Alabama Tribune from Montgomery, Alabama • 1

ATLANTA GA. COUNCIL BANS MASK WEARING NAACP Charges Services Lag Behind Integration Federal Aid For School Building Under Proposal Bill Would Require State Equality Alabama Tribune Roy Wilkins Reports To Truman Group Statement Made In Reply To Request To Organizations LIKE THE DEW CLEAN CONSTRUCTIVE CONSERVATIVE MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA, FRIDAY, MAY 6, 1949 VOLUME 19, NUMBER 46 PRICE SEVEN CENTS ANTI-BIASED HOUSING BILL SOUGHT ill iff Exception In Unity For States Where Dual System Obtains WASHINGTON, D. C. (NNPA) Senator John W. Bricker, Republican, of Ohio, last week introduced a bill providing for Federal aid to the states for the construction of public school facilities on a Pondiscriminatory basis.

Under the provisions of the bill, Congress would be authorized to appropriate 3,000,000 for surveys and planning. It also would be authorized to appropriate for construction of public schools for the fiscal year beginning June 30, 1950, and each of the succeeding fiscal years. In order to be eligible for r.n allotment, each state would be required to submit a plan, setting forth the number of types of schools required to provide adequate pnv-sical facilities for the education of children within the where they would be located, the priority of the projects based on relative need of different sections of the population and different areas, and the general standards of construction and equipment for schools of different types and in different localities. States also would be required to provide for adequate school facilities for the children of persons residing in a state without racial or religious discrimination. UNITS FOR ALL The bill provides that the regulation to carry out this provision may require that before approval of any application for a school or addition to a school is recommended by a state agency, assurance shall be received by the state from the applicant that such school or addition to a school will be made available to all children residing in the territorial area of the applicant, without racial or religious discrimination.

An exception to this provision shall be made in cases where sep (Continued on Page 8 ijps Swf Leonard S. Morgan, Battalion S-3 1 of the 3rd Battalion, 505th Airborne Infantry Regiment. Lelt to r.ght Mrs. Rosa Spearman Andrews Mrs. Cleveland Pugh, Mrs.

Flur-etta Smith, Mrs. Eleanor Williams, Major Morgan, Mayor Charles G. Rose of Fayetteville, F. F. Fergueson, Mrs.

Janie Rodgers, Mrs. B. F. Fer-gueson and E. E.

Miller, the high school's principal. GOLD STAR MOTHERS ORED Recently at the E. S. Smith High School in Fayetteville, N. five mothers who lost sons hi battle during the past war were presented Gold Stars by Major "lift HON- Sharecropper Slavery Revealed In Henry County Minor Trials Organizations Testify Before House Sub-Body Charge Private Enterprise With Failure To Provide WASHINGTON, C.

(NNPA) Representatives of three organizations last Tuesday testified before the House Banking and Cuirency Committee in support of anti-dis-erimination and anti-segregation amendments in the slum elearance provisions of the housing bill. They were Leslie Perry, administrative assistant in the Washington Bureau of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored! People; Elmer W. Henderson, dtrec tor of the American Connell of Hu-j man Rights, and Edgar O. Brown, director of the National Negro i Council. The bill the House Banking and Currency Committee Is considering is similar to the measure the Senate passed after rejecting anti-discrimination and anti-segregation amendments proposed by Senator John W.

Bricker, Republican, of Ohio, The House bill is sponsored by Representative Brent Spence, of Kentucky, chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee. FEASIBLE METHOD Mr. Perry directed attention to the provision in the slum-clearance section of the bill requiring that, there be a feasible method for both the temporary and permanent relocation of the families who have been living in the area and who are displaced as a result of the clearance of the area. He suggested that a subscription be added to give priority in the selection of tenants to families who are displaced through clearance and redevelopment activities. People who have worked hard to acquire homes have had their property taken from them by governmental agencies exercising the right of eminent domain, for $5,000 or $6,000.

Mr. Perry said, and they have been unable to secure other housing through discriminatory practices. He also suggested that the bill be further amended to prohibit race or religious discriminatfon or segre gation when land acquired or held by the local public agency in connection with a project is sold or leased. AMENDMENT SOUGHT Amendment ot the section designed for the protection of labor stand ards also was suggested by Mr Mi II m-r I man, commanding officer of the Leyte; Lt. Commander E.

Williams, commanding officer of VF-32 and Midshipman J. L. Brown (Navy Photo.) SWORN IN AS ENSIGN First Negro Naval Aviator, Midshipman L. Brown, of Hattiesburg, is shown being sworn in as Ensign aboard the USS Leyte, CV-32. Left to right are Captain W.

L. Erd- Suspended Sentences Send Offenders Back To Payless Work State WASHINGTON, D. C. (NNPA) Tlie armed services are lagging behind the policy of integration In two-thirds of the nation in education, employment, housing, recreation, travel and places of pub- lie accommodation, Roy Wilkins, assistant secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, last Monday told President Trumans Committee on Equality of Treatment and Oppor-turity in the Armed Services. Tlie statement was made in reply to a request from the committee to a number of organizations requesting their views regarding the racial practices of the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Mr. Wilkins had intended to appear in person before the committee, but an emergency tooth extraction prevented his doing so and he filed his statement with the committee Instead. Since the announcement by Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson of policies governing equality of treatment and opportunity in the armed services, Mr. Wilkins expressed the belief that all three services are now operating under that directive. WITHOUT EQUIVOCATION "With the Navy, at least, this policy means the abolition of segregation, as Navy officials have stated repeatedly and without equiv ocation, said Mr.

Wilkins. "With the other service the policy seems toecmtemphite the eveiitful elimination of- segregation, although that lias not as yet been clearly and officially stated, with certain first steps being taken, he added. From past experiences, Mr. Wilkins pointed out, it must be recog- ulzed that the principal difficulty in making the policy of equal treatment and equal opportunity work is the granting of ratings, assignments and promotions on the basis of merit. "Even with all bars removed, as Is supposedly the case with whites at present," he said, "there are enough ordinary obstacles to overcome without additional booby-traps such as hidden quotas, delayed ratings, special screenings and the like being set to catch the trusting Negro in uniform.

Mr. Wilkins stated the belief that i the Johnson directive marks the beginning of the abolition of segregation, which "inevitably connotes discrimination, lack of equality and denial of opportunity. "If the secretary of Defense really intends to Implement a policy (Continued On Back Page) Council Acts Unanimously Banning Masks ATLANTA, Georgia (SNS) City Councilmen of Atlanta stabbed what they called a cancerous growth upon the principles of decent government and banned the Ku Klux Klan Monday from lurking behind its bed-sheet masks. A jammed room of clergymen, educators, and laymen heard the council of the city that was once the core of the anti-semitic Columbians and the Klan vote 17-0 prohibition of wearing masks. The unanimous roll call' vote followed almost immediately after a minister gave the usual blessing of democracy ana prayer lor guidance in righteousness.

Councilman Archie L. Lindsey told how he had received a threat- cning telephone call for sponsoring his anti-mask ordinance. He said a voice warned: "For your sake and safety, tha Klan must not be unmasked. CROSS AT FRONT DOOR Lindsey added that almost simultaneously an elaborately carved cross bearing the letters KKK" was placed at his front door. He planter, receiving little or no cash compensation during the time.

He has no choice he will either work for the county on one of Georgias infamous chain-gangs (or as the Henry County judge smilingly put it: We now call it the public works) or he works his time out for the planter. MINOR CRIMES Usually the "crime is one of public drunkenness, possessing nontax paid liquor, cursing in the presence of whites, or stealing. The of stealing comes up when the cropper is accused of selling some portion of the crop wituout the knowledge of the planter. The case of Sims Carter was an (Continued on Back Page) Council Asks Armed Services To End Bias BY C. W.

GREENLEA MCDONOUGH, Ga. One need go no further than 30 miles from Atlanta to Henry County to observe the workings or rather, mis-workings of American democracy in Georgia farm areas. This reporter sat in the Henry County Courthouse at McDonough and witnessed a dozen poor Negroes receive almost obvious slavery sentences during a four hour period. With a clock-like precision, and smooth routine, they came before the judge on minor charges and were fined or sentenced. Those accompanied by their good white folks were usually tried by a jury of his peers; never-the-less, with the same inevitable result; $100 to $250 fines plus 12 to 18 months sentences the sentences being suspended as long as you work hard and don't get into any more Railroad Drops Biased Agreement trouble of any kind.

As the pattern goes the Negro defendant is given a solemn lecture by the judge. His boss man, the planter or overseer, may make an impassioned plea on his behalf, telling what a good boy his employee is, pays his fine and walks out of court with him. Thus, the colored man is forced to serve out another year to pay off his obligation to the white ST. LOUIS (NNPA) The agreement violates the Railway La Frisco Railroad and four railroad bor Act and is contrary to the pub-brotherhoods last Tuesday announ lie policy of the United States. J.A.

BATTS HEADS AFRO INS. CO. IN ALA. Defendants in the damage action are officers of the brotherhoods of Railroad Trainmen, Locomotive Fire men and Enginemen Locomotive Engineers and Railway Conductors. The plaintiffs state that they, in fact, are not train porters but perform duties claimed by the ced cancellation of an agreement to employ only white men as train crews at the opening of testimony in United States District Court of a suit by five colored employees for an injunction to prevent alleged racial discrimination.

Testimony in the suit, which also asks actual and punitive damages totaling $4,400,000 from twenty-three officers of the four unions, opened despite the announced WASHINGTON, D. The American Council on Human Rights called on the Presidents Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services to move in the task of removing racial discrimination from the Army, Navy and Air Force. In a ocrsonel appearance before the Committee on Monday, April 25 Elmer W. Henderson, Director of ACHR, warned that top generals and admirals, expert at camouflage and smoke screening during the war, will use the same tactics in defeating the Presidents Order on Equality in the Armed Services. He charged that these top generals had resisted the Presidents policy and cited the recent directive of Secretary of Defense Johnson as an indication of that fact.

He further recommended that the Committee get its information from as close to the source as possible, that is, from the installation sible, that is, from the installations and camps rather than rely on reports from top generals. He also called on the Committee to speak out against the vicious public school discrimination in the South and the effect it has had weakening the Armed Services. cellation of the discriminatory The suit, filed in 1947, is being heard by Judge George H. Moore ilt charges the four brotherhoods Perry, who proposed that contrac- th agreement made with ho forhiHrion tnrougn an agreement mauc projects be forbidden Mobile Board Wants Equal Pay MOBILE (SNS) Racial differentials in the pay of public school teachers were wiped out here teachers were wiped out here on April 27th by the Mobile County Board of Education by unanimous vote. The board voted an extra $58,650 to bring the salaries of the 375 Negro teachers up to those of the 825 white teachers.

However, a small oortion of the money will foe used to adjust the salaries of white teachers up to scale. Mobile and Bessemer are the only two cities in Alabama to erase racial disparity from their teacher salary schedules. tors building to practice race or religious discri- (Continued On Back Page) the Frisco in 1928, sought to replace colored employees with whites. The action contends that the BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (SNS) Following a recent announcement of Florida's largest Negro Business entering the State of Alabama, comes the further announcement by the Afro-American Life Insurance Company that J.

A. Batts, veteran Insurance Executive, will head up the Companys activities in Birmingham, and the State of Alabama. Mr. Batts is well known and highly respected throughout the Southern States: having been a Regional Director for the former National Benefit Life Insurance Company, and subsequently serving as Assistant Agency Officer of the Afro-American Life. He is an Assistant to Vice-President and Agency Director John T.

Betsch, who advises that Mr. Batts will remain in Birmingham for quite some time spear heading the companys program in all forms and types of Life Insurance investment Contracts. With modern appointed officers at claimants and beneficiaries through satisfactory adjustments over the years. Assets were found to be liquid in the amount of $4,722,127.26 of which nearly Three Millions were invested in United State Government and other Bonds for the protection of past, present and future policyholders. With more than Three Quarters of a Million Dollars in Mortgages on exclusive properties of Colored Americans, it was pointed out that the Afro-American Life Insurance Company was fulfilling a dire need for housing facilities in the vicinities among Negroes where it operates.

WELCOMED by sister COMPANIES Mr. Batts states, that a great hand of fellowship has been extended by the management of all competitive companies in Birmingham, lor the Afro-American Life Insurance Company is no stranger to them by virtue of membership and Large Volume Of Mail Shows Ingram Family's Interest WASHINGTON (ANPi The National Committee to free the Ingram Family, recapitulating the results of the committees visit to Mrs. Ingram in Augusta, recently stated that letters and telegrams had come in from over 16 states as for west as California and as far south as Texas asking for petitions, seeking information on how to start local committees, sending money to aid in the campaign to free the Ingram family and, as in one outstanding case of a public relations counsellor, to work full time gratis wherever assigned. These letters and telegrams over- Judge Rules Bronze Confessions' Not Copy Of True Confessions quoting numerous previous decisions which involved case of a similar nature. Judge Holland took the matter under advisement and three weeks Civil Rights Put In Four Packages 1615 14th Avenue, North, Mr.

Batts leadership established in the Na- later rendered a decision denying whelmingly commended the com-" mittees actions in launching the the plaintiffs their request. NEW ORLEANS, La. (ANP) Three southern justices of the Fifth U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals decreed in an opinion handed down last week that the Negro magazine Bronze Confessions," bore no resemblance whatever to the magazine, True Confessions, and denied to the True Confessions publishers the injunction sought to ter minate the existence of its widely circulated competitor.

The Fawcett publishers announc- ed at the time of the filing of the case that their circulation was and that advertising during the existence of the True Confes- isions publication had amounted to The Fawcett Publication. fil- severaj millions of dollars. ed suit late in 1947, in the Federal District court for the Southern district of Florida, declaring that the title Bronze Confessions was an in welcomes the general public to visit the District Headquarters of this multi-Million Dollar Concern and receive information and tokens regarding the Afros past and present activities. In a recent visit to the Superintendent of Insurance Office in Montgomery, Mr. Batts stated, that the Insurance Commissioner was loud in his praise resulting from the examination of the Companys Annual Statement, and the business-like manner in which its re- collection of one million signatures to be presented to President Truman urging that he use his executive powers to see that Mrs.

Ingram and her family are freed. This petition campaign now actively being carried on all over the country by local committees gives President Truman the method through which he can illustrate to the full meaning ol democracy the present administration is selling to the world. tional Association over a period of years. A clean, fair competitive operating standard is the ideal and actual premise upon which the company operates, and it is its envisioned purpose to fulfill the needs of Birmingham and Alabama residents through the medium of Life Insurance For one full week beginning on May 7, the AFRO will hold Open House to friends and well-wishers at Its local District Offices and cords have been established through I everybody is invited to drop in or a period of 48 years. He further call 7-4242 and receive more infor-stated, that the Commissioners mation concerning this giant Ne-examination revealed more than gro Life Insurance Company, which 300.000 Policyholders in Florida and is now a part of the business, econo-Georgia with Millions and Millions mic, Christian, social and civic wel-of Dollars having been received by I fare of Birmingham.

Js their paten, True gress. They are an antilynching bill an anti-poll tax bill and a fair employment practice bill. The fourth bill offered by Mr. McGrath is a comprehensive civil rights bill, providing for the establishment of a commission on civil rights in the executive branch oi the government, expansion of the civil rights section in the Justice Department, the creation of a joint congressional committee on civil rights, amendment of existing federal civil rights statutes, and prohibition of race segregation in interstate travel. WASHINGTON (NNPA) The Administration Thursday wrapped up its civil rights program in four packages and presented them to the senate in the form of bills introduced by Senator J.

Howard McGrath. of Rhode Island, chairman of the Democratic National Committee. The four bills are designed to carry out recommendations made by President Truman in the special message on civil rights which he sent to Congress on February 2, 1949. Three of the bills are similar to measures already pending in oon- fringement on Confessions. When an official cant introduce a bill without being threatened, there is no place in Atlanta for this organization.

I am not opposing the Klan alon.e but any group which uses masks. When a man is masked, he is hiding his identity and usually doing something wrong. The measure left what appeared to be only one loop hole for the hooded organization. Persons wearing masks on Halloween have been (Continued On Back Page) DywinlillllinpBiiteBllHl.lliiliUnlTHtL1 SPRINGTIME is Clean-Up Paint-Up, Fix-Up Time. Sam B.

Solomon, president and general manager of Bronze Confession appeared before Judge John F. Holland in July, 1948, and proved that the term "Confessions" i was merely a descriptive word by i IT TAKES SINCERE SEARCHING: "And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. Jer. 29:13. Maria Holley Physicist says cosmic rays 2 billion years ago in spice..