Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-07-08
MANY COMMEND ACTION
COMMISSIONERSOVE
WITH LETTERS.

The District Commissioners mail is
now being choked with letters regard
ing the Jeffries- johnson prize fight pic
lures. Most of the letters commend the
action of the Commissioners in barring
them. Some seek to enter into personal
controversy regarding the decision. One
or two are crank letters pure and SIM
pie
OF this latter kind is one to the Com
missioners which asks why they do not
hurry up and decide the question Of
whether or not the pictures shall be
shown here. 1t was mailed from the
central post office two days after the
decision was made by the Commissioners.
Colored Pastor Presents Question.
Rev. ]. Milton Waldron, colored. pastor
of Shiloh Baptist Church. has written:
AS citizen and a pastor of the Dis
trict Of Columbia l desire to commend
you for your prompt action in prohibit
ing the exhibition in the theaters of
Washington of the moving pictures of the
Johnson and JeffrieS fight, and while
your action is on the side of good morals,
and we rejoice in it, yet, Mr.. Commits
s1oners many of the people OF the capital
and elsewhere are wondering if JefrieS
iidu DteI Tie VlclOT instead Oh tne negro,
Johnson, would your action have been
so speedy. and would the efforts of GER
tain pastors in this city to have the pic
lures of the Reno fight suppressed been
so persistent and hasty? This latter queS-
ton arises more readily in our mind be-
cause of the failure on the part of most
of the gentlemen of the cloth, referred to
above, to condemn the terrible and in
human crimes of lynchings and burnings
of men. women and children-many of
ir,nn <,f
others merely suspected of the nameless
crime-which take place daily in many
sections of our country and which are
sure to call down upon this nation the
anger of just God.
I'VE wish also to commend the sense
OF justice and the saneness of the presi-
dent of your honorable body in his re-
fusal to grant the request of certain
Washington ministers to prohibit the
appearance or possible visit of John Ar
thur Johnson, conqueror of Jeffries, in
this city We fail to find where these
angels of the churches ever made any
such request of the honorable Commits
sioners of the District of Columbia when
white pugilist champions expressed a de-
termination to visit or appear in this city.
And now that we come to think of it,
when The Clansman'-that most wicked
of all plays now on the American stage
was first billed to appear in this city, and
when many of the citizens of Washington
protested against its presentation upon
the grounds that 1t is immoral and
would engender strife and bloodshed be-
tween the races, but few, if any, of e
ministers who are now protesting SO
loudly against JohnsOn'S visit to WASH
lngtop had a word to say against the
presentation of that race-hating and riot
melting play here.
Recent Sunday School Convention.
What wonderful changes. sirs, are
w orb in, ha
Gods ministers in this city by the vic
tory of a brutal negro over a brutal
white man! These gentlemen are
greatly afraid that the exhibition of
the Johnson and Jeffries bout in pic
lures and the visit of the black cham
pion to this city will incite race riots
and cause further race prejudice, in ad-
d1t1on to having a demoralizing effect
on the youth, especially the young ne
groes'; but those very same preachers
were unable to see the shame heaped
upon their Lord and Master Jesus
Christ and the awful amount of caste
prejudice and race hatred engendered
when they and their associates on the
local committee refused to admit to
the Sunday school parade and to the
sixth worlds Sunday school convention
their fellow-Christians in this city be-
themselves! We fear the evil effects
upon our children of the race hatred
and caste prejudice of processing Chris
tians far more than we do any harmful
results which can come to them from
the visit Of Jack Johnson to this city.
You gentlemen know that the John
son-Jeffries hight was organized, pro-
NOTED and exploited by white men with
the sole purpose of furthering the in
terests of white men, and now that
they have been beaten at their own
game by the very black man whom
they sought to humiliate and destroy
we are sure that the honorable Com
missioners of the District of Columbia
are sufficiently cool of head and are
swayed by such a strong sense of right
that they will not allow themselves to
be inveigled into ill treating any indi-
vidual or race. no matter what the color
of his skin or his nationality"
Seeks Further Censorship.
w. B. Evans, principal Of the Arm
strong Manual Training School and di-
rector of the colored night schools, has
written: II am writing to indorse your
action in the matter of the display of
pictures to portray the recent
Jeffries-Johnson fight.
with absolute confidence in your fair
ness for all Of the DeOple of the District. |