Gilpin observer., 1906-08-23
NEGROES RIGHTS
RINGING ADDRESS ISSUED TO
THE COUNTRY.
HARPER'S FERRY GATHERING
Second Annual Meeting of the Niagara
Movement-Want Their Votes Pro-
tected = Public Determinations
Should Cease.

Should Cease.
Harper's Ferry, w. Va-The second
annual meeting of the Niagara move.
ment came to a close Sunday with re-
iigious exercises and a sermon by Rev.
G. Frazier Miller. AT the conclusion
OF the sermon and address to the coun-
try was read. 1t says in part:
Address to the Country: The men
of the Niagara movement coming from
the toll of the years of hard work and
pausing moment from the earning of
their daily bread turn toward the ma
ton and again ask in the name of 10,-
100000 the privilege of a hearing. In
the past year the work of the negro
has flourished in the land. Stripped Of
subterfuge and in its naked nastiness
the new American creed says: Fear
to let the black man even try to rise
lest they become the equals Of the
white
in detail our demands are clear and
unequivocal. First, we would vote;
with the right to vote goes everything.
Freedom, manhood, the honor of your
wives, the chastity of your daughters
and the right to work and the chance
TO rise, and let no man listen to the
liars who deny this. We want full
manhood suffrage, and we want it now,
henceforth and forever.
Second, we want discrimination in
public accommodations to cease. Sep
aration in railway and street cars,
based simply on race and color is un-
American, un-Democratic and silly. We
protest against all such discrimination.
Third, we claim the right of free
men to walk, talk and be with them
hot tc1, to hr, l..
e right to choose another mans friends
and to attempt to do so is an impudent
interference with the fundamental hui
man privilege.
Fourth, we want the law enforced
against the rich as we'll as the poor,
against the capitalist as well as labor.
.er; against white as well as black. We
are not more lawless than the white
race, but we are more often arrested,
convicted and mobbed. We want JUS
tice even for criminals and outlaws.
We want the constitution of the coun-
try enforced. We want Congress to
take charge of congressional elections.
We want the fourteenth amendment
carried out to the letter and every
state disfranchised in Congress which
attempts to disfranchise its rightful
voters. We want the fifteenth amend
melt enforced and no state allowed to
base its franchise simply on color.
Fifth, we want the national govern
ment to wipe out illiteracy in the
South. We want our children trained
as intelligent human beings should be,
and we will fight for all time against
any proposal to educate black boys and
girls simply as servants and under.ings
or simply for the use of other people
"These are some of the chief things
which we want. How shall we get
them? BY voting where we may vote
by persistent, unceasing agitation, by
hammering at the truth, by sacrifice
and work. We do not believe in VIC
lence, but we do believe in John Brown
and here on the scene of John Browns
martyrdom we reconsecrate ourselves
our honor, our property TO the final
emancipation of the race which John
Brown died to make free"
The address closes with an appeal to
the young men and women of the ma
tions and asks: Can not the nation
that has absorbed 100000 foreigners
into It's political life without catastro
phe absorb 100000 negro Americans
into that same political life at less cost
than their unjust and Illegal exclusion
will involve?"