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THE NEGRO HISTORY BULLETIN MARCH, 1942

Volume V

The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History 1538 Ninth Street, N. W.,

Published by | | Washington, D. C.

PURPOSE: To inculcate an appre- ciation of the past of the Negro.

EDITORIAL BOARD Albert N. D. Brooks Lois M. Jones Florence R. Beatty-Brown Carol W. Hayes Esther Popel Shaw Wilhelmina M. Crosson Carter G. Woodson Managing Editor

The subscription fee of this paper is $1.00 a year, or 12 cents a copy; but, if taken in combinations of five or more copies and mailed to one person and in one package it may be obtained at the rate of 5 bulk subscriptions for $2.70; 10 for $5.40; 20 for $10.80, and so on. Published monthly except July, August and September, 1538 Ninth St., N. W., Washington, D. C.

Entered as second class matter Octo- ber 31, 1937, at the Post Office at Wash-

ington, D. C., under the Act of March 3, 1879.

CONTENTS | A PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHER

A Girt WuHo BECAME A GREAT WOMAN By H. V. Feger

Tue NEGRO IN THE LAND or CorTon By C. G. Woodson

DISTINCTION IN SouTH CArRo- LINA: JOSEPH H. RAINEY, ROBERT Brown E.iorr, ROBERT SMALLS, GrorGE WASHINGTON MurRRAY and | THoMAS E, MILLER

MEN OF

WORKERS OF MERIT IN GEORGIA: JEFFER- son F. Lona, by B. A. Jones; H. M. TuRNER, by C. A. Bacote; Witu1amM H. CrRoGMAN, by B. H. Hope, by William S. Braithwaite; and JOHN W. E. BOWEN

Two LEADERS IN FLORIDA: JONATHAN C, GipsBs and JosiaAn T. WALLS, by Irene A. De Coursey

ALABAMA CITIZENS OF ACHIEVEMENT: BENJAMIN S. TuRNER, JAMES T. Ra- PIER, WILLIAM H. CouNcIL

MEN OF WORTH FROM MISSISSIPPI: HI- RAM R. ReveE.s, B. K. Bruce, JoHNn R. LyNcH, and IsalAH T. MONTGOMERY

MEN OF WoRTH IN LOUISIANA: Oscar J. DuNN, CHARLES E. Nasu, P. B. S. PINCHBACK, JAMES LEwIs, by Marcus B. Christian

NORRIS WRIGHT CUNEY OF TEXAS

Tue Necro History BULLETIN

| A PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHER

| HAT are you talking about?” inquired a white clerk at work forty years ago in the Chicago Post Office, after having heard a fellow worker, a native of the South, denounce the Negro as an undesirable.

“The people from your section,” said he further, “are always making uncomplimentary remarks about the Negro. I have traveled through the entire South; and the outstanding achievement that I found in all that section was the work of a Negro—Tuskegee In- stitute.”

A few years later, Mary Church Terrell happened to be in a conversation with a young Negro who took occasion to denounce Booker T. Washington in scathing terms because of his advocacy of practical education for the masses of Negroes. At the close of this youthful outburst Mrs. Terrell asked the young man:

“Have you ever seen Tuskegee Institute? Have you ever examined thoroughly what Booker T. Washington has built up there?”

“No,” was the reply.

“Then,” said she, “I shall not discuss Booker T. Washington with you because you do not know what you are talking about.”

Not long thereafter the young man availed himself of the op- portunity to visit Tuskegee Institute, and so startled was he at what he observed that he became an ardent admirer of the founder of Tuskegee.

A few years later this same young man happened to be in Frankfort-on-the-Main while traveling in Europe. A friendly stranger, seeing that he was having some difficulty with German, ap- proached and assisted him as an interpreter to transact the difficult problem at hand. This stranger, moreover, invited the young Negro to his home, entertained him at dinner, and spent the afternoon show- ing him the attractions of that city. At the close of the day when the traveler went to the station to take a train for the next point, the

Nelson; Joun | new acquaintance said in taking leave of the Negro-American:

“You may wonder why I have been so much interested in you and why I have spent so much time with you today. The explana- tion is that some years ago when I was a bookseller in Copenhagen, I sold a translation of Booker T. Washington’s Up from Slavery, and I enjoyed reading it more than I did selling the large number of copies that my customers required. I found it one of the most charming stories I have ever read. It gripped me so that I could not stop reading until I had finished it. When I saw you standing in the station I knew that you were one of his people, and I wanted to become acquainted with you and to help you in every way that I could. You belong to a people who have made much progress,

QUESTIONS ON THE FEBRUARY ISSUE |

Book OF THE MONTH

and you have a great future which Booker T. Washington has helped to build.”

Marcu, 1942

A GIRL WHO BECAME A GREAT WOMAN

ANY years ago there lived in Macon, M Georgia, a little girl named Lucy Laney. She was born a slave and while she was still a small child her father and mother moved to Savannah, where they worked for the Campbell family to whom they belonged. Her father, be- sides doing his daily work on the plantation, was the pastor of the Negro church. Lucy was one of a very large family—the seventh of ten children. As a very small child Lucy showed an aptitude for reading and when she was four years old she was taught to read and write. Her mother was a maid in the Campbell home, and very often Lucy went with her mother. As Mrs. Laney busied her- self with the housework little Lucy would climb into a big library chair and there all cuddled up and comfortable she would soon be lost in stories so charming to children. In this way she learned about people and places in other parts of the world. This love for reading remained with her all her life. When she was fifteen years old she entered At- lanta University and was a member of the first class to graduate from this now famous school. There were four members in the class. The year was 1873. She had made a splendid record in her work,

Lucy Laney became a teacher in the public schools of Savannah, Georgia. Later when her health began to fail she moved to Augusta. When her health improved she decided to remain there and to open a private high school for Negro youth. At first she planned to take girls only, but when some poor, ragged but eager boys came she took them in also.

In the second year she had enrolled two hun- dred fifty pupils. However, she found it very hard to keep the school going as she had no money and very little help.

Finally being desperately in need of funds, she went to Philadelph’a. Later on and as a result of this trip the Freedmen’s Board gave $10,000 for the school. It was named the Haines Normal and Industrial School after Mrs. F. E. H. Haines, a close friend of the founder.

There were not many good Negro teachers in those days, and Lucy Laney decided to prepare

better ones. Some of her graduates are now teachers, Y. W. C. A. workers, and others who are filling worthwhile positions, and all of them are splendid examples of the work done in this school.

Lucy Laney was a pioneer. A pioneer, as you know, is one who leads the way. A pioneer works at a time when the work is hard to do, but Lucy Laney had courage and faith in God. She died October 23, 1933. She is buried on the campus and now sleeps with her head pillowed on the soil of her beloved school. People remember her be- cause she loved children and believed in them; be- cause she had faith; because she lived simply and suffered much that others might have an oppor- tunity.

The school still stands, and a great woman’s dream still comes true. os YS See

_—— } ’

LUCY LANEY

Tue Necro History BULLETIN

THE NEGRO IN THE LAND OF COTTON

The Negro in the Lower South does not present so much differen- tiation in development as in the Upper South except so far as in- fluenced by peculiar conditions ob- taining in certain cities and towns. During the early years of the other settlements there were no English colonies to the South except South Carolina. Georgia, until settled in 1732, was a highway between Brit- ish influence in South Carolina and Spanish influence in Florida. The one opposed the other, As early as 1680 Negro slaves began to es- eape from South Carolina across the frontier to the Spaniards in Florida where they were welcomed and set free in order to weaken the British. So many of such refugees came that the Spaniards settled them at a point not far from St. Augustine at what was called Mosé. They established a fort there for the protection of the frontier and assigned these Negro fugitives a priest to instruct them in religion. This community continued until after Georgia was founded in 1732 and developed enough force to press down on Florida and destroy this settlement.

At first Georgia had little to do with Negroes. The colonists in the beginning did not want them as slaves because it was thought they would weaken the colony and im- poverish it. Later to compete with the other colonies the Georgians brought in slaves, and then the peo- ple had more problems than the other states. Negro slaves contin- ued to flee across the frontier where they joined the Indians af- ter the Spaniards had been re- moved. One of the prolonged prob- lems before the states after the American Revolution was the mat- ter of reclaiming fugitive slaves who constantly escaped to the In- dians. Often the Indians were rounded up and told to give up these fugitives. This they refused

to do, since Negro women were es- pecially attractive to Indians as wives who bore

them children.

Sometimes when compelled to give up the men and women they would go to war before they would suf- fer their children by these women to be taken back to slavery. These Indians said, ‘‘They are bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, and blood of our blood; and we will die before we permit them to be taken from us.”’

This situation continued as a vexing question as long as the In- dians were in Florida and in the territory between the Georgia frontier and the Mississippi River. It finally culminated in a bloody conflict. Some bold slave-catching agents invaded an Indian camp where Osceola had made himself a great leader among the Indians and took away his Negro wife. He appeared before Johnson, the In- dian Agent on the ground, and pro- tested so boldly against the act that Johnson took umbrage at Osceola’s words. Osceola, likewise stirred up, stuck his dagger in Johnson’s desk, and defied him, Osceola was soon captured, but by a ruse he es- eaped and organized the Indians against the agents of slavery. This was the outbreak of the Seminole War in which Negroes took an ac- tive part with the Indians. At one time a troop of Negroes on the fron- tier occupied a fort on the Apa- lachicola River and controlled that area.

The Indians were defeated, how- ever, and Osceola and his Negro co- horts who were not exterminated during the war had to yield. The outcome was that the Indians who had long resisted the attempt to move to the area west of the Mis- sissippi, where most of them still remain, had to yield by 1838 and go out of the territory directly west of Georgia. With these Indians went a considerable number of Negroes, many of them being classified as Indians themselves, and their de- scendants are still with them. Some Negroes became prominent among these Indians. The most noted of these was probably Negro Abra-

ham, who served the Indians for a long time as an _ interpreter in their dealings with the Federal Government in Washington and elsewhere.

With the Indians removed, the Lower South felt more secure with their slaves and could participate more freely in the effort to make cotton king. The Cotton Kingdom as a whole was one and the same picture regardless of the state bor- ders—large plantations cultivated by slaves under overseers and driv- ers concentrating on the one crop. This product Whitney’s cotton gin, invented in 1793, had made a staple of universal value. The wealth of the South was reckoned in cotton and slaves. Social position and po- litical advancement were deter- mined by one’s status with respect to these possessions.

Inasmuch as the Lower South, with little exception, was developed after the invention which brought new life to cotton production, the plantation life could be organized there on a larger scale than in the Upper South, where land was less abundant; and in this new region the one-crop system had not had the chance to wear out the soil, A great boom followed. The Upper South profited by having the op- portunity to dispose of surplus slaves no longer needed on worn out lands. The migration of younger slaveholders carrying their bondmen to these new and inviting fields, is a long chapter in the his- tory of the South.

This development is evident when one notes the rapid produc- tion of cotton during these years. In 1791 only 38 bales of cotton were produced in this country. By 1809 the production had reached 218,723 bales. In 1816 the country export- ed $24,106,000 worth of this staple. The production of cotton was doubled by 1820, doubled again by 1830; and still again by 1840. The census of 1790 showed that in all the West exclusive of Georgia there were only 109,368 inhabitants, but

et

Marca, 1942

by 1815 the same territory had a population of 1,600,000. The peo- ple of the Lower South so rapidly inereased in both wealth and popu- lation that states were soon carved out of this area. Mississippi came into the Union in 1817, Alabama in 1818. Louisiana came into the Union in 1812, but its early admis- sion, somewhat like that of Texas much later, was due to its develop- ment in foreign hands. In Louisi- ana as in some other parts of the South corn also was important for home consumption, and that state was especially adapted to the ecul- tivation of sugar and rice.

In this land of systematized cot- ton culture based on Negro forced labor slavery reached its most un- desirable stage. Hardships for the slaves increased in the proportion as men grew all but mad in the ef- fort to produce the largest cotton crops possible. Owners were hard on their drivers and overseers, and they in turn bore down cruelly upon the slaves. An overseer was sometimes rewarded in proportion to what he could produce. This ac- counts for the temptation to over- work the slaves. Absentee owner- ship, moreover, which often left the slaves at the mercy of these overseers sometimes brought things to a terrible state and justified the picture of the Simon Legree type of cruelty.

Here and there, however, were exceptions to this rule. Z, Kings- ley in Florida was known to be kind to his slaves. Jefferson Davis and his brother conducted their plantations on a more humane or- der than their neighbors, and so did Leonidas Polk and MecDonogh of Louisiana. Exceptions to the rule of cruelty were found in all the slave states, but these were shining lights in the depths of darkness. The system at best offered the slave very little hope for a brighter day. The rule in this area was to treat the slave more as property than as a human being.

Just as there were plantations on which the Negro slaves received some consideration so were there towns and urban centers where they likewise fared better—cities

like Charleston, Savannah, Mobile,

and New Orleans. While the state of South Carolina showed some of the worst tendencies under slavery Charleston had a more kindly dis- posed element which permitted there a progressive group of free Negroes. Savannah in the state of Georgia, likewise referred to for eruel practices during those days, was very much like Charleston. The favorable conditions in Mobile and especially in New Orleans re- sulted for two reasons. In the first place, it was provided under the treaty of purchase of Louisiana that the privileges which the citi- zens of that territory had enjoyed under France should be enjoyed when the territory became a part of the United States. When the slaveholding rulers later tried to

curtail the privileges of the free .

colored people of the state the lat- ter cited the treaty in their de- fenee, and their rights were tem- porarily respected. In the second place, some of these people of color while under the French and Span- ish in Louisiana had risen to a high level as merchants and planters owning slaves themselves and were too influential to be kept down. When the pinch came some of them moved to France. The close rela- tions of the quadroon and octoroon elements to whites in their social functions in New Orleans furnish

G. W. CARVER AT WORK IN HIS LABORATORY

more romance than this short story can present.

The free people of color in the cities had made themselves essential to their communities. In _ those parts, where the well-to-do whites held themselves above work and de- spised the poor whites in almost all capacities, the free colored people made themselves indispensable as mechanies and artisans. They built the homes, made the furniture, fashioned the clothes and produced the shoes worn by the people. Lo- eal manufacturing was largely in the hands of these colored people. Some effort was made to develop in- dustry with slave labor in the South, but the Civil, War came be- fore that experiment had a good trial.

The Civil War brought emanci- pation and the consequent upheav- al in the social, political and eco- nomic order in the South. The Ne- gro had proved to be a good soldier fighting for his freedom, and now he was to have a new day. Most Negroes when declared free re- mained on the plantations where they were to serve their former mas- ters who in an impoverished state had very little to give but what they could return in kind. Not a few Negroes, however, felt that in order to become actually free they should go as far away as possible from the plantations where they

126

had been held in bondage. This ereated a new problem for the rea- son that these refugees had no par- ticular place to go and nothing to sustain them on the march. Some few made their way to the free states. At first most of those set in motion migrated to nearby cities and towns. Poverty and disease overtook them there, and in certain localities a considerable number died out rapidly. Persons struck with this condition predicted that the Negroes in America would soon die out altogether.

This situation did not become so alarming in the Lower South as in the Upper South or Border States where the migrating Negroes could more easily pass into the North and find help or employment. The Low- er South was so far removed from that apparently more favorable area that Negroes there were more rapidly integrated in the new eco- nomie order. The Lower South, moreover, was a more promising agricultural area than the Upper South where the lands had been worn out for lack of scientific agri- culture.

Soon came some improvement from a gradual readjustment. The Negroes received a new boom in se- euring help through the Freed- men’s Bureau and the Reconstruc- tion measures of Congress which made Negroes citizens who could vote and hold office. The most nat- ural thing to do was to use the gov- ernment to their own advantage. This could be easily done for the time being since the Reconstruction measures prohibited the participa- tion of the active Confederates when they enfranchised the Ne- groes. Negroes, then, in cooperation with native whites and others who eame from the free states to try their fortunes in the South con- trolled for a few years some of these states. They elected members of their race and friends of their cause to the state legislatures in order to enact laws favorable to the freed- men. One of the most important laws which they passed provided for the education of all children at publie expense. These Negro voters not only controlled local and state

ROBERT C. DeLARGE

offices in some of these parts, but also sent 23 Negroes to sit in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives.

Only in South Carolina and Mis- sissippi did the Negroes and their friends have complete control for any considerable time. In _ those states the Negro population was larger than that of the whites. In Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and Arkansas, too, the participation of the Negro in the government was considerable though much less than

GEORGE W. MURRAY

Tue Necro History BULLETIN

in Mississippi and South Carolina. To name all who held important po- sitions would make a rather long story. Sufficient unto our purposes here will be the mere mention of the most outstanding. In Georgia and Texas the Negroes did not ad- vance far in polities.

Some of the highest positions at- tained should be noted. In South Carolina F. L. Cardozo served as Secretary of State and again as State Treasurer. Henry E. Hayne served there also as Secretary of State. J. J. Wright became Asso- ciate Justice of the State Supreme Court. Both Alonzo J. Ransier and R. H. Gleaves attained the position of lieutenant governor. Joseph H. Rainey, Robert Brown Elliott, Alon- zo J. Ransier, Robert C. DeLarge, R. H. Cain, Robert Smalls, Thomas Miller and George W. Murray rep- resented South Carolina in the United States Congress. A few Ne- groes, chief among whom was H. M. Turner, were elected in stormy fashion to the Georgia legislature, and Jefferson F. Long was elected to Congress. A larger number reached the Florida Legislature and Josiah T. Walls was elected to Con- gress. A still larger number sat in the Alabama Legislature ; and Ben- jamin F. Turner, James T. Rapier, and Jeremiah Haralson were elect- ed to the United States Congress. James Lynch became Secretary of State of Mississippi, a number of Negroes were sent to its General As- sembly. John R. Lynch represented the state three terms in the United States House of Representatives. Hiram R. Revels was sent to the United States Senate to fill out an unexpired term of two years and B. K. Bruce to serve a full term in that body. In Louisiana Dubuclet was elected State Treasurer ; Oscar J. Dunn, C. C. Antoine and P. B. S. Pinchback were elected as lieu- tenant governors, and Charles E. Nash to serve in the United States House of Representatives. Pinch- back was elected to the United States Senate but he was not seat- ed. No such high positions were reached by the Negroes in Texas, but a few of them, among whom

(Continued on page 140)

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127

MEN OF DISTINCTION IN SOUTH CAROLINA

Joseph H. Rainey

Joseph H. Rainey achieved the distinction of being the first Negro to serve in the United States House of Representatives when he took his seat as a member of Congress on December 12, 1870. He was born of slave parents at Georgetown, S. C., June 21, 1832. He received a limited education. He began life as a barber, but he learned much by observing the educated men with whom he thus came into contact. The Civil War worked a change in his career. He was compelled, in 1862, to work on Confederate for- tifications. From this work he es- eaped, going to the West Indies, where he remained till the end of the war.

In the West Indies he applied himself to further study. Upon his return to the United States, he en- tered politics and was chosen to serve in first one local office and then in another. He grew in favor with the public and was elected to the 42nd, 43rd, 44th, and 45th Con- gresses. In Congress Rainey made a favorable impression. James G. Blaine highly praised him in the Senator’s Twenty Years in Con- gress. Rainey made several speeches in trying to advance the cause of the oppressed. His most important utterance in that assembly was his informing discourse on the value of education. He died at Georgetown, S. C., August 1, 1887.

Robert Brown Elliott

Probably the most brilliant Ne- gro to serve in the United States House of Representatives was Rob- ert Brown Elliott. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, August 11, 1842. He was educated at Eton College in England, and upon his return to the United States entered into the politics of the State of South Carolina. Mr. Elliott was elected to the 42hd Congress and resigned before the term had ex- pired ; he was re-elected to the 43rd Congress and again resigned, this

JOSEPH H. RAINEY

time to accept the office of sheriff at home. In thus changing his po- sition so often he was trying to serve where he could do the most to advance his party and the cause of his people. In Congress Elliott proved to be excellent in debate with those who were not yet pre- pared to grant the Negro full citi- zenship. His outstanding speech was his reply to Alexander H. Ste- phens in discussing the Civil Rights Bill. When defeated in South Car- olina Elliott settled to the practice of law in New Orleans and there he died.

ROBERT B. ELLIOTT

Robert Smalls

Robert Smalls was born a slave at Beaufort, South Carolina, April 5, 1839. The law of that day did not permit him to attend school, but he availed himself of such lim- ited educational advantages as were possible. In 1851, he moved to Charleston, worked as a rigger, and thereafter led a seafaring life.

In 1861, Smalls became connect- ed with the Planter, a steamer ply- ing in the Charleston Harbor as a transport. With the daring of a soldier for freedoni he took this ves- sel over the Charleston bar in 1862 and delivered it to the commander of the United States blockading squadron. This was one of the most thrilling incidents of the war, and Smalls was long hailed as a hero. He was appointed a pilot in the Quartermaster’s Department of the United States Navy, and remained in the service till 1866. Meanwhile he rose to the rank of Captain.

In 1868 Smalls entered politics and was later elected to the 44th, 45th, 47th, 48th, and 49th Con- gresses. Sir George Campbell, a member of the British Parliament, often visited Smalls when traveling in South Carolina. He found Smalls to be a gentleman whom he stamped as well qualified to repre- sent those people in Congress.

In the State militia of South Car- olina, Smalls held successively the commands of _lieutenant-colonel, brigadier-general, and major-gen- eral, the latter terminating with the reorganization of the militia in 1877. Smalls was a delegate to sev- eral National Republican Conven- tions. His last public office was that of collector of the port of Beaufort.

George Washington Murray George Washington Murray was

born of slave parents, September 22, 1853, near Rembert, Sumter

THOMAS E. MILLER

South Carolina. At the age of eleven years, he found him-

County,

self free, bereft of parents, com- pletely dependent upon his own re- sources. His early life, therefore, was one of great trials and sacri- fices.

Possessed, however, of a determi- nation to live and learn, young Mur- ray availed himself of every oppor- tunity to improve his meagre stock of knowledge. So well did he sue- ceed that his first day in school was

ROBERT SMALLS

spent as teacher rather than as a student. In later life, he acquired a good education, entered into the service of the public schools of his county and was finally elected to the 53rd Congress. Murray was elected also to the 54th, but secured his seat only after a successful con- test with a leading Democrat of his State.

Murray, of course, faced a more determined opposition than his Ne- gro predecessors because hostility toward the Negro was mounting by leaps and bounds in his day. He was a fearless fighter, however, and the only way his political enemies could get rid of him was by trumped up charges which a cor- rupt court sustained. Murray left the state and settled in Chicago from which he went forth as a lec- turer on Negro affairs. He re- mained there in business until his death from general decline.

Thomas E. Miller

Thomas E. Miller was born in Beaufort County, South Carolina, at Ferrybeeville, June 17, 1849. He had some opportunity for early schooling as did most free colored people of that state. He completed the course at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania in the class with Dr. Walter H. Brooks, the pastor of the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington, D. C. Miller stud- ied law, but gave most of his atten- tion to education and business.

After acquiring a good educa- tion, he entered politics. Miller held many loeal and State offices, and was nominated by his party, in 1878, for the office of Lieuten- ant-Governor of the State. Due, however, to riotous actions of the Democratic party throughout the elections that year, the ticket was withdrawn. Miller was elected to and was seated in the 51st Con- gress after a contested election with Col. William Elliott. He made sev- eral attempts thereafter to reach

Tue Necro History BULLETIN

ALONZO J. RANSIER

Congress again but he was always defeated or counted out.

In 1896, he was elected president of the State Colored College at Orangeburg, South Carolina, and achieved much good there in organ- izing this first institution estab- lished by the State for the eduea- tion of the Negro. Miller was gen- erally prosperous, maintained his family above want and died in com- fort at his home in Charleston on April 9, 1938.

R. H. CAIN

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Marca, 1942

WORKERS OF MERIT IN

Jefferson Franklin Long

Jefferson Franklin Long was born a slave in Knoxville, Georgia, on March 3, 1836. At an early age he moved to Macon where he ob- tained a job in the firm of Robert Salisbury, a merchant-tailor. Here he acquired a meager education and an expert knowledge of tailoring. During the Civil War he operated a tailor shop in the back room of what is now the home of the Macon Telegraph. After the Civil War he became interested in politics, and it was not long before the qualities of leadership which made him the recognized leader of the Republi- can party in middle Georgia came to be known.

In 1870 Long was nominated to run on the Republican ticket as the Congressional Representative from his district which included Bibb and Crawford counties. Already Ku Kluxism was rampant in Geor- gia and the local Klan was deter- mined to prevent his election. On the night before the election, sched- uled for December 20, Long ad- dressed a meeting of Negroes in Macon. In a fiery speech, during which he reviewed the many out- rages committed against Negroes in Macon, Long declared, ‘‘If you will stand by me we will take the polls tomorrow and we will hold them.”’

On the following day, the day of the election, the Negro voters gath- ered in a long line before the City Hall and, upon the appearance of Long, marched in a ‘‘solid pha- lanx’’ toward the Courthouse. On the way there the Negroes were at- tacked by a group of white people and a fierce fight followed.

When the battle ended, seven persons lay dead and among the several missing Negroes was Long, who had been the object of the furi- ous attack. At the beginning of the battle Long had sought refuge in the belfry of the Courthouse, and it was from this shelter that he was rescued by members of his family and spirited away through an un-

JEFFERSON F. LONG

completed sewer section. He re- mained in seclusion until the race feeling had subsided.

Despite the brutal attack by the whites Long carried Bibb county, of which Macon was the county seat, by a majority of 50 votes and the entire district by a majority vote of more than 900. He thus led the fight for the right of his people to full citizenship ; and, although it was a great risk, he won that battle. Others, following his example, like- wise stood their ground.

On January 16, 1871, Jefferson Franklin Long took his oath as the

H. M. TURNER

GEORGIA

first and only Negro Congressman Georgia has ever had. On February 1, 1871, he rose to make his first major speech in‘ Congress. This speech was made in opposition to a proposed law removing the test- oath required of all Confederates before they could take public office. Long described the conditions in Georgia and told of the way in which lynch law had grown to such proportions that it was no longer safe to be a loyal citizen in Geor- gia. ‘‘Already,’’ he said, ‘‘since emancipation, over five hundred loyal men have been shot down by disloyal men there, and not one of those who took part in committing these outrages has ever been brought to justice. If this House removes the disabilities of disloyal men by modifying the test- oath, I venture to prophesy you will again have trouble from the very same men who gave you trou- ble before.’’ In commenting on the speech, the New York Tribune de- clared, ‘‘In a manner he was per- fectly self-possessed. His voice was full and powerful, filling the Hall with ease, while his enunciation was quite good.’’

While in Congress, Long sup- ported the enforcement of the Fif- teenth Amendment, universal suf- frage in the District of Columbia and a number of other proposed laws which were of benefit to the nation as a whole. In March, 1871, at the expiration of his term, Long retired from Congress and never again sought public office. Instead, he devoted himself to his business as a merchant-tailor and the fur- ther development of his cultural in- terests. He did find time, however, to attend several political conven- tions where he continued to give wise counsel.

On February 5, 1900, Long died at his home in Macon. At the time of his death he had ‘‘accumulated a magnificent library and was a constant reader of fine literature.’’

B. A. JONES Atlanta University

130

Henry McNeal Turner

Henry MeNeal Turner was born in Newberry Court-House, South Carolina, on February 1, 1833. When he was quite young his par- ents moved to Abbeville, South Carolina, and young Turner, al- though his parents were free, was bound out to a slave owner. Here he was required to work side by side with slaves until he was fif- teen years of age. In this work he suffered many abuses from cruel overseers but not without resisting them, for he was determined that no man should inflict harsh punish- ment upon him without his making some effort to defend himself.

When Henry was fifteen years old he ran away from his master and hired himself out to some law- yers in Abbeville. It was while working in this law office that he was able to acquaint himself with such subjects as history, theology, and law. Turner always regarded this as the most beneficial experi- ence during his early days.

Turner joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in July, 1848, on six months’ probation. Evidently Turner was not ready for the church at that time, be- cause, as he said himself, he was the ‘‘worst boy at Abbeville.’’ It was not until he heard a sermon deliv- ered by the Reverend Samuel Leard, a missionary in the South Carolina Conference, in 1851, that he was led ‘‘to the feet of the par- doning Jesus.’’ In 1853 he was licensed to preach at Abbeville Court-House. On a visit to New Orleans in 1857 he met the Rever- end H. R. Revels, under whom he transferred his membership from the Methodist Church, South, to the African Methodist Episcopal Chureh. He was admitted to the Missouri Conference in 1858 and then transferred to the Baltimore Conference. While here he estab- lished better cultural contacts by enrolling in Trinity College, Balti- more, Maryland. In 1860 Turner was ordained deacon by Bishop Payne in Washington, D. C.; and two years later was made an elder.

W. H. CROGMAN

At the General Conference which met in St. Louis in 1880, Turner was elevated to the bishopric.

His religious activities were va- ried and interesting. He was the first Negro to be appointed a chap- lain in the United States Army, re- ceiving the appointment from Pres- ident Lincoln in 1863. In the fall of 1865 he was mustered out of service, but President Johnson im- mediately recommissioned him as a United States chaplain, being as- signed to the Freedmen’s Bureau

JOHN HOPE

THe Necro History BULLETIN

in Georgia. Turner believed, how- ever, that his services were needed more in the church and thus re- signed his commission. In 1876 the General Conference of the A.M.E. Church elected him manager of the Publication Department of that body. When he became bishop he built up the largest Negro confer- ence in the world.

Turner’s interest was not lim- ited to the church. In the field of polities he was to become almost as prominent as he was in religion. In 1867 the National Republican Executive Committee appointed hira to superintend the organiza- tion of Negroes in Georgia. Turner knew that the salvation of the new- ly emancipated Negroes rested in their use of the ballot. He organ- ized political clubs and wrote many campaign documents. He served as a member of the Georgia Constitu- tional Convention of 1867 and 1868 and in the legislature from 1868 until 1870.

In spite of his busy life Turner found time to write several books and numerous articles. During his lifetime such national publications as Harper’s Weekly and Frank Leslie’s Weekly honored Bishop Turner by printing short sketches