The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-09-27
PROVO MAY GO FREE
AGED NEGRO PREACHER WHO
 HAD UNUSUAL CAREER.
The Pardon Board Will Recommend Clemency for Old Man Who Lived in Texas and
 is in Jail.

Meredith Provo, the negro who twenty six years ago. left Alabama. an escaped convict, and who returned to Montgom- cry few days ago honored by nis race, to be arrested for his crime of q quarter of a century ago. will. in all proba bility. be given his freedom that he may return to his Texas home ani spend the remain ing days of his life
 The State Board of Pardons yesterday l recommended to Governor Je!ks that Provo be pardoned. The Governor will return to the Capitol Monday, when 1t is thought one of the first subjects to which he will give his attention will be the pe- | tition of Meredith Provo for executive clcmency.
 The romantic and unusual story of Provo, who left Alabama q convict and returned practically the head of the ne- gro Baptist denomination of Texas. was | presented to the Board of Pardons hy a delegation of prominent citizens of Mont gomery County, headed by Ma ior s. T. Westcott. It included some old and well known citizens of the Banner neighbor- | hoo d. the scene of Provo's crime. They | made an earnest and forceful plea for l mercy for Provo. who is now Il years l of age.
 me bOaT0 was tol0 Of the crime or twentY-six years aFo--not a henous of fense-the stealing of one sheep. For this ofrense, Provo was arrested and indicted Even In those days Provo was prominent among his race. He had amassed some property. not much, hut enough to raise him above the level of his fellows, He was possessed of natural shrewdness. which had given him some prominence in politics. in the days when negroes fig ured more or less in public affairs.
 His trial and conviction caused mild sensation among the negroes. He employed counsel who promptly appealed the case to the Supreme Court. While the case was pending in the higher court. Provo was kept at the county jail. He had won the confidence of the jailer and the privileges of 'trusty'' were allowed him.
 While on an errand one day he was told that the Supreme Court had confirm ed the action of the lower court and he would have to serve out his sentence in the penitentiary. The errand was never completed.
 Provo slipped away to his old home in the lower edge of Montgomery County, where he quietly made the best disposal possible of his little property. He reap peared in Texas. where he entered the ministry. He developed some powers of oratory and he rose to some eminence among the negro preachers. His life in Texas is said to have been upright. He advanced until he became chairman of the negro Baptist Convention of Texas. As the years passed he gathered worldly goods until he was looked upon as we'll to-do, If not rich. negro.
 Provo was sent as a delegate from the Texas convention to the National Con vention of Negro Baptists, which met last week at Shiloh Baptist Church in Birmingham.
 The last honor that came to Provo prov ed his undoing. The good fortune that had been at his side for a quarter of century deserted the negro preacher in his old days. First of all. he was caught in that frishtful. awful panic at Shiloh Church when 1000 terror stricken ne- groes rushed from the building consumed with needless fright. In that terrible crush. in which more than 100 human be- lnRs lost their lives. the breath was stamped out of the body of Meredith Provo, and he was laid out on grassy sward as one dead The night air re- vived him and in thirty minutes he had recovered from his memorable experi- ence.
 When Provo began his journey to Texas he decided to stop at Montgomery to see
  a slave before the war, and to see the children of his old master The story of his recognition as he was at the depot to buy a ticket and his arrest for the old crime has been published, In jail the old negro lamcnted the fate that had brought him to grief
 "'In Birmingham" he said, my breath was taken from me and I was laid out for dead. Now they have taken my llD- erty and you'd to God that breath had rever retur0ed to me in that awful night at Shiloh Church"
 To the Pardoning Board the white men of Montgomery who interested them selves in the old mans case. argued that twenty-five years of upright living should wipe out the record of crime, which was never serious. And in this the Par donIng Board agreed as their recommen- dation for clemeLcy to the Governor shows.