Race and Place Newspapers

Location: Charlottesville, Virginia
Date of Publication: June 30, 1934 (Tuesday)
Frequency: weekly

Page 01

Column 01
American Citizenship Defined

Transcript of Article

A citizen is one owing allegiance to, and entitled to protetion from a government. Allegiance under a democratic form of government means a loyalty to the Republic that acknowledges the duty of obedience to all rightful authority.

Fathers of this nation created a governemnt of the pople, for the pople, and by the people - and by the language of that Guide that they left us, which is the Constitution, they demanded us to keep it so.

Obedience to rightful authority does not mean just joining thearmy when a draft is made; it means full obedience to all rightful authority. NOw our government, due to its type, makes an implied demand that is as urgent as a call to arms or a requ est for all old gold.

It guarantees that the "will of the people" shal always be paramount, which clearly points out to every would be citizen the necessity and significance of participatin on all government activity. To this end, ballots were devised and the system of votin g introduced.

Allegiance is a requisite for citizenship in most lands, but the term means different duties in those different lands. It means subjectin to nobility in some lands; in other cuntries it means homage to a crown. In America allegiance means obedience to Rightful Authority. The demand may be a call to arms, a request for old gold or a call to the election polls.

Men who fail to obey the call to arms are branded cowards and their cititzenship is figuratively taken from them. Men who do not turn inold gold when it is requested by Rightful Authority are classified as hoarders, without certain rights belonging to c itizens, and men who disregard that implied urge to help govern themselves through the method of voting, are termed "Slackers" and are rightfully denied certain privileges and benefits promised by a governemnt of the people, for the people and by the peop le. Let the man who wishes to be a representative American citizen respect duly the laws, written and unwritten, laid down by America.

Summary of Article
An article that defines citizenship as "one owing allegiance to, and entitled to protection from a government." The author proposes that an important part of this allegiance is a responsibiltity to vote.

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Column 02
Lynchers in Congress

Transcript of Article

The Council of Southern Women for the prevention of Lynching circulated literature several years ago designed to educate the masses above a brutal custom that has taken 4,751 lives since 1882 in Southern states alone. Interested women with headquarters in Atlanta, Ga., have sent speakers out to mountains, churches and delegation, and to county schools in the swamp lands throughout the South ina sincere attempt to prevent lynching. Pamphlets tell of the mistakes mobs have made and the "framed up" lies t hat have caed the death of some innocent men. Others give history of some of the actual cases, showing a very different "charge" from teh usual "rape" charge that some newspapers use to increase circulation.

Recent happenings in the 73rd Congress that adjourned several weeks ago, give us reason to believe that the Council of Women for the prevention of lynchngs should lose no time in sending some literature and fw delegates to some of our Federal law makers. Despite the thousands and thousands of signed petitions sent in by Negro and white citizens of America requesting that the anti-lynching bill be brought to the floor of the Senate for a vote, Congress adjourned without considering the Costigan-Wagner Bi ll. Senator McKellar of Tennessee and Senator Smith of South Carolina resorted to parliamentary tricks that killed the bill.

It has been the opinion of the public for years that the illiterate whites of the Suth are the blood-thirsty mobsters hat repeatedly disgrace this Republic with this savage method of punishment. But attention should be directed now to Washington and to that other type of mobster who filibusters and uses all sorts of tricks to give his "voters unmolested" privilege of burning, shooting and killing at will.

Summary of Article
An article highlighting the apathy of Congress in regards to the anti-lynching Costigan -Wagner Bill.

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Page 04

Column 01
Reply to the Letter of Last Week

Transcript of Article

My dear Sir:

If you think Communism is action designed to abolish segregation, lynchings and forced Negro labor, then I must inform you that you automatically place yourself among the groups of misinformed Negroes. Our present form of government stands for equality before the law, it does not advocate the lynch law and it expressly guarantees "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" to the masses. If these are "shackles" that we are wearing now, Communism, at its best, seems to offer a newer, less safe pair of "shackles" if a Soviet America should be like a Soviet Russia.

Being true to a distinctly radical characteristic, you outlined very carefully the Communist platform. What is this program, may I ask? How shall the government become overpowered? How shall private property be seized? How shall the proposed new regieme handle production and distribution? How may employment be guaranteed to every man? Russia has answered the above questions, but it required a dictator, who took God from the people and substituted smalll statues of himself. It required a government that abolished the exploitation of labor by capital and took up the job of exploiting for its own benefit.

American Negroes will adopt themselves to, and become an efficient part of the present form of government where at least a pretense is made at giving freedom to men and endowing them with certain rights that cannot be made secondary to the whims of power drunk Dictators.

You give me credit for being versed in the "technique of journalism." Thank you! I want to add that I am also familiar with the lighter chapters of Karl Marx and the political history of Russia under the Soviet regime, which may account for my "overlooking" ethical duty to the people I serve.

I rather liked the humor in your last paragraph. It reminds me of a merchant who would say "I have candy, I have apples, I have cakes. If you don't buy something your head will ache. [sic] You may interpret the principles of Communism as meaning political and social advancent for the Negro, but I shall still wonder why these same principles failed, when they were actually put to test, to advance socially and politically, the masses of Russia. Labor is still exploited, as it was under the Czar, only this is done by the government rather than the capitalists and the masses still move at the crack of the whip, only it is the whip of Stalin rather than that of the numerous lords and noblemen.

Summary of Article
Editor Thomas Sellers' scathing reply to an Open Forum letter printed in the June, 23 issue of "The Reflector."

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"The Governor Speaks," is incorrectly linked to "Reply to the Letter of Last Week"