Activities Among Negroes
The writer is in receipt of an invitation from the trustees of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute to attend the forty-third anniversary exercises of the institute. The following is the order of exercises: The commencement sermon will be preached by Dr. J. W. Perry [perhaps J. Edward Perry] of Nashville, Tenn., secretary of the home department of the Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal church, South. Other events will include the annual exercises of the Phillips Hall Bible Training school and Trinity church, Boston, prize contest. The annual address will be delivered by F. B. Ransom, attorney, of Indianapolis,
During the month of May there has been held three Methodist church general conferences, all of which have been of great interest to the colored people of California. The M. E. church, with its colored churches, held its conference in Springfield, Mass. The African Methodist Episcopal church met in Louisville, Ky, and the A. M. E. Zion in Indianapolis,
The African Methodist Episcopal is the oldest and largest negro body in the world. It has active churches in every part of the world, which sent delegates. They held their deliberations in the Jefferson county armory, an edifice with a seating capacity of 10,000. They were the guests of Quinn chapel, A. M. E. church, in conjunction with the Louisville Urban League, working through J. M Ragland, executive secretary. Three ministers have been elevated to the office of bishop. They are: Rev A. L. Gains of Baltimore. Md.; Rev. J. A. Gregg, president of Wilberforce University of Ohio, and Rev. Reverdy Ransom, editor of the A. M. E. Review. The last two recently visited California and lectured in this city.
Rev. J. R. Hawkins was reelected financial secretary and Ira T. Bryant was re-elected head of the Sunday School Union and publishing house. The Chicago Defender, in commenting on Bryant's report, said: “One of the most significant items in Bryant's report was a statement that he had cleared the title to five pieces of property belonging to the church by transferring the claim from himself as trustee to the Sunday School Union at Nashville. He also recommended that one of the buildings of the union be converted into a home for indigent retired ministers.
The conference adopted a resolution to grant a gratuity at $10,000 to [illegible, help?] bishop, who voluntarily retired after [32?] years of service. The biggest surprise of the conference was when R. J. Williams, son-in-law of Bishop Chapelle, was elected chairman of the lay delegates over Aaron E. Malone of St. Louis, president of a millionaire manufactor. The lay delegates are fighting for a greater representation on the floor of the conference, suffrage for women, and the standardization of educational institutions.
[Bishop William D. Chapelle's great-grandson is stand-up comedian Dave Chappelle. - MF]
Tuesday 500 women left the galleries and paraded with banners around the conference hall, staging a spectacular demonstration for woman suffrage. Archibald Carey, a senior in the Wendel Phillips High school of Chicago, won $1000 in an oratorical contest conducted by the Chicago News. Upon receipt of the check he sent a telegram to the conference in which he gave the conference $100, to be used as scholarship to fit some girl or boy to do missionary work in Africa. Carey is 16 years old and the son of Bishop Carey.
Maud Roberts-George of Chicago, a musical critic of note recently commented on the singing of Florence Cole Talbert of Los Angeles and reproduced an article which had appeared in the Terre Haute Star, which said: "Probably the largest crowd ever assembled in Allen chapel for a recital yesterday evening gave enthusiastic demonstration of thorough enjoyment when Mme. Florence Cole Talbert and Theodore Taylor gave one of the most pleasing concerts that Terre Haute music lovers have heard in many years. Mrs. Talbert has a voice that is in every way suited to the class of music she sings."
The Y. W. C. A. national convention, recently held in New York City, has left a memory filled with hope for a better day for the negro race. This sentiment has been voiced by the many colored papers in the east. The New York Age, in giving a detailed account of the convention, said: "The crowning event of the convention for the race was the election of Mrs. [illegible, but Elizabeth Ross Haynes] member of the National Board. Mrs. Haynes was first discovered and recommended to the Y.W.C. A. work by Mrs. Addie W. Hunton-Floyd, while her husband, the late William Hunton, was one of the secretaries of the Y. M. C. A. She is a graduate of Fisk University and has been awarded her master's degree by Columbia University. She is at present a member of the National Council of Colored Work, and is connected with the One Hundred and Thirty-seventh street Y. W. C. A. branch in New York [illegible, City.]
The Chicago Defender, in speaking of the election of Mrs. Haynes said: "The Y, W. C. A, convention, which was attended by hundreds of women from all over the world, was untinged with prejudice, and it was evident that the election of Mrs. Haynes was deserving of high approval. It is said that several Southern white ladies arose in a body and stated that the association was justified in electing Mrs. Haynes on the board."
The New York Age stated that "at the biennial meeting of the National Student Assembly, which is a section of the Y. W. C. A., among 350 delegates, there were 19 colored students representing Fisk, Wilberforce, Indiana and Howard universities, and Morgan, Storer, Livingston, Spellman, Paine and Talledega colleges, also the Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute and Shaw University State Normal school."
Miss Emma McAllister, a junior from Spellman College and a national representative for colored students on the executive committee, was chosen first vice-president, receiving 113 votes out of 233 cast. She was one of three candidates. Miss Lucy D. Slow, dean of women of Howard University; Miss Ethel McGhee and Miss Ophelia Shields, both students in the New York School of Social Work, were elected members at large on the executive committee of the National Student Council,
The constitution provides that the staff of the National Board shall be represented by 20 delegates. Miss Eva D. Bowles was the colored representative.
