I me. McCIeave’s Great Voice Is Hushed Forever VOLUMI 30, NUMBER59 MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE, SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 1961 Attorney General Says Move To Protect Rights 4Mb WASHINGTON—(UPI) - The ¡Justice Department said Wednes­ day it would ask the U.S. Court of Appeals to order 15 white Tennes­ I see landlords to renew leases with -4Í 23 Negro sharecroppers who have been prevented from farming land they rented In the past. : A’.ly. Gen. Robert F. Kennedy announced the action shortly after Federal District Judge Marlon 8. I Boyd in Memphis refused to grant th’ Justice Department's request for a hearing. Kennedy said an appeal to the Sixth Circuit Court Arnett In Cincinnati would be made Thursday. The governmem said the stare­ croppers in Fayette and Haywood Moves counties were barred from farming \ I P the tracts as part of an economic boycott against Negroes who sought to vote in la:t year’s election, Assistant The Justice Department said the landlords were among 80 in the Should the NAACP change its current approach to racial two southwest Tennessee counties problems? Sub Station'7 tyho.were charged by .-the govern­ • f® ment last year with planning to That was the question up for discussion last Sunday afternoon William F. Owen .promoted evict their Negro tenants as a re­ on WDIA's "Brown America Spedki." week to Superintendent of prisal for registering to vote in the Operations of the Postal elections. The .two panelists, only two of Memphis, is now the boss The Sixth Circuit Court of Ap­ i them were lawyers — Ben F. Jones mail trucks, 60 men, two MADAME FLORENCE COLE TALBERT McCLEAVE peals issued an injunction last De­ and Russell Sugarmon, Jr. Both two foremen and three cl cember prohibiting the eviction of Three Lawyen have handled civil rights cases tor workers. the NAACP. Moderator of the pro­ court decided the government’s Mr. Owen had to give up jui case. gram was Nai D. Williams. Grand Opera's First Negro Sugarmon and Jones were in top position to accept his nM i In ’this Instance, too, the court complete agreement. They found flee. He hud been superlntd of appeals acted after Judge Boyd Mentioned For of the George W. Lee Postal n refused to grant the injunction. nouung wrong wnh the NAACPs approach. Nat Williams tried to get since its opening in Ofitobs Soprano Dies At Age 70 Kennedy said the petition was them to admit that maybe the 1956. , about 700 sharecroppers until the NAACP could make a change here Mr. Owen, one of UM designed to preserve the court's lege's all-time football | Memphis has lost one of its most outstanding citizens. Mme. or there in its approach but he was n? kt86’*1 »etl Three local a,l01Ws RCtlVe in places W. W. Sheffield Florence Cole Talbert McCleave, first Negro soprano in grand unabie io get them to cliange their the 1957 Civil Rights Act, and to i pOntlCs and civil rights movements retired March 3!. Opera and called by some the Leontyne Price of her day, died positions. protect the voting rights of Negroes have been suggested for city and early Monday morning at Collins Chapel Hospital. She was 70. against economic intimidation and county posts. "Well, do you know of any critic- The newest promotion for She was born in Detroit, Mich.; the daughter of talented coercion. Names up for consideration are ism of the NAACP?” asked Mr. young Memphiah was strictly’? musicians. Her father was an excellent basso and her mother those of Ben 1. Hooks, I. H. Mur­ Williams. merit and in accordance with a j A. Maceo Walker Sworn phy and S. A. Wilbun. Both agreed that there is some cent edict handed down by I was a member of the famous Jubilee Singers. Postmaster General in W If offered city or county govern­ criticism. Two types of criticism, hi The Coles moved to Los Angeles while she was still in ele­ D. C„ which said "AU In As TAC Member ment positions,. it is the general tact. "Some people are critical of must be based on ablU. mentary school, and it was in California that she had her first Without fanfare ,A Maceo Walker, feeling that these men would prefer the organization because they never without regard to race, look at opera. She saw "Aida" when she was 15 and it was president of Universal Life In­ part-time Jobs which would enable will and never have done anything color.” ~ surance Company and the Tri-State them to continue private practice for the organization, and others then that she set her goal for grand opera. The promotion was Bank of Memphis, was sworn in through their law offices. criticize because they feel they wdl be hurt economically If the status Memphis Postmaster A. Jj.'M As a girl, her mother wanted her the Chicago Symphony Orchestra last week as a member of the Traf­ (Continued on Page Four) quo is changed.” land and Mr. Owen is t to be a classical singer. “She and during that same year sang fic Advisory Commission. The attorneys pointed out that ber of the PostmaSte wouldn't let me hum popular tunes,” a precedent-breaking recital at "The NAACP is not just for the staff. Mrs. McCleave once said. Aeolian Hall in New York. , rights of Negroes but for the rights She never lost sight of her goal. Still hoping to break into opera, of all Individuals.” Her-;fitst .voice .teacher was Gloria Madame McCleave went to Rome in Southern Opposition To Main of Los Angeles. 1925 and began a two-year course formerlyju W study with Maestro Valeri and After ahi 'was gradtfated'"Woffl •M*r andL.... Maestro Quezada,VU, Wa V1|UC1L„Chfleair I University of Southern California, mW the NAACP helps people to PROMOTED IN POST OFFICE - These three Memphians were pro­ supertn tert she enrolled at the Chicago Musi­ who led her to the operatic stage. register and vote, works in con­ Ils, a lettei moted last week by Postmaster A. I. Moreland. Left to right: cal College and in 1916 won that nection with labor affairs and keeps sistent superintendent After three performances of WASHINGTON - (UPI) - Congressional sources "indicated schools first prize, a diamond an eye on housing conditions at tlon. ■Aida' at Cosenza, Madame Me Theodore Jackson, promoted from assistant superintendent to medal. on April 1 the Kennedy administration was moving away from ate fame time it is fighting for Said Mr. WiUls: ’I’m glad tert Cleave went to Paris where she superintendent of Lee Station; Arnett N. Willis, from carrier to She was married to Wendell Tai- any plan to promote Robert C. Weaver, its new Negro housing oivil rights through the courts. in out of the rein.” •> studied briefly with Marcel Pich- bert, a pianist and cpmpeter, but assistant superintendent of Lee Station, and William F. Owen, At the present, ML Owenls offltt eran of the Opera Comique. Then chief, to head a cabinet-level department of housing and urban when he switched to Jan their ca­ she returned to America for a affairs. from superintendent of Lee Station to superintendent of Vehicle will lie at 139 Virginia. reers took them in opposite direc­ Mr. Owen, called "Bull" by trans-continental concert tour. Southern Democrats in the Sen­ Southerners then assailed him Operations of the Memohis Postal System. Mr. Owen's promotion tions. Big Revival On 1 friends because of his outstanding She appeared as a soloist with the ate hinted the Cabinet department as an “integrationlst” seeking to In 1118, Madame Cole-Talbert, as elevates him to a staff position. feats on the football field Hl the Los Angeles Philhar monic and the proposal would have dfficulty get- end segregation of whites and Ne­ X she became known, was soloist with Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. ting off the ground unless they re­ groes on all federally - assisted (Continued on Rim Four) Although her singing won her ceive assurances that Weaver, a housing projects. They also ques­ Al Mason Temple much praise In Europe, she never New Yorker, will not be named to tioned him about old associations was able to break into organised head it. with groups on the attorney gen­ A former Memphian, the Rev. C. Collins Chapel Hospital’s Old 2 Desegregation opera in the United States of White House—recommendations eral's 4ist of communist _■ front L, Franklin, now a nationally known, America. specifying which agencies should organizations. evangelist and pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Suits Coining Up She began a teaching career in be grouped in the new department Weaver, whose title is adminis­ has returned to the Bluff City to The lawsuit hi Federal Doi 1930, teaching at Bishop College, may go to Congress next week. trator of the Housing and Home Case, Fined $5 conduct a nlne-day revival which seeking to desegregate parks* Tuskegee Institute, Fisk University Finance Agency, had a major hand Administration informants, ask­ started Monday of this week at other recreational f^iltttyB"• and Rust College. in drafting the recommendations, J. F. Estes, tawye" and editor of ed about earlier indications that Mason Temple. Memphis has been reset to JU. On one of her concert tours His agency would be. the core of A building fwmerly used for the Collins Chapel Hospital has been 860 Vance forgot to show up in Weaver was slated for the cabinet The revival Is being sponsored by 114. It had been scheduled , through the South, she met Dr. B. the housig and- urban affairs de­ ordered tom down by the Department of Housing Improvement on court with a plle.it charged with job when created, knocked down Greater White Stone Baptist Wednesday of this week.