The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1919-05-03
MADE A MISTAKE

legislature made mistake IN us
treatment of the resolutions submit
ted to it by the NEGRO Uplift Asso-
citation" The resolutions were re-
specially worded, there was good In
some of them and no particular harm
in any of them. We would hardly ex-
pect the legislature to act on them,
but it could have treated them as 1T
does other resolutions-had them
read and referred to the proper COM
mittees. This would have caused no
I'LL feeling nor comment. As it Is, the
negroes feel that they have been de-
MED a constitutional right-the right
to petition-and every southhater IN
the north will take advantage of the
incident.
The "Negro Uplift Association"
met in Ocala a couple of weeks ago.
1t was made up, so far as we could
see, of the better element of the ne
groes of the state. By special re-
quest of the negroes, the mayor OF
Ocala and several leading citizens
all as good democrats as any at
Tallahassee-were invited to attend
their opening meeting and deliver ad-
dresses, and accepted the invitation.
The convention lasted two days, dur
ing which time the proceedings OF the
convention were, to the best OF our
knowledge, conservative and praise
worthy. At the close set of resolu-
tions was adopted. Copies were sent
To the governor and legislature. Ac-
cording to the reports from Tallahas-
see, when the copy directed to the
Senate was in the process of reading,
some senator blew up with loud re-
port and demanded that the reading
cease and the resolutions be thrown
in the wastebasket, and his motion
was sustained.
The House treated the resolutions
with little more ceremony. They
were read and laid on the table, and
one member took advantage of the oc-
casion to make speech in which he
made the statement that this was a
white mans country; a very true
remark, but one that should be kept
for really necessary occasions and not
used for political buncombe.
Now, let's see what these resolu-
tions were that so dreadfully excited
the ire of our state senate that it
couldn't sit still five minutes and hear
them read. The first item said:
"In this statewide convention of
the Negro Uplift Association of the
state of Florida, the delegates from
the various counties request US to
bring to your attention that the pub
lie school tern. is positively too short
| in that hundreds of thousands of chill
dren of school age have only two,
three or four months of school opera
ton, which is next to no school term
at all. This matter, we believe, should
and could be reemdied by proper state
legislation for we verify believe that
/ the state owes to every boy and girl
| the rudiments of an elementary edu-
cation"
If there is anything in this to ex-
cite the ire of white man, we would
/ be glad to have it pointed out to us
/ In this county, we encourage the ne
/ groes to attend school, and tax our
selves heavily to help them to do so.
| The second item says:
"The State Reform School: Condi
tons have been shown at this conven
ton that one of the crying needs o.
the reform school is the employment
of colored superintendent AMI
I guards as we'll as teachers and tina
department be established ant
maintained for negro girls and WON
en-"
We don't think it would be advis
able to appoint colored superintend
! ent at the reform school (the reso
buttons meant for the negro division
not the entire school but we must 50,
! that we honestly believe there ar
many negroes who would have file
the Office better than most of the me-
! who held it previous to the appoint
ment of the present incumbent.
must be remembered that it was no
: negro but a white man who locke
bunch of boys in their ward at tina
: school, and then went off to enjo
himself at disreputable resort Will
those entrusted to his care were burr
ed to death. We suppose it was thi
resolution that brought one estates
man" to his feet and caused him t
burst into speech. The rottenness G
the school stank almost under hi
nose for years, and if he had bee
vigilant and brave he could have e2
posed it any day, and the peopl
would have gladly backed him up, a
was shown by their actions when, b
accident almost, a physician of tn
state board stepped into the institU
ton Unexpectedly, and thru the med
ium of the press awoke them to tn
realization of what a horror the
were being taxed to maintain. Inves
LEGATIONS of the school revealed tha
a negro woman was one of the mos
efficient and faithful workers In i
and while this resolution was on
J certain to be disregarded, it wa
nothing for any legislator to be peev
ed about.
The next resolution said:
Common Carriers: We reques