NATIONAL OFFICERS

PRESIDENT
J. E. SPINGARN

VICE-PRESIDENTS
HON. ARTHUR CAPPER
BISHOP JOHN A. GREGG
REV. JOHN HAYNES HOLMES
JAMES WELDON JOHNSON
ARTHUR B. SPINGARN
OSWALD GARRISON VILLARD

TREASURER
MARY WHITE OVINGTON

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Baltimore
Carl Murphy
Boston
Joseph Prince Loud
Charleston, W. Va.
T. G. Nutter
Chicago
Jane Addams
Clarence Darrow
Cleveland
Hon. Harry E. Davis
Detroit
Hon. Ira W. Jayne
Hon. Frank Murphy
Emporia, Kan.
William Allen White
Indianapolis
F. B. Ransom
Los Angeles
Dr. H. Claude Hudson
Dr. J. A. Somerville
New Haven
George W. Crawford
New York
Lillian A. Alexander
Rev. Hutchens C. Bishop
Dr. W. E. B. DuBois
Rev. John Haynes Holmes
James Weldon Johnson
Hon. Herbert H. Lehman
James Marshall
Ella Rush Murray
Mary White Ovington
Rev. A. Clayton Powell
Arthur B. Spingarn
J. E. Spingarn
Charles H. Studin
William English Walling
Dr. Louis T. Wright
Northampton, Mass.
Dr. William Allan NeIlson
Orange, N. J.
Dr. Vernon F. Bunce
Philadelphia
Isadore Martin
Richmond
Maggie L. Walker
Springfield
Rev. G. R. Walker
Topete
Hon. Arthur Capper
Washington
Nannie H. Burroughs
Hon. James A. Cobb
Charles Edward Russell

NATIONAL LEGAL COMMITTEE
Chairman
Arthur B. Spingarn
Chicago
Clarence Darrow
Edward H. Morris
Cambridge, Mass.
Felix Frankfurter
Charleston, W. Va.
T. G. Nutter
Columbia, S. C.
N. J. Frederick
New York
Morris L. Ernst
Arthur Garfield Haynes
James Marshall
Herbert K. Stockton
Charles H. Studin
Toledo, Ohio
Jesse S. Heslip
Washington, D. C.
Charles H. Houston
Wilmington, Del.
Louis L. Redding

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE
ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE

69 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK

TELEPHONE: ALGONQUIN 4-6548

Official Organ: The Crisis

January
10th
1933 (Dictated January 7th)

EXECUTIVE OFFICERS

WALTER WHITE SECRETARY

ROY WILKINS
ASSISTANT SECRETARY

DR. W. E. B. DU BOIS
EDITOR OF THE CRISIS

ROBERT W. BAGNALL
DIRECTOR OF BRANCHES

WILLIAM PICKENS
FIELD SECRETARY

DAISY E. LAMPKIN
REGIONAL FIELD SECRETARY

HERBERT J. SELIGMANN
DIRECTOR OF PUBLICITY

Dear Jim:

I wonder if you can aid us in the case told of
in the attached digest? We would be very grateful
if you would confer with Mr. Barnett of Scarritt
College, as to whether or not we should take an
appeal from the Jury's verdict in these cases.

Mr. James Weldon Johnson
Fisk University
Nashville,
Tennessee.

WW:CTF

ENDORSED BY THE NATIONAL INFORMATION BUREAU, 215 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK

1-10-33.

Digest of September 6, 1932 Nashville Banner account
of Lebanon case.

On September 4 three Negroes-- Jake Alexander; his son, Charlie Alexander, and James Walter Martin-- are alleged to have shot to death Constable Ben Northern and Special Deputy Sheriff M. E. Brown in the Fourth District, near Laguardo.

"The three Negroes in the jail here Tuesday morning described in
dijointed fashion their version of what occurred when gunfire broke out
near Laguardo Sunday night.

"The men gave their names as Jake Alexander, 50, operator of a ferry at Coles Ferry; his son, Charles Alexander, 18; and James Walter Morthel, 19.

"Allthree Negroes admitted being in the house from which a shotgun was fired, killing Constable Ben Northern and a deputy, M. E. Brown, wounding a second deputy, Sam Smith, and narrowly missing Ben Northern, Jr., when the officers came to serve warrants on the Negroes.

"Jake Alexander said that he and the two younger Negroes did not know
that the men they were firing on were officers, but thought that they were
being attacked by private citizens following a fight Sunday morning between
a Negro, Benton Oldham, and a relative of Sam Smith.

"After the fight, we thought somebody was coming back to get us," Jake Alexander said. "We have been having trouble for quite a time, about colored boys going across some property to a well near the house of Charlie Alexander's aunt."

"Morthel said that he saw the fight between the Negro and the white youth. He said that the white youth spoke to the Negro who was on the way to a well nearby, and that the Negro turned and asked if he had been spoken to. The white youth then said, according to Morthel that whether he did or did not he would speak. A disagreement then arose, the white youth finally getting a gun, according to Morthel. The Negro then hurled rocks, the prisoner said."

National Guardsmen from Nashville were sent to Lebanon on September 6th to take charge of the situation, fearing a race riot.

The Association enlisted the aid of Mr. Howard Kester and Mr. Albert A. Barnett of Nashville in this case. We also had correspondence with Dr. I. L. Moore (419 -4th Ave. N.) regarding the case.

Attached copies of letters give details in case to date.

NATIONAL OFFICERS

PRESIDENT

J. E. SPINGARN

VICE-PRESIDENTS

TREASURER

MARY WHITE OVINGTON

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Baltimore
Carl Murphy
Boston
Joseph Prince Loud
Charleston, W. Va.
T. G. Nutter
Chicago
Jane Addams
Clarence Darrow
Cleveland
Hon. Harry E. Davis
Detroit
Hon. Ira W. Jayne
Hon. Frank Murphy
Emporia, Kan.
William Allen White
Indianapolis
F. B. Ransom
Los Angeles
Dr. H. Claude Hudson
Dr. J. A. Somerville
New Haven
George W. Crawford
New York
Lillian A. Alexander
Rev. Hutchens C. Bishop
Dr. W. E. B. DuBois
Rev. John Haynes Holmes
James Weldon Johnson
Hon. Herbert H. Lehman
James Marshall
Ella Rush Murray
Mary White Ovington
Rev. A. Clayton Powell
Arthur B. Spingarn
J. E. Spingarn
Charles H. Studin
William English Walling
Dr. Louis T. Wright
Northampton, Mass.
Dr. William Allan Neilson
Orange, N. J.
Dr. Vernon F. Bunce
Philadelphia
Isadore Martin
Richmond
Maggie L. Walker
Springfield
Rev. G. R. Waller
Topeka
Hon. Arthur Capper
Washington
Nannie H. Burroughs
Hon. James A. Cobb
Charles Edward Russell

NATIONAL LEGAL COMMITTEE

Chairman
Arthur B. Spingarn
Chicago
Clarence Darrow
Edward H. Morris
Cambridge, Mass.
Felix Frankfurter
Charleston, W. Va.
T. G. Nutter
Columbia, S. C.
N. J. Frederick
New York
Morris L. Ernst
Arthur Garfield Hays
James Marshall
Herbert K. Stockton
Charles H. Studin
Toledo, Ohio
Jesse S. Heslip
Washington, D. C.
Charles H. Houston
Wilmington, Del.
Louis L. Redding

TELEPHONE: ALGONQUIN 4-6548

Official Organ: The Crisis

EXECUTIVE OFFICERS

WALTER WHITE SECRETARY

January 24, 1933

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE
ON ADMINISTRATION:

Mr. George S. Schuyler has submitted the
attached plan for raising funds immediately for
the Association's work.

Will you let me have the benefit of your
opinion on and criticism of these various proposals.

The Secretary would like also to suggest
a special meeting of the Committee on Administration
with Mr. Schuyler for discussion of his plans.

WW/RR

TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE — CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, June 27 - July 2, 1933

MEMORANDUM

Some Suggestions for Increasing the Financial Income, Membership and Prestige
of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

By George S. Schuyler

The chief problem facing the organization this year is obtaining
sufficient revenue to operate without impairing the efficiency of the
elaborate machinery built up through the years.

The next most important problem is how to make the masses of Negroes
better acquainted with the work of the Association and so to obtain
their moral and financial support in the years to come.

To the solution of these two problems I have devoted considerable
thought resulting in the following suggestions:

(a)

A national contract bridge tournament involving local and state
contests, each contestant paying a small enrollment fee to be divided
between the national office and the branch or individual arranging the
tournament, after deductions for the three sets of prizes.

Local tournaments can be held nationally during a certain week or
fortnight, followed by state contests over a period of a week or fort-
night, then regional tournaments (North, South, East and West) and
finally the national tournament held preferably in the Middle West.

When it is considered that the N.A.A.C.P. has around 325 branches
and that there are close to 500 sizeable Negro communities in the coun-
try where an average of ten or fifteen tables can be set (40 or 60 per-
sons), the financial and publicity value of the idea is enormous.

The volume of publicity in the Negro and white press is bound to be
tremendous. The N.A.A.C.P. will be able to enter the smallest Southern
cities and towns and arouse the interest of hundreds of thousands of
people without stirring their fears. Contract bridge is so very popu-
lar now that the Association might as well use it as a means to a good
end. The tournament could be run under some such slogan as "For Legal
Defense". The people are going to play whist anyway, so why not for a
principle? To say nothing of the substantial prizes offered.

A flat enrollment fee of $1 would be just about right.

The entire series of tournaments culminating in the national tourna-
ment between the winners in the regional contests could be concluded
in six weeks. Or by the end of March 1933.

Necessary would be a considerable volume of correspondence, badges
for contestants, special N.A.A.C.P. score cards and a bit of printed
matter for propaganda purposes. All this might perhaps be paid for out
of proceeds from dances held in connection with the ceremony of award-
ing local prizes, same to be divided between the national office and
the branches or individuals sponsoring local tournaments.

Estimated Revenue to Nat'l Office: (Gross)

Enrollment fees (60 persons in 300 towns) $ 9,000
Dance-ceremonies @ $25 average apiece 7,500
(This is 50% of the gross est. revenue) 16,500

Estimated Cost:

Badges, stamps, stationery, score cards, leaflets, posters, stenographer, telegrams $750
Prizes (National Tournament) 2,000