The Omaha guide., 1935-12-21
KELLY MILLER
SAYS
WHAT HAS BECOME OF THE
NATIONAL NEGRO NON
PARTISAN LEAGUE7

gro Non-Partisan League was or
gained in December 1881, prior
to the meeting of the National
Republican and Democratic Con-
v%entions. Its immediate purpose
was to put before these two great
political parties, in temperate
terms, the just claims of the Ne
gro, and to urge their incorpora-
ton in their respective platforms.
The National Negro Non-Parti-
san League was sponsored and
projected under the inspiration
and leadership of Hon. Oscar De-
preist, the fearless and outspoken
champion of Negro rights. Mr..
DePreist was elected president,
and the writer, secretary. Upon
call OF the promoters, an enthusi-
astic meeting assembled in the
city of Washington, including
delegates and representatives from
various states and sections of the
country. The organization was
formed amid enthusiasm and
eclat such as was never before
experienced at a race-wide politi-
cal meeting. The resolutions
adopted, in my judgment, consti-
tute the greatest state paper ever
issued by ar assembly of colored
leaders since emancipation. 1t was
indeed the second Emancipation
proclamation; emancipating the
Negro from his emancipators.
The chief object of this move
ment was to wean the Negro from
his traditional allegiance to a
single party and to encourage him
to base his claims broadly on pat
riotic and constitutional grounds.
wholly without reference to parti-
san considerations. The welfare
of no minority group can eve be
safe and secure which rests upon
the basis of a single party sup
port.
When the 1886 campaign got
well under way, the leaders of
this n~on-partisan movement, in
political parlanco, got cold feet
and, for the most part, reverted
to their erstwhile party fold. The
resolutions were never ~squarely
presented to the National Con-
yentions of either party at their
sessions in Chicago.
Congressman DePreist, for rea-
sons of political expediency, re-
signed from the presidency and
prosecuted his campaign for re-
election from the first Congress
sional District of Illinois, as a
regular n d normal, enthusiastic
Republican. I was then chosen
president by t e executive COM
mittee. Throughout the campaign,
ending in II e defeat of Herbert
Hoover and in the election of
Franklin D. Roosevelt, the League
functioned only through it's presi-
dent who acted rather in his per-
sonal rather than in his official
capacity. There were absolutely
no means or resources at my dis
posal. My efforts were confined
to releases widely published
throughout the Negro Press in all
parts of the country. In a non-
partisan spirit, l pointed out that
the best welfare of the Negro and
of the nation was dependent upon
the uccess of the New Deal" in
the then pending campaign. Both
the nation and the Negro agreed
in this judgment. Roosevelt was
elected I'VE his opponent by an
Unprecedented majority of which
the Negro contributed his full
share.
So much is history. But what
of the future? The work of the
League has been accomplished.
There is no longer any necessity
for its existence. The Negro no
longer looks to any particular
party for his salvation. He thanks
the Republican Party for its past
favors, and denounces the by
gone evil deeds of the Democratic
opponents; but facing the future,
he lets by-gones be by-gones.
Whatever debt of gratitude he
may have owed the Grand Old
Party for its benefactions in the
earlier days, has been paid by a
generation of party fealty.
AS a matter of fact, hard and
fast partisan lines no longer exist
among white citizens. There was
a time when each party had a
body of political doctrine and ten
cts which sharply differentiated
the one from the other. The Re-