The bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-07-26

against the wrongs and injustices being
heaped upon us here in America.
Let us say to our government and to
our president that the black people of
America are willing and ready, yes
anxious, to undergo any hardships and
to make any sacrifice necessary to the
end that our boys return home victor
ious; for America has never resorted to
the sword until every appeal to reason
by logic had failed and every time we
have gone forth to fight for liberty, we
have returned with victory.
Remembering Russia, let us resolve
here and now to ever keep the home
fires burning and. see to it that the
great ocean highways are kept dotted
with ships laden with food and muni-
tions whatever the cost may be. Let
us as patriotic law-abiding black citi-
zens of America, not only do our bit,
bat do our all. Buy Liberty Bonds,
Thrift Stamps, assist the war chest and
Red Cross, that the world may know
that the black people of America have
been weighed in the balance and found
not wanting.
And when our boys return victorious
we want to meet them with "well
done," and when the question is asked,
"Who are they?' let us be able to
answer:
Plain common men of every day,
Who left their homes to march away.
To perish on the battle plain
AS common men will do again.
To lift CHASTITY gazing eye
UP to a luridly strange sky
Until it seems painted rag
The same old common spangled flag
And when to die and testify
To all the ages far and nigh
How common place it is to die.
I am sure many Of you have come
out tonight to hear me tell Of the bust
ness in which I am engaged and Of
what have accomplished; but friends,
/ am not here to boast Of my accom-
plishments, but am here to show you
by precept and example what we can
accomplish in the face of almost insur-
mountable obstacles; and, above all
else, am here to plead the cause Of
race who has never produced traitor,
who has never produced an anarchist
and who has always been loyal to the
flag. A race who has watered your soil
with its tears and enriched your land
with it's blood.
I am not pleading for social equality,
but am asking for plain simple JUS
tice. / am. pleading that we share in
this world wide democracy for which
our sons and our brothers are now
shedding their blood in No Man. Land.
I am asking this government whose call
they have answered to break down the
bars Of prejudice, cut loose the chains
of oppression and wipe out segrega-
tion and jim-crowism. am asking
that this government enact a law that
will make mob violence and lynching
federal crime, SO that our women will
not be hanged from the trees in Georgia
while they give birth to their babes
and that our sons, our fathers and our
brothers may not be chained to the
stake in Tennessee and, made human
torches of and parts of their bodies dis
membered and taken away as souvenirs
and their heads severed from their
charred bodies and thrown into the
midst of our august bodies while they
are in convention assembled.
I have been heralded through the
columns of various papers as the rich
est colored woman in America. !. lay
no claim to that distinction nor do I
take pride in the same, but I do want
to be known as just a plain, humble
every day Christian, championing the