Activities Among Negroes
In the death of the late Father Morrison of this city the colored people have lost a sincere friend and well wisher. More than one colored person have received kind consideration from this prelate and distinguished citizen.
At the recent "Holy Name" society celebration held in Washington. D. C., there were many colored societies of this order participating. The oldest. "Holy Name" society among colored people in the United States is the St Rose branch of Springfield, Kentucky. Several months ago, the picture of this society appeared in an eastern paper calling attention to this intention to participate in the forthcoming celebration.
There are constant evidences being presented to the public which show that the two races (white and black) are making great efforts to understand each other better. The latest news in this direction comes from Little Rock, Ark., where Attorney Scipio A. Jones, a prominent colored attorney, has been appointed Special Chancellor in the Pulaskii Chancery court of Arkansas. This is the second highest court of that state, and the first appointment in the Southland of the kind to a colored man.
This appointment is especially remarkable because Attorney Jones, through his legal ability, won an unusual verdict in the Phillips county Arkansas Riot cases of 1919. A wholesale lynching and slaughtering of colored people had been held in that county. The colored people who were not killed were put in jail and swiftly sentenced to be hanged. It was then that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People employed Attorney Scipio Jones, to defend these people. He carried the cases through all the state courts and the United States supreme court, where he was assisted by Moorfield Story, former president of the American Bar Association. The decision of this court attracted the attention of the nation. Attorney Louis Marshall New York one of the great American authorities on constitutional law, and who was attorney for Leo Frank of Atlanta, Ga., said: "I regard the decision as a great achievement in constitutional law. Due process of law now means not merely a right to be heard before a court; but that it must be a court that is not paralyzed by mob domination."
Another evidence of the changing attitude of the Southland toward the colored people is in the article in the Literary Digest of this week, which says:
"Reverence and respect for the Negro is not unknown in the south, despite a contrary belief in some quarters and a recent instance in which a high tribute was paid to a Negro who had devoted his life to his fellows is taken as a text to prove the assertion. When 'Uncle Charles Jaggers' a ninety-three-year-old Negro preacher, a former slave died, Columbia, capital of wholly Southern South Carolina, mourned and did him honor.
"During the half hour of his funeral services says a news dispatch, all business was suspended by proclamation of Mayor W. A. Coleman, and the whole community observed a period of sorrow. Nearly four thousand people, many of them white, we are told crowded the negro church in which the funeral services were held, and hundreds stood outside with bared heads in a drizzling rain. In attendance were the Mayor of Columbia, Edward A. McDowell, secretary of Governor McLeod, who was out of town; former Governor Richard I. Manning, Gen. A. W. Clark, head of the Confederate Camp of the Local Veterans, a personal friend of "Uncle Jaggers." The editors of two daily papers of Columbia, and many other prominent citizens. Dr. H. R. Murchison, executive secretary of the Columbia Theological Seminary where the old Negro preacher had frequently attended classes, took part in the services as the representative of the white people. Not content with this display of affection, the "Columbia Record" is now raising funds for a memorial to the ex-slave in the form of an Old Folks Home for Colored People, a project to which "Uncle Jaggers" had devoted the larger part of his life."
The Searchlight published in Seattle has the following interesting news: "The Upsilon chapter of the "Kappa Alpha Pi's Fraternity opened its new chapter house in Los Angeles Friday, Sept. 5. A home warming reception was a feature that was appreciated by the twenty-two members, and fifteen house members and their friends. The spacious home is located at 953 East Forty-third street, and will be the center of all social functions and a welcome to all of the fraternity at all times."
The Attucks Dramatic, Musical, and Art Association of the Bay cities held its first exhibit during the past week in the parlors of the Linden street branch Y. W. C. A. The exhibits were creditable and a surprise to know that such talent existed in the Bay cities among colored people.
There was a literary and musical program every evening during the four days' exhibit. The society was founded by Prof. W. H. Thomas of San Francisco.
Mrs. Eva Jones-Smith, accompanied by Mrs. Christian, of Berkeley sailed for her home in Honolulu, Hawaii, last Wednesday. Mrs. Smith, a former University of California graduate in music came to America last spring to attend the National Musical Association convention held in July in Cleveland. Ohio. She is a great musician and was so recognized by the convention.
The retiring board of the California Federation of Colored Women's clubs, for the Northern section tendered the first vice-president, who acts as president for the section, a reception Friday evening in the parlors of Taylor Memorial Methodist church. The southern section on the same evening gave an elaborate reception to Mrs. Corinne Hicks of Pasadena in one of the hotels of that city. She is on account of her music and charming personality a great favorite with both the white and colored club women of that city.
The Alameda County League of Colored Women Voters is making an effort to have colored girls: trained in the County Hospital as other counties in the state admit them.
The clubwomen of Springfield, Ohio, and throughout that great state are mourning the passing of Mrs. Emma Hilton. She was active in club and civic betterment of her race. Many years ago as a nurse she recognized the necessity of community welfare work among the members of her race. She offered the use of her home where she would assemble the urchins of the street for a Christmas feast and on other occasions would have the club women interest them in hygiene. She was also recognized as a social leader. She had many relatives and friends in Oakland and San Francisco.
News has just reached the writer telling of Charles Cottrell of Cleveland, Ohio, formerly United States Minister to Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands having suffered a stroke of paralysis while attending the Odd Fellows conclave recently held in Pittsburgh, Pa.
