,000,- 000.00 for improvement of all schools, then let them promise $1,000,000.00 for the col- ored schools. If they are not willing to make the promise we certainly can know they don’t intend to spend any such sum on colored children. If they contend that $800,000.00 or $900,000.00 or even $600,000.00 is a more reasonable amount then, let them promise this sum. Otherwise 1925 87 it could happen that $100,000.00, more or less, might be spent on colored schools. Some one has said that “our good white friends” would act fairly and that we ought not to mistrust them. They have also said that it is not a political question. To both suggestions we must differ. The question of this Bond Issue is not a ques- tion of Friendship. It is a cold-blooded business proposition and it should be up to colored people to see that they get everything to which they are entitled—and they are entitled to a great deal. GENIUS ' is said time and time again that when the Negro race exhibits real talent and genius, then it escapes the petty prejudice and annoyances which surround it in America. This is not only not true but often American prejudice actually pursues and attacks Negro genius beyond the con- fines of its own country. An excellent ex- ample of this is the career of the singer, Mme. Florence Cole Talbert. Madame Talbert this year has been studying at the musical academy of the Villa d’Este at Tivoli, Italy. The well- known Italian daily, Jl Risorgimento re- ports the final recital of the Academy and says in its headlines: “Final recital; race hatred; reaction of citizens; triumphant welcome to Miss Florence Talbert.” Of all the pupils the portrait of Madame Tal- bert is the only one to appear and the following program is noted: “La Loreley” di Listr e “Babbino caro” del Puccini; miss Alice Gillen: “Oh del mio amato ben” di Donaudy; miss Pauline A. Hughes e miss Nera Galesta: “Sonata in re maggiore per violino con accompag- namento di pianoforte. Adagio-Allegro con fuoco-Largheto-Allegretto grazioso”’ del Nardini; miss Florence Talbert tra en delirio di applausi ha cantato con infinita grazia “O Patria mia” (Aida) e “Figlia del Sol” Africana; mr. Thomas Coppinger: “Mappari” (La Marta del Flotow) e “O dolei baci” (Tosca del Puccini; Miss Blanche Whitely: “In quelle trine” (Manon del Puccini) e “Voi lo sapete” (Cavalleria del Mascagni) ; miss Nera Galeota: Musica per pianoforte “I due studi” di Chopin, “Di Sera” di Schumann e “Etude Mig- nonne” di Schutt; ed. infine il duetto dell’ Aida” cantato da miss Blanche Whitley e miss Mildred Anderson, tutte salutate da scroscianti applausi. o* * * It will be noted that the chief mention is given Madame Talbert who “amid a storm of applause sang with infinite grace.”

Page 34

THE CRISIS ails Se a Se ee es ot rt sa SE Pi ea Sh Pg MADAME TALBERT AND HER AMERICAN FELLOW-STUDENTS The journal then goes on to say: Now that the pupils have all or nearly all departed, we feel that we ought to men- tion an offensive episode which has by no means escaped the notice of our citizens. Indeed they have reacted against it to the best of their ability. Among the young Americans there was a real and true artist, Miss Florence Tal- bert who had the mischance to be of mixed blood, that is, she was the daughter of a white woman and a Negro [sic] but was a magnificent type of mulatto. It is notorious that in America the aver- sion between white and colored people is very bitter and so great is the feeling against colored people that we have had to notice with disgust how the whites, with the very worst taste and the least tact, wished to bring their feelings and preju- dices into our most hospitable Italy. The brave soprano, Miss Florence Talbert, was born in Los Angeles, California and won a gold medal at the Musical College of Chi- cago in 1916. During the entire period of the musical season she has suffered from the prejudice of her compatriots. They have not only ostracized her completely but tried to attack her character. But the valiant artist has been welcomed by a large group of distinguished ladies in Italian society and has been able easily not only to triumph over all prejudice but to achieve a great success. Sometime ago a colleague of ours went to the Villa d’Este to photograph the stu- dents. The Americans did not want Miss Talbert included in the group. The photo- grapher had to insist for a long time and at last it was only when he threatened not to make the photograph at all, that the whites yielded. [See photograph above]. As we have said, these facts did not es- cape the watchful eye of the community who gave all their sympathy to Miss Flor- ence Talbert and decided that on the first occasion they would make this sympathy publicly known. Therefore on last Sunday when the final recital took place, the large and cultured audience gave every manifestation of af- fection for Miss Talbert and with long and repeated applause saluted the real and true artist that she is. Two magnificent bouquets of flowers, the only ones given during the whole musical season, were sent to her. Magnificent in power and modulation, she showed herself the true artist in “O Patria Mia” from Aida and in “Figlia del Sol” from the Africana, so much so as to surprise the audience and move it pro- foundly, and greatly to impress her teacher, Professor Delia Valeri. To these good auguries, let us add our warmest “On to greater things.” cs * * THE CrIsIS is indebted to E. C. Williams of Howard University for the above trans- lation.

Page 35

THE LITTLE PAGE Uy HIGH CAROL _ N just such a manger As cattle must know Our Master and Jesus Was born long ago. “A strange heir to Kingdoms”, The earth doubting cried, Who looked for the Savior To come with great pride, Amidst sheen of jewel In some stately hall, With wealth that all princes Of earth would appall. Sing Hail to HIGH MAJESTY Born to the meek. HE came among shepherds As SHEPHERD to seek! In spite of the Prophets And all they foretold, In spite of the guiding Of that star of gold, In face of the Wise Men Who knew to believe, The hosts were too vain And too blind to receive HIM! HAIL TO HIGH MAJESTY Born to the meek, He came among Shepherds As SHEPHERD to seek! Hail! Hail! HALLELUIAH! HIS Grace and HIS Day! Our hearts should rejoice That HE came just that way! CALENDAR CHAT HIS chat will be of Norway spruce trees. How gorgeously they are be- ing dressed with silver stars at this sea- son! For they are well beloved as Christ- mas trees. It has been many years since I read Bjérnson’s story of the two small boys, Anton and Little Storm who had managed to lose themselves among the giant ever- greens of Norway when all the countryside was white with snow. EFFIE LEE NEWSOME a & Ly The writer painted with his pen such wonderful pictures of winter in Norway. They seemed to take one right to those vast forests with their monuments of snow. I used to look at our Norway spruce hedge in December and think of the land for which it was named, just as the sight of those gaudily dainty and exquisite flow- ers, the gladioluses of Africa, awake in my mind thoughts of her far-off shores. For I know that this popular flower was first found in Africa. — But what a distance from Norway to Africa! Let me hasten back to that little Norway spruce hedge that grows between the orchard and lawn of my Ohio home. It was planted there in 1898, and yet it has not grown tall. Once every year great iron clippers trim the hedge very neat. It measures six feet across the top and puts out tender parrot green shoots every spring, but there its development seems to cease. Yet this is not correct, for the hedge is about four feet tall, and I remember when we as children used to just step over it easily and get scolded for “tramping down” the bushes. Now it is 4 compact wall, a shelter for wild creatures and plant growth. You may peep down at the shrubs’ trunks in winter and discover green miniature sprigs of wild plants hiding there—tuftlets of catnip, mul- lein like little pale rabbit ears peeping up from the ground and numerous other dwarf sprays on their way to greatness, stealing shelter under the kindly old hedge. And as for birds! Oh, my, what would they do without this Norway spruce fence? The English sparrows go to bed there all winter, and even cardinals are seen flitting about it sometimes when winter has hardly gone. On bitter evenings when red sunsets paint the ice-pools pink one may see crafty old cats stealing to the hedge after spar- rows. Less common than the cat prints in the snow one finds now and then tracks of rabbits at the fence.

Page 36

90 Sometimes I would catch a glimpse of Cotton Tail nibbling the little herbs at the root of the evergreens. Again I would peep and see Sir Bunny simply posed there like a stuffed toy, his eyes unblinking black and blank. He would allow me almost to touch him, then dart off swiftly, noiseless- ly through the orchard. In autumn he uses the hedge as a refuge from huntsmen. And if the small spruce is so kind, what must the great tree be! Oh, I would love to look at one this minute all trimmed for the holidays!—with sparkling silver balls and butterflies and small bells that whis- per whenever you brush against them, “Merry Christmas!” CHRISTMAS GIFT OTHER GARDNER lived in an old fashioned brick house. It would seem that the birds had moved there with her years ago. They had apartments all around the building and came and went at will, as though possessing keys to the grounds all through bird season. The chimney swifts would swirl and whistle and feed in the air above the cot- tage at twilight, just as Mother Gardner would walk and rock and hum upon the lawn by day. She lived in the house. They lived in the chimney of that house, and used to shake crumbling bits of plaster down into the gas heater pipe of Mother Gardner’s bedroom. And sparrows used to litter her cistern ‘piping with straws. Yet I do not believe she even disliked the English sparrows. It almost seems that birds. swing notices somewhere in the sky above premises that shelter them: “DIRECTLY UNDER HERE LIV .S THE BIRDS’ FRIEND. STAY IN HER YARD ANYWHERE. ROOST IN HER HONEYSUCKLE. PERCH ON HER PLUM TREE. BE- NEATH HER EAVES. MAKES NO DIF- FERENCE. NO CATS. NOTHING HERE BUT A GREAT BIG HEART. POSTSCRIPT: She even lets English sparrows eat with her beautiful white Orp- ington chickens at meal time in the poultry yards.” So the birds were there every day. I mean every day without exception. The titmice with their dark peaked gnome hoods and the yellow muff under each arm, and sprightly chickadees in black toboggan caps—minus the appendages— THE CRISIS were there in zero weather—whistling all around Mother Gardner’s yard, and eating the bits of fat meat that she had scattered about on fence tops and in the walks for them. She liked to hear their whistles and clicks. Mother Gardner even encouraged the blue jays to come to her place in severe weather. And cardinals? Of course they were there the greater part of the year. They liked to dash up in crimson breeches like a French soldier, at the red day-break and sound stirring reveilles. One Christmas Eve night Mother Gard- ner thought: “The birds are good faith- ful cheery friends of mine all the year through. I shall put some crumbs out on the window sill tonight, for birds rise early, and they will find a Christmas gift up here before I get downstairs to scatter crumbs.” So she tipped down, down to the pantry and cut a large slice of fruit cake, rich with almonds and currants and citron, and breaking it into bits on a tray, took the little metal plate up and placed it on her window sill. “My little friends shall have some of the same Christmas cake that I enjoy.” And she went to bed. Way on, perhaps late at night, perhaps very early in the morning, Mother Gard- ner was sure that she caught through her open window a faint sound, a sort of tink- ling on the metal tray that held the crumbs. “The birds have found their Christmas gift,” she thought joyously and hurried to the window. Something dimly gray and too large for a sparrow or titmouse flew upward like a shadow. “A flying squirrel!” Mother Gardner gasped. A little sigh of regret followed. Then she smiled and looked up into the mild sky. It looked so gentle in its Gobe- lin blue all set with stars. “God,’? Mother Gardner thought, “has put HIS beautiful sky there for all of us—squirrels and birds and even a poor old feeble lady like me. That is the way with this business of kind- ness,” and she toddled back to bed, well content, “it is a great friendly umbrella that spreads over ALL.” So she pulled her nice soft covers over her, adjusted her lace night cap, and slept. And the flying squirrels ate all the fruit cake from the tray, but the birds had a fine Christmas feast downstairs the next morning.

Page 37

EUGENICS AND THE RACE PROBLEM * AST year, there appeared in THE CRISIS an article purporting to set forth the place of eugenic control in the Negro problem. The chief significance of the ar- ticle lay in the fact that it indicated the tendency of the younger generation of Negroes to apply the latest scientific tech- nic to their problem rather than to put faith in the older formulas. However, there were many unwarranted assumptions in the article that have gone unchallenged. The purpose of this article is to examine critically the assumptions of the above mentioned article, and to indicate briefly the limitations of eugenic control in the race problem. Space will not permit any more than the briefest outline of the greater possibilities of environmental con- trol. Before we consider the limitations upon eugenic control, let us emphasize this point: namely, that the Negro problem is essen- tially a problem of social adjustment. And since all problems of social adjustment are primarily a question of attitudes, the Negro problem is, therefore, a psychological prob- lem. Attitudes are derived from the cul- tural environment. The changing of the biological inheritance of the Negro, short of physical assimilation, offers no promise of a change in the traditional responses of the white man. To be sure many Negro leaders have worked on the naive assump- tion that the reduction of illiteracy, crime, disease, and poverty among the colored group would insure its full participation in American culture. Even those who hold most tenaciously to this assumption will be- come disillusioned by the article of Judge Winston in the July number of Current History. The truth seems to be that as the Negro approaches the cultural level of the whites, the latter show greater antag- onism, especially in the South. The chief value to the Negro of the mitigation of his problems is to secure group survival. The problem of adjustment to the American cultural environment is another problem. plied Eugenics, by Albers Sidney Beckham, The Crisis, August, 1924, p. 91 E. FRANKLIN FRAZIER We shall consider the limitations upon eugenic control of the population. The time element is the first obstacle. We must wait about twenty years to see the fruits of our initial attempt at selective mating. The same charge must be placed upon suc- ceeding generations. But of greater im- portance is the fact that qualities suscep- tible to the breeding process are limited. There are certain physical traits, such as the color and texture of the hair, eye color; and certain pathological characters, such as dwarfism, polydactyly, and cataract which are inherited according to the Men- delian ratio. Syphilis is not inherited as commonly supposed, but is acquired from pre-natal environment. There is still some question about feeblemindedness. Although it appears to follow the Mendelian princi- ple, there are some students who attribute it to pre-natal influences. Uncritical ob- servation has habitually regarded every- thing as part of inheritance that is found in the individual at birth. The author of the article which has oc- casioned our writing, declares that ‘“‘scien- tists are essentially agreed that mental and moral characters are inherited and with about the same degree of intensity as phys- ical characters.” He says also that we should see that the Negro’s “moral fibre” is passed on to succeeding generations. This last injunction would be proper if “moral fibre” could be isolated and selected into the race by breeding. The first statement is far from the truth, for most of the fore- most scientists are of the opinion that moral traits are not inherited. Mental and moral traits reflect the psycho-social en- vironment. Many. of these moral traits are highly complex social values, relating only to time and place. They are merely names given to habit-complexes. Unless we be- lieve in the inheritance of acquired charac- ters, it would be impossible to pass on these traits by biological transmission. To sum up the case for eugenic control in respect to the Negro, we can simply say that the Negro in marrying should have due regard for his offspring by not mating

Page 38

92 THE with stocks that show signs of feeblemind- edness and the grosser abnormal physical traits which follow the Mendelian princi- ple. Likewise, of course, he should seek healthy consorts. These precautions will control individual conduct. But the point at issue is the policy which should be adopted to insure the welfare of the group. Here we shall outline briefly the réle of environmental control. Let us take the case of tuberculosis which the said writer has cited as a problem for eugenic control. He blames it on the Negro’s poor physical inheritance. Must we wait for the Negro to develop an immunity through natural and artificial selection or should we attack the problem by a public health program which is a means of environmental control? The prevalence of tuberculosis is often cor- related with social factors. The experience of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Com- pany shows that the Negro improves his health through educational methods. Let us take again the question of rickets among Negro children. Although the exact nature of this pathological condition is not known, it is generally associated with a wrong diet. Here again, we see that the cultural environment through its channels for spreading a knowledge of proper feeding is the most promising means for meeting the problem. Likewise, in view of the new- ly discovered importance of the prenatal environment, we can readily see that only environmental control can eliminate the present effects of the superstitious prac- tices of mid-wives who attend most colored mothers. Pre-natal clinics can do more than eugenic control. The same can be said concerning the problem of feebleminded- ness, if it is an inherited trait, as it ap- pears to be. There is no apparent danger that the best mentally endowed Negroes will debase their intellectual inheritance by mating with feebleminded persons. But there is a danger that the proper institu- CO-OPERATION CRISIS tional controls, which should control the procreation of the colored feebleminded, will be lacking among colored people. In the South where little notice is taken of the colored feebleminded, unless to lynch them when they commit crimes, they are permitted to breed at a rapid rate. Here . another factor in the selective process among Negroes can only be mentioned. The whole social system in the South favors the propagation of the least socially desir- able (in a civilized environment) among Negroes. The less energetic and resource- ful fit easily into the réle the white man has assigned the Negro, while the more energetic and resourceful leave or often fail to reproduce. The chief environmental or cultural in- fluence among Negroes for transmitting the pattern of our civilization is the school. It is through education that the socializ- ing process is carried on. What those con- cerned with the progress of the Negro want is a Negro with habit-complexes modeled largely after the pattern of Western civ- ilization. But a more potent influence would be the home. The Negro home is gradually assuming its proper réle as par- ents become more intelligent. The great- est handicap to this socializing process is the isolation forced upon the Negro. Much of the failure of the Negro to achieve in the higher realms of intellectual activities is due to the lack of contact. Most of the present outburst of creative effort on the part of Negroes in New York is surely at- tributable +o a stimulating cultural envir- onment, rather than to any formal breed- ing process. So while we should have a proper regard for selecting the desirable heritable traits, we should above all secure a cultural en- vironment that will insure the develop- ment of the richest personalities and the perpetuation of the socially desirable. AT BLUEFIELD a & R. P. Sims O-OPERATION is a term used both for a theory of life and for a system of business, with the general sense of “working together and sharing together”. wealth, which they devote to common pur- poses, or share among themselves upon In a co-operative business the individuals unite for mutual aid in production of aw ae

Page 39

DECEMBER, 1925 : 93 principles of equity, reason and the com- mon good, agreed upon beforehand. The educational project in co-operative business at the Bluefield Institute, Bluefield, W. Va., takes the form of a student co- operative store, which is fostered by the Commercial Department in an attempt to supply the needs of the student body and provide a commercial laboratory for the application of business theory and practice. The store is owned by student stockhold- ers and is operated by the students of the Commercial Department. The capital of the store was raised by selling stock in the Co-operative Society at a price less than one dollar per share. The store carries school books and school supplies, athletic goods, kodaks, some pastries made by do- mestic science classes, confections and sun- dries, all of which are sold at the current prices in the city. Only members receive sales tickets with purchases and of course only members participate in dividends. Dividends are paid out of net profits at the end of the fiscal period on the basis of the stockholder’s total purchases and not on the share of stock, The volume of business transacted by the store, since its beginning in December, has enabled the Co-operative Society to free itself of,debt and to have clear ownership of the assets of the store with no additional cost. In the meanwhile, the stockholders have voted class scholarships, to the extent of tuition, in both the Secondary Depart- ment and Junior College. The net profits then remaining will be distributed to stock- holders in proportion to their respective total purchases. The government and operation of the Co-operative Society are very simple. The Board of Directors is composed of stock- holders elected from the respective classes of the school. Each stockholder has one vote. The personnel of the store is ap- pointed from the Commercial Department of the Junior College for practical exper- ience. The manager and his organization have a free hand in carrying out the details of administration. This brings into play the practical application of business theory and methods being received in classroom in- “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. “And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. struction. The manager gets the executive point of view by being held responsible for the business as a whole and for the suc- cessful operation and co-ordination of the related and interrelated departments of the business. The bookkeeper or accountant sees concretely the cost of “leaks” and the dependence of the business upon the effi- cient keeping of accounts. The student in charge of purchasing makes visits to whole- sale houses where he gathers valuable in- formation. He experiences the temptation to “over buy” and realizes the necessity of having knowledge of what the public wants and how important it is to have the right goods on hand at the right time. The stu- dents are responsible for the display of merchandise and the store advertising. This calls for the application of the theory of ad- vertising and also provides an opportunity for the student to draw on his own resource- fulness and test his ability to get results. The selling practice in the store enables the students to see concretely the premium that is placed upon personality, business approach, tact, self confidence and real service. Patrons of the store look to it for advice and suggestions when purchasing. They often want advice and information on general business matters. Prices similar to those in the city and service on the part of the management have been big factors in the success of the store, both with its members and patrons about the school grounds. In widening the activities of the Co- operative Society the most important pro- ject at present is the establishment of the class scholarships. For the future much is planned, however, the members realize the necessity of proceeding cautiously. The experience of the educational pro- ject in co-operative business at the Bluefield Institute leads one to believe that, in the field of real co-operative business, the schools afford unlimited opportunities for the play of individual business initiative, while they give substance to the hope that co-operative business can be of material service in Negro life, when it is founded on proven principles and competently ad- ministered. “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

Page 40

THE CRISIS ADVERTISER The North Carolina College for Negroes FORMERLY The Durham State Normal School OPENED ITS FALL SESSION SEPTEMBER 15, 1925 _ As our courses are soon to be limited to work of College Grade, the school beginning September 15, 1925, will offer only the third and fourth years of high school work and Senior Normal work. 1. THE LIBERAL ARTS COURSE tificates at the completion of the course. 2. THE SCIENTIFIC COURSE Leading to the B. S. Degree. 3. THE PRE-MEDICAL COURSE given. College Conference. THE FOLLOWING COURSES WILL BE OFFERED: Leading to the A. B. Degree and offering sufficient work in Secondary Education to enable students to secure High School Teachers’ Certificates, Class A, and High hool Principals’ Cer- A two-year pre-medical course preparing students for entrance into medical colleges will be 4. SPECIAL COURSES IN COMMERCE AND MUSIC The faculty will consist of men and women from the best Colleges and Uni- versities in the country and will meet the requirements of the North Carolina For Catalog and further information address: THE NORTH CAROLINA COLLEGE FOR NEGROES James E. Shepard, President Durham, N. C. Hampton Institute Hampton, Virginia TEACHERS COLLEGE : School of Agriculture—four-year course leading to de- gree of Bachelor of Science. School of Education—four-year high-school teacher’s course leading to degree of Bachelor of Science; and two two-year courses for primary, intermedi- ate and upper-grade teachers. School of Home Economics—four-year course leading to degree of Bachelor of Science; and two-year course. Summer School for Teachers—courses leading to degree of Bachelor of Science and State Certificates. SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Offers four-year course leading to degree of Bachelor of Science and two-year course—aims to prepare men and women for business positions or to teach business subjects. LIBRARY SCHOOL Offers one-year, professional course—aims to prepare librarians for normal schools, colleges and branch libraries in city systems. TRADE SCHOOL Offers four-year course leading to degree of Bachelor of Science; and two year course—aims to train skilled builders. FACTS Enrollment, including practice and summer school and classes for teachers in service, 2,251; graduates, 2,753; and ex-students, over 8,800. JAMES E. GREGG, Principal. FISK UNIVERSITY HIGH MORAL AND SCHOLASTIC STANDARDS CLASS “A” COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS Expenses Reasonable BROAD ATHLETIC PROGRAM Four Quarters Entrance in October December March and June Address The Dean, Fisk University Nashville, Tenn. Mention THe Crisis

Page 41