Read Ebook: The Half-Century Magazine (Vol. I No. 1 August 1916) by Various

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Forty per cent of the children of school age in eleven states in the South are of the colored race, and yet they receive only fifteen per cent of the school fund. In the state of Georgia the population of the two races is almost equal and millions of dollars of the public fund are annually spent for high school education, but nowhere in this great state is there one public high school for members of my race. In the city of Atlanta, last year, 4,503 colored children applied for admission to the public school, and these came voluntarily, not forced by a compulsory education law. The seating capacity of the schools provided for their education was 2,951. Instead of increasing the seating capacity the board of education abolished the eighth grade, and even to this night the seventh grade measures the extent of public education for my race in the city of Atlanta.

A third form of injustice in the South which shows signs of increasing is segregation of residential sections by city ordinances. These laws are unconstitutional because they prevent a man from selling or renting his property to whomsoever he chooses. But, they are also teeming with evils which do not appear on the surface. Segregation does not simply mean that the races live apart in separate districts. It means that these segregated divisions for colored people will be almost automatically converted into slums. For, in them police improvement and sanitation will be of the poorest sort, appropriations for street improvement and sanitation will be few and far between. It means that there will be no escape from this environment within the city limits for even the most worthy and aspiring citizens of my race. You can easily see the dilemma which exists in the South today where segregation is enforced. If we are not thrifty and have no desire for education and moral uplift, we are depicted to the world as the most worthless of human beings. On the other hand, if we wish to develop ourselves and our children into citizens worthy of this great Republic, in the South we are prevented by the Law. If we ask for those privileges of the law to which we are entitled, we are told we are not yet ready for them. If we ask for the opportunity to prepare to exercise those privileges, we are told we would not make use of them if we had them--and they are denied to us. The policy of the South is illogical, inconsistent, indefensible. Unless the South squarely faces the problem before its doors, unless it seeks to solve the problem instead of repressing it, and deals with the problem with intelligence and sympathy, then inevitably there must result, for my people and for yours, stagnation, disease and death!

It is not necessary for me to call your attention this evening to the widespread practice in the Southern states of denying the right of trial by jury. Can any state expect to develop law-abiding citizens while the laws themselves are freely broken in the matter of punishment? To summarize the situation in the South, life is cheap, property is always in danger, and lawlessness reigns supreme. As a result of it all, the law of retributive justice brings it about that the South is the retarding cog in the machinery of our democracy. World conditions demand that the machine be set in prime to meet future responsibilities and duties.

The problem is neither local or racial--it is national. It is not a matter of racial misunderstanding involving only one section of the country. It is a matter of eleven million citizens of the United States being subjected to flagrant injustice. Its solution involves not only the welfare of my race, but the future of the Republic.

A correct and permanent solution of this problem involves the ready co-operation of the colored race, the South, and the National government. The colored race, which constitutes one-third of the population of the South, is such a factor in the life of the South, that no plan of civil and material welfare can ignore his rights if it hopes to reach the highest success. We are learning the value of industrial independence and education. Leaders of my race are coming forward, men of ideals and of vision, who are giving to millions inspiration, ambition and hope. Given but the opportunity, we will help to make industrious, intelligent and patriotic citizens of our people.

Today the South is half a century behind the North in the development of her resources and her industries. It is to the interest of the South to learn that the time spent in repressing the negro is just that much time lost from the promotion of its industrial and civic welfare. It is to the interest of the South to learn that those efforts which tend to curtail the fullest growth of one-third of this population must inevitably curtail the fullest growth of the South itself. It is to the interest of the South to have a spiritual awakening, if it hopes to develop its material and civil resources.

The National government that poured out its treasures and the blood of its sons that men might be free, cannot stop short of their full enfranchisement through the freedom of knowledge and culture. The National government must give its aid to develop skilled hands, disciplined minds, and patriotic hearts. For the colored race is the one asset of this country, especially of the South, which at present shows promise of the greatest returns in proportion to the money and energy spent in its development.

We, the younger generation of the colored race, realize the gravity of the situation, and that we are factors in its solution. We are aware of the fact that we are in the midst of a people that is the product of twenty centuries of human progress.

At present we have every reason to be hopeful. When, during the last half of the nineteenth century, the cries of my people were for charitable help to combat ignorance and poverty, the philanthropists of the North responded in the form of Morehouse, Fiske, Tuskegee and other institutions of both higher education and industrial training. These schools today have thousands of graduates scattered in all parts of the South, giving their lives in fighting poverty and ignorance. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the cry from the South is for equal opportunity and a proper administration of justice. We expect the government to respond. We have faith in American ideals--in the ultimate triumph of Americanism.

We have faith in the greatness of our country, and in the ability of its people to meet and overcome all difficulties which may beset it. We have faith in the determination to realize for all men, both white and black, the broadest possibilities of life and to seek its highest powers. We have faith in the Union of knowledge, cheerful co-operation, and broad-minded sympathy to advance the common good. Let us pray God that the heart hurting plights of race dislikes, the sectional differences and racial animosities and suspicions will pass away, and their place be taken by that broader republic of human attainment which knows no limitations of race, color, or clime!

The Centennial General A. M. E. Conference

The Centennial General A. M. E. Conference held its twenty-fifth quadrennial meeting in Mother Bethel Church, Philadelphia, Pa., on Sixth street below Pine, just two blocks from Old St. George Church, where Richard Allen and his followers left one hundred years ago and organized the first A. M. E. Church in a little blacksmith shop on the spot where Mother Bethel now stands.

Conference was called to order May 3rd, and was presided over by thirteen Bishops, fifty-one general officers and attended by six hundred thirty-two delegates, one hundred alternates and two hundred visiting ministers. These delegates came from all sections of the United States, Africa and other foreign lands, where the A. M. E. Churches are located.

Senior Bishop Lee presided over the first session and the following sessions were presided over by the Bishops in their turns of elevation.

It was sad to note the absence of twenty members that met with the twenty-fourth General Conference who had passed away during the past four years, three of which were Bishops of the Church and one a very prominent minister and officer in the Conference, and beloved pastor of Bethel Church, Chicago. The following were greatly lamented.

Bishop Henry McNeal Turner--Twelfth Bishop of the Church, at Windsor, Canada, May 8, 1915.

Bishop Moses Buckingham Salter--Twenty-first Bishop of the Church, at his residence Charleston, S. C., March 21, 1913.

Bishop William Derrick--Twenty-third Bishop of the Church, at his residence Flushing, N. Y., April 15, 1915.

Rev. James M. Townsend--Ex-Secretary of Missions, at his home, Richmond, Ind., June 18, 1913.

Rev. T. M. Smith en route to his home in Georgia, June 1, 1913.

Rev. Wm. Conwell Banton--At his home in Montgomery, Ala., June 25, 1913.

Rev. Horace S. Graves--At Asheville, N. C., where he had gone in quest of health, July 4, 1913.

Rev. W. H. Jones--At Gordon, Ark., March 12, 1915.

Rev. H. W. Bennett--At his home, Charleston, S. C., Oct. 1, 1913.

Rev. Theobald A. Smythe--Beloved pastor of Bethel Church, Chicago, at his home Jan. 25, 1916.

Rev. J. W. B. Jackson--Florida, Sept. 7, 1913.

Rev. A. J. Bennett--Florida, July 2, 1915.

Rev. James Dean--Florida, Dec. 19, 1914.

Rev. A. Scott--Florida, Dec. 5, 1915.

Rev. R. M. S. Taylor--Georgia Conference, Feb. 19, 1914.

Rev. A. J. Wilkinson--North Georgia Conference, April 10, 1916.

Rev. T. F. Boddie--Macon, Georgia Conference, Feb. 22, 1916.

Rev. Bruce H. Williams--His home, Charleston, April 9, 1916.

Rev. L. W. McMillan--South Georgia Conference, Feb. 22, 1915.

Mrs. Francis E. Booker Watson--Wife of Dr. B. F. Watson, Sec. of Church Extension, Jan. 10, 1915.

Mrs. Laura Lemon Turner, widow of Bishop H. M. Turner, Oct. 11, 1915.

Two of the lamented Bishops were among the most prominent leaders the race had. They were born leaders and men with remarkable characters and abilities. Their loss is keenly felt not only by the A. M. E connection, but by the race in general.

Mother Bethel should be highly complimented on the arrangements made for the convenience of the delegates. A telegraph office, post office, dining room and all other necessary things were located in the church. In spite of arrangements the throng that filled the church the first few days of the Conference to pay their respects was so large and the confusion so great that very little was accomplished until May 7.

On May 7 the ministers listened to what they declared the finest addresses ever heard, delivered by Dr. Isaac N. Ross of Baltimore, Md., and Dr. W. H. Mixon, Selma, Ala. It is believed by all present at the time that Dr. N. Ross's address had a great influence on the ballots cast in his favor in the race for Bishop.

On May 8 the big fight started for the election of Bishops. Many ministers and Bishops did not endorse an elevation of any more clergymen to the bench, as they felt that their present number could take care of the business and under the existing unsettled conditions and increasing expenses that it would not be advisable; but the sentiment among the majority was so strong for new Bishops that the Episcopal Committee passed on the election of two.

Fifty-three ministers entered the race. They began a systematical campaign. Three or four districts had their headquarters together and they kept a printer busy day and night putting out all manner of cards and pamphlets explaining why each of the fifty-three individuals would be best suited for Bishop.

After weeks of campaigning two Bishops were finally elected. Before the ballots were cast Rev. R. C. Ransom asked for prayer and Bishop Parks prayed. It would be a hard matter to eradicate from the minds of Bishops, candidates, delegates, and visitors that fifteen minutes of prayer. All minds were lifted to higher planes and the two weeks of campaigning were forgotten along with personal aims and selfish ambitions as they turned their thoughts to God and voted for the men whom they sincerely believed would help make his kingdom on earth what he would have it to be.

Rev. Dr. Beckett was born in Edisto Island in 1856, and was educated at Clarke University and Gammon Theological Seminary, Atlanta, Ga. From 1908 he served as missionary secretary of the A. M. E. Missionary Board. How well his services to his Church were appreciated was shown in his elevation.

Rev. Dr. Ross comes from a grand old Tennessee family. Four of his brothers, now deceased, were A. M. E. ministers. He served the Church since 1880 as pastor. His fame as an orator and his faithful and tender leadership over the flocks that he was appointed to lead were two chief factors that stood out in his success.

The National Republican Convention

This issue of the Half-Century was delayed so as to include a review of the proceedings of the National Republican Convention which assembled in this city on June 7th.

From a Racial standpoint the convention was somewhat a disappointment, as it furnished conclusive proof that the Negro is gradually, but surely, being eliminated from National Politics. For notwithstanding practically all of the "old guards" of the race were here--they were principally "hangers-on"--members of the "third house," or contestants, as but few of them were regular delegates or even alternates.

Considering, the unfriendly attitude of the Democratic administration toward our people, it was hoped that the Convention would go on record by making an expression by resolution, or through its party platform, of its recognition of the equal rights of all men without regard to race or color, but in that there was also a disappointment. A resolution of similar purport was offered, but failed to carry.

Concerning Mr. Hughes, the Presidential Nominee, but little is known as to his attitude toward the race, for he has held but few official positions in which he has come into contact with our people. As Governor of the state of New York he was fair. However, anything to beat the present Democratic Administration. Let us hope!

The fifteen Bishops were assigned to the following districts:

First District--Bishop Evans Tyree, D. D. Conferences, Philadelphia, New York, New England and New Jersey.

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