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WESTERN UNION TELEGRAMS

Washington, D. C.

Jan. 4, 1922

4 P.M.

WALTER F. WHITE

70 5th Avenue, N. Y.

LOND FILLIBUSTER BY DEMOCRATS TODAY COULD NOT PREVENT SUSPENSION
CALENDAR DAY BY TWO THIRDS VOTE BILL THEN TAKEN UP AND DEBATED TWO
THIRDS VOTE FOR SUSPENSION MOST ENCOURAGING DEVELOPMENT YET ON BILL
TREASURY BILL COMES UP TOMORROW DYER BILL MAY WAIT UNTIL NEXT WEEK
WILL CANVAS SITUATION CLOSELY TOMORROW

JAS. WELDON JOHNSON

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Jan. 18, 1922

10:36 P.M.

Walter F. White

70 5th Avenue, N. Y.

DEBATE ON TUESDAY STARTED OFF SPLENDIDLY FOR US BUT WE LOST GROUND
BEFORE IT CLOSED DEBATE TOD AY GAINED GROUND AND CLOSED STRONG
BILL GOES OVER TO NEXT TUESDAY WILL ARRIVE THREE EIGHTEEN HAVE
HAWLET MEET ME AT STATION IF NOT INCONVENIENT

JAMES WELDON JOHNSON.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Jan. 25, 1922

5:52 P.M.

WALTER F. WHITE

70 5th Avenue, N. Y.

GREAT DAY DEBATE BITTER AT TIMES ABOUT FIVE HUNDRED COLORED PEOPLE
IN GALLERIES GENERAL DEBATE IS CLOSED BILL HAS BEEN READ AND
AMENDMENTS OFFERED WILL COME UP UNDER FIVE MINUTE RULE TOMORROW

(2)

(Telegrams continued)

BURKE COCKRAN SPOKE FOR BILL APPEARS THAT NUMBER OF NORTHERN DEMOCRATS WILL VOTE FOR THE BILL

JAMES WELDON JOHNSON

WASHINGTON, D.C.

January 26, 1922

4 P.M.

Walter White

70 5th Avenue, N. Y.

BILL PASSED BY VOTE OF TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY TO ONE HUNDRED AND NINETEEN. JAMES WELDON JOHNSON.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

May 5, 1922

11:01 A.M.

H.J.SELIGMANN

70 Fifth Ave., Room 621, New York, N.Y.

SENATOR LODGE HAS AGREED TO PRESENT PETITION DAY INDEFINITE HE WILL ADVISE OFFICE BY TELEGRAPH HOLD ALL MATERIAL IN READINESS.

JAMES WELDON JOHNSON

WASHINGTON, D.C.

May 19, 1922

12:04 P.M.

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE

70 Fifth Ave., N. Y. C.

PLACED STOREY BRIEF IN SENATOR BORAHS HANDS BORAH STATES BILL WILL BE REPORTED OUT MONDAY FORWARD BRIEFS OF COBB AND OTHERS TO ME IMMEDIATELY LETTER FOLLOWS WITH CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION SAW SENATOR LODGE HE EXPECTS REPORT ON BILL MONDAY

James Weldon Johnson

(3)
WASHINGTON? D.C.

May 22, 1922

11:31 A.M.

70 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK

HAVE JUST TALKED WITH SENATOR BORAH AFTER MEETING OF JUDICIARY
COMMITTEE THIS MORNING PROSPECTS FOR FAVORABLE REPORT MUCH
BRIGHTER FINAL ACTION PROBABLE TOMORROW.

JAMES WELDON JOHNSON

WASHINGTON, D.C.

May 22, 1922

1:31 P.M.

H. J. SELIGMANN

70 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, N. Y.

WENT TO WHITE HOUSE LEFT MEMO RE CRISIS ON BILL FOR PRESIDENT
ALSO SAW CHAIRMAN ADAMS REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE RE
POLITICAL PHASE HOLD STORY FOR COLORED PRESS OF MY ACTIVITIES
HERE TILL I RETURN WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON.

JAMES WELDON JOHNSON

Telegram

WASHINGTON, D.C.

WALTER F. WHITE
70 FIFTH AVENUE, N. Y. CITY.

Nov. 24, 1922

3:33 P.M.

WIRED THIS MORNING AGAINST SPORADIC ADVERTISEMENTS BUT I FAVOR
NATION AD SENATE DID NOT DISPOSE OF LIBERIAN LOAN BILL TODAY SO
ANTI LYNCHING BILL WAS NOT BROUGHT UP HOWEVER UNANIMOUS RESOLUTION
ADOPTED TO VOTE ON LIBERIAN BILL MONDAY THIS CLEARS WAY FOR OUR
BILL BEFORE SUBSIDY BILL COMES OVER EXPECT ACTION MONDAY AFTERNOON
OR TUESDAY MORNING.

JAMES W. JOHNSON

National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People

70 Fifth Avenue
New York City.

Washington, January 6th, 1922

My dear Mr. White:-

Congress continues to-day on the Treasury Bill and will probably do the same to-morrow. I used my time to-day in seeing and talking with the men who are to support the bill on the floor. I am pouring into them as much of our dope as they will hold. I saw Senator Burton (congressman) this morning and gave him the memo I had drafted on the troublesome point of constitutionality the Democrats are raising. He declared it to be a sound argument. Burton is going to speak on the constitutionality of the measure, and he asked me if I had given "my point" to any one else. When I told him I had not as yet; he asked me to leave it entirely with him. I did so, as he is considered one of the best lawyers in Congress and will make, perhaps, better use of it than anybody else could.

I am enclosing you the list of those who will speak on the bill. I am also enclosing you a copy of the memo which I Handed to Senator Burton today. I think each man on the list to speak should be sent all of our important material on lynching. It would be well to include the data you got up on the percentage of rape. If you send an accompanying letter _do not_ mention that you know they are to speak on the bill.

(2)

Sorry the Palace Casino meeting was not the
success we had hoped for.

Yours sincerely,

(Signed) James W. Johnson

Keep this note in the files for reference.

Sunday, May 21, 1922

Dear Herb:

Things are at an awful crisis. Up to 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon the verdict was for an unfavorable report on the Bill. Trotter gummed the case up by his action. He tried to scoop us, and has made a terrible mess. He wanted the publicity of "getting the Bill reported out when the N.A.A.C.P. had failed to get it done." He did succeed in getting it up for report, but the wrong kind. He has already published his successful effort. We are now working hard to pull the bill out of the mud and save it. We are fighting for a favorable report - failing in tha, for a postponement. We may have to settle on a compromise measure. But an unfavorable report now would be a catostrophy.

Yours, J.W.J.

Here is the rough copy of one of my articles for the Age this
week. Use it if you wish to in any part.

C O P Y

James Weldon Johnson
Seventy Fifth Avenue
New York City

Tuesday

August 29, 1922

My dear Mr. White:

I was so sick last night that I felt it
would be necessary for me to come back to New York. I
feared I was going to have a real attack of Grippe. I
got out with difficulty this morning, but in moving
around I worked a good deal of the bad feeling off, and
this afternoon I am much better.

Saw this morning Senators, Curtis, McCormick,
Shortridge, Calder and Willis - also saw Mr. Dyer, Curtis
told me the Steering Committee would meet today or tomorrow
morning and take some definite action regarding having the
bill brought. McCormick, who is on the Steering Committee
told me the same thing. I saw Curtis and Shortridge to-
gether. None of this for publication yet. You might get
out a news story stating I am on the ground conferring with
the Republican leaders and doing everything possible to have
the bill brought up for consideration before the close of
the present session, such action is promising.

I wish you would make out a memo for me on the
Anti-Lynching movement. What is the status of the movement,
and what about this pamphlet and the $500.

I am not at Davidson's - they are all out of
town. I am at the Mu-So-Lit Club, 1327 R Street.

Villa "Sweet Home"
Avenue Victor Emmanuel III
Villefranche-sur-Mer, A. M.
France

16 August 1927

Dear Jim,

We found just the villa we had dreamed of and hoped for! It is a charming little place of white stone (there are no wooden houses here) with two tiny round balconies on the second floor, a wide terrace, with electric lights and hot and cold water and a lovely bathroom. It is perched high on a sloping hill. In front of us lies the Mediterranean whose beauty justifies all the lavish praise which has been heaped upon it. I know now what Michael Arlen meant when he described Iris March's eyes as "two spoonsful of the Mediterranean". Back of us rise in one sheer leap the Maritime Alps, giving us a rare combination of mountain and seashore. The air is magnificent making us sleep and eat. All in all it is by far the loveliest place we have ever seen.

We only stayed in Paris a little over two days for it is most difficult trying to get around with two children when one of them is so young. We had the most delicious luncheon of our lives the first day at a restaurant in the Bois and the next day we ate luncheon with William Aspenwall Bradley who lives in old section of Paris. We hope to see a little more of Paris in October when I am to go to England to lecture. When we reached here we spent a week looking at villas and apartments. Just as I feared we found rentals much higher than had been reported-- due to the fact that Villefranche has within the last two or three years been "discovered" with inevitable increases. We feel though that $50 a month which we are paying for a entire house with all modern improvements is most reasonable. And we have only one objection to the place-- the woman who built it knew about a dozen words of English and imagined herself very, very clever when from that dozen she chose "Sweet Home" as a name. Imagine coming four or five thousand miles to live in a place with such a name.

Villefranche is almost a suburb of Nice. The tram puts us in the Place Massena of Nice in twenty minutes. Gladys goes to Nice once or twice a week to buy meats and vegetables and the like for prices there are much lower than here. Also the Galeries Lafayette and the Bon Marche of Paris have branch stores in Nice which makes it most convenient. Both of us are getting along nicely with our French ("France on Ten Words a Day" has been an immense help) for when only French is spoken the only thing to do is to go ahead and speak it.

Jane and the baby stood the trip beautifully though they have both had upset stomachs while getting acclimatized. We drink only Evian or Perrier water not daring to trust the local tap water. And we have a gorgeous cook (who, ironically enough, bears the French musical comedy name of Suzanne) who was most hesitant in asking if we could pay her 400 francs a month which is a little less than $16.

I am at work on the lynching book and I believe I can make of it a creditable piece of work. I find that I need certain information which I

2

hope you won't mind my asking you to send me. Here is the list:

(1) A copy of Will Alexander's speech at the Indianapolis Conference

(2) An editorial which appeared in Opportunity some few months back on migration of Negroes from the South during the last eleven years, giving the number of migrants, the states from which they came, the states to which they went and discussing their new lives.

(3) The corrected data on "Thirty Years of Lynchings". A considerable number of errors were found and in preparing the tables to go in the book I of course want to make them as accurate as possible.

(4) Some years ago you read me a passage from the Arabian Nights relative to Arabian traders, I believe, refusing to take their wives, daughters and other females into Ethiopia because of the definite attractions the swarthy ones had for these women. I want this passage for use in the chapter on the sexual factor in lynching.

Also I need two books. One of them is Felix Frankfurter's "The Sacco Vanzetti Case" which costs $1; the other is Andre Siegfried's "America Comes of Age" which Harcourt published and which costs either $3 or $3.50, if I remember correctly. Will you get them at Baker-Taylor's and send them to me here. It is impossible to get American money here in Villefranche but I shall go to Nice and secure a five-dollar bill and send it to you in payment of these books and postage. There is also the sum of 55 cents for some plain white paper which I had Mr. Turner get for me and which I neglected to pay for before leaving. Please use the balance of the $5 after the books are paid for towards paying this bill.

I am sorry to have to bother you in this fashion but I hope you won't mind as I need all this for my book.

Lovely as this place is I miss the office and the folks there. I miss our luncheons together and the rides home and our talks and association. I want to know how everything is moving along so please keep me informed. By the way I have been expecting mail and magazines to be forwarded but have had nothing from the office as yet. Will you give the new forwarding address to Miss Stovall, Miss Marshall, Miss Randolph and Mr. Butler.

Gladys and the children join me in love to you and Mrs. Johnson. Arthur and Maraan wanted us to wait for them in Paris but we couldn't-- not with the children. We heard from them yesterday and they are going to try and spend a day with us on their way from Vienna to Italy from whence they sail for America. By the way, Mencken's article on the colored brother in which he paid you such a great compliment appeared in the Paris edition of the New York Herald. I enclose it.

How's the new house? I am counting now on that Thanksgiving dinner in 1928. By the way, a bottle of Pommard 1915 costs 80 cents here; a quart of Black and White is $2; a litre of beer eight cents. There are some just gods after all, apparently!

As ever,

P. S. And will you include in the list a copy of Darrow's and Hays' arguments in the Sweet case. Since beginning this letter we had a letter from the Darrows in Paris saying they are going to come by to see us.

W.

Villa Sweet Home
Boulevard Victor Emmanuel III,
Villefranche-sur-Mer, A. M.,
France

23 August 1927.

Dear Jim:

Here is a money order for five dollars to pay
for the two books-- "America Comes of Age" and Frankfurter's
"Sacco-Vanzetti". Bought at Baker-Taylor I imagine they
will cost between $5 and $4. From the balance please take
the cost of postage and the bill for paper and a typewriter
ribbon which I owe Mr. Turner. If any remains after that is
all done please let it go towar ds the cost of forwarding
any mail for me that comes to the office until people learn
our new address.

The lynching book is moving along splendidly. I have
been wading through books on psychology, folkways, lynch-
ing, the Nordic theory, religion, economics and such more
or less allied subjects and copious notes are piling up.
When this job is finished then will begin the one of selec-
tion and arrangement before I begin to write. For the
first time in my life I am able to do a piece of writing
with the feeling that I can take the time to make it thor-
oughly authoritative. I hope to make it as unbiased and
sound as is possible.

What was the reaction in the Negro and white press to
the end of the Sweet Cases? And what is the status of the
Kentucky cases? I wish you would see that Butler puts my
name on the mailing list to receive the press releases and
the Board reports.

With most cordial regards to you and all the folks at
the office, I am

Ever sincerely,

-2-

publicity card we have right on the coast-- Upton Sinclair. I have had considerable correspondence with him since he read Fire in the Flint and, as you know, he is 100 percent. our way. Also, Hiram Johnson is a bit out of the limelight now and might cause complications with our California branches-- but he might take a few slaps at Hoover on the Crisis flood articles. He doesn't warm me particularly, though.

By the way, I have seen no press stories nor Crisis note asking for Spingarn Medal nominations. They usually start early in January.

I am glad Heywood is back on the World both for the paper's sake and his. I have bought two or three copies of the paper in Nice and without him it seemed pretty tasteless. And I don't suppose Villard could pay him very much. Liberalism is fine-- if you have a supplementary income.

Good Lord, the blah death brings! Mrs. Overton sent Gladys some clippings, among them being one from the Amsterdam News about Hubert Harrison. Plato, Havelock Ellis, William Jennings Bryan and Socrates rolled into one choice bit of ebony epidermis-- to read the fulsome eulogy. I am sorry I couldn't attend Harrison's funeral.

I want you to know about an application I made for an extension of my fellowship. I have asked for the equivalent of three months-- which is to say, the money usually apportioned for such a period. Cheap living anywhere in the world, I am convinced, is but a snare and a delusion. Rent, servants, and wine are cheap-- but food costs as much here as in New York. Special food for the baby costs much more here since there is an import duty on it, and the French baby foods are not so good. We need the additional sum to pay passage home to America and I shall there have to do some work correcting proofs, verifying figures, etc. in my spare hours which technically will keep me within the rules of the Foundation.

Have you seen the new Rockefeller apartments? What do you think of them, price, desirability, neighbours, etc.?

When we leave Villefranche around the first of March I am going to ship a box of my books. Would it be asking too much to ask that you have some one in the office get them from customs and put the box away for me somewhere in the office? I shall send an itemized list of the books, practically all of them published in America so there will be no duties on them. This will save me lugging over France the ones I used on the lynching book-- which I hope to finish this week or early next and send along to you and Arthur. I've put a lot of work on it. It isn't all that I hoped for but I suppose it will always be my fate never to be satisfied. The chapters on sex and on religion are, I fear, not going to add to the tender regard which certain Southerners now hold for me-- such as, for example, the sheriff of Aiken.

We are ever so glad to know your health is good. And don't forget, if there is anything at all I can do, let me know. We didn't try to send Xmas presents, the red tape and customs duties being what they are. I shall see what Pere Noël can do about fulfilling his duty when we return.

With our best love to you both

P.S. I am enclosing some recent pictures of the children.

Also, I have decided to call the lynching book: *Rope* and *Faggot*: *A Biog-raphy of Judge Lynch*. How do you like it?

Villefranche-sur-Mer, A. M.
France.

29 January 1928

Dear Jim:

The MS of "Rope and Faggot: A Biography of Judge Lynch" leaves Villefranche today on its way to Arthur. I am asking him to read it as soon as possible and then pass it on to you. As soon as you can will you lay it tenderly in Blanche's hands, voicing a prayer as you do so. And, give it your most acid attention, jotting down for me your criticsms and sending them to me that I may take advantage of them in correcting galley proofs.

On page 192 of the MS I mention as leaders of the Senate filibuster on the Dyer Bill John Sharp Williams, Caraway, Pat Hrrison and Oscar Underwood. I do not have with me the copy of the annual report for 1922 so that I could not be sure that these were the ringleaders though I seem to remember these names in connection with that infamous episode. Advise me if I am right. I want particularly your critical recations on the chapter on sex and on the last one relative to state and federal laws. It was a hard course to steer-- to try to keep the book interesting for those who know about lynching, but, more important, to paint a clear picture for those who know little about the practice.

There are a number of things I will have to change in galley proofs-- figures particularly. Miss Randolph sent me a very full statement in December of the 1927 figures, listing eighteen lynchings. Later, I read in a press story there were twenty-one. Since I can make the changes later I am not waiting for the revised figures for which I wrote.

In this connection, please hand Miss Randolph the enclosed memorandum on the victims taken in 1927 from officers and jails. Her statement listed eight but I find fourteen.

What is Fania playing in? Has the show reached New York yet and have you seen it? Gladys, peeping over my shoulder, adds, "How many times?"

Sewell Haggard's death was a terrible shock. We wrote Mrs. Haggard.

I am ever so grateful for your willingness to read the MS. I hope it won't be too far below what you've been expecting.

Gladys joins me in the best of love to you and Grace.

W.