1. Anti-Lynching.—Had introduced in both the House and the Senate anti-lynching measures, as a result of which it is expected that Congress will enact laws making lynching a federal offense.
2. The Vote.—Took the matter of disfranchisement of colored voters in the South before the House Committee on the Census; introduced evidence to prove the denial of the right to vote by terrorization and other means; demanded the fair and impartial enforcement of election laws in the southern states, or the reduction of representation wherever the right to vote is denied.
3. Haiti.—American misrule in the black republic of Haiti was brought into the light of pitiless publicity, forcing investigation by the Navy Department and resulting in the introduction in the Senate and House of bills providing for Congressional investigation.
4. Legal Defense.—Defended Arkansas riot victims and had their cases appealed; 6 of the 12 men condemned to death granted new trials on constitutional grounds; Robert L. Hill, charged with being the chief “conspirator” in these riots, freed. Extradition of Tom Ray from Michigan to Georgia fought. Numerous civil rights cases contested by the branches.
5. Ku Klux Klan.—A campaign was begun against the revived Ku Klux Klan, which eventually put the Klan on the defensive.
6. Publicity.—The most formidable weapon for fighting wrong and injustice is publicity. Placed The Crisis each month before more than 350,000 readers. Sent 131 press releases to more than 500 white and colored papers all over the country. Sent out 220,550 leaflets and pamphlets.
1. Anti-Lynching legislation by Congress.
2. Abolition of Segregation in the Departments at Washington.
3. Enfranchisement of the Negro in the South or reduction of southern representation, if necessary.
4. Restoration of Haitian Independence and Reparation, as far as possible for wrongs committed there by the American administration, through Congressional investigation of both military and civil acts of the American occupation.
5. Presentation to the New President of a mammoth petition of say, 100,000 bona fide signers, collected by the various branches, requesting the pardon of the soldiers of the 24th Infantry imprisoned at Leavenworth on the charge of rioting at Houston, Texas.
6. The Abolition of Jim Crow Cars in interstate traffic.
7. Treatment of Colored Men in the Army and Navy; (a) In the Army, admission to artillery units, from which they are now excluded, promotion in the medical and other corps, and the elimination of other forms of discrimination; (b) In the Navy obtaining ratings as non-commissioned officers once more, instead of their present enlistment only as mess-boys, that is, as servants.
8. Appointment of a National Inter-Racial Commission to make an earnest study of race conditions and race relations in the United States.
9. Appointment of Colored Assistant Secretaries in the Departments of Labor and Agriculture which would give the Negro official representation in the two phases of national life where he needs most and suffers most.
10. Continuance of the Fight in the Arkansas Cases.
11. The Successful Holding of the Second Pan-African Congress that the colored peoples of the world may gain a mutual understanding of their common problems.
12. The Defeat by Every Legitimate Means of the Nefarious Ku Klux Klan, both South and North.
Another organization that is second to none in its usefulness and helpfulness to the America Colored people is the National Urban League for Social Service Among Negroes. This body was formed in 1911 and is also under the guidance of one of the staunchest white friends the Race has in the person of L. Hollingsworth Wood. His keen foresight discovers and leaves no stone unturned in bringing about for Colored people throughout the country fair chances to work in new lines of industry and be accorded just privileges to live in sanitary and comfortable quarters. This league has branches in more than thirty cities where thousands of Colored people yearly receive social and industrial helpfulness of the most encouraging nature. Few people know the full value of the tremendous work this league is doing and of the rapid growth it is making.
Those who are, as the chief officers in this league, wisely and unstintingly giving their time and efforts to aid Mr. Wood in this great work are W. H. Baldwin, A. S. Frissell, A. L. Jackson, E. K. Jones, Dr. R. R. Moton, Kelly Miller, John T. Emlen, J. C. Thomas and Lillian A. Turner.
Praiseworthy and thankful mention should be made on these pages regarding the backboned manhoods and Christian stands for protection and justice to Colored people three Southern governors have fearlessly taken within the past two years.
In July 1920, Governor Thos. W. Bickett of North Carolina sent the State Militia, under Capt. M. P. Fowler, to Graham, N. C. with orders to halt and prevent a white mob from breaking into jail and lynching three Negro prisoners. After the troops had arrived and were placed on guard the mob advanced on the jail to secure the prisoners but were halted and scattered by the militia’s machine gun that killed one and wounded three of the would-be lynchers.
During March 1921, Governor Edwin P. Morrow of Kentucky removed from office the white jailer, J. H. Edgar for allowing a white mob to enter the jail and lynch Richard James a Colored prisoner. This Governor also offered a reward of one thousand five hundred dollars for the capture and conviction of each member of the mob.
Right on the heels of the exposure and arrest of the Georgia white planter, J. S. Williams, who was convicted in April 1921 for the murder of Lindsey Peterson, a Colored laborer on Williams peonage plantation where the murdered bodies of at least ten other Colored laborers were found; Governor Hugh M. Dorsey, of Georgia had published and freely circulated a pamphlet entitled, “The Negro in Georgia.” In this publication the Governor bravely and in detail tells of 135 incidents of cruelties committed upon Georgia Negroes. In only two of these cases were the victims accused of crimes against white women. The remaining 133 exposures tell of the whippings, shootings, lynchings, and the enslavement of Colored laborers under the forced labor systems, as well as the driving away of wealthy Colored people from their homes by bodily abuses or threatened tortures.
When it is taken into consideration that those officials fully knew that their stands against and exposures of such savage behaviors of their own people would without doubt mean their political deaths, as well as making for themselves state wide enemies who would not hesitate to do them physical harm; the acts of those Governors were really those of heroes. In performing their full official and Christian duties, they have already influenced many other Southern officials to come forward like real men and help to wash away from the South (especially Georgia) its world-wide stain and shame.
During the past twenty years, Hon. Joseph C. Manning of Alabama, because of his continued courageous stands and his mighty platform and pen fights for justice to the Colored people, especially in the South, has constantly proved himself one of the most fearless and truest white friends the Negro race has in America today. In the April 23, 1921 issue of the Chicago Defender there was republished the article “Let Him Have Due Credit” that appeared in the April 16, 1921 issue of The Washington Bee. The article in part says:
“The peonage conditions in Georgia and the trail that has been going on down there recalls that it was Hon. Joseph C. Manning of Alabama who first brought peonage conditions in Alabama and the South to national attention and into national discussion.
“A letter written by Mr. Manning to the New York Evening Post in 1903 not only assailed this condition but named the peonage perpetrators. The Literary Digest made a review of the newspaper comment the article aroused. The papers in Alabama, some of them, vilified Mr. Manning unmercifully. He was denounced as a “defamer of his state”, branded as a liar, the peonage conditions were denied; but, in not a great while, the citizens he named were prosecuted and convicted through the operations of the Department of Justice when Mr. Moody was Attorney General.
“In the matter of peonage, as well as in the showing up of “black belt” frauds in the South, it was none other than Hon. Joseph C. Manning who took the initiative and has stood the burden to follow for having stood for right.
“Precisely as he fought “black belt” frauds, helping to unseat Southern members of Congress in 1897, he has kept on fighting disfranchisement and arraigned lynching and all sorts of mobs and mob government.
“President Harding, when in the United States Senate, was called on frequently by Mr. Manning, who discussed these wrongs with the man who was to become President. The Bee then followed the work being done, in 1917, right here in Washington by Mr. Manning. No man, more than the President of the United States, knows about this self-sacrificing labor of Mr. Manning for right and for justice.”
In order to prevent possible misleadings or misunderstandings on the part of any reader, the writer quotes below, from pages 457-8 of Work’s Negro Year Book, 1918-1919 edition, the relative positions of officers in different divisions of the Orders of Masons, Odd Fellows and Pythians, which detailed information he found it impossible to put on pages 128-9 on account of lack of space.
Imperial Council Ancient Egyptian
Arabic Order of Nobles of The Mystic Shrine.
Officers:
Imperial Potentate, C. R. Blake, Charlotte, N. C.
Imperial Chief Rabban, R. E. Moore, Chicago, Ill.
Imperial High Priest and Prophet, R. F. Husley, Wheeling, W. Va.
Imperial Treasurer, C. A. Freeman, Washington.
Imperial Recorder, Levi Williams, Jersey City.
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite Masons
Officers of Northern Jurisdiction:
Sovereign Grand Commander, J. F. Richards, Detroit, Mich.
Lieutenant Sovereign Grand Commander, R. E. Moore, Chicago, Ill.
Grand Secretary, W. H. Miller, Philadelphia, Pa.
Officers of Southern Jurisdiction:
Sovereign Grand Commander, T. W. M. Grant, Sr., New Orleans, La.
Lieutenant Sovereign Grand Commander, James T. Logan, Natchez, Miss.
Grand Chancellor, Leon W. Taylor, New Orleans.
Royal Arch Masons
Officers:
President, W. T. Butler, New York.
Treasurer, T. M. Holland, Chicago.
Secretary, James O. Bampfield, Washington.
Ancient York Masons
Officers of National Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted York Rite Masons:
National Grand Commander, Bishop J. W. Alstork, Montgomery, Ala.
National Deputy Grand Commander, Dr. A. R. Robinson, Philadelphia, Penna.
National Grand Secretary, R. J. Simmons, Atlanta, Ga.
Grand Officers: (Morris Faction)
Grand Master, E. H. Morris, 219 S. Dearborn St., Chicago, Ill.
Deputy Grand Master, I. L. Roberts, Boston.
Grand Secretary, James F. Needham, N. W. Cor. 12th and Spruce St., Philadelphia, Pa.
Grand Treasurer, W. David Brown, New York City.
Grand Officers: (Davis Faction)
Grand Master, J. S. Noel, Charleston, W. Va.
Deputy Grand Master, W. T. Francis, St. Paul, Minn.
Grand Secretary, R. J. Nelson, Harrisburg, Pa.
Grand Treasurer, C. Colbourne, Wilmington, Del.
Officers of Supreme Lodge:
Supreme Chancellor, S. W. Green, 226 South Robertson St., New Orleans, La.
Supreme Vice Chancellor, E. C. Tidrington, Indianapolis, Ind.
Supreme Master of Exchequer, J. H. Young, 405 Martin St., Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
Supreme Keeper of Records and Seal, Dr. E. E. Underwood, Frankfort, Ky.
“Meets biennially. The Officers are:
Supreme Chancellor, W. Ashbie Hawkins, Baltimore.
Supreme Vice-Chancellor, W. H. Willis, New York City.
Supreme Master of Exchequer, J. C. Anderson, Crewe, Va.
Supreme Keeper of Records and Seal, G. E. Gordon, Chelsea, Mass.”
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FOOTNOTES:
[A] As the result of her being kind, courteous and considerate of the feelings of respectable Colored people with whom she came in contact and her writing against slavery in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the name of Harriet Beecher Stowe stands today as the most widely known and famous women authoress the world had ever known. During the first year her book was published over 100 editions appeared, and up to the present time it is said that at least two million copies of it have been sold throughout the United States and foreign countries. Aside from the English language, it has been issued in over a score of other civilized languages. It is estimated as being the most popularly read book in the world with the exception of the Bible. It has been just as successfully produced on the stage and since its first publication in book form in 1852, it has continued to hold its popularity as no other book has ever done for such a period of years with the exception of the Bible. It is estimated that during just the first year Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published its authoress received at least $50,000 as royalties from its sales.
This is how the unknown and poor but mannerly refined, highly cultured, sensibly educated and broad-minded white lady, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, made for herself everlasting fame, immortalized her name and at the same time reaped an independent fortune; just by sowing seeds of consideration and kindness among, looking upon and treating as God’s human beings and full-fledged American citizens the Colored people in the United States
As the above were the earthly rewards the hearts of weak and sinful mankind were softened and melted enough to give to Mrs. Stowe, just think of the indescribable rewards the always loving heart of the strong and pure Almighty God is today bestowing upon her in Heaven with Him.