Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1899-05-06

new 1Ork, May f.-Ine natlOnal A1rO-
American Council of the United States
has issued proclamatio ton calling upon
the colored people of this country to set
apart FRIDAY, June ., as a day of fasting
and prayer, ard has called upon all col-
ored ministers to devote the sunrise
| hour of the following Sunday, June 4, to
special exercises in order that God. the
father of merces may take our deplor-
able case in his own hands, and that If
vengeance is to be meted out let CID
himself repay"
The proclamation invites all the prom
iEent coored clergy of all denomina-
lions TO cooperate, and consists Of 4
| lengthy statement setting forth the pres
ent Understandable barbarous treatment"
Of the negro in this country. Reference
Is made TO the loyalty of the negro in
foreign wars, and the recent lynchings
of co.ored persons in the south are de-
nounced in the most strenuous language.
The circular says in part:
I'VE pay out millions of dollars yearly
to ride in Jim Crow cars, some of them
scarcely tit for cattle. yet we are COM
PEELED to pay as much as those who have
every accommodation and convenience
Indians, Cinnamon and every other race
can travel as they please. Such unjust
laws make the railroads highway rob-
bers. In some sections Of the country
we may ride for thousands of miles and
are denied Il cup of tea or coffee because
10 provision is made. or allowed to be
made, to accommodate us with sOme-
| thing to eat while we are ready to pay
for it. Waving hundreds Of minor in
conveniences we are practically out
lawed by many states and also by the
general government in it's endorsement
Of silence and Indifference.
I'VE are dragged before the courts by
thousands and sentenced to every form
Of punishment, ard even executed with
out the privilege of having jury COM
posed in whole or in part Of members of
cur own race, while simple justice should
guarantee us judges and jures who
could adjudicate our cases free from the
bias, caste and prejudice iacident to the
| same in this country.
I'm many sections we are arrest ed and
lodged in jails on the most frivolous sus-
picion Of being the perpetrators of most
hideous and revolving crimes, and re-
sardless of established guilt; mcbs are
besotted men, with whose approach the
keys Of these jails and prisons are sur
rendered and the suspicioned party is
ruthlessly forced from the custody of the
law and tortured hung. shot, butchered.
dismembered and burned in the most
fendsh manner
Nor Is this dreadful fat te lim,te to q
few unfortunate and monStrous
wretckes, which we, like other people.
doubtless have among our race, but in
stances have multiplied into hundreds,
t!lousands and tens Of thousands. And
horrible to conceive, these mobs no
longer conceal themselves in the shadows
Of night, but in open day plunder the
prisons for the victims of their lawless
vengeance and deliantly walk into courts
and rob the sheriffs and judges of their
prisoners and butcher them without
even time to commune in prayer with
God, a privilege that no barbaric age
has ever denied soul about to be ush-
cred into the presence of his maker.
owing to these and many other ca
lamitous conditions which time fOrbds
IL recital of, unhistoric, unprecedented
and dreadfully abnormal, we are inn
lelled by Il sense of duty and the in
stinCts of our moral nature to appeal to
the Afro-Americans in the Unite d States
to put forth some endeavOis by asing
to be longer silent and to appeal to some
judiciary for help and relief. If earth
affords none for cur helpless and de-
fenseless race, we must appeal to the bar
Of infinite power and justice, whose judge
holds the destinies Of nations in his
hands
The proclamation then recommends the
day of fasting, as stated above.