National Republican., 1884-05-13
THE COLOR LINE IN RELIGION.
In Some Parts OF the South IL Seems TO b,
Drawn More Closely " Thnn in Politics.

In Some Parts OF the South IL Seems to be
Drawn More Closely Than In Politics.
Mr.. Rev. Hillary w. Key, colored presid-
ing elder from Tennessee, favored the Metho-
dist general conference the other day, with
some remarks on the color line in religion
which are sufficiently striking
II have seen so much of the color line in
politics." said Mr.. Key, "that 1 don't want to
see it making its inroads upon religion.
Many of us came into the Methodist church
supposing that within its domain at least
there was no distinction founded upon color,
race, or previous condition of servitude. We
are opposed to the proposition to change the
name Of the Freedmen's Aid society. We do
not object to the work of education among
the poor whites. Many of them need it as
much as we do. What we do protest
against is the appropriation of the
sOciety's money for the building
of schools from which we are excluded. The
seminaries recently built in Little Rock
Ark, and Chattanooga, Tenn, were erected
and endowed by money contributed specific
ally toward the work Of the Freedman's Aid
society. Yet the newspapers of those cities
are crying out against the admission of ne
groes to the new institutions nnd 1t is pro-
claimed that they are intended for tho whites
exclusively. The color line is marked in all
the southern conferences Here in the north
u COnlereHCo 10 bllnply geographical ulElSlOu
or district. All the Methodist churches in or
around Philadelphia naturally belong to the
Philadelphia conference In the south 1t is
not SO. Take Arkansas, for instance. A
church located in Little Rock is identified
with the Arkansas conference if it is church
attended mainly by the whites. But the
colored church which stands upon the next
corner is not in the Arkansas conference, but
the Little Rock conference.
THE pastor Of Methodist church, of
birmingham, Ala, was annoyed by the con-
slant attendance of u few colored people at
divine worship, and he recently announced
from his pulpit that no colored people were ex-
pected to attend as they were not welcome.
He even followed up this order by an explicit
notice printed in two of the daily papers of
the city. 1t is this kind of action that We
deprecate and from such orders we appeal to
the authority of the general conference, hop
ing for redress.
"You may think am earnest in this fight,
but have cause to be. / have walked from
my church and found the dead bodies of my
| members lying in tho road, shot down with
rifle bullets. l have been taken from my
house at midnight with moose about my
neck. l have seen my colleagues hanged by
my side from the limb of a tree-a fate
which myself only escaped through the
intercession of one Of the murderers who had
been my friend. | still bear on my back the
marks of their scourges and l cannot quite
forget it. / have stood in my pulpit and
preached while my church was surrounded
| by armed and masked mon, aud have seen
| my members as they came out shot down in
their tracks after being told to run for their
lives. These are things of the past, but the
negroes remember them and resent anything
that tends to draw tho color line in religion.
My people arc in earnest, and 1 have letters
with me from all parts of the south calling
| upon US as their representatives to do ouI
duty here in Philadelphia.
! 81 have Travelled in every state in the
union collecting money for the Freedman'f
Aid society. How much of it do you think
would have been contributed if its donors
had known il was to be used for schools from
the doors Of which the freedman aud his chill
dren were to be driven awayp