Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-05-07
DENOUNCE FOSTERS SLAYER
Oolored Speakers Declare That There is
Discrimination.
Another Indignation Meeting Watt
ing Now for the Action of the
Police Trial Board.

Three or four hundred colored people,
men, women and children, assembled at the
Metropolitan Baptist Church, r between
18th and 18th streets, last evening to listen
to the memorial prepared by the colored
Baptist ministers, and which. some time
ago, they submitted to the District Com
missoners, asking for the removal from
the force of Policeman Green. who early in
last March shot and killed Reuben Foster,
a young. colored man, at Hillsdale. Mr..
Perry H. Carson presided Brief addresses
were made by the Rev. Walter H. Brooks,
Mr.. E. NJ. Hewlett, the Rev. ]. Anderson
Taylor and by the pastor Of the church,
the Rev. Robert Johnson, and after the
memorial had been read and adopted the
meeting adjourned. subject to the call of
the chairman.
The Rev. Mr.. Brooks made the principal
speech of the evening, and all the speakers
denounced the shooting OF Foster as a
, cowardly, ineXcuSable crime and demand
ed that the Commissioners should at once
remove Officer Green from the force. Ju-
ries, said Mr.. Brooks, do not always tell
the truth, although he was not disposed to
question the conclusions of the two grand
juries who had passed upon the case of
Policeman Green. He declared that tie
shooting OF Foster was cruel murder. and
he ridiculed the idea that the shooting was
an accident. He referred to the Ford's
Theater disaster, and claimed that while
Col. Ainsworth had been held responsible
munity at one time being barely restrained,
the only reason that he had been held re-
sponsible was because his victims were
white people.
Because He Was Black.
The officer who was responsible for the
killing of Foster a so-called accident, he
said. had never been held responsible, be-
cause Fosters skin was black. Policemen
guilty of such accidents, said Mr.. Brooks,
should not be allowed to retain their places
on the force, and if they were, the District
should be held responsible for their incom-
potency. He for one was in favor of suing
the District on behalf of the mother of
Foster, and compelling it to pay for having
such men as Green on the police force.
Mr.. Brooks said he was in favor of law and
order, and advised his people to be patient,
but to vigorously demand the removal of
Green. for it was plain to everyone that
the officer had violated the police regula-
tions, and should therefore be dismissed.
If this reckless shooting of colored men
went on unchecked, he said. it would some
day react on the white people, and the
eXOneration of Green would be referred to
as a precedent when, some day, a white
man was shot down. He was sorry to say
it, Mr.. Brooks remarked, in conclusion, but
he believed that Col. Ainsworth had been
indicted because his victims were white,
and Green had not been indicted because
his victim was a black man.
The Memorial Adopted.
The memorial submitted to the District
Commissioners heretofore reported in The
Star, was read and unanimously adopted,
after which Mr.. E. NJ Hewlett addressed
the meeting. He complained that some Of
the newspapers had charged that the color
line was being drawn by the colored peo-
pie but he declared that the coroner's
jury ana the two grand juries had drawn
the color line. He, for one, would never
be satisfied until Officer Green was tried
before jury, and he predicted that the
officer would in some way be yet compelled
to face jury. He also declared that the
cclored people would wait very long
time if they waited for the white people
to hold an Indignation meeting because
of the killing of a negro. The colored
people, he declared, have sat quietly by
for too long time. He remarked that the
more a dog was whipped the easier 1t be-
came to punish him. He referred to the
sudden death of Sergt. Kerby, the friend
of Officer Green, as the hand of Providence.
Rev. Mr.. Taylor declared that If the Com
missioners refused to remove Green the
President would be asked to remove the
Commissioners, and If the President re-
fused to remove the Commissioners the
people would be asked to remove him. The
closing address was made by Rev. Mr.
johnson, after which the meeting adjourn
red to await the result of the trial of Po-
liceman Green by the police trial board.