The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1909-11-05
ADDRESS DELIVERED TO THE
MASSACHUSETTS CoLoRED
LEAGUE IN FANEUlL HALL,
BOSTON, DEC. 7, 1885, BY MR..
JOHN BOYLE o'REILLY.
Mr.. President and Gentlemen:

Mr. President and Gentlemen:
was quite unaware of the nature
of this meeting when l came here.
| learn from Mr.. Downing's speech
that it is more or less a political
meeting; that you are going to ex-
press preferences this way or that.
[ came here because l was asked to
speak at a colored mems meeting in
Boston. l don't care what your poll
teal preferences or parties are. l
don't care whether you vote the Re
publican or Democratic ticket, but l
know that if I were colored man
I should use parties as l would a
club-to break down prejudices
against my people. l shouldn't talk
about being true to any party except
so far as that party was true to me.
Parties care nothing for you only to
use you. You should use parties; the
highest party you have in this country
is your own manhood. That is the
thing in danger from all parties; that
is the thing that every colored Ameri-
can is bound in his duty to himself
and his children to defend and pro-
tect.
think it is as wicked and unreas-
enable to discriminate against man
because of the color of his skin as 1t
would be because of the color Of his
hair. He is no more responsible for
one than for the other, and one is
more significant than the other. A
previous speakers reference to Mr..
, Parnell and his growing power as
reformer ought to suggest to you
that Parnell is today powerful man
because he is pledged to no party.
He would smash the Tories tomorrow
as readily as he smashed the Liberals
yesterday. That is the meaning OF
politics. The highest interest of poll
= ticts is the selfish interest of the peo-
e pie. You are never going to change
the things, that affect you colored
{ man, by law. If my children were not
A allowed into Northern schools if / my
: self were not allowed into Northern
hotels, would change my party and
q my politics every day until | changed
j and wiped out that outrage.
was in Tennessee last spring, and
when got out of the cars at Nash
VILE l saw over the door of an
:. apartment. "Colored peoples waiting
:, room" I went into it and found
: wretched, poorly-furnished room
crowded with men, women, and chill
= = dren. Mothers with little children sal
: on the unwashed floor, and young
!, men and young momen filled the bare
= uncomfortable seats that were fast
. ened to the walls Then l went ou
e and found over another door, "Wait
u ing-room." In there was the white
{ people, carefully attended and com
= Portable, separate rooms for white mel
u and women, we'll ventilated and wei
IL kent. I spent two days in Nashville, anC
. every hour l saw things that mad
y me feel that something was the matte
:, either with God or humanity in tn
- South, and I said going away, i
u ever the colored question comes VI
y again as long as live l shall D
y counted in with the black man."
70 But this disregard for the colore'
- people does not only exist in the South
=, know there are many hotel in Bos
ot ton, where, if any one of you wer
~ to ask for room, they would tell yo'
~ that all the rooms were filled.
i The thing that most deeply atlilct
- the colored American is not going t
- - be cured by politics. You have II
Us ceived from politics already about al
a it can give you.
~ You may change the law by polite
=, but it is not the law that is going
y, insult or outrage and eXcommun
80 cate every colored American for gel
erations to come. You can't cur
the conceit of the white people thu
N they are better than you by polite
nor their ignorance, nor their pref
dice, nor their bigotry, nor any of tn
,t- insolences which they cherish again'
av their colored fellow-citizens.
cd Politics is the snare and delusion
No white men as we'll as black. POLITE
of ticlles the skin of the social orde
no but this disease and other diseas'
Irs of class, privilege, and inheritance !
,et deep in the internal organs. Socl
or. equity is based on principals OF ju
,es tice: political change on the opinlC
of time The black mans skin WI
be mark of social inferiorlty !
long as white men are conceited, ]
norant and prejudiced. You cam
legislate these qualities out OF u
ty whites-you must steal and reas'
lts them out by teaching, ILLUSTRATE