The age-herald., 1899-01-03
NEGROES CONDEMN ALLEGED OUTRAGES In Their Celebration of Emancipation
 Day. HAD RIGHT TO HOLD OFFICE And to Vote Mas Made an Issue in
 Resolutions. TROUBLE IN NORTH CAROLINA There Was Large Gathering At Six teenth Street Baptist Church Yes terday Morning
 on Progress ofthe Race.
TROUBLE IN NORTH CAROLINA

The thirty-fifth anniversary of the eman- cipation of the negroes of the United States was duly celebrated by the colored citizens of Birmingham with appropriate exercises at the Sixteenth street Baptist church yes- terday morning. The meeting was called to order at Il a. m by Rev. W. R. Pettiford, president of the Alabama Penny Savings 6 Loan company, with T. W. Sanders as secretary. Addresses suitable to the occa- sion were made by Prof. Augusta Revs. A. Simmons and c. Fisher and Anna R. Sim mons. The papers touched upon nego life in all Its phases and offered valuable and helpful suggestions. The speakers i'm pressed upon their hearers how much they might feel encouraged notwithstanding ad- verse conditions in several sections of the country.
 At the conclusion of the exercises Dr. s. s. H. Washington in a short address moved the appointment of committee Ito give ex- pression to the feeling of the assembly in regard to the outrages perpetiated on the negro in North Carolina, Illinois and other states" The motion prevailed and the chair appointed the committee as follows: pr. Washington, Revs. D. P. Moore, C. J. 1AoiuJt A|t. U. VI. 10dSOU, A. b. ttGdQen ana R. Kemp. The committee retired and in a few minutes brought in the following pre- amble and resolution which was unani- mously adopted:
 Condemn Alleged Outrages
 Whereas, The colored people have been the victims Of domestic turmoil and mur- der that have stalked through the land comparatively unreproved and entirely un- abashed; and,
 Whereas, As a race we feel keenly the outrages perpetrated on us in the states of North Carolina, South Carolina and Illinois; and,
 Whereas, The right of the black man to exercise the franchise and to hold office irrespective of qualification was not only questioned but boldly denied in the fall elections of the aforesaid state of North Carolina; and,
 Whereas, These outrages indicate an op- position not merely to the ignorant and vicious of the race, but to the educated, frugal, law-abiding and hard-handed sons of toll in black; and,
 Whereas, They indicate the intention of a large element of whites to ignore, evade and override the citizen rights guaranteed to the negro in the amendments to the constitution of the United States; and,
 Whereas, The law-abiding, the educated, the self-respecting and industrious negroes of North Carolina were over-awed, mall treated and murdered as an object lesson for all negroes that, no matter how well informed, how capable, how hard-workng, how virtuous, no black man would be per mtted to aspire for the recognition of his fellows usually bestowed in the gift of of fee; and,
 Whereas, We would deplore the mad rush for official place among any people, and especially among our people, in the present stage of their national ffe recog nzing that only the just, the wise and the thoughtful should have such official eleva- tion, we cannot surrender the principle that the right to the enjoyment of the honors and emoluments of office Is carried with the gift of franchise; and,
 Whereas, No ignorant and poor people have ever in the history of the world dominated an educated and opulent class, the cry of negro dominition is groundless and false, and is only used in bounding on the low and vicious element of the whites in the interest of the lower class of poli- ticans; and,
 Whereas We feel that the negros right to earn his bread in the pursuit of the higher forms of labor, in the skilled trades and in the mines have been abridged in North Carolina and Illinois, and that his opportunities for the honest earning of his bread are being menaced in every section of the union; and
 Whereas, We believe that the negro's chief need is to acquire the ability and secure the opportunity for work in all the avenues of industry and trade; and
 Whereas, We apprehend that the com ing so-called constitutional convention in this state will seek by legal subterfuge to ahridre the negro's franchise as in South Carolina and other states; and,
 Whereas Tho colored people from all sections of the country are seeking to form a national organization in Washington Tor the purpose of stimulating negro progress and securing to the negro his full measure of constitutional and God-given rights; therefore, be 1t -
 Resolved That we appeal to the Just, llp- araI patriotic and Christian sentiment or inc better classes of the American people, north and south. white and black, for a broad, calm and honest consideration or the facts. to the end that justice may obtain In our common country, sacred alike to all classes and races of us by tho common shedding of blood in the maintainance of it's integrity and it's honor; be it further
 Resolved, That we appeal to the Ameri- can people to be just to Themselves in giv- ing the negro an equal opportunity In the race of life; be 1t further
 Resolyed That we especially appeal to the colored people to be self-respecting, and to maintain their rights without vulgar self-assertion, appealing to the juster sem
 
 live with such prudence as to secure mini mum of frction; be 1t further
 Resolved, That we are free to enter the disclaimer that we have any desire to domi- nate the whites, or to seek social equality. But we do ask that the efficient and worthy among us be not opposed because of color, but that they be given the same opportunity in public and business life with all other men of like qualification; be 1t further
 Resolved, That @ committeee from this county be appointed to take such action as may appear to them wise and practical for our claims and rights before said convention of Alabama; and that the colored people of each county of the state be urged to enter their protest before said convention against any attempt to curtail the negro's franchise; be 1t fur ther Resolved. That committee be appointed | to take steps for the formation of local to corporate with the national