The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1916-02-26
AFRO-AMER|CAN CULL|NCS


will shoot them down on sight for
petty ~thievery. Hundreds of them con-
gregate in the reading room Of the
Negro Fellowship league and their
story is almost always the same. They
answer scores of ads only to be told
mo Negro boys are wanted" They
are driven from the Fairgrounds. They
are bounded by the police and tempted
by their needs as well as their rest
less energy which has no safety valve
of its own and society refuses to pro-
vide one This is the third such shoot
ing in a month and there have been
and are numberless beatings in the
police stations such as Barney
Bertsche tells Of in his story in the
Daily News.
Negro boys are thus the most neg
lected group Of this whole big city. Fol
five years we have been trying to
maintain n place in which they r
welcome at all times. We have hoped
to be able to enlist the help of the
good people of Chicago to enlarge the
scope of this work and put within their
reach the same opportunities that are
given to the other race groups at the
Hull House and other splendid cen
tiers. But because we have no money
with which to put our work on a bust
ness basis and comply with certain
hard and fast rules of the Association
of Commerce we are unable to get
money enough even to pay the rent
which will keep this one small open
door, for our boys.
Meanwhile there is no organized,
systematic effort to administer the
ounce of prevention, and colored boys
are being shot down by the police or
herded in John Worthy school, or the
bridewell, or the Pontiac reformatory.
Mrs. w. E. Brown, chairman OF the
c%hildren's department of the National
| Federation of Coiored Women's Clubs,
and a teacher in the city public
schools, returned from a two weeks
visit in the South, where she made a
study of educational and social condi.
lions among the colored people as re-
lated to the welfare of children, says
the Indianapolis News. Mrs. Brown
visited Nashville, GAINESVILLE, Atlanta
and Tuskegee. She was the guest Of
Roger Williams university in Nash
Vile.
Mrs. Brown reports that the colored
children have favorable educational
advantages in the South and the race
is prosperous and aggressive. There
is one colored public school in Clarks-
Vile with one thousand children, with.
out compulsory educational laws and
no slum districts, good homes and
prosperous colored business enter.
prises.
The public schools in Atlanta do not
provide seating capacity for the chill
dren, as a result of which the city has
become a center for educational insti
tutions fostered largely by northern
philanthropy.
In the vicinity of Tuskegee the chill,
dren even in the rural districts were
observed working under most favor
able conditions, while the Tuskegee
institute is doing a great work fol
more than 1000 students.
Mrs. Brown was the guest of the
club women in GAINESVILLE and Atlanta
where she made several addresses il
the interest of social Improvement
She addressed an educational meeting
in Tuskegee and spoke in chapel be
fore the entire student body. She was
entertained there by Mr.. and Mrs
Ezra Roberts. Mr.. Roberts was for
merly a teacher in the city schools
here and is now head Of the academi,
department of Tuskegee.