The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1919-03-29
THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
.sFOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF
COLORED PEOPLE.
THE FIRST CALL.
For The
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE
ADVANCEMENT OF coLoRED
PEOPLE, 1909.
By Mary White Ovington
(Chapter 2.)

The Centennial celebration of the
birth of Abraham Lincoln will fail to
justify itself if it takes no note of
and makes no recognition of the Col
oTed men and women for whom the
great Emancipator labored to assure
freedom. Besides a day of rejoicing,
Lincolns birthday in 1909 should be
one of taking stock of the nations
progress since 1865.
How far has it lived up to the OBJ
legations imposed upon it by the
Emancipation Proclamation? How far
has it gone in assuring to each and
every citizen, irrespective of color,
the equality of opportunity and equali-
ty before the law, which underlie our
American institutions and are guaran-
teed by the Constitution?
IF Mr.. Lincoln could revisit this
country in the flesh. he would be dis
heartened and discouraged. He would
learn that on January 1, 1909, Geor-
gia had rounded out a new confed-
eracy by disfranchisinG the Negro,
after the manner of all the other
Southern States. He would learn that
the Supreme Court of the United
States, supposedly bulwark of Amer
lean liberties, had refused every op-
portunity to pass squarely upon this
disfranchisement of millions, by laws
avowedly discriminatory and openly
enforced in such manner that the
white men may vote and black men
be without a vote in their govern
ment he would discover, therefore,
that taxation without representation
is the lot of millions of wealth-produc.
ing American citizens, in whose hands
rests the economic progress and vel
fare of an entire section of the coun.
try.
In many states Lincoln would find
justice enforced, if at all, by judges
elected by one element in communi
of another. He would see the Black
men and women, for whose freedom a
hundred thousand of soldiers gave
their lives, set apart in trains, III
which they pay first.clas fares fol
tthird-class service, and segregated il
railway stations and in places of EN-
tertainment he would observe that
State after State declines to do its
elementary duty in preparing the Ne
gro through education for the best eX
ercise of citizenship.
Added to this, the spread of law
less attacks upon the Negro, North
] South, and West-even in the Spring
| field made famous by Lincoln-ofteI
accompanied by revolving brutalities
sparing neither sex nor age nor youth
could but shock the author of the sen
timent that government of the peo
pie, by the people, for the people
shall not perish from the earth
"Silence under these conditions
means tacit approval. The indiffer
ence of the North is already responsi
BILE for more than one assault upor
democracy, and every such attack re
acts as unfavorably upon whites as
upon Blacks. Discrimination once
permitted cannot be bridled; recen
history in the South shows that il
forging chains for the Negro the white
voters are forging chains for them
selves. "A house divided against it
self cannot stand; this government
cannot exist half-slave and half-fre'
any better today than it could in 1861
Hence we call upon all the believ
ers in democracy to join in nationa
conference for the discussion of pres
ent evils, the voicing of protests, an(
the renewal of the struggle for civi
and political liberty. ADV.