Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1903-01-31
INsURRECTION AND INCENDIARISM.

RESURRECTION AND INCENDIARIsM
Social Equality Efforts.
Because a meeting over which he
presided was characterized by some
incendiary speeches, says the Wash
ington correspondent Of the News and
Courier, Cyrus Adams, a Negro, who
is assistant register Of the treasury,
is having his part in the affair scruti-
nized by the officials above him. TIE
meeting was under the auspices Of the
Afro-American council, Of which
Pledger, Of Georgia, is president, which
has recently resolved itself into an Of
flee trust to relive the president of the
burden of awarding Federal Offices to
the Negroes.
The reports furnished the press
made no mention Of the most sensa-
tional feature Of this gathering. 1t
was a mass meeting at one of the
leading colored churches, with a long
list of speakers, among them Lincoln
Johnson, Of Atlanta. The star Of the
occasion was, however, a Negro named
Hays, an attorney at Richmond, who
has figured in the efforts to test the
disfranchisement laws of Virginia. His
speech was full of fight and fire. In
cidentally he quoted the Atlanta Con-
stitution as having threatened the
Negroes with kuklux If the growth
of Federal appointments in the south
continues" II make the prediction"
he declared, that when the southern
people start to kukluxing this time
they will not have as the objects of
pie they kukluxed in the Sixties" In
the course of his speech Hays Is re-
ported to have declared that the Ne
gro has now reached the limit of his
endurance, and he advocated the
sword and torch as a means for the
Negro to maintain his manhood. His
remarks were received with great en-
thusiasm. He referred to the fact that
during the years which have elapsed
since the war sectional feeling be-
tween. the north and south have died
out to such an extent that Virginia
now proposes to place a monument to
Lee in Statuary Hall, in the National
Capitol, but that all this period has
not been sufficient for the Negro to
advance one inch beyond the place he
held when liberated from slavery.
There is nothing in Virginia for the
Negro" he said, but degradation, un-
less the Negroes make firm stand,
contend for their rights and, If neces-
sary, die for them" I am not an
anarchist" he added, "and I don't
mean to go out and kill anybody, but
to let somebody else kill you" This
yelled sally provoked loud applause
and laughter.
"You opened this meeting tonight
by singing My Country, tis Of Thee,
but I wonder how Negroes can sing
that song. For myself I am a man
without a country. The time has
come when the Negro must fight; not
theoretically, not intellectually, but
fight with his hands. The disfran-
chisement Of the children Of Israel in
Egypt has been followed letter for let
ter by the disfranchisement in the
south. Negroes are leaving the state
of Virginia because of the treatment
they are receiving. What we want to
do is to start something and keep it
up until the white people stop some
thing. We don't intend to be oppress-
ed any longer; we don't intend to be
crushed. I am afraid we are anarch-
istic, that we are anarchists, and I
give the warning that If oppression in
the south continues the Negro must
resort to the sword and torch, and
that the southland will become land
Of blood and desolation.
II want to make the assertion right
here that we are not going to be dis
franchised in Virginia. 1t Is written
in the heavens and engraved upon the
stars that the Virginia Negro does not
intend to submit to this disfranchise-
ment. We are told to let the Negro
obtain education and wealth If he
would gain the political equality which
he DESIRES I say there never was a
bigger lie uttered. The more the Ne
gro advances the more will political
rights be denied him. It Is not the
common Negro in the south who is cut
off the registration lists; it is not the
ditch digger; it Is the educated Negro,
the doctor, the lawyer and preacher,
who are deprived unlawfully of polit-
ical rights and manhood by the in
iquitous constitution Of Virginia, which
cost half a million dollars to frame.
And I want to say that by the time
we are through punching holes in the
constitution it will cost the state of
Virginia half million more"
Hays then turned his attention to
the movement led by Booker Wash
ington. 1T Is claimed that the Negro
industrial schools are the proper
lines of effort for the race. Talk about
education and wealth and say that
they make votes for the Negro! It's
a lie."
He is reputed to have declared in
conclusion: And just one word more