The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-08-21
BIG STEP AHEAD
Negroes Advance in Last Five
Years Remarkable.
Bishop Clair, Convention Speak
er, Holds High Position.

1.-THE religious and educational prog
ress of the coloredl race has been
greater in the last five years than in
any period since its emancipation"
Bishop Matthew Clair, negro bishop of
the Methodist Episcopal church. said
today. Bishop Clair is in Topeka to
attend the second, annual convention
of Sunday schools, Epworth>Leagues,
missionary and ladies' aid societies OF
the colored churches of the Topeka
Methodist Episcopal district, including
Kansas. Colorado and Nebraska,
THE great strides of progress of the
colored people in the last few years
has been due, largely. to the colored
school that the Methodist Episcopal
church has established in the SOUTH"
the bishop said.
The status of Bishop Clair - the
same as that Of any white bishop of
the Methodist church. Not until the
last general conference of the church,
held in May, 1920, were eoIored bish-
ops elected, Bishop Clair being one of
two men chosen. More than $50 votes
were cast in the conference for the
election of the two colored men OF
thes $50 delegates. only go were coll
ored. Bishop Clair and Bishop c. L.
Mead of Denver. Colo, travel about
the country inspecting the work of
the colored people in the Methodist
church. In December
Bishop Clair will go to Liberia, Africa,
to spend six months
Bishop Clair was one of fifteen of
the most popular pastors in washing
ton, D. c.. elected in a contest con-
Quoted by the washington Post to take
a trip to the Holy Land in 1919. He
was pastor of the Asbury Methodist
church of Washington, D. c., and has
been in the ministry thirty-one years.
The Topeka district is doing SPLEEN
did work with thefmen and equipment
provided the bishop said. But more
trained men are needed in this part of
the country for it is divided into such
large districts that it is difficult for
the small number to cover the large
territory. The Topeka district, for in
stance. is .wice the size of the Wash
ington. D. c., district"
rs Christianity a Failure2" was the
subject of the bishops address at the
city auditorium. Christianity is not a
failure, the bishop declared, but it
must be given a fair chance to func-
ton in the lives of the people. The
auditorium was well filled for the
meeting, the largest of the three day
convention.
Sunday at 8 o'clock the bishop will
speak at the Mount Olive church.
Twelfth and Buchanan streets on the
subject, Optimism VS.. Pessimism."
An outdoor meeting of the conven-
ton delegates was to be held this
afternoon in City pxrk, when the an
nua1 election of group and district Of
ficers will take place.
plans of our workers for the next
quadrennium are large" the bishop
said. But we hope to put them over
and at the next general conference of
the church in four years make the
delegates proud that coIored bishops
were elected. We hope TO pay off
church debts, build new churehes.-en en-
from the Methodist centenary fund,
place qualified men in the field and
establish a Normal industrial school in
Monrovia, Liberia. on the same plan
as the Booker T. Washington institute
in Alabama