Chapter X: Part 10

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has its headquarters in New York City. This organization was fittingly originated in 1909 at a banquet celebrating the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of the immortal Abraham Lincoln. The one who made the first move for its organization was a white woman, Miss Mary White Ovington, who is recognized today as the Harriet Beecher Stowe of her race. She is a graduate of Radcliffe College and is the author of several books. It has been greatly through her untiring and helpful efforts that this organ now has in America, Canada, Canal Zone and Philippine Islands nearly four hundred branches that have a membership of over one hundred thousand. At this writing the association is conducting a campaign for the securing of two hundred fifty thousand members. The true steering rudder of this tremendous ark of safety is in the steady hands of Moorfield Storey, who as its pilot is being ably assisted in accurately compassing all rightful courses by his keen-eyed lookout crew that is composed of Robt. W. Bagnall, Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, Archibald H. Grimke, Rev. John H. Holmes, Mrs. Addie W. Hunton, Bishop John Hurst, Jas. Weldon Johnson, Miss Mary White Ovington, William Pickens, Arthur B. Spingarn, J. E. Spingarn, Mrs. Mary B. Talbert, Oswald Garrison Villard and Walter White.

The work of this association is best explained in the following matter which is a copy of one of its programs:

Done in 1920

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.

Program for 1921

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.

National Urban League

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.”

CORRECTED FRATERNAL INFORMATION

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.

“MASONS”

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.

“ODD FELLOWS”

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.

“KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS OF NORTH AMERICA, SOUTH AMERICA, EUROPE, ASIA, AFRICA, AND AUSTRALIA.”

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.

“KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS (EASTERN AND WESTERN HEMISPHERE.)”

“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.”

I MUST PROCLAIM YOUR ABSENT NAME IS NOT MY BLAME

If on this book’s few pages space
Some worthy one of either Race
Finds not his name in any place,
Think not it is the author’s slight
That kept your name from inky write;
For he has toiled both day and night
In vain research both far and near
To get more facts than here appear.
Thus blame not him for real neglect
’Cause your own name he did not get:
And if a wrong fact herein be
It was not writ intentionally.
So friend, resume your cheerful moods
And smile away those fretful broods
For of all names in type here set
The writer makes no one his pet,
But equally lauds all those who seek
To inspire youths and help the weak.
_The Author._

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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.