The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1895-03-06
RABlD SPEECAES
MADE BY ATLANTA NEGROES LAST
NIGHT.

Met to Eulogize DOuglass--Subject Shifted
to "Jim Crow Cars and Miscegena-
tion--Race Leaders Talk
wildly.
From the Atlanta Journal.
When thoughtful people read the re-
ports given below of speeches made at
the memorial exercises IN honor OF Fred
Douglass by the negroes of Atlanta at
Big Bethel church they will begin to
lhink.
The speakers were representative pas
tors of the principal colored churches OF
Atlanta, and what they said can be taken
as the sincere sentiment of the race, or
that portion of it in Atlanta.
The spectacle was presented OF COM
memorative services turned into an in
dignation meeting over what the speak
ers called ''jim-crow' cars, meaning sep
arate railway coaches for whites and
blacks, into meeting which expressed
windication at Douglass miscegenation
and which stirred the congregation to
watch their their rights and maintain
them by peace or blood.
AS the first opportunity Atlanta has
had of judging the drift of negro thought
for many years, the Douglass exercises
last night were epochal. No thinking
person car pass over lightly what was
said there last night.
In justice to a few it must be said that
several of the more conservative came to
the Journal reporter, who was invited
especially to report the meeting, and
begged that he not publish the more in
temperate speeches. These negroes are
those held in high esteem by the white
people of the city.
Strange to say, the only appropriate
address made was that by Crogman,
professor of CLARKE University, who
showed by a most pronounced eastern
accent that most of his life had been
spent in the north His speech was a
model commemorative DISCOURSE with
no unseemly reference to other matters
except the virtues of dead Douglass.
AS speaker followed speaker the ad-
dresses became more and more unbridled
until the affair broke out in spots with
"jim crow" cars, social equality, . and
''calls for revenge"
Proctor, the pastor of the Colored First
Congregational church, who followed
Crogman, rec eived considerable applause
when he announced that he agreed with
Douglass when he told the southern peo-
pie to beware, or they would find "fre
brands under their houses and poison in
their Coffee
r. NJ. Cheeks, pastor Of Big Bethel
church, was cheered when he told of how
the North Carolina legislature had put
Douglass first, Washington second, and
Lee third.
Carter, the we'll known pastor Of the
Friendship Baptist church, stopped en-
1irely over, declared that he would mar
nv a white woman if he could, and said
shat the negroes only envied Fred Doug
lass because he had succeeded where
they had failed. Carter broke loose COM
pletely, told jokes, and set his audience
by the ears. He made the hit of the
evening.
Morris, grand of Fred
Douglass, light mulatto with mutton
chops and eyeglasses, devoted most of
his eul)gy on Douglass to the burning
question of jim-crow cars; advised the
negroes to carry their cases to the SUI
preme court, and finally brought down
the house by declaring that Fred Doug
lass ranked next to Jesus Christ.
IRE spective of the wild flOurishes of
these fire brands, the speeches were
without exception excellent. Cr2gman's
effort was a polished piece of oratory
that would bear the highest criticism;
while Morris, the grand-sou-in law, was
a really magnificent speaker.