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Race and Place Newspapers
The Reflector
Location: Charlottesville, VirginiaArticle Transcripts
Date of Publication: June 02, 1934 (Tuesday)
Frequency: weekly
Page 01
Column 01
Transcript of Article
The Strike at Virginia StateEvery democratic institution is founded on one fundamental principle. That of the majority of the people involved to direct their policy with just consideration for, but not with disproportionate interference from the minority. Now this principle of the rule of the majority is responsible for many of the inherent defects of democracy. One of these defects is the dependence of good government on the education and intelligence of the majority. That is why we have schools.
But education-that is higher Negro education, has for the most part failed to take into its program a consideration of this social aspect and responsibility of education. The school authorities, as well as the great mass of people, feel that college is a place where a few young men and women come into contact with some theories, hypotheses, and techniques, for no well considered purpose-not as a place where intelligent planning for citizenship is to be undertaken. Consequently there has been no great pressure brought to bear on the colleges to make school life realistic. With a few exceptions, students have no voice in their own government, small cliques of officials direct and manage the school, ruthlessly repressing all free expression of thought and creative efforts on the part of other teachers and students.
The students of Virginia State College began this year to feel that conditions were unbearable. Hampton, Howard, Fisk, Lincoln, and other schools have all had major disturbances this year and in previous years. Virginia State College has never had a strike. The other schools had learned their lessons and changed their policies accordingly. Virginia State College had come to feel officially that the students there were spiritless and weak and had made no major change in its philosophy since the World War era, that is, so far as social responsibility and planning for citizenship is involved.
The strike at Virginia State was caused by a situation expressed in a list of twenty grievances drawn up by the student body. A platform of twelve demands was presented co-incidentally.
The strike was conducted orderly and violence was in each case begun by the administration. The administration becoming alarmed at the situation which it had carelessly precipitated, began a newspaper campaign to impress the public that the social aspect of the dissatisfaction was uppermost in the minds of the students. They seem to have succeeded in Charlottesville. Here a large group of people have performed the typically Negroid act of forming opinions without investigating. One man said, "Negroes have a capacity amounting to genius, for misunderstanding events." In Richmond, and other more enlightened sections of Virginia, the issues are more clearly arranged in the public mind.
The platform and grievances as well as the procedures are too long and involved to be presented. We must, however, say that to form opinions without first being in possession of the facts, is a crime against intelligence and a confirmation of the insistent impression that Charlottesville people are not capable of thinking intelligently.
Summary of Article
A report on an orderly student strike held at Virginia State, characterizing it as a constructive lesson in responsible and active citizenship.
Column 03 or 04
Transcript of Article
The Foundation of our DemocracyThe national conference on fundamental problems in the education of Negroes met in Washington several weeks ago. In the opening session, Mr. Ickes and Mr. Zook, members of the "new deal" administration, made lengthy speeches, in which they praised the Negro race for its "Sixty Years of Progress".
A day or two was given for the airing of certain collected facts and figures and amoung other facts, it was stated that the fourteen Southern States spend $40,000,000 and more, annually on education for the whites, than they spend on education for the Negro. So, before adjourning the delegates to the convention adopted a program that will mean more employment for Negro teachers and better wages, if the plan is successfully put in operation. A few of the objectives listed in the approved document are, (1) one hundred and eleven schools and colleges should be made available for the Negro youth. (2) The training, compensation and working conditions of the Negro educator should meet the highest standards of professional growth and leadership. (3) A single standard of adequacy should be established for the financial support of schools and that all moneys appropriated for this purpose should be equitably distributed and properly administered.
Of course, just what will be done about the abovementioned suggestions, remains to be seen, but the conference and its conclusion give evidence that certain groups in America are aware of the burden that the present system of education for Negroes places on the entire country.
Since it is a fact that the progress of America has depended, almost wholly, upon its educational system, since it is true that our government is a democracy and our nation is controlled by the will of the people, then, the success of our country depends upon the ability of the masses, in turn, depends upon the training received in full term public schools, accredited high schools and standard institutions of higher education.
If our Nation is to remain the great Republic that it is now, if democracy is to be our heritage, then America should lose no time in providing all her citizens, regardless of color, with equal educational advantages, for, as one of our early writers said, "On the diffusion of education among the people, rests the preservation and perpetuation of our free institutions."
Summary of Article
An article reporting plans by members of the New Deal administration to improve black American education.
Column 03
Transcript of Article
Did Negroes Participate in the Last War?A High School pupil, fourteen years of age and residing in a nearby city wants to know if any colored men fought in the World War? He adds that he has completed several courses in history, required by his state and offered by his school but he cannot recall a single paragraph in his text stating that Negroes fought in the last war.
A little boy of ten summers glanced up from a Hearst paper, several Sundays ago and wanted to know whether or not he would have to go to war when he became a man? He asked this because he had been looking at Floyd Gibbons war pictures for months without seeing the face of a Negro soldier or reading of the deeds of a Negro regiment.
It is the logical query of Negro and white school children today, when the late war is being discussed the classrooms-"Did Negroes fight too? We don't see account of it in our history text." Yes! To be sure they fought 400,000 patriotic American Negroes, brave and loyal, were in active military service during the last war. To be specific, Henry Johnson and Needham Roberts, members of the 369th Infantry were attacked, on May 15, 1918, by a raiding party of thirty Germans and deported themselves so heroically that they were the FIRST American soldiers in France to receive medals for bravery. The soldiers of the 370th Infantry were the first American troops to enter the French Fortress of Laon when it was wrested from the Germans. After four years of warfare, these same troops FOUGHT THE LAST BATTLE of the war and advanced as far as thirty-five kilometers in one day.
Yes! Negro soldiers fought in the World War but some historians and war photographers become forgetful after a crisis has passed and remember and honor the deeds of a chosen few.
Summary of Article
An article that points out the selective memory of "historians and war photographers" who do not include information about black soldiers in their accounts of World War I.
Page 02
Column 01
Transcript of Article
"Most Appealing Ad" ContestEach week, "The Reflector" is offering a prize of $1.00 to the person writing the best letter on the above mentioned subject. Out of the sixty letters submitted, the judges decided upon that of Janet Brown. The letter is as follows:
The "ad" that appealed to me most is that of the Victory Shoe Store. It has something about shoes for graduation. Naturally that attracts attention and since graduation means some kind of a victory, the name Victory was very appropriate at just this time. So because of the coincidental occurance of victory and graduation, I select this ad as the most appealing "ad" to me.
Yours truly,
Janet Brown
Summary of Article
A letter to the editor written by the winner of the weekly Most Appealing Ad contest, Ms. Janet Brown.
Column 02
Transcript of Article
Music (Advertisment)The Carrie. V. Dyer Alumi Chapter, composed of the graduates and former students of Virginia Union University, will present a rare musical treat to the music lovers of Charlottesville, Monday night, June 4th, 1934, 8:30 o'clock, at the MT. ZION BAPTIST CHURCH. The occasion will be a recital by Mr. Frank Roane, of Richmond, Va.
Mr. Roane is a baritone soloist of unusual merit. He is physically equipped with the type of phyisque that denotes health and strength so necessary to a singer; vocally, with a voice of lovely quality, unusual range and great power; mentally, with a brain that is keen and active; and spiritually with a love for and knowledge of the real values of life, that enable him to lay hold of the divine as reflected in art.
Music critics who have heard this singer agree as to his vocal ability and artistry, and predict for him a foremost place amoung the vocalists of modern times.
A large audience is anticipated.
Summary of Article
An advertisment for a musical event featuring Mr. Frank Roane at Mt. Zion Baptist Church on June 4th, 1934.
Page 03
Column 03
Transcript of Article
Food for ThoughtSummary of Article
Life is a field of education,
Death ends the term without vacation,
When comes the final examination
Will you pass?
A short conciet concerning the destination of the soul.
Page 05
"Untitled (short story)," June 2nd, unlinkedColumn 03
Transcript of Article
Tittle TattleLazy Maple trees are swaying in this balmy breeze, and out of doors is filled with a delightful fragrance from Nature's huge sachet bag of budding roses. What a day! And I shall not spoil such beauty with the penning of my gathered "dust", it must wait; scandal is second now, rumors are out of order, cross town low down must be filed for the present, while my soul takes a rendezvous with Spring.
Ah, Main St. has even caught the Spirit and the Hill is vacant; number salesman have vanished; yes, the Avenue is clear and pure and fresh. Spring has struck it too.
And there is old Ridge Street, its stately trees and old Colonial dwellings lending an air of charming quietness. Happy children romp and play, carefree, hastily as though evening may come before enough play is done. Those anxious, eager faces, beaming with joy, and innocence that seem to fairly shout "It is Spring, It is Spring".
Now here I am at last-the end of my little journey,-The Commons,-away from noisy crowds and rattling vehicles, away from meddlesome Babbles, away from all save large oaks, the sloaping green meadows, refreshing silence, the clear blue sky, and-Spring.
Summary of Article
A different take on the normally humerous gossip column as the author pauses to celebrate the beauty of Spring.
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