THE BLACKS IN AMERICA.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3112, 25 June 1892, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE BLACKS IN AMERICA.

A San Francisco contemporary publishes details of a remarkable meeting of one thousand colored people in Chicago on March 27th. The purpose of the gatlioring was " to consider the recent outrages, and to express their sentiments in reference to the betterment of the condition of the colored peoplo " The pastor of the African Methodist Church exhorted the people to consider these matters with Christian forbearance.

A decided sensation occurred when the pastor stepped forward and asked the audience to join in singing " My Country, 'tis of Thee." A number of voices indicated decided opposition to this pari of the programme. The pastor did not comprehend this situation and asked, " Don't you want to sing ' America ?' " to which question a dozen voice" in different parts of Uia house answered " No." One man in the audience rose and said : " I doo t want to sing that song until this country is what it claims to be, 1 Sweet land of liberty.' " Tim preacher then started " John Brown." in which the entire audioncejoined. The first speaker was Colonel A. A. Jones. He said the lynching of three men at Memphis,of a young negro andnegress at Rayville, La., and the burning of a negro at Texarkana, should cause tlio colored people throughout the countrv to join in one voice of protest and in sending a committee to Washington to see if some plan could not be devised to protect American citizens in Louisiana as well as in Chili. Ho was followed by E. H Morris, who claimed that the laws were in the hands of the people, and that the colored people should organise themselves into leagues and associations, and thus be enable by their united efforts to resist such outrages. Other fiery speeches were made, but the most ardent was one delivered bv F L Barnett. It was a masterpiece in its way. Among other things Barn itt said : " Lynch law, hanging, and burning will continue in the South until the Southern white inau finds out that it. does not pay. How ho is to learn that lesson rests with him, but learn it he must and shall. This much must wo resolvo nut with boa-t or threat, but. with cool, calm, calculating courage, which, having discerned the right, dares to do it or die. During the years of our freedom more than ten thousand of our race have mot with violent and unlawful deaths. ' Ten thousand' toys lightly upon the tongue, but to the thought,fui ir'an ten thousand murders mean something. It means 10,000 homos shocked by the brutal butchery of loved ones, 10,000 families nursing the smouldering embers of hate to keep them warm, 10,000 crimes for which some one must pay. To-day the .South stands with reekl.'ss feet upon a crime stained crust, beneath which seetheand swell the crushed, pent.'-up and pitiless energy of outraged humauity.

One murder too many, mid that spirit will ] break fnrl.li in one n'mnrsel.-s sweep of .'iti''-n and d>.-'ith. Ton thnu-and more vicims may J if.-, but t'-rere will be 10,0011 folwk ii- '1 white in ' dint red bmiit 1 blent. 1 God forbid that day, but if it I must como lcit it come."