The Twin-City American. [volume], May 04, 1899, Image 1

About The Twin-City American. [volume] (Minneapolis [Minn.] ;) 1899-1899

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An Independent Race Journal, Deve
ted to the Interest of the Colored Raee
Subseription Price $1.50 Per Year.
Vol. 1. No. 1. .
g,fi-- Fortune, Editor of The N
| York Age, so Characterizes Biahop
. Taruer, and shows it’s Application to
. the Bishop's “Repatriation” Project—
. The Black Man whe can't Get Along
wfitb—mmm Phenom
ena in Social and Civil Development —
“The White Man's Responsibility for it—
How it is to be Solved in the United
:
. "It is a misfortune to any government
~ to have a problem based upon race; yet,
~ but few nations of ancient or modern
. times have been without such a problem
at some Stage of their history. Such a
problem always weakens and brutalizes
both the oppressor and the oppressed.
There is no escape from this iron law.
And yet, out of the agonies that hedge
about race problems of whatever sort,
it has often happened that a homogene
ous and persistent people have been
evolved; perhaps the most notable in
stance of this in history being the fusion
~of the Angles and Saxons of England
after a long and fierce conflict. Some
times utter annihilation falls to the share
of one of the races in conflict; the most
remarkable instance of which, perhaps,
being that of the Indian races in the
United States. Subjugation, oiten
more cruel than death, is the hard por
tion of others, as in the case of the
teeming millions of the East Indies,
where the heel of the British conqueror
is studded with spikes, sharp as the edge
of the Damascus blade.
Race problems are the most common
phenomena in social and civil devel
opment, and few of the three branch
es of the human family sprung from
Noah but have at some time served an
apprenticeship in the school of slavery.
There are a lot of people in the United
States who are, or pretend to be, ig
norant of this fact, and who entirely ig
nore it in their consideration of the
problem of which the Afro-American. is
the storm center. The Colony of Vir
ginia was largely recruited from the
white criminal class of England, bound
~ to service as effectually as any honest,
. black slave kidnapped irom Adfrica.
" _The prevailing notion that the Airican
~ done us great injury. Slavery has not
. been and is not the peculiar heritage of
any particular race, ’
The race problem in the United States
to-day is of more concern to the white
man than to the black man. The white
man made the problem by giving us a
special invitation, with iree transporta
tion, to come here, as Booker Washing
ton puts it, but he can’t solve the prob
lem, as he has been trying to do for
many years, without consulting us or
considering our interests and feelings.
From this point of view, Rudyard Kip
ling’s hypocritical “White Man's Bur
den” may be studied to advantage; so
also may be the frantic protestations of
our own Bishop Henry M. Turner that
this is a white man’s country, in which
a black man has no honorable future,
and from which he should betake him
self as fast as steam and wind can carry
him back to the continent of Africa.
I am very sure that Bishop Turner
will resent my characterizing him as the
Prophet of Despair; but that is what he
is. No amount of gesticulation and
ululation, (?) on his part can break the
force of this characterization. Bishop
Turner is, personally, one of the most
amiable and companionable men I |
know, and 1 have not thoroughly mas
tered the reason why a man of his force
of intellect and character, with his un
doubted promineccs and influence for
weal or woe, should adopt the gloomy
philosophy of Poe’s “Raven” in a con
“dition of affairs requiring a wise and
‘ Josophy. 1 have at no time scen the
wisdom of flying from the ills we know
of in the United States to ills we
know not of in Africa. A story is told
of a black man who, while plowing a
piece of land near a ferry somewhere in
the South, was accosted by a white
Weary Waggles, who asked him to
give him a nickel to pay his.way across
the river. The black man eyed him
steadily ior a 2 moment, and then said:
“No, sah; 1 ain’ gwine gib yo' no nickel,
‘ca'se er wite man wat ain’ got no'
nickel is jes as well off on one side de
ribber as on re odder.” And that is the
real dimensions of the matter as it re
lates to the race in this country. The
black man who can’t get along in the
United States will not succeed in Africa.
Those who are succeeding in the United |
States don’t want to and will not go to |
Africa or anywhere else.
But a Prophet of Despair, like Bishop
Turner, can do a very great deal to
wards discouraging the unthinking
masses. “Alfrican repatriation” is a
dream, pure and simple, simply because
by Earopean governments which can be
fin‘:fid_’ Siberia is there, it is
; S m .;—2‘» T — ‘, ” Vlh
W epor fi 4% e only
o e et A T e 8 S R 5
] Turner in seeking to create discontent
among the masses of the people.
I believe it cannot be disputed that
the Afro-American race (s in a more
fortunate condition to-day than it has
ever been; that it is better off in the
United States than it is anywhere else
on the globe, Africa included; that it has
a future in this country which it has in
no other; and that, whether it wants tc
or not, it will remain in the United
States to the end of the chapter. We
may speculate all we want to, but when
we strike the inevitable it is the par
-wisdom. to. aceept it and make the
most of it.
Of course we have a hard time in this
country, but there are others in the same
boat; we don’t stand alone. But is the
African in Africa living on “fower)
l beds of ease? 1 guess not. “A hard
time” is the lot of a vast majority o
! mankind everywhere. Prophets of Des.
pair and Calamity Howlers would be
“amusin’ cusses” if they did not do s¢
- much damage. We should brace up and
make the most of the opportunities we
have to make an honorable place in the
citizenship of the United States; what
lthat place shall be will depend more
upon us than upon our white fellow
‘; citizens.
| T. THOMAS FORTUNE.
; New Yerk, April 15
1 R ————rree—————————
Frederick Douglass
As a Champion of the Woman Suffrage
Movement.
The followi was recently read
z[ln. Rosa E pfip:d, at a Do-’da-
M'?. held under the
auspices of the A. L. E. League of Min
nesots, and owing to the very able and
interesting manner in which she discusses
the great liberator in ul:.ti:: to the
woman suffrage question, pleased
to publish the p:pcr for the beuefit of
our l-du:ficq-ddly those who are in
terested in Woman Suffrage.
Mrs. Hazel, whose cut we present here
with, is an esthusiastic advocate of
Woman’s Rights and isever ready to sup
port any movement that is fostered to
emancipate those of her sex; she is an in
detatigable worker in the interest of her
mflm]fifi:m.m
woman, for she demonstrated that
it i i T S
2-‘-&-. to of race;
isa 'c-::‘ of Jlulfin.. eulture and
Bl o
a
aones of peids T bov Taseiils wie
to the race that we bear ua‘hlhny
to her excellent qualities.—
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentle
men: I am requested to give 2 brief ac
count of Frederick Douglass in his rela
tion to the woman suffrage movement.
In the anti-slavery movement of fifty
years ago arose a schism. Strange as it
may seem to us, who are used to thei
larger latitude accorded woman, the
freer scope in which to rise to the pos
sibilities within her, in those dark days
of the nation, when the South, with
fierce persistency, and the North, with
servile acquiescence, were forging the
chains of the slave, invoking gods, both
Greek and Christian, to testify to his in
ers were suddenly awakened to a new.
In an organmization dedicated to the
cause of the slave,—a cause zppealing, in
ifit-rs yet tragic, history, to all
vese, i ' %
jound no place for labor and for sacti
bated breath to the thrilling stories of
of Garrison; the fiercely just invective of
Phillips: the scholarly argument of The
MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL, THURSDAY. MAY 4, 1899
e R A A . 250 £ A.12l St e 05
] odore D. Weld; the passionate plea of
Angelina Grimpke, and others whose
| names are now revered houschold
t] words. We find her leaving homes of
|| luxury, literary careers, scenes of social
+| triumphs, to give time, thought, money,
| influence, even lijé if necessary, to the
i | blotting out of a nation’s sin, the puri
fying of a nation’s life.
‘1 But the time inevitably came when
Il the women working in the anti-slavery
'} cause were impelled by the logic of
'} events to seek a voice in the general
‘1 body of anti-slavery workers, in order
harmonious. At that time there were
i} some earnest, sincere men who felt that
' | the dividing line of sex privileges should
'| be drawn, when woman sought recog
"] nition as an equal factor, even in this
I} movement for human liberty. So the
' little cloud, no larger than a man’s
‘I hand, grew and overshadowed the
'| cause, crippling at one time its unity
'} and efficiency.
} The woman who would battle for the
.| freedom of the slave soon found that,
;| woven in that seamless robe of liberty,
|| was another golden thread, and that she
' | herself worked with fettered limbs, and
| unworthily, until her own individuality
was recognized, her own freedom ac
complished. So the long struggle began
which has opened up so many opportu
nities for women and is still working
out its own and the nation's salvation—
‘the at-one-ment of humanity, the per
fect whole in the body politic, the ideal
'] government of a free people. |
The division in the ranks of the Am
|| erican Anti-Slavery Society in 1840 was
/| followed by a more pronounced hostility
'} to the equal representation of women in
the World’s Anti-Slavery Convention,
| held in London the same year, at which.
|| after a bitter discussion, the women del
|| egates from America were rejected.
Men, who afterwards so obly cham
pioned woman's cause, were at this
time in all stages of development on the
vexed question, from utter hostility to a
conserviative estimate of woman's needs
and rights. So, only two of the Ameri
can delegates, Wm. Lioyd Garrison and
Nathaniel P. Rogers, refused to take part
in the convention, remaining with the
ostracized women, silent spectators in a
meeting, the®subject of which lay so
near their hearts.
It was then that Lucretia Mott and
Elizabeth Cady Stanton resolved to hold
a woman’'s rights convention on their
return to America, and in 1848 the first
woman’s rights convention was held in
Seneca Falls, N. Y. Among the speak
ers at this now historic meeting was
Frederick Douglass. In the declarations
and resolutions adopted at this conven
tion the demand was made for “equal
rights in the universities, trades, profes
sions; in the suffrage; in political offi
ces. honors and emoluments; complete
equality in marriage, personal freedom,
property, wages, children, to make con
tracts, to sue and be sued, and to testify
in courts of justice.”
In the advocacy of these resolutions,
Frederick Do.dn:’ was earnest and
convincing. Side by side with Lucre
be worked for their adoption. Ip an|
editorial in his paper, The North Star,
he says: “Many who have at last dis
covered that the negroes have some
rights as well as other members of the
buman family, have yet to be conuvinced
that women are entitled 10 xuy. Eight
years ago, a number of persons of this
description actually abandoned the A. S.
cause, Jest. by yiving their influence in
that direction, they might possibly b
giving conntenance to the us
heresy that woman, in respect to rights,
INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION,
stands on an equal footing with man.
It is needless to sa that we cherish lit
tle sympathy for sentiments, or re
spect brmbu%m ices. Our doctrine
is that ‘right is sex.” We there
fore bid the w engaged in this
movement our h God-speed”
It is not a ma }blwondcr that
Douglass, with hi§ twenty years' en
vironment of slavefy, should plead the
cause of his race, his own cause. But
around his early yars was thrown no
halo for woman. . slave man was
taught no reverence lor the slive wom
an; even the anifivisl.and. nasrow. re
straints of society wert not imposed
upon him. He saw the defilement of the
black woman, the humiliation of the
white woman, as parts of the odious
system of which he was a member, Im
morality was the natural heritage of the
slave; immorality the natural fruitage of
‘the slave system, of which the master
was a conspicuous and shining example.
‘ How, then, did Douglass find his way
to light and life out of this moral abyss?
Whag, then, were the educating influ
ences through which Douglass passed,
and which enabled him to grasp so high
an ideal; to take so bold and forward a
step in the march to human progress’
I answer, Douglass’ association with the
anti-slavery women, who were, without
exception, of rare intellectual attain
ments and spiritnal elevation.
But contact is not absorption; and no
amount of association could have made
T. THOMAS FORTUNE,
Editor New York Age,
him take upon himself a new duty, and
side with the few, against the many agi
tators of his own sex, who, true to the
negro, had not risen to the high plane of
justice to women, who considered such
a departure too radical for their faith or
their efforts,
In the chemistry of his own soul did
he find the affinity between the rights of
the negro and the rights of woman
He, himsell, was ready; the “woman
question,” as it was called, was only
the opportunity for a broader decla
ration of the doctrine of human rights.
The protest began against chattel
slavery could not end there, but must
ever be a protest against all slavery,
whether of race. sex or opinions. When
1 hear women, in indignant amazement.
censure the apathy of their own sex on
[umm-‘umme
‘dmmbmdmmmwobi
thdfitdq,lm.“!'hwoh!
not unrepresented in your fight for free
dom.” Not alone did Douglass, 2 slave,
‘but Sojourner Truth, also a slave, with
Parvis Remond and other free-born
volored men snd womes, bave borne
witness for woman and labored for her
eniranchisement,
M!M:‘l:fiifld&uh&
ing standards; it creates nogg of s cwn.
mW”'fil Boce, wnd it
. | leaven of noble discontent to work its
- | way through the mass.
; A BUBJECT CLARS ALWAYS DRGRADES 178
: OWN.
*| Woman's long subjefivity has be
numbed her. That so many have passed
t without the border, are making progress
" | all along the line, is the beginning of the
" | end of her long subjection. The slave, the
: freedman, among the negroes, has,tomy
> | mind, less excuse for an attitude of indi
' | ference to.the political inferiority of
" | woman, in that his own escape from
i forts; his own enfranchisement has been
" | to him the precious sign of his manhood,
“ | the coveted goal of his ambition. He, in
*| his own person, knows the degradation
" | of disfranchisement, the futility of unciti
* | zenship in a country where the ballot
il is the peaceful weapon in the ad
" | justment of his grievances, the preserva
* | tion of his rights.
"1 “Ingrate would 1 be,” said Douglass,
1 “if T failed in my duty to fight for these
| women in my hour of triumph, who,
'| when the shackles were on my limbs,
: fought for me and mine.”
) WOMAN'S pUTY,
: The negro woman should stand shoul
| der to shoulder with the negro man in
the struggle for race development and
| Tace recognition, Let the Caucasian, if
| he will, refuse justice to his women; but
| never let it be said that the negro, from
the height of s suddenly gotten van
tage ground-—in the dazzling light of his
new possession-—forget the mother who
bore him, the wife swho shares his bur.
dens; the sister and daughter, who, with
longing eyes, turn to the horizon and
wait and work for the dawning of a
juster, freer day.
Let me commend to you the words of
Douglass, when he said: “1 believed
that the exclusion of my race from par
ticipation in government was not only a
wrong but a great mistake, because it
took from that race motives for high
thought and endeavor and degraded
them in the eyes of the world around
them. If from the cradle through life
the outside world brands & class as unfit
for this or that work, the character of
the class will come to resemble and con
form to the character described. 1
would give woman a vote precisely as
I insisted upon giving the colored man
the right to vote, in order that she shall
have the same motives for making her
sell a useful citizen as those in force in
the case of other citizens, In this de
nial of the right to participate in gov
ernment, not merely the degradation of
woman and the perpetuation of 3 great
injustice happens, but the maiming and
repudiation of one-hali of the moral and
intellectual power of the government of
the world. Thus far all human govern
ments have been failures, for none have
secured, except in a partial degree, the
ends for which governments are insti
tuted.”
STANDARD BY WHICH DOUGLASY GREAT-
A SHALL :r—
-; When the final shall have been
‘passed on Douglass and his work, it
‘may be that future biographers may |
think that the greatness of Douglass lay |
not alone in a lile-long consecration for |
the elevation of his race, but in the |
breadrh of view of this man of the peo- |
ple, who reached ont nor only for the |
good of the negro race, but had the |
wisdom to foresee the larger good to be |
scovmplished in that kind of justice |
'(MR. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON'S
! Latest Advice.
Bethesda's Pastor, Rev. D. M. Harris,
- Takes Exception to Mr. Washington's
| Positlion Malntaios That He Hes Made
‘ n Great Mistake,
: Perhaps all who read this paper are
| acqlininted with the old story of the
| mouse that undertook to do battle with
| & lion—and they are not unmindful of
| erushed and the lion not in the least
disturbed. The writer hereof is perfect
i Iy aware that in his taking to task Mr.
| Washington for any public utterance
is not unlike the mouse tackling the
l!linn. and he is fully aware that a like
| result may follow, And yet I cannot help
| feeling that at last might—that foree
which ultimately brings success, which‘
favors David rather than Goliath-—is
| not ponderousness but righteousness, |
So with this thought in mind, [ proceed,
: in all humility, to consider this latest ut
terance of the great apostle of industrial
training for the negro, in which he ad
vises the negroes of Alabama and South
Carolina, and hence all negroes that do
not consult their own convictions as to
; what is best in government for them
| selves and their posterity in casting their
ballots: that they simply consider how
they shall best escape a little present
bodily injury. Tn short, his advice to
the voters of Alabama and South Caro
lina amounts simply to this: Vote the
way the majority of the white people are
going to vote, no matter what end that
majority is endeavoring to reach. For
instance, the deliberately expressed pur
pose of the 500,000 white men of whom
he speaks, i. e. the Democratic party ¢
Alabama, is to find & way by which that
commaonwealth can, under the guise of
law, permit every white man to vote,
and at the same time estop as many
black men as possible from voting.
Senator Tillman, of South Carolina,
who has the majority of the whites of
his state at his back, in a recent speech |
said something like this: “I have a |
nigger on my place; he is as honest as |
any one need be; T would trust him with
anything 1 have, but he ain't fit to yote, |
and we whites, who are his superiars, |
are determined that he shall not vote™ |
Now comes our friend Mr, Washington |
and says, “Vote with these men, keep |
them in their campaign of wiping out ‘
the franchise which fathers said, and |
which these men do not deny, is an en- |
dowment by the Creator—vote with |
them and help them in their course, so 1
that the last vestige of liberty may be |
snatched from the grasp of our sons and |
daughters.” |
And now, why? what object does Mr. |
Washington claim will be secured |,
through sach compromise of convietion |
and useless casting of the ballot? Why, ‘
simply that the white people then will |
‘be sure to hold the offices and execute ;
the law according to their own desire, )
whether such execution seems to be just
and right in the negro’s eye or not. g
The ballot is supposed to be the |
means by which the Mfl? voter
gives expression to his desires in regard
to the framing and execution of law; :
and in the casting of that ballot, the |,
person is supposed 1o give consent only |
to such ordinances and :.dt m: !
atienable rights of fife, liberty and ihe |
purseit of happiness. And the man who |
does not 5o wield his ballot is not sup- |
posed 10 be vise in the things that per- |
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| Wasminorox, DO, April 25--We are
{happy to weleome Tun “Cwin-Orry
| AMumicax, the latest born of journalism,
| We do not tear there are too many race
{ papers. There is always room at the top
{ and we are firm believers in the “survival
[of the fittest.” Oune of the names con
{ neoted with this eunterprise is not nube
[ known to us. We know that on his
i maternal side, MeCants Stewart comes of
i good, sturdy stock, His mother is &
, woman of more than ordinary mental at
| tainments, which she inherited from both
i her father and mother. The former was
| a minister, the lutter a teacher, Though
{ I have not seen her for some years, I still
| hear of young Stewart’s mother as & most
| succeseful edueator,
| The mention of Bt. Panl or Minne
l apolis brings to my mind early ohildhood
{duys at Clegeland, when the Parker
éfnmily was prominent in its social life.
| There were !.l&: ohildren, Frederick,
| Lilliae snd William. The two boys, it I re
{oall aright, are making Bt. Panl theie
%hmna; both have lived in Washington,
| wince their marringe. Willie is united to
| n native of this city, she has many rels
|tives here. Fred's wife, though a New
| Orleans girl by birth, made many friends
| while sojourning ut the eapital, Lillie,
{ triend of my childbhood days, idol of &
fhnp&z home, for many years has rested
| “'Neath the low gresn tent § a 0
' Whose curtain never ontward l'filfi :
| Mv, and Mrs, Parker, Sr,, have joined P
| milent majority, :
| Another tamily in Bt. Panl that hass
| large convection in this city is thatof
" Farr. Mro. Farr is the eldest danghter
;iur Mr. and M. Joho Brown, whoss
| home on J street is one of the land marks =
iol Washington, Mres. Brown, for & num=
| ber of years, kept the leading boarding
house for the accommodation of people
Lot our race, Fow of the men or women
| of any prominence who have not beenher
| guests at some time, Bhe was rivalled
i only by her hmbfoflm, the elder
| Wormley, whose was ndvertised by
| the traveling publie from one end of the
. | continent to the other. Unfortunately,
| the old hosterly has passed from the
(| tamily entirely and is now known as the
t | lives in the old homestead; she is Mrs,
| Blonuie Richurdson, & ‘one time besuty
.| and belle; another danghter (there are
. | only three now) is Mre. Bettie Downing,
.| who married & soo of George T. Down
| ing. Bhe resides in Brooklyn, N Y. The
, | only son, Hugh, holds s profess rsh p st
| Hampton, Va. Ustil recethiy (s » sin
| the Washington High Sehog), where he
: ; taught the Natural Sciences,
| Sunday, the sixteenth, was colebrated
| anthe duy on which the slaves iv the Dis
| triot of Columbis were libersted. The
| exercises took place st the Second
| Baptist Chureh, of which Rev, Bishop
| Johnson, B. D, is pastor. Recorder of
| Deods, Hon. Heury P. Chiestham was the
| prineipal speaker, though other addrosses
| ware made by ex-Gov. P, B. 8, Pinchback,
| Rogister of the Tressury J. W. Lyous,
| Booker T, Washivgton, Miss Luey BE.
| Moten, prineipal of the colored normel
| schiool, and T. Thomas Fortune, nestorof
gc«flond American Jourvalivm. Mr. Josse
| Lawson presided.
| The trustees did not close the publie
| ashools this yerr, The teachers were fo
| structed to devote the lnst hour of the i
| session Lo exercises suitable to the dey,
This resolution was introduced by Trustes |
Thomes W. Wright. “The teschers oo .
| opersted to their utmost, so thers were .
| not meny obildren who sbheented them. %
!ulmdw any were exctused whose
| Astrest purade took place Monday
F.manei pation isfé'
Bociety of the Distriet of Columbie. Mr.
George Ferguson is its president. Some
of the most prominest members [
IMD. Orsham, Obarles Middleton,
Inmes Buith, U. B. Sims. After mareh
ing through the prineipal streets, the pro-
Kinley. e
Tuesday night, Bethel rary o d
Fivaucial Board, vie.: James A, Hoody,
Moses B. Saltus, T W B
Dorrick, Fiosbing, X. Y Woeley Ji
was, “Mothodism in its many Plsses”
On Wednesdsy evening, the Metropolitas
AM E Obarch through its irustess,
oeded by an slaborate musiosl program.
Hon J. W. Lyons gave s diuasr comte
men in the sfferncon of Wedossday.
:nnm 1 Prowides
.- ¢ ’:"Klfifi“’ = ;.:5‘ ""*M{Ar "' Rk i :I