"Faker Report False, Mrs. [illegible]
MRS. LOUISE MALONE BRAXTON BRANDS PRESS FAKER REPORT AS FALSE School Is At Fulton; Has Never Said Paducah Cincinnati, Ohio. Mr. I. Willis Cole, Editor Louisville Leader. Dear Sir: I read an article in last week's issue of the Leader in regard to the false report that I was representing a school located in Paducah, Ky. The Mr. C.B. Hosmer who sent the article to the Negro Associated press, can't truthfully say that he ever heard me mention Paducah, Ky., to my audience. I thing that Mr. Hosmer is dreaming or was misinformed. I have addressed large audiences in the North but always tell them I'm from Fulton, Ky., but not Paducah, Ky. Some three or four years ago I moved to Fulton, Ky., with this one idea in mind, to build a vocational school for young women. So far I have carried out my plans. I purchased 45 acres of land from a Mr. L.O. Bradford, banker of Fulton, Ky. I paid several hundred dollars down. My payments each month were one hundred dollars, making payments through the First National Bank Fulton, Ky. Mr. R.B. Beadles, cashier. Land cost $10,000. In 1924 we organized a board of directors in order to secure a charter. In 1925 charter of incorporation was granted by the secretary of State at Frankfort, Ky. The land has been nearly paid for. If I mistake not there is an indebtedness of $1,500. Vouchers from the bank of Fulton, Ky., will speak for itself. I have a competent secretary who handles all funds and pays all bills and accounts kept correctly. Each week my secretary sends all funds collected to the First National Bank at Fulton, in the form of a cashier's check or New York draft. We do business in a business like way. Our books stand open for inspection. I have never been a fake nor dishonest. However, this isn't the first time I have had to vindicate my good name. I have had trouble before with members of my race. I taught in the South for a number of years, and was able to shelter several hundred boys and girls in building three local schools. Today the county and Rosenwald fund pay teachers. Through my efforts a county srhool has been opened in Macon, Ga., where I taught some years ago in the community, known as Bellevue. I was the first teacher in that section of the city. I left in that community property. I left in that community property in land valued at $2,000 or more. At present the Board of Education of Fulton, Ky., are with me so much so that I have secured an industrial teacher to give the young women domestic science and sewing, while Mr. J.J. Bills, principal of the county school, gives them a literary training. Both will be under the same roof. My work has been endorsed by the following men: Mr. McDade, mayor of Fulton and member of the board; Mr. R.B. Beadles, banker; Mr. J.J. Bills, principal county schools; Mr. L.O. Bradford, banker; Mr. Anderson Hop- (Continued on page 8).
MUTUAL BANK MAKES PROGRESS; B. AND L. DECLARES DIVIDEND The stockholders of the American Mutual Savings Bank held a regular annual meeting on January 3, at which time the President, J. O. Blanton, made his annual report which showed that the bank under the leadership of this young business mind who took over the arduous executive duties of the late W. H. Wright, who organized the bank and was its president when he passed out in June, 1926, has proved himself more than equal to the task and is giving Kentucky and Louisville especially, an institution which is, through such careful, conservative but modern bpsiness like methods as the president and his co-executives are pursuing, is one of the biggest banking institutions in the race. The stockholders present were much encouraged and repledged Mr. Blanton their confidence and support.
The following persons were elected as members of the Board of Directors for the year 1928:
Dr. R. L. Oliver, Chairman; Messrs. J. L. V. Washington, H. W. Perkins, G. C. Jefferson, H. E. Hall, W. E. Johnson, A. B. Ridley, F. C. Draine, J. O. Blanton, Chas. H. Brannon, Drs. S. H. George, W. T. Merchant, Mesdames B. S. Etherly, L. C. Willis and Miss N. L. Frye.
Mammoth Building and Loan Declares Dividend.
At a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Mammoth Building and Loan Association, Saturday, January 7, a financial report was made of the condition of the Association which showed a prosperous year, and in view of that fact, the Board declared a 7 per cent dividend. This Association has paid dividends twice a year since its organization. The following are its officers:
A. B. Ridley, President: J. O. Blanton, Secretary; G. G. Young, Vice President; J. L. V. Washington, Treas.
The other members of the Board are as follows:
Messrs Webb Taylor, Eugene Clayton, W. E. Johnson, H. E. Hall, E. J. Ellis; Doctors W. T. Merchant and J. A. Emerson! Mrs. J. M. Smith.
Mrs. B. O. Wilkerson Passes. Elsewhere in this issue serious illness of Mrs. Annie D. Wilkeron, wife of Mr. B. O. Wilkerson, treasurer of the Mammoth Insurance Co., is mentioned As the Leader goes to press a message is received of the death of Mrs. Wilkerson. She passed out Wednesday afternoon. Funeral services were held Friday afternoon at the Green St. Baptist church. Mrs. Wilkerson had been confined to her home for several years. She leaves a devoted husband, a son, B. O., Jr., and a daughter, Mrs. Artisha Jordan and many friends. Mr. Wilkerson and the family have the deepest sympathy of friends who share their sorrows during the sad hours.
Youth Brutally Murdered RACE IN CHICAGO IS AROUSED OVER MURDER OF COLORED BOY BY WHITE MAN Dismissed Through Hold Up Ruse, But Case Re-Opened By Cary B. Lewis. Chicago, Ill., Jan. 10. - Hundreds of colored people living in the immediate vicinity of 49th St. and St. Lawrence Ave., were thrown into an uproar and almost a panic when James Preyor, a colored youth 16 years old, was brutally murdered by Harry Halperin (white), owner of a drug store located at 558 E. 49th St., Tuesday morning, December 27. Halperin declared at the Coroner's inquest held Friday, December 30, at the Cook County morgue, that the deceased, James Preyor, attempted to hold him up early on the morning of December 27th and that he had never seen the boy before. Upon this testimony the Coroner's jury returned a verdict exonerating Halperin of all blame. Frank Pryor, father of the boy, of 678 Wine St., Detroit, Mich., not being satisfied with the exoneration of Harry Halpern, appealed to the Fort Deaborn Lodge No. 44, of I. B. P. O. E. of W. for help in this matter. James Martin, Exalted Ruler, immediately got in touch with his chief, J. Finley Wilson, Grand Exalted Ruler and head of the Civil Liberty's Commission. Wilson Orders Investigation. Mr. Wilson called S. A. Bruseaux, principal of the Keystone National Detective-Agency, over long distance and ordered him to make an investigation in behalf of the Civil Liberty's Commission to ascertain the true facts as to how James Pryor met his death. Mr. Bruseaux found out that instead of the boy being a holdup as was stated before the Coroner's jury, that he had gone to the drug store to purchase a pomade for his hair, and that Mr. Halperin had not only seen the boy before but he had had words with him as early as Mary, 1927. This information was brought out through Miss Emma Hughes of 5720 Michigan Ave., who was formerly employed by Halperin. It will no doubt lead to the indictment of the said Harry Halperin for first degree murder. The character and reputation of this man has been such that the entire neighborhood was bitter toward him and threatened him with violence. It was later learned that the same harry Halperin, in the month of July, attempted to kill another colored boy, chasing him through the streets with a milk bottle and threatening to crush his skull. It was through the good work of the Civil Liberty's Commission that the State's Attorney's office has not only decided to re-open the case but to subpoena witnesses before the grand jury. Mr. Harold Tyler, representing the N.A.A.C.P., is assisting the prosecution.
1927 Lynchings 16 Less Than Previous Year
Mayor's Detective Flashes Badge on Editor. Just a few minutes after Mayor Harrison had sworn his chaffeur, Mr. Albert Hathaway, in as a full fledged detective, the newly made sleuth pulled his authority on the Leader editor, who assuring himself that it was not a Madisonville gent, dyed in black, told his jolly good friend that the $250 fine now hanging over his head was not enough, and that a jail sentence would be entirely too much, and the Mayor's detective shook hands, smiled and passed on looking for more worlds to conquer.
GETTING READY FOR BIG BAPTIST CONVENTION HERE The local committee for the arrangement of the entertainment of the National Baptist Convention, incorporated, which meets here Sept. 5, is at work and this great body of men and women is in for one of the greatest convention meetings in its history. The coming of the meeting to Louisville will bring some of the outstanding leaders of the race. The convention will be held at the Armory, and homes for at least 5,000 must be secured. The delegates will pay $2 a day for lodging and two meals. Louisville has a chance to cover herself with glory in giving the Baptists of the nation an old fashioned Kentucky hospitality, and it is hoped that the city at large will cooperate in the coming for this great body of religious men and women. Rev. H. W. Jones, pastor of the Green St. Baptist church, who is general chairman of the local committee on entertainment, urges that all roll up heir sleeves and get ready for the great meeting.
We Must Cut You Off Because of the high cost to print the Leader we are forced to cut from our list hundreds of out of town readers within a few days after their subscription is up. Those who wish the Leader sent on after their present contract expires are asked to mail us a check for three, six or twelve months at their earliest convenience that they may not miss an issue of the paper. Those who owe in the city will also be dropped if they fail to pay or make some disposition to pay when our collector calls. Some of those who are receiving the paper and owe for it, have told those in our campaigns, that they receive the paper for nothing, and there is no need to pay. Those who think this had better refuse the paper from now on for they are going to pay a collector or somebody. We cannot tell who these persons are until our collector reaches them, and we do not wish to cut off the person who wants the paper and will pay when the collector calls. Those who do not want the paper should refuse it when delivered by the postman, other wise they should pay and are going to pay what they owe up for the time they stop the paper or are cut from the list. - The Management.
Attack Segregation In Treasury Department
Insurance Head Makes Great Report MAMMOTH GOES OVER BIG IN FACE OF TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS Stockholders Pledge More Loyalty; To Buy More Stock Paying a great tribute to his lamented friend, co-worker and builder of big business in Kentucky, H. E. Hall, president of the Mammoth Life and Accident Insurance Company, made a report and speech before the annual stockholders meeting of the company, last Tuesday afternoon, which thrilled and stirred the souls of every one of the many who sat under his voice and resounded throughout the state, into every home where there is a Mammoth policy; in every heart where the onward march of negro business is a pleasure and is an inspiration. No man in Kentucky, white or black, has enjoyed the confidence of more people of color than Hall, and after coming out of a crisis which taxed his energies, his abilities, his very soul to the limit, and passed him through an acid test which would bleed the heart of an iron man, Hall today is the same little black giant in the Insurance world of the commonwealth of the Blue Grass that he was back in 1915, when he gave the Negroes of Kentucky their first and greatest insurance company, of them, by them - for them. Mr. Hall brought the Board of Directors and the stockholders more solidly to him at the the Tuesday meeting, when he eloquently told of what their company had accomplished toward meeting certain obligations during 1927, but told them how pained he was that the dividend they were so used to receiving from the Mammoth, could not be paid. The meeting was presided over by Dr. W. T. Merchant, chairman of the board. After the President's report, Mrs. Julia Smith, Secretary, and Mr. B. O. Wilkerson, Treasurer, made their reports. The election of the Board of Directors followed and the election of each of the old members of the Board was unanimous. They are: H. E. Hall, John Holloman, J. M. Smith, B. O. Wilkerson, C. M. Hayes, S. H. George, Rico Porter, L. F. Wright, W. E. Johnson, A. J. Pullen, A. B. Ridley, W. C. Buford, W. T. merchant, J. L V. Washington, and J. M. McDowell. Several speeches were made commending the work of the resident and his fell [illegible] officials and pledging unqualified [illegible] port through the purchase of [illegible] hers of the race who are anxious to make good paying investments, and help build up the business side of the race. The President's Address and Report The address and report of President Hall follows: "Through many dangers, tolls and snares, We have already come, 'Twas Grace that lead us safe this far, And Grace will lead us on." This brings back the "Vision" of youth - 1914 and 1915 - the formative period - the time when some of the most intelligent looked upon the venture as a Utopian dream, an impractical scheme in which whatever funds that may be invested would be a total loss. Discouragement faced us on every turn, but the most unkind cut of all was when Negroes said "It could not be done [illegible] because white people said so, and [illegible] - would not permit it. When, [envy?], jealousy, doubt and fear from within - from our friends and acquaintances - were met, faced fought and conquered. (Continued on page 8.)
Colored Man Honored; Is Cleveland Civil Service Commissioner