The Enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 192?-1930, 1928-06-14
Thomas Fortune
Dies in New York

tune in 1888 started the New York
Age.
The new paper soon became the
greatest Negro journal in the world.
1t was not really a ewsbaper, it
was a journal of opinions, and those
opinions were quoted far and wide.
Fortune. addressed himself first to
local conditions, and started in with
the schools.
At that time New York had sep
arate schools for the race, and
colored chold who lived in a white
peighborhood often had to walk two
miles to school. Fortune argued for
mixed schools.
At first the Negroes themselves
were against him; they feared that
if separate schools were abolished
the colored teachers in the Negro
schools would be out of jobs. One
night at a mass meeting in a Brook
| lyn church Fortune was mObbed by
the very people he was fighting for,
and had to escape by a hack window.
abolished. Then he said: "If white
teachers can teach colored children,
why shouldn't colored teachers
teach white children" The result
was another bitter but successful
fight. Colored. teachers were given
the right to teach anywhere in New
York City and Brooklyn, and to this
day many of them have taught for
years without ever having colored
pupil.
Famous Trainer Lawsuit
Another celebrated fight was the
Trainer lawsuit. Trainer ran a sa-
loon on Sixth avenue and refused
to serve Fortune. Fortune quarrel
ed with him and resisted the police
whom Trainer called in. The police
were glad of an excuse to arrest
Fortune, because he had violently
denounced them for their brutal
treatment of colored citizens; he
had called them thugs, rats and MUIR
derers. Fortune sued Trainer. His
lawyer was T, McCants Stewart.
Trainer tried to settle the suit out
of court, but Fortune was fighting
for a principle, not for money, and
he refused to compromise. He car
ried the case to court and won a
verdict.
After that the saloons would not
bartenders would smash the glass
as soon as a Negro had drunk from
it. Fortune came back at them by
leading six or seven men at time
into a saloon, and when the first
seven glasses were smashed he
would order another round Of
drinks. He would keep this up til
there was hardly a glass left in the
place. The saloons soon stopped
breaking glasses.
Another practice was to charge a
Negro a quarter for a five-cent glass
of beer Fortune would order beer,
| hand the bartender a nickel, and
say: 'If you want the other twenty
cents you'll have to fight me for it, "
| If the saloon huskies tried to crowd
/ him, he would pull his gun and cock
| it.
About this time Fortune became
| dissatisfied with the word Negro as
an chronological term that was not
| fully descriptive of Americas mix
ed colored population. He coined
the word afro American and had
| it accepted by the press.
Day by day he labored to improve
the condition OF the Negroes in New
York. He was their only voice. He
attacked the exploiting landlords of
the West Thirties, who overcharged
Negro tenants for squalid living
quarters, thirty years before the Ne
I8roes moved to Harlem; he attacked
the dives and other places where
Negro girls were herded to pander
20 white mems vices; he took up the
fight of every Negro who was OPP
pressed or prosecuted
The New York Age became a ter
ror to all the Negroes enemies. Theo-
dore Roosevelt, when Police Com
missioner said: "Tom Fortune, for
Gods sake keep that dirty pen Of
yours off me-"
Refused Brides
Such a paper naturally made it.
self felt in politics, especially as
Fortune was not looking for a job
and had no axe to grind, except the
cause of the Negro. He was offer
ed jobs. but he refused them be-
cause he wanted to be free to say
what he thought.
Many times money was offered
him to keep his mouth shut, but he
only opened it wider than ever. He
made enemies by the hundred and
his life was often in danger. The
police of that day threatened him,
politicians threatened him, South.
erners said they would lynch him il
he ever came South. His only re.
ply was to attack them more fierce.
ly than ever, and then so South
and speak as he felt.
He was a Republican, but he at.
tackled the Republicans as quickly as
he did the Democrats if they did not
treat the Negro fairly.
His political influence became ma
| a.