Activities Among Negroes
It might be of interest to the reading public to know something about the Rev. L. K. Williams, pastor of Olivet Baptist church, Chicago, recently referred to in these columns by a statement from Father Wallace. Rev. L. K. Williams was president of the National Negro Baptist convention held in Los Angeles. He is also a member of the executive committee of the World's Baptist Alliance, which met last summer in Stockholm, Sweden. He has the distinction of having addressed the student body and faculty of the University of Chicago. The high opinion held of him by the faculty of that university is expressed by an article appearing in the London Times from the pen of Dean Shaler Mathews of the University of Chicago, in which he describes the activities of Olivet Baptist church of Chicago. He said: "It is a training center for real citizenship, and from them will come men and women capable of working out better relationship. I do not know of any church in America that has the same staff as Olivet church. It has fifty-three departments and auxiliaries, 850 officers, twenty full-time and ten part time paid workers. It has health bureau with ten physicians, three dentists, six nurses and six social workers. It brings children to its day nursery and kindergarten in an auto bus. It has an employment bureau, boy scouts, girls' league and free clinic, and aids hundreds of needy persons every year and has a working girls' home."
"The Ethiopian Digest,"1 published in Oakland by Arthur S. Grey [Gray] as the official organ on this coast for the Universal Negro Improvement Association published the following dispatch in its first issue October 6:
“Geneva, Switzerland, Sept. 21. - Italy has officially notified the League of Nations that she has ordered the abolition of the slavery system existing in the empire of Ethiopia (Abyssinia) which recently applied for membership in the league. She has directed the native staff of the legation which owns slaves henceforth to consider them as servants, not slaves, lt pending Italian arrangements to it restore them to their liberty with compensation to their owners. Slavery as it exists in Ethiopia is expected to be discussed in connection with the Ethiopian application, though it is recognized that it is a domestic question."
Marcus Garvy, [Garvey] the former president of the U. N. I., will speak in Oakland during the coming week.
Some of the greatest colored musicians in the world have received their start on the road to fame in California. About four years ago, after a struggle, the Sojourner Truth Home of colored working girls located in Los Angeles, decided they would bring to the coast Roland Hayes, a colored tenor of an exceptionally well-trained voice. He went from Boston to Los Angeles for a sum not sufficient to pay railroad fare. But he had faith in California, and the inspiration he would gain if he could appear here in concert. Rev. Shaw of M. E. St. Julian church, Los Angeles, encouraged him to tour the state. It was through Rev. Shaw and a few friends in Los Angeles that the attention of his struggles to make a place for himself in the world of music reached some white club ladies in Santa Monica, who sent for him to return to California and sing before their club. This was four years ago. He has spent most of the time since singing in Europe before large audiences in Paris, London and Vienna. He has returned every year to visit his mother.
The European musical critics have given him praise irrespective of his race. He has been selected as the first soloist for the coming season with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and also with the Symphony Orchestra of Detroit, Mich. The musical circles of Boston have been enthusiastic in the announcement of Hayes' selection as the first soloist with the noted orchestra. The musical critic, Philip Hale, said in the Boston Herald: "It is a pleasure to find the name of Roland Hayes in the list of soloists. He richly deserves the honor."
H. F. [T.] Parker in the Boston Transcript said: "Mr. Hay's, the tenor at last and deservedly is summoned in his own country to an orchestra of the first rank." But the recognition brought to Hayes was too much joy for his mother. She died suddenly. He is now on his way to America to lay her to final rest.
New York City has discovered it has a colored real estate dealer worth a million dollars in real estate. Watt Terry, who was born in Mechelburge [Mecklenburg] county, Virginia, going to Brockton, Mass., and. New York City when but a lad and working as a janitor. Later he began to invest his savings in real estate. He now owns between forty and fifty valuable pieces of property, consisting of stores and high type apartment houses occupied by white tenants.
During the world war Mrs. Hettie Tilghman [See also this. - MF] of Berkeley was state president of the Colored Women's California Federation of clubs. Among her repeated recommendations during her terms was that the organization form a permanent Past President's council for war work. The war having come to an end. Mrs. Tilghman continued to plead for the council. During the meeting of the Federation last summer in San Diego, the past presidents' congress was organized and will hold its first meeting in January at Bakersfield, Calif. They will work in conjunction with the Federation and aim to handle the more difficult problems facing the advancement of colored women.
Rev. Brown of Bethel church, San Francisco, has been transferred to the A. M. E. church of Pasadena, and the latter's pastor sent to Bethel church. Rev. Pryor was returned to the Fifteenth St. church of Oakland, and Rev. Elliott of Parks Chapel has been sent to Bakersfield by the recently adjourned California A. M. E. conference held in Los Angeles.
Mrs. Theadore [Theodora] Purnell held a musical tea at her home Thursday afternoon. Her son, Lee Purnell, who is an instructor in Wilberforce college in Xenia, Ohio, is making a name for himself and California. He has taken great interest in football to the extent that this college has been asked to supply coaches to other colleges. Recently he visited the electrical engineering department of the University of Cincinnati, and was favorably mentioned in a daily paper. He is a graduate of the University of California, and also of Technical College in Boston, Mass.
1 W. Elmer Keeton and His WPA Chorus: Oakland's Musical Civil Rights Pioneers of the New Deal Era, California History, Volume 75, Issue 3 October 1996
