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VOL. XLVII. No. 32 RICHMOND, VA, SATURDAY, JUNE 21, 1930. .._.$2.00 PER YEAR; COPY, FIVE CENTS Etfcit Mai To Inflict Capital Funishmem ARRESTED FOR ORGANIZING NEGROES, SIX WORKERS TO GO ON TRIAL FOR LIVES JUNE 19TH IN ATLANTA Workers in Nation-Wide Protests Against Efforts of Southern Bosses to Electrocute Two Negroes and Four Whites. (Crusader News Agency; Atlanta, Ga., June.—The trial ol six workers held on a charge of ‘in citing to insurrection," based on ar. old Civil War Law which is being used for the first time against work ing class leaders who have incurred the haired oi the southern white rul ing class because oi' their insisteiuv. in organizing Negro and white work ers togetner, has been set for J une 19. i ue charge carries the death penalty it convictions are obtained. And the Atlanta bosses and their state ma chinery are mailing every effort to se cure convictions and send these work ers to their death as a terroristic de terrent to trie breaking down of the age-old wall of race prejudice and hatred which the white rulers of the South have so carefully built up against the unity or black and white workers. The six workers facing the elec tric chair as a result of their de hance of the ideology of Negro in feriority and racial separation with which the imperialists justify the particularly brutal oppression of the • Negro masses at home and abroad are Gilmer Bracy, Field Organizer ot me American Negro Labor Congress ■ who, at the time of his arrest, was touring the South for his organiza tion, with Atlanta the tenth point in his itinerary; Anna Burlak, Inter national Labor Defense organizer; Mary Dalton, National Textile Work ers Union organizer, Henry Story, a local Negro Communist, H. M. Pow ers, organizer for the Communist Party; and Joe Carr, organizer for the Young Communist League. Pow ers and Carr were arrested two months ago for holding a meeting of Negro and white workers. Brady, btory, Mary Dalton and Anna Burlak were arested May 2ist at a lynching protest meeting held by the American Negro Labor Congress at which Brady was the chief speaker. Brady and Story are Negro workers. The others are white. Denied Bail So far every elfort on the part of the International Labor Defense which is conducting the defense to se cure bail for these six workers has been resisted by the prosecutor of Fulton County and the Atlanta courts. J. Louis Engdahl, general secretary of the International Labor Defense, who has just returned from the South where he visited the pris oners and addressed several success ful mass protest meetings reports a growing mobilization of hostile senti ment by the Ku Klux Klan and the American Legion. The Klan even i.eid a demonstration near the Ful ton jail where the prisoners are con jineti, Engdahl reports. In the mean time, the prisoners are being harassed in every possible way. Joe Carr is confined in the death cell in mur derers row. Brady and Story, the two Negro workers, are held in soli dary confinement, having been re moved from the jim-crow quarters of •,he Negro prisoners among whom Brady had started a class in econom ics. The prisoners are denied all eights and may not receive newspa pers, even the reactionary papers be ing kept from them. Meals sent them by the International Labor De fense are stolen by the prison guards as a rule. They are allowed no vis itors, Engdahl managing to see them only after the sharpest struggle. Make Sharp Protest In a letter sent to the General Solicitor, Sheriff J. Lowry and the Fulton warden, the six workers pro test sharply against the unabated persecutions they are forced to under go -*t the hands of the prison author ities. In no uncertain terms they demand the right to receive news papers and magazines, the removal of Carr from the death cell and the dis continuance of the solitary confine ment of Brady and Story. Workers W’rath Rsing In the meantime, mass meetings of Negro and white workers being held throughout the country under the ^^uspices of the American Negro La BR>r Congress, the International La Defense, and the Trade Union BM^iiL-League, are giving warning to NEGRO WORKERS DEFY BRIT ISH BAN New York, June—(CNA)—“In spite of the ban placed on the holding of the Internationtl Trade Unicrti Conference of Negro Workers in Lon don, England, July 1, our conference will be held on the date scheduled/ states J. W. Ford, chairman of the provisional international trade union committee of Negro workers, yes terday. “Plans and preparations are going ahead for the election of delegates in various parts of the world. The Ne gro workers are determined to nolu their conference on July 1st. “The prohibiting of our conference is part of the whole policy of the so called “labor” government headed by Ramsay McDonald, the socialist premier of England. It is ruthlessly exploiting and oppressing the colonial people in the British Empire, for the beneiit of British capitalists. At this very moment the British troops un der the direction of the British “La bor” Government are shooting down Indian workers and peasants by the hundreds in an attempt to crush the using movement of these toilers against British imperialism. 43 Murdered in Africa ‘We already know of the great re pressions carried on against the Af rican natives in the British colonies. The murdering of 43 native women m West Africa recently by the British troops is fresh in the minds of the toiling workers of Africa. “We are already informed that del egates are coming from the All-Afri the southern bosses and their Ku Klux instruments of terror of a work ing class at last aroused against the lynching terror of the southern white lule class against militant Negro and white workers. In New York City a huge mass meeting was held at Fifth Ave. and 110th St., last Saturday afternoon, and a resolution unanimously adopted denouncing the southern lynching ter ror and demanding the unconditional release of Brady, Dalton, Burlak, Story, Powers and Carr. On the pre vious night a Conference Against lynching, called by the local district of the Communist Party, was held at Harlem Casino, 116th Street and Lenox Avenue, with delegates from a large number of Negro and white organizations participating. The Conference went on record endorsing the struggle against lynching launch ed by the Communist |Party, and passed a resolution calling upon all workers’ organizations to rally to the fight against lynching and for the release of all class -war prisoners, in cluding the Atlanta Six and the lead ers of the March 6 Demonstrations Against Unemployment who were ar rested in New York and other cities and railroaded to prison without even the usual sham of capitalist justice. In Philadelphia, a large number of white and Negro organizations re sponded to the call of the American Negro Labor Congress for a Confer ence Against Lynching. The con ference was held last Friday night, Jure 13, at 39 N. 10th St., and laid the basis for an aggressive campaign against lynching and other forms of white ruling class terrorism used against the frightfully oppressed southern Negro masses. A resolution was adopted endorsing the campaign began by the American Negro Labor Congress against lynching and de manding the unconditional relase of the Congress’ Field Organizer, Gilmer Brady, together with the five other prisoners. The resolution also called upon all working-class organizations to wire their demands for the release of the six prisoners to Fulton County Superior Court, Atlanta, Georgia, and requested workers and their organiza tions to mail greetings to the pris oners at Fulton Tower Prison, At lanta, Ga. Bosses Papers Show Fear Already the demonstrations of Ne gro and white workers against the death threats of the Atlanta bosses are having their effect. Afraid oi the rising anger of the workers throughout the country, the Macon Telegraph warns the textile barons that the pressing of the “insurrec tion” charges will mean a leap for ward in the organization of the Ne gro and white workers of the South. The Telegraph maintains that the crudeness and the violently terroristic methods will be too much for the southern workers and calls for more fineness and skilful frame-up meth ods in fighting the Communist Party and other class-struggle organiza tions. Roughly Handled By Park Policeman Miss Gay Twitty, 14-year-old high school girl, was severely beaten and probably seriously injured by A. L. Moore, park policeman, stationed at Monroe Park in the west end section of Richmond, Thursday, June 19th. Why a man should beat up a girl in mis manner is beyond comprehension of civilized people. The facts in the case seem tn indicate that this policeman allowed his color preju dice to change him into a brute of the i orest. It seems that Miss Twitty and two girl companions were on their way home from Armstrong High School i about 12:30 o’clock and while passing j thru Monroe Park singing they were interfered with by a gang of white boys. When told to mind their own ] business, one of the boys called these ! girls the usual “d- niggers” and incidentally mentioned that he would cut off a head or two. It was at this moment that the big brave policeman rushed up and in sieau ox protecting the girls as com-! mon sense would have dictated, he siapped Miss Twitty in the face. Sue struck back and he promptly knocked her down and chocked her and put his foot upon her neck. He then drag ged her on the .ground about thirty leet to the park house where he call ed the patrol wagon and sent her to ! Second Police Station. From the station house she was removed to the Detention Home, where her family received her in custody. Her brother-in-law, Mr. Rufus Moss, hearing of the incident, went to the park tp investigate and was promptly placed under arrest. It is said that all attempts made by him to swear out a warrant for the officer | for his brutal action were futile. Mr. Moss is a respected business man and' conducts a restaurant on South Lorn- * bardy Street. His wife, Mrs. Sarah : Moss is sister to the Twitty girl and | they are raising her. The girl’s arm is badly twisted, from the long drag ging and she is otherwise injured. Several citizens have become a roused over the incident and plans are being perfected to prosecute this flagrant violation of authority on the part of this minion of the law. Atorney Alfred H. Cohen has been retained by the family. Friday morn ing in police court Mr. Moss was fined $5. The girl’s case is called for Saturday morning. Hard limes Halt Would-be Husbands - | The Planet investigator has been very busy doing gum-shoe work, searching for a husband for one of our Richmond girls, who has asked The Planet to ferret out a suitable mate for her. The specifications call for a man above 35 years, with a job and able to provide a home in the west section of Richmond. We havo secured some prospects, but these hard times have made the boys a lit tle slow in coming to “taw”. But we are determined to fill the bill and have been quietly hunting down pros pects and you may confidently expect some results soon. We had a fine prospect from Hali fax County, but the specifications call for a man living here. If this party will consider moving to Richmond ho can notify The Planet. Our trouble seems to be that fellows who are sin gle are importuned by their girl friends not to leave them and the married girls are begging for a chance to give* their men away. So there we are. can National Conference, from the Non-European Federation of Trade Unions of South Africa, from the Kenya Association of East Africa, and from other parts of Africa. “The Trades and Labor Council of Jamaica reports that it will send a delegation, the Haitian workers are sending a delegate, and we are ex pecting delegates from Cuba, Panama and other West Indian countries. 8 From America “From America, 8 Negro delegates will attend the Conference, repre senting the following important in dustries: metal, mining, packing, agriculture, auto, neddle. railroad and marine. Many candidates have already been nominated and some have been finally elected. “The Second National Convention of the Needle Trades Industrial Union held in New York, on June 9, elected a Negro woman delegate to represent that industry at the con ference, and at the same time to be one of the delegates to represent the needle trades organization at the Fifth World Congress of the Red International of Labor Unions. ATTORNEY ALFRED E. COHEN Champion for the Cause of Negro Sxiffrage in Virginia CHEAT AUCHiTECTUAL SCHOUL AT * HOWARD Washington. D. C., June 13, —The annual exhibition ol' the Department of Architecture in the Avplied Science building at Howard University,open to the public fro! it A. AI. to 4:30 P. AI. during the Summer Session, contains some of tht^most ambitious projects ever undertaken by Negro students in architecture* consisting of graduate theses, illuminated model houses, and stained glass windows. Prbably the most impressive effect of the entire exhibition is the artistic use of colors in the renderings. A feature of the exhibition is two theses, one a Residental Surburban Community Developement presented in seven drawings by Floyd A. Alayfield, and the other a Suburban Apartment House Developement presented in four | drawings by John A. Welch, both mem bers of this years graduating class. There are also illuminated models of Duplex houses with landscaping and gardening accessories. As a whole the exhibition includes york in architectual fundamentals from the elementary up through the more complex composi tions. The community project is developed on the basis of a general financial ana lysis involving approximate cost and investment return. In each of these pro jects, consideration is given to the needs for future expansion. The plan involves seventy-five small houses at a cost purchaseable to the average in come, the whole arranged into a com plete group with community shops, civic control, and recreational facilities. Three cross-sections show the appear ance of the project from different points of view. The other six drawings are detailed developement of the features f the gen eral scheme of the project seen from both the exterior and the interior. The Suburban Apartment House De velopement represests a general solu tion of the modern housing problem, and includes as its important features due consideration for both the social i and economic needs of its location in the community. Care is given to those details of architecture usually consider ed as of minor importace. The selection and arrangement of furnishings of tyvical rooms has been grivert detail \ consideration, together1 with recreational repuirements and landscaping. The entire group is pre sented with due regard for its econo mic practicability in every way. It is stated by Prof. Hilyard R. Rob inson, head of thedepartment, that the field of architecture offers immense possibilities for Negroes who map com bine the requisite training with indus try and inclination to keep intelligent ]y busy. All of the graduates of the shool o avfcchitecture at Howmrd Uni versity are employed except those of this year’s class. The course normally covers four years of study and requires of its Stu dents approach in subject matter in | volving fine arts, applied science and I economics. SUMMER SESSION AT HOWARD Washington, D. C., June 13—The summer session at Howard University began Monday and will continue thru August 13, during which time the same quality of work is required, and equal credits are given toward degrees as in (other quarters of the University year. All of the facilities of the University for study, health, and recreation are placed at the disposal of summer stu dents. One hundred and three courses are offered in the following departments: art, botany, chemistry, commerce and finance, economics, education, English, German, history, mathematics, (music, physical education, physics, political science, psychology, Roance languages and sociology. Professor George M. Lightfoot is director and associated with him is a corps of teachers drawn from the re gular univcrsitp faculty. Students may register for credits up to and including June 24. Communist Minister Convicted Newark, N. J.— (CNS)—Dozier W. Graham, a sixty-five year old Negro minister who became a Com munist and was indicted for “hostili ty to the government” was convicted bv a jury, in thirty minutes, on a charge of “inciting an assault upon the police of the city of Newark. The maximum penalty for the offense is seven years imprisonment or $3,000 fine, or both. Graham, who is the only colored man among the eight Communists charged variously with advocating the destruction of the government and inciting to vio lence at street meetings, will be sen tenced Monday by Judge VanRiper. At the same time Dominick Flaianj white, Communist organizer, found guilty May 28, also will be sentenced. Graham is Communist candidate for United States Senator from New Jer sey and Flaiana a Communist candi date for Representative. Two unusual situations occured during the trial. First, the man pick ed to be foreman of the jury before Judge VanRiper refused to take the jury oath on the Bible. Frederick R Demarest, a civil engineer of 32 Bow doin Street, Maplewood, was the juror. He was released from service in the case. This unusual situation occured just after the jury had been selected and accepted by both the state and de fense. The second unusual situation was the barring of testimony, for the de fense pf witnesses, who denied belief in God. As a result seven persons who sought to testify for Graham were not permitted to do so. One of them was Samuel Levine, : who is also charged with hostility to j the government. Levine was a candi date for the Newark City Commission j at the last election and is now Cora West Democratic Primary Decision Affirmed By Tire United States Circuit Court Of Appeals ATTORNEY COHEN PREDICTS THAT THE WEST DEMOCRATIC DECISION WILL BE AFFIRM ED BY THE U. S. SUPREME COURT _ His Letter Follows Editor Richmond Planet, June 14, 1930. Mr. Editor: James 0. West on aMrch 26, 1928, petitioned the late Judge of the Law and Equity Court of the City of Rich mond for a writ of mandamus against A. C. Bliley, William Boltl and Wil liam Ricker, who were designated at that time to act as election judges at the first precinct in Madison Ward for the oncoming Democratic Pri mary to nominate candidates for the offices of Mayor, Councilmen and Al dermen for the City of Richmond to be held on April 3rd, 1928. The only j legal ground upon which the Court j could have denied the petition for a writ of mancTamus was that it was prematurely brought because the judges had only been designated, and not actually appointed, but the Court went out of its way and ruled that Colored people could not vote in a Democratic Primary election because of the rule of the Democratic party limiting the franchise therein to white people only. Thereupon James 0. West brought a suit against the above named election officers in the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Virginia, asking damages in the sum of $5, 000.00, because of the refusal of said judges to permit him to vote as he offered to do, in the Primary elec tion held on April 3rd, 1928. The Democratic party tnrougn their lawyers, moved the Court to dismiss the suit on the ground that the rule of the Democratic party was constitutional. West, through his lawyers, contended that the rule of the Democratic party was uncon stitutional, and Judge Groner held that the Democratic rule excluding Negroes from a vote in the Demo cratic Primary was unconstitutional and void, and by agreement of coun sel for all parties, as this suit was brought merely to give the right to vote, and not to severely punish the election judges who were acting un der orders, a nominal verdict of $5.00 was agreed upon, and the jury was thereupon sworn, and asked to bring in a verdict of $5.00, which brought along with it all of the costs. The Democratic party, through its lawyers, appealed the case to the United States Circuit Court of Ap peals for the Fourth Circuit, and the case was argued at Richmond, and on yesterday, June 13th. at Ashe ville, N. C., the last named Court, composed of three able judges, af firmed the judgment given West by Judge Groner. Within three months from June 13, 1930, if the Democratic party is not satisqed with the decision the Court rendered at Asheville, N. C., which permits Colored people to vote in the Democratic Primary, it must cary the case to the Supreme Court of the United States at Washington, D. C. It is the opinion of the writer that the Supreme Court of the United States will affirm the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States will affirm the decision of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals; handed down at Asheville, N. C. There is no doubt but that the Democratic party will see the casej through to the Supreme Court at; Washington. This of course, will en-1 tail further costs and expenses inj fighting the case. But the victory that has already been gained should be followed up and defended vigor-, ously, so that Colored Democrats may be granted their rights as citizens. The decision handed down at Ashe ville in this case which was argued at Richmond last May, is of far reaching importance not only to the Colored citizens in Virginia, but throughout the South, and will be hailed as another step in maintain ing the rights given of the Colored; people protected by the Constitution; of the United States, from invasion i by discriminatory acts and laws. ALFRED E. COHEN. munist party candidate for Congress. Levine was called as were the others, by the defense in an effort to test the court’s ruling. He declared; he did not believe in God ‘‘or any; gods." “I agree with Thomas Paine," he declared. “My religion is to do good.’’ APELLATE COURT SAYS NEGROES CANNOT BE BARRED FROM DEMOCRA TIC PRIMARY Asheville, N. C.— (CNS)— The United States Circuit Court of Ap peals rules that the Democratic party of Virginia had no right to bar “Neg roes and other races” from its pri mary. The ruling confirms the decision of the District Court at Richmond, Va., in the case of James 0. West. vs. A. C. Bliley, William Boltz and William Richer. The three defendants were Democratic judges in the precinct in which West lived in Richmond. West was refused the right to par ticipate in he Democratic primary for selection of nominees as city officials of Richmond on April 3, 1928, on tho grounds that the plan of the Demo cratic party, adopted June 11, 1924, limited the right to participate in its primaries to white persons. The opinion was written by Judge Elliott Northcutt, of Huntington, W. Va. “If all the political parties in the State of Virginia incorporated the same qualifications In their rules and regulations as did the Democratic party,” he wrote, “nobody could par ticipate in the primary except white persons and other persons would be deprived of a material right guaran teed to them under the Constitution as amended; that is, the right to par ticipate in the selection of candidates to be voted for in the election.” The opinion was concurred in by District Judges W. E. Baker, of Elk ins, W. Va., and William C. Coleman of Baltimore. In AutomcDile Accident STRUCK RETURNING FROM THE COMMUNION SERVICE. Mr. William H. Lawrence of 1003 North Seventh Street, age 55, was in stantly killed Sunday night at 10 o’clock when struck by a car driven by Martin Shull, 18 of the 1800 block West Leigh St. Mr. Lawrence had just left com munion services at the Ebenezer Baptist Church when he was struck by Shull as he attempted to cross Chamberlayne Avenue at Duval. He was dead before the ambulance ar rived. The funeral services were held at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, the Rev. K. D. Turner of Trinity Bap tist, delivered the Eulogy. Mr. Lawrence is survived by his wife Mrs. William H. Lawrence, one daughter Miss Kate Lawrence and five sons, Wm. H. Jr. Raleigh, Joseph, Solomon and Mercer Lawrence. The body was interred at Ever green cemetery. SAYS COMMUNE INVITES NEGROES. Washington — (CNS)— Repre sentative Hamilton Fish, Republican, of New York, chairman of the special House Committee which is investiga ting communistic activities in this country, states that J. Edgar Hoover, director of investigation of the De partment of Justice, in testifying be fore the committee “demonstrated the direct control by the Third In ternationale, with headquarters at Moscow, of the Communist party of America.” The specific instances given, Mr. Fish said, were in connec tion with the alleged organization by the Communist party of “a special committee to incite revolutionary ac tivities among the Negroes.” This committee, Mr. Fish reported the wit nesses as saying, “had special in structions to send selected Negroes to # Moscow for special communistic training for world revolution.” Further, Mr. Fish said, the com mittee was told of “discussions if' Moscow by the working committee ox the Third Internationale of ways and means of counteracting the influence and American Federation of Labor and how to stir up discontent among unemployed American wage earners” The committee heard Mr. Hoover at its second meeting. At its first meeting %Dr. Edmund A. W&lsn, a student of Communistic affairs and regent of the School of Foreign Ser vice of Georgetown University, gave the committee a word picture of the growth of Communism.