“REAL WHITE” FRIENDS Hopefulness and Gratefulness.

FROM the year 1619 when Negroes were first brought from Africa to the American Colonies, Colored people had from the very first a few of the truest kind of friends among a certain class of broad-minded, clean hearted and Christian white people. This group of people never was in favor of slavery but they could not stop it because their numbers were so much smaller than those who wanted and did have slaves. But white friends of those shackled human beings rapidly increased in numbers until 1861 when they felt that at last they were not only evenly matched but also had the sentiment of the rest of the world with them against the Southern white enemies of the Negro in freedom. Even during the darkest days of slavery there were white men and women in both the North and South, who after having slaves given to them by their parents, became so heavy of heart and worried in mind because of their parts in such soul damming sins and crimes that they would not longer keep their Colored people as slaves but set them free. Then again on account of some valuable deeds or services they had performed, many slaves were made free outright or were allowed to work their freedom out on easy terms. Some owners, while they were not quite Christianized or civilized enough to free their slaves, were in several ways quite kind to them and sometimes secretly (for the laws of the land forbid owners educating their slaves) taught them to read and write in somewhat the same amusing and pitying manner that tender-hearted boys and girls of today are kind to their pet birds and rabbits and teach them several smart tricks but yet will not open the cage doors and turn them loose.

Thus in the above ways there were during the whole period of slavery in the colonies a certain number of Negroes who had secured their freedom as well as good educations in many instances. This explains how it is possible for the writer to truthfully mention within these pages historical facts relative to certain Colored people becoming noted teachers, preachers, doctors, newspaper editors, etc., long before the Civil War and the freedom of all Negroes in America.

Through the agencies of such organizations and societies as named below thousands of Northern white people either by means of their money or through actual service among the Colored people in the South showed their unquestioned friendships for the Negro race. Some of the most important of those friendly organs were as follows:

“Freedman’s Bureau, American Missionary Association, The American Freedmen’s Union Commission, The Baltimore Association for the Moral Educational Improvement of the colored people, The Western Freedmen’s Aid Commission, National Freedmen’s Relief Association of the District of Columbia, The Soldiers’ Memorial Society of Boston, Old School General Assembly Presbyterian Church, American Baptist Home Mission Society, The New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, and The Pennsylvania Friends’ Freedmen’s Relief Association of Philadelphia.

The two Presidents of the United States who have proved themselves, through both words and deeds, truly to have been the greatest white friends the Negro race has ever had in the White House were Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant.

The following are a few names handed to the writer by capable estimators as being among the many thousands of America’s “real white” people, who, either before or during the Civil War, Reconstruction Period or during the present times, have shown by their encouraging and fearless words and their generous and helpful deeds that they had or have within them the deepest brotherhood interest for the truest humane welfare and progress of the Negro Race:

Wm. Anthony AeryEditor

Samuel Chapman ArmstrongEducator

Miss Alice M. BaconPhilanthropist.Dr. Gamaliel BaileyEditor, Abolitionist

Henry Ward BeecherPreacher

Arthur BrisbaneJournalist

Arnold BuffumAbolitionist

Horace BumsteadEducator

Benjamin F. ButlerGeneral

Natalie Curtis BurlinComposer-Author

John BrownAgitator-Abolitionist

Dr. Wallace ButtrickEducator

George W. CableNovelist

Dorothy CanfieldNovelist

Andrew CarnegiePhilanthropist

Gen. H. W. CarpenterPhilanthropist

Dr. J. M. ClarkEducator

Joshua CoffinAbolitionist

Mrs. Mary CrozierPhilanthropist

Frank W. DarlingPhilanthropist

Miss Jane E. DavisEditor

Dr. Jas. H. DillardEducator

Dr. J. Stanley DurkeeEducator

L. C. DyerCongressman

John T. EmlenPhilanthropist

Samuel EttlesonSenator

Mrs. Mary EvansPhilanthropist

Calvin FairbanksUnderground R. R. Agent

Homer L. FergusonPhilanthropist

Dr. C. H. FiskEducator

Jos. B. ForakerLawyer-Senator

A. S. FrissellBanker

Dr. Hollis Burke FrissellEducator

F. Nathan FritchManufacturer-Merchant

Wm. Lloyd GarrisonAgitator-Abolitionist

Eugene G. GraceManufacturer-Merchant

Dr. Jas. E. GreggEducator

Mrs. J. H. HammondPublicity Worker

Warren G. HardingPresident

Atticus G. HaygoodEducator

William HaywardColonel

Mrs. Mary HemenwayPhilanthropist

O. O. HowardGeneral

Julia Ward HowePhilanthropist

Dr. G. W. HubbardEducator

Collis P. HuntingtonPhilanthropist

Mrs. C. P. HuntingtonPhilanthropist

Miss Elizabeth HydeEducator

Mrs. D. Willis JamesPhilanthropist

Miss Anna T. JeanesPhilanthropist

W. N. HarthornPhilanthropist

Mrs. John S. KennedyPhilanthropist

Robt. T. KerlinEducator-Author

F. H. KeysPhilanthropist

F. E. LewisLawyer and Ex-Mayor

H. E. and R. A. LewisManufacturers-Merchants

Colonel LittleU. S. Army

Elijah P. LovejoyPreacher-Abolitionist

Martin E. MaddenCongressman

Joseph C. ManningCongressman

Frederick L. MarquandPhilanthropist

Samuel J. MayUnderground R. R. Agent

Dr. F. A. McKenzieEducator

Mendell McCormickSenator

Dr. C. M. MeldenEducator

Dr. C. F. MeserveEducator

Lucretia MottPhilanthropist

John R. MottY. M. C. A. Worker

Robert C. OgdenPhilanthropist

Mary White OvingtonAuthoress-Lecturer

Robt. W. PatersonPhilanthropist

Geo. Foster PeabodyPhilanthropist

Wendell PhillipsAgitator-Abolitionist

Dr. Geo. P. PhenixEducator

Dr. John B. RendaliEducator

R. J. ReynoldsPhilanthropist

John D. RockefellerPhilanthropist

Theodore RooseveltPresident

Julius RosenwaldPhilanthropist

Mrs. Russell SagePhilanthropist

J. G. SchmidlapPhilanthropist

Charles M. SchwabManufacturer-Merchant

Herbert J. SeligmanAuthor

John ShermanSenator

John F. SlaterPhilanthropist

R. C. SoltBanker

Joel E. SpingarnPhilanthropist

Miss Caroline Phelps-StokesPhilanthropist

Moorefield StoreyLawyer

Mrs. Valeria StonePhilanthropist

Harriett Beecher StoweNovelist-Abolitionist

Wm. Jay SchieffelinPhilanthropist

Prof. T. L. StewartEducator

Charles SumnerSenator-Abolitionist

Dr. F. A. SumnerEducator

Robert S. TaylorLawyer

Dr. W. P. ThirkieldBishop

Oswald Garrison VillardEditor

Dr. E. T. WareEducator

John WanamakerPhilanthropist

Mrs. Sarah E. WhitinPhilanthropist

John Greenleaf WhittierPoet

Linderman, Warren & Robt. WilburBankers

Henry WilsonAbolitionist, Vice-President

(Some names in above list are extracts from Work’s Negro Year Book, 1918-1919 edition, p. 34.)

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

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.”