The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-10-30
CIVIL RIGHTS MEETING.
The Colored Mems Expression on the
Abrogation of the Bill.
Speeches by j. S. Hinton, Alfred Harrison,
james T. Hill and Others-The
Resolutions Adopted.

rights act last night in the Second
Baptist Church. Elder ]. L. Vineyard was
chosen to preside and Charles Stepp was made
secretary. Iu taking the chair Mr.. VINEYARD
stated the object of the meeting. He said that
the first thing he did when he came to light in
this tyrannical government was to kick
and now he never intended to cease
Kicking until the black man, he who
by the side of his white brother, marched, bled
and died, had every door in this country open
to him. He was not in a condition to be salts
fed with anything but complete freedom and
full protection in the enjoyment of all protection
that a white man should have, North and South.
You have the ballot in your hands, and with the
ballot you can enforce your rights. Having Sc
cured the ballot, If the Republican party proves
treacherous to you, down must come the Repub-
lican party. mo applause.l You don't shout
much on that, do youq
The president, on motion, appointed ". W..
Bagby, Henry Rogan, Anderson Simmons, VIM.
II. Dade and Horace Dade a committee on reso-
buttons.
VIM. Franklin moved that as a good many
were present who desired to express them
selves, the speeches be limited to ten minutes.
This was amended by allowing twenty-five min
utes TO a speaker.
j. S. Hinton stepped forward and spoke. He
onld III pOOpiO nOb 10 as p1A IL
sans, and he wished to cast no reflections, but
he felt aggrieved the other evening when he
heard the Congressman of this district say to
this people that you enjoyed all the rights CON-
mon to him when he knew or should have
known that there were at least five laws In the
statute books of Indiana against you. Why,
there is a law that by the word "white'' excludes
Won from the militia of the State, as that law
confines enrolment in the State militia to white
male citizens between the ages of eighteen and
~torty-fve years. He also mentioned the law pro-
viding that whites and blacks shall not inter-
marry. The letter of Austin II. Brown, read at
your former meeting, said that the statute for
thirty years had provided that tnltion shall be
free and open to all. A decision of a supreme
judge said that black men were not citizens.
Now, as n matter of fact, we only send our
children to the public schools by sufferance, as,
by law, not a SOLITARY black child can be admit
ted. He said the colored man had the ballot,
the remedy of reformation, and these things
should be reformed. Cross the Ohio river and
you will find at the Louisville & Nashville depot
one room for white women, and another room
set apart for colored women. and" said the
speaker, "our women, pure as the icebergs that
come from heaven, are thrown into the front
car" He said the civil-rlghts decision rs a mon
strous one, and sets the race back where it was
when emancipation took place..
MR.. HILLS ARGUMENT.
James T. V. Hill, a colOred lawyer of this city,
was the next speaker. Ee took a logical and
AaNs lin " lHO " SulB DlltHy anu uClQ
tn at it was constitutional and necessary. 1t be-
came Il law that the colored man might sing, "My
country tits of thee" 1t became a law that the
colOred man should enjoy "life, liberty and the
pursuits of happiness" ana being counteracted
these pleasures and immuuities of citizenship
are taken away. We object to the State law
against inJerIDarrying Ot blacks and whites.
Our objection is because that law is based upon
the line of inferiority. 1t presumes that the
white is better ana greater than the black. We
must fight that Id lea, not by the ballot only, but
hu oAr.sa inn an Cnlun nv hnnnuNin1 Nand nit
liens, by accommodating property and sharing the
burdens of citizenship. We need NOT reflect but
one phase of political sentiment; We must see if
there are not reasons on the other side. Why,
we have been so accustomed TO the one line of
thought that by this decision the very pith of
our speeches has been swept away. We are now
left to shape out our own political destlng, and
/ thank God for it.
oTHER SPEECHES.
Alfred Harrison was the next speaker. He
asked how could the civil-rights bill be uncon-
stitutional unless the amendments on which 1t
is placed are also unconstitutional He made a
lengthy and ringing speech in which he called
to the attention of the audience that the black
man was not a beggar, but that everything this
government had given him, and more, had been
earned and deserved. All the colored man asks
is based upon his just merits. "And we were
loyal, too" said the speaker, with an unfaltering
loyalty. Did anyone ever hear of the betrayal
of a white soldier by a colOred person, man or
WOudUf Anu nldUN ii Luduy d OUb mas Detu
hidden and succored in the black mans
cabin. And we fought for the flag.
too We're we not at Fort Pillow And on
was the Tenth Virginia aud the Fifty-ffth Mas
sachusetts who tackled Johnny Reb with a
valor that no white troops could excel; and
we say now, If any discrimination is to be
shown 1t should be shown to tue loyal and not to
Rev. j. NJ. Washington then led the hymn,
cam I a soldier OF the crossl" the entire audi
ence joining in.
/. E. Christy made a brief speech in which he
said that the black people could solve what the
white people were pleased to call their problem
easily. Let alone, the race VIII work OUT It's
begin with respecting his own race. Why, in this
city yon can't shave in any downtown barber
shop. Why's Because the BARRIERS say it will in
jure their business. We had better say less about
discrimination in our railroad cars, hotels, etc.,
until we do away with these determinations we
make ourselves"
II RESOLUTIONS,
The committee on resolutions made the follow
ing report:
Whereas, The late decision Of the Supreme
Court declaring the supplementary civil-rights
bill unconstitutional, null aud void, thereby
overturns and defeats the browning work of the
glorious results of the agitation for the aboli-
reconstruction acts; therefore, be it
"ResOlyed, That we deplore and denounce this
unjust, oppressive ana retrogressive decision of
the Supreme Court as a triumph of tyranny,
race prejudice, States rights and secession big
ofry.~
"ResOlVed, Inab we regard IL as calculated to
block the pathway of progress upon which our
people entered twenty years ago; that it is an
attempt to reverse the noble and statesman
like work OF John Brown, William Lloyd CARR
son, Charles Sumner, Wendell Phillips, Fred.
Douglass, Abraham Lincoln and the noble band
of patriots who, by their self-sacrificing action
and devotion to che principles OF human liberty,
emancipated a race a nd regenerated a nation.
Resolved, That we shall ever remember with
feelings of gratitude and pride the patriotic
action of Justice Harlan, OF Kentucky, in dis
senting from the second bred Scott decision.
Resolved, That we demand of the State of
Indiana and the Congress of the United States
such legislation that VIII make every man un-
der the broad canopy of our national domain
exactly free and equal before the law.
"ReeOlved, That we thank the Republican
party for what it has therefore done in our be-