Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-07-21
Mrs. Booker T. Washington's Talk to
Her Oolored Sisters.
The AFR0-AMERICAN WOMEN
Opportunities for Which They
Should Be Thankful.
REPORTS READ TODAY

The second days session of the annual
convention of the National Federation of
Afro-American Women began this morning
shortly before 10 o'clock, with the presi-
dent, Mrs. Booker T. Washington, in the
chair.
Devotional exercises were conducted by
Mrs. Lucy B. Thurman Of Jackson, Mich.
Before entering upon the business Of the
day Mrs. Washington spoke Of the Efforts
which are now being made by both the
National Federation and the National
League of Colored Women to bring about
a union of the two bodies, and she thought,
she said, that before the convention adj
journed something would be done in this
direction. She had also, she said, done all
she could to have a meeting of the confer
ence committees today, and hoped this
would be accomplished.
WOmen's Progress.
Mrs. Washington then spoke Of the
Progress of Women" She said:
That there has been marvellous, stu-
pendous, incredible progress among women
no one will attempt to deny; that there is
vast room FOR greater strides forward, that
there are higher heights to be attained md
kept, especially by our women, all will af-
firm.
I'm days of ancient Greece, when her in
habitants lived but to demonstrate that
living was nothing more or less than the
finest of all fine arts, a woman WAS brought
before the public and became famous only
as she was possessed Of great physical
beauty and attraction. Hypatia and Sap
pho took some rank in the world of ,itera
ture and philosophy, it is true. but even
this fame was dependent on the physical
charm and the happy faculty for making
herself agreeable which each possessed.
ITO a greater or less extent this state
of AFFAIRS lasted on and on through medi-
aeval and up INTO modern times. Even
late as the seventeenth century find
French writer advising women to inspire
rather than write.
Things are changed row. Physical
beauty was the last accomplishment re-
qusite in the noble army of earnest wo-
men, the majority of whom were American
born and bred. who Elizabeth Cady
Stanton puts 1t. Opened a pathway to the
promised land and cleared up much of the
underbrush of false sentiment logic ard
rhetoric intertwisted and intertwined with
law and custom. which was then blocking
all avenues
I'VE who have met here today in this sec
cnd assemblage of Afro-American women
have great cause to be thankful; we have
the result OF their experience; and even
we OF the negro race have at present, SUI
perior opportunities for education and
more enlightened public sentiment with
which to deal than did those grand Old pio-
neers who held their first suffrage meet
Ing in 1917, white though they were. and
who forty years later stood in this very
city and told of the almost miraculous re-
suit of this meeting. We should, at the ex-
piration of thirty-fve years of freedom
feel hopeful and inspired as did Mrs
Stanton when she addressed the Interna-
tional Council Of Women which met here in
1851.
God grant that in our midst today we
have women as earnest and honest dear
old Sojourner Truth, Lucretia Mott and
Elizabeth Cady Stanton women who
done
to do it regardless of the fearful odds
against which they have to contend; wo-
men who will not be content to rest our
case till We can behold with satisfaction
the masses of our women advancing rap
idly In home-getting, home-making and
child-rearing, and see everywhere a gen
eIal uprising of our women, demanding bet
ter things and eagerly pushing forward to
fulfill their own demands and sooner or
later securing an equal place in the in
dustries of the world Our race especially
needs this kind Of women; l hope they are
among US In this meeting"