The Houston Informer (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 3, No. 4, Ed. 1 Saturday, June 11, 1921 Page: 4 of 8

                                
PAGE FOUR
THE HOUSTON INFORMER, SATURDAY, JUNE 11, 1921.
SOUTH’S GREATEST WEEKLY NEWSPAPER
THE HOUSTON INFORMER
BOUTH’S GREATEST RACE NEWSPAPER
“It Gets You Told—Nothing Else!”
Published every Saturday at 410 Milam Street, Houston. Texas
been a willing!
years in this!
Texas, under the Act ol .March 3, 1S79.
The colored man is an apt pupil and he has
student of the white man for several hundred
country.
The colored Americans have seen how easy it is for white men
to flout defiance in the face of the law and do as they please
■ — ■■■■  ---------—-:--— --—--—— under any and all circumstances; they have also watched the
Entered as»secoud-enigs matter May 38, 1919, at the postoffice at Houston, j trend ol events and noted the inefficiency of the law when it
comes to protecting the lives and safeguarding the interests of
colored citizens; they have about lost faith in the American white
man’s sense of justice and fair play and after carefully weighing
the matter and in line with the race’s usual policy of imitating
the white man in so many things of a superficial and destructive
nature, it was not to be unexpected that such depredations could
longer continue without some reprisals or striking back.
Exhaustive investigations, long-winded invectives and fiery
editorials; excoriation and denunciation of "agitators,” “radicals”
and “trouble-makers”; purchasing of machine guns and high-pow-
ered rifles and other weapons for taking of human life cannot
THE DISGRACE OF TULSA.
AlI.TPTnN F RirHARDSON .........................
. Editor-Publisher
a R WTT.T.TAMR    ....................... .........
.....City Editor
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TlLMBEB
^ ^ OF ^ *
FIRST IN
SERVICE
'All Matter Copyrighted)
THE INFORMERS PLATFORM:
1.    Democracy, both domestic and foreign.
2.    Playgrounds for colored children.
3.    Better educational facilities, both teachers and
physical properties, for colored youths.
4.    Educated, consecrated ministry.
5.    Development of the Houston Ship Channel, thereby
making Houston the South’s premier city.
6.    Co-operation between tjie white and colored races
on all matters of vital importance and less racial
’animosity and antagonism.
7.    Good streets, better drainage and sanitary toilets
for entire urban population.
8.    Federal investigation of, and Federal legislation to
suppress, lynching.
9.    Equality before the law for all men and equal rail-
road accommodations for all passengers.
t©. Racial co-operation, teamwork, advancement, bet-
terment and solidarity.
ANY MAN WHO IS GOOD ENOUGH TO SHED HIS BLOOD FOR
HIS COUNTRY IS GOOD ENOUGH TO BE GIVEN A 8QUARE DEAL
AFTERWARDS. NO MAN 18 ENTITLED TO MORE AND NO MAN
SHOULD RECEIVE LES8.    —R008EVELT.
HOUSTON, TEXAS, SATURDAY, JUNE 11, 1921.
As long as this country maintains a double standard of citi-
zenship and as long as lawlessness among whites is condoned, en-
couraged, aided and abetted, this country is going to witness such
disturbances as the one just enacted in Tulsa.
The colored man is law-abiding to the core and his endurance
of injustice and inequalities is the wonder of the ages; but a
new generation is rising that is receiving the same training and
thinking just like all other American citizens and unless a reign
of law and order is instituted and unless men are taught and
forced to respect the law of the land, inter-racial clashes, like
lynch law, will become chronic.
The spirit of the South is to suppress and oppress rather than
uplift and elevate the colored race and then when a few of our
group imitate their white brothers by raising the devil, the entire
race is lambasted and threatened.
The citizenship of the South is entirely too ignorant and
vicious, no race excluded, to live in peace and harmony and until
symmetrical education and genuine Christianity have imbedded
themselves in the hearts and actuate the lives of all races in
Dixie, there is going to be hell to pay with internal disturb-
ances.
Let’s get back to law and order and a constitutional govern-
ment. Let us enforce the law against all violators and infractors
and thereby create a strong sentiment against lawlessness which
is now on a rampage in this country.
Let’s have law enforcement or let’s abolish all laws and revert
to the age of the “survival of the fittest” and brute force. We
are going to have one or the other; it is a physical and political
impossibility to maintain both at the same time, and it is up to the
authorities and those in power to either save or hasten the disin-
tegration of this republic.
Here is fine work for the inter-racial commission and here’s
hoping that said commission in Houston wid get busy at once
and afford both races a chance to iron out their differences in a
sane and sensible manner.
(From the Tulsa Daily World.)
Proud, matchless Tulsa comes before the bar of Christian civilization
tills day, and. with head bowed, the mantle of shame upon her cheek, and.
we sincerely hope, with deep regret in her heart, asks that she be pardoned |
the great offense some of her citizens committed during Tuesday night and t
Wednesday morning.
There is not a man worthy of the name whose heart is not afire with .
indignation against that which has been done. Members of a superior race, -
boastful of th(j fact, permitted themselves to degenerate into murderers and
vandals; permitted themselves to deal their home community the foulest blow 1
it has ever received in its history.
Tulsa boasted that she was not Ardmore. And now a negligible number
of men have plunged the reputation of the fair city into the depths of
infamy. Language is incapable of painting the wrong w’hich has been com-
mitted against the community and Us peaceful, law-abiding citizens or of
expressing the indignity one inevitably feels toward men incapable ol con-
trolling their passions and their prejudices.
It is true that the pride of race as well as its prejudices is a consuming
fire in the veins of every nationality. On this ground one would like, if it
were at all possible, to condone or excuse the hysteria of Tuesday evening
and night, when the streets of the city were suddenly transformed into a
raging torrent of hate-impelled men. The imprudence of the Negroes in
arming themselves and visiting the county jail permits something to lie
said for those who responded to the riot impulse and set out to satiate the
blood lust or racial pride.
But nothing that the mind is capable of conceiving permits a word of
defense or excuse for the murderous vandalism which set in at daylight the
next morning. Hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of property—the
homes of women and children, lilack in color, to he sure, but guilty of no
other offense- went up in smoke. Semi-organized bands of white men
systematically applied the torch while others shot on sight men of color.
The colored section of the city was wiped out, and a long line of hope-
less, destitute, pitiful refugees fled northward from the burning town. The
| German invasion of Belgium with its awful consequences was no more
! unjustified or characterized with any greater cruelty. In the conflagration
I a splendid church but recently erected and one of the handsome educational
i edifices of the school district was lost. To such property the vandals applied
i the torch to make sure of their terrible purpose.
The entire “race war" was as unjustified as it was unnecessary. Because
of it Tulsa is blazoned as a community where tolerance does not exist,
where the constitution of the United States can be enforced or suspended
at will; where prejudice and race bigotry rule, and where law and order
haltingly flexes the knee to outlawry. Ten thousand citizens have been
rendered homeless and made exiles on the face of the earth!
Will Tulsa accept such a reputation willingly? Will this city tolerate
such injustice—accept meekly the sudden ending of its dream of primacy
and glory? if not, then the substantial, constructive citizenship must im-
mediately get iftto action. There is but one way in which Tulsa can re-
habilitate Itself either in its own eyes or the eyes of the outside world.
That is by rebuilding that which has been destroyed.
Vandalism has taken the homes and the savings of thousands of people.
Tulsa must restore that which has    been taken.    The    sins    of a comparative
few are thus visited upon the whole community.    But    it is    a cross that must
be shouldered willingly and heroically. This restitution, not because of
affectionate regard for the colored man, but because of an honorable and
intense regard for the white race whose boast of superiority must now be
justified by concrete acts.
Not else can the wound of passion be healed or the scars of intolerant
hatred be soothed. In this moment    men of Tulsa    stand at    the cross-roads in
the city’s destiny. One way leads    to a greater    and    more glorious future;
the other certainly leads to retrogression and decay. There must not, there
cannot, be any hesitating.
CIMBEE’S RAMBLINGS
S)
SCHOOL PROBE “COMEDY SKIT.”
“A tempest in a tea-pot” might aptly describe the investigation
and probe of several white teachers and officials connected with
the Houston public schools, as a result of the agitation and pseudo-
charges of a certain local spotlight seeking attorney.
This white attorney—who, during the early days of the Hous-
ton branch of the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People, was a professed “friend” to and of the colored
race, being one of the orators at a big meeting held at Antioch
Baptist Church, and who really desired to be the branch’s lawyer
and who was a candidate for mayor in 1919, soliciting and receiv-
ing the vote of several colored citizens—is insidiously endeavor-
ing to construct a political fence and in order to ingratiate him-
The above interrogation, so often uttered in contempt of the self into the hearts of prejudicial and rabid “Negro haters,” he
constituted authority, is more serious than upon the surface seems has injected the “race question” into his charges,
evident    I There is an old expression that “God does not love ugly” and
,    .    - ,    , rPl    :t, I from the results thus far attained by his charges against Dr.
The regrettable and disgraceful race riot at Tulsa last week is    ,    ,    , ,    ,
K    r ,    .    ,, •    . „    Slataper, Superintendent P. W. Horn and some female teachers, it
the culm.nat.on of a re.gn of lawlessness ... th.s country w.thoot | ^ J ^    ^    ^ form
parallel or precedent in the annals of cv.l.zed man.    ] He asked for Dr. Slataper's dismissal because the physician
Respect for law and order, like the hoop s urts worn y e| vaccinated white and colored children in the same room and be-
“WHERE IS THE OLD LAW, ANYHOW?”
women years ago, is a thing ot the past, and to make bad matters
worse, men, who boast of their "Americanism,” “superiority” and
“Christianity,” are now insidiously trying to overthrow their own
government by the operation of orders and organizations dia-
metrically opposed and antagonistic to the supremacy of the law.
It does not take a seer to see where such a program will ulti-
mately lead to and what awful and irreparable damage will be
sustained by this increasing disrespect for law and order.
The Informer, far removed from the scene of the domestic dis-
turbance in Oklahoma, is not attempting to fix the guilt upon this
person or that person; but it does know that the widespread;
cause he had them to sit in the same room while waiting to be
served.
Undoubtedly this eminent* (?) barrister has forgotten that they
ride in the same street cars and that in countless cases the chil-
dren of his race play with and are nursed and car-d for by colored
children.
Since he is so bitterly opposed to the two races meeting to-
gether, why did he make it his business to always attend some
colored gathering and make a speech about “justice” and “fair
play” for the colored American in the South?
He had no particular charges against Superintendent Horn,
reign of lawlessness in this country is wholly and solely respons-j on]v that the head of the school system did not conduct the
ihle for the inter-racial conflict, and unless something is done im- j department to suit his fancy and because he wields a “big stick”
mediately to create respect for law and order and put an end t0|0Ver hjs teachers.
ruthless mob violence, the days of this republic are numbered.    As for one poor, unfortunate female pedagogue, it appears that
Press reports stated that whit's formed a mob to lynch a col-j.she came South a few years ago and hearing of a colored oculist
■ored youth incarcerated for an alleged “attack” upon a white girl j handling a fine line of eye glasses and selling the same article
in Tulsa, and that the colored citizens gathered to prevent a lynch- j cheaper than white oculists and optometrists, she committed the
ing bee, which is the scourge and curse of America.    ; unpardonable sin of purchasing a pair of glasses from said race
If these reports are correct, both races were at fault and since j oculist, and despite the fact that the purchase was made about
one contingent was bent upon taking the law into its own hands ' five years ago and in view of the fact that she recommended
and meting out punishment according to its own ideas and as
the other group was determined to prevent such a disgraceful
stunt by resorting to lawlessness also—giving due recognition to
racial prejudice, antipathy and hatred—a clash was inevitable,
■especially with the police and constabulary officers conspicuous by
their absence.
And why were these police officers absent in such a situation?
It is the same old story of them being conveniently absent in
order that the mob could do its dirty and diabolical work and
thus the identity of the mobocratic participants could not be estab-
lished. It is the same old game resorted to so much in the South
•when colored people are the objects and victims of the wrath of
hellish and heathenish mobs.
little concern to The Informer; for it is a comedy skit pure and
simple.
The thing that should cause us to reflect is the trend of events
and our seeming indifference and lethargy about the things that
most vitally concern and affect our racial group.
It is all right for us to purchase goods from whites, but when
the doctrine of business reciprocity is practiced those of the white
race, who give the colored race a little patronage, are targets of
abuse and condemnation and they are threatened or intimidated
for trying to live and help others to live.
These incidents and the fact that there are stores in this city
that do not care for nor cater to colored rade, should spur our
race here to embark in mercantile enterprises of our own, and
thus obviate the necessity of men intensifying the inter-racial
situation and appealing to and fanning the flames of racial hatred
and antipathy by such prejudicial and incendiary charges and
counter-charges.
Forty thousand colored people will support and vouchsafe the
success and permanency of any enterprise launched and operated
by our people here; for God knows we are tired of being humili-
ated and embarrassed, to say nothing of our good women being
manhandled and roughly treated, in so many of the local stores
operated by men of other races for their racial contingent.
Constructive action will beat all the complaining agitation in
the world, for “he who would be free himself must strike the first
blow.”
This is no brief for those against whom this white lawyer has
brought his charges, but it is a plea or suggestion that the col-
ored race should embark in big business enterprises of its own
and thereby accelerate our progress and lessen-the occasion for
racial contact and the resultant injecting of this “race (fuestion”
into our everyday life without any provocation.
In the vernacular of the street, “Let us either put up or shut
up!”
this colored oculist to her teacher comrades, her summary dismis-
sal is demanded.
PORT ARTHUR
The manual training department of
! Lincoln Avenue School made rapid
progress under the supervision of Prof,
some very useful articles, such as li-
brary tables, tabourets, etc. They also
constructed a building 25x30. which
will be used for auto mechanics. The
We wonder how our race feels under such conditions, when it | tabernacle being used by the M. E.
is borne in mind that we purchase commodities from white busi-i Church was constructed by this depart-
ness and professional men and spend millions of dollars annually j ment and ,heir adaptability to the use
I of mechanical instruments speaks of
with white institutions?
Why, we even have some colored school principals—one in par-
ticular—who line up their colored pupils and march them to stores
near the school operated and owned by men of the white race,
urging them to patronize these foreigners in lieu of members of
their own’ race. (Don’t press us too hard or we’ll call names.)
Wonder how this type of “race educators” feel now?
As far as the charges go and The results obtained, are of
the great good to be derived by this
community from t,his department.
Port Arthur can boast of having the
first Negro Boy Scouts of America in
Texas. "Phere are 25 Boy Scouts of
the tenderfeet rank, having passed
their test successfully. They are now
contemplating camping for a week.
Messrs. Sidney Pernetter and E. Bras
man of Calvert were in the city Wed-
nesday as the guest of Drs. Pernetter
and Baker. They were very much im-
pressed with the layoff and land-lock-
ed harbor of the city. Dr. Shelton, the
lady dentist, has opened her parlor at
444 West Seventh Street and is now
ready to give the long-hoped-for dental
service here. Mrs. D. G. Baer is
home for the summer, having just com-
pleted the term as teacher at Beau-
mont High School. Miss Joyce Webb
arrived Thursday from Wiley, having
"remained to attend commencement.
Mr. Lewis Carter, Sr., of Beaumont is
visiting his daughters at the residence
of Mrs. W. Johnson on Washington
Avenue. Mrs. Johnson gave her daugh-
ter Helen a birthday party Monday
evening. Mrs. Addie Floyd is in the
city from Galveston. Mrs. Spencer
Johnson and children left Tuesday
night for Homer, La., visiting relatives
prior to moving to California.
Dear Ole Orgustus: I met a po’ little
10 yeer ole gal chile tuther day whut
wuz in er orful fix. My i’s jes ’fused
ter keep dry an’ grait big steers kep’
runnin’ rite strate down the sides' uv
my jaws! an’ chasin’ wun ernuther
cross de boozum uv my new silk shurt
whut I hain’t got yit, an’ I cooden’t
wipe ’em off kauze I dun lef’ my oan-
ly hole hankerchuf at hoam ter git
washed fer nex’ Sunday. Yas Gus, I
sho wuz full ter de brim at de site uv
dat po’ little deform'd '''chile. Yu see,
she had her rite arm held strate up
in de air abuv her little haid an’ cood-
en’t ter sav her littel life tuck it down.
I sho felt sorry fer her an’ outen pure
simperthy, I rushed up ter see whut
I cood do fer her, thinkin p’haps I cood
git her in sum charity ward uv sum
good hospital whut has sich er thing
kernected wid dere ’stablishment. I
axed de littel angui whut brung about
her perdickermint an’ she looked up
inter my i’s wid her little brown i’s
full uv steers an’ sed; "Mistah, I’se
got in dis fix tryin’ ter hole onto my
muther’s skurt whilst us wus out walk-
in’.”
Yu no dese are sho hard days fer
de po’ wurkin’ wommens.
Dey has er hard time tryin’ ter maik
de tops uv dere socks meat de hems
uv dere skurts.
An’ does yu no. Gus, I dun maid er-
nuther ‘skovery.’ Dey doan’t ware bofe
un em de saim culler no mo. On wun
lim’ is er yaller wun an* on de uther
twig is er red or blue wun. Yessir, dat
ain’t no heresay, cause I dun bin
standin’ roun’ dat jitney stan’ on Mi-
lam Street, an’ I diden’t hav’ my specs
in my pockit nuther.
Yu no, Gus, de Juneteenth are jes
ovah de finse dere an’ I’s bin lookin’
roun’ tryin’ ter fine out if innyboddy
had er sute good nuff fer me ter beg
er borry ffer ter maik my Juneteenth
speach in. Yu see ’fesser Jimmie Dan-
iel Ryan an’ de rest uv dat Mancipa-
shun Park Board dun a’iected me ter
orate fer ’em on dat grate day, an’
I jes gotter hav on de rite sorter togs.
So I wint up de steers at 418l/2 Travis
Street an’ tuck my ole fo’ de war
chum (O. S. Rots, de tailor) by de
cote sleeve an’ brung him off erside
an’ put er bug in het yeer an’ he dun
tole me ever thing it awl rite, an’ I
noes it tis cause ole Rossibus never
tole er tingle lie in his born days. An’
bleeve me, he noea how ter cut an’ fit
ennything frum er tode frog ter er
masterdun.
Yaasir, I’ll be in de p’rade. Cose I
hates ter maik little Jimmie an’ Mr.
Hubert git jellus, but doant blame me.
Jes tell yo troubles ter Alex S. Ross.
Say Gustavus, does you disremem-
ber me tellin’ yu ’bout dat talkin mer-
sheen in britches, de honerbul Mr. Sam
Stevenson? Well, he dun got de rite
bee in his bonnit an’ is usin’ his reddy
tung sellin’ Madam Franklin’s preper-
ashuns, in ever little town an’ hamlit
in de souf. His boss is sho dun fell fer
Sam’s loquacity. (How’s dat, Gus?)
Yu awlso disremembers dat little
mijjit, whut sings tenner fur Antioch
quire naimed Floyd, little Floyday, I
calls him, well I sho is got his gote.
I skeered him moughty ni ter deth
las’ yeer. Yu no he’s er kind uv
Shakespere, but I skeered awl de po-
etry outen him. I bet he cain’t even
beet dis;
De good old picknick days am heer,
De happiest uv de yeer,
it’s chickin fried and chickin
broiled
An’ plenty uv cold neer beer.
W’en
%
TALKING ABOUT THE INFORMER.
Editor C. F. Richardson of The
Houston Informer, Houston, Texas,
stands like a stone wall for "LAW
AND ORDER.” He is as sane as the
sanest and as sound as a gold dollar in
his arguments for the ideal in govern-
ment. No genuine 100 per cent Ameri-
can should find anything to condemn
in Editor Richardson because of his
manly stand in the defense of right.
He is entitled to the unqualified en-
dorsement of law-abiding citizens the
world over. We need no invisible
government. AH we need is the
proper enforcement of the laws of the
visible government. If the present
laws on the statute books do not meet
the necessary requirements, make
more stringent laws and enforce them
regardless to race or color. A viola-
tion of the law is simply a violation,
no matter who the perpetrator or per-
petrators, nor to whom the punish-
ment is meted out to. Constituted au-
thority must be respected and upheld.
—The Peoples’ Mouthpiece, Austin,
Texas.