Activities Among Negroes
During the next few weeks there will be held many national conventions which the colored citizen of Oakland will be interested. First on the list will be the Biennal convention of the National Association of Colored Women's clubs that will convene in Chicago. A thousand delegates and visitors are expected to attend this meeting. Among the women of distinction who will address this Convention with Mrs. Booker T. Washington, Miss Jane Adams, Miss Julia Lathrope and others from California.
Following this convention there will be another women's convention which will meet in Chicago. The International convention of women of the darker races. Ms. Washington is president of this organization. It was established to keep in contact with the colored women who served overseas or have traveled in foreign lands.
A few days after the close of this convention the National Negro Men's Business league will hold its twenty-fifth anniversary meeting in Chicago. This league was founded through the activities of the late Booker T. Washington and has been one of the greatest organizations for the advancement of negro people in business encouragement ever founded. There is a chapter in Oakland, and E. B. Gray is the president.
In about ten days the California State Federation of Colored Women's clubs will convene in Oakland. Mrs. Irene Ruggles, president, has Issued her official call for the eighteenth annual convention of the Federated clubs. They will hold their deliberations in the First A. M. E. church of Oakland. Mrs. Ruggles has invited many women and men of distinction of the races to address the convention. The use of the Australian ballot will be voted on at this convention for its adoption, in future election of officers.
During the past week the colored people of Oakland have been honored by having as their guest Mrs. Helen Curtis of New York city. She is the widow of James L. Curtis, minister resident and consul general of the United States to Liberia, West Africa. He was appointed during the first term of the late President Woodrow Wilson. He died at his post in October, 1917. After returning America with his remains Mrs. Curtis was put in charge of the hostess house at Camp Upton, New York, where the colored women were trained for Y. W. C. A. war work. In April, 1918, when the Y. M. C. A. asked for three colored women to go overseas, Mrs. Curtis was the first one to qualify. At that time no woman was sent overseas who could not furnish $50 a month toward her own expenses for one year. Her certificate of discharge gives the following: From May and June, duty Canteen at St. Sulpice July, at Haussimont, (near Verdun sector) duty, canteen, from August to December, St. Nazaire, canteen, from December 28, 1918 to May, 1919. Hut secretary at Chambery, France, which was the leave area for colored soldiers. "This was the largest work in France for colored men. Four colored women and seven men composed the official staff of "Y" workers with about twenty helpers. Chambery was the only leave area in France with a woman in charge, this honor going to Mrs. W Curtis. On June 1 she was sent to Romagne, where 26,000 American dead were reburied. The writer asked Mrs. Curtis what to her mind did she consider the great service rendered by negro women in France during the World War. While she was enthusiastic over the work performed at Chambery, where the negro soldiers' had their vacation, she said she felt that the a work of reburying the dead which was the last piece of work, was the greatest.
Eugene Kinkle Jones, secretary of the National Urban League, was recently elected to the executive committee of the national conference of social workers recently held in Toronto, Canada. This is the first time such an honor has come to an American negro.
DeHart Hubbard, a star athlete of the University of Michigan, recently won honors at the Olympic V games in Europe, and E. O. Gourden, another colored athlete representing the Dorchester A. C. Boston, won honors at this meet, which was held in Colombes Stadium in France. Both men have taken part in athletic meets in California, carrying away honors.
The New Age Dispatch of Los Angeles makes mention of Miss Bennie Mae Pryor, who has recently graduated from a Los Angeles High school in three years, winning the California scholarship pin, the gold Alpha pin. She plans to enter the University of Southern California.
Mrs. Martha Williams Walker of Frankfort, Ky., is visiting friends in Oakland. She has the distinction of being the first colored woman to register as a kindergarten teacher in the Woman's Temple of Chicago. She has taught school for forty-three years in the same building in Frankfort. She is ex President of the State Federation of Colored Women's clubs of Kentucky, president of the primary department, of the State Teachers association, and also president of the Consolidated Educational Sunday school convention of Kentucky. She also holds the degree of A. B. from Simmons University in Louisville, Ky.
John R. Walker of Youngstown and bride have been spending the week in Oakland as the guests of friends. He is a graduate of Wayland University and has taught school in Palm Beach, Florida. For a number of years was employed by the International Bible publishing Society of Philadelphia.
The colored people of the bay cities sustained a loss during the past week in the death of Charles Tilghman of Berkeley. He was the son of a family that "came across the plains to California in 1852. He was educated in the public schools of San Francisco and Oakland. He was employed in the Southern Pacific offices for thirty seven years. He was the husband of Mrs. Hettie B. Tilghman, the well-known club and civic worker, the father of Charles Tilghman is of the Tilghman Press, and Hilda Tilghman.
The news comes from Santa Monica of the death of Mrs. Susie Hall Reed. She was killed by a fall from a roller coaster while attending a Sunday school picnic of the First A. M.. E. church of Monrovia, of which her husband is pastor. She was a native born Californian. her parents having come across the plains in the early fifties. She was educated in the convent of Stockton and University of California. She was active throughout the state in both church and club work. She leaves four children and her husband, Rev. Reed.
.jpg/_info/)
Y. W. Worker
HELEN CURTIS, who
has been associated with social workers for some time.
