Franklin's paper the statesman., 1911-12-16
ADDRESS OF W. 3. TOWNSEND
Before the Sunday Alliance, Upon the
Necessity Of Such an Organization.

Ladies and Gentlemen.
have been invited to speak on
The Necessity OF Such an OrganiZa-
ton as the Alliance In This City
Among Our People" do not hest
tate to declare that there is crying
need for such an organization in our
midst The purposes of which are TO
bring us closer together for all things
which tend TO the betterment OF the
race.
The great battles in the industrial
social and religious life and good cit
izenship can achieve better results by
organization and concert of action 1t
is true that now and then one OF us
may be able to overcome by an indi-
vidual effort the combined opposition
and night his or her way through diff
ncuities to the plane of individual sue
cess and individual recognition of his
or her civil rights; hut they are ex-
ceriions to the rule which apply to a
weak and dare say defenseless race.
in this country. where the laws are
made to outrage and disgrace the
race. and where those laws which are
made for the protection of the race
are grossly violated. quote the Ro-
chester. y. Y. Sentinel:
Too long has the constitution been
yieAited and too long has the Negro
been imposed upon, but whenever a
Negro spoke out against such things,
"A band of infnitessimally small and
atomic Negro cringers have howIed
him down by calling him wilmer. OF
all contemplate and worthless trash
in the Negro race, this set of bowling
l. ah "a
There is not United States Senator
from the South that has the right to
sit in that body II the constitution is
to he observed The South knows
this and so does the nation. Many
representatives OF the South in the
lower house of congress are there by
reason of open and willful violation of
the laws OF the land. Every
man OF the race that Is man and
lives in cities where crooks and
thieves abound should have some de
feusive and offensive weapon for the
protection of his home. To be unpre-
pared for such emergencies is Grim
inal The education OF the
Negro should be as broad AS his
needs His needs are similar TO the
needs of every other race.
In proportion to the progress we
make in education, industry, frugal
ity, wealth and virtue. we Will ad-
vance in good citizenship. When we
make that showing there will be those
of the dominant race who Will lend Il
helping hand to assist us to lead oth-
ers OF the race away from the domain
of ignorance vice and crime into the
1alm OF better and more perfect cit
vzenship.
Reading makes full man, conver-
.s.tion makes a ready man, writing
makes the exact man" By this or
ganization IL is proposed to add to
our store of knowledge and catch in
spiration from good literature and dis
scminate, that knowledge not only in
the Alliance, but scatter 1t in our
homes and our social life and transmit
to our posterty an imperishable rec
ord of our observations and achieve
ments in the race OF life. Throush
this organization we have an oppor-
tunity and privilege to express our
1 thoughts concerning our race ana may
he able in this community to convince
others of the wrongs heaped upon the
race, by plea to humanitys cause
ot the bar of reason TO the jury of
conscience. in the court OF pupnc
oninion and answer some of the
things whereof the race is wrongfully
accused To do this we should devise
some way to become better acQuaint-
cd with our white neighbors who do
not know us in our home life, who do
not know that all Negroes are not
mike. and who do not know how we
love and care for the rights of our
families and that we would make any
sAcritice for the rights of our neigh
bors' families. The average, yes the
majority, of our white neighbors know