Sunday Chicago bee. [volume], July 21, 1940, SECTION TWO, Page 13, Image 13

About Sunday Chicago bee. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1925-19??

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—— By HOBART T. MITCHELL -■■■— ■
A COLOR SCHEME
What is the difference between
a Negro and a “person of color”?
In a legal sense the words have
an interesting history dating back
more than a hundred years. What
were those persons to be called
who had a splash of Indian blood,
a dash of white, and a portion of
African blood? Legally the line
had to be drawn—where to start
and where to end was somewhat
perplexing.
Mr. Beauregard, a citizen of
New Orleans in 1810, started this
legal ball to rolling when he
brought back from the West Indies
a young girl, Adelle, born of mix
ed parentage. Miss Adelle, after
a short stay in the home of Mr.
Beauregard, was sent to New
York and placed in a boarding
school. Her expenses, while in
the school, were paid by Mr. Beau
legard, her guardian.
After a few- years in the board
ing school Miss Adelle was re
quested to return to the household
of her guardian in New Orleans.
Residing with him for a few
months, she left his home and
brought suit for her freedom and
pay for her services for the time
she had been in his home. She
maintained that it was up to her
master to prove ownership by
some written title or at least he
acquired possession of her without
fraud. But her guardian argued
that in order to receive her free
dom she would have to prove
that she was born free, or had been
emancipated.
To dispose of the case a legal
definition had to be made be
tween a Negro and a person of
color. If Adelle was a Negro she
would remain in slavery. If she
was a person of color she would
go free.
Afer heavy deliberation the
court finally decided that our he
, roine, Miss Adelle, could not col
lect her wages which was offset
by the gratitude of the master in
giving her an education. With a
further stroke of .judicial wisdom
the court decided that persons of
color were not necessarily Ne
groes but persons of color only,
for they may have descended from
Indians on both sides, from white
parent or mulatto parents in pos
session of their freedom. Miss
Adelle, being a person of color,
secured her freedom on this de
cision.
What is a Negro? Absurd as
the question apparently is, it is
one of the most perplexing and,
at times, most embarrassing that
has faced our legislators and
judges.
CONTEMPT FOR
SEGREGATION — •« -
Henry W: -Ltmgfellow, famous
American poet, to show his con
tempt for the segregation of the
Negro by the whites once rode in
a car set aside for Negroes.
THE WILL OF MARY
WASHINGTON
Mrs. Mary Washington, the
mother of General George Wash
ington, in her will dated May 20,
Scores Hospital
Refusal to Treat
Badly Injured Boy
The Holy Cross hospital's re
fusal to give first aid to young
Robert Davis, 19, Morgan Park
youth whose fingers were ampu
tated and his left arm badly man
gled when he caught them in an
airplane propeller at the Harlem
airport on June 26, was soundly
criticized by the John Brown or
ganization in a release to the BEE
this week.
Young Davis, it, was disclohed,
was rushed to Holy Cross follow
ing the accident, but. hospital au
thorities, upon learning that he
was colored, refused to operate.
After the boy had been in the
hospital more than an hour with
out first aid, and was losing blood
freely, the hospital finally agreed
to give him first aid, but request
ed that he be removed to the
county hospital.
He was removed to county
where he is now a patient. His
condition remains critical, it was
stated, and doctors there are
working to save his left arm from
amputation. Young Davis, it was
stated, was formerly of the C. A.
A., but was forced to discontinue
bis studies because of lack of
funds. He was injured when he
attempted to crank the propeller
of a plane and his left arm was
caught.
PIONEER BRINGS ROAD
TO HIS C ABIN DOOR
In the 1830's when Illinois roads
straggled across unsettled lands,
a pioneer decided that his cabin
was too far from the great Ga
lena Road, an important highway
in early days.
To move his cabin would have
meant much. work, and the new
location wculd have been less
pleasing. The settler, thereupon,
says the Illinois Writers’ Project.
W. P. A., staked out a spur in
the road and drove over it time
after time to “make tracks.” Trav
elers, noting the well beaten
route, readily followed it and
the resourceful pioneer soon real
ized that, instead of moving his
cabin to the main road, lie had
brought the road to his cabin
£oor. ____ ^ ^ _
1788, as registered in the Clerk’s
Office at Fredericksburg, Va.,
willed her son one slave named
George, to him and his heirs for
ever.
BELIEVE ME
Philadelphia, 1832: Negroes
were paying annually $2,500 in
taxes and $100,000 rent. Five
years later they owned real es
tate and property worth about
$1,000,000. Some of the houses
having sofas, carpets, dining room
tables and pianos.
BEHIND THE SCENES
The world is governed by very
different personages from what is
imagined by those who are not
behind the scenes.—Disraeli.
For any information concerning
this column write in care of this
paper, or 3612 Elliot avenue,
Minneapolis, Minn.
Silkworms Crowd
Famous Weapons
Off Front Page
When in 1892 agents for the Co
lumbian Exposition, Chicago
World’s Fair of the following
year, sought interesting items to
place on display, they came upon
one important discovery without
stepping outside the state. Ac
cording to the Illinois Writers’
Project, W. P. A., pistols supposed
to have been used by Alexander
Hamilton and Aaron Burr in their
famous duel were reported found,
one in Pike county and one in
J ersey.
Of equal interest to newspapers
of the day, however, seems to
have been the story that a Jer
sey county resident who owned
one of the pistols “was engaged
in the production of silk, hand
ling it from the moth’s egg to
the finished cloth.” The entire
state was so much excited then by
the possibilities of silk production,
that not even references to the
firearms of Alexander Hamilton
and Aaron Burr made much of
a journalistic noise.
ILLINOIS FARMERS MAKE
EARLY USE OF TRACTORS
With the use of farm tractors
increasing every year, historians
note with interest that tractor
farming was adopted early in Il
linois. Records show that in 1890
Christian county farmers broke
450 acres of ground with five
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REFUGEE FROM
VOTE TERROR
PLEADS FOR AID
NEW YORK, N. Y„ July 18—An
appeal to the country for help by
Elisha Davis who was driven from
his business, his wife and seven
children by a mob in Brownsville,
Tenn., is being answered by a
countrywide campaign for funds
by the N. A. A. C. P.
Mr. Davis, who is now living
in another town in Tennessee
(where he is also being threaten
ed with violence), is 39 years old
and was the owner and operator
of a filling station in Brownsville
prior to the outbreak of violence
there in mid-June. The campaign
of terror against colored citizens
of Brownsville, and particularly
against the officers and members
of the Brownsville branch of the
N. A. A. C. P., resulted from the
attempt of several citizens to reg
ister and vote in the 1940 presi
dential elections.
Intimidated by Officials
When the Reverend Buster
Walker, 55, president of the
Brownsville N. A. A. C. P., and
several others presented them
selves before the proper officials
for registration they were told
“You had better stop this or there
will be a necktie party.”
Mr. Walker and Mr. Davis and
Mr. Davis’ brother were run out
of town and Elbert Williams, an
other member of the N. A. A. C.
P., was found dead in the river
with two wounds in his chest.
He had been lynched.
The N. A. A. C. P. is calling on
all citizens to contribute to a fund,
for the relief of the Brownsville j
exiles and for the purpose of at- j
tacking the whole situation to the
end that colored citizens may re- I
turn to their homes, vote in thei
1940 elections, and pursue their j
normal lives.
The whole Brownsville, TennJ
situation has been placed in the |
hands of the United States Depar-j
ment of Justice by the N. A. A. C.
P.
plows driven by a steam engine.
They averaged from eight to
ten acres a day with this outfit,”
says the Illinois Writers’ Project,
W. P. A. The same kind of plow
was used the following year in
Champaign county, where a bind
er twine factory cultivated a
large acreage for the growing of
hemp. On this extensive project
a steam plow tractor supplement
ed the work of 90 horses.
1 1 1 ..—.-.i ■- j
50 Years Without Missing a Day
I
GEORGE ELLIS BATES,
Manager's office at Pennsylvania Station, New York, receives a gold
50-year service button from M. W. Clement, president of the Penn
sylvania Railroad, upon his completion of half a centure’s employ
ment without missing a single day of work. The ceremony took
place in the Board of Directors’ Room at Pennsylvania Station on
June 13. Mr. Bates has know Mr. Clement for almost 39 years, hav
ing issued railroad passes to him when he was first starting to work
for the raiiroad as a rodman in the engineering department.
CHICAGO PROF. TO HEAD
STUDENT WORK PROGRAM
WASHINGTON, D. C., July 18
—Appointments of Charles Hub
bard Judd of Chicago to be direc
tor of the National Youth Admin
istration student work program,
and of John H. Lasher of Wis
consin, to be director of the work
projects division in the Washing
ton office, were announced today
by NYA Administrator Aubrey
Williams.
Dr. Judd, chairman of the de
partment of education at the Uni
versity of Chicago for 27 years
and a leader in American educa
tion, has been on the NYA staff
as a' consultant for nearly two
years. In this period he has di
rected the development of NYA
program of related training for
out-of-school unemployed young
men and women. Dr. Judd was
born in British India, of American
parents, in 1873 and came to this
country in 1879. He received his
A. B. degree from Wesleyan Uni
versity in 1894, Ph. D., from the
University of Leipsig in 1896, and
A. M., from Yale in 1907, and
degrees from several other col
leges.
During the World War he was
'r
in charge of preparing pamph
lets for school use published by
the Federal Government, entitled
“Lessons in Community and Na
tional Life.” He is a former presi
dent of the American Council on
Education, the American Psy
chology Association and other ed
ucational organizations. He has
written extensively on psychol
ogy as it affects education and
democracy. ,
Mr. Lasher is 50, a native of
Waterloo, Wisconsin, has - been
State Youth Administrator in
Wisconsin for the last five years,
and has developed there a high
degree of cooperation between the
NY A program for unemployed,
out-of-school youth and that
state’s splendid vocational school
system.
Lasher was graduated with
honors from the University of
Wisconsin’s school of education,
was a high school principal for
8 years, the principal of a coun
ty normal school for 6 years and
supervisor of the State Board of
Vocational Education for 8 years.
He Lad overseas service in the
World War as a first lieutenant in
$20,000,000 A MONTH SPENT ON
LOW RENT HOUSING PROJECT
■
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 18
More than $20,000,000 a month
now is flowing to private indus
try from local housing authorities
whose slum clearance and nation
al defense low-rent public hous
ing projects are financed by the
United States Housing Authori
ty.
These expenditures, which it is
estimated will range up to more
than $30,000,000 a month as the
Indian Lad
Explains, Smoke,
Noise, Speed
When the steamboat “Caroline”
ascended the Illinois River above
Peoria in 1831, it passed within
hearing but not sight of a num
ber of Indians encamped nearby.
Excitement and alarm at once
overtook the group and men and
boys ran to investigate.
According to reminiscences of
an early settler, noted by the Il
linois Writers’ Project, W. P. A.,
first to report back to the camp
was a lad who announced that
“the great spirit’ was paddling
up the river in a huge canoe. The
canoe Was on fire. “The great
spirit” was paddling very fast in
order to put out the *fire. He
was paddling so fast that he was
out of breath, and the noise was
the great spirit puffing for air.
the coast artillery. He is a for
mer district commander of the
American Legion and is now Na
tional Child Welfare Committee
man in the Legion.
current national program is fur
ther accelerated by the demands
for national defense housing, are
largely for the purchase of build
ing materials and for the pay
ment of. wages to workmen on
project sites. ,
Money is advanced to local
housing authorities with which
the USHA has entered into loan
contracts as it is needed to fi
nance the development of their
projects. Up to July 1, estimated
local expenditures of local hous
ing authorities amounted to $234,
470.000.
Well over half of the 160,000
low-rent homes for low-income j
j families projected in the current j
USHA program now are under I
construction or completed, USHA
Administrator Nathan Strauss said
today.
Estimated cash disbursements I
by local housing authorities dur
ing June, 1940, amounted to $21,
260.000. Compared with June,
1939, this was an increase of more
than 135 per cent.
The important aid to private
industry given by the construc
tion of USHA-aided projects,
through the purchase of building !
materials and the employment of I
thousands of building trades work
men, will increase sharply in vol
ume, Mr. Strauss asserted, from j
month to month up to next Jan- j
uary. During that period 185 ad
ditional public housing projects
financed with USHA loans are
scheduled to go into construc
tion.
There are now 225 USHA-aided
low-rent public housing projects,
which will provide 84,927 fit
homes for low-income families re
I moved from slum dwellings, un
i def construction or completed in
125 localities. Thirty-one of
j these projects now are occupied
in whole or in part.
In June, 1939. the total num
ber of USHA-aided projects un
der construction was 55, compris
ing a total of 24,000 dwelling
units.
Likewise, in. June, 1939, pro
jects under USHA loan contracts
totaled 255, including 99,595
dwelling units
As of July 1, 1940, the USHA
had entered into loan contracts
totaling $634,567,483 with 171 lo
cal housing authorities for the
construction of 413 projects con
taining 145,646 dwelling units.
The total of these loan contracts
is within about $58,000,000 of
the total fund that has been au
thorized by Congress and the to
tal of the dwelling units provided
for is within 14,000 of the esti
mated total number it will be
possible to finance from the pres
ent USHA fund.
A bill no\v pending in Congress
would authorize additional funds
for slum clearance and national
defense housing sufficient';to vir
tually double the current program.
The present USHA slum clear
ance and low-rent public -hous
ing program provides for the con
struction of about 435 projects to
rehouse 160,000 families Tn 209
communities in 35 states, the Dis
trict of Columbia, Hawaii : and
Puerto Rico. Under the provisions
of the United States Housing
Act, an equivalent number of sub
standard dwellings must be elim
inated in each community/build
ing a low-rent public housing
project with USHA assistance.
I What Face Powder Shall We Buy ?
I Buy Overton s High - Brown!
I The Shades Are Beautiful