Sumner High School - Maroon and White Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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were accustomed to dressing this Way in the Yes, the black immigrant, just as other tropics, they were chided by their American groups of foreign-borns, has contributed his brothers who found them very amusing. Now very best to make America a better place in the style, once mocked, has been adopted for which to live, wear by all races of the United States during the hot sultry days. Ruth Thompson. 9 N! 6-Qelcfcwfflfeqfzcagmmwa 5 ,liz lx-,fjp fl-Eom3i Q---HAIRX f l fit . ., K x :O fn uw aoiizzacn s f X l if 1 gf - , .i 5 li' U 0 4 l A-L ' i ., F J I y A fn -W f i t w H O c I V ' 'V A ' f + l 'i 'i 1. - .. i H122 l , 1 ' ' 4 : 'l 1 r , if ' ' H N I 1 it Lk ' .- 4:11 ,J

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7he WW Qwimd The theme of the Ninth Annual May Fes- tival was Spring Flowers. This theme was wisely chosen and it was magnificently por- trayed on May 12, 1939, in a colorful, spec- tacular spring carnival which was witnessed by a large crowd of citizens. Followed by their maids and attendants, the retiring queen, Gertrude McCellan, and the retiring spirit, Edward Edmonson, entered. Everyone watched the new sovereigns as they made their grand entrance, Olean Scott, the queen, and William McAllister, the spirit. After the coronation ceremonies, some May Festival customs were presented, including a May Pole dance, a Well Festival, and a Spring dance. About one hundred and five pupils appeared in the carnival, the most of them taking part in the Parade of Flowers in which sixteen states of the United States and fifteen foreign countries were represented. After this part of the program, a large portion of the crowd slowly made its way into the building to ob- serve some of the other interesting features of the Festival.

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The Black Immigrant America plays an all important part in the meeting and welding of races. The colored races are no exception. These seekers of destiny have come from the far corners of the world, bringing with them their fine gifts of their native lands. Our great port of New York calls them from Slpain, France, the Guianas, Arabia, Denmark, Portugal, Britain, and Africa. With them they bring traces of their quaint folk life and traditions. The largest number, from British West Indies, come for economical and educational advant- ages offered in the United States. Next in number are the Spanish-speaking natives of the Virgin Islands, who take an intelligent and active interest in affairs of their former homeland. They are tireless in their eEorts to establish civil government instead of the naval administration now in existence. These black foreigners who are usually lean, sunburnt, quaint of manners and speech, con- stitute a total population of 73,803 in the United States. From the year of 1920 to 1923 the foreign born Negro population increased nearly 4071. But this increase was not per- manent because 207p left during that period, leaving a net increase of 24,000 for the three years. Today, in Harlem alone, there are about 35,000 foreign born Negroes. It is this body of black immigrants that make New York so unlike Pittsburgh, Washington, Chicago, and other cities with large American Negro populations. For the first time here they are in contact with American Negroes and Amer- ican race prejudice. They find it hard to segregate themselves into colonies. Their too- dark complexions make it impossible to pose as Cubans or other alien-tongued foreigners, thus their adjustment to American life be- comes a task. Since the largest number of black foreigners come from the West Indies, we should be interested in learning more about them. To the average American Negro all English- speaking natives are West Indians. It is generally thought that there is everything in common among these people. This is not true. The West Indians classify themselves as being either Antiguans or J amaicans. The barriers: geographical, political, and cultural separations make them form entirely different character- istics. However, their social grouping is determined by family connections, education, wealth, and power. This social grouping does not hold to the physical barriers mentioned. Hence, one may occupy the lowliest to the most exalted position in society, whether he be an Antiquan or a Jamaican. This social bar- Page Sixty-four rier that separates the colored aristocrat from the laboring class is almost unsurmountable. But in America the lowliest West Indian learns to assert himself. For over one hundred years the West In- dians have played a most important role in American Negro life. John Brown Russwurm, a Jamaican, one of the founders of Liberia, was the first colored man to be graduated from an American college and to publish a news- paper. This was in 1827, sixteen years before the first Odd Fellows' Lodge for Negroes was organized in New York by Peter Ogden. John W. A. Shaw of Antigua, who in the early nineties, passed a Civil. Service examination, became deputy commissioner of taxes for Queen's County. The West Indian's contri- butions to the Wealth and power of the United States has not yet been realized. It was the 'black men of the Caribbean who made the union of the Atlantic and Pacific possible by their intelligence and muscular endurance during the building of the Panama Canal , said Major-General Goethals, chief engineer and builder of this magnificent project. Since these people come from lands where they experienced no legalized social or occu- pational handicaps, they find it hard to adapt themselves to the customary tasks reserved for Northern Negroes. Having a distinct dislike for menial labor and being carefully trained for skilled trades, they apply for po- sitions that the average Negro has been taught to believe restricted to white alone. This persistence in fighting restricted labor has opened new fields of employment. They ven- ture out in business, such as jewelry shops, fruit stands, grocery stores, and tailor shops, while the American Negro usually dominate those businesses where competition from other groups is small-barber shops and poolrooms. The Antiquans and Jamaicans are, on the whole, homeloving people, fond of sports, but lacking a sense of humor falthough Bert Wil- liams, world's greatest Negro comedian, was born in the Bahama islandj. They save their earnings and send a large part of it home to their kinsmen. There is a distinct difference between the West Indian's and the American Negro's form of religion. While the former is restrained in his emotions, the latter has a tendency to indulge in displays of emotionalism bordering on hysteria. The West Indians originated the style of wearing white shoes and light flannel pants during the summer months. Although they MAROON AND WHITE