Activities Among Negroes
Mrs. Mary J. Sanderson-Grases, the subject of this sketch, is a daughter of the late Rev. J. B. Sanderson, recently mentioned in this column. He arrived n San Francisco In 1854, coming from New Bedford, Mass. He was given employment as a teacher in a public school in Sacramento. Later he was appointed principal of the Broadway school of San Francisco. He was the greatest leader of his race in pioneer days in California.
It was five years after his arrival before his wife and four small children arrived in San Francisco. It was over ten years afterward when Mary, their daughter, had the distinction of being the first colored public school teacher appointed in Oakland. The board of education established a school for colored children in the Manning house in the section of Oakland, known in pioneer days as Brooklyn. It is now called East Oakland, and the house still stands.
Mrs. Grases has lived a life of service for her race. She has been a member of the choir of Fifteenth Street A. M. E. Church for more. than thirty years. She helped to establish and was for the years the financial secretary for the Home for Aged and Infirm Colored People.
The Etude club will render a sacred musical free concert this evening at the Third Baptist church, San Francisco. They will repeat the program recently rendered during music week in that city.
The Oakland section of the Northern California Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People will hold its annual meeting and election of officers Monday evening at Cooper A. M. E. Zion church, Oakland. The report of moneys collected during the year for both subscription to the "Crisis" and membership will be read, together with the activities of the branch during the past year.
The Linden Street Branch Y. W. C. A. held a musical tea last Thursday afternoon, when a membership drive was launched.
The Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority of the University of California have sent out notices of their parcel post dance for December 6. The proceeds will be used for the fund to send a delegate to the annual boule.
W. H. Skipwith. D. D., an evangelist of international fame as a singer and preacher, has conducted a series of meetings at Beth Eden church during the past week.
William Green, an evangelist and secretary for the North American Negro department, General Conference of the Seventh Day Adventists, with headquarters in Washington, D. C., conducted daily Bible instruction meetings, beginning November 27 and ending December 9. These meetings are held in West Oakland.
There was held last week in Chicago two conventions of importance to colored people living in California. The first was the national convention of Pullman shop and yard employees. They met in the Pullman quarters and their deliberations lasted three days. The other convention was the Pullman Porters Benefit Association of America. They held their sessions in the assembly room of the Wabash avenue Y. M. C. A. California was represented at this convention by the following delegates: R. L. Williams of Oakland and L. A. Coffin of Los Angeles.
News has been received of the death of Dr. Frank Johnson of Cincinnati, O. He was one of the leading American colored physicians and a former trustee of Wilberforce College. He had many friends in California.
The Messenger, a monthly negro magazine, has a historical number in the November issue. Aside from the many sepia reproductions, the articles are by colored writers of distinction.
In an article on the survey of negro business from 1863 to 1923, by Monroe N. Work, author of "Negro Year Book," he said: "This survey of negro business enterprise indicates that during the past sixty years remarkable progress has been made. There were in 1863 some forty different lines of business in which negroes operated. The number thus engaged was about four thousand. In 1923 there are over two hundred lines of business in which negroes operate. The number now engaged is over sixty thousand. There are now no fields of business endeavor in this country in which there are no negroes. From less than one million dollars sixty years ago, the amount invested in negro business enterprises has increased to over sixty million dollars."
In another article headed "The Realization of a Dream, an Epic of Negro Business," the following is quoted: "'The realizer is Robert S. Abbott, the dream is the Chicago Defender.' Robert S. Abbott was born November 2, 1870, in Savannah, Georgia. He has achieved phenomenal success in the hardest line of business, the newspaper. He is a pure blooded man of color. His education was got in Savannah public schools, Clafflin university, Hampton, and Beach Institute. His trade, printing, was begun at home, and finished at Hampton. Abbott began the 'Defender' in Chicago in 1905. Like all young publishers. Abbott found his chief difficulty was printing. It is true that printing was low in those days. But Abbott says it was low actually but relatively high to me. It was hard for me to get out my issue of a thousand copies, which then cost only fifteen dollars. "The Defender' has been in its own press since 1919. About ten employees came into the new building; today there are about one hundred. A quarter of a million papers are printed weekly. The circulation is international. The printing plant building is valued at $350,000. The weekly consumption of paper is a car and a half. It requires 800 mall sacks to ship the paper to its agents."
