The Houston Informer (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 11, No. 47, Ed. 1 Saturday, April 19, 1930 Page: 3 of 8
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TON
AY, APRIL 19,1930
Kansas Cay, Mo.—(ANP).Mrs.
3 Nannie A. Hunter of Kansas City, an-
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By EUGENE GORDON
At the very start of an article
on the thirteen most interesting
Negroes in this country I face
two questions already asked by
every intelligent reader; they
are, first, “What do you mean
by interesting?” and, second,
“Interesting to whom?” The
answer to the second question
can be given now; the answer to
the first will come later.
Interesting to whom? In the
first place, to the largest num-
ber of literate and intelligent
citizens of the country; and, in
the second place, to me as the
writer of the article.
It is obviously necessary in such a
paper to name only those persons who.
are known to the largest number of
fairly intelligent residents of these
states. Boston has its local goodfel-
low, who is, to Bostonians, the most
interesting chap on earth; New York
has another; Atlanta, Los Angeles,
Pittsburgh, Dallas, Washington and
Chicago each has another; but unless
these various local celebrities are
known more or less nationally, also,
they do not beong in this sketch,
they do not belong in this sketch,
localities mentioned entered a nation-
al contest for the most interesting of
all, that one who received the greatest
acclaim would probably be designated
as the most interesting in the Unit-
' ed States. The chief runner-up would
— be the second most interesting; and
Helen Burroughs; (6) Archibald Jas.| Carey, A. M., Ph. D., D. D.; (6) Geo..
Washington Carver, M. S.; (7) Ben-Hope Perry, LL. B., should be able to
jamin Jefferson Davis, Sr.; (8) Oscar qualify on his name alone, I fear that
DePriest; (9) William Christopher he’ll have to drop out. As a Negro
Handy; (10) Maurice Hunter; (11) | American who embraced the Jewish
James Weldon Johnson, A. M., Litt.
D.; (12) Mordecai Wyatt Johnson, B.
D., S. T. M., D. D.; (18) Rufus Lewis
Milford Perry, LL. B.; (14) William
Pickens, A. M., Litt. D.; (15) Julian
David Rainey, LL. B.; (16) Arthur
Alfonso Schomburg; (17) George
Samuel Schuyler; (18) Mary Church
Terrell; (19) William Monroe Trotter,
A. M.; (20) Walter Francis White;
(21) Louis Thompkins Wright, M. D.
In one way or another the owner of
each of these names is interesting. It
pained me excruciatingly to eliminate
any of them. But to eliminate was
essential. It could not possibly be
avoided. The final number must be
18, not 21. But if each of them seem-
ed, at first glance, to be interesting as
his neighbor, and I still realized that
the list had to be shortenend, there re-
mained no alternative for me save to
rationalize my ruthlessness, this ra-
tionalization to be for the benefit of
any possible Questioners.
Let us begin, then, with the first
person named. Robert Sengstack Ab-
bott, LL. B., LL. D., passes inspection
after only a cursory glance. He stays.
And so does Nannie Helen Burroughs.
We bow them aside. We shall tell
them later why they are honored thus
over J. Berni Barbour and Bessye J.
Bearden. Our business at present is
to tell the rejected why they are re-
jected, rather than to tell the others
why they are accepted.
J. Berni Barbour is to me one of
faith so as to marry a Jewish maiden,
Mr. Perry is not without glamour, but
knowledge about him among those
who mutter aloud when they read the
newspaper is too spare.
William Pickens stays, and so does
Julian David Rainey, but Arthur Al-
fonso Schomburg goes. There will be
a place for this magnificent book col-
lector in another article.
10 60-
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so on.
There being no such contest, and
this article being written mainly for
the pleasure I derive from the busi-
ness, selections must be made on the
assumption that nationally known
persons who appeal to my catholic in-
terest will appeal also to the in-
terest of other intelligent observers.
And I may as well point out now as
later that a man or a woman need
not be great or important in order to
be interesting.
Many an important man is color-
less, and therefore uninteresting; for
example, William Edward Burghardt
DuBois. No man of 62 who spent
precious time coddling a pet goatee to
taper at a certain angle could interest
me, except, perhaps, academically. For
a person like that must be more than
a little pompous, and given to strut-
ting, and pompous strutters, as such,
do not hold my appreciative or sym-
pathetic regard, save as an abstract
phenomenon.
Again, what may interest my good
neighbor of Boston and Cambridge in,
say, “Shag” Taylor, who, they tell me,
is one of the most popular goodfel-
lows in the nation, may leave me as
cold as yesterday morning’s flapjacks.
Admitting that the ebullient Shag
is a goodfellow, I do not personally
find in him that hilarious interest a
number of my esteemed acquaintances
do. He does not warm me; he does
not so much as touch me. There is
no response in me to those emanations
of goodfellowship of his that pene-
trate countless local hearts. More-
over, it is because the interest he
arouses is local that he and others
like him cannot be considered in my
final estimate. These gentlemen-and
ladies—have not performed on a large
enough stage or before a large enough
audience to be acclaimed outside the
limits of narrow personal acquaint-
anceship., .
You see, the thirteen persons final-
ly chosen must be thirteen who are
known in some degree to most liter-
ates in the United States. There must
exist in every one of these literates a
feeling that these thirteen concern
him. There must be, no matter how
vague, a feeling of personal concern-
ment in all these thirteen persons
whenever their names are heard or
are seen in print; a feeling of concern-
ment intense enough to fix the atten-
tion upon these interesting persons.
When that feeling exists, interest ex*
ists. And I believe that that feeling
does exist with respect to the persons
I have named as the most interesting
in the United States.
There was a great deal of mental
tightrope walking before I finally de-
cided on the 21 persons here listed.
Here is a complete roster, my favor-
ites being named in alphabetical or-
der: (1) Robert Sengstack Abbott,
LL. B., LL. D.; (2) J. Berni Barbour;
(3) Bessye J., Bearden; (4) Nannie
the most interesting fellows in the
country. He is a splendid musician
and a talented composer, having done
striking work in charge of the chorus
in Ziegfeld’s musical comedy “Show
Boat;” and as a story teller he could
make Taylor Gordon look like a stut-
tering amateur. But he is little known
outside of New York; even in Harlem
there are scores of bright persons who
do not know who J. Berni Barbour is!
Amazing, but a fact. Nor is he to
blame for this ignorance. He is more
than pleased to relate stories of his
accomplishments and adventure; the
trouble is that he is too busy to get
out among people. Being unknow na-
tionally, he will have to be eliminated.
Now Bessye J. Bearden is known to
virtually every mother, father and in-
fant in New York, not to mention her
acquaintance among all the debs and
their boy friends, among all charit-
able organizations which want free
publicity, and to almost .everybody
who has learned the trick of getting
a free dollar by telling a likely-sound-
ing tale of hard luck. And to every
one of the thousands who know her,
she is as interesting as a many-sided
human social dynamo can be. But
like J. Berni Barbour, she is not wide-
ly enough known.
And I have no right to assume that
because I could spend all my spare
time in New York—on those rare oc-
George Samuel Schuyler will re-
main in ranks; but Mary Church Ter-
rell, because the glamor that once en-
veloped her faded with a past genera-
tion, will please fall out.
William Monroe Trotter and Walter
White will please fill in the places left
vacant by those who have just drop-
ped out. Louis Tompkins Wright is
out, too; but we shall meet him in an-
other article,
n
Now, here we are! My roster now
reads like this: (1) Robert Sengstack
Abbott, LL. B., LL. D.; (2) Nannie
Helen Burroughs; (8) Archibald Jas.
Carey, A. M., Ph. D., D. D.; (4) Oscar
DePriest; (5) William Christopher
Handy; (6) Maurice Hunter; (7) Jas.
Weldon Johnson, A. M., Litt. D.; (8)
Mordecai Wyatt Jahnson, B. D., S. T.
M., D. D.; (9) William Pickens, A. M.,
Litt. D.; (10) Julian David Rainey,
LL. B.; (11) George Samuel Schuyler;
(12) William Monroe Trotter, A. M.;
(13) Walter Francis White.
Dr. Robert Sengstack Abbott has,
first of all, a most interesting middle
name. It was this, I admit, which
first attracted my attention to him.
Now, a man of such nondescript
physical appearance as Mr. Abbott’s,
yet who is interesting in spite of that,
cannot lightly be passed by. His uni-
que middle name, his unique little
mustache beneath the center of his
nose, his unconscious effort when in
public to seem overburdened with the
weight of grave matters, his black
complexion—these are some of the
superficialities which contribute to
the interest that surrounds this man.
These are the characteristics which
first arouse attention, but conscious-
ness, upon better acquaintance., of his
solid achievement is what holds at-
NTERESTINT
—)STATES
dhood type of
Tuberculosis
(By the Associated Negro Press)
Only recently, according to the Na-
tional Tuberculosis Association, has
scientific investigation disclosed the
important fact that there often exists
a condition in childhood that is the
forerunner of tuberculosis later in
life.
Strictly speaking, this condition is
not long tuberculosis at all in the be-
ginning, as the breathing surface of
the lung has not been seriously in-
vaded, but it is of great significance
because if it is recognized in time
steps can be taken to prevent the dis-
aster of pulmonary tuberculosis in
the teen age and early twenties. Dur-
ing childhood the disorder is confined
to small areas of the lung, including
the lymph nodes (sometime called
lymph glands), which are clustered
about the windpipe (in the chest) and
its two branches. These lymph nodes
serve as filters for foreign bodies,
such as dust particles and germs,
which may enter the lung. When
large quantities of tubercle bacilli
find their way into the body, however,
he effort of these nodes to stop their
further progress often results in dam-
age to the nodes. Ultimately,' the in-
jured portion of the nodes is replaced
by a hard, gritty substance called cal-
cium, which is what causes the sha-
dows on the X-ray plate and indicates
to the doctor that there has been a
struggle between the tubercle bacillus
and the child’s lung, or that the strug-
gle is still going on.
casions when I manage to get there—
talking with Bessye on matters of
mutual interest, that a majority of
citizens of these benighted states
would enjoy the same pastime. Per-
haps the masculine portion would;
but, Mrs. Bearden being a beautiful
woman, and women being given to
prejudice against beauties in mem-
bers of their sex, the feminine por-
tion of the citizens would likely vote
her decidely unpopular. So we bow
Bessye J. Bearden out.
Archibald James Carey. A. M.. Ph.,
D., D. D., bishop of the African
Methodist Episcopal Church, will step
aside, please, and wait.
Mr. Carver is, to me,, one of the
most interesting personalities in the
country, but of the 112 millions of
whites and black scattered across this
continent I doubt that a scant quar-
ter million have heard of him. He is
too important to discard; I reserve
him for a future article.
Benjamin Jefferson Davis, Sr., has
fascinated me ever since I was a
youngster on a Georgia plantation,
but of late his fame has been eclipsed,
so he is less known to the new gen-
eration than he was to an earlier. Re-
=* ono-boi.h O.E2F De Priest
please stay, as will also Wm. Chris-
topher Handy, Maurice Hunter, James
Weldon Johnson, A. M., Litt. D., and
the Rev. Dr. Mordecai Wyatt John-
son, B. D., S. T. M., D. D.
The venerable Robert Russa Moton,
A. M., has no place here, being inter-
eating merely as a laboratory speei-
men; and while Rufus Lewis Milford
A child is born free from tubercle
bacilli and lacking any natural im-
munity from the disease. When the
body is first invaded by the bacilli it
reacts by building a wall of tissue
around the bacilli to protect itself.
The result of this first invasion de-
pends largely upon the amount of
bacilli taken into the body. If large
amounts have been taken in (a “mas-
sive infection") the course of the dis-
ease is likely to be short and fatal,
but if the infection is not too large,
the bacilli are enclosed within the
protective wall and what is called a
“tubercle” results. An X-ray plate
would show a small dark shadow at
this point.
As a result of this first skirmish
between the body and the tubercle ba-
cilli the entire body becomes sensitiz-
ed to the presence of the bacilli so
that in the future, if other tubercle
bacilli enter the lungs, the protective
action is more responsive. Thus, many
persons pass through childhood with-
out pulmonary tuberculosis ever de-
veloping. In adult years, however,
the physical strain of business and
the cares of home-making often weak-
en the body so that the tubercle bacil-
li, which have been lying in wait ever
tention. *
As founder and publisher of the
Chicago Defender, Mr. Abbott is one
of the most interesting men in the
country. He arouses my personal in-
terest through his towering vanity;
a vanity that causes such captions as
the following to be printed on the edi-
torial page of the Defender: “Found-
ed May 6, 1905, by Robert S. Abbott,
LL. B.;” “American Race Prejudice
Must Be Destroy”—Robert S. Ab-
bott;” “Published by the Robert S.
Abbott Publishing Co., Inc.;” “Give a
wise man a chance and he’ll be wiser
—give a fool a chance and he’ll still
be a fool.—Robert S. Abbott.”
The proximity of the famous name
to the latter clause of that typically
Abbottonian proverb has no particu- .., _____________________
lar significance, I assure you. It was since the first infection, overcome the
simply an accident. For Robert S. - -
Abbott is hardly a fool. He was
barely given a chance, yet he has be-
come one of the best known and one
of the most influential Negroes in
the country, and the very idiosyn-
cracies I have enumerated contribute
to the aura of interest that surrounds
him. * * .
Nannie Helen Burrough, speaking
in Boston before the Ford Hall Forum
recently on “The High Cost of - Jim-
Crow Civilization,” aroused more
noisy hilarity than that body had seen
previously in a decade. Her whole at-
titude seemed to cry: “I’m a Negress,
and I intend to give you folks what
you expect me as a Negress to give
you. Here it is; take it!” And she
did give it. The whites bowled with
laughter along with some of the col-
ored folks; but most of the colored
folks burned with embarrassment.
“When she called herself a mahoga-
ny blonde,” whispered a fair-skinned
but race-conscious little Aframerican
maiden afterwards, “I almost passed
out.”
"The lady clown,” commented an-
other youth, who was challenged by a
Burroughs defender to deny that, in
spite of a vaudevillesque platform
manner, she had “put her message
across.” 4 „
Perhaps she did. I am personally
less interested in her message than in
her personality. It is the tetter that
renders her interesting. Aynone with
any pretensions at all to public speak-
of the important tests in the adult
type of the disease. For this reason,
too, there is no danger of contracting
the disease from such a child.
We have, however, two means of
discovering the condition. One is the
tuberculin test, a simple, harmless
skin test which makes use of the fact
that the body becomes sensitised af-
ter the invasion of tubercle bacilli. A
reddening of the skin at the point
where the tuberculin is applied indi-
cates the fact that tubercle bacilli ex-
ist in the body. A positive tuberculin
test, by itself, should cause no alarm
because it means simply that the to- '
bercle bacillus has gained entrance in-
to the body but does not ten us wheth. 1
er the body has overcome it or not.
Therefore, this test, if positive, should
be followed by an X-ray examination,'
which helps the doctor to determine"
what the extent of the damage, if any,
has been. One investigator has con-
eluded that, about 5% of the school ;
population shows some damage from
the tubercle bacillus, but in fully two. 4
thirds of these conditions is no longer
“active,” having been overcome by the
resistance of the body.
The latest investigations by leaders..,
in the field of juvenile tuberculosis
show several interesting facts. For
example, the fact that a child is un-
derweight does not help in making the
diagnosis because just as many chil-
dren of normal weight as underweight
children are afflicted. It exists slight-
ly more among city children than
among country children, and, more
among Negro children than among
white children. This also is true of
adults.
Any child with childhood type of
tuberculosis should be under observa-
tion until the age of 20 or later. He
should be relieved of all possible
strain at home, in school, strenuous
exercise and fatigue must be avoided
defects such as bad teeth or tonsils
must be corrected and good health
habits should be cultivated. Nourish-
ing food, sunshine and fresh air in -
abundance are essential, and ten or
more hours of sleep a night with rest
periods of an hour or more both morn-
ing and afternoon are necessary.
Of great importance also, is the ne-
cessity of seeking out the tuberculous
person with whom the child was in
contact and taking steps to prevent
further contact between them. Ex-
perience has shown that this person
usually is a member of the child’s own
family. When he is found, the wise
thing to do is have him examined imp
mediately by the doctor and also to
have all other members of the family
examined. Prompt action of this sort
has in thousands of cases led to dis-
covery of a tuberculous condition
among other members of the family
and enabled them to save their fives
by prompt treatment.
body’s resistance and tuberculosis de-
velops in the lung substance, the apex
of the right lung being the favorite
site.eo-eooeorgne
It will be seen, therefore, how im-
portant it is to discover the existence
of the childhood condition as soon as
possible in order to protect the child’s
future. Unfortunately it cannot be
discovered in the usual chest examina-
tions, because physical signs are ab-
sent and the symptoms, if any, are
vague. None are characteristic of this
particular condition. There may be
signs of undernourishment or slightly
subnormal health; there may be fre-
quent colds, but a cough is not com-
mon; and the child may be languid
and tire easily. Furthermore, the
PROTECT
— them from %
Tuberculosis
sputum is free of bacilli, which is one
ing can “put across” a message, but
anybody cannot, in addition, sizzle in- 1 ,
terest like Nannie Helen Burroughs.
' This interest is intensified by the
knowledge that Miss Burroughs heads
a nationally known school for girls
and that she commands great influ-
ence among Negroes—and a consider-
able number of whites—of the coun-
try. I have not met any, of her grad-
uates, but if they all emulate their
noted principal, .then there must be
just so many more interesting young
women in Aframerica.
Next week Mr. Garden continues
Ke
gelt..Tn
in health
Consult th
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Richardson, Clifton F. The Houston Informer (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 11, No. 47, Ed. 1 Saturday, April 19, 1930, newspaper, April 19, 1930; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1637708/m1/3/: accessed June 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.