Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-02-19
COLORED PEOPLE
ASK LEGISLATURE
FOR CIVIL RIGHTS
Would Haves Africa Returned
to Negro Race as Sow
ereign Nation

Max BARBER, of Philadelphia ana
Chandler Owens of New York. make
addresses on the various matters af-
fectingN the colored people of this
country. C. Sylvester jackson called
the meeting to order and called on
w Justin Carter to preside.
Representatives were present from
all parts of Pennsylvania who re-
ported on the work the association
was doing in their several communi-
| ties in organizing the colored people
to cooperate with the people gener-
ally to bring about better under
standing between the races.
Dr. Barber's address follows in part:
These days we are hearing much
about reconstruction much about
keeping faith with the men who
braved the perils of the seas and the
battlefields of Europe in order to
save the world from the domination
of Prussianism. In this great world
war no race has played a more he
roic prat than the black man. Men
who ought to know tell me that in
this war the negro fred the first shot
for America. We know that those
bronzed battalions of negro troops
won immortal glory for their race
in this world war. On the hill slopes
of Flanders, in the bloody Argonne,
by the waters of the Meuse. the
Orcq and the Moselle, there sleep the
negro heroic dead. They barred their
breasts to the hail of death, or in
hailed the poisoned gas or were
burned by liquid fire for the sake of
dream-the dream of democracy,
. 4, sl i -,
And by the Eternal God. it shall not
be, it cannot be, that these men fave
died in vain!
In order to be in position in the
State of Pennsylvania to protect the
rights and interests of our colored
citizens here and to care for the well
fare of those brave boys returning
from France, a few of us called a
conference here in Harrisburg on the
day Governor Sproul was inaugural
ed, and organized the Pennsylvania
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People. Membership in the
National Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People will be the
main prerequisite for membership in
our organization, although contribu-
ting members of the state organiza-
ton need not belong to the National
Association.
Our main effort this year shall be
ceaseless effort to secure the pas
sage of a decent Civil Rights Bill
through the Pennsylvania Legisla-
ture. This year we must not fail.
Here in the Capitol of this great Com
monwealth and in the presence of
this vast public. do not hesitate to
say that four years ago we were be-
trayed. Certain political cells in and
out of the Legislature led us like
lambs to the slaughter and then side
stepped. They were prolific in prom
ises. but amazingly poverty-stricken
in performances. This year we shall
keep a book of reckoning and the
man who betrays us today need not
expect US to honor him tomorrow.
To the eternal vexation OF the politi-
cal eel, we are going to organize
this state from one end to the other.
Somebody is going to be called to
account. They decorated and doc
tored our other bill to death, so that
when it came forth 1t was a mere
butt for cheap ridicule.
This year We shall know who is
who.
What is the need for a civil rights
Let us see. There is not a decent
hotel in Philadelphia where colored
man can stop. There is not a. first
class theatre in town where a col
ored man can buy first floor or a
box seat ticket. There is hardly
first class restaurant that will serve
you. In one instance l know a cheap
lunch place in Philadelphia where
they will not serve you. There is
one restaurant up town with a sign
over the door: 'Colored Patronage
Not Wanted Almost all of our
movies either segregate the colored
people or refuse outright to sell tick
cts to them. And what is true os
Philadelphia is practically true all
over the state. Pennsylvania winks
at these Jimcrowisms with a good
natured tolerant sort of smile. These
determinations are insults to our
wives, and daughters-they cruelty
our self-respect. They must go the
way of all Kaiserisms.
"The wealth of a state lies in the
people of that state. Wherever the
black man is not lifted up to higher
levels, the white man will be brutal
ized. Witness the South today. Prac-
tically left by the national Govern
ment to it's sovereign whom and ca
price it has gradually pushed the
negro to the very outer rim of damn
ing humility. AS a result in that
section all law has fallen into dis
respect. The high places of the
states are occupied by peanut poll
ticians-not statesmen. On the bench
there is neither preponderance of
learning, nor of juristic attainments
but rather a plethora of petty-fog-
ging lawyers. Everywhere there is
fear and hate-twin evils. The thing
they call democracy is a grotesquely
hideous fabric where one race is rob-
bed of all chance to earn respect from
the world wide arrogance and bru-
tality in the other race, grow apace.
The rednecks are in power
I'VE hear much about how to dis
pose of the German colonies in Af-
rica. I'll tell you who to give Ger
man African colonies to: Give them
to the people to whom they belong
the negroes. Under an international
committee we could here have the
beginning of greet negro republic
and prove the sinderity of civiliza-
tion that it wishes to elevate the
peoples of the world. Don't be fooled
by the mandatory power conferred
by this new league of nations. which
will in the end prove to be league
to keep down the backward peoples
of the world"
Jesse Hedrick. Jr.. Not