Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1892-04-30 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

THE NEGRO QUESTION IN AMERICA. The burning alive of a negro at Texarkana, and the lynching of several at Memphis, have aroused the coloured population of the United States to protest in a more organised way than usual against the constant failure of justice to protect their race. A meeting of about 1,000 negroes has been held in an African Methodist Church at Chicago. When the hymn "America" was given out, including the words "sweet land of liberty," the congregation refused to sing it, and "John Brown's body had to be substituted. One of the speakers said "There was a great hubbub over the prctectiln of American citizens in Chili, but there are C,000,000 American citizens on American soil unprotected, and nothing is thought of it, because of their colour. To them the American flag or national hymn means nothing substantial." He advised his hearers not to be rash, but to carefully consider means of preventing outrages in future, and said that a permanent organisation would probably be formed, with detectives, to bring the guilty whites to justice. The minister of the church afterwards said, in an interview, that the coloured people no longer loved the country of their residence, but considered it the worst enemy of their race in the world. In Baltimore, on the 7th inst., about 50 coloured ministers met to organise indignation meetings, which are to be held all over the country on Sunday, May 29th. One of the reverend gentlemen said, "There is something coming, and before it does come we want the people of this country to understand our position thoroughly in this matter as Christians; and when the conflict does come, which I am satisfied it will, we shall be in the right." Another minister declared, "If this thing cannot be settled amicably it will then have to be settled by the sword, until one or the other is exterminated; and the man who is not willing to cast in his lot with the others as an offering on the altar is not worthy of being called an American citizen." A telegram from Gurdon, Arkansas, states that numbers of the negroes are selling their property with a view to an exodus to Africa,the coloured preachers encouraging this movement. And along with all this comes the news of three white "regulators" in New Orleans hunting down a negro labourer who had taken part in a diunken row when some white men were wounded, and killing him with buckshot.  A serious affair was reported from Wheatley Hill Colliery on Tuesday. The foreman blacksmith,named Pearson, who was alleged to be "a blackleg," was hooted by the strike hands, when he turned round and fired a pistol, severely wounding a delegate named Atkins. The assailant has been arrested.  Twenty-five Malays have been imprisoned at Singapore on the charge of being concerned in the murder of Messrs. Stewart and Harris, and rewards have been offered for the capture of the chiefs. The warships are awaiting the Sultan's answer to ths demand that he should assist in the restoratiou of order. •  A war seems imminent between the Cuna Indians of the San Bias territory and some Spanish negroes from Carthagena, who recently invaded the district and settled in the village of Acanda, after expelling the Indians. Cacleque, Sasardi, and Juan Aqnina, prominent chiefs of the Cunas, went to Santa F 6 de Bogota to lodge a formal complaint, but failing to secure troops to aid them, have returned and declared their warlike intentions.