Negro Members Leave after Sunday School Convention Decides on Segregation, March 11, 1926

Segregation Unchanged in Birmingham Convention. . . All Negro Methodists Withdraw—Methodist Episcopal Church O.K.’s

Segregation will obtain in the International Sunday School Convention at Birmingham, Ala. The Birmingham Committee has not receded one iota from its plan to segregate Negros on the main floor instead of the gallery.

The A.M.E. Zion, A.M.E., and C.M.E. denominations have issued official statements of withdrawal from the Birmingham Convention and advising their constituents to stay away. In addition to this, formal protest is being made to eight of the 12 state organizations in which Negroes are members and in some of which already have credentials. The Boston Post has taken editorial cognizance of the protests of Drs. B.W. Swain and Jacob W. Powell for years honored members of the Massachusetts Council of Religious Education (formerly State Sunday School Association). The Chicago Daily News carried the story with a reply by Dr. Hugh S. Magill. The New York World and the daily press all over America, the Associated Negro Press, and the leading Negro papers of the country have given space to this segregation issue. Numerous schools, conventions, ministers unions have passed resolutions of protest against the unchristian and undemocratic conduct of the American leaders of Protestant religious education. A few white leaders in religious education, North and South, have joined Negro leaders in protest against segregation in Christian assembly.

A telegram has been received from Mathew J. Trenery saying that the Church School Department of the Methodist Episcopal Church does not favor segregation but is in harmony with the International Council in segregating Negroes in Birmingham Convention according to the ordinance of the city.

In an interview published by the New York Age on Feb. 27th, Dr. S.N. Vass is credited with including the A.M.E. Zion Church in the group that met Dr. Hopkins at Nashville for the second time who voted unanimous support of the Birmingham Convention. This is a gross misstatement of the facts. The A.M.E. Zion Church did not participate in that Conference nor instruct anybody to vote for it. Having had a letter from Dr. Vass in which he said he expected Dr. Hopkins to present some “jim-crow arrangement” of seats for Negro delegates on the main floor and to have that in mind in writing him in the event we would be present, an officer of the Religious Education Department wrote Dr. Vass:

“The historic position of the A.M.E. Zion Church is against segregation, and we see no reason to recede from that position in this instance.” The Star of Zion (Charlote, N.C.), the denomination’s official organ, whose editor was secretary of our press release committee, said editorially (Feb. 11th): “The Star of Zion and the A.M.E. Zion Church are opposed to segregation whether proposed or endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan or the internation Council of Religious Education.”

Segregation is segregation, whether in the gallery or on the front row of the main floor, and the A.M.E. Zion church, true to its traditions, has not receded and will not recede from its position as announced that we shall certify to the Birmingham Convention unless our representatives are guaranteed the rights and privileges of any other delegate in the convention.

--Religious Education Department, Chicago.

From the front page of The Star of Zion, The Official Organ of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Charlotte, N.C., Thursday, March 11, 1926

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sf88092969/1926-03-11/ed-1/seq-1/

Training School Building at Women's College, Greensboro, Destroyed by Fire, March 11, 1926

College Building Is Burned Down. . . Training School at N.C.C.W. Totally Destroyed Yesterday

Greensboro, March 10—Fire starting at 4 o’clock this afternoon destroyed the training school building on the North Carolina College for Women campus here, with loss of valuable records of the dean of education and director of the summer school of the college, in addition to the $100,000 building going up in smoke.

In the building when the fire was discovered were about 50 persons, including 45 pupils, children who attend the school. Their teachers calmly marched them out of the building, in actual fire drill, the children moving out without a semblance of panic.

The blaze was found at 4 o’clock. At 5:15 two of the walls had fallen in and the structure was a roaring furnace. All the fire-fighting equipment of the city was called to the blaze, but it had gained such headway that it could not be checked.

Standing almost in the center of the campus, the building was a menace as it burned, to others, but fortunately the fierce winds of March had abated somewhat this afternoon, and the firemen protected other buildings, none of which caught.

From the front page of the Concord Daily Tribune, Thursday, March 11, 1926

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1926-03-11/ed-1/seq-1/

Bankrupt Mecklenburg Mills to Be Auctioned Off April 1, 1926

Textile Plants to be Auctioned. . . Court Orders Sale of Four Mecklenburg Mills

Greensboro, March 10—An order providing for the sale at auction of the four cotton mills of the Mecklenburg Mills Company was filed in the federal district court clerk’s office here today, the order being made by Judge E. Yates Webb of Shelby, judge of the western North Carolina district.

The sale will be held at Newton on a day to be set by the special master, who is also named in the order. He is Sidney S. Alderman, an attorney of this city. The property to be sold consists of the Mecklenburg Mills at Charlotte, Newton and Clyde Mills at Newton, and Nancy Mills at Tuckertown, Montgomery County.

It is provided that no bid be received for less than $250,000.

The property will be sold to satisfy the bond holders, represented by the Coal and Iron National Bank of New York. The amount due the bond holders, who secured by a deed of trust on the properties of the mills company is $610,802.

The bonds were sold April 1, 1922. The mills company went bankrupt October 17, 1923.

J.D. Norwood, formerly of Salisbury, now of Birmingham, Ala., was president of the Mecklenburg Mills Company. He was tried in federal court here last December on a charge of violation of the national banking laws and sentenced to serve three years in the federal prison at Atlanta. He has appealed from the sentence and the appeal is pending. He was chairman of the board of directors of the Peoples National Bank of Salisbury, when it was closed in June, 1923, and much paper of the Mecklenburg Mills Company was found in the bank.

From the front page of the Concord Daily Tribune, Thursday, March 11, 1926

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1926-03-11/ed-1/seq-1/

John Davis Sought in Killing of Ella Wilson; Obituaries for Charles Sutton, Mrs. A.P. Phifer, March 11, 1926

Negro Woman Murdered. . . Charles J. Sutton Passes at Charlotte. . . Mrs. A.P. Phifer of Marshville Dies in Hospital

Charlotte, March 10--John Davis, negro, was being sought by the police today on a murder charge following the killing of Ella Wilson, negro woman, who was shot to death early this morning at a card game in the negro section. Davis is said to have walked into the house, shot the woman, and walked out. In a short time he returned to the house to see if the woman was dead. He then drove off in an automobile and the police have been unable to find him.

-=-

Charles J. Sutton, aged 55, formerly a well known business man of DeFuniak Springs, Fla., but who has lived in Charlotte for the past several years, died late last night at the home of a daughter, Mrs. E.L. Sheley on North Church street. Funeral services will be held tomorrow with Dr. Luther Little, pastors of the First Baptist church officiating. Mr. Sutton is survived by his widow, a son, H.H. Sutton of this city, and a daughter, Mrs. Sheley.

-=-

Mrs. A.P. Phifer, 50, of Marshville, died early this morning at a local hospital where she had been under treatment for two days. The body was taken to Marshville this morning and funeral services will be held there some time tomorrow. Mrs. Phifer is survived by a son, Heath Phifer, and a daughter, Mrs. J.L. Bivens of Marshville.

From the front page of the Concord Daily Tribune, Thursday, March 11, 1926

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1926-03-11/ed-1/seq-1/

Defense Claims Van Dyke Suffering from Temporary Insanity When He Killed A.L. Painter, March 11, 1926

Insanity Plea to be Used for Van Dyke by Attorneys. . . Will Argue to Jury That Slayer of the Officer Was Insane at the Time of the Deed. . . Mother Died at Morganton. . . Van Dyke Claims He Was Gassed in France—The Court Room Is Packed During the Trial

Gastonia, March 11 (AP)—Defense council for Jesse Van Dyke, 25, on trial for his life in Superior Court here before Judge C.C. Lyon of Elizabethtown, will argue to the jury late today that the defendant was temporarily insane at the time of the killing of Chief A.L. Painter of Cherryville on January 14th.

Van Dyke claims he was gassed while with the A.E.F. [American Expeditionary Forces—what they called the soldiers who fought in Europe] during the World War, and underwent treatment In an army hospital for five months. It is also stated that Van Dyke’s mother was insane and died in the State Hospital at Morganton.

The state finished with the evidence this morning. Two witnesses, Loring Hord and A.B. Sweatt, Cherryville young men, were called from Florida to testify.

Despite the inclement weather, the court house was again packed beyond standing room by spectators. Judge Lyon called for order frequently.

From the front page of the Concord Daily Tribune, Thursday, March 11, 1926From the front page of the Concord Daily Tribune, Thursday, March 11, 1926 newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1926-03-11/ed-1/seq-1/

Closing Arguments Begun in Van Dyke Murder Trial, March 11, 1926

Arguments By Counsel Started

Gastonia, March 11 (AP)—Closing its case before two star witnesses, Loring Hord and A.B. Sweatt, Cherryville young men, failed to arrive in time from Florida to testify, the state rested in the Van Dyke murder trial here this morning at 11:37 o’clock.

Like a bolt from a clear sky, attorneys for Van Dyke announced they would rest, not putting a single witness on the stand in the young meatcutter’s behalf.

Former state Senator Carl Carpenter opened the argument for the defense. He asked the jury for a verdict of manslaughter, and nothing more.

This afternoon Mr. Carpenter will be followed by Matthew Stroup, Senator T.B. Butler, A.E. Woltz, and Solicitor John Carpenter, all four for the state. Clyde Hoey will close for the defense. The case will probably get to the jury at 6 o’clock tonight.

From the front page of the Concord Daily Tribune, Thursday, March 11, 1926

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1926-03-11/ed-1/seq-1/

Tom Drake Released in Murder Case, March 11, 1926

Tom Drake Is Released

Stanly News-Herald

Tom Drake, who has been held in the county jail here charged with being a party to the murder of “Dad” Watkins, was set free Monday morning. Solicitor Smith made a motion that the court release Drake on the grounds of insufficient evidence which was so ordered by Judge R.R. Ingram.

Drake has been held here for several weeks on the charge of being mixed up with the murder of “Dad” Watkins. John Gray, it will be remembered, was bound over to the Superior Court here last Monday upon the charge of the Watkins murder.

From page 2 of the Concord Daily Tribune, Thursday, March 11, 1926

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1926-03-11/ed-1/seq-2/