Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1895-08-15
A BRANDNEW SPHERE
THE RECENT CONFERENCE OF AFRO
AMERICAN WOMEN.
Sshjeots Discussed by Up to Date Negro
Women at Boston Some Highly Inter
Are Eager TO Vote.

Women at Boston Some Highly Inter
esting and Timely Papers Read-They
Are Eager TO Vote.
Boston has had few conventions that
transcend in picturesQueneSs and interest
the conference of Afro-Amerlcan women,
which has just closed n three days session
in the beautiful Berkeley hall. 1t was
something brand new, 1t was the first Of
its kind ever held in Boston or anywhere
else in the country. 1t represented u new
force. 1t linked Boston Of the time when
George Thompson was chased all over the
city and William Lloyd Garrison was rot
ten cSged for pleading the cause Of the
slave with Boston Of the time when no
slave exists in all tho land, and when tho
schools have transformed the slave woman
of the plantation into tho educated and
cultivated woman of the home and school.
room of today. Boston was becomingly
Interested in the fact.
There were 81 delegates in the confer
ence, They represented majority of tho
states in tho Union. Some of thcn arc
as educators and missionary workers
among their people, women who have rec
ognizcd tho need OF hard work and much
self sacrifice to benefit the great mass liv-
ing in outer darkness,
The programme will show tho lines along
which tho now Afro American woman Is
thinking:
Opening Session, July 9.-organization, at
which the following officers were elected:
President, Mrs. Josephine st. Pierre Ruifin
Boston; vice president, Mrs. Helen Cook; sec
ond vice president, Mrs, Booker T. Washing
ton, Tuskegee, Ala secretaries, Mrs. Hannah
Smith, Boston; Miss l.. q. Carter, New York
Reports from clubs. Evening session-Poem,
by Miss Alice T. Miller; address, Ivy Mrs
Helen A. Cook; "Need of National OrganiHa-
ton" Mrs. A. J. Cooper; women and the
Higher Education Ella l.. Smith, A, NJ.
Tuesday, July 30,-Business, address, "mdi.
ydual Work For Moral Elevation, Mrs. Book.
or ct Washington; Industrial Training"
Miss L. G. Carter Evening session" Race
Literature, " Mrs Victoria Matthews; "Polit.
lcal Equality" T. Thomas Fortune, William
Lloyd Garrison and Henry b. Blackwell
Wednesday, July 8l.-"Social Purity" Mrs
Alice S. Fclts; Temperance, Mrs. A. g.
Brown; cart" Mrs Ella d. Spencer; "wom-
Ell in Church Work" Miss Dora j. Cole;
mont," Mrs. Florida Il. Ridley.
The most heated discussion of the SEES
sion was over letter sent to Miss Flor
enco Balgarine of tho British Antilynch-
ing society by John W. Jacks president Of
the Missouri Press association, in which
he declared that Afro American women
were without honor or moral purity
These women closed the doors to tho pub
IN Mr. ks
could have got after him In Boston, they
would have given him coat of tar and
feathers. 1t is worth while to travel long
way to SEQ 90 women rs indignant ms these
were over tho Jacks Islander. Indeed this
mans Islander was SO sweeping as to dc
stroy any forco it might otherwise have
had Like great many other small men,
Jacks wrote his diatribe for the sole pur
pose of getting some questionable notorie-
! ty out of It, His scheme should have been
thwarted. Instead of that these women In
conference simply made themselves blue in
the face discussing him and giving the
press associations n chance to flash him
and his name all over the country.
The paper of Mrs. Booker T. Washing
ton on the situation of the race in the
black belt of Alabama was particularly
Ilmcly anu JiloTOukH' DIV - u Ntbcibh
teacher and now the wife Of tho distin-
guished principal of the Tuskcgco institute
asl understands thoroughly tho conditions
she discussed She wants her people out.
side of the black belts to take more inter
est In the work Of olevating the girls and
women in them They should sustain by
moral and material force the men and the
women who left pleasant homes In moro
favored sections and are dcvoting their
lives to this work in tho black belts. Her
paper made n profound impression. She
has a strong mind and n strong voice. and
the large audience saw that she knew whit
she was talking about. The paper by
Mrs Victoria Matthews on 1.-THE Afro
American In Literature" was an exhaust
I've one, showing very wide range OF
reading. She gave Mark Twain, lgnatius
IDonnelly and william Dean Howells y
good drubbing for the despicable charac-
tiers of her race they have drawn In their
works. Singularly enough, in praising
others she had not q word to say in euloRy
Iof Rider Haggard, who, in dealing almost
entirely with African characters, has
drawn but single ugly one in the whole
batch, and he was born an Idiot.
The discussion Of tho social purity and
temperance questions snoWed now ueepiy
and earnestly Afro American women think
on these lines. No doubt there will be u
concerted movement on their part to i'm
prove the home life and morals OF the black
women in towns and cities who have here
tofore been loft to their own evil tendencies
or the influences ruling In their environ
ment. Surely these women, whose discus
sion showed splendid grasp of and sym
pathy with tho subject, can devote them
selves to no more necessary and noble work
II the women In this conference had q vote
ON 1t, they would abolish the saloons In
short order.
A great deal Of temper was provoked In
the discussion Of resolution to indorse
the Woman $ Christian Temperance union.
A large part Of the delegates thought that
Miss Frances Il. willard had been hedging
on the question Of lynch Law, especially
when she was In Great Britain, and they