The Informer and Texas Freeman (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 48, No. 65, Ed. 1 Saturday, February 13, 1943 Page: 1 of 16
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: The Houston Informer and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Rice University Woodson Research Center.
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Colored Carnegie Librery,
eri ■ a 1 Robin St..
Houstor ,cas-
Z-1
Man, Woman Brutally Beaten On Highy
OUR BOYS WIN PLAUDITS IN GREAT BRIT
Made Plans For The Little Miss
H—
be WTO r m e r
FREEMAN
Invest In War
VOL. 48—NO. 65
T ex
Bonds & Stamps
HOUSTON, TEXAS, SAT., FEB. 13,1943
PRICE: 10 CENTS
Court Drops Charges Against Bolton
14 Made
Officers
In Army
MRS. MARVA BARROW and her famous husband SOT. JOE LOUIS
BARROW, heavyweight champion of the world, were snapped in this
pose several months ago in one of their lovely Chicago apartments as they
scanned lists for the layette, and otherwise made plans for the birth of
their little heir. Little Miss Brown Bomber graced the fond dreams of the
happy couple by her appearance at 6:04 a. m. at Provident Hospital in
Chicago, weighing a hefty seven and a half pounds. Little Miss Barrow's
birth has been awaited with interest by more people in the WORLD at
large than any birth in the twentieth century with the possible exception
of the heir to the throne of Great Britain.
on Is Named
ing Successor
Judge Hastie
WASHINGTON, D. C.—The War Department this week
announced the appointment of Truman K. Gibson, Jr., of
Chicago, Illinois, as acting Civilian Aide to the Secretary of
War. Mr. Gibson succeeds Judge William H. Hastie, whose
resignation became effective February 1, 1943.
Mr., Gibson has been serving as ———————• -
Aircraft
Students
Get Jobs
HOUSTON. — "I was hired
yesterday as a sheet metal
worker at the Lockheed Vega
plant as the first colored air-
craft worker from the air-
craft school in Houston,” W.
M. Dawson, one of the first
enrollees in the local effort to
prepare Negroes as aircraft
skilled workers, wrote Mon-
day to his wife and classmates at
the school last week from Los An-
geles, California.
Dawson was among the first to
start the aircraft course when the
first school for Negroes in Texas
was established here last Novem-
ber, and left several days ago for
the West Coast for employment in
the big war effort in which this
nation is engaged.
He named in his "letter to his
fellow students," seven plants on
the West Coast where "Negro skill-
ed aircraft workers are being hired
if they are qualified.”
A letter received here Wednesday
from Leon Lee, from Los Angeles,
Cal. states that he has also gone to
work at the Lockhead plant in
Burbank. He is a member of the
(See STUDENTS, Page 10, Col. 5)
assistant to Judge Hastie. He was
born at Atlanta, Georgia, in 1912
and was graduated from the Uni-
versity of Chicago School of Law
in 1935, being awarded a degree of
Doctor of Jurisprudence.
He engaged in the practice of law
in Chicago until his appointment to
the War Department in 1940. He
served as executive director of the
American Negro Exposition in Chi-
cago until its conclusion in Sep-
tember, 1940.
‘Settled’ Case’s
Presence In Court
Assailed By Judge
Soldiers Tried In Wrong Court
TESTIMONY OF WITNESSES
PETERS OUT; ALL CONFUSED
HOUSTON.—Thursday morning Judge Allie Peyton dis-
missed C. W. Rice’s assault charges against Rev. L. Vester
Bolton, after having heard the testimony of C. W. Rice, Dr.
Walter Minor, John “Sid” Thompson and Mrs. Valley, the
latter two employees of Rice, and the defendant. Rev. L.
Vester Bolton. After scoring the contestants for being in the
court on such a matter, the Judge
told Rice that he understood that
an agreement had been entered with
the police to settle the matter there
and that should end it, and that he
was dismissing the case.
Mr. Rice, on direct examination,
testified that Rev. Bolton had cut
him in the head, had "busted" him
in the face and had beaten him up
terribly, all while he was sitting
down doing nothing. (Rev. Bolton,
commenting on Rice’s testimony lat-
er, said that he was not aware that
Rice had been so well beaten up
until he heard Rice's testimony of
the many awful things that had
been dope to him).
John •'Ski” Thompson testified
that Rev. Bolton grabbed Rice in
the collar and had a knife in the
other hand. But on cross-examina-
tion he admitted that he did not see
the beginning of the contest and
practically forgot everything that he
was supposed to have seen. He was
finally dismissed as a very confus-
ed witness.
Mrs. Valley, another employee of
Rice, testified that Rev. Bolton had
one hand in his pocket, had Rice in
the collar, and that she saw Rev.
Bolton with a knife. On cross-ex-
amination the lawyers confused her
by asking how the Reverend could
have one hand in his pocket, the
other in Rice's collar, and she could
see him with a knife. This witness
never succeeded in rectifying those
(See COURT, Page 10, Col. 6)
Democracy Helped
Red Army Win Big
Stalingrad Battle
Matro
Strucl
With Gi
HOUSTON-A sordid
police brutality perpetr
a group of Houston <
most unprecedented in
drive; Mr. and Mrs. Shelby Camp,
bell, 4020′5. Nettleton, Dr. Charles
W. Pemberton, Freeman Everett,
organiser for the American Feder-
ation of Labor, and G. Whiteside.
Mr. Taylor is at his home recov-
ering from a brutal beating With
a blackjack and a stick in the
hands of minions of the law of
Harris and Ft. Bend Counties. Mrs.
Campbell with two gaping wounds
on her head inflicted from licks
from a pistol in the hand "of" an
elderly Harris County officer, is
under treatment for her wounds
and the shock of the brutal at-
tack.
Mrs. Taylor was not atacked
by the police, but is still
confined at her home from cuts
sustained from broken glass
when their automobile was side-
swiped by a truck occupied by
(See BEATEN, Page 16, Col. 7)
NAACP Protests
Dies Action In
Pickens Accusal
are the three Alexandria | new asking that the trio be released! ueneves me suinern are mnvcen.
who figure in the so-called because they were tried in the I They are (left to right) LAWRENCE
uta's Scottsboro Case.” Theywrons court. Also, an appeal from
believes the soldiers are innocent.
during
Sites Army’s Failure
Skilled Negro Aviators
lit
Sites Ar
By Wm. H. HASTIE
Former Civilian Aide, Secretary of War
WASHINGTON, D. C.—James L. H. Peck writes books and magazine articles on mili-
tary and civilian aviation. He is one of America’s best known authors in this field. Some
of his writings have been translated into other languages. He knows his subject, for he has
been a skillful flier and a close student of aviation for years. He was a fighter pilot in
the Spanish civil war. A veteran in his field, he is still a young man in his early thirties.
Peck is a Negro, I---------------------------------------------------------------------------
WILL CUT HEXT
COFFEE RATION
Reduced coffee inventories in the
hands of wholesalers and retailers
make it necessary to cut the next
coffee ration from one pound every
five weeks to one pound every six,
the Office of Price Administration
announced this week.
Stamp number 25, the next coffee
stamp, in War Ration Book One,
becomes valid on February 8, and
(See COFFEE, Page 7)
By Chatwood Hall
KOUIBYSHEV, U.S.S.R.-
(ANP) — Russia’s stunning
and major defeat of the
powerful Nazi army at Sta-
Young Bandit
Gets 20 Years
HOUSTON.—Boyd Jackson, 22,
and John E. Edwards, alias Jack
Ross, 2212 Pierce street, entered
pleas of guilty Tuesday to seven
charges of robbery by assault be-
fore District Judge Langston G.
King,and were sentenced to ten
years each in the state penitenti-
ary.
The pair who were apprehended
by police officers after a wild seige
of robbing pedestrians with knives,
and in some cases beating the vic-
tims, were arrested by officers about
midnight of Dec. 30 caught red-
handed in the Third Ward where
most of their operations took place.
Sentences of five years in each
case totalled - 70 years for the
youthful pair of bandits but the
years were allowed to run con-
currently in five of the cases and
brought the actual time that the
men will have to serve down to ten
years each.
Baptist Women’s
Calling Teachers
We would like to have infor-
mation of, from or about Negro
teachers who have taught more
than fifty years in Texas, wheth-
er in rural schools or city
schools. Anyone knowing such a
person or any persons them-
selves who have so taught, can
send the Information In to the
Editorial Department of The In-
former.
League To Meet
HOUSTON.—The Baptist Women's
League of Houston, composed of
laywomen from the various Bap-
tist churches of the city, has one
of the largest memberships of any
of the women organizations of the
city, it was revealed this week in
an announcement by Mrs. S. E.
(See BAPTIST, Page 16, CoL I)
lingrad, as well as success on
other fronts, is a direct re-
sult of complete Soviet de-
mocracy through which all
Red nationalities and races
fight shoulder to shoulder
with no thought of color.
America might well take a tip
from this condition. The American
army, operating on strict segregat-
ed lines with all-white and all-Ne-
gro units, has its share of petty
friction between races, thus lessen-
ing the effectiveness of the armed
forces as a whole. Time and efforts
that should be spent toward van-
quishing the enemy are used up in
racial friction and strife.
Every Color
In the ranks of the famed 62nd
Red army which halted Hitler's
hordes in the epic battle of Stalin-
grad were Russians of every color
and description fighting shoulder to
shoulder. In any regiment, company
or platoon of any branch of the
army could be found not only rep-
resentatives of the Russian major-
ity group but Ukrainians, Armen-
ians, Bloe-Russians, Jews, dark
Uzbeks, Tartars , Kazakhs, etc.,
fighting like lions to check Hitler's
Aryan racist gangsters.
Even the Spaniard, Ruben Ibar-
ruri, son of the Spanish people’s
heroine, Passionari, was killed
while leading his machine gun com-
pany into attack on the Germans.
Here are some examples of how
the Soviet nations! minority sol-
diers battled the flower of the
German army to a standstill. An
Usbek soldier, Izinbayev (Uzbeks
are virtually as dark as Negroes)
captured a German machine gun
single-handed, turned it on the
Nazis, and wiped out 70 enemies.
Three heavy German tanks, 60
Nazi Tommy gunners and German
planes attacked a group of Red
army soldiers commanded by a
Georgian, Elguilishville. Although
(See BATTLE, Page 10, Col. 5)
New York, N. Y.—In pro-
test against the attempted
ouster of William Pickens
from the Treasury Depart-
ment War Savings Staff on
recommendation of the Dies
Committee, Arthur Spingarn,
president of the National As-
sociation for the Advance-
ment of Colored People re-
leased a resolution passed recently
by the NAACP Board of Direc-
tors. *
The resolution which was sent to
Majority Leader John McCormack,
Minority Leader Joseph W. Martin,
Jr., and Louis Ludlow of the House
of Representatives, declared “this
arbitrary action of Martin Dies and
his followers in the House Repre-
sentatives should bring home to Ne-
groes throughout the country and
to all decent Americans inside Con-
gress and out, that character as-
sassination, professional lynching,
and intimidation of public officials
by the Dies clique must be stop-
ped.”
The Army air people are go get-
ters. The Air Forces are growing
fast. So the Air Command has been
eagerly gathering in men who know
something about aviation, as well
as large numbers who know little
in this field, but can learn. Yet,
there was no rush to get Peck. So
last year he volunteered his serv-
ices. The army hasn’t yet decided
whether to use him.
Probably something will be
found for Feck to do in the long
run. He Is too outstanding to be
passed over indefinitely. Of
.course, if he had been white, the.
only question would have been
whether the army or the navy
could have grabbed him first. But,
betas colored, he doesn’t have to
worry about the navy at all. And
the army has been more than
deliberate in considering his ap-
plication.
Fred H. Hutcherson is also an
American Negro pilot, young in
years but old in flying experience.
When I met him last spring he was
working for Canada, flying Amer-
ican made planes to England. Of
course, as a senior pilot he crossed
the Atlantic in command of a white
crew, but that did not seem impor-
tant to people who were interested
in getting as many bombers as pos-
sible to England as fast as possible.
I saw Hutcherson just after he re-
turned from delivering his sixth
bomber. Like most Americans he
had felt that he ought to be flying
for Uncle Sam. But somehow there
seemed to be a lot of red tape in
the handling of his application for
a commission in the Army Air
(See HASTIE, Page 10, Col. 4)
Another Messman
Gets Navy Medal
Dawson Defends
Pickens In His
Maiden Address
A 20-year-old Negro mess
attendant, who unhesitating-,
ly entered the most danger-
ous section of the stricken
aircraft carrier, U. S. S. Lex-
ington, during the Battle of
the Coral Sea, and assisted
in removing injured personnel
trapped below decks, has
been awarded the Navy and
Marine Corps Medal, the Navy De-
partment announced this week.
The heroic young mess attendant,
one of five enlisted men similarly
honored form the Lexington's
crew, is Elvin Bell, an orphan who
formerly resided with his aunt,
Miss Marie Lofton at 139-08 114th
Avenue, Jamaica, N. Y. He has been .
promoted from mess attendant, |
third class, to mess attendant, see- 1
ond class. -
Enlisted in ’41
Bell, who attended Jamaica High
School for one and a half years and
later served in the Civilian Conser-
vation Corps, applied for enlist-
ment in the Navy on July 18, 1941,
and reported for active duty im-
mediately
His citation reads:
"For distinguished heroism while
serving aboard the U. S. S. Lexing-
ton during the battle of the Coral
Sea on May 8, 1942. Voluntarily
joining a repair party fighting fire
in an area frequented by violent
explodings of gasoline vapor and
ammunition, Bell, although emerg-
ing in an exhausted condition un-
WASHINGTON, D. C.-
Making his maiden speech in
the House, Representative
William L. Dawson, Demo-
crat of Illinois, last Monday
defended William Pickens, a
Treasury Department em-
ployee, against a charge that
he is disqualified for employ-
ment in the Federal Govern-
mint because of Communist affili-
ations.
Mr. Pickens is the head of a
small section in the War Savings
Staff of the Treasury Department.
His function is to assist in the pro-
motion of the War bond program
among colored o i g a n i s a 11 o n s
throughout the country.
' In his speech, which was followed
(See DAWSON, Page !•, Cel. 3)
Three Women
Hurt In Panic
HOU TON—Three women work-
ers were injured in a stampede
Tuesday night when a broken motor
at the Ideal laundry, 3208 Louisiana
caused clouds of steam to roll into
the plant and pandemonium to
break loose among the frightened
employees
Injured in the rush when the
cylinder head broke loose from a
generator releasing the steam, and
treated in St. Joseph's infirmary
were Helen Johnson, 33, cuts on
4 (See WOMEN, Page 10, Col. 5)
HOUSTON BOY 1′73
SUCCESSFUL
CANDIDATE
London.—Fourteen colored
soldiers received commissions
on February 3 as officers at
the United States Army and
won the plaudits of Major
General Russell P, Hartle, .
deputy commander of the
American Forces in the Unit-
ed Kingdom.
They were the first group
of colored men to pass through the
United States Army Officers Can- '
didate School in this country.
Diplomas and commissions were
presented also to forty-three other
successful candidates. —
Addressing the colored men Gen- 1
eral Hartle said: t
"You are a credit to that great 5
section of our nation which is I
making an ever-increasing con- ,
tribution to the war."
To the entire body of new offi-
cers the general said:
“We are going to meet • tough,
well-armed and well-disciplined
foe, and we must strive for per-
fection. We must make a maximum
effort in training for combat. Our
sole objective is success in battle,
and our enemy must not be under-
estimated.”
Among the colored men commis-
sioned was, William P. Murphy of
Valdosta, Georgia, who has been in
the Army for twenty-five years. He
is 45 years old and was a master
sergeant before winning his bars.
The Others
The other colored men commis-
sioned are Technical Sergeant Sam-
uel L. Coleman, New York City,
Technician Fourth Class Richard W
ard c. wens, wasninetor ph ame
Master Sergeant William H. Cox
Brooklyn, New York; Corporal Wil-
liam F. Duckery, ■ Philadelphia
Pensylvania; Staff Sergeant Lester
W. Gordon, Brooklyn, New York;
First Sergeant Ernest J., Harris.
Neptune, New Jersey; First Ser-
geant Carl W. Pope, Columbus,
Ohio; Technical Sergeant Robert L.
Terrell, Houston, Texas; and Cof-
poral Kenneth E. Wilson, Brooklyn,
New York.
2 Soldiers
Get Medals
In England
ENGLAND. — In an impressive
ceremony, held amid the crackling
of nearby anti-aircraft guns, Lt.
Vernon G. Adams, Kittanning, Pa.,
and Sgt. Ernest Johnson, Cunning-
ham, Ala., a Negro, and both of
an American engineer unit sta-
tioned in England, were decorated . ,
pm with the Soldier’s Medal by Major
... General John C. H. Lee, command-
O ing Services of Supply, European
Theater of Operations.
ELVIN. BELL
hesitatingly entered the most dan-
gerous section of the stricken car-
rier and assisted in removing in-
jured personnel who had been trap-
ped below decks. His courageous
(See NAVY, Page 10, Col. 3)
______________-
The officer and enlisted man re-
I ceived the awards for heroism dis-
played on September 8, 1942, when
a small brick building located near
their camp was partially destroyed
by an explosion of land mines stored
within. Three British soldiers work-
ing in the building were injured.
As two of the injured staggered
from the building, thick with ex-
plosive fumes and full of unexplod-
ed land mines, Lt. Adams and Sgt.
Johnson with no regard for their
own safety rushed into the struc-
ture and succeeded in removing the
remaining injured men.
In praising both men for their
“distinguished and heroic service,”
Major General Lee pointed out that
the names, Adams and Johnson
(See MEDAL, Page 10, CoL 8)
RENEWS REQUEST FOR
MIXED AIR CORPS
NEW YORK, N. Y—Renewing its 1
request that Negro aviation cadets
be trained at all air bases and in
all branches of the Army Air Forces
without discrimination, the NAACP
this week wrote Secretary of War
Stimson as a follow-up to the resig-
nation of Judge William H. Hastie
as civilian aide to the secretary of
1 war. . . .. .
AGITATION FOR EDUCATION
-- ‘ ' .......-AN EDITORIAL ---------------
We have just read another race relationship editorial from
pen of our neighbor, the editor of the Houston Post. Thia time
editor of The Post adepts as the final word the statement of stud
editors of “The Daily Texan," a paper put out by the students of
University of Texas, purporting to contain all the wisdom MM
for the solution of the race question in the South.
Summarizing the editorial in the Daily Texan, our neighbor
(See Post, EA 12,00014 a. .
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The Informer and Texas Freeman (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 48, No. 65, Ed. 1 Saturday, February 13, 1943, newspaper, February 13, 1943; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1626737/m1/1/?q=%22%22~1: accessed August 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.