Activities Among Negroes
MISS HALLIE Q. BROWN, president of National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, who is visiting Oakland and other coast cities.The colored women of Oakland have been entertaining during the past week Miss Hallie Q. Brown, President of the National Association of Colored Women's clubs. She has both a national and international record for service to her race. She spent seven years touring England, Scotland and Ireland. The object of this tour was to raise funds to build Emory hall at Wilberforce University in Ohio. It was through her recitals as a dramatic reader that she not only raised the required $16,000, but she had the honor of appearing before the Queen of England, and receiving commendable press notices from the "Manchester Guardian," the "Liverpool Daily Post," and many others from private individuals such as Rev. C. F. Aked of Liverpool.
Miss Brown recently completed arrangements whereby the National Association of colored women's clubs will affiliate with the National Council of Women, of which Mrs. Philip North Moore [Eva Perry Moore] is president, and the International Council of Women, of which Countess Isbel Aberdeen, [Ishbel Hamilton-Gordon, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair] of Great Britain, is president: These bodies of women's councils will meet in Washington, D, C. in 1925.
Miss Brown was one of the late President Harding's front porch speakers. She delivered several addresses to large delegations. Since her arrival in Oakland she received a telegram from Dayton, Ohio, from E. A. Blake, who is president of the Lincoln Republican club of that city, informing her that the Republican State Executive Committee of Ohio had endorsed her for an alternate delegate at Large to the National Republican convention which meets in Cleveland, Ohio, in June.
The object of Miss Brown's visit to the coast is to interest the colored club women of California in the educational campaign of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, They aim to raise $50,000. She has pledged to personally raise $1000 of the amount.
The writer asked Miss Brown to explain to her the plans of this campaign. She said: "In view of the fact that we have inserted in our constitution the educational feature as a prime factor in our work, it is imperative that the clause be put into full operation through the scholarship fund department of the National Association of Colored Women's clubs. It will devolve upon this department to secure an endowment fund, the interest thereof to be given for college scholarship to worthy young women affiliated with the National Association Colored Women. It is recommended that a day in the month of March suited to each community be set aside and observed as Educational Day, and that a program be carried out on these occasions touching the life of colored women educators."
The Presidents' Council of the Northern Section of California Federated Colored women's clubs gave a joint reception to Miss Hallie Q. Brown, the National President, and Mrs. Irene Ruggles, the State President of Colored Women's clubs, on Thursday afternoon at Linden street Y. W. C. A.
Lincoln and Fred Douglass birthdays were observed at Phillips Chapel in Berkeley on the evening of February 12. Attorney J. Vance Lewis and G. E. Watkins, editor of Western Appeal, were the principal speakers. The members of Fifteenth street (A. M. E.) church, Oakland, will hold a similar celebration tonight, when Miss Hallie Q. Brown will be the principal speaker. It might be of interest to the reading public to know why these birthdays are celebrated jointly. It is because Fred Douglass, having been a slave did not know the date of his birth, and yet he lived to reach a prominence that has not been surpassed by any colored man. He was a friend of Abraham Lincoln.
The Founders' Day celebration held last Sunday evening by Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority proved instructive. Dean Stebbins, of the U. C., in speaking of the sorority said that while it was small in numbers it had to its credit one member who had won two degrees from the University, and another member who was pursuing her studies satisfactory in the most difficult of all studies, that of Jurisprudence, The musical program was rendered by members of the sorority with the exception of a number by the choir and Mrs. Lutie G. Saunders. The choir was under the direction of Professor Keaton,
Dick Green, who for over fifty years served as guard at the door of the Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, recently died in Washington. The Washington Times said concerning him: "Dick Green's exceptionally useful life was worthy of emulation. The color of his skin alone deprived him of the opportunity to rise to position and power. But in spite of every handicap he rose high in the esteem of mankind, and died without a dark spot to becloud his notable services to the Government of Uncle Sam. Congress has erected many monuments in this city to commemorate deeds of service to country. Private money has erected others. A monument marks the unusual in man those superqualities that make him stand out among his fellow citizens, his greatness or glorious achievements, his sterling character, clear and worthy life. Dick Green, black skinned though he was, stood out among men by his possession of those qualities that endeared; that were ennobling and worthy of perpetuation; "his aim was to live so that when the dark shadows closed around him and the last call came no one could point to a blemish or remember a hurt he was responsible for. He died as he lived - a true gentleman. Isn't his life worthy of a monument by Congress or by white and colored citizens?"
