Viewing page 17 of 26
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
138 THE CRISIS speaks South African sensitiveness over the racial question, with knowledge of the prowess of natives in arms under European officers since 1914. At the beginning of 1915, German black troops forced the surrender of British infantry at Jasin in German East Africa, and in Kamerun 3,000 black soldiers fought for a year against more than double their number of Belgian, British, and French troops, and escaped into Spanish territory when their ammunition was gone. All the European nations have native soldiers in Africa, holding them primarily to suppress rebellions, but secondarily as defensive or offensive forces against the colonies of other nations; Belgium alone is said to have trained 30,000 blacks. . . . . The Rev. A. Clayton Powell, a colored minister of New York City, thinks that: This is the psychological moment to say to the American white government from every pulpit and platform and through every newspaper, "Yes, we are loyal and patriotic. Boston Commons, Bunker Hill, Gettysburg, Fort Pillow, Appomattox, San Juan Hill, and Carrizal will testify to our loyalty. While we love our flag and country, we do not believe in fighting for the protection of commerce on the high seas until the powers that be give us at least some verbal assurance that the property and lives of the members of our own race are going to be protected on land from Maine to Mississippi." Let us have the courage to say to the white American people, "Give us the same rights which you enjoy, and then we will fight by your side with all of our might for every international right on land and sea." If this kind of talk is not loyalty, then I am disloyal; if this is not patriotism, then I am unpatriotic; if this is treason, then I am a traitor. It is not that I love Caesar less but these black Romans more, who have been true to the flag for two hundred and fifty years. It is infinitely more disgraceful and outrageous to hang and burn colored men, boys, and women without a trial in the times of peace than it is for Germans in times of war to blow up ships loaded with mules and molasses. MANASSAS, 1917. Elizabeth Miner King in the New York Evening Post writes: Then each graduate arose and carefully walked the prescribed chalk line in front of the platform, back of the sewing-machine table, to receive his diploma. As each received his roll, tears welled in his eyes. The carpenters came forward for their diplomas; the shoemaker came for his; the capped girl in domestic science came for hers, and the teachers for theirs. A bent old minister in tail coat and wrinkled face brought his charges bouquets of backyard roses and grass stalks. One girl bowed low over a huge white peony from some one's fence bush. One girl got none. She held her hands between her skirts to make less noticeable their emptiness. Search as I could there was nothing I could improvise for her. It is over. Everybody rise and sing the "Star-Spangled Banner." The tall oaks are up first, and the key in which the song is pitched goes as high as their utmost tops. Only the smallest lads can squeal through the song. Those who cannot reach the top notes of "the rockets' red glare" wave their arms and swap their bodies, ready to come down strong when "the flag was still there." Then the mules are harnessed, the young folks packed away, and those who live twenty miles back in Virginy and 'low to get home by sunset jog on. Others go to see the exhibits of trades, the bread, the dressmaking, the horeshoeing, and other shoeing. The young men hand around, treating the girls to ice cream, and the "undergrads" get together, talking over the year's events. The matrons gather their broods, or sit under the trees for a chat. The "white folks" go in single file across the ploughed field from the grove to the "campus." And the graduating class in the front seats have just begun to amble back up the hill through the oaks, crooning with many an obligato, like a medly of violins: Keep me from sinking down, Oh, keep me from sinking down. Amen. It was sunset. [[image]] [[caption]] MISS L. R. YOUNG, Sargeant School. [[/caption]] [[image]] [[caption]] J. L. BERRY, Howard. [[/caption]] [[image]] [[caption]] E. J. SCOTT, JR., Phillips Exeter. [[/caption]] [[image]] [[caption]] F. P. SMIth, Indiana. [[/caption]] The Horizon EDUCATION. SUMMER schools will be held as follows: At Greensboro, N. C., the A. and T. School, beginning June 25, and continuing 5 weeks, J. B. Dudley, president; Norfolk, Va., the Booker T. Washington High School, beginning June 20, Prof. T. C. Erwin, conductor; Shreveport, La., beginning June 6 and continuing 6 weeks, T. H. Kane, Box 722; Natchez, Miss., June 4 to June 29, G. W. Brumfield, director; Cambria, Va.; E. A. Long, conductor; Tuskegee Institute, June 11 to July 20, R. R. Moton, principal; New Orleans, La., June 11 to July 20, Prof. Alfred Lawless, Jr., conductor; Virginia N. and I. Institute, Petersburg, June 20 to August 1, J. M. Gandy, conductor; Florida A. and M., Tallahassee, June 11 to August 20; Howe Institute, Memphis, Tenn., June 11, continuing 6 weeks; Ft. Valley, Ga., H. and I., June 4 to June 30, H. A. Hunt, principal. Prof. M. S. Davage has been elected by the Freedmen's Aid Society to succeed the late Dr. R. S. Lovinggood as president of Samuel Huston College, Austin, Tex. In Meridian, Miss., superintendents, principals and white teachers receive $69,907.10, colored principals and teachers, $9,746.25, janitors for white schools $4,869, janitors for colored schools $612. C. W. Florence of the School of Education, University of Pittsburg, has led the university's debating team during the last three years, his team defeating several of the Eastern colleges and the largest universities of the Middle West. The General Education Board announces among its recent disbursements for $50,974 for rural education among Negroes and $102,200 for Negro colleges and industrial schools. Miss M.O. Bonner of the Brookline, Mass., High School composed the class song of the graduating class of which she was a member. Two colored boys are on the basketball team which won the school championship for the cities of Duluth and Superior. A colored high school is to be erected in Shreveport, La., at a cost of $26,911. Dr. S.M. Newman, president of Howard University, informs us that he has not resigned but merely stated his intention to resign after accomplishing several matters which he has in his hand. His reason for resigning is not age or health, but family bereavement and desire to engage in literary work. A site consisting of 257 acres in the suburbs of Alexandria, La., has been located for Leland University at a cost of $18,000. The building to be erected will cost between $75,000 and $100,000. Agriculture will be one of the leading features of the school. E.E. Smith has been leader of Virginia Union University's debating team for four years without a single defeat. He has won two victories over Howard and one over Lincoln and Wilberforce. At the first annual outdoor athletic meet under the auspices of the Y.M.C.A. at Carroll Park, Baltimore, MD., Howard University won the loving cup. School No. 110 was victorious in the school boys' events and there were three men tied to the individual trophy offered by the Afro-American. Two thousand people attended. The Executive Committee of Shaw Alumni Association is offering a gold prize for the best "alma mater" song written by a graduate or former student. Six colored nurses were graduated from the Grady Hospital, Atlanta, Ga. This is the first colored class from this city hospital. The Mayor presided. Miss Vivian Carter is one of six graduates to qualify for place on the honor roll of the Auburn, N.Y., High School. In an oratorical contest between the students of the Chicago Law School, Starling D.W. Carr, a freshman, took first prize, a gold medal. There were sixteen white competitors. Bylden Jackson, age six, of the Western Colored Branch Library, Louisville, Ky., won the first primary prize, and Virginia Allen, age ten, of the Eastern Colored Branch won the first intermediate prize in the final Story Telling Contest conducted by the Louisville colored branch libraries. Their names will be engraved on the Cotter Story Telling Contest Cup given by the Louisville Free Public Library, and named in honor of Prof. Joseph S. Cotter, who originated the Story Telling Contest. Resolutions condemning the location of Fisk School, an institution for Negro pupils 139
