Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-02-16
COLORED MASS MEETING.
Effort to Bring a Desirable Laboring EIs
meut To California

| COLOkED MASS MEETING.
Effort to Bring Desirable Laboring EIe-
| ment to California.
An audience that filled nearly every seat
IN the basement of the A. NJ. E. Church as
| sembled last evening to discuss, in gen.
eral way, the proposed emigration of col
ored people from North Carolina to Califor-
mia.
| b. A. johnson was elected President,
and Mr.. Dorsey Secretary of the meeting.
In assuming the duties of the chair Mr..
johnson said 81 will state that Mr. Langly,
OF North Carolina, is with US tonight. and
for what purpose you all know in a gen.
eral way. he represents large number of
colored people in North Carolina, who
have become imbued with the idea of emf
grating to California. He has been sent by
these people to look into the industrial
question, and see if there is a chance for
them TO ameliorate their present condition.
he intends to bring out those who will
work, and who are used to work He will
bring no fancy men or gamblers here.
There are too many of that undesirable col
ored element now loafing about our streets,
but men, women and children who will
work honestly, will help build up the COM
monwealth, and, to certain extent, may
enable the people of the commonwealth to
SETTLE THE CHINESE QUESTION.
| l will introduce MI. Langly, of North
Carolina. who has something interesting to
| tell YOU"
Mr.. Langly said: al am here for the
people OF the East, the people of my State.
and more particularly, the people in the
county where | live, to see if | can find
way and place where they can better
themselves. They are living in hard
country, where the price of labor is low,
where woman has to work hard to earn
50 month, where a fine, able-bodied man
| can only make $40 a month, where bows
| and girls twelve to fifteen years of age
make little or nothing. They do not get
paid IN cash. Out of a months wages
| they probably received 81 cash and have to
trade out the balance for food and clothing
at exorbitant prices. 1 want to get some Of
| these people, who are sober, honest and
hard working, to California so that
| they may improve their condition. By
getting them away those left behind will
be benefited, as well as those who emf
CRATE. And l think when the people here
know and understand what kind of labor
l intend bringing, that it is good help,
they will assist us in our work In the
East the work is hard, much harder than
in California. Why
CALIFORNIA Is HEAVEN,
And the East, torture and trouble. When
| compared l find that farm laborers in this
State earn on an average of $25 to $50
month, but where came from, Pitt county,
North Carolina, the farm hands get only So
and are compelled to trade nearly all of it
out IN flour at five cents per pound, pork at
twenty-five cents per pound and other food
in like proportion. Is it any wonder then
that they cannot save money, and have a
hard time TO make living and are heavily
in debt and unable without assistance TO get
out of the country? What is earned there
in month is weeks wages in California"
Mr.. G. W. Booth being called upon, in
dorsed the remarks of Mr.. Langly, and
thought that immigration would benefit
the colored people in the East, morally,
socially, politically and financially. He
hoped to see the idea carried out to full
| success and he would aid the project finan-
cially as far as he was able.
BENEFITS OF EMIGRATION.
Rev. Mr.. Summers las the next speaker,
and gave few of his experiences of the
benefits of emigration. He said: II was
! one of committee that managed, organ
lied and successfully carried out the exodus
OF colored people from the South to Ne
braska in 1876. AT that time Al 900 colored
people went into Kansas and Nebraska and
settled down earnestly to make an honest
living fer themselves and to educate their
children, which latter privilege they were
denied at the South. In the South they
had no show in politics or anything else.
They were not educated morally, and as a
consequence in some instances thew be-
came brutal. The white people of the
South had no sympathy for the colored
people, and would do nothing for them
The emancipation proclamation made us
all free and left US on our own resources.
Before that time the owners took care of
their human property, in order that it
might be OF value TO them; when we were
sick then, they paid the doctors bills; for
should we die, they suffered loss of prop
erty. But now, if we are sick, we have to
pay our own bills. They aid us in no way.
We are
GIVEN NO SHOW IN COURT,
And are frowned down upon and intimi-
dated by all the whites. We are not al
lowed to ride in the first-class passenger
cars, even though we pay first-class fare.
We must ride in the !" Jim Crow " car or
walk. We are charged enormously for
everything we buy, and consequently
nearly every family is in debt, and when
they attempt to go away the Sheriff is on
hand with warrant The only way is to
emigrate in large numbers, as we did in
1876. l remember at that time it was said
by the Kansas and Nebraska people that we
would ruin their States; that we would
break down their morals; that we were
worthless. But see what our colored
brothers have done in Kansas. They
have worked hard and now many of
them are rich, own farms, and there
are hundreds of small farms, cultivated by
man and his family, that have added to
the value of the property in the State.
Their children have been sent to school
and educated, and have as a consequence,
better morals than prevail in the South,
where all is ignorance. tell you such
mass of Ignorance is
GOING TO CAUSE TROUBLE SOME DAY.
There is going to be an awful outbreak,
and the only way to avoid such an event
| is to have emigration, to reduce the colored
population in the South, to reduce it suffi
GENTLY to create scarcity of labor there, and
| that will then raise the price of labor and
| ameliorate the condition of those left. The
emigration of colored people to this State
will be great benefit. The colored citi-
| zen, unlike the Chinaman, will build him
home, and surround it with comforts for
his family, and will, best of all, spend his
| earnings locally, and not ship them across
| the ocean every month. Another thing that
will be of benefit to the colored people is,
| that they will have better facilities for edu-
| eating their children, for in the South,
where our people are in a majority there
| al no schools, and where the whites are
largely in the majority, schools exist, and
this is almost without exception. l have
made no exaggeration in what | have said.
| | speak from personal knowledge"
Mr.. Dorsey, Mr.. Dunlap and others made
brief practical remarks upon the subject.