Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1900-08-24
POLITICAL M1sF1Ts,
c0LORED DEMOCRATS PRESENT
A CURIOUS ANOMALY.
They Support Bryan and Stevenson
at h Same Time Protesting Against
All Democratic Efforts to Disfran-
chise Afro-Americau Voters.

q colOred Democrat is one of the Curl
0us anomalies Of pOlitics-sOmething Of
the nature of q white blackbird. But
1t is IL fact. There are some American
citizens Of African descent. who vote
the Democratic ticket. There is an
organization calling itself the United
Colored Democracy of Grenter New
York, and this organization held a
meeting and ratified the Kansas City
nominations. Among the resolutions
adopted ut this meeting Of the United
Colored Democracy Of Greater New
York is one which protests against ''ule
open OF covert efforts to disfranchise
race coming from any source what
soever."
II intended as a joke, this resolution
will meet with cordial acceptance and
create much merriment in certain parts
of the country-parts where there is no
pretense of concealing the efforts to
~disfrnnclise our race" parts where the
colored vote has been wiped VI of en-
istence; parts where electoral votes for
Bryan and Stevenson are to come from
with such absolute certainty that they
are reckened Us already cast. In those
parts the disfranchisement resolution
of the United Colored Democracy of
Greater New York will be regarded as
distinctly humorous and delciously
funny.
Curiously coincident with the date on
which the United Colored Democracy
of Greater New York met and ratified
and passed resolutions comes a story
from Nebraska which bears directly
u7on the question of the measure Of
support Of the national Democratic
dckei naturally to be expected from
coloreG voters. Z. n. Jenkins, of Thay-
er County, n man Of undisputed verac-
ity. asserts that during the Civil War,
1S61-'65, A,sni E. Stevenson, Demo
cratic nominee for Vice President was
ut the head of an organization in ILL.,
nois that had for its purpose the pre-
vention Of persons of African blood be-
ing brought into the State. Nj. Jenk-,
ms says:
During the war Lieut.. Philip Jenk-
ms. a Woodford Qll.) County man, was
taken i'll and had to be sent home from
the front. He was unable to take care
of himself, and n young negro was sent
along to attend him. When he reached
home the ~socalled Copperhead element
made a big fuss. They found an old law
on the statute books making it n crime
to bring a negro into the State, and
under its provisions the Union soldier,
fresh from the battlefield, with his
wounds still bleeding from the Confed-
crate bullets. was arrested. Adlai E..
Stevenson then was a young lawyer
practicing in that county, and volun-
teered to prosecute the Union soldier.
"The trial came on and the jury dis
agreed. A second time Stevenson had
the case brought up. BY this time
jenkins had sufficiently recovered to
get back on the firing line. and on the
showing that the defendant was at the
front fighting for the Union the Judge
threw the case out OF court. l went to
Lincoln for the purpose of seeing how
the man looked who prosecuted my IA
Their SO many years ago. 1 do not know
whether he is rs narrow-minded now
as in those days, but l thought 1 would
! like to take a look ut him, even if he is
Bryan's running mate"
Much interest will doubtless be felt
regarding this war "Reminiscences among
Afro-Americans living in localities
where their votes are received and
counted the same as though they were
the votes of white men. In these To-
c~alities, however. colored Democratic
organizations are not numerous, and
from them no electoral votes for Bryan
and Stevenson arc eyncctad.