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|
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 60670 ***
Officers of the
Colored Law and Order League
Baltimore, Md.
------------------
President—Rev. John A. Holmes
Vice-President—John W. Rich
Secretary—Heber E. Wharton
Treasurer—Dr. Thomas S. Hawkins
Executive Committee
Rev. John A. Holmes
Harry T. Pratt
Dr. Whitfield Winsey
Heber E. Wharton
Josiah A. Diggs
Mason A. Hawkins
Rev. John T. Jenifer
W. C. McCard
W. Ashbie Hawkins
Dr. J. H. N. Waring
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PRESS OF
E. A. WRIGHT BANK NOTE CO.
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Work of the Colored Law and
Order League :: Baltimore, Md.
----------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: Publisher’s Logo]
by James H. N. Waring
COMMITTEE OF TWELVE
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE INTERESTS OF THE NEGRO RACE
CHEYNEY, PA.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MAP
SHOWING
LOCATION OF SALOONS
[Illustration:
A map of the lower Druid Hill Avenue District. In this district there
were forty-two saloons, fifteen churches, twelve schools, one home
for old people, one home for friendless children, the colored Y. M.
C. A. and the colored Y. W. C. A.
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Work of the Colored Law and Order League of Baltimore
THE Atlanta riot had sent a thrill of horror throughout the country, and
colored people generally, whenever they met, were eagerly and anxiously
discussing it, not only because of the desolation it left behind it, and
the misery and suffering it had entailed to the families of the victims,
but because as they discussed it they saw in their own neighborhoods
more or less of the causes which led to that unfortunate affair.
With the colored people here in Baltimore it was for a long time a
common topic of conversation. True, Baltimore had no incendiary press to
inflame the passions of the poor whites of the city, nor had she a class
of hysterical women to take fright at the sudden appearance of a black
face, nor was there here that loose attitude toward law and order which
permits the disorderly elements of the population to disregard and defy
the authorities in their enforcement of the laws of the city and State.
But there were sections of the city, where the colored people in large
numbers reside, infested with saloons kept principally by white men of
the lowest type; there were dens of vice in too large numbers scattered
throughout the city—all of which were exercising a demoralizing effect
upon the colored youth and furnishing schools of crime for colored
children. These places appeared to have a quasi-police protection, and
as it appeared later, in the testimony before the Liquor License Board,
at least one policeman regarded the saloons about which there had been
complaint from the best citizens of the town, white and black, as “less
troublesome than the colored churches in the neighborhood.”
There were saloons of the lowest type in the most densely populated
colored residence neighborhoods, and some of the public schools were
within 300 feet of from two to eight of them. It was such conditions as
these that laid the foundation for the trouble in Atlanta, and surely
the existence of similar conditions in Baltimore justified the
apprehensions felt by many of Baltimore’s best colored citizens.
[Illustration:
THE DISTRICT SURROUNDING PUBLIC SCHOOL No.
105
This district is infested with dives and disorderly houses. The small
dots indicate the disorderly houses; the large dots liquor saloons;
the crosses around them are liquor saloons which have disorderly
houses connected with them; the small triangles are houses that are
suspected.
In this district some of the women who keep these houses have their
names printed over the doors.
]
Finally, after some casual conferences and informal discussions at
promiscuous meetings and gatherings, Rev. John Hurst, one of the most
useful of Baltimore’s colored men, took the initiative and called
together at his house a number of representative colored men to discuss
the situation more formally. At this meeting there were present: W.
Ashbie Hawkins, one of the leading lawyers of the city; Dr. Howard E.
Young, one of the leading druggists; Dr. Whitfield Winsey, a physician
who has practised among the colored people for about thirty years; Dr.
Thomas S. Hawkins, one of the younger physicians, and a man who has
always been prominent in every movement looking toward the betterment of
the condition of the colored people; Heber E. Wharton, a vice-principal
of one of the public schools; Harry T. Pratt, a grade supervisor in the
public schools; Rev. J. Albert Johnson, who has recently been made a
bishop in the A. M. E. Church; Rev. E. F. Eggleston, pastor of Grace
Presbyterian Church; and Dr. J. H. N. Waring, principal of the Colored
High and Training School. This group of men, after an informal
discussion of the situation, decided to organize into a committee of
ten, and elected Rev. Mr. Hurst as chairman of this committee, a
position in which he served through the whole campaign with tact and
firmness and wisdom. Later Dr. Hurst, who moved to Washington to live,
was succeeded by Rev. John A. Holmes, who took up the fight with the
same earnestness, intelligence and zeal which have characterized his
entire life in this community.
It was from this little band of men, all of whom were colored, that the
Law and Order League grew. The larger body was likewise made up entirely
of colored men, all of them deeply interested in the general development
of the whole colored population and fully determined, so far as lay in
their power, to make the best possible contribution to good citizenship
in Baltimore. The membership of the League was composed not only of the
best colored men of the city, but they were the men who are always
foremost in any movement for civic betterment, and men who are occupying
the most prominent and influential positions in the city.
MAP showing LOCATION of
SALOONS and DISORDERLY HOUSES
● SALOONS
• DISORDERLY HOUSES
× BOTH
[Illustration:
Public School No. 105 surrounded by houses of prostitution and
saloons.
]
At this meeting in October, 1906, it was decided to investigate the
conditions in colored neighborhoods, and learn more in detail of the
environments of their homes and schools and churches, to study the
sanitary conditions of colored neighborhoods and to collect all the
reliable data possible to be used in the effort to improve conditions
among the colored people. It was thought best to limit the size of this
committee to the ten men who met at Dr. Hurst’s house. They divided
themselves up into sub-committees to study and report on the sanitary
conditions in colored neighborhoods, to investigate the school
conditions with special reference to their surroundings, and to secure
such printed matter and collect such reliable statistics as they might
need in their future work.
At the subsequent meetings reports from these committees brought out
many interesting and startling facts. In Baltimore, as in most other
cities, the colored people are grouped together in certain neighborhoods
whose white population is very small and composed of the degraded
rum-seller or the small shopkeeper, who has no social antipathy toward
his black neighbors so long as business is good.
[Illustration:
MAP SHOWING LOCATION OF SALOONS
A poor white neighborhood in Baltimore, in a section composed of four
blocks, with 36 saloons.
]
It was reported that there were at least three neighborhoods in the city
in which the conditions with reference to schools for colored children
and housing of colored families were deplorable in the extreme.
There was the Caroline and Bank Streets district, in which a colored
school was surrounded by a network of saloons and houses of
prostitution. It was found that within a block of the school there were
nine saloons and no less than forty-seven houses of ill-repute. It was
learned that it was most difficult to keep girls in this school after
they became thirteen or fourteen years of age. So powerful were the
influences of this neighborhood upon them that at thirteen some of them
passed from the school to the houses of prostitution and to lives of
shame. In a tour of inspection of this neighborhood young girls were
pointed out one after another, who, the previous year, had been pupils
of the school. One mother, who had recently moved to Baltimore from the
country, told how she had rescued her twelve-year-old daughter from one
of those dens, and how a policeman, to whom in her agony and distress
she had appealed, threatened to arrest her for disorderly conduct!
[Illustration:
Public School No. 116, surrounded by eleven saloons, 8 of which are
within 300 feet of the school premises.
]
The Rogers Avenue district, in which another colored school was located,
while not quite so bad so far as the number of saloons and questionable
houses was concerned, was yet a neighborhood infested with both kinds of
places, and the block just below the school, on the street through which
nearly half of the children must pass on their way to and from school,
was lined on both sides with houses of prostitution, over whose doors,
in some cases, the women who kept them had their names printed. Such a
condition as this existed nowhere else in the city, and made this
particular street a demoralizing influence which was different from any
other and in many ways more powerful for harm than any other which was
found.
[Illustration:
(Click on the map for a slightly-larger version.)
DRUID HILL AVENUE DISTRICT
Deaths due to tuberculosis in ten years, 1891–1900, inclusive, in all
11,542. The tuberculosis map of Baltimore City. The lower Druid Hill
Avenue district is outlined on the map. This is the tuberculosis
center of Maryland and the City of Baltimore.
]
The Druid Hill Avenue district is the largest and most populous colored
neighborhood in Baltimore, if not in the world. It probably contains
more homes owned and occupied by colored people than any similar
residential neighborhood anywhere. It extends from Eutaw Street to North
Avenue, and with the adjacent streets covers an area a mile and a half
long by from one-sixteenth to one-half a mile wide. The upper part of
this district is as fine a colored neighborhood as one would wish to
see, and is comparatively free from nuisances of any kind.
In the lower Druid Hill Avenue district, which was the largest district
studied, it was found that in a section seven blocks long and two blocks
wide there were located forty-two saloons, fifteen churches, twelve
schools, one home for old people, one home for friendless children, the
Colored Young Men’s Christian Association and the Colored Young Women’s
Christian Association. This section was honeycombed with gambling dens,
known not only to the initiated, but carrying on unblushingly a business
which was known to the citizens if not to the police. There were
numerous dance houses, clubs and billiard halls which were in actual
practice only assignation places for girls and young women, and to which
many of them owed their downfall.
The Health Office furnished a map which showed that the lower Druid Hill
Avenue district was the “tuberculosis centre” for the city of Baltimore
and the State of Maryland. From “A Study on Housing Conditions in
Baltimore,” an investigation prepared under the direction of the
Association for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor and the
Charity Organization Society, the following is quoted, showing the bad
conditions of health, sanitation and morals with reference to one alley
in this district:
“The Biddle Alley district, of all sections of the city, holds
the record for the tuberculosis death rate. In the year 1906
eight deaths from tuberculosis occurred in families known to the
agent of the Federated Charities, and according to the statement
made a short time ago by a Health Department official, there is
not a house on Biddle Alley in which there has not been at least
one case of tuberculosis.”
“From morning until midnight the beer can circulates with a
regularity that is almost monotonous.”
“Another striking characteristic of the occupants of this
district is what appears to be in many cases an entirely
undeveloped moral sense.”
“Gambling is also prevalent and there is reason to believe that
the cocaine habit hastens the decay of many of these
degenerates.”
As to the sanitary conditions, the report states further:
“Of the two hundred and fifteen houses in the Biddle Alley
district, seventy-one had leaking roofs.”
“Dirty, dark, damp and dilapidated are adjectives that fairly
describe nearly two-thirds of the four hundred and thirty-eight
basements and cellars included in the investigation.”
“In several cellars in the Biddle Alley district the surface
drainage from the adjoining alley or street was found to be
oozing through the foundation walls.”
“A basement apartment in the Biddle Alley district had no light
or ventilation except that afforded by a window 3½ feet square
in area, placed so high in the wall that it was necessary to
stand on a chair to take measurements. The walls and ceiling of
this dungeon-like apartment were damp and in bad repair. From
the physical condition of the occupant it seemed likely he was
suffering from tuberculosis in its incipient stage.”
One of the most conspicuous features of the houses lining the small
streets and alleys in the lower Druid Hill Avenue district were the
stacks of washing, tons of which are gathered weekly from the best homes
of the city, to be laundered in this neighborhood reeking with filth,
infected with tuberculosis and other infectious diseases, and presenting
the most unwholesome conditions from which the family wash could
possibly be sent home. And yet hundreds of white families are in this
way subjecting the members of their households to these great dangers.
One interesting fact which developed in connection with the
investigation of these conditions was the attempt on the part of the
keepers of these places to bulldoze and browbeat the committee out of
their work. The writer received a warning from the keeper of one of
these dives that unless his activities ceased personal injury would be
visited upon him. Another man, who kept a business which was patronized
by many of these divekeepers, lost all of that business on account of
his connection with the Law and Order League. Another man, who kept a
store, was forced to give up active work for the League because he could
not afford the loss which threatened him if he continued. Others, who
were weaker or who could not stand the financial loss which activity in
the work of the League entailed upon them, began to hedge and criticise
and finally openly assail the League as a movement which was seriously
affecting the business interests of the colored people.
It was found that these saloons were meeting places of the idle, loafing
element among the colored people, of the crap shooters, of dissolute
women, and many of the saloonkeepers did not hesitate to sell liquors to
women and children. One of the discoveries in this lower Druid Hill
Avenue district was that in the small streets, which were practically
alleys, there were three of these saloons—two in one alley, and one at
the intersection of two other alleys.
The saloon which is kept by a white man for colored trade is usually the
lowest possible type of saloon. The cheapest grades of liquors are
dispensed. Many of them have back entrances and depend upon their Sunday
trade for a large part of their revenue. The writer has frequently seen
a string of Sunday drinkers filing through the back gates into some of
these saloons. Other members of the League had also seen these Sunday
violations of the law, and there were many outsiders, particularly
women, who were the wives and mothers of men and boys whose earnings
went largely to the saloonkeepers instead of to the support of their
families, who were ready to testify that for many of the saloons Sunday
was the busiest day. On one occasion a colored man interested in
assisting the committee bought a pint of whisky from one of these
saloons, and then telephoned the police that this saloonkeeper was
selling liquor on Sunday. A raiding party was immediately sent out from
the station house, and when the place was reached everything was as
quiet as the most exact observance of Sunday closing law would seem to
require. It was evident that in some mysterious way the proprietor had
received a tip that the raiding party was coming. And so it happened
with nearly every attempt at raiding for Sunday selling. The places
would be found either absolutely empty and quiet or those in the places
would swear that they were mere visitors. It was rather openly asserted
about at least one saloon that there was a secret door from it into the
adjoining house. At any rate, in this district detection and conviction
seemed well nigh impossible.
The alley saloon, being off the thoroughfare, has advantages for
conducting this sort of an illicit business with far greater safety and
with more profit than the saloon which is out on the front street, and
hence alley saloon franchises, so far from being undesirable, are
eagerly sought by that type of white men who will run a place for that
class of trade.
In one of these saloons it developed that, in addition to the bar, a
dance hall was run by the proprietor. Nightly orgies of half-drunken men
and women made this neighborhood particularly objectionable to
surrounding residents. One high school girl, who was compelled to leave
school on account of her condition, was said to have met her ruin in
this place. A member of this committee, who for a while lived next door
to this saloon, saw the proprietor go out of the saloon one night about
midnight, and apparently put something down by the side of the lamp post
on the opposite corner. Shortly afterward a policeman came along and
picked it up and went on. At the hearing before the Liquor Board the
sergeant and night officer on this beat testified in the strongest terms
to the good character of this place. One white business man across the
street said that his best customers had been run off by the people who
patronized this dive.
When the sub-committees made these reports it was decided to undertake
the work of cleaning up the lower Druid Hill Avenue neighborhood alone,
and to leave the work in the other neighborhoods to a future movement.
It was felt that by centering all of their efforts upon the one
neighborhood there was more hope of success than there would be from
undertaking the work in all of them at the same time. It was decided to
make a most earnest effort to secure the removal of the saloons from the
alleys and the vicinities of the schools and churches in this lower
Druid Hill Avenue district. They decided to make charts and secure
pictures showing the conditions in this neighborhood and publish them,
as far as possible. A sub-committee was appointed to carry these plans
into execution.
As the committee progressed in its labor of collecting statistics and
came gradually to the point of action, the absolute dependence of the
colored people generally upon the mercies of the whites, and the
helplessness of the committee acting by itself became more and more
apparent. Liquor Boards in the past almost totally ignored the protests
of colored churches and colored individuals. Police Boards were but
little less inclined to consider their complaints. There had been and
still was a general feeling that the colored people were either of
themselves so criminal or were so disposed to shield and protect their
criminals that they were not taken seriously when protesting against
lawlessness and lawbreaking.
The committee early realized that in undertaking to secure these reforms
they would have to contend with the powerful saloon interests, which
were most firmly intrenched, and would have to work without the
co-operation of the police department, whose efforts should always be on
the side of law and order. And so they saw that it would be necessary to
form a combination with the best white people of the city and if
possible bring them into active co-operation in this work. The most
important work, then, was to secure the active interest of leading white
men. A sub-committee was appointed for this purpose, and they visited
the late Dr. Daniel C. Gilman, ex-President of Johns Hopkins University,
and one of Baltimore’s most distinguished citizens; Mr. Douglas H.
Wylie, at that time President of the Chamber of Commerce; Mr. Eugene
Levering, President of the Commercial National Bank and one of the most
distinguished philanthropists of Baltimore; Bishop Paret, the head of
the Episcopal Church in this diocese; Mr. Joseph Packard, at that time
President of the Board of School Commissioners and one of Baltimore’s
leading citizens; Mr. Robert H. Smith, a leading lawyer; Mr. John C.
Rose, United States District Attorney, who as legal adviser and advocate
performed most helpful service for this committee; Mr. Isaac Cate, a
retired capitalist; Mr. John M. Glenn, who is now Secretary of the Sage
Foundation, and who threw himself most heartily into the work; Judge
Alfred S. Niles, a member of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City, and
Mr. W. Hall Harris, the city postmaster.
The committee was encouraged by the heartiness with which, with one or
two exceptions, our request for co-operation was met by all of these
men. The committee was not only impressed with the sympathetic interest
which their mission raised, but they were struck with the frequency with
which certain questions entered into nearly all of these conferences.
MALES OF MARYLAND ENGAGED IN GAINFUL
OCCUPATION
[Illustration:
A common belief is that colored men will not work. The United States
census shows more colored men at work in Maryland than whites.
]
For instance, there was a query as to why the colored man will not work.
They intimated that in some cases the conditions of vice and immorality
grew out of the laziness and idleness of the men of this neighborhood as
well as out of the environments of the saloons and dives. A study of the
statistics prepared by the United States Census Bureau, however, shows
that a larger percentage of the colored men of Maryland are at work than
of the whites.
[Illustration:
A = Farm homes owned free of debt.
B = Farm homes owned but mortgaged.
C = Farm homes rented.
]
[Illustration:
A = Farm homes owned free of debt.
B = Farm homes owned but mortgaged.
C = Farm homes rented.
The progress in home-getting since emancipation has been rapid in
Maryland.
]
The committee was also asked why there is so little home life among the
colored people. It is true that the home life is not as desirable among
colored people as it ought to be and as most of us would have it; but
the influx of the colored population from the alleys and small streets
of south and east Baltimore into the more desirable neighborhoods of
northwest Baltimore, particularly upper Druid Hill Avenue and the
adjacent streets, shows an upward movement along this line, and the fact
that there is a most healthy and promising growth of the home spirit.
Not only this, but statistics from the United States Census Bureau show
that out in the country districts of Maryland the colored people are
procuring homes for themselves. While it is true that there is a
scarcity of labor, it is also true that there has been a phenomenal
increase in the number of farm homes in the State of Maryland. At the
present time the colored farmers of the State own fifty-seven per cent.
of the farm lands they are tilling.
The committee was also asked why there was so much immorality among
colored women and girls. The exhibition of the charts showing the
conditions surrounding the colored public schools, particularly the
Caroline and Bank Streets neighborhood and the Rogers Avenue
neighborhood, are complete answers to this question. It was not
difficult to see that girls who attended school among such surroundings
as these could not in the very nature of the case have high ideas of
virtue and morality. It was found that at least five of the colored city
schools are surrounded by such conditions. Little girls and boys receive
daily object lessons in prostitution, gambling, drunkenness, profanity
and thieving.
Another distressing question which the committee was constantly called
upon to meet was—Why is the colored jail population so large? The
statistics show that about three-fourths of the population in the
Baltimore jail and the Maryland Penitentiary are colored men and women—a
most disgraceful showing on the part of the colored people. The
committee could only admit that the undue proportion of colored
criminals in the jail and the penitentiary is a reflection upon the
citizenship of the colored people.
ISAAC WINDER
[Illustration:
Educating a Negro is cheaper than hanging him.
]
The committee made the general plea, though, to the white men upon whom
they called, that the colored children should have the opportunity as a
result of their environments and the general advantages offered them, to
grow up into decent citizenship. These gentlemen were shown the
conditions which surrounded our schoolhouses, and readily admitted the
handicap which such surroundings imposed upon little children. We were
able to show them that the Colored High School, which the city has
maintained for about twenty-five years, has in all of its history
furnished but one inmate for the penitentiary or the jail. Those who are
graduated from this school not only do not join this jail population,
but they are engaged in such occupations in this community as prove
their usefulness to the people with whom they are associated and of whom
they are a part, and at the same time the wisdom of a liberal policy of
education.
The committee was able to show another striking illustration of the
value of education in presenting the history of the notorious Ike
Winder, who murdered a tollgate keeper in Baltimore county. To arrest,
try, imprison, recapture and execute Ike Winder cost the State two
thousand dollars more than it cost to educate one of the graduates of
the Colored High School. The State not only lost in this expenditure the
money involved in the expense connected with the case, but lost the
economic value of an educated citizen. The educated, trained graduates
of the high school exert a most helpful influence in the community.
Assuming that Winder, if he had graduated from the High School, would
have been like the other graduates, the State lost also the moral
influence of this kind of citizen.
EDUCATION VS. IGNORANCE.
[Illustration:
The educated man is a more valuable citizen than the ignorant one.
]
The facts presented to these men as they were visited formed the basis
of a plea for co-operation between the best whites and blacks of the
city, and the formulation of a plan of action to be mutually worked out
by them. Dr. Gilman, who had taken such an enthusiastic interest in the
matter, offered the use of his home and invited a conference of
gentlemen, which marked an epoch in the approach to the ideal working
relation between the best people of both races. There were present at
this meeting: Postmaster W. Hall Harris; Dr. J. H. Hollander, a Johns
Hopkins professor and one of the noted sociologists of the age; Dr.
Bernard C. Steiner, librarian of the Pratt Library; Professor Charles W.
Hodell, of the Woman’s College; Lawyers A. M. Tyson and P. C.
Hennighausen, R. H. Smith, John C. Rose, Joseph Packard, Mr. Douglas M.
Wylie, Professor James H. Van Sickle, the Superintendent of Public
Instruction; Bishop Paret, Judge Heuisler, of the Supreme Court; Mr.
John M. Glenn, Mr. Eugene Levering, Dr. Ira Remsen, President of Johns
Hopkins University; Dean Griffin, of Johns Hopkins University, and Dr.
Gilman. Many of these men had been visited by the sub-committee and had
had the matter partially explained to them, but at this gathering in Dr.
Gilman’s house the committee was able to present in detail the charts
which had been prepared, many pictures which had been collected, and
were able to give a full and detailed description of the conditions
which existed in this neighborhood, and to make an appeal for the
co-operation of these white men in studying and remedying the bad
conditions prevailing in this lower Druid Hill Avenue district.
The discussion of the question, which was full and free, took in every
phase of the subject with which these men were more or less familiar,
and various remedies were suggested. They finally decided to appoint an
advisory committee to act in conjunction with a similar committee of
colored men in taking such steps as were necessary to secure the desired
relief. The committee was empowered to act for the full body and to call
upon them for such assistance, material or otherwise, as might be needed
to carry out their plans. This committee consisted of Messrs. Packard,
Glenn, Heuisler, Rose and Hollander.
CHART OF GRADUATES
C. H. & T. S.
TEACHERS 213
MARRIED (Women) 42
IN BUSINESS 61
GOVERNMENT SERVICE 5
IN COLLEGE 37
NOT FOUND 3
DEAD 18
IN JAIL 0
—
TOTAL 379
This chart shows the occupations of the graduates of the Colored
High and Training School, and in a general way the fact that
education insures against a criminal life.
The colored committee of ten appointed a committee consisting of Drs.
Hurst, Hawkins, Eggleston and Waring to meet this Advisory Committee of
white men and to prepare a plan of action. The conferences were held in
the office of District Attorney Rose, who from first to last took a most
active part and was always ready to give of his time and his wisdom and
his influence to further the cause.
It was decided, as the result of the first conference, that the colored
committee should proceed to the organization of a larger and more
representative body of colored men, to be known as the Law and Order
League, which organization should seek to arouse and cultivate
sentiments among the colored people which would not only lead them to
seek the betterment of the colored population and the improvement of the
opportunities for the rearing of their children, but should also arouse
a distinct sentiment against all forms of wickedness, vice, immorality
and crime, and especially against the low saloon and dive. The joint
committee agreed that petitions should be drawn up and addressed to the
Liquor Board and the Police Board, praying for such relief as might be
within the power of these respective bodies to grant. It was decided
that District Attorney Rose should be the legal adviser of the committee
and pass upon these petitions in order that they might be presented in
proper form, and he was also requested to appear before the Boards when
the petitions were filed. Plans were formed to secure, if possible,
through members of the committee who were best able to reach the
newspapers, their specific indorsement of the petitions when presented
to the two Boards.
The definite and immediate result of this joint conference was the
organization of the Colored Law and Order League. This organization was
formed, after a series of meetings at Grace Presbyterian Church, by
colored men—ministers, lawyers, doctors, teachers and business men—all
of whom entered enthusiastically upon a program whose one great object
was to give Baltimore’s colored children a real chance in life. They
drew up a constitution which expressed briefly its object: “To improve
the moral, economic and home conditions among the colored people, and to
do whatever would promote good citizenship.” “Any citizen of the city of
Baltimore, interested in the object for which this Association is
organized, is eligible for membership.” With this object broadly,
clearly and definitely stated, and with the opportunity for any
well-meaning citizen to enlist in this work, about one hundred of the
representative colored men of Baltimore joined the Law and Order League.
Officers and an Executive Committee were elected and instructed by the
League to draw up a petition to the Liquor License Board and to take
such steps as were necessary to carry out the object of the League.
Three different lines of work were decided upon by the Executive
Committee. First, it was determined to secure, if possible, legislative
action, which would include the lower Druid Hill Avenue district within
the territory in which the sale of liquor is prohibited. A sub-committee
was appointed to draw up a suitable bill for presentation to the
Legislature. One of the white men whom the committee visited was
particularly desirous of having action of this kind undertaken, and
offered his services in urging the passage of the bill. But he was
suddenly and unexpectedly called away to New England just about this
time, and was away from Baltimore until after the adjournment of the
Legislature, which made this action impossible.
“An act to prevent the Sale of Liquor and Intoxicating Drinks within an
Area or Section of Baltimore City.”
Section I. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland,
that it shall not be lawful for any person, house, company,
association or corporate body to sell, directly or indirectly,
or to give away at his or its place of business, any spirituous,
fermented or intoxicating liquors of any origin whatever, or
alcoholic bitters, within an area or section of Baltimore City
bounded on the East by McCulloh Street, on the South by St.
Mary’s Street, on the West by Myrtle Avenue and on the North by
McMechen Street.
Section II. And be it enacted, that if any person, house,
company, association or body corporate shall sell, directly or
indirectly, at any place, or give away at his or its place of
business, any spirituous or fermented liquors, or alcoholic
bitters, or intoxicating drinks of any kind, within the limits
of the said area of Baltimore City, he or it shall, on
conviction thereof, forfeit and pay on the first conviction a
fine of not less than $100.00 nor more than $500.00 and costs of
prosecution, or instead of such fine be imprisoned in the City
Jail for six months, or both, in the discretion of the Court;
and on failure to pay any such fine as herein prescribed, he
shall be committed to the jail of said city until such fine and
costs are paid; second and each subsequent offense a fine of not
less than $200.00 nor more than $1000.00; one-half of said fine
shall go to the informer and the residue to the school fund of
Baltimore City.
Section III. And be it enacted, that nothing contained in the
two preceding sections shall be construed to prevent the
compounding or sale of any such liquors for medicinal purposes
by a pharmacist or druggist, and upon a written bona fide
prescription of a regular practising physician, whose name shall
be signed thereto; and all such prescriptions shall be filled
and kept by such pharmacist or druggist, and no prescription
shall serve for more than one purchaser; but no physician shall
make or sign such prescription unless the person for whom it is
made is actually sick and such liquor is absolutely necessary as
a medicine; any physician who shall be deemed guilty of
violation of such sections, and upon conviction thereof, shall
be fined not less than $50.00 nor more than $200.00 for the
first offence, and not less than $200.00 nor more than $500.00
for each subsequent offence; and if the buyer shall obtain a
prescription by misrepresentation he shall likewise be deemed
guilty of a violation of said sections, and upon conviction
thereof shall be subject to the same fine as the physician who
shall violate the same; the one-half of said fine to be paid to
the informer and the residue to the school fund of Baltimore
City; and said violators shall be committed to the City Jail of
Baltimore City until such fine and costs are paid; but nothing
herein shall be construed to prohibit a sale by a pharmacist or
druggist in a case of extreme illness, where delay may be
dangerous to the patient.
The second line of action determined upon by the committee was to draw
up a petition to the Liquor License Board, which was done by another
sub-committee.
The third line of action was to take definite steps to publish the work
of the League among the best white people of the city.
After the petition had been approved by the Advisory Committee it was
presented to the Board of Liquor License Commissioners, and the comments
by the newspapers were most gratifying. The Baltimore Sun, in commenting
upon the petition, said, among other things:
“The Liquor License Board’s action upon the petition of many good
citizens for a reduction of the number of licenses for saloons at
certain points in northwest Baltimore is awaited with much interest by
that portion of the public which is concerned in the good order of that
section of the city. It is a section which has not in the past had the
best reputation for freedom from acts of violence and disorder on the
part of Negro roughs and bad characters, and this is believed to be
connected with the fact that in a comparatively small area there are as
many as 45 saloons, of which eight are conducted by Negroes. As a
considerable portion of the Negro population of the city has its habitat
there, it is interesting to note that the most urgent advocates of a
reduction of the number of the saloons are the Colored Law and Order
League, with many colored ministers, teachers and lawyers.... The white
element of the northwestern section is also concerned to have eliminated
as far as possible the danger to peace and order created by the
objectionable places in its neighborhood. It is clearly up to the Liquor
License Board to exercise in the public interest the wide discretion it
possesses. When saloons are excessively numerous and a menace to good
people licenses may and should be withdrawn till the quota for each
neighborhood is within reasonable limits.”
A date for the hearing was set and the Executive Committee proceeded
then to interest as many white people outside of the Advisory Committee
as they could reach. They presented their case to the Association of
Presbyterian, Congregational and Reformed Church ministers, to the
Ministerial Union, to the Methodist Ministers’ Association, to the A. M.
E. Ministers’ Association and to the Colored Ministerial Union. The
Association of Presbyterian, Congregational and Reformed Church
Ministers responded with the following resolution and sent their
committee, who appeared at the hearing:
Baltimore, March 2, 1908.
The Presbyterian, Congregational and Reformed Association of
Baltimore has heard with profound interest the graphic
presentation of the fearful conditions now existing in the
neighborhood of the colored schools and churches in congested
populations in our city, and most heartily unites in the effort
to remove these social cancers from our city, and to this end we
authorize our Secretary to sign in our behalf the petition to
the Liquor License Commissioners for the relief proposed.
H. BRANCH,
H. E. KIRK,
DEWITT M. BENHAM,
Committee.
It is interesting to note that the preacher who was most instrumental in
bringing about a conference with the Presbyterian, Congregational and
Reformed Church ministers was an ex-Confederate chaplain, and three or
four others of the white men who took active interest in this movement
were also ex-Confederates. The following letter was written by this
preacher, and showed that not only political lines played no part in
this matter, but that in matters of genuine reform and uplift the best
Southern people stand ready to lend a helping hand:
Ellicott City, Md., March 2, 1908.
My dear Brother: The Committee appointed by our Ministers’
Meeting brought in a report authorizing our Secretary to sign
the petition you suggested, but so profound was the impression
made by your address that the brethren wish to go further and
will do anything to help you in this matter, either by signing
the petition individually or by going before the License Board
in person at the proper time, to help you in this matter.
If you will indicate fully how we may best serve the cause, let
me hear before our next meeting, the 13th inst.
Sincerely yours,
The hearing took place on the 22nd of April, 1908, and the room set
apart by the Board of Liquor License Commissioners for their hearings
was crowded as it had seldom been before. The Colored Law and Order
League was there in force, and represented by their counsel, Mr. John C.
Rose. The Presbyterians were represented by Dr. DeWitt M. Benham, pastor
of one of the leading Presbyterian churches in the South; Rev. Dr. James
E. Cook and Rev. Dr. Kirk. The Methodist Ministers’ Association was
represented by a committee whose chairman was the Rev. Dr. James E.
Watson. The Colored ministers were represented through Rev. John A.
Holmes. Lawyers W. Ashbie Hawkins and C. C. Fitzgerald, representative
of the best types of colored lawyers, were there. The President of the
School Board, Mr. John E. Semmes, was there to voice the indorsement
which the School Board had given to the petition of the Law and Order
League.
The Secretary of the Colored Young Men’s Christian Association was
present to make protest on behalf of that institution. Bishop Paret, who
would have been present but for the fact that his official duties called
him to another part of the State at that time, sent the following
letter, which expressed his views in the matter:
March 28, 1908.
Board of Liquor License Commissioners.
Gentlemen: As living on the very border of the district
described in the petition from the “Baltimore Law and Order
League,” I am well acquainted with the local conditions. I am
deeply interested also for the welfare and good order of the
people living in it, many of whom are under my own pastoral
charge. I have studied the conditions and facts very closely,
and I am fully convinced that your petitioners have not at all
exaggerated the evil. I have had personal proof of the
corruption and corrupting influence of that portion of our city.
And I earnestly ask of you gentlemen to give your assistance to
the efforts which earnest people are making to abate the evil.
The suppression of many of the drinking places, and the
restrictions asked for the others will do much to help.
I have never before offered advice or suggestion in any public
affair, but in this case I feel that I must speak both for
myself and for the many who agree with me.
(Signed) WILLIAM PARET,
Bishop of Maryland.
The Liquor Dealers’ Association was represented by an array of some of
the leading lawyers in the city. Individual saloonkeepers were
represented by their attorneys. Interested white citizens and black
citizens vied with each other for standing room at this hearing.
A most remarkable feature of this fight was an unsolicited petition sent
in by the property holders on McCulloh Street. McCulloh Street
immediately adjoins Druid Hill Avenue on the north and marks the
beginning of the white district. The people in this street bitterly
resented the “invasion” of Druid Hill Avenue by the blacks. Their action
in coming to the support of the Law and Order League was consequently a
great surprise, though none the less welcome. Having noted in the public
press the action of the Law and Order League, they sent the following
strong endorsement, which was also approved by ex-Mayor Latrobe and
United States Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte:
To the Board of Liquor License Commissioners.
Gentlemen: We have read with peculiar pleasure in the morning
papers of to-day the accounts of the vigorous efforts and the
petitions to your honorable board to withhold licenses for
saloons on Druid Hill and Pennsylvania Avenues and immediate
vicinities; and we wish to supplement such timely action with
all sincerity.
The existence of saloons in proximity to the triangular section
bounded by Eutaw and St. Mary Streets and Druid Hill Avenue
constitutes the prevailing menace to the success of efforts for
fifteen years past to widen and park McCulloh Street from Biddle
Street to Eutaw Street, and the improvements consequent thereon
in accordance with the recommendations of the Hopkins Park
Commission, together with the combined movements of property
holders on McCulloh and Monument Streets, whereby they believe
millions of dollars in real estate values can be reclaimed and
enhanced.
The absence of saloons on Druid Hill Avenue (and contiguously)
will result in making that street vastly more desirable (for
residences and stores), and as it is now principally occupied by
colored persons, the line of such occupation should terminate at
that street; and we applaud the efforts of the colored ministers
and others of their race in the strenuous protests against
saloons in general and in particular in that section in
question.
Very respectfully yours,
ELI M. LAMB, Chairman.
WINFIELD PETERS, Secretary.
THOMAS MacKENZIE, Attorney.
The names of the indorsers of the petition follow:
Thos. J. Morris
Michael Jenkins
John S. Gittings
Arthur Chilton Powell,
Rector of Grace P. E. Church
H. Irvine Keyser
Wm. B. Hurst
James W. Denny
Wm. Whitridge, M. D.
Ira Remsen
B. N. Baker
Eugene Levering
Douglas H. Thomas
Miles White, Jr.
James R. Wheeler
Wm. E. Mosely, M. D.
Saml. Theobald, M. D.
Wilbur P. Morgan, M. D.
Saml. Johnston, M. D.
Richard D. Fisher
Baltimore Monthly Meeting of Friends (Orthodox), Eutaw and
Monument Streets, by
JOHN C. THOMAS,
President Board of Trustees.
The following were also filed:
I approve of all well-considered and judicious attempts to
reduce in number the sources of drunkenness and crime by
removing disreputable or superfluous saloons from all
localities, and also all saloons from those localities where
they depreciate the value of real property and endanger the
health and morals of the people.
(Signed) FERDINAND C. LATROBE,
April 27, 1908. Ex-Mayor Baltimore City.
I fully concur in the above expressions of General Latrobe.
(Signed) HENRY WILLIAMS,
Ex-Tax Collector Baltimore City.
I heartily approve of all well-considered and judicious attempts
to reduce in number the sources of drunkenness and crime by
removing disreputable or superfluous saloons from all localities
and all saloons from those localities where they depreciate real
property and endanger the health and morals of the population.
(Signed) CHARLES J. BONAPARTE,
April 25, 1908. U. S. Attorney General.
At the hearing, upon advice of counsel, the Law and Order League
declined to present any specific charges against any particular saloon
in the neighborhood, but asked the Board to regard the law which
required that every place licensed should in the judgment of the Board
be “necessary for the accommodation of the public.” They urged that the
people of that community did not require forty-three saloons to meet
their needs. The general charge was made that where these saloons were
thickest the neighborhood was most disorderly as well as most unsanitary
and unhealthy. This statement, however, was met by the police, who, with
marked unanimity, swore that all of the saloons were quiet, orderly and
fully complied with every law and regulation under which they operated.
Some of them swore that the churches, and particularly the church on
Orchard Street, gave them far more trouble than the saloons. This charge
by the police was met by a rejoinder from the trustees of the
Metropolitan M. E. Church, the colored church in question, which was as
follows:
METROPOLITAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH,
Orchard St., near Druid Hill Ave., Baltimore, Maryland.
April 13, 1908.
_To the Honorable, the Board of Liquor License Commissioners,
Baltimore City._
Gentlemen: On the 6th inst. a protest against saloons in that
neighborhood of the city bounded by Druid Hill Avenue, Eutaw
Street, New Street, Paca Street, Franklin Street, Pennsylvania
Avenue, George Street, Biddle Street, Argyle Avenue, Hoffman
Street, Pennsylvania Avenue and Lafayette Avenue, was made by
the Law and Order League. On the 8th inst. the dealers against
whose saloons the protest was made replied. It was reported in
an article in “The Sun” of the 9th inst. that one of the
witnesses—a policeman—stated that more trouble was caused by
this church than by any of the saloons protested against.
In reply to the same, we respectfully call the attention of your
Honorable Body to the following:
I. This church has repeatedly protested against the large number
of saloons in its immediate neighborhood.
II. At least two saloons (one at the corner of Biddle Street and
Druid Hill Avenue and one at the corner of Druid Hill
Avenue and Biddle Alley) have been licensed over the
protests of this church and citizens.
III. On December 16, 1907, a letter in reference to saloon 823
Druid Hill Avenue, managed by one Oscar E. Goode, being
kept open on Sundays, was sent to His Honor Mayor Mahool.
IV. This church has never had occasion to call upon the police
to quell, or settle, any disturbance.
V. It teaches to its members the doctrine that the laws of the
State and City must be observed.
Because of the foregoing, we deny the statement above referred
to, declare it to be untrue and unworthy of any consideration in
the settlement of the question at issue, and are ready, through
our representative, to submit further evidences which your
Honorable Body may wish to receive.
Respectfully submitted,
THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES,
Metropolitan M. E. Church.
One of the points brought out in the discussion was that the presence of
so many saloons in this neighborhood had depreciated the value of
property, in some cases as much as one hundred per cent. The class of
saloon patrons are in the main of such low type that they drive the
decent people out of the neighborhood and make the main streets through
the section objectionable and even dangerous as public highways.
Respectable people in large numbers take the side streets rather than
walk through lower Pennsylvania or Druid Hill Avenue. The disposition
was to charge this depreciation to the presence of colored people, on
the ground that colored people always lowered the value of property.
This was disproved by the fact that in the upper end of Druid Hill
Avenue, into which the better classes of colored people are moving,
property was actually selling at higher prices than it had reached when
it was a white neighborhood. One of the first colored men to buy in the
upper Druid Hill Avenue district bought in a row in which prices have
advanced over sixty per cent. Houses in this neighborhood now rent and
sell at from twenty to fifty per cent. advance on prices prevailing when
the neighborhood was white.
The bad sanitary conditions, the bad moral conditions, the prevalence of
disease, particularly tuberculosis, were all pointed out in the
argument, as well as the fact that, notwithstanding the neighborhood had
fifteen schools and twelve churches, the influence of these institutions
was practically nullified by the forty-two saloons. The bad name of the
neighborhood, the demoralization of the children, the constant menace to
peace and quiet, were also called attention to. One instance of the
effect of these places upon the children which was cited was of a little
boy who used to come to school day after day, and soon after arriving
fall into a deep sleep. Investigation proved the fact that this child
was given liquor at his home every day by his degraded relatives. Many
instances of school girls whose morals have been corrupted were cited.
One case in particular, in which a married man was arrested, indicted
and sent to the penitentiary for taking a fourteen-year-old school girl
into one of the dens of vice in this neighborhood and keeping her there
all night. The Charity Organization Society corroborated the argument as
to the poverty of this neighborhood by the statement that from this
district came relatively the largest number of requests for assistance.
The committees from the various organizations which joined in this
general protest against the relicensing of the saloons presented the bad
features of the neighborhood so strongly, while the liquor interests and
the police painted them in such glowing colors, that the Board was
unable to decide on the testimony, but they determined upon the unique
plan of personally inspecting the neighborhood. The following report of
this inspection is taken from the Baltimore American of the next day:
“The Board of Liquor License Commissioners announced its decision
yesterday in the case of the protest made recently by the Law and Order
League....
“The decision was reached only after the Board had made a personal
inspection of the sections specified in the protest. Owing to the
unusual manner in which the protest was presented and the nature of the
testimony offered at the hearing of each case, the Board found that it
was impossible to arrive at a satisfactory agreement in the matter. By
Wednesday at noon the case had assumed such complicated proportions that
President Howard, of the Board, suggested that the only way out of it
was to go unheralded and see for themselves.
“The result of the trip of inspection was that the decision of the Board
was based more on what it saw than on the testimony. In fact, the Board
decided that licenses should be refused to what it described as the
worst saloons in the specified section. In the big saloon belt, which
Mr. Rose wanted overhauled by the Board, were forty-five saloons, some
of them very near to colored schools and churches. Mr. Rose especially
wanted licenses refused to those particular saloons. The Board rejected
eleven applicants for renewals, none of which were near schools or
churches....”
The American spoke the next morning as follows:
AN UNSANITARY SECTION.
“There is no just reason for Baltimore to have a portion of its
confines labeled the tuberculosis section.... Scarcely less
interesting than the features of its report with regard to the
unwarranted number of saloons in the section against which
protests have been entered are the observations of the Liquor
License Board upon the subject of sanitation.
“The Board made a personal visitation to the locality centering
in Druid Hill and Pennsylvania Avenues and found a deplorable
state of affairs. Not only was it convinced that there was an
excess of saloons, a number of which were in violation of the
law with respect to the placing of their entrances, but it saw
evidences of gambling and other forms of depravity. It is
clearly a case for the exercise by the police of increased
diligence.”
The result of the personal inspection made by the Board of
Liquor License Commissioners was that, notwithstanding the sworn
testimony of the police, they found eleven saloons openly
violating the law, and determined that these eleven should not
be relicensed. This was such a remarkable situation that the
Baltimore News the next day came out with the following
stricture upon the police:
WHY WERE THE POLICE SO BLIND IN THESE CASES?
“The Board of Liquor License Commissioners deserve, and will
receive, public commendation for their refusal yesterday to
grant eleven saloon licenses which the Law and Order League
protested against. The saloons are situated on Druid Hill
Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue and adjacent streets, and have been
the subject of grave complaint. President Howard and his
associates could not signalize the close of their term of office
better than by setting such an example to the incoming Liquor
License Commissioners.
“There is one development in connection with the hearings in
these cases which calls for more than passing notice, and that
is the testimony of the police as to the character of the
saloons. It is a remarkable thing that with so many respectable
people in a neighborhood complaining about these saloons, the
police—who should be most familiar with conditions—could find
nothing wrong about them. Worse than this, in the case of
saloons so plainly objectionable that the Liquor License
Commissioners, on personal inspection, discover reason enough
for refusing licenses, policemen are found blandly swearing that
they are decent, orderly places.
“The report of the Liquor License Commissioners is a serious
indictment of the credibility of policemen as witnesses in
hearings of this character, and suggests the need of a searching
investigation to ascertain why the police are ignorant of
conditions in the neighborhood in question, which are shown to
be shockingly bad.”
The new Police Board, which went into office on May 1, 1908,
took up the matter of dealing with these policemen, as the
following quotation from the News indicates:
“One of the first actions of the new Police Board, which will be
sworn in on Monday next, may be to bring before it several of
the most prominent officers of the northwestern district to
investigate the charge that they testified falsely before the
Liquor License Board concerning conditions surrounding saloons
in their territory.
“These men—more than a dozen of them—testified that certain
saloons within the district bounded by New Street, Lafayette
Avenue, Argyle Avenue and Druid Hill Avenue, were well kept and
orderly. In fact, they whitewashed these places completely and
comprehensively. The protests, however, were so strong that the
Liquor License Commissioners went to see the places personally.
“As a result they yesterday declined to renew the license of
eleven of the saloons. They found them dirty and unsanitary in
some cases; they found card playing going on in others, and
white and black people of both sexes mingling and in one
instance they found the law violated which prohibits a saloon
from having entrance other than on a public highway....
“Nevertheless, the action of the Board in itself constitutes a
rather serious criticism of the Department. Some of the officers
who testified in favor of the saloons stated that they had been
working in that territory for more than twenty years; and yet,
apparently, in all that time they had not discovered what it
took the Liquor License Commissioners only a few hours to find
out.”
SAYS THE NEW BOARD WILL ACT.
Sherlock Swann is to be President of the new Police Board.
“We are not yet sworn in,” he said this morning, when asked what
the Board would do in the matter, “but you can put it down that
the new Board will take whatever action is proper.”
The rejection of these eleven men was followed almost
immediately by a renewal of their applications, either in their
own names or in the names of pseudo buyers of their saloons,
which made it necessary to fight over again before the new Board
the whole question, with the difference that the Law and Order
League was now required to meet each individual applicant.
The committee, together with the help received from the various
organizations which had come to their assistance, succeeded in
convincing the Board of the justice of refusing a license to any
of the places which had been rejected by the old Board. The new
Board also rejected applications for the transfer of licenses
from places in other parts of the city to two other places in
this neighborhood. These two now made a total of thirteen places
closed within the lower Druid Hill Avenue district.
In this first campaign the best citizens, white and black,
rallied to the support of the Law and Order League. The net
results of the work are most satisfactory. Much, however,
remains to be done, and the Law and Order League promises to
reorganize its forces for the next campaign. White and colored
men in Baltimore now understand each other better. Contemptuous
indifference on the one side and suspicion on the other are
disappearing.
Registering the first victory against the forces of sin and
degradation the Law and Order League intends to continue its
efforts until all colored children are thoroughly protected
against the evil influences of the saloon and the dive.
[Illustration]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
List of Publications of the Committee of Twelve
Anyone may obtain a copy of these publications now in print by
writing to the Secretary of the Committee of Twelve, Hugh M.
Browne, Cheyney, Pa., and enclosing for each publication desired
a two-cent paper wrapper, addressed to himself:
[*]TO THE COLORED MEN OF VOTING AGE IN ALABAMA.
CAN THE SOUTH SOLVE THE NEGRO PROBLEM? _Carl Schurz_
WHY DISFRANCHISEMENT IS BAD _Archibald H. Grimke_
[*]VOTING INSTRUCTIONS TO MARYLAND VOTERS.
[*]WHAT A COLORED MAN SHOULD DO TO VOTE.
GARRISON CENTENARY LEAFLET.
SLAVERY AND THE RACE PROBLEM IN THE SOUTH, _Hon. Wm. H. Fleming_
THE ATLANTA RIOT _Ray Stannard Baker_
THE NEGRO IN AMERICA _Andrew Carnegie_
ADDRESS BEFORE THE NORTH CAROLINA SOCIETY IN NEW YORK, _William
H. Taft_
WORK OF THE COLORED LAW AND ORDER LEAGUE OF BALTIMORE, MD.,
_James H. N. Waring_
STUDY OF THE NEGRO’S PROGRESS IN JACKSON, MISS., _D. W. Woodard_
NEGRO SELF-HELP IN EDUCATION _R. R. Wright, Jr._
NEGRO SELF-HELP IN HOME GETTING _Kelly Miller_
THE CONVICT LEASE SYSTEM (In Preparation) _George W. Forbes_
NEGRO SELF-HELP IN HOSPITAL WORK _George C. Hall, M. D._
Paragraphs
SOME SUCCESSFUL NEGRO BUSINESS MEN
BUSINESS CO-OPERATION BETWEEN WHITE AND NEGRO MEN IN HELENA,
ARK.
EAST BESSEMER, ALA.
NEGRO BANKS IN MISSISSIPPI.
In round numbers the circulation of the above articles has
reached 200,000.
* Out of Print.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Much has been said of the estrangement between the races that
has arisen since the war. But it is often overlooked that in
recent years there has been growing quietly a closer and more
cordial relationship between the better classes of both races.
Men like ex-Governor Northen, of Atlanta; Belton Gilreath, of
Birmingham; W. A. Blair, of Winston-Salem, and many others
throughout the South are doing a great service to the country in
bringing about co-operation between the races, and emphasizing
the fact that the success of the white race is intimately bound
up with the moral and material welfare of the black.
ANDREW CARNEGIE.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
● Transcriber’s Notes:
○ Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected.
○ Typographical errors were silently corrected.
○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent
only when a predominant form was found in this book.
○ Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores
(_italics_).
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Work of the Colored Law and Order
League: Baltimore, Md., by James H. N. Waring
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 60670 ***
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