The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-05-02
vAPoRrNcs OF A NEGRO BISHOP
Over the Sam Hose Lynching-He
Threatens the south With q Racial

War
Jersey City. n. j., April a6-The New
Jersey annual conference of the Afri-
can Methodist Episcopal Zion church
was opened today in this city. Bishop
Alexander Walters, D. D., presided.
The visiting bishops were: j. ".
Hood, D. D., IL D.; c. c. Petty, A. VI
D.. D.; c. R Harris, D. D.; G. w, Gin
+, ton, d.. D., and ]. B. Small, d. D.
Bishop Walters in his address at the
| afternoon session bitterly denounced
the Georgia lynchings and SAID:
The civilized world has been shock
ed by the unprecedented butchery and
burning OF Samuel Hose (colored) near
Palmetto, Ga, on Sunday. April 23rd.
! The iendishness of the crime beggars
| description. Samuel Hose was charg-
ed with killing Alfred Crawford, white,
and assaulting his lCranford's) wife.
II is said that he confessed 10 the kill
ing OF Crawford, but denied TO the last
~assaulting his wife. 1t Is generally be-
lieved by the fair minded that if Hose
did kill Crawford il was TO avenge the
killing OF five colored men by a mob
said to have been led by Crawford at
Palmetto, March 18th"
After referring 10 newspaper COM
ments that Hose outraged Mrs. Gran
ford, the bishop asserted that the
charge of assault vas manufactured as
a justification for the lynching, adding
that within a fortnight his statement
! would be irrefutably established.
IT." said Bishop Walters, the good
white people of the north are not dis
illusioned and do not put a stop to this
sweeping tide of ~lawlessness, it will not
be long before they will be again call
, ed upon by a God of Justice to give
their best blood to pay the penalty of
the crimes Of the south"
Continuing, Bishop Walters said:
The Cubans and Philippines whom we
have spent so much money and shed so
much blood TO free from Spanish op-
preston, were never treated so barba-
rously in time of peace by that govern
ment as some negroes have been in the
states of Arkansas, Texas, North Car
DINA, South Carolina and Georgia.
ut is rather amusing to intelligent
Afro-Americans to read in the great
dalies Of u country Of the efforts Of
the Americans TO give to the Cubans
and Philippines an equitable n benef-
icent government, when they are pow
erless to even secure life and liberty to
their citizens at home.
"The greatest problem of America
today is not the currency question, nor
the colonial possessions, but how to
avoid the racial wal at home. You
cannot forever keep the negro out of his
rights. Slavery made a coward of him;
for ESQ years he was taught to fear the
white man: but he is rapidly emerging
from such slavish fear and ere long
will contend for his rights as bravely
as any other nan.
lone of two things must be lone in
order to avoid trouble. The negro must
be treated fairly or furnished with suf-
ficient money to return to the land
from whence his ancestors were stolen.
1t would be a burning shame on the
boosted Christian civilization of Amer
lea to be obliged TO confess before the
nations of the world that she was una
bic to overcome her prejudice against
the negro and, therefore, eXpatriated
him.
Those who speak f~ippantly Of our
determination will find, when that work
is begun, that all the white people of
America will not be against the negro,
any more than they were during the
civil war.
why will not the intelligent and
far-seeing white people call a halt to
these injustices before it is too late?
Have they so soon forgotten the history
of the past? 1t was the policy Of con-
Citation and the %condoning sin OF
slavery that led to the loss Of so much
blood and treasure. We'll did Thomas
Jefferson say before the conflict, IN
speaking of the injustice of the whites
toward the blacks: I tremble for the
future Of my country when I remember
that God is just
"The first Sunday in JUNE has been
set apart as a day of fasting and prayer
to Almighty God for aid in this hour
Of distress by the bishops of the color
ed Methodist churches and ministers
of other colored denominations
throughout the country.
"We appeal TO all white ministers
and Christians who believe in fair plaS
to unite with US in III petition"