Minneapolis spokesman. [volume], April 12, 1940, Image 2

About Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000

Image provided by: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN

                
PAGE TWO
MINNEAPOLIS SPOKESMAN
Published every Friday by Spokesman-Recorder Publishing Co.
Editorial and Business Offices at 306 Third Street South. Minneapolis,
Minnesota, U. S. A.
Phones BRidgeport 3595—Midway 8340
Entered as second-class matter October 26, 1936, at the post office
at Minneapolis, Minnesota, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Anywhere in Minnesota: $2 per year; $1.25 for 6 months.
Cecil E. Newman
De Velma Newman
Curtis Chivers
All the Negro race asks is that the door which rewards industry,
thrift, intelligence and character be left as wide open to him as to others.
More than this he has no right to request, less than this the Republic
has no right to vouchsafe.—B. T. Washington.
Ford Approves “Porgy”
Speaking at a public meeting in the Minnesota Union this week,
President Guy Stanton Ford of the University of Minnesota, expressed
approval of the Negro Community's fight against the showing of the
film, “Birth of a Nation,” but disagreed with protests about Dubose
Heyward’s play "Porgy,” being presented on the campus.
In order that we may keep the record straight and in order that
Dr. Ford may know we heartily disagree with him, we write this edi
torial. It is just possible that there may be some people in the Twin
Cities who may feel that the views of the President of the University
are worthy of consideration.
The “Birth of a Nation” is a film which has persistently provoked
intense anti-Negro feeling in almost every place where it has been
shown. “Porgy” falls into the same class, although it does not pro
mote so many open prejudices it does tend to fix stereotypes of Negroes.
These stereotypes picture the Negro as: unmoral, full of murderous
passions, and generally below the line of human decency.
If Dr. Ford feels that such illustrations of Negro life give us a
chance to be artistic successes, then he is very much misguided. How
ever, he contradicted himself when he stated that he had denied a forum
the right to existence on the campus because it would offer discussion
on problems which might promote religious antagonism and accentuate
differences. We fail to see the difference between the promotion of
religious prejudice through a forum and the promotion of racial miscon
ceptions via the legitimate stage.
The president, later in his speech, stated that we should try to
“get into the mind of the other fellow and look out from it to see
things as he does.” If he had followed his own advice he would have
been able to see that Negroes are tired of being pictured as the scum
of the earth in the name of art. They are weary of hearing vulgar pro
fanity issue from the lips of Negro characters on the stage. They are
tired of seeing the actors who represent Negroes fairly reek with im
morality. They are disgusted with the parading of illegitimacy and
ignorance in the name of dramatic portrayal.
At his commencement address last year. Dr. Ford stated that:
"The reactionary who would deny human rights sins equally with the
radical who would abuse them.” To this we would add the following:
"The liberal who dictates that Negroes would love the things which
they dislike for honest reasons sins equally with the bigot who devises
the instruments with which prejudices are concocted.”
Marvin Kline Lives Up to Best Traditions
The citizens of Minneapolis halted the scheduled indefinite show
ing of the race-hatred breeding film, “The Birth of a Nation,” after it
had been shown six days under protest and picket lines. Acting Mayor
Marvin Kline, who is alderman of the Eighth Ward, stood on the high
ground of previous mayors and insisted that the theatre, where the film
was showing, either halt it or face loss of its license.
No one can say he was exercising political expediency because his
ward has only eight Negro families in a population of 53,000 souls.
He simply carried out the best traditions of Minneapolis which do not
countenance the exhibition of a propaganda film which has as its
primary object the stirring up of racial discord. Alderman Kline left
in a veritable “hot-seat” by Mayor Geo. E. Leach’s absence at a Texas
convention, clearly indicated that he is a high type of public official
and deserves the commendation of every fair-minded believer in racial
understanding and tolerance.
City Attorney Richard Wiggin lived up to his lifelong reputation
for fairness and impartiality to all sides strengthening Mr. Kline in his
Harvey Nash, Sam Reed and Pauline Alexander.
It’s very easy to talk about righting wrong, Negro rights, and
what ought to be done, but when most of the people who complain are
given an opportunity to do something about those complaints, by taking
a real stand in public view, it’s another story entirely.
Mrs. Margurite Combs and others, who organized the very effective
picket line which kept several hundred people out of the theatre show
ing the “Birth of a Nation,” found out that many of those who “shoot
off at the big gate” are lacking in real courage. The excuses which
some of the “leaders” of the community offered were well-nigh
ridiculous.
Admitting that picketing is a new technic among local Negroes,
it is still a legal, logical and effective weapon to combat wrongs. The
Colored people in other cities have utilized this method for several
years. With the “Birth of a Nation,” a proven attack on the Negro
people, it would seem that the citizens would have rallied around every
legitimate attempt to halt the film. Picketing was one of those at
tempts and the whites who joined with the courageous colored persons
kept many a dollar from the offending theatre’s coffers.
We salute those people of the white group who walked the picket
line to help their colored brothers right a wrong. We honor those
Negro citizens who had the courage to walk on that same picket line.
Our perpetual Minneapolis community honor roll will have in
scribed on it in bright colors the names of Rev. C. F. Stewart, Mar
gurite and Harold Combs, Frances Brown, Herbert Howell, Curtis
Olivers, Hilda Moses, Harriet Lane, Robert Belton, Sirrell Brown, Mil
dred Strader, William Strader, Frances Williams, James W. Slempions,
Helen and Clarence Smith, Emma Thompson, De Velma and Osear
Newman, Andrea Skinner, Eunice Brown, Timothy Mills, Gertrude
Boddy, Thelma Wade, Preston and Elmer Childress, Jos. D. Ware,
Harvey Nash, A 1 Swayze, Sam Reed and Pauline Alexander.
Fine work, well done and we’re mighty proud of every one of you,
mother, father, daughter and son.
“Listen to
This”
By Hobart T. Mitchell
BARTER IN HUMAN FLESH
1825—1 n the dim recesses of the
Congo basin, naked savages began
to realize that there was a world
outside their encircling ring of
gorilla-haunted forests, a world
which would barter for war-cap
tives. Hitherto they had made war
“An Independent Newspaper”
Friday, April 12, 1940
Our Honor Roll
for gluttony, to obtain victims for
their cannibal feasts, now they
started forth in war canoes to raid
for slaves which might be bar
tered for trade goods with the in
termediary tribes on the River
Kwango.
The wars between one native
tribe and another, which were car
ried on for the ultimate purpose of
supplying slaves for America, had
existed previously—though not on
a large scale. Eunuchs, concubines
and servants were required for the
Moslems (the Eastern slave-trade)
and victims for the human sacri
fices and cannibal feasts of bloody
West Africa (Ashanti, Dahome,
Benin and the Lower Niger: Li
beria of the olden times, the Ivory
Coast, Southern Nigeria, the Cam
eroons and the inner basin of the
Congo.) So far as the sum of hu
man misery in Africa was con
cerned, it is probable that the
trade in slaves between the conti
nent and America scarcely added
to it. It even to some extent miti
gated the suffering of the Negro in
his own home; for once this trade
was set on foot and it was profit
able to sell a human being, many a
man, woman or child who might
otherwise have been killed for mere
caprice, or as a toothsome ingre
dient of a banquet, was sold to a
slave trader. Criminals who would
have been executed for serious or
trivial offenses were spared for the
same purpose. But it was in the sea
transit to America under condi
tions several times referred to in
this column, and in the after treat
ment of the slave when he or she
reached these shores, that the un
pardonable cruelty occurred.
IN THE RECORD
.. Editor-Publisher
Business Manager
Advertising
John Adams, attorney for the
British soldiers in the killing of
Crispus Attucks (Negro), the first
man to die for the country, in his
plea in defense of the soldiers
called Attucks and his associates
“A motley rabble of saucy boys,
Negroes and mulattoes.”
John Adams was later president
of the United States from 1797
to 1801.
THE CENSUS OF 1830
The Bureau of the Census, in
1830, reported 3,777 Negro heads
of families who owned slaves.
NEGRO SOLDIER CAPTURES
MAJOR-GENERAL
A Negro soldier, by the name of
Prince, captured Major-General
Prescott of the British army, on
the 9th of July, 1777. The exploit
was much commended at the time,
as its results were highly impor
tant.
"THE CURSE OF A NATION"
By Ralph Matthews
From The Baltimore
Afro-American
We were afraid something like
this would happen—we mean, that
the success of “Gone With the
Wind,” financial and otherwise,
would give rise to a series of pic
tures based on the struggle be
tween the North and the South.
That is exactly what has hap
pened, and already Hollywood is
busy making plans to revive “The
Birth of a Nation.”
If ever the public should get up
on its hind legs and rebel against
the trash that Hollywood has been
ramming down our unprotesting
throats in the name of entertain
ment, now is the time.
No film caused more racial
strife and rancor during the last
quarter century than Birth of
a Nation,” as a silent picture, and
only the arrival of the talkies rele
gated this evil and vicious race
baiting propaganda to the grave of
antiquated relics.
But so keen are the appetites of
the descendants of the defenders
of the lost cause, and so anxious
are witless Yankees to sop up the
maudlin sentiment of the Old
South, that this atrocity has been
rigged with sound effects and like
an ugly ghost is now stalking the
earth rattling its chains of intoler
ance in the ears of a people who
would forget that human slavery
once held America in its grimy
grip.
STOP THIS CYCLE
With the cash registers clanging
to the tune of profits from “Gone
With the Wind,” another hate-pro
voking epic, it is not surprising
that the greedy eyes of cinema
moguls have turned again to the
“Birth of a Nation” and plan to
revive it on a grander and more
colossal scale. Hollywood moves in
cycles, but this is one cycle that
MUST be broken, now.
This is more than a racial ques
tion; it is a matter of grave na
tional concern, and the white
dians of the Ship of State should
appreciate the danger.
With half the world on fire with
national and racial hatreds, this is
no time to reopen old sores at
home.
With the great powers of Eu
rope threatened from without by
international gangsterism, based
on the myth of racial superiority,
America will be doing a grave in
justice to its national unity to flood
the motion picture screens of the
nation with themes glorifying the
advocates of disunion and draping
the leaders of rebellion in heroic
garb.
With the world already crushed
under the heel of Nazism, Fascism,
Communism and Imperialism, with
human rights disregarded, civil
liberties denied with autocracy
rampant and personal freedom
over-ridden and crushed by the
mailed fist of dictatorship with the
aid of secret police and vicious
MINNEAPOLIS SPOKESMAN
systems of espionage, this is no
time for America to invite these
monsters within our gates by mak
ing gladiators out of cowardly
night riders, vigilantes and Ku
Kluxers, as is done in “The Birth
of a Nation.”
Let us view these things in their
proper perspective, in their rela
tionship to the nation as a whole.
The leaders of the South were
not American heroes but rebels
and enemies of the United States
just as was Germany an enemy
in 1918.
Abraham Lincoln was not only
the liberator of the slaves, but the
symbol of a unified nation of forty
eight States, one and indivisible—
of the people, by the people and
for the people. Any section or part
of our body politic which refuses to
accept him as such and reverence
the things for which he stood are
as much an enemy of our nation as
any foreign agent or alien who
seeks to overthrow our govern
ment. Such subversive activities
should be stamped out.
TALE OF THREE CITIES
America has long permitted the
tail to wag the dog by allowing
certain cities to rule the nation.
Once New York with its Wall
Street went wild and plunged us
into a depression. Chicago once
took over dominance, and under
the Capones, the Dillingers and
others spread a reign of terror
over us by gangsterism.
Now Hollywood, with its greed
and control over the minds of our
youth, is dragging us toward an
other national catastrophe of sec
tional hatred and discord.
This new threat must be headed
off now. We must not have a tale
of three cities. We must prevent a
revival of “The Birth of a Nation”
by letting Hollywood know that we
consider it “The Curse of a Na
tion.”
Write to Will Hayes. Hollywood,
California, today.
HAS CHARACTER
March 3rd, 1940.
Editor: The Minneapolis Spokes
man has made a place for itself in
my reading matter.
To me it is more than another
paper. It is and it has a character
that no other paper can fill in this
great Northwest.
Your subscriber.
- Elder S. Armound Douglal
Poetic Thoughts
By Morris Gibbs, Sr.
“Count that day lost
Whose low descending sun
Views from thy hand
No worthy action done.”
—Selected
IMAGINATION
We can always imagine what we
would do
If we were in the other fellow’s
shoes,
But still there’s nothing quite so
right
As for the same experience to put
our imagination to flight.
Sometimes conditions don’t allow
us to think,
Catch us off guard and we can
hardly wink,
At what happened was said or
done
Because unexpected events just
won’t let our mind run.
When in trouble or in financial dis
tress,
We can think of more things that
don’t give us rest,
Imagining what we should have
done
To forestall the sad condition that
has begun.
Don't let your imagination run
away with you,
And not allow yourself a chance
to think,
For stable thoughts are only re
ceived
When the mind or the individual is
relieved.
Let’s imagine frequently how
much good we can do,
For that’s the best way to occupy
our time,
Not thoughtlessly floundering here
and there
So cultivate a right imagination
and to yourself be fair.
DOMESTIC TROUBLES
The Negro suicide rate is nearly
two-thirds as high as the whites.
The rural Negro seldom commits
suicide, but this cannot be said of
the Negro who lives in the city—
more financial and domestic
troubles.
Lowest Prices on
Rock Wool Insulation
Reroofing and Siding
MINNESOTA
INSULATION CO.
Co. 7370 317 W. Lake St.
Why Are We
Ashamed Of Our
Products?
By Lucius Harper
No activity is playing a more
forceful or important, part in the
advancement and development of
the Negro people throughout the
world than the group of news
papers published by the dark
skinned pioneers in the United
States. We sometimes doubt
whether the relationship of these
“mouth-pieces” has been intelli
gently understood by the colored
race, and we are positive that they
have not been appreciated and pat
ronized as they should.
There are Negroes today, mostly
college bred, who will not admit
openly that they are readers of
colored newspapers. They comprise
the class among us who delight in
“running from themselves.” Down
the line, however, they finally get
“tripped” and sheepishly wander
back into our racial fold. Very
often after this re-dedication ven
ture, we find them emerging on
platforms as “Race leaders.”
Recently a white auto firm seek
ing to attract lucrative trade
among us, advertised a certain type
of car EXCLUSIVELY in colored
papers circulated in Chicago to test
these papers’ “pulling power.” The
firm’s manager was highly pleased
with results obtained, but he was
puzzled and somewhat amazed
over one incident in each of five
transactions.
When he asked his colored cus
tomers where they had read the
advertisement (he already knew
where they had) in each and every
case they quoted a white morning
newspaper as their informer, which
was entirely contrary to the fact.
His bills of sales showed his cus
tomers to be a physician, insurance
agent, school teacher, beauty shop
operator and a janitor. This white
man, unknowingly, had faced five
Negroes in various avenues of life
who possessed a highly developed
inferiority complex.
They were eager and anxious to
identify themselves with anything
white —even if they had to lie abou.
it—and, on the other hand, ashamed
:dr'bßMS"<c!':
ft Or. U. I. Johnson
■ Dr. C. M. * OPENft
\ * Evenings®
ft MA. 2631 ft
! V*252 Nicollet S7S.J
rj ■ ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ ftw
Save on Your Laundry!
CASH & CARRY PRICES
WET WASH 20 Lb«. 70c
(Each additional Lb. 3c)
THRIFTY, Minimum 10 Lbs. 70c
(Each additional Lb. 6c)
SOFT FINISH 10 Lb*. 80c
(Each additional Lb. 7c)
B & B LAUNDRY
3041 Fourth Avc. RE. 6308
See Ted Marker
PLYMOUTH
LIQUOR STORE
301 Plymouth Ave. N.
Call CHerry 2077
TEST M,
YOUR EYES NOWtAgNCfi
Dr. C. C. Tonkel, Opt.
I GOODMAN’S yCg
Jeweler* - Opticians
617 Hennepin Ave. 617
N O
DOWN PAYMENT
Mo. Paymts.
’3l Studebaker Sedan $ 5.31
’29 Ford Coupe 5.31
’3l Olds Sedan 7.08
’32 Essex Sedan 7.53
’32 Chevrolet Coach 8.74
’34 Ford Coach 10.08
’33 DeSoto Brougham 10.75
’33 Plymouth Sedan 10.76
’34 Plymouth Coupe 12.77
’35 Ford Tudor 16.80
75—OTHERS—75
HAYDEN MOTOR CO.
Lake at Fremont KE. 6251
2908 Univ. Ave. S. E. GL. 2566
CALCIUM
The Great Human
Need
People of all ages need calcium
and few today get a sufficient
amount of it for the greatest or
most abundant health.
The best and the cheapest source
of calcium is in dairy products.
The lower the income for food,
the greater the need for more of
dairy products is the regular every
day diet of all of us.
Fresh fluid pasteurized milk
daily in some form should be used,
either as a beverage or in cooked
food.
to praise anything black, though
they were spending their own
money to aid its progress.
The entire Race should awaken
to the fact that their newspapers
are indispensable to their welfare.
These papers are the veritable
guardian angels of our rights as
citizens, and the watch-dogs of our
liberties. They defend, inform, an
ticipate, explain, analyze and diag
nose the intricacies of life among
our people. There is no other
source or means for the Race to de
pend upon and the man who is in
terested in his own welfare is being
driven to the recognition of this
stern reality.
Because of the fact • that our
newspapers are in their embryonic
state and have only recently taken
on the garb of modernity, they
have been regarded as struggling
experiments, but in late years the
power and importance of the Negro
press has been demonstrated in
positive fashion. What would we
do without it?
* * *
Negroes flock to 'newspaper of
fices offended and aggrieved when
the Race is publicly insulted; they
come in droves when there is fla
grant discrimination and segrega
tion; they come when they have
been assaulted and maltreated.
They come whenever they deem
that they have been mistreated
within their own ranks. It is evi
dently believed that the papers
have some latent power and stand
in position to make general resent
ment forcefully felt.
There is an inherent respe.t for
the printed word in times of
trouble. Individuals enjoy the serv
ices of the Negro press when there
is personal gain involved; they love
to read of their achievements and
Copyright 1940, by Minneapolis Brewing Co., Minneapolis, Minn.
MENTION THE MINNEAPOLIS SPOKESMAN
Mir 1 mw>
(Less Than Rental Rate;
Finaat, largeat stock .
portabl. andfi A ff £% S
• tandard typawrlt- 0 ■ m IB
ara in tha North- - 1 -
waat . . . Pric.d aa •• 4E
law aa
SJLpauL TYPEWRITER EXCHANGE]
51 E Fifth St Four Doors Eott of Ccdor GA rficld 200 C I
ENTION THE MINNEAPOLIS SPOKESMA:
LIBERTY CABS BLUE & WHITE
ATlantic 3331
109% Minneapolis Owned Your Friendly Cab Service
I
Kar/sbrau Beer
“A Better Brew”
GEneva 3955
Purity Beverage Co, 1900 S. 2nd St.
Frida;
attainments. The white pre s sel
dom caters to this sort of new:'.
Our people get thrills when their
likenesses are produced on the
front page; they gloat and “rare
back” when editorials are written
praising their efforts. Individuals
are extremely interested in reading
about themselves, but their interes.
is not sustained and their interest
is not deep enough to provoke con
centrated efforts to aid the pub
lishers. The Negro papers are a
thing removed when they are not
engaged in special effort and for
that reason the papers have not
made themselves felt in their im
mediate communities as they
should.
The chief revenue comes to the
publishers through the medium of
their advertising columns, and busi
ness that thrives from the money
of our people, both white and col
ored owned, has not looked favor
ably upon the Negro press.
If the general public of ours is
interested in unfettering their or
gans of expression; if they are in
terested in robust, forceful conten
tion for their rights and privileges,
then support the Negro papers,
boost them, patronize their adver
tisers, tell the business people their
value and the general progress and
advancement will be stimulated.
If the Negro press had to depend
entirely upon Negro business to
support it from an advertising
standpoint, it would witness many
poverty-stricken days. In both
North and South the Caucasian and
the Jew are slowly but surely
teaching the Negro leaders of busi
ness that “It Pays to Advertise”
in the Negro press.—From the Chi
cago Defender.
Hear Etta Moten April 26, St.
Paul Central High School.—advt.
iril 12,1940
I
4P
’V*
4*