SPEECHES & WRITINGS FILE A colored woman in a white world (14) [*2*] state that we bahaved ourselves in her class ever afterwards. During the first year in the High School several incidents stand out very [clea] clearly in my mind. I made 100 in my final examination in [my] Algebra. I did not care for mathematics particularly, but I liked Algebra very much and was overjoyed at my mark. Then I wrote the first essay I ever attempted. My subject was "Birds." and I began it thus. "There are a great many birds. in the world." Then I proceeded to name all the birds of which there was any record which I could not find in the encyclopedia or anywhere else. "I like birds and I do not see how anybody can be cruel to them", was the conclusion of my first invasion into the field of literature. In the middle of that first year some good-natured, lazy boys who sat near me prevailed upon me during an examination to pass them the trial paper on/which I had worked some examples in Algebra before transcribing them on the paper which I handed in. These boys had been notoriously and continuously deficient in the subject. Naturally the fact that they had worked all the examples correctly impressed the teacher very much. Then the similarity of the methods used and the explanation of the steps taken between their papers and mine struck the teacher very forcibly indeed. When, therefore, she confronted me with this incriminating evidence, there was nothing to do but confess. The punishment inflicted upon me for assisting the boys in this examination was that my mark was reduced so low I was just allowed to pass. The boys whom I assisted were marked zero. That was a lesson I never forget. It was the last time I ever communicated with any human being during an examination. It was also during the first year in the High School that I acquired a taste and love for Longfellow's poetry. I recited the Famine in one of the rhetorical exercises and continued to commit these poems to memory for a long time thereafter. During the second year in the High School an incident occurred to which I am greatly indebted for my appreciation and love of the best music. Prof. Rice who was then director of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music came to the High School to train some girls to sing for the Commencement. Among the nine g irls [*3-*] selected to sing I was one of three chosen to sing Contralto. After rehearsing us several times Prof. Rice asked me to wait one day, so that he might talk to me. He then told me he would like to have me sing in the Church choir and invited me to join the Musical Union too. I frankly told Prof. Rice that I was sure I could not read music at sight well enough to pass the examination for either the Choir or the Union. But he encouraged me to believe I could and I did/ I sang in the choir of the First Congregational Church of Oberlin from the time I was in the second year of the High School till I graduated from College and received my degree of A.B., which covered a period of seven years. Most of that time I sang in the Musical Union as well. To sing in the choir of either the First of Second Congregation al Church as well as in the Musical Union was a liberal education in the best choral works of the old masters and of the modern composers too. I looked forward with the keenest pleasure to singing the Messiah every Christmas and I enjoyed nothing so much as taking part in the wonderful oratorio of Elijah. As I look back upon the privilege I enjoyed as a member of both these musical organization I fell that the experience was of incalculable value/to me in every way. It taught me to appreciate the best there is in music and what greater blessing or more priceless boon to any human being could there be than that? While in the High School I had to decide what course I would take when I entered college. I chose the "classical course" which necessitated the study of Greek and which was often called the "gentlemen's course", because it was the one generally pursued by men, so as to get the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Few women in Oberlin College took the Classical Course at that time. They took the "Literary Course". which could be completed two years sooner than the Classical Course but which did not entitled them to any degree at all. Some of my friends and school mates urged me not to [take] select the Classical Course because it would take me so much longer to complete it than the Literary Course. They pointed out that Greek was very hard, that it was unnecessary, if not positively unwomanly, for girls to study "that old dead language", [and] that 4- during the two extra years required to complete it, I would undoubtedly miss a lot of fun which I would [undoubtedly] enjoy outside of college walls and, worst of all, it might ruin my chances to get a husband, since men were notoriously shy of women who knew too much. And where, they inquired sarcastically, would I find a colored man who had studied Greek? It would be like hunting for a needle in a hay stack, they warned. But none of these [warnings] things moved me. I loved school and liked to study too much to be allured from it by any of the arguments my friends advanced. I wrote to my father and laid the matter clearly before him, explaining that it would cost more to take the course which I preferred, and that very few women selected it. My dear father replied immediately that I might remain in college as long as I wished and he would foot the bill. The subject of my essay, when I graduated from the High School was Troubles and Trials. Each member of the class was allotted five minutes and everybody had to speak. Many people in the audience who were either personally acquainted with me or knew what a happy-go-lucky girl I had been were greatly amused at my subject. I tried to prove that most troubles and trials are imaginary and even if they are real, they can [either] often be removed altogether by hook or crook. But if that is impossible, the harm they are able to do can be considerably abated by using a little diplomacy. As an illustration I cited the case of a monk who was ordered to walk a long distance in shoes into which peas had been poured. He did so and reached his goal foot sore and weary. When he saw another pilgrim upon whom the same penance had been imposed arrive well and happy, he asked him why he had not suffered from the same ordeal as he himself had. "But Brother", replied the smiling pilgrim, "I boiled my peas." In the Oberlin High School I formed a friendship which has lasted through out my life. To the casual observer no two girls could have appeared much more unlike either in appearance or in disposition than my friend and myself. to begin with, we differed in race. She was white and I was colored. She was a pretty blond with blue eyes and light hair. I had an olive complexion and was decidedly 5- a brunette. She was quiet, reticent, almost shy, very hard to get acquainted with, but a delightful companion, if you knew her well. On the other hand, I was quick, vivacious, talkative, made friends easily and was full of fun. But I picked my friends carefully, I did not form a close friendship with a girl who did not measure up to a certain standard, both in character and in ideals. I could not have been intimately associated with a girl who did not care to study or whose character could have been questioned in any way. Since I was far from home and had no one to scrutinize my friends closely, my own standards were undoubtedly my salvation. I might easily have formed friendships with girls who were above reproach in every respect, with whom an intimate friendship would have done me no good, to say the least, and might have done harm. Friendships formed in the High School have made or marred the career of many a woman and many a man. They often given the slant, so to speak, or point the direction in which the boy or girl grown to manhood will eventually go. And so, as I look back upon the friendships of my youth, I thank God for them from the depths of my heart. With a girl of my own race I formed another friendship in that Oberlin High School which has also lasted a life time and has always been very dear. I started in the 8th grade with these two girls, graduated from the High School with them, then from the Academy and later from the college department, having been classmates for nine years. [The bond friendship which] My friendship with the white girl illustrates a point which I should like to emphasize- namely the advantage of the mixed school. It helped both the white girl and the colored girl to form a close friendship with a girl of a different race. After having been closely associated with a colored girl whose standards of conduct were similar to her own, whose ideals were as high and whose personality appealed to her more strongly than did that of girls of her own racial group, that white girl could never entertain the same feeling of scorn, contempt or aversion for all colored people that she might otherwise have done. No matter how strongly representatives of the dominant race might insist that certain vices and defects were common to all colored people alike, she would know from intimate association with at least one [*6-*] colored girl that those blanket charges preferred against the whole race were not true. It would be difficult for her to believe that her own particular colored friend was the only exception to the rule laid down by the critics of colored people as a whole. Intuitively she would know that there are many such exceptions and she could never place such a low estimate upon the mental and moral qualities of the whole race as she would, if she did not know from personal experience the desirable and delightful qualities of mind and heart which at least one representative of the maligned race possessed. On the other hand, no matter how many sins of omission or commission white people might commit against colored people, a colored girl who has enjoyed the friendship of a white girl knows by this token, if by no other, that there are some white people in the United States too broad of mind and generous of heart to put the color of one's skin above every other consideration. No one could make their colored girl believe that all white people are innately hostile to her race and that there can be no common ground of mutual understanding and good will between them. From personal experience she knows that, as individuals, white people are lovable, just and kind. When white and colored children attend school together they learn lessons of mutual understanding and tolerance as they can in no other way. They form friendships in school which do good, even if they do not last. One of the most discouraging phases of the Race Problem to day is that where there are separate schools, there is no way for white and colored children to learn to know each other. The two races are growing up to dislike each other, because they do not understand each other. The children of the two races [think] early get the impression that each is the mortal enemy of the other. In explaining the reason why the friction between white and colored people in the South to day is greater than it was twenty five or thirty years ago, those who claim to know say it is because the contact between the two groups was much closer then than it is now. It is said that one man can not hate another, if he understands him. So long as the children of the two races are separated and there is no effort to bring them together in their youth, [*7-*] the outlook for mutual understanding and forbearance between them is very gloomy indeed. During the second year in the High School I was quite ill. By sheer force of will I dragged myself to school which was just across the street from where I boarded. Although Christian Science had not yet been established as a Religion, if I had not practiced its precepts, I might easily have given up the Ghost. [In addition to] I had grown very thin and many people believed I had tuberculosis. I boarded with the widow of the first colored man who graduated from a Homeopathic Medical School in Cleveland, Ohio. She wrote him describing my case and I wrote him myself telling about my work in school, that I was taking the Classical Course and wanted very much to get my degree in Oberlin College. So this skillful physician took the time and the pains to travel forty miles to see this young colored girl shout whom he knew nothing except the information contained in the two letters. He had to lose nearly a whole day to make the visit, because while the distance between Oberlin and Cleveland was not so great, the trains between these two places were comparatively few. After the first visit he came several times and when I wrote for my bill I was surprised to see that he had charged me only $10. During the summer vacation I went to my mother who had left Memphis and established a hair store on Sixth Avenue in New York. She often allowed my brother and myself to go to Coney Island, Manhattan and Brighton Beaches, so that we might take a dip in the ocean. Living out in the open nearly all day long and taking the salt water baths completely restored me to health. I had left school emaciated, weighing less than 100 pounds and returned at the end of the vacation weighing 115 pounds, the very picture of health. The next year my mother my mother came to see me graduate from the High School and after the Commencement I went to Memphis to visit my father and my grandmother who lived in a little cottage near the edge of the city. I was having a delightful time with my friends, occasionally attending picnics when the yellow fever broke out and I was obliged to leave. One day a German woman who lived near us came to our house in a great distress to urge my grandmother to come and see her husband who was very ill. [*8*] My grandmother whom everybody called "Aunt Liza", was known far and wide as a good Samaritan and she cheerfully went with her neighbor to render her any assistance in her power. After my grandmother had been gone a short while I decided to follow her to see what had happened. As I entered the room where the sick man lay, I was struck with the color of his face, It was as yellow as saffron. My grandmother came to me quickly and I could see she was greatly alarmed, She told me to go home immediately, for she was sure the patient had yellow fever and was dying. I had hardly reached home before my father rushed in very much excited saying that several cases of yellow fever had already been reported, that there would undoubtedly be another epidemic as there had been the year previous and that my brother and myself must leave for New York immediately. [My father My grandmother] No one who left Memphis that night can ever forget that scene, Some claimed that at least 5000 people left the city. The whole population seemed to be at the station trying to get away. Naturally the trains going in every direction were late starting and the confusion at the station was indescribable. Those who were going were weeping and those who could not go were crying as though their hearts would break. Every now and then a defiant voice would say "You are trying to run away from death. You are leaving us poor folks behind to die. They haven't money enough to get away from the city, but you better look out, Death can find you where you are going just as easy as he can find [you] us here with the yellow fever." Water was being sold at so much per glass or cup and it was difficult to buy it at any price. My grandmother related harrowing scenes which [were] she witnessed during that awful summer in the stricken city. All through the night trucks laden with corpses passed along the streets. Piercing shreiks of those who were losing loved ones rent the air. Those who lived through the yellow fever epidemics of Memphis in 1878 and 1879 invariably shudder when they recall them. In spite of the danger my father returned to Memphis and became the laughing stock of very wise business people, because he invested every penny he had saved in real estate which was offered to him at a bargain. And bargains there were a plenty during that yellow fever epidemic. The average property owner of Memphis was in a panic, because he believed the city was doomed. [*9*] People were willing to sell valuable property for a song. They were willing to sell for a few hundred dollars cash property which was worth many thousands, and it was difficult for them to find purchasers even then. Seeing my father invest every penny he had in Memphis real estate some declared Bob Church had lost his mind. When his friends told him that since Memphis had had two epidemics in succeeding years, there was no doubt whatever that the city was doomed, my father would declare that there was no reason why Memphis should not be one of the most healthful cities in the United States. "Isn't it called the Bluff City?" he would ask. "That's just what it is," he would say. "It's built on a bluff. The reason why Memphis has epidemics of yellow fever is because the streets are in such a terrible condition. They are paved with blocks of wood which quickly rot and hold great pools of stagnant water that breed disease. That's the cause of yellow fever. When Memphis is cleaned up and the streets are properly paved, there wont be any yellow fever and it will be one of the most healthful and desirable cities in the United States." I have gone into detail about this matter to prove how sagacious, logical and far-sighted was my father who had never been to school a day in his life but who had a good brain and used it. When I reached New York after running away from the yellow fever I was ill several days with a high fever. I tried to think that the attack was not even remotely related to the Memphis yellow fever, although I could not help remembering that somebody had said it was a great pity Mollie had gone into the room of the German stricken with yellow fever while he was dying, because it is more infectious then than at any other time. But I practiced Christian Science without knowing it, ate lemons by the dozen and was soon perfectly well. During the remainder of that vaction I spent a great deal of time in the open at the various beaches near New York to which my mother generously allowed my brother and myself to go as she had done the previous year. In the fall of 1879 I entered the Senior Class of the Preparatory Department of Oberlin College. Not long ago the preparatory department was abolished I boarded in the old Ladies Hall which was destroyed by fire and which occupied [*10*] the site on which Talcott Cottage now stands. The tables in the dining hall seated eight and it was the custom for the students to choose those whom they [wished] wanted at their respective tables.for the term of about three months. Those who had not been invited to sit at any special table were seatedby the lady who had charge of the dining room. In the middle of the term some friend would invite me to sit at a table which she was arranging for the one to follow, and I would cheerfully consent to do so. Later on another friend would invite me to sit at her table and I would accept, forgetting that I had already promised to sit with another group. Each of these girls would send in my name as one of the eight who had promised to sit at her table. Then when I was not seated at on of the tables to which I had been invited, naturally there was some confusion and explanations had to be made. Mrs Hatch used to say I gave her a great deal of trouble, because too many people wanted me to sit at their tables. If were white, it might seem like conceit for me to relate this. But I mentionthese facts to show that as a colored girl I was accorded the same treatment Oberlin College at that time as a white girl under similar circumstances would have received. Outward manifestations of prejudice against colored students in Ladies Hall would not have been tolerated for one minute by those in authority at that time. Occasionally a colored girl would complain about something which she considered a "slight", but as a rule, it was either because she was "looking for trouble", or because she imagined something disagreeable which was not intended. Later on, however, conditions affecting colored students materially changed for the worse. This phase of the subject will be discussed in another chapter. My associates in college were naturally members of my own class. Until I reached the Junior year I had only one colored class mate who lived in the town. During the three years I lived in Ladies Hall, when I was in the Senior Preparatory and Freshman classes and during my Senior year, when I roomed with one of my colored class mates I never once felt I was being discriminated against on account of my color. During my Senior Preparatory year there was an Ohio girl at Ladies Hall who danced exceedingly well and who enjoyed it too. In that respect it was a case of two souls and two feet but with a single [*11*] thought, for there was nothing I enjoyed then more than dancing. Even unto this day I derive great pleasure from tripping the light fantastic toe. The Ohio girl and I were regular partners and few were the evenings just before "study hour," when we did not [go] hie to the "Gym" and go through all the steps we knew. Dancing was not so common then as it is now and was usually frowned upon by everybody who wanted to be considered intellectual or who sighed to be classified as a High Brow. College girls were not allowed to dance at any class function. But both the teachers in Ladies Hall and the very serious-minded girls encouraged my partner and myself to dance by frequently coming to look at us and complimenting us. During [the] my Senior year I secured permission from Mrs. A.A. F. Johnston who had charge of college women which it is claimed she had never given before. Lawrence Barrett and Marie Wainright were producing the plays of Shakespeare in Cleveland Ohio and I wanted very much to go to see them. The girls with whom I discussed the matter advised me not to tell "Lady J" what I wanted to do, but just get permission to go to Cleveland and [go to] "take in" the theatre after I arrived. But I decided to pursue a different course. "Mrs. Johnston," I said, as I entered her office, "I want very much to go to Cleveland so that I may see two Shakespearian plays. My classmate will go with me. We will attend the matinee and performance at night and return the next day." I asked permission to do this as though it were nothing unusual and looked Mrs. Johnston straight in the eye as I spoke. "If you want to get permission to do anything," the girls used to say, "dont go to Lady J like a condemned criminal. Look her straight in the eye, as though you knew exactly what you wanted and expected to get it. Mrs. Johnston's hair was a beautiful auburn and she wore two little curls, one on each side of her head. Her face became as red as fire, when I was asking her to let me go to the theatre. The very audacity of the request silenced her for a second, but she gave me permission most graciously and expressed the hope that we would have a nice time.On another occasion when I had to take a journey for my father I had no difficulty whatever in securing permission to go. And at that time it was most unusual for young women to travel alone. During my Senior Preparatory year I had one of the best teachers in my [*12*] During my Senior Preparatory year I had one of the best teachers in my entire course, Mr. White, who was principal of the department. "Prin White" taught us Greek and he was as vivacious, interesting and inspiring as a teacher could well be. He had high standards for his pupils and succeeded in making most of us live up to them. When a student was called upon to explain the case of a noun or the mood of a verb, Prin White not only required him to give the rule for the construction but along with the rule he had to give a sentence in Greek illustrating that particular point. For a time I was the only girl in this Greek class with forty boys. No one who read Homer with Prin White can ever forget either the poem or the teacher..I have still have in my possession in my recitation card. He marked on a scale of 6. When he handed me my card showing 5.9% he said in his quick, nervous way, fixing me with his keen, blue eyes, "Miss Church, you should be proud of that record. Praise from Prin White was and still is praise indeed. And I can thrill even until this day, forty five years after the incident occurred, when I think of it. I also remember another incident in my college days with pleasure and pride. It was when my Latin teacher complimented me, because I scanned a certain passage in Virgil so well. I can recall one of those Latin lines even unto this day and the genuine feeling with which I read [? ? ? ? ??] Da, pater augurium, da moenia fessis. Professor Frost who taught Greek was also one of my favorite professors. He looked like an as cetic, tall and straight and thin. I usually sat on the front seat in his calsses and drank in every word he said. He was always and inspiration to me. I had mathematics under Professor Churchill, whom each and every one of us loved, even if we did not always serve him as faithfully as we should have done. I might just as well confess right here that I was never considered a bright and shining mark by any teacher who taught me mathematics in college. Far different. I had enjoyed Algebra in the High School, but when I tackled Geometry in the preparatory department of the college, I truly met my Waterloo. Although I struggled hard to do the work, I did [*13*] not understand how to go at it properly and I barely pulled through. How I loathed Plane Geometry. It wounded my pride and "hurt my feelings, because it was so hard for me to learn and understand. I did a little better in Solid Geometry, but I did not set the world afire even in that. Although University Algebra was not required I took it as an extra in Mathematics to discipline myself anddo penance for my sins. But to my great surprise I discovered that I actually liked it and went through the course triumphantly. I pulled through Trigonometry, but nobody every suspected that I would write a book on the subject at that. I am glad I was stupid in Mathematics and had a very hard time to pass with the required standard. All other subjects were so easy for me that I might have become a bit conceited, if I had met no stumbling blocks in my college course. In Science I was less than excellent and more than fair. Professor Wright's modesty and calm and his thorough knowledge of the subject appealed to me strongly, even though the facts he taught did not interest me as much as I wish they had. Logic under Professor Ellis opened an entirety new world to me and I did my levelbest to understand it. I looked upon President Fairchild, for many years the president of Oberlin College, as a paragon among men and a veritable saint on earth. He taught us Moral Philosophy . Although his emphasis on Benificence amused some of us occasionally I believed in his doctrine from start to finish. Often when a student propounded a trick question which i t was difficult for President Fairchild to answer on the spur of the moment, he would not hesitate to reply "I will think about that and give you my opinion tomorrow. After President Fairchild had often inveighed against practicing deception of any kind, a student once asked him if a man pursued ny a lion could escape death and save his life by deceiving the animal in any way, if that particular deception could be wrong. But no matter how absurd the question might be, the student who propounded it always received a kind and courteous reply. I almost completed my course in Oberlin College without being obliged to think of my race and color. I had one and only one experience which I might [*14*] not have had, if I had been white. In my Freshman year I was elected Class Poet unanimously. I started to write rhymes when I was quite young. One evening I wrote a poem to my mother by the light of the fire in the stove in my room the first year I was in the Oberlin High School. A poem I wrote for class Rhetoricals in my Freshman year received considerable praise from my teacher. I chose as the subject of my class day poem "The Fallen Star" and imitated the hexameter used by Longfellow in Hiawatha. I had, therefore, been rather generally regarded as "Class Poet". When the time care to elect speakers for the Junior Exhibition it was the consensus of opinion among my classmates that I would be elected poet. But a young man who had never written a poem in his life and had never exhibited any talent in that direction was elected after much balloting by the class. I believe I am justified in thinking that if a white girl had won the same reputation for writing poetry that I had,won, and had been recognized by the class as I had been in my Freshmen year, she would probably have been elected Class Poet for the Junior Exhibition instead of a man who had exhibited no talent or skill in that direction at all. Some of my classmates criticized the successful candidate very severely, because he did not withdraw in my favor, after five or six ballots had been cast, as he would probably have done, if his rival had been a white girl. But I did not allow this episode to embitter me at all. Right after the Junior Exhibition I attended the party which was always given the class by one of the professors and had as good a time as anybody else. My mother had sent me a beautiful silk dress which had been made by an artist and was very becoming indeed. I am sure nobody who saw the girl in that gown would have suspected that she was suffering because she felt she had been the victim of race prejudice in the election for Junior Ex. But I received almost every other honor that my classmates or the members of my Literary Society could give me. While I was still in the Senior [*15*] Preparatory Class a young woman in the Senior Class rushed after me one day and insisted upon having me join Aelioian, the literary society to which she belonged. She was one of the most brilliant and popular members of her class and I felt very much honored to have such a student solicit my membership in her society. She explained that none but college girls were eligible for admission to Aelioian, but that a young woman in the Senior Preparatory Class was as far advances in her studies as a girl taking the "LiteraryCourse" would be in her first year in college, so that I was eligible and she wanted to propse my name at the nect meeting. It did not take much persuasion to gain my consent to join Aelioian. I have always felt very grateful to this young woman for having me begin work in this society so soon in my college course. In addition to the literary work required the drill in parliamentary law was invaluable. [?] All I know about it, I learned in Aelioian. When I was called upon to preside over meetings, when I "went out into the world," I would have been greatly embarrassed, if I had not been prepared for this service by the drills given me in Aelioian. The ability to speak on my feet was also acquired in this society. I was elected twice to represent Aelioian when it had a public debate with its rival society, L.L.S.-when I was a sophomore and when I was a Junior, I considered [it] this a special honor, because as a rule, the society elected a Senior to represent it at the public debate held with L.L.S just before Commencement. This was the most important public exercise given by the society, so that no greater honor could be conferred upon a member than to be elected disputant to represent it in a debate with its rival. In my Sophomore year the question the societies voted to discuss was "Can France Maintain a Republican Form of Government?" Much to my regret and greatly against my own convictions I was forced to take the Negative side of the discussion. In [commenting on] referring to the manner in which I presented my points the college paper, the Oberlin Review, [contained the] commented as follows: In my Junior year the two societies decided to discuss Tennyson and [16] Longfellow and Aelioian elected me to cite reasons to site reasons to prove that Tennyson was superior as a poet to Longfellow. [which had been given by Mrs. Sturges was completed When the building for the two socities was completed] When the building which had been given to the two societies had been completed [and the members] and each one appointed a committee to decide how its own room should be furnished, Aelioian put me on that committee to represent it. I could cite innumerable instances to show that the members of my society accepted me on terms of absolute equality with themselves. Since my college society conferred upon me every honor in its gift and my classmates failed only once to recognize me as I believe it would have done under similar circumstances if I had been white, I feel that I have very little reason to complain about discrimination on account of race while I was a student in Oberlin College. It would be difficult for a colored girl to go through any white school with fewer unpleasant experiences occasioned by race prejudice than I did. The young men walked to and from classes with me or along the streets if they happened to be going in the same direction absolutely without thought of my race. I attended all the class receptions and every social function which the college gave. I have good and sufficient reasons for believing that if I attended Oberlin College to day, I could not bear the same testimony in this respect as I can with a clear conscience concerning the treatment accorded [a colored student] me, when I was a student forty years ago. On account of this freedom from race prejudice exhibited by my classmates I was early in my course obliged to solve what for me was a very knotty problem indeed . One of my classmates invited me to go to the reception given by Principal White to our class. Although at that time I thought very little about differences of race myself, I was not at all [keen about] eager to accept this invitation from a white student. I found that my colored classmate had not been invited by a young man to go to the reception, so I decided then and there to accompany her. [But the young man refused to take No for an answer and insisted that I accept his invitation] Under the circumstances I felt that it would be better for everybody concerned if I declined the invitation, even though the student himself insisted strongly that I accept. [17] Months before I graduated from Oberlin College I realized that the carefree days of my youth would soon be a thing of the past. I dreaded leaving behind my friends and going out into the cold world, but the desire to get my diploma and receive my A.B. degree was an obsession with me. II do not see how any student could have enjoyed the activities of college life more than I did. Learning my lessons as well as I could was a matter of conscience and religion with me. My duties as a member of Aeolian appealed to me strongly I realized that the experience in this literary society would help me greatly no matter what kind of work I might do later on. The friendships which I made in college have been a joy and a comfort to me all through my life. Several who were my intimate friends in the High School and in college are my intimate friends to day after forty years have elapsed. But the day finally came- the day to which I had looked forward for years with the keenest anticipation of pleasure. Neither one of my parents came to see me graduate from college. My mother had send a wonderful black jet dress, for the young women who graduated from the "gentlemen's course" always dressed in black then. She also sent me a pair of opera glasses as a graduation present. My father wrote me he would meet me in Louisville Kentucky with two of my friends, and after remaining there a short while we would go on to Memphis. When I reached Louisville, my father took my check and gave it to the [hack] driver of the hack, as that four wheeled, horse-drawn vehicle was called, and told him to get my trunk, The driver soon returned with a little black wooden box which looked like a small coffin and was about to place it under the [seat] driver's seat in front when I asked why he did not get my trunk. "This little box is what your check calls for," he replied. And so there I was in Louisville, knowing I would be receiving invitations of various kinds with the pretty dresses my mother had sent me locked up in a trunk that was nobody knew where. The baggage man in Oberlin had mixed the checks up and I was the unfortunate victim of his mistake. I swallowed my disappointment [as] philosophically [as I could] for fine dressing did not occupy so much of a 18- girl's thoughts as it does now. Perhaps the reason I thought so little about [opposite] clothes was because my mother, who had excellent taste, always saw to it that I was well provided with suitable, stylish, hats, oat and shoes. and selected my [She did not] clothes with great care. I do not see how a girl could have thought less about dress than I did, although people said I always appeared well. The day before my Louisville visit ended, my trunk came and I had a chance to wear one of my pretty gowns. Three times in my life has my trunk been lost. Once just before Inauguration, it was gone three weeks before I recovered it. My anxiety on that occasion was very great, because the only clothes that were suitable for me to wear to the various functions which were to be given during that week were packed in that trunk which did not arrive till March the 3rd, the day before Inauguration. When I reached Memphis I saw the beautiful Queen Anne home which my father had just completed and furnished. He had sent me some blue prints just before I graduated, so that I might see the plan, but a blue print meant very little to me. It is impossible for me to visualize how [what] a house looks merely by seeing a blue print. My new home seemed a very wonderful and imposing structure to me when I beheld it for the first time on a glorius Fall day in 1884. A delicious dinner had been prepared for our party and everything went as merry as a marriage bell. And a marriage bell was soon to be rung. For the following January my father married Miss Anna Wright, one of the fri friends who met me in Louisville. She had been a school teacher in Memphis for many years, performed brilliantly on the piano and was one of the most popular young women in the city. Her mother and my mother had been intimate friends [had given me music lessons during a summer vaca] tion from my earliest recollection and Miss Wright had given me music lesson one summer, when I came home on a vacation. I was well acquainted with her, therefore, and was very fond of her indeed. When my father told me he was going to get married, named the bride-to-be and asked me what I thought about it, I assured him that if he ad scraped the country with a fine tooth comb he could not possibly have found anybody who 19- would have pleased me any better. My own mother and father had been separated for year and there was no likelihood that they would ever live together again and I saw no reason why my father should not have married again, if he wished. My own mother was also very fond of Miss Wright and agreed with me in that my father had made a very wise selection indeed. After [?] intimately at time and less intimately at other periods after my marriage I have never felt that I wanted to change the opinon expressed about his fiancee to my father, when he first told me he intended to make her his wife. In temperament and disposition my step mother and I are just as different as two human beings could well be and yet we have never had the slightest misunderstanding with each other and have never fallen out during the long period she has been a member of the family. During the year I spent in Memphis after my father's marriage I made up my mind definitely that since he no longer needed me it was wrong for me to remain idle there. I could not be happy leading a purposeless existence. Situated as I was I could not put the college education I had taken such pains to acquire to any good use. I was not actively engaged in any work outside of my home and my father did not approve of my doing so. He would not consent to my teaching in the public schools of Memphis, because he said I "would be taking bread and butter out of the mouth of some girl who really needed it." Since he was able and willing to support me, he said, he did not understand why I wanted to teach or do work of any kind, if I was not obliged. Naturally my father was the product of his environment. In the South for nearly 300 years real ladies did not work and my father was thoroughly imbued with that idea. But the daughter had been reared among the Yankees and she had imbibed the Yankees' respect for work. I had conscientiously availed myself of opportunities for cultivating my mind and preparing myself for a life of usefulness as only three other colored women up to that time had been able to do. In the class of 1884 and extraordinary thing occurred at Oberlin College, for three colored women received the degree of A.B. at that Commencement. Previous to that only two colored women had received the [such] 22 degree of AB from any college in the United States or anywhere else in world, so far as the records show. Mary Jane Patterson who graduated from the Classical Course of Oberlin College in 1862 was the first colored woman in the world to become a Bachelor of Arts. Miss Fannie Jackson who later became the wife of Bishop Coppin in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and established a school for colored youth in Cheyney Pa. near Philadelphia was the second colored woman to receive the A.B. degree. in . And then in 1884 three colored women Miss Ida Gibbs, now the wife of the Hon. Hunt, United States Counsul at St. Etienne France, Mrs. Anna J. Cooper, a teacher in the High School of Washington D.C. and myself were given the A.B. degree [this degree]. All during my college course I had dreamed of the day when I could become a real power for good. The more I realized how wonderful and rare had been the opportunities I enjoyed, the more deeply impressed was I with the fact that it was my bounded duty to use whatever mental and spiritual force I had acquired for the public good. Therefore I grew more and more restless and dissatisfied with the life I was leading in Memphis as the year I remained there after graduating from Oberlin College rolled on. And so, although the relations between my new stepmother and myself were most cordial, I decided that life would be pleasanter for everybody concerned, my other mother included, if left Memphis, engaged in some kind of work and struck out for myself. The summer after my father married I went to New York to visit my mother and after writing to several schools for colored youth I secured a position in Wilberforce University. In fact several desirable positions were offered to me. The heads of the institutions for colored youth were beginning to insist that the teachers employed should be college graduates and there were so few colored women who met this requirement then, it was very easy for those who had to secure positions. Wilberforce University is situated about three miles from Xenia Ohio. And this was one of the reasons why I decided to go there rather than to another school. I knew my father would be less opposed to my traching in the North than in the South and I wanted to placate him as much as I could. Years afterward I learned that the president of one of the southern school who had offered me a position actually waited a week or ten days for me at 21 the beginning of the years. But I had never received the letter notifying me of my appointment. The president of this school was a Scotchman and he was eager to place [appoint] a colored [woman] on his well-prepared faculty, each of whom was white. At Wilberforce I received the munificent sum of $65 per month, out of which I was obliged to pay my board, although my room was furnished me free of charge. I taught everything from French to Minerology in college to reading and Arithmetic in the Preparatory Department. In the Senior class which I taught each and every student was older than myself.. [I had in] In Oerlin I had had only one year of French, but in Wilberforce I was required to teach a class each and every one of whom had had two years of that language. But I studied far into the night so as to keep ahead of my pupils who had had a year more of French than their teacher. How I cudgeled my brain and strained my brain trying to learn the stones in Minerology, In addition to teaching five classes in subjects which were totally dissimilar, I was secretary for the Faculty. Several times the students who had been accused of various misdemeanors were brought before the Faculty to be questioned. For instance, on one occasion several students were accused of throwing a bucket of water on the president of the University. So one after another came before the Faculty to tell what he knew, as well as what he didn't know. I knew nothing whatever about short hand, so I had to take this voluminous testimony in long hand the best I could. Although in self defense I had to invent a sort of short hand for myself, this testimony covered reams to paper which had finally to be transcribed in Secretary's book. My position in this particular case was a bit uncomfortable and unfortunate because in walking from the recitation building to my boarding house one day, in a burst of confidence a student told me who threw the bucket of water on the President, having pledged me to eternal secrecy, before i had the remotest idea what he was going to say. So there I sat long hours in the night listening to all manner of fairy tales about the bucket of water which I knew were not true. Never after that did I allow a student to tell me any secrets about their pranks. In addition to teaching and being secretary for the faculty I played 22 the organ for the church services every Sunday morning and evening and gave a night every week for choir rehearsal. Long before Commencement I had to play play several nights each week, while the chorus was learning new selections or rehearsing old ones for that gala occasion. And Commencements at Wilberforce in those days were really red letter days for us all. In addition to the festivities of various kinds the trustees of the University met to discuss ways and means and they sometimes argued pro and con with such enthusiasm and vigor that their voices could be heard in hot debate a long [way] distance from the school. Certainly nobody can truthfully claim that I had many idle moments, when I taught at Wilberforce University. But I enjoyed every second of my work while I remained there. The school is beautifully situated in a rural spot and everything in the little community centers around the institution which is a world in itself. During the first year I taught at Wilberforce I heard from my father only once. He was so angry with be for accepting a position to teach, he would not write to me. I had often discussed the subject with him and knew he was unalterberably opposed to my teaching anywhere. For that reason I did not tell him I was going from New York to each in Wilberforce University till I had begun my work. I hoped that when he learned I had accepted a position in the North instead of the South, he would be reconciled to it. But my hopes in that respect were blasted. I shall never forget the bitter letter he wrote me when when he replied to mine in which I told him I was working in Wilberforce. He practically disinherited me, reproached me stingingly for going contrary to his wishes and said many uncomplimentary things about me for disobeying him. It was the first time in my life my father had heaped so many terrible reproaches upon me and for a while I was very unhappy indeed. But I wrote to him regularly throughout the school year and did every thing in my power to appease his wrath in vain. At Christmas I sent presents to him, to his wife and to a little baby brother who had arrived in October. After staying with my mother in New York a short time at the beginning of the summer vacation I decided to go to Memphis to my father, so as to try to patch up our differences. I sent him a telegram stating that I would arrive at a 23 five o'clock on a certain morning, and when the train pulled into the station there on the platform waiting for me was my handsome, dearly-beloved father, who literally received me with open arms. So ended the most serious breach between my father and myself which ever occurred. Deep down in his heart he was proud of me for having done what he knew I believed to be my duty. As some girls run away from home to marry the man of their choice and thus brook their father's displeasure, so I left home and ran the risk of permanently alienating my father from myself precisely to engage in the work which his money had prepared me to do. After that my father never objected to my teaching and at the end of that summer vacation he was perfectly willing for me to return to Wilberforce to resume my work. At the close of my second year in Wilberforce a very wealthy and delightful woman invited me most cordially to go abroad with her. I had long wanted to study abroad and hailed this opportunity with delight. My father cheerfully [gave his consent] consented and promised to give me all the money I needed for the trip. My wealthy friend and I went so far with the preparation for this voyage that our stateroom was selected and the lady talked enthusiastically of the color of some dresses which she knew would be very becoming to me and was eager to have me wear. She [was especially] waxed especially eloquent when she described the colors she wanted me to affect in Egypt. Then, like a thunderclap out of a clear sky came suddenly an invitation for me to teach in the colored High School in Washington, D.C. Dr. John R. Francis, one of the colored members of the Board of Education had written to the Secretaries of several colleges [which admitted colored students] requesting them to [give] send him the names of colored graduates together with their records, and their home addresses, so that he might write them concerning positions in the colored school High School. Mrs. A.A. F. Johnston, then dean of the Women's department of Oberlin College, wrote so enthusiastically about the three colored women who had graduated in the class of 1884 that Dr. Francis sent for two of us [immediately] Mrs. Anna J. Cooper and myself to come immediately. The third member of the class, Miss Ida Gibbs came several years later to teach. I 24 I regret exceedingly that I have lost two letters of recommendation written by instructors at Oberlin. One was sent me by Professor Frost, professor of Greek, while I was a student and later President of Berea College in Kentucky; the other was was written by Mrs. A.A. F. Johnston, dean of Women. They attributed to me qualities of head and heart which I wish I could believe I possessed and they placed an estimate upon my record as a student of which any one might be proud. I wanted very much to go abroad with the wealthy lady since I knew that conditions under which I would travel with her as a chaperone would be so extraordinary [that I felt] it would be impossible to equal or duplicate them with anybody else. but [my father] I also wanted very much to have my father go abroad and he promised that if I would postpone the trip he would go abroad with me the next summer himself. That was very alluring indeed. But, what if my father changed his mind, after I had altered my plans, and it would be impossible for me to realize the dream of months and years? There were many things of vital importance to me then which had to be considered. I am sure that never after that in my whole live was it more difficult for me to decide what it was best to do than when I was trying to make up my mind whether I should go abroad or whether I should accept the position to teach in the High School of Washington. But I finally decided to come to Washington. Dr. and Mrs. Francis invited me to stay in their spacious and comfortable home for a short while and then I went to board with Mrs. Cox, Mrs. Francis' mother. As soon as I reached Washington, I heard a great deal about a young man who had graduated from Harvard in 1884, the same year I received my diploma from Oberlin. He was an honor man, I was told and was the first colored man to take part in a Harvard Commencement. He was described to me as being tall, very good-looking and splendid company on general principles. He loved to dance and was quite a favorie among the girls, of course. I had been in Washington a week and had not seen this much-described and frequentl-discussed young gentleman. Never having beheld a colored man who had graduated from Harvard I must confess I wanted very much to meet him. The first Sunday afternoon 25 afternoon after reaching Washington I was sitting on Fr. Francis' front door step and happened to glance down the street. Then I saw rapidly approaching the house a tall, dapper, well-dressed young man whom I knew intuitively and instinctively to be the Harvard graduate, Robert Herberton Terrell, about whom I had heard so much. Immediately I jumped to my feet, rushed up stairs impulsively and exclaimed excitedly to Mrs. Francis, "Mr. Terrell has come." Mrs. Francis who was calm and unemotional was very much amused at the commotion in which Mr. Terrell's visit had thrown me and for a long time thereafter enjoyed relating this incident and teazing me about it. Mr. Terrell had charge of the Latin Department in the High School and I was designated to assist him. And never since the dawn of creation did two teachers of the same subject get along more harmoniously and with less friction than that did that head of the Latin Department in the Colored High School of Washington, D.C. and his assistant. I had some first year Latin classes and a second year class. In addition to a first year and a second-year class Mr. Terrell taught the Senior class Virgil. Occasionally he invited me to teach this class, and seemed to take pleasure in showing the school I was capable of doing so. When a discussion arose concerning the construction of a sentence in the Virgil class, when Mr. Terrell himself was teaching, he would sometimes tell his pulis that he was not sure whether it was a subjective of purpose or a subjunctive of result but he would ask Miss Church and see what she thought about it. Of course there were always significant glances around the room and a few half-suppressed giggles. Then the next day Mr. Terrell would be likely to make a report something like this: "I have talked with Miss Church about this sentence and she thinks it is a subjunctive of purpose. It seems to me it is result rather than purpose, but you better take Miss Church's construction, she knows more about Latin than I do." Perhaps some boy a little bolder than the others would remark sotto voce "Anything Miss Church says goes with you, doesn't it Mr. Terrell." The boys and girls enjoyed themselves immensely over our courtship, although we ourselves did everything in our power to be very circumspect and remote to each other during school hours. They [enjo] invented ways and means 25 of showing me they knew Mr. Terrell was very much interested in me. Sometimes when I entered my room I would see something like this written on the black board: "Mr. Terrell is a good Christian for he loves to go to Church." Since my maiden name lent itself so admirably to puns, there were many of them, of course. Occasionally the pupils would rush into my room before school opened in the morning and say in a most surprised and dissapointed way, "Oh, Miss Church, Mr. Terrell isn't in here, is he,", looking all around the room, as though they could not believe their eyes. "Do you know where he is?" they would inquire innocently and then without waiting for an answer they would quickly disappear, convulsed with laughters as they left. I had an experience in the High School during the first year which might seriously have affected my influence as a teacher. One day, the principal who had studied years before at an English University came into my room while I was teaching a first-year class in Latin. He asked a pupil to decline an adjective of the third declension which had an I stem. When he reached the genitive plural the pupil added ium, as he should have done. I observed that our genial, dignified principal opened his eyes wide and looked at the pupil in a surprised and reproachful manner, when she gave the genitive plural. He called upon several others in the class who did the same thing. Then he turned to me, paused as though he expected the teacher to speak and when I remained silent he called on several other pupils who declined the adjective in the same way. And then he said sternly, "Miss Church, you must take special pains to have your pupils learn the genitive plural correctly. The genitive plural of third declension adjectives ends in um and not in ium. I was speechless with embarrassment and surprise. I had taken special pains to teach my pupils which adjectives of the third declension ended in um and which ended in ium and I was very proud of the fact that even the very dull ones rarely made a mistake in this respect. And now here was the principal of the High School telling me in the presence of my pupils that I had instructed them wrong. Fortunately for me, after the principal had read me that lecture, he took his leave. And then I did the only thing a teacher could do under similar circumstances to maintain the respect and confidence of her 26- pupils, I told them very calmly that the principal had studied Latin so many years ago that he had forgotten some of the exceptions to a general tule and then I directed my pupils to turn to their grammars and read the rule governing the point at issue. Fortunately for me the very adjective which the principal was incorrectly declined by my pupils was cites as an example of an I stem adjective whose plural ended in ium instead of um. Long before the summer vacation my father had assured me definitely that he intended to fulfill his promise to me to go abroad with me. He let me make the arrangements to suit myself. I decided to take one of the Cook tours including a trip to some of the principal cities in England, Belgium, Switzerland and France. I went to New York to visit my mother and to purchase the clothes I needed before sailing. Mrs. Isabella Beecher Hooker, the half sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe was a passenger on the City of Berlin on which we sailed. By chance she heard I was going abroad to study and sent for me to come to see her. She became so interested in me that she gave me letters of introduction to some of the most influential people in Paris, thereby rendering me a service which few others would have done. These letters from Mrs. Hooker were an open sesame to me whenever and wherever I presented them. Among the fifteen Cook tourists in our group were some of the most interesting and clever people imaginable. Several of the men were congregational ministers who were delightful companions and were as far removed from the stereotype idea of a parson as one can imagine. The guide was an intelligent, conscientious man who selected excellent hotels, knew exactly what sights we should see and what time it was best to see them, provided carriages and carried out all the arrangements which had been promised. Nobody in my group seemed to give me racial affiliation a single thought. I was very much surprised, therefore, when I heard a few years afterward that a Touring Company had refused to carry out its contract with a colored woman who was in one of its specially-conducted groups. By chance in Paris I met an Oberlin man, who told me that Mrs. A.A.F. Johnston was stopping at the Continental Hotel and suggested I call on her. 27 Mrs. Johnston was [travelling with Mr. and Mrs. B.H. Warner who] and was stopping at the Continental Hotel which was then considered one of the most elegantly appointed hostelries in Europe and gave me a cordial welcome. She was travelling with Mr. B. H. Warner who made a fortune out of a health corset and who later gave Oberlin College a beautiful stone structure for its Conservatory of Music. Many years after[ward] this visit in Paris I met some Oberlin Alumni who told me that Mrs. Johnston had enjoyed seeing me there very much and had related with evident relish that the tourists who travelled in our group thought I was a Mexican and did not realize that I was a colored woman. I have never learned how Mrs. Johnston reached this conclusion, unless she met some of the members of the party and talked with them about me. I had no idea there was any doubt whatever about the race with which I was identified. Since my father looked like a Caucasian and I [was] had an olive complexion somebody may have jumped at the conclusion his swarthy daughter must be a Mexican. I have often observed that as a rule, if white people are very much interested in a colored [people] person, they dislike to identify him with the proscribed race, if by any hook or crook they can avoid it. "You look like a Spaniard, a Porto Rican, or a Frenchman,[or a South American] " they will remark, "Are you South-American?" they will inquire. At least a dozen times white friends have asked me why I didn't live abroad. "Why do you remain here in the United States?" a wealthy woman asked me once. She had a palatial suite of rooms at the Waldorf Astoria, had invited me to dine with her and we were conversing after a most toothsome repast. "I don't see why any intelligent, well-to-do colored people remain in the United States," she said, "when they can live abroad, be treated like human beings and not be discriminated against as they are in the United States. Dr. Warner and I went abroad [she continued] a few years ago," she continued, "and we took Mark, Dr. Warner's valet, with us. When we entered the various railroad stations or hotels, everybody ran to assist Mark and paid no attention to any of us 'poor white trash.' Mark's brown face appealed to them. He always [is] dressed well and the porters evidently thought he must be a great East Indian potentate- A Maharajah, perhaps- and showed him the greatest deference imaginable. 28 imaginable. Poor doctor and I had to carry our luggage and parcels and get along generally the best we could, so far as the porters and some of the servants in the hotels of Europe were concerned. If I were Judge Terrell and yourself I would never live in the United States. Moreover, dont you think it is your duty to your children to deliver them from the evils and burdens of race prejudice if you possibly can?" I have heard several of my colored friends relate similar experiences in their relation with white people. And so, perhaps, the members of the Cook Touring Company with whom my father and I travelled who told Mrs. Johnston that I was a Mexican preferred to classify me in that way rather than think of me as colored. Many white people hate to think that a colored person in whom they are particularly interested and with whom they have associated on terms of equality belongs to the proscribed race. In replying to Mrs. Warner's suggestion that Judge Terrell and I should pack up a bag and baggage and live abroad I told her it was not easy for people without a competence to go to a foreign country and earn their living, and that in spite of race prejudice in [this country] the United States, the fact remains that there are more opportunities for representatives of the race to accomplish something here and support their families in comfort than can be found in any other country on earth. It is hard for me to believe that any young woman could have extracted more pleasure and more profit from a three months tour in Europe than I did. I drank in everything of historic interest in great gulps . I could never see enough in one day and I never grew tired. Long stairways I climbed up eagerly while some of our company groaned aloud and others refused to ascend, I am sure I never missed a word of explanation which any guide on the trip gave about anything, no matter how trivial it was. My father's interest in the historical places we visited and the rare objects we saw was also unbounded. But he insisted that i should send home postals and letters describing these places to members of our family and some of his friends which consumed a great deal of my time and strength. I wish, however, that I could now lay hands and eyes on some of [*29*] those cards and letters which I wrote as a young woman on my first trip abroad, so that I might see what was my point of view then. But, my stepmother declares she can find none of these letters, although she had preserved them carefully for a long time. Few men could have been more wretched than was my father in the morning he boarded the train in Paris, so as to take the steamer sailing for New York. As he stood in the station waiting for the train, he begged me to return home with him. "But, father," I reminded him, "my clothes are at the hotel. Surely you would not want me to leave all my belongings here in Paris." But if I had decided suddenly to do just that, Father would have been one of the happiest men in the world. Although my father rarely showed how deeply he was moved by anything, his eyes were decidedly moist, when he kissed me good bye and entered the train, leaving his daughter in Paris alone. Not a tear was in my eye, however, I was the happiest girl on earth. I think I felt as Monte Christo must have felt, when he exclaimed "The world is mine." Here I was in Paris. I could study French, visit the wonderful galleries, learn something about art, attend the theatres. In short here was the realization of those radiant dreams which had filled my head and my heart for years. My father had promised to let me remain abroad one years at least and I knew I could do exactly as I pleased. He would send me the money I needed and would permit me to do anything in reason and that was all I desired. Nothing to worry me. Not a care in the world, bubbling over with enthusiasm and youth. Just as soon as I could find a suitable pension I left the dear little Hotel de Malte in the Rue de Richelieu and went to board with a widow who lived in Rue Rennequin. She was a typical French woman who had a dear little niece, so that it was a decided advantage for me to secure accommodation in such a house. My landlady gave me a French lesson every morning shortly after serving me my breakfast in my room consisting of the regulation coffee and roll. She was a most faithful and capable teacher and worked hard to make my pronunciation and accent correct. By talking with her young niece who could neither speak nor understand a word of English, I learned many expressions [*30*] used in ordinary conversation which are not found in books. Living in Paris was very expensive even then. At least I had to pay much more just for my room and board than I cared to spend for those two items. Moreover, when I wanted to attend the theatre, it was necessary to have a chaperone, pay for her ticket as well as my own, even when she did not expect an extra fee for her services. I chafed under this a bit. An American girl who had left Paris and gone to Switzerland sent me the addresses of several private families with whom I might board. After corresponding with them I decided to go to Lausanne Switzerland without telling me father I intended to leave Paris, because I feared he would object to my travelling in Europe alone. I had definitely made up my mind to go to Switzerland and I thought it was better to make the change without asking my father's permission than to do so, if he preferred to have me remain in Paris. Having always obeyed my father - except when I accepted a position to teach, I did not want to break my record a second time. I felt greatly handicapped in Paris, because at that time comparatively few American girls young as I was, went about the city alone and I knew that in the dear little Swiss Republic English and American girls were accustomed to go about unaccompanied. Before I left Paris I sent my father my Lausanne address and then I waited in fear and trembling for his reply. Every morning when I awoke after reaching Switzerland, my first thought would be, "What if you receive a cable from your father ordering you to come home, because you have left Paris without consulting him." But no such tragedy occurred. My father assured me that he had perfect confidence in me no matter where I travelled. "I know you can take care of yourself," he wrote, "and that you will do the right thing. After receiving a letter like that from her father, no girl who had a bit of confidence in her by doing anything of which she knew he could not approve. The family with whom I boarded in Lausanne consisted of the father and mother who had two daughters about my own age. My room was very small - just large enough for a single bed, a little table and a chair. It had only one 31 window, but from that single, little window what a glorious view I had. I could see the snow-capped Alps towering heavenward and at right angles to them the low-lying Jura Mountains which somehow linger in my memory as bring always brown. The younger of the two daughters in the Gowthorpe family was an artist who played the piano exceedingly well and painted much better than the average amateur. The older who was the favorite of both parents also played the piano quite well. The maid carried her breakfast to her everymorning and she always remained in bed till noon. No princess of the royal blood was treated more tenderly and looked after more carefully than Cecile. Whereas Marie was required to arise early and was put through all the paces rigorously. A more aimiable girl I have never met and we became fast friends. Perhaps she appealed to me all the more because the stern regime under which she lived differed so strikingly from the soft, easy life lead by her sister. The father of the family was one of the directors in the Suisse Simplon Railway and was a most entertaining man. He enjoyed nothing more than taking a company of young people on a long hike. Early Sunday morning we would take a train at Lausanne for some nearby town from which we would climb a mountain which he wanted me especially to see. On our way both up and down the mountain we would stop at some little wayside inn, have a light repast which was always topped off by some delicious beverage which Monsieur Gowthorpe himself brewed. No matter how much we plead with him and tried to bribe him, we could never persuade our host to divulge the secret of the ingredients of the beverage or the manner in which he made it. There was no one following him and try to surprise him in the act of concocting it, he always successfully eluded us. While I was in this Swiss home I made many delightful excursions to cities and towns of interest near Lausanne. Among others I went to see the Castle of Chillon and visited beautiful little Vevay. Of course I went to Geneva several times and once I bought a beautiful fur coat there. In Lausanne I attended a private school for girls whose principal was a highly cultivated and charming women indeed. Most of the pupils in this school were younger than myself, although I was ny no means the eldest. I visited 32 all my lessons in French and was required to write compositions in French like the other pupils in the class. Referring to one of my essays the principal of the school declared that Mlle. Church showed that she had thought about her subject carefully, that she expressed her advanced ideas strongly as was characteristic of most American girls. Although I had always been deeply interested in the History and Literature of Europe, I learned much that I had not previously known and acquired many points of view that had never occurred to me in this school. I lived a long distance from it and had to climb a steep incline to reach it every morning. But every minute I spent with the inspiring, charming gentlewoman who taught in this school was full of pleasure and profit to me. In the Swiss family in which I lived, the conditions were almost ideal. In addition to the two daughters of my own age a young girl came from from the German Switzerland speaking the German of her section which nobody in the house could understand. We three girls had all the fun that was rightfully due us under our own vine and fig tree. I became acquainted with the friends of hostess and was occasionally invited by them to some delightful little function. It was difficult for me to decide to tear myself away from such delightful functions as these. But after remaining in Lausanne one year I felt that I had spent as much time studying French as I could afford to give it. I wanted to study German. Although I had heard that [knew] the purest German was spoken in Dresden, I wanted to live [a while] in Berlin. I had lived in the capital of the United States, had spent quite a while in London,and in Paris, so I wante d to live in the capital of Germany also. I felt that if I could learn to speak German as well as it could be taught me in Berlin I would be as proficient in the language as I could hope to be. With a heavy heart in spite of the fact that I was doing exactly what I had planned and wanted to do I left my dear friends in Lausanne. I was the closest friend Marie had ever had and she was inconsolable. Shemust confess I shed many bitter tears myself. But after I boarded the train,youth's grief at leaving dear friends was greatly assuaged by the magnificent scenery which was 33 was unrolled before my enraptured eyes. Nothing Nature has ever done could be more wonderful than Switzerland in winter with its snow-capped Alps. One may read volumes on the subject without getting a good mental picture of the reality. Nothing but the views given us in the Movies can help us visiualize the grandeur, the beauty, and the sublimity ofthe scenery which is unfolded on every hand. in Switzerland, one of the garden spots of the world. It is a temptation to try to convey to my readers what an impression this trip through Switzerland in the winter time made upon my youthful mind. How I was awed, inspired and uplifted by the scenes. If I tried to reduce this to language, I should fail, I am sure On the way to Berlin I stopped at Munich and Dresden. In Munich I employed a guide to show my the city, knowing that I could visit more points of interest more quickly during the short time I was to remain. I had spoken nothing but French for a year, and although I had spoken German fairly well before I left the United States, both my tongue and my ear were out of practice [when] somewhat. However I was delighted to see that I could understand w hat was said to me and could express everything I wanted to convey. [My gui] My guide, a red-faced, typical German, suggested that he could carry my Baedeker's Guide Book more conveniently than I could. I had [recently] bought it before I left Lausanne, so that I could read up on the journey I was about to take and decide what I wanted to see before I reached the place. It had always amused and disgusted me a bit to see Americans with their heads buried in their guide books and their eyes glued to the printed page instead of look at the works of art or at the structures which they had come so far to see. So I cheerfully entrusted my Baedeker to the guide's watchful care. After we boarded a street car on our way to a church a man standing on the rear platform looked at me very seriously and said something to me in German w hich sounded like a warning of some kind. In thinking about the words spoken rapidly I was sure I heard Geldbeutel and I knew that it meant purse. I observed that the guide looked daggers at this man who was speaking directly to me. and was saying many things which I could not understand. It finally dawned upon me that the man was warning me against my guide and telling me to watch 34 out for my purse. But when I went to settle up with my guide that evening I understood perfectly what the strange man on the trolley tried to tell me. After paying him for the time he had given me I asked him for my guide book At first he denied having taken one from me, but when I insisted that he had, he began to search carefully though his many pockets in his trousers and in his sweater, as though he were trying to find it. After searching for it in vain he told me he must have lest it somewhere during the day, But when I told him in German which he understood perfectly that I would call the police,if he did not return my Baedeker, he fished it from the depths of his sweater, being obliged to insert his hand so far down into his clothing I feared he could never bring it up again. But, when his hand finally hove in sight, so did my Baedeker's Guide Book. That was one of the very few cases in which an effort was made to steal from me while I was abroad. Sometimes in Paris the cabmen or the small tradesmen would try to withhold a few cents in making change, but they did it so cleverly and had reduced their manipulations,their explanations and their gesticulations to such a work of art that it was almost a pleasure to be cheated by these skillful gents. But no woman of any nationality ever tried to cheat me out of a sou from the time I left the United States till I returned. When I reached Dresden I was glad I had decided to study in Berlin. The city was full of Americans and English. Wherever I turned- on the streets, in the stores and in the hotels I heard my mother tongue. I knew that a foreign city full of Americans was no place for a colored girl. I was trying to flee from the evils and disadvantages of race prejudice so common and so depressing in my own country, and I thought it would be very stupid indeed for me to put myself in a position to encounter it abroad. I received my first taste of German opera in Dresden where the most noted singers were appearing at that time. I went alone, for it was never unpleasant for me to go anywherealone. From the time I first began to travel to this minute I have preferred to go alone, so that I might see just what interested me and stop as long as I pleased to look at it, instead of being forced to gaze at objects which did not appeal to me at all and thus waste valuable time looking at them, so as to be 35 polite and accommodate friends. When I finally reached Berlin I decided to remain temporarily at a pension on Markgrafen Strassen kept by a neat, aimiable little Jewess. She had only one vacant room which had no conveniences and was so small I did not see how I could live in it. There was no place to hanf my dresses and there w was no way to heat the room except by a gas stove and I had always heard that heat from a gas stove was injurious to the health. For that reason I look - at a room in another pension and talked with the priprietor about it, discussed the price and told her I would notify her on or before a certain date whether I would take it or not. In the mean time the guests in the Markgrafen Strasses pension were so agreeable, were so eager to have me remain and the clever landlady had made the sparsely furnished room so attractive and comfortable I decided to remain there. According to promise, therefore, I communicated my decision to the woman who had shown me a [the] room in the other pension several days before. She claimed I had definitely engaged the room, that she had saved it for me and insisted on having me pay the rent for a month. There is no doubt whatever that this woman had been enlightened about the estimate which Americans place upon their countrymen who have African flood in their veins. My landlady told me very significantly that there were some American women in the pension of the women who claimed I had definitely engaged one of her rooms and who would have made it very unpleasant for me if I had gone there to live. Th ey had seen me, she said, as I passed through the hall and had immediately conveyed the information to the owner of the pension that they suspected I was a representative of a race which was ostracized in the United States by all white people who had any self-respect. When I reached Berlin I had not heard from home for nearly three week s Before leaving Lausanne I had instructed my father to send my letters to Berlin"Post Restante ". As soon, therefore, as I reached Berlin and decided upon the pension at which I should remain temporarily, I started immediately for the city post office, eager to get the mail which I knew was awaiting me. I received many letters and when I finished reading them, I started to 36 return to my boarding house. It was the first week in December, the afternoons were short and I realized that it was rapidly growing dark. When I looked for a paper containing my address, it was nowhere to be found. While joyously readin my letters from home I had undoubtedly lost that slip of paper of such great value to me. So there I was in the great city of Berlin with night coming on, actually lost, acquainted with no one , while practically everything I possessed was in my luggage depositied in [a house] an apartment on the second floor of a house which I could not locate to save my life. After cudgelling my brain a long time I finally thought I remembered the name of the street, on which my pension [or I thought I did] was located. I was also able to tell the policeman to whom I related my tale of woe the name of the car I had boarded to reach the post office and I was also able to describe pretty accurately the corner on which I boarded it. So wonderfully systematic is every municipal affair conducted in Germany that it is quite easy to secure practically any information one needs. The names of the people who keep boarding houses are kept on file and a stranger may remain in a city ,only a short time [certain length] before he is required to register his name and tell everything about himself which the authorities want to know. And so after several processes of induction and consultations with a certain office I finally discovered where I had deposited my belongings. When I finally reached my pension it was quite dark and I found my little landlady plus all her boarders very much alarmed about the inexplicable absence of the young American girl who had just reached the city. The lesson I learned on that occasion was invaluable to me . After that I always carefully guarded addresses so that I was never lost in a strange city again. Our family consisted of two brothers, Hebrews, one of whom was a blank official, very learned, sedate and mature. The other was much younger, [handsome] and was connected with the stock exchange. He was quite handsome and was a gay Lotharie. They had a very comfortable, well-furnished suite in Fraulein Talkenberg's pension. Then there was a tall young German with a magnificent physique wh o was studying something which he kept a secret and who was always talking about his 2Braut", his bride. "Meine Braut"was a subject which he never tired discussing and hegaled us with it in season and out. He had been an officer, of co urse 37 since he lived in Germany in the hey dey of militarism and he told us over and over again how his fiancee would come to his house every day [and] so that she and his mother could look out of the window at him as he proudly marched by No human being could possibly have been more conceited than he was and no human being, not even excepting Bismark himself,could have believed more implicitly in brute force than he did. Not only did he believe in War and all the horrors incident thereto, but he smacked his lips with relish, as he told how he intended to whip his children, and how he intended to boss his wife. Then there was an English girl in the pension who was always strictly tailored. She said she gave lessons in English but she did not hesitate to admit [say] that a well-known Berlin banker was very much interested in herand that she was invited to suppers as well as theatre parties galore. Then there was also an interesting little clerk, who was heels over head with the landlady, but the Fraulein proprietor of the pension gave it out boldly that she would not think of marrying a man so poor as he was. I did everything in my power to soften Fraulein's heart toward her poverty-stricken suitor, but she always silenced me that she had long ago outgrown the romantic age when women marry for love alone. It was the first time I had heard a woman declare openly that she would not marry for love and I was greatly shocked. ,The two brothers helped me greatly to become acquainted with Berlin and its interesting suburbs. They advised me with reference to the German books it was best for me to read and directed me to various objects of interest not generally mentioned in a traveller's guide and which I should not have seen but for them. On several occasion these two brothers and their cousin took me to see beautiful castles and interesting environs of Berlin. I especial ly enjoyed seeing the castle at which Frederick Second and Queen Victoria's daughter, his consort, spent their honeymoon. This Englishwoman was the first person to establish a school for the higher education of girls. But the German idea of the higher education of girls at that time differed very materially from that entertained in the United States. Some of the professors from the University of Berlin delivered lectures at this girl's school which might easily have been digested by children of ten or twelve. But the educational fa 38 facilities offered women for the so-called higher education at this school were greater than those which could be found anywhere else in Germany at that time and by many they were gratefully accepted. I attended this school and one day when the Empress Frederick who founded it visited it I curtsied to her in true German fashion like the other girls. Twice and [sometimes] occasionally three times a week I attended the opera while I remained in Berlin. I frequently attended the theatre also, for there is no better way of educating the ear and acquiring the correct pronunciation in studying a foreign language than by listening to good actors. I had a dear little Russian friend who was one of the most remarkable linguists I have ever met. She spoke at least seven languages fluently. We usually attended the opera together and sat in the peanut gallery which was frequented by students from whose comments I learned much more about the operas, the artists and music on general principles than I could have acquired by in any other way. In this way I became well-acquainted with the youth of many lands, some of whom were rated as geniuses and expected sooner or later to startle the world with their achievements. Many of them were poor in this world's goods, however rich in talent [they were] and great expectations they were. And to me it was pathetic to see the desperate struggles they made to get along. One morning my landlady knocked at my door and told me I had some callers. When they were ushered into my room, one of my Belgian friends introduced me to a blind musician from Austria. He had come to propose marriage to me. He had probably heard from some American student that I had a few drops of African blood in my veins, was very fond of music and might be glad to marry a Caucasian Since I hailed from the United States he took it for granted that I had a respectable bank account so he was perfectly willing to link his destiny with mine, assuring me that what he lacked in money he more than made up in talent. And I learned from a reliable source that this was true. He begged me to marry him and promised to make good as an artist. Several of the friends he brou ght with him gave glowing accounts of the laurels he had already won as a pianist. He would surely be heard from some day, they assured me. There was no doubt whatever about that, and then they said, I would be the proud wife of one of the greatest virtuosos in Europe. 39 Although I was greatly amused and could scarcely conceal my disgust at the cold-blooded proposition that the musician should marry me for the money he thought I possessed and I should marry him for the reputation as an artist he thought he could make I felt sorry for the afflicted man and did not permit myself to say anything which would wound his feelings. I declined his offer of marriage with thanks, however, saying that I had been brought up to believe that marrying for anything but love was a sin against the law of God and that his proposition to enter holy matrimony for any other reason shocked me beyond expression. And then I told him what I knew would completely cure him of any desire to marry me. I intended to earn my living, when I returned to the United States , I declared and assured him that I was not rich at all. While I was in Berlin I was greatlt indebted to one of my colored friends for seferal musical treats I enjoyed and for information concerning musical people which I could have secured from no other source. And the way I happened upon this friend was very romantic indeed. Shortly after I reached Berlin I walked out with an American woman whom I had metin our pension to see the beautiful shop windows as brilliantly and artistically decorated for [the] Christmas, we had stopped several times to admire the wonderful display. I felt that somebody was following me and I turned around several times to see if I could discover any[body] one. Once I thought I saw a man stop suddenly quite a little distance behind me, but I was not sure, so I said nothing to my companion about it. We continued our [sroll], stroll, stopping every now and then to discuss the beautiful objects we saw. just as we drew up to a window, I turned around suddenly and saw standing behind me a young man of my own race wi th whom I had been well-acquainted for years and who was then studying music in Berlin. Everybody who has travelled abroad knows how happy he is when, unexpectedly he meets an old friend. The young man said he saw me suddenly, as he turned a corner and although this individual bore a striking resemblance to me, he he felt he must be mistaken, because he had not heard I was travelling abroad, He was so impressed with the resemblance, however, he decided to follow my companion and myself, until he could catch a glimpse of my face,and he was just 40 coming up to greet me, when I turned aroung and saw him. This young colored American had remarkable talent for the violin, At that time [the great] Joachim , one of the greatest teachers of the violin of mo modern times, taught nobody who was not unmistakenly talented in the violin. Neither wealth, power, nor high social standing could tempt this great master to teach anybody who was not a presumptive genius. It was rumored in Berlin that more than one member of the aristocracy had implored Joachim to teach his son without avail. But the great Joachim was teaching this young colored man from the United States, so impressed was he with his superior talent. Joachim wanted this young colored amn to become a great violinist,but for various reasons, the master's hopes in this respect were not realized. The talented young colored musician did, however, become a renowned composer of popular music characteristic of his race. When I used to urge this young musician to avail himself of the marvellous [From him I learned what concerts or operas I should attend and on more] advantages and opportunities which he enjoyed in Berlin he would reply: [than one occasion he gave me tickets for them. He also gave me the addresses] 2What's the use trying to do something extraordinary or even anything worth [of the Oberlin friends who were studying in Berlin. But I felt that time spent when I was trying to learn German.] while. A man must have some kind of a background [conversing in English was wasted so that I did not cultivate my American] to amount to anything. He must have a firm racial foundation on which [friend as much.] to build. What have we accomplished as a race? Almost nothing", he would reply with disgust. "We are descended from slaves. How can you expect a human being with such a background as that to compete successfully with white people?" I argued with him long and loud to convince him that in spite of almost insurmountable obstacles a few colored people had really accomplished somethin g worth while and that as a race we were rapidly forging ahead in many fields. But I could not convert him to my point of view and prove to him how fatal to the race would be such a theory as he advanced. A few years ago [And] this musician's son [has] won a scholarship in a well-known Eastern university which has enabled him to study abroad as his father did before him and the son gives promise of having a brilliant and useful career. Although my musician friend has accomplished a great deal in his art, I am sure he would have achieved greater things, if he had not been obseesed with the idea that a man with African blood in his veins was doomed to mediocrity at best. [41] During the first winter I was in Berlin my mother wrote that she and my brother were coming abroad in the spring to spend the summer in Europe with me. A short time before I left Berlin for Liverpool where the steamer on which my mother and brother sailed landed I broke a small hand mirror. I was wretched indeed. I did not know till then how superstitious I was. I feared some terrible disaster would overtake my loved ones, I reached Liverpool at least ten days before the steamer arrived and in spite of strenuous efforts to control myself I was very apprehensive and dreaded to read the papers lest I might learn that the steamer had gone down [with] and everybody on board had been lost. The afternoon on which I saw the speck far out on the ocean which I knew was the steamer bearing my mother and brother to me was a happy one indeed. I waved my umbrella so vigorously that I broke it in[to] two pieces. Never, since my mother and brother arrived safe[ly] and sound in Liverpool in spite of the broken mirror have I allowed myself to worry about any superstition. I rejoiced that early in my life I saw how stupid it is to borrow trouble because something happened which was supposed to bring bad luck. While waiting for Mother and Brother in Liverpool I saw many things which interested me, of course. But the sight which made the most indelible impression upon me was the type of [women] some of the women in the streets. I saw the most tattered, degraded and depraved women in Liverpool that my eyes have ever beheld anywhere on earth. I have never seen women fight each other so savagely as those women did in the streets of Liverpool. The policemen [seemed to] [paid] pay little attention to their brawls. It seemed only to amuse them. On several occasions I saw women fight till the rags they wore had been almost torn from their bodies. If the women in other cities which I visited were as degraded as were those in Liverpool I did not see them. What a glorious [summer] time, Mother, Brother and I had travelling together in Europe that summer. In the first place, my mother was one of the most generous human beings the sun ever shone upon and she had just enjoyed a rare visitation of good fortune. A plumber who was working for her one day persuaded her to buy a ticket in the Louisiana lottery which flourished like the proverbial green [42] bay tree at that time. She paid a dollar for it, then threw it aside somewhere and forgot all about it. After a while this plumber whom my mother had not seen or heard from since he sold her the ticket came to the house and told her the number on the ticket she had bought had won the first prize and she was entitled to $15,000. My mother thought the plumber was joking till he showed her the number which he had carefully recorded and preserved. But where in the world was that valuable ticket? Who knew? My mother certainly did not. The house was searched from top to bottom. The contents of all the drawers were dumped out and carefully scanned. The pockets of every dress and coat in the house were emptied. Bureau scarfs were lifted up in the hope that the lost ticket might have slipped under one of them and left for safe keeping. But all in vain. The lost ticket could not be found. Finally, Anna, a German girl, who had been working for my mother several years, ever since she landed in New York from the Fatherland, remembered that she had cleaned out a drawer in the buffet, had thrown a lot of trash [paper] in a waste-paper basket, and had not had time either to burn it up or put it in the trash barrel to be carted away. She ran to this basket, hastily pulled out the papers which were marked for destruction and at the very bottom of the pile was the innocent, unobtrusive little ticket which was worth $15,000 in cash. My mother gave the plumber who had notified her of this good fortune $1000. She gave Anna $200 for finding the ticket and sent me $300 with which to buy a fur coat. I was in Lausanne at the time and put this money in the bank, resolved not to touch a penny of it till my mother could help me select whatever I bought. [So that was] The good fortune enabled my mother to travel in Europe with her son and daughter without being worried about financing the trip. The first thing she did on reaching London was to order a handsome seal skin ulster for herself and one for her daughter which she ordered one of the best furriers in London to make from skins she selected herself. My mother's knowledge of materials of all kinds always astounded me. She knew good quality in everything pertaining to clothing or to the furnishings in a home and she was one of the best-dressed women I have ever seen. Then my mother ordered three or four stylish suits for my brother and a dress suit she gave him [35] [43] was the last word in that article at that time. My mother would be described by some as "not" knowing the value of money. Whatever she wanted, she bought, if she happened to have the money to pay for it that minute. She literally fulfilled the scripture [about] when it came to laying up treasures here upon earth. She valued money only as it ministered to her immediate needs and provided what luxuries she craved. So she spent the money she had won freely, stopping at the best hotels, using cabs and enjoying [and buying for herself and children whatever appealed to her or she thought we needed.] the various pleasures which travel in a foreign country affords. In vain I tried to induce my generous, improvident mother not to spend her money as lavishly. She paid no attention to this advice at all. If she saw any thing she even suspected I needed or [even] might enjoy. She bought it for me any[d] protest I might make to the contrary notwithstanding. In Paris we had an experience which might have resulted very disastrously indeed. We attended the opera one night and took a cab to go home. We had been driving what seemed to me a long time when I realized we were getting late the suburbs of Paris instead of traversing the streets which lead to our pension. Incidentally I had experienced some difficulty in persuading my mother to stay at the boarding house at which I had formerly lived, because she wanted to go to one of the best hotels. When I asked the driver where he was going, he grunted something which gave me to understand he knew what he was doing and [glanced] looked out on both sides of the road, as though he expected to see somebody. I had heard of strangers being taken by cabmen to deserted spots near Paris [and] to be robbed and sometimes murdered, if they resisted and I suspected that this cabman was looking for a confederate to help him steal my mother's diamonds which he had seen sparkling in her ears, if he contemplated doing nothing worse. With all the courage I could summon I told [him] the cabby to turn around immediately and gave him to understand that if he did not obey my orders, my brother was prepared to force him to do so. Much to my surprise and relief the cabman turned around immediately and drove straight to our pension, which was quite a distance in the opposite direction from which he had been driving. [44] From that day to this I have been a but timid about hiring a cab at night in a strange city. Like other Americans Mother, Brother and myself enjoyed the Paris Exposition in the summer of 1889 immensely. When those two were tired out sight-seeing I would get them to agree to wait for me somewherem while I still pursued my onward course, for I never wearied of beholding the wonders that were displayed. My power of endurance was then and is to day marvellous. Although we had many interesting and amusing experiences, the one that stands out most prominently in my memory was meeting a sure-enough, flesh and blood African prince. He was one of the most courteous, magnetic and attractive personalities I have ever met anywhere in the world. He had been educated in Paris, and had acquired the manners of the French, although he was dressed in his native garb. My mother always insisted that this prince made such a deep impression upon me that her daughter would have undoubtedly become an African princess, if she had only had half a chance. Before leaving New York my mother had promised Anna, the German girl who found the much-sought ticket, that she would visit her parents who lived near Castle, while she was abroad. She kept her promise, leaving my brother and myself to enjoy among other things many pieces of sculpture representing the ancient Grecian myths. In the summer of 1889 so many Americans went abroad to attend the Exposition at Paris that it was exceedingly difficult to secure accommodations on a steamer to return to the United States by the middle of September. My brother was attending college in Marietta Ohio and he wanted very much to enter, when the term opened. We had gone to several steamship offices to secure accommodations, but had failed. Finally, coming out of one of them I met a young colored woman with whom I had become acquainted In Washington and who was one of three colored women from this country who were studying abroad at that time. [It illustrated] This was one of the many illustrations that occurred to prove that the world is very small indeed. I visited very few places, no matter how small they were, in which I failed to meet some one I had either known in the United States or somewhere else. It -45- It was finally arranged that my mother and brother should sail from Hamburg on the Hamburg-American Line and we went there to spend the last few days of our vacation together. If I had known how hard it would be for me to say Goodbye to them and see them sail away home leaving me behind on a foreign shore I might not have had the courage to remain abroad, although I wanted very much to study another year. As soon as the steamer sailed, I rushed to the hotel, threw my effects into my valise and took the train for Berlin, where I planned to spend part of the winter. I went to a hotel, when I reached Berlin, because I did not want any of my friends or acquaintances to see how wretched I was. I had no appetite and could not eat. The third day I remained in bed, for I felt too weak to dress. About noon the proprietor of the hotel came to see what was the matter with me. The maid had told him, he said, that I was ill, had not eaten for three days and he intended to send for a doctor. I tried to explain my condition by saying I had been travelling a great deal during the summer, was, therefore, quite tired and had been considerably shaken by the departure of my mother and brother for home. I assured him there was nothing much the matter with me and that I would be well enough to go out the next day. "Have you any friends or acquaintances here in Berlin?" he inquired. When I replied in the affirmative he insisted upon having me give him their addresses, I had decided not to return to the pension in which I had formerly lived for several good and sufficient reasons. The elder of the two brothers who had been so kind to me was growing more serious in his attention to me than was good for him, I feared, and I thought an entirely different environment would be very advantageous for me. For that reason I did not give the hotel proprietor the names of my good friends in the pension in which I had spent such a happy time. Since I was obliged to furnish the name and address of somebody with whom I was acquainted to whom the proprietor could write I decided to refer him to an Oberlin friend. She came post haste the next morning and insisted that I was simply home- sick, after my mother and brother had left me, and that I must come to her pension immediately. I protested vigorously against doing so, because I did not -46- want to live among English-speaking people, since it would tempt me to use my mother tongue too much, and I did not want to board in a house frequented by Americans and run the risk of getting into trouble. But my Oberlin friend overcame all my objections, promised solemnly that she would speak English only on Christmas and the Fourth of July, selected a room for me, made all arrangements and bundled me up bag and baggage to move there. I had been in Fraulein von Rinck's pension but a few days, when I observed that a woman whose complexion was quite swarthy fastened her eyes upon me continuously. Finally she came over to me one evening when we were both in the reception room and asked me to what nationality I belonged, "I have heard that you are an American," she said, but you are rather dark to be an American, are you not?" I laughingly replied that I was a dark American. "And I am swarthy, too, you observe, I am a Spaniard and married a German. But every time I see a woman who is not fair, I become very much interested in her indeed." That was the beginning of one of the most interesting and delightful experiences I had while I was abroad. This Spanish woman was the wife of a General in the German Army. Occasionally both she and her husband enjoyed living in a pension where there were young people and students of different nationalities. She enjoyed talking with them, associating with them and learning their aims and views and ambitions in life. I learned from reliable sources that she had sufficient money in her own right to live comfortably, to say the least, and that she had not only married into one of the most aristocratic families in Germany, but belonged to one herself. Through my Spanish friend I was introduced into several distinguished social circles into which the other Americans in Fraulein's pension did not have entree. And this opportunity came to me, because my complexion was dark. It was the first time in my life that any piece of good fortune came to me because my face is not white. Frau von Renckstern introduced me to a handsome, young man, who was a graduate of Heidelberg University, a counselor at law and who belonged to an aristocratic family. I had been in Fraulein von Finck's pension but a short time, before 47 I saw two young Americans eyeing me as though they were anything but pleased to see me in their midst. These two students, each of whom must have been at least thirty years of age, were studying medicine, one being from Baltimore an d the other from Washington, D.C. I observed that Fraulein, who was rather pretty,loquacious and especially catered to Americans, held long conversations with these two medical students who could not speak German and understood it very little. Like the typical German woman Fraulein wasted no time during these long conversaziones, but was alway s busy doing fancy work of some kind. One day she called me and told me she would like to see me in her room that afternoon at two o'clock. When I entered Fraulein appeared embarrassed a nd it was evident she did not know how to say what was in her mind. "To what nationality do you belong?"Fraulein Church, " she asked. "I am an American," I replied. "But you are darker than the average American, aren't you?" She flushed a deep red, when she asked me this question. "Yes, I am darker than some Americans," I replied. "Can you go to a hotel in the United States?" she interrupted, showing plainly that somebody had explained to her [my] the status of colored people there. "I certainly can," I answered."I have been going to good hotels with my father ever since I was a little girl . I have stopped at [the] first class hotels in New York city several times, but why do you ask me these questions Fraulein von Rinck? What difference does it make to what nationality I belong, so long as I conduct myself properly and pay my board. There are several nationalities in your pension, you know." And then Fraulein von Rinck threw all her cards upon the table and related the whole story from start to finish. The two medical students from Baltimore and Washington tell me you are a Negro, Draulein Church," she said, "and that you are not allowed to stop at a first-class boarding house or hotel in the United States. They also say that if I allow you to remain here in my pension, no self-respecting people from the United States will stop with me. I told them an American girl who was well acquainted with you and had gone to school with you had engaged the room in my house and had persuaded you to come against your will. [Then] They explained that by saying that there are a few cranks in the United States who are willing to associate with Negroes, and there are [ask] socially ostracized by self-respecting people. Then I told them that the young men and women who are your friends are very highly-educated, refined people who associate with the best Americans who live in Berlin. But these medical students told me I was greatly mistaken and explained the situation by saying that just as Jews are socially ostracized here in Germany,so Negroes are socially ostracized all over the United States They stated positively that Negroes can not secure accommodations in decent hotels there. They can not buy tickets in the theatres, unless they are willing to sit in a portion of the gallery set apart for them. 'But Fraulein Church is not a Negro," I said, She is not black. She is no darker than Frau General von Renckstern, a Spaniard." "But she is classed as a Negro in the United States, whether she is black or not," the medical students declared." If an individual has only a single drop of African blood in his veins,"these students explained, "white people in the United States consider him a Negro." In short,there was nothing these young white men from the United States could possibly tell this German woman which would cause her to reject and repudiate me which they failed to relate and reveal. I told Fraulein von Rinck that I had attended school with white Americans all my life,that I had graduated from a High School, an Academy and a first class college conducted by white Americans for white students, [and] that I had enjoyed the same privileges and had been accorded the same treatment as a student that white students received. I impressed it upon her that I was by no means the only colored student who had attended institutions of learning in which colored students were accepted with white. I explained to her also that the discrimination against colored peoplein hotels, theatres and schools so graphically described by the medical students was practically confined to the southern section of the United States. At that time this was essentially true in the main. But, since then prejudice [49] has rapidly spread all over the United States. After expressing my opinion freely and relieving my mind I told Fraulein von Rinck that I would not embarrass her by remaining under her roof another night. I felt I could not maintain my self respect if I staid in the same boarding house with two men who were so full of [race] prejudice against my race that they would try to drive from [a] comfortable quarters a young colored girl who was alone in a foreign land three thousand miles from home. Fraulein begged me not to leave. She assured me that she simply wanted to talk with me, so that I might explain matters to her.When I insisted upon leaving the house immediately, she wept bitterly and declared that she would never forgive herself for having spoken to me at all, if I left. She assured me she did not want me to leave at all, but if I insisted upon doing so, I must stay with her another month at least. Very much against my willl I remained in the pension a week longer. Among some white Americans race prejudice is such an obsession that they can not lay it aside even in a foreign land, where there is no danger they will be pestered to any appreciable extent by the objectionable Negro. These two young white men had been reared in an atmosphere of such relentless race prejudice that the boasted chi v alry of"the southern gentleman" snapped and broke at the sight of a young colored woman who was alone in a foreign land trying to cultivate her mind. They did not hesitate to humiliate me, wound my sensibilities and disturb my peace of mind by trying to persuade my landlady to put me out of her house. But I was not at all sorry that I went to Fraulein von Rinck's, for Frau General von Lenckstern made it possible for me to see a phase of life among the aristocracy which I could have observed in no other way. Moreover she introduced me to a handsome, young man who was a graduate of Hedielberg University, a counselor at law and who belonged to an old and distinguished family. One evening she arranged a theatre party to which this young man was invited. Between the acts I was quite sure I [over] heard him say something about me to Frau General von Lenckstern. I could not help overhearing him exclaim in surprise "Why dont the Americans like her?" And then in disgust"What do they claim is the matter with her?" After that some words reached my ears that made me [20] 50 certain he was paying me several compliments.Herr von Devitz took me home from the theatre party and after discussing the educational system of Germany and how it differed from that of the United States he was very much surprised to learn that I had received the A.B. degree from college. Observing that he was quite skeptical about my having studied Greek I quoted the first line of Homer's Iliad to him. He stopped on the street abruptly and was transfixed to the spot. I am sure if I had built a steam engine before his incredulous eyes he could not have been more astonsihed, not to say shocked than he was, when he heard me quot a line in Greek. "Um Gottes willen, Fraulein", he exclaimed, "there is not another girl in the whole German Empire who can rattle off Greek like that." I assured him that there were sundry and divers other American girls in the German Empire who had graduated from college and they could probably do much better than I did. I was very fortunate in finding a delightful boarding place after leaving [Before I realized it Herr von Ravitz's admiration for me had ripened into] Fraulein von Rinck's in the home of a widow of a Court Minister who had two [affection. There is no doubt whatever that through our mutual Spanish friend [daughters about my own age. She lived in an apartment on Bamburger Strasse, just he had learned all about the race prejudice of which I was the victim and that] daughters about my own age. She lived in an apartment on Bamburger Strasse,just [some American people had objected to my presence in Fraulein von Rinck's pension.] a few doors from the Philharmonie, where the great von Bulow directed his wonderful orchestra. One of the daughters of this household was a demure young woman with plenty of latent fire which she kept under perfect control. She was engaged to a young man who did not live in Berlin and spent the major portion of every Sunday afternoon writing him long letters. Her sister was abundle of mischief and delighted in letting the world know it. She had been off to school somewhere and boasted that she and the girls in her set smoked. At that time I had never heard of girls from respectable families smoking and I was greatly shocked, I had never seen a woman smoking, not to mention a young girl, and I had not yet heard that many women in Europe had acquired the habit. But this young German girl had heard that all American women and girls smoked and she believed I was [putting on airs] misrepresenting the facts to say the least, when I declared I , when I denied that allegation. But in this case there was no use trying to"defy the alligator". for she firmly believed that American women and girls committed indiscretions of every conceivable kind without even attracting attention. [51] After I lived in Berlin a while it was easy to understand how and why this estimate was placed upon American girls. A goodly number of them who were studying abroad, freed from the restraints of home, had violated the proprieties perhaps, without any evil intent. Many Germans, therefore, judged American girls as a whole by the indiscreet few whom they saw in their own country or about whose misbehavior they heard. It was interesting as well as painful to me to see that American girls were the victims of the same kind of blanket accusations made by the Germans as that of which colored people are the victims in the United States. Association with Frau Oberprediger Hofer and her daughters was not only delightful but decidedly advantageous to me. I spoke German all the time in her home and was never tempted to relapse into English. I enjoyed the mischief and fun of the younger daughter very much and the bond of union between us would have been closer, if eh had not hated the Jews so fiercely and so bitterly. She enjoyed nothing more than poking fun at the Jews. According to her they were altogether wrong. She reeled off story after story at the expense of the Jews. It amazed me to see how a girl so young could hate so deeply a race, no representative of which had ever done either her or any member of her family any harm. Her attitude toward the Jews annoyed and irritated me greatly. I would never laugh at her Jews in which Jews were made the butt of ridicule, no matter how funny they were. And she had a remarkable sheaf of them, to be sure. I could not help thinking how the race with which I am identified is misrepresented, ridiculed and slandered by people who feel the same animosity toward it as the young German girl felt toward the Jews. She explained her hatred of them to me by declaring they were so dishonest, that they went through the rural sections of Germany cheating the simple and unsophisticated peasants out of their hard-earned pennies. They were such notorious climbers, she said, were always boasting about something, how much money they had or what they had done. When she finished criticizing and ridiculing the Jews I said, "Fraulein, I am a member or a race whose faults and crimes are always exaggerated by its [52] enemies and detractors just as you are exaggerating those of the Jews. And the people who see little or no good in them enjoy nothing more than telling the world about theid vices and defects just as you have been regaling me with those of the Jews. Then I explained as well as I could that I had African blood in my veins and was considered a Negro in the United States. I told her that if she lived in a certain section of the United States, she would not eat eat at the same table with me, would not allow me even to sit beside her in the street cars or on the railway coaches and that her mother would certainly not give me room and board in her home. But my young German friend did not understand it at all. She was sure I was exaggerating the facts. She could not believe that any human being would object to another solely on account of the color of his skin. If a race cheated, boasted and bragged and made itself generally obnoxious on that account, as everybody in the world knew the Jews did, she insisted, she could understand why people would not want to come into close contact with such a group, but she simply could not comprehend why anybody would object to another, because he happened to be a few shades darker than himself. This young girl admired my type very much. She would often pat my cheek and say "Ach Gott, Fraulein, Sie sind so schon scwartz." "You are so beautifully black, Fraulein, and your hair curls so prettily." My German teacher was literally a perfect dear. She was a buxom woman of middle age with cheeks like rosies and a smile which never came off. We read and talked together and became fast friends. After steeping myself in German literature, music and the drama, studying by day and going to the opera and theatre at night I left for Florence Italy one bitter cold day when the ground was white with snow. The parting between [my German sweetheart] Herr von Dovitz and myself affected us both considerably, I must confess. After the theatre party we frequently met, some[time]times going with Herr [General and Frau] and Frau General von Renckstern, sometimes sightseeing sometimes taking long walks together. He had never been closely associated with a young woman who had taken a college course and the fact that I could [53] quote Greek and Latin made a deep impression upon him. Through our mutual Spanish friend there is no doubt that he had learned all about the race prejudice of which I was the victim in my own land. His admiration for me and his sympathy with me soon ripened into affection and he urged me to marry him. One day he asked me where my father lived and how one wrote such an address in the English language. Thinking he was prompted by curiosity only to get this information I showed him how to write my father's address. About a week afterwards he told me had written to my father [telling him he loved me], and asking him to consent to our engagement and marriage. I was very sorry he had done this for several reasons. Knowing my father's views on intermarriage I was sure he would not consent and I feared he might insist upon my coming home immediately. But, fortunately for me, he allowed me to remain in Europe, knowing that I was about to leave Berlin in a short time. But he wrote Herr von Dovitz in no uncertain term that he would never consent to his daughter's marrying a foreigner and living abroad. When I bade my German sweetheart good bye at the station I knew I would never see him again. If I had been white, I might have married him. I admired him very much. He was a man of high intellectual attainments. He was handsome and seemed genuinely fond of me. But I made up my mind definitely not to marry a white man, if I lived in the United States and I feared I would not be happy, as an exile- living in a foreign land. While a student at Oberlin College my attention was first attracted to the intermarriage of the races, when Frederick Douglass married Miss Helen Pitts, a white woman who lived in Anacostia, D.C. I used to go into the little reading room of Ladies Hall where I boarded, so as to read the editorial comments in the newspapers and magazines. I was then and there convinced that no sound argument could be adduced to prove that there is anything inherently wrong in the intermarriage of the races. I saw that a great hue and cry had been raised against it, because it outraged custom and tradition. I was greatly surprised at the attitude assumed by many colored people who [objected strenuously and loudly to] criticized Mr. Douglass so savagely because he had marriedm a white 54 woman. These very people were continually clamoring for equality - absolute equality along all lines - equality of opportunity, equality in the courts of law, educational, political and social equality world without end Amen! And yet when a representative of the race actually practices equality by choosing as his mate an individual classified as white, these very advocates of equality condemn him for practicing what they have preach ed loud and long more bitterly than anybody else. While I have no patience with people who assume such an attitude I decided that I myself would never marry a white man, because, as keen as I felt the indignities heaped upon my race, I knew I would probably be very unhappy, if I were the wife of a man belonging to the group which sanctioned these injustices and perpetrated these wrongs. Altogether three white men proposed marriage to me. One was the German Baron to whom I have referred, and the other two were Americans whom I met abroad. One of these Americans was a student whom I frequently, since we were pursuing the same studies and were interested in the same things. He had no race prejudice whatever and had great strength of character. He was eager to defy the customs and traditions of his country which ostracize everybody through whose veins a few drops of African blood happen to flow, no matter what their attainments and virtues may be. The other American who proposed to me was a prosperous business man to whom I was introduced on the steamer, when I was returning home from Europe with my father and his family. I told him neither one of us would be happy in the United States. The white women would refuse to receive me in their social circle because of my race and the attitude of colored women would, in many instances, be unfriendly too. But he answered these objections by saying he would take me to Mexico, where there is no such race prejudice as exists in the United States. "You look like a Mexican anyway", he declared, "and we'll have no trouble on that score at all." I have dwelt upon these episodes in my life at greater length than I would ordinarily, because I wish to city my case as proof of the fact 55 that some colored people are not so eager to marry white people as is generally supposed. From private conversations with my white friends, from the questions frequently asked me, when I have addressed Forums in the East, from statements often made in the press, I am persuaded that the average white person believes that there is nothing which a colored man wants to do so much as to marry a white woman and nothing a colored woman desires more than to marry a white man. It will do no harm, therefore, to show that some colored people do not entertain this point of view. On my way to Florence from Berlin I had several experiences which are indelibly impressed upon my mind. At one of the stations where I changed cars late in the afternoon, I had gone into an apartment (?) exclusively for women. At that time there were apartments exclusively for women, compartments exclusively for men and apartments for both sexes. I was obliged to travel all night and I felt perfectly safe taking an apartment exclusively for women. I knew I could stretch out on the long seat and have a good rest. About two or three o'clock in the morning I heard the door of the compartment open and, when I looked up half asleep to see who had entered. I saw it was a man. Then I heard the guard lock the door and I knew I was locked alone in the compartment with a man whom I did not know. I could not help feeling that this man had made it worth the porter's while to allow him to enter the woman's compartment at night against the rules. As soon as he started the conversation I knew he was German and he knew I was an American. I told him I had come abroad to study and was on my way to Florence to study Italian and visit the wonderful art galleries there. Whatever might have been his intentions, when he induced or bribed the guard to let him enter a compartment at night exclusively for women, he was one of the most delightful and helpful casual acquaintances I have ever met. He was well acquainted with influential people in Florence and gave me letters of introduction to several of them. He knew Florence by heart and advised me what to see and how to see it. Several times since then I have read about murders which were committed in broad day light in the compartments of England and Europe and a shiver 56 always run down my spinal column when I think of my experiences enroute to Florence, awakened out of a sound sleep in a foreign land, finding myself confronted by a strange man and knowing I was locked alone in a compartment with him on a train which was speeding along in the dark. Still another incident fraught with danger occurred on this trip. Baedeker's Guide Book advised those who wished to get an unusually fine view of Genoa to arise very early in the morning and go to the top of a certain church. The directions were explicit and clear. One had to as cend a narrow steep stairway in the back of the church and keep climbing till he reached the spot from which the superb view could be obtained. The morning after I reached Genoa I arose very early, full of enthusiasm and made my way to this church. I had climbed about half way up the steep, narrow stairway, when I heard a noise behind me. Turning around quickly I saw in the dark the form of a man following me. My heart beat fast, but there was nothing to do but continue the ascent. Come what might, I certainly could not turn back. When I reached the top of the stairway and stepped out on the tower I explained to the man who had followed me why I was there. He was the sexton of the church and without saying so, he (?) very plainly that he was surprised to see a young woman all alone so early in the morning. After leaving the church the beautiful Mediterranean sea beckoned me on. I wanted to dip my hand into the water and gaze at it to my heart's content. While I was standing on the shore filled with joyous enthusiasm two men came by in a boat and asked me if I did not want to take a ride on the sea. After settling upon the price they would charge I stepped into the boat and was soon rowing happily along. My mind was so occupied with what I was that the men had rowed a long distance before I suddenly realized how far we were from the shore. When I asked them to return, they did not comply with my request at first and I had to insist several times that I did not want to row any further, before they turned toward the shore. Some of my friends declare that I ran a risk when I went alone with Italian boatmen and allowed them to row me so early in the morning a long distance from the [57] shore. And several of them have [told me] related [incidents] blood-curdling storries of robberies in which foreigners who allowed themselves to be taken alone at a distance from traffic not only lost all they carried with them, but nearly lost their lives. But at that time and for many years afterward I scarcely knew the meaning of fear. There were very few things I hesitated to do when I was in my twenties and thirties, simply because there was a certain element of danger in them. There are scores of things which I would not dare to do to [day] but which I undertook without fear, when I was young. If I reached a city at midnight or after, as was the case with Venice, it never occurred to me that there was the slightest danger in taking a conveyance and going to the hotel alone. After my experience in Paris, however,I lost much of the fearlessness I formerly possessed. Florence more than fulfilled my expectations in every way. The landlady wh who kept the pension at which I stopped was one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. Although she was an Italian, she was as fair as a lily. Her cheeks were a lovely shell pink without benefit of rouge, her eyes were as blue as the Mediterranean and her hair was as black as jet. She was a widow and had a son about twelve years old who was one of the most mischeivous lads I have ever know. His name was Roberto and his beautiful mother was continually beseeching him either to do something or to desist from doing something which he naughtily did. [many years after I lived in Florence I became acquainted with a Robert in the United States.] In this pension the star boarder was a wealthy Russian who I know now must have been in the last stages of consumption. At the table a box of saw dust was placed on the floor by his chair, so that he might expectorate in it at short intervals during our means. Fortunately for my peace of mind I did not know as much about germs as I do now, or I should have been very unhappy indeed. But how rapidly I learned Italian in those surroundings. For two years I had done nothing but study foreign languages, so that I had acquired a certain facility in learning a foreign tongue. I had a system of my own which I used quite successfully. Before I had been in Florence six weeks, I could not only make my wants known quite well, but I could state in understandable Italian anything which I cared to express. [58] With Signora Giovannoni and her family I attended the Artist's Ball which was a gay and unique affair indeed. The Artists' Ball which American girls and I attended in Berlin had prepared me for anything which Europe and are accustomed to do at such a function., so I was surprised neither at some of the bizarre [costumes] not to say risque costumes which were worn nor at some of the outlandish favors which were presented to the guests. How I reveled in the treasure-filled art galleries of Florence, especially the Pitti and Uffizi, where I literally entered a new world. The marvellous canvasses of the old masters fascinated me and I stood long hours gazing at them with thought of getting tired. I was greatly encouraged when finally I could recognize who painted certain pictures the minute I glanced at them because I had learned the touch and the characteristics of the artists who did them. It was easy to identify Botticelli and Fra Angelica's pictures, because they were literally "so different from the rest. Carlo Dolci's madonnas appealed to me strongly. I studied Raffael's paintings carefully and conscientiously to see whether I could detect for myself in what their perfection consisted. I bought a portrait of Raffael which was copied from the original painting he had made of himself. The story told about a portrait of Carlo Dolci interested me greatly. A certain French king who visited Italy saw him deeply absorbed in painting a picture one day, and requested that the artist paint one of himself just as he looked when he was at work. The request was complied with and I bought a small copy of this portrait which Carlo Dolci painted of himself by look ing into a mirror, so that me might catch the expression of his face , as he worked. These two small portraits of Raffael and Carlo Dolci have hung in my home ever since I have had one.I have also enjoyed looking at some Madonnas which appealed to me strongly as a girl and which have intermittently adorned the walls of my home. Most of my time in Florence was spent in studying Italian, in visiting the wonderful art galleries,[and] in seeing the marvellous treasures of all kinds in which the city abounds and in taking very long walks about the city as well as in the suburbs. If I wanted to walk anywhere alone within a distance [59] of 8 or 10 miles, I did not hesitate to do so. It never occurred to me that any danger would evertake me no matter how few people I met on the road. While I lived in Florence I especially enjoyed visiting the places and seeing the pictures mentioned by George Eliot in her incomparable Romela. I found an edition of two small volumes bound in white trimmed in red in which unmounted photographs had been pasted on a page and inserted opposite the passages which they illustrated. As, book in hand, I went from place to place to see a picture or to stand on the very spot on which a certain character stood I felt that I was alking and talking with the great novelist herself. The monasteries and the nunneries were a never-failing source of interest to me. I never tired seeing the monks themselves and the great stone [stru] structures hoary with age in which they lived and moved and had their being. I acquired the habit of going into the beautiful, old Catholic churches several times a day. The architecture, the pictures and the atmosphere of those grand old structures lifted me out of myself and directed my thoughts up ward from the material and sordid affairs of the earth. One morning about two o'clock I received a cablegram from my father telling me that he would leave Memphis on a certain date to take a steamer in New York and spend the summer in Europe. He landed at Bremerhafen and came on to Frankfort-on the Main where I met him. He had brought the whole family with him - his wife, Robert about four years old and little Annette who was only two two. I immediately took charge of my little sister, and let Father do thehonors for the young brother. I had mapped out a delightful itinerary of several months, not knowing the children would be members of the party. And although their strength was not overtaxed, it was surprising how little of my program had to be revised or eliminated and how much of it was carried out as originally planned in spite of the presence of two small children. First, we went from Frankfort on the Main to Heidelberg, not only to see that wonderful old castle which had been nearly destroyed by Napoleon, but to take a package to a young woman who was studying there. She was the daughter of a neighbor who had lived next door to us in Memphis for years and who belonged to one of the old aristocratic, slave-holding families [60] of the South. If, on some fine morning in the palmy days of slavery any one had told the father of this woman that on a particular summer day less than forty years from that date a man then held in slavery would be taking a tour through Europe with his family and would be politely requested by his daughter to deliver a package to his granddaughter in Heidelberg Germany, he would either have laughed at the man who could imagine such a preposterous situation or he would have suggested that he put into an insane asylum. Through some of the most beautiful sections of Switzerland and Italy we passed, going up the Rigi, of course, and remaining in London and Paris several weeks. [On the way home] On ship board, as we were ploughing through the [to the steamer which brought us home there was a group of jolly people] ocean on our way home something quite unexpected happened. One of the passengers [who contributed a great deal both to my own pleasure and to that of the] became greatly infatuated with me and it was difficult to prevent him [other passengers.] from showing me marked attention, whenever he was in my company. He was a matter of fact, level-headed sort of a man, deeply engrossed in business and not al all the type which one would suspect of losing his head about any girl, particularly a colored girl. Previous to that experience the only men who had been especially interested in me had been quite young - near my own age. It had always been quite easy to convince them that the case was not so serious as they thought it was. But with this mature business man the proposition was entirely different. Before leaving the steamer he had insisted upon coming to see me at my mother's residence in New York. He wanted to talk with me about something very important, he said. Without going into details I can here and now truthfully record that I have seldom had greater difficulty in refuting arguments presented by an opponent and in persuading him to listen to mine that I did when this business man proposed marriage to me. People of different races had a perfect right to marry each other, he stoutly maintained, and he ridiculed the statements I had previously made about believing in absolute equality if I did not agree with him in this respect. If I married a white man in the United States, I explained, I knew I would be perfectly wretched, because I would be shunned by black and white alike. He had thought that all out, he declared and had already decided to take me to Mexico. We could be perfectly happy in Mexico, [he was sure] where the race problem 61 is not so acute, he was perfectly sure. But it never was the slightest temptation to me to marry a man of the dominant race. At least three times in my life I might have done so, but I did not consider it seriously either time. From my point of view there is very little happiness for a colored woman who marries a white man or for a white woman who marries a colored man in the United States. Race prejudice is more intense in some sections than in others, it is true, but people who inter-marry in this great American Republic are victims of it, no matter where they live. As soon as I landed in New York I received a letter from Mr. Robert Weberton Terrell urging me to come to Washington immediately to notify Mr. George F.T. Cook, Superintendent of colored schools that I would resume my position as teacher in the High School. I had secure a leave of absence for one year and then had had it renewed, but had failed to notify the Superintendent when I would return. My work that year consisted mainly in teaching Latin and German. My Senior class presented a play in German which was very creditable to both teacher and pupil. I had taught what was then called "the natural method," and the ability of my pupils both to express themselves and to pronounce the language correctly surprised even me. I urged the pupils in my class to get a book entitled Studien and Plaudereien which I had seen in a book store by chance and which taught them by easy methods to express themselves in German without using English to translate the meaning of the words. Seeing the book used in the class one of the teachers asked me by what authority I had done this, since it was not included in the curriculum. It had never occurred to me to ask permission to use anything in the class room which would help my pupils do their work well. I was told, however, that this was considered quite a lawless thing for a teacher to do. Mr. Terrell and I became engaged that year. He was the head of the Latin department and I was his assistant. In explaining our decision to link our destiny together I used to say that I enjoyed assisting him in the Latin department so much I (?) my mind I would continue to assist him for the rest of my natural life. Naturally the pupils showed their interest in their teachers in a variety of ways. Sometimes they would write our names together on the 62 blackboard. Some one would open my door suddenly, poke his head in and ask innocently, "Miss Church, do you know where Mr. Terrell is?" They also indulged in puns on our names. "Mr. Terrell used to go to dances," they would comment, "but now he goes to Church." During the summer before my marriage I remained in New York with my mother getting my trusseau and then went to my father's home in Memphis where I was married. Mr father insisted upon having a wedding feast and for a long time afterward the guests talked about the delicious viands which were served. The following clipping from the Commercial Appeal gives a fairly good account fo the wedding. Our presents came from friends all over the United States and were numerous as well as beautiful. It was claimed by some that no such collection of gifts had ever been presented to a young colored couple before. A few hours after the wedding Mr. Terrell and I left Memphis for New York to visit my mother a day or so before going to Boston where we spent a delightful honeymoon. At Auburndale, a suburb of Boston Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Lee had a fine hotel at which President and Mrs. Harrison had stopped a short time before. The fact that the President of the United States and his wife stopped at a hotel kept by colored people created a great deal of dissatisfaction among the people of a certain section, if some of the newspaper reports were correct. Mr. and Mrs. Lee invited us to spend our honeymoon with them. In Washington, where Mr. Terrell was employed in the Treasury Department) in two rooms we started housekeeping with The summer after my marriage I was desperately ill and my life was despaired of. My recovery was nothing short of a miracle and my case is recorded in medical history. In five years we lost three babies, one after another, shortly after birth, which was a great blow to Mr. Terrell and myself. [63] The maternal instinct was always abnormally developed in me. As far back as I can remember, I have been very fond of children. I have never seen a baby, no matter what its color, class or condition, no matter whether it was homely or beautiful, no matter whether it was clad in rags or were dainty, sheer muslin, that I did not think cunning and dear. When, therefore, my third baby died two days after birth, I literally sank down to the very depths of despair. For months I could not read understandingly. It was impossible for me to fix my mind on what I saw in print. When I reached the bottom of a page in a book I tried to read. I know no more about its contents than did some one who had never seen it. I was tormented by the thought that the baby's life might have been saved. I could not help feeling that certain methods used in caring for the little thing had caused its untimely end. Some of my friends could not understand how a woman could grieve so deeply as I did over the death of a baby who had lived only a few days. But I sometimes think a woman suffers as much, when she loses her baby at birth as does a mother who loses a baby which has lived much longer. There is the bitter disappointment of never having enjoyed the infant which has lived under the mother's heart so long and upon which she has built so many and such fond hopes. Acting upon the physician's advice I left home, where everything reminded me of my sorrow and visited my dear, sunny mother in New York. She would not allow me to talk about my baby's death and scouted the idea that its life might have been saved. Nobody could remain long in the company of my mother with her sunny disposition and hearty, infectious laugh without being cheered and encouraged, no matter how unhappy he or she had previously been, I am sure this short visit to my mother did much for me physically, spiritually and mentally. Many a human being has lost his reason, cause he was allowed to brood over his trouble indefinitely, when a slight change of scene and companionship might have saved it. Shortly after my third baby was born and lost I had received a great honor. Congress had empowered the Commissioners of the District of Columbia to appoint three women to serve on the Board of Education. Since colored people at that time comprised one third of the population of the District of Columbia. [65] government [to men in authority] and laughingly replied, "Well, its a good thing you yourself are not a candidate for the position, for after expressing such an opinion to men in authority, you wouldn't have a ghost of a chance to get it. Shortly before midnight our door bell rang and a reporter was ushered in bringing the news that I had been appointed a member of the Board of Education that afternoon and asking for a sketch of my life as well as my photo. All the direful predictions made by Doubting Thomases that white women would not work on a Board of Education with a colored woman were false. There was no friction whatever between us on account of race. Nobody patronized me on account of my color and nobody seemed to object to any opinion I expressed because it came from a colored woman. It happened that I was the only member of the Board, white or colored, who had ever taught in the Public Schools. For that reason I was often requested to describe certain conditions which obtained and to answer questions which were asked. It occurred to me finally, however, that reference was too often made to the fact that I was more thoroughly acquainted with conditions in the [sch] schools than the other members of the b Board. It began to embarrass me considerably. One day after there had been a lengthy discussion in the Board about something affecting the teachers and I had been asked as a former teacher to express an opinion. I requested one of the white men to let me speak to him a few minutes after the meeting. "I would rather not be asked so often to give an opinion, because I have been a teacher in the schools," I said. "If you think there is any information I can give you, because I have taught here, I'll be glad to give it to you either before or after the meeting, but not during the session." I decided to take this stand, because I have often observed that no matter how braod and liberal white people are, as a rule, they dont like to have it appear that colored people know more than they do about anything in the world. As a "trustee", for the people appointed then were called "Trustees." I tried to protect the interests of the children, the teachers and the parents of the particular group I was designated to represent. I had scarcely been 66 appointed before people came running to my house to tell me about the short comings and evil deeds of some of the teachers. I was amazed to learn how eager some people are to cause others to lose their positions. Both men and women would come to my house to tell some scandal about a teacher, generally a woman and urge me to have her removed. I did not know how to handle such a situation at first. While I wanted to impress upon those who came bringing evil reports that my own standards are high, and that personally I wanted nobody in the schools whose standards are low, still I also wanted to impress upon them that I would never make a move against any teacher solely on hear-say evidence. One day a very bad case was reported to me and I was urged to have the teacher removed immediately. I explained that I could not do that single-handed and alone, even if I wished to. But I could not satisfy my informant. She insisted that my own standards could not be as high as they should, if if I did not act upon the facts she had presented right away. "Will you be kind enough to tell a small committee what you have just related to me?" I inquired. "No indeed," she replied, "I will tell nobody but you. Only the members of the Board will be present beside myself, and they will not divulge what you relate," I argued. But my visitor would not consent to tell anybody but myself what she had narrated to me. Then I arose, got paper and pencil and began to write. "What are you doing?" inquired my visitor a bit concerned. "Simply jotting down the facts you have presented to me for fear I shall forget some of the details," I replied. When I had finished taking notes I said, "I shall notify the proper committee concerning this matter and let them take suitable action." Before I got any further she interrupted me. "You will not divulge to anybody who gave you this information," she said, greatly agitated. "Are you not willing to do this much to promote the welfare of the schools?" I asked. "No indeed I am not, she replied very forcibly. I do not want my name dragged into this affair in any way, shape or form." "Do you expect me to have this or any other teacher dismissed on hear-say evidence brought to me by a woman who isn't willing to let me tell the proper authorities from whom I received the information upon which I am asked to 67 prefer these grave charges? It is a very serious thing," I declared, "to cause a woman to lose her position in the public schools on account of improper or immoral conduct. I would not be justified in trying to remove a teacher on the unsupported testimony of one woman." My visitor arose to leave immediately insisting that under no circumstances would she allow her name to be "dragged" into the affair, but that it was clearly my duty to put the teacher out. I tried to make her see that her interest in the public schools was not so great as she represented it to be, if she were not willing to assist in having removed from the schools a teacher whom she had depicted as being altogether bad. But I did not succeed. This experience was a valuable lesson to me. After that I knew exactly how to handle each and every similar case/ I always had paper and pencil ready and as soon as I was aware that somebody had come to tell me about the misdeeds of a teacher, I immediately began to take notes. As a rule I would be asked immediately why and what I was writing. And when I informed the visitor that I would use the notes, when I presented the facts she had given me to the proper committee, invariably my informant would become greatly agitated and declare excitedly that his or her name could not be mentioned under any circumstances. I can not now recall a single exception to this rule. It is a great comfort for me now to reflect after a lapse of so many years that with two exceptions I never cast a vote to remove a colored teacher from the public schools. In one case there was a public record against a teacher which any one might have seen, if he had gone to the Court and read the testimony given by eye witnesses under oath. The other case was that of a colored woman teacher who is said to have associated a long time with a white man. There was no doubt in my mind that this teacher had a right to do this on general principles, if this white man was her choice. I believe in absolute equality with references to all races in all matters. Theoretically I believe in the intermarriage of races when the two parties to the contract are agreed, although personally I would never have associated steadily with a white man or married one in the United States. The usefulness of any colored woman who would do so at present would be impaired. As a rule the lot of the children 68 who are the result of such a union is very unhappy indeed. Although theoretically the colored teacher in this particular case had a perfect right to associate with a white man, it was the concensus of opinion among many of the best citizens of the National Capital and among some of the most thoughtful members of the Board that she had destroyed her usefulness as a teacher in our schools. They were convinced that she had set a bad example to the girls. I could not help feeling that this was the correct view of the matter and on that occasion I cast my vote with the majority of the members of the Board. One of the colored men holding a fine position was accused of writing an anonymous letter to the Superintendent of schools, Dr. Chancellor, who was himself dismissed a few years later. Before I had any idea of the reason he was making the inquiry Dr. Chancellor showed me two letters with out letting me see the signature of either and asked me whether I thought the same person wrote both the letters or whether the letters had been written by two different people. After examining them carefully I was convinced that both the letters were written by the same individual and I took the pains to call the Superintendent's attention to the peculiarity of several letters which were the same in both epistles. After I had definitely committed myself to this opinion the Superintendent told me that one of the letters was written by a colored official and the other was sent to him anonymously. Consequently, when this principal was tried, however much I regretted the necessity of doing so, I was obliged to vote with the majority of the Board that he had been guilty of the offence with which he was charged. So far as I can recall, these were the only occasions on which I voted to dismiss colored teachers. On the other hand over and over again I fought desperately to save a teacher against whom charges had been preferred, if I believed he or she were innocent. There are several teachers holding important positions in the schools who could testify to the success of my efforts when I took up the cudgel in his or her defense. When I recall my record in this respect, I have no regrets that I pursued this course. One of my friends complimented me once by saying: "The only hard fights you have ever made as a member of the 69 Board of Education was to keep a teacher in the system and not to put one out." While I was on the School Board several times I stood alone in casting my vote to decide some mooted point. The case which was most conspicuous, perhaps, was the one in which it was decided to remove from the white schools a beautiful little girl whose mother was white and whose father was a very fair man through whose veins about a teaspoonful of African blood was supposed to flow. The parents of this child lived in one of the suburbs of Washington, where the child, who was about nine years old, had always attended the public school for white children. Some one had discovered that her father had a few drops of African blood in his veins and had reported the matter to the school officials, whereupon the "leading citizens" of that suburb had insisted that the child be forced to attend the public school for colored children. While the matter was being discussed by the Board of Education, the little girl was brought to a meeting one afternoon, so that the members might see her. She had long, golden curls, blue eyes, was as fair as a lily and as beautiful as an angel. One seldom sees such a vision of loveliness as that child presented. Those who wanted to exclude her from the white schools argued that the fact that her father was known to have even the slightest infusion of African blood was sufficient reason for taking this step. I contended that even during slavery it was customary in some States for the child to follow the condition of the mother, and since the child's mother was white, she should be allowed to attend the white schools and not be forced to go to the colored schools. Both the white and colored members of the Board declared that I was reflecting upon the colored schools, when I plead to have the child remain in the school for white children. But I insisted that a comparison of the respective merits of the two schools was not involved at all. In a city where there are two separate schools, if a white woman wants her child to attend a white school, she has a right to insist upon that privilege. Moreover, I said, everybody knows that as a white child she will have many more advantages in this prejudice-ridden city than she can enjoy as a colored child and she will also be spared many of the hardships, humiliations and injustices of which she will be the helpless victim [70] tim, if she has to cast her lot among colored children. but my pleading and argumentfor the little girl was all in vain. Every member of the Board of Education in the National Capital including the two colored men voted to execlude the child from the white schools except myself. On another occasion, when I stood alone, the elligibility of a certain candidate had expired. She had taken an examination and wanted very much to secure a position in a certain department. She was the daughter of a man who owned a newspaper and who had caused a great deal of trouble in the public schools. He was accustomed to make great demands upon members of the Board, and wrote scurrilous articles about them, when they did not accede to them. A motion was made to extend the elligibility of this man's daughter another year, so that she might be appointed without being examined again. So far as I could ascertain, this had never been done before in the history of the Public Schools and since I believed it was a bad precedent ot establish I voted against this motion. I was the only member of the Board who cast a negative vote and I requested the Secretary to be sure to make a record of it. Although there many people in Washington who believed that it was possible to bribe members of the Board to secure desirable positions in the public schools, this opinion was not founded in fact, so far as I was able to ascertain. I myself served on the Board many years, and yet during all that time only once did anybody even attempt to bribe me. A well-known citizen offered to give me $50, if I would appoint as janitor a man in whom he was interested. This man had been highly recommended to me and I was thinking seriously of giving him the job. But after his over-zealous friend had offered to pay me for it, I gave it to another. [Then the man said publicly] A short while after that this man met my husband and said in the presence of several people, "Your wife could have picked up $50 this morning and she kicked it away from her, as though it were a piece of filthy lucre sure enough." Rather an amusing incident occurred once when I decided to do everything in my power to have a director of music for the colored public schools appointed. After discussing the matter with Mr. G.F.T. Cook, the Superintendent, [71] I learned that there was no salary available for the position of director or music for the colored schools. When I presented the matter to the Board, all the members agreed that such a position was needed in the colored schools and promised to vote to create it. But, where was the salary to be found? That was indeed the question. I was informed that there was a salary fora teacher in the sixth grade which might be used for the position. But, a teacher in the fifth grade was soon to be promoted to the sixth and that salary would have to go to her, unless she agreed to teach the rest of the year on the salary she was then receiving in the 5th grade. When I explained the dilemma to this teacher, she readily consented to the arrangement and thus was the position of Director of Music for the colored schools created. But, shortly after that a certain man who was a "Conscientious Objector" to almost everything that was proposed by the school officials threatened to sue me for using the money designated for ateacher of the 6th grade as a salary for the Director of Music in the colored schools. But, when he discovered that there was nothing illegal about transferring the salary, as it was voted by the School Trustees, he let the suit against me drop. As a member of the Board I tried to promote the welfare of the School System as a whole, and I did not confine my activities exclusively to the group which I was appointed to represent. I was the first member of the Board to suggest an Easter holiday for the pupils and teachers of the public schools of the District of Columbia. Some of the in both the colored and white schools helped me get data from other school systems showing that both pupils and teachers needed the rest just at that time of the year and that the benefit from the Easter holiday was strikingly apparent in the work done both by the instructors and by those whom they taught. Marshalling the facts before the Board I had little or no difficulty in inducing the trustees, as they were then called, to give the public schools a short vacation at Easter. After Frederick Douglass died, it occurred to me that a day should be set apart in the colored schools in his honor. Without mentioning my intention [72] my intention to either one of the colored trustees I introduced the following resolution at the regular meeting of the Board: There has been a slight friction between the Hon. B.K. Bruce, who was then a trustee and the Hon. Frederick Douglass, as frequently happens between two public men of all races and kinds, and I feared if I notified the colored members too far in advance, some opposition to intriducing Douglass Day in the public schools might develop. As it was, the resolution passed unanimously Of all the efforts I exerted, while I was on the School Board, I should rather have been the one through whose [?] Douglass Day was introduced into the Public School than to have done anything else. Nothing is more necessary than to teach colored children that certain representatives of their race have accomplished something worth while and have reached lofth heights in spite of the fearful disadvantages under which they have labored. The colored child can not generate much respect for his racial group, if he knows nothing about the success its representatives have attained along various lines of human endeavor. While I was studing abroad I met a young colored man who had wonderful talent for music. Joachim, the great violinist, was teaching him and Joachim did not waste his time and energy on anybody but a genius. I hoped that this young colored man would one day rival the great Joachim himself and be the greatest violinist that this country had ever produced. "Be colored person can amount to much," he used to say, when I was urging him to work harded than he was. "The trouble with us that we have no background. We are descended from slaves. And no human being who has such a little to build on can ever amount to much" [73] He was thoroughly imbued with that idea. He has since amounted to a great deal as a composer, nevertheless. Having a Douglass Day will teach our children that their racial group has produced great men who have fought their way from the lowest depths to the loftiest heights. And the knowledge of this fact is absolutely essential to development, growth and achievement among representatives of the handicapped race. I failed to introduce Animal Day into the Public School System of the Washington Public Schools, although I tried hard to do so. I urged the School Boardto set aside one day in the year in which special effort would be made to teach the children to be kind to animals. I wanted to have their attention called to the fact that people could be very cruel to animals, even if they did not beat them and kick them about. I wanted to have children taught that if they did not attend to their pets properly, if they did not give them water and food properly and keep them clean, if they kept birds confined in a cage without talking to them, for instance, they were being cruel to these helpless creatures, even if they did not inflict upon them physical pain. All this and kindred information might have been given on Animal Day by holding exercises consisting of recitations, essays and speeches on animals. The Washington Post had a fine editorial commending the idea and urging the Board to adopt the suggestion. But Mr. Powell, who was then superintendent of schools opposed it vigorously. "If you have Animal Day," he said, "children will think they should be kind to animals only one day in the year. "But you celebrate Washington's Birthday" I replied, "to inculcate patriotism and nobody thinks he need to be patriotic only one day in the year." Some of my friends declared that the reason Animal Day was not introduced into the public schools of Washington was because it was suggested by a colored woman and the Powers That Be were not willing that this should be done. But I did introduce a measure which completely revolutionized the methods previously used for admitting pupils into the Normal School. Before this measure was adoptedpupils who wished to enter the Normal School were required [*72*] to take an examination and submit to a physical test after graduating from the high school. For many years they had been a great deal of dissatisfaction criticism of school authorities and charges of unfairness as a result of this method. The oral test was conducted by and counted in the final mark which the pupil received. It was frequently asserted open and above board by disgruntled parents and pupils who failed to pass that a great deal of favoritism had been shown to certain fortunate ones. This caused a great deal of bitterness, of course. When, therefore, the Board passed a resolution to allow all the graduates from the High School to enter the Normal School, there was great rejoicing in the land. Then everybody had a chance to make good as a teacher. For, it frequently happened that the pupils who made the lowest mark in their examinations after graduating from the High School, stood at the head of their class when they graduated from the Normal School. These facts seemed to me to justify the strenuous efforts i exerted to do away with this examination for admission into the Normal School and allow everybody who graduated from the High School to enter, if he wished to do so. Many incidents occurred to prove that the teachers in the white schools disregarded my race entirely, when they wished me to serve them or the schools in any way. As individuals they often came to me house to prefer requests of various kinds, to discuss measures in which they were interested and to ask me to vote for any measure which they wished to have passed. The nearest approach to what might be termed "friction" occurred, when I tried to assist one of the finest instructors in the corps to get permission to have a victrola in her school. She was the principal of one of the white High Schools and wanted to use the victrola to instruct her pupils in a variety of ways. She told me she wanted them to hear the best speakers in the country, the great singers when the average pupil could not afford to hear and receive information of various kinds through what was then an entirely new medium of rendering much service to her pupils. But the Board of Education voted against granting ??? High School Principal this permission. Then she came to me and urged me to do [*81*] Several days after delivering that address Mrs. Isabella Beecher Hooker, sent me a bust of her sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe. It was a copy of a bust that had been carved by the sculptor Anne Whitney and which had been exhibited in the Women's Building at the World's Fair which was held in Chicago in 1895. Mrs. Hooker said she presented me the bust as a token of gratitude for the masterful and eloquent argument I had made at the Biennial in favor of Woman Suffrage. The most serious friction incident which has occurred between white and colored women in club work for many years was caused by the refusal of International Council of Women held in it's Quinquennial colored people in May 1925. Mrs. Mary McLeod Bethune who was then President of the National Association of Colored Women had requested me to confer with the Chairman on Music appointed by the American Council of women, because she happened to be stopping at the Mayflower Hotel while she was arranging making out the program. Arrangements had been made by a former president of the National Association of Colored Women to have 200 colored singers from the Richmond Treble Clef Club, the Howard University Glee Club, the Hampton Institute Choir the Howard University Choral Society and musicians of note like Nathaniel Dett, the well-known composer and Prof Roy Tibbs of Howard University. to take part on the program. But the night the meeting was held on which the colored musicians were to appear, colored people who went to the auditorium discovered that they were not only segregated but that they were seated for the most part in the most undesirable sections of the building. When the singers learned this, they refused to appear and the reason why th notice was given from the platform of the auditorium that the colored singers refused to appear because representatives of the their race were segregated. This was a great disappointment to everybody in the large audience which had assembled, but particularly so to the foreign women who desired especially to see and to hear the colored singers. they learned the cause of the trouble. Opinions differed as to the wisdom of taking this step. Some felt that the colored singers had missed a glorious opportunity of showing what they had accomplished in music and what they could do in the presence of distonguished foreign visitors. But all the officers of the National Association as well as the great majority of the colored people all over the U.S. were a unit in the conviction that this drastic action had been forced upon us by those who subjected us to the humiliation of segregation in the National Capital, adding insult to injury by perpetrating this insult upon us when a large number of foreign women were present to witness it. The Executive Committee of the National Association of Colored Women, who were meeting in Washington at the time appointed a committee to draft resolutions explaining our attitude 2 And now a New York Judge has handed down the decision that a woman can not roll her stockings in that city on the street. For daring to roll her stockings on Fourteenth street just off Fifth Avenue a woman was sent to the work house for three months. "Women should not roll their stockings in public," quoth the judge. "The scanty apparel they wear nowadays is sufficient to attract attention without their doing things that will cause men to look at them." "O wise Judge." It pays to be a beggar in New York. One of that fraternity was arrested recently and $12, 385 were found on his inside pocket, dont you know. And he was arrested with all that money on his person for asking alms. The policeman who was entrusted with the money which he was ordered to take to headquarters forgot to turn over two $500 bills, so he is languishing in jail, too. All of which proves that the love of money is the root of all evil. As soon as President Coolidge struck his home State. The Vermont Fish and Game department presented him with a fishing license. And now we may expect a few big fishing stories which will put all the others to shame. Those American soldiers who won a rifle match in China recently certainly can shoot straight. Japanese, British and French teams all fired at a Japanese target in Tientsin, China, but the soldiers of the Fifteenth infantry brought home the bacon. Verily the plot thickens in the Hall-Mills murder case. With all the evidence in hand four years ago it is almost incredible that nobody was held responsible. Assistant Attorney-General Simpson who is prosecuting the case so vigorously to day says a new witness has told an amazing story and he believes every word she says. Rumors are floating around constantly that certain suspects are to be arrested, but the solution of this 17 and which I was chairman. The following are the resolution which were (?) I have attended Congressional hearings whenever I though that by so doing I could say something which would throw light upon the subject discussed. I once went before The Subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary of the U.S. Lynching that Committee of which Senator Cummins of Iowa was Senate chairman which gave the Byer Anti-Lynching Bill a hearing. This bill provided for the the prevention and the punishment of the crime of lynching. [*3*] mystery murder seem far off. Mrs. Russell, a colored woman, is figuring very conspicuously in the case. because her testimony refutes that of the famous "Pig Woman", who says she saw Rev. Hall and Mrs. Mills murdered. It is claimed that much of the evidence brought out in the trial four years ago has disappeared and nobody knows how it happened. The new witness upon whose testimony Mr. Simpson depends largely to convict the guilty parties claims that during the last trial she kept silent, because the witnesses whose testimony seemed to incriminate certain people were treated so badly she did not have the courage to tell what she knew. [*6*] The only time I have ever been [publicly ] attacked on the platform by a representative of the dominant race for something I have said in an address was in Baltimore, Maryland. I had been invited to deliver the Commencement address at the Baltimore High School for colored youth shortly after the United States entered the World War. Commencement speakers were requested to refer to the War with a view to interesting the public in this country's effort to aid the allies. In trying to comply with this request I decided to take as my subject "The Race Problem and the War." In order to encourage the young men in the graduating class as well as the other men in the audience to do everything in their power to win the War I told them referred to the high stand this country had taken- that the United States was fighting to make the "World Safe for Democracy" and if the allies were victorious that as a result the status of the colored people in this country would be greatly improved. "Never since the first cargo of dark human beings was deposited on this shore has the future loomed so promising and bright to men and women with African blood flowing through their veins as it does to day," I said. Colored youth who have their lives before them are to be congratulated upon the opportunities which for many weary, dreary years have been denied the race with which they are identified but which in all human probability they will enjoy themselves. Out of a cataclysm which has deluged practically the whole world in blood and broken the hearts of millions, suddenly to a heavily-handicapped, cruelly hindered group of human beings in the greatest Republic on earth, the dawn of a new day appears. For the first time in history the major portion of the civilized world is fighting for freedom. If actions speak louder than words, "Give us liberty or give us death" is the cry that rings from one end of Christendom to the other. From their thrones of monarchy and the Kings of England and Italy are vieing with Republican France and the United States in declaring war to the last ditch upon oppression and tyranny everywhere and pledging themselves unalterably and irrevocably to the cause of freedom for all mankind, The mot most spiritual and sanguine prophet that ever dreamed of the day when the iron heel of oppression would be lifted from the necks of men and women Washington, D.C. My Dear It has been suggested that I write you concerning an engagement to deliver an address in your City. I can speak for you about if you wish me to do so. If that date does not suit you, please name one as near the night suggested as possible, and I shall gladly make the change if it can be done. My terms area guarantee of $30.00, but if the sale of tickets amounts to more than $60.00, I ask for half of the proceeds of the sale instead of $30.00. For a long time, I spoke without compensation, and I wish I could continue to do so, but I can no longer pursue such a course, in justice either to my family or to myself. Enclosed are some excerpts from the press which show the estimate placed upon my efforts by some widely read newspapers, and well known people. If you, yourself, do not care to make arrangements for the lecture, please send me the names and addresses of those in your City who might want to do so. I shall also be grateful if you will send me names and addresses of some reliable people living near your City. While I am in your section, I would like to touch as many points as I can. Please let me hear from you immediately. Very truly yours, who groaned in bondage could never have imagined a movement so prodigious, so all-embracing and so irresistible as the onward, upward march to [*universal*] freedom in which millions of men of different races and complexions are engaged at the present time. "Then I emphasized [*referred briefly*] to the gains [* which had recently been*] made by freedom An old and strongly-entrenched despotism like Bussai had been overthrown The Czar of all the Russias had been overthrown practically practically without bloodshed in the twinking of an eye a Republic had been set up in its place. England who [*which had turned a deaf*] had been ear to Ireland's prayers and entreaties to be allowed to govern herself seemed at last willin to remove the mote from her own eye that she might the more clearly see how to pick the beam from her neighbor's. The East Indians had also been promised the recognition which they thought they had deserved for years but which they had hitherto been denied. In stating the reasons why she was unwilling to restore to Germany the African territory wrested from her during the War ,Engladn told the world, that while she did not enter the War for the purpose of freeing the natives from German rule, nervertheless the outrages perpetrated by Germany upon the Africans were so savage and wicked, it would be a crime against civilization and humanity to permit them to bow again under such a cruel yoke. I referred also to the triumph won by the women of Wngland who had been fighting so long for suffrage. I emphasized the attitude assumed by the newspapers which were full of editorials asserting that this "War of Democracy" against autocracy had [bro?] about the formation of a common brotherhood that knows neither race, religion nor peoples. "I praised the white people of the South for the efforts they were making to set their house in order. Some Terrible outrages had been perpetrated against colored people a short time before I delivered this Commencement address, so I said" In spite of these [*barbarous*] outbreaks against colored people, such as the lynching in Memphis, Tenn, in which a man was burned to death, having been confined in a steel cage made expressly for the purpose, while a little colored boy only ten years old was forced to watch the flames consume this helpless victim of a savage mob; in spite of the recent race riots in St. Louis, where colored men working in munition factories Washington, D. C. My Dear It has been suggested that I write you concerning an engagement to deliver an address in your City. I can speak for you about if you wish me to do so. If that date does not suit you, please name one as near the night suggested as possible, and I shall gladly make the change if it can be done. My terms are a guarantee of $30.00, but if the sale of tickets amounts to more than $60.00, I ask for half of the proceeds of the sale instead of $30.00. For a long time, I spoke without compensation, and I wish I could continue to do so, but I can no longer pursue such a course, in justice either to my family or to myself. Enclosed are some excerpts from the press which show the estimate placed upon my efforts by some widely read newspapers, and well known people. If you, yourself, do not care to make arrangements for the lecture, please send me the names and addresses of those in your City who might want to do so. I shall also be grateful if you will send me names and addresses of some reliable people living near your City. While I am in your section, I would like to touch as many points as I can. Please let me hear from you immediately. Very truly yours, 8 were shot to death, beaten into insensibility, while the houses of colored people were set on fire and destroyed, in spite of other disheartening exhibitions of race prejudice and persecution, there is every reason to hope that this nation in the great crisis which confronts it will really endeavor to raise up the 18,000,000 of Colored people to equal human dignity, as an English writer expresses it, and to wipe out the national stigma on the American commonwealth that every man, woman and child born with a dark skin is born to the shame of exclusion from rights guaranteed him by the Constitution and from privileges which he should be allowed to enjoy. Several times afterward I laid great emphasis upon my faith in the out come of the War, I assured this audience of colored people that their condition would be greatly improved because the people of this country were thinking about free dom and Democracy as they had never thought before, [and] because their the consciene had been aroused on the subject and because their hearts had been touched. The Comptoller of Baltimore had been requested to represent the Mayor at the Commencement exercise and when he arose to make some remamrkk, he was enraged that he could scarcely [not] control himself [at all]. He complimented those who had spoken, those who had sung- in fact he had words of praise for everybody but myself. Then he launched into a tirade against the speaker of the evening. He almost literally jumped upon he with both fet White with rage He paced up[on] and down the stage criticizing my speech [what I had said, white with rage. Among other things he declared that] "The speaker of the evening has predicted that the condition of the colored people of the country [would] will be improved, [?] he said with fierce indignation He was too moved to proceed , so he paused a sec if the allies win [won] the War, He shouted aloud and shook his fist at the audience as he said, "But I tell you people you will [warned the people that they would] have no more rights after the War than you enjoy now [they enjoyed then,]. He shouted aloud and shook his fist at the audi dience as he uttered [hurled] thiswarning threat [into its face]. Then something occurr ed which I had never heard before in an audience of colored people and which I have never heard since. They hissed the comptroller of Baltimore with all their might. But he shook his fist at them again and told them sarcastical ly that he knew all about colored people, that he understood them perfectly and that he din't care a fig(or words to that effect) how much they hissed. The newspaper account of this disgraceful occurrence which appeared in the Baltimore American was naturally very Washington, D. C. My Dear It has been suggested that I write you concerning an engagement to deliver an address in your City. I can speak for you about if you wish me to do so. If that date does not suit you, please name one as near the night suggested as possible, and I shall gladly make the change if it can be done. My terms are a guarantee of $30.00, but if the sale of tickets amounts to more than $60.00, I ask for half of the proceeds of the sale instead of $30.00. For a long time, I spoke without compensation, and I wish I could continue to do so, but I can no longer pursue such a course, in justice either to my family or to myself. Enclosed are some excerpts from the press which show the estimate placed upon my efforts by some widely read newspapers, and well known people. If you, yourself, do not care to make arrangements for the lecture, please send me the names and addresses of those in your City who might want to do so. I shall also be grateful if you will send me names and addresses of some reliable people living near your City. While I am in your section, I would like to touch as many points as I can. Please let me hear from you immediately. Very truly yours, 9 biassed and gave only the Comptroller's point of view so I sent a [the followig] letter to explain and correctit: With the headline "Meant to Be Optimistic" on June 28, 1917 [1927] the Baltimore- American published the following letter on JUNE28,? L9L7: The report of the commencement exercises of the Colored High School which appeared in the Baltimore American misinterprets the spirit and purpo pose of m address to the graduates and misinterprets the speaker. I am chang ed wit having"aimed scathing and bitter remarks at the white race," with having "referred to certain lynchings and hangings." My address consumed 50 minutes, about one minute and a half was used to refer to a single lynching in which a colored man was burned to death(I did not mention any hangings at all), and another minute and a half, perhaps, certainly not more, was consumed in referring to the recent riot in St. Lou is. The Comptroller of Baltimore is reported to have said that it was my unwise reference to lynchings and hangings" which caused him to rebuke me, an the American states that he denounced me in no uncertain terms. " If only three out of minutes were devoted to one burning and one race riot, it is clear that one who reads the report of my address would get a decidedly inaccurate account of it. The part of the report which states that the Comptroller of Baltimore denounced me ,the guest of the occasion, in no uncertain terms is literally tru true. I doubt that any colored man in the country would treat a woman of any race under such circumstances which such discourtesy. The American account states that the white people who attended the exeercises declared that my address "should have been one of optimism, but it was just the opposite, and calculated to arouse anything but a feeling of good will." It is difficult to believe that any fair-minded person who listened to my entire address would have made such a comment. By insisting that the conditions brought about by the war would cause a better understanding between the two races, that efforts are already making in the South to ameliorate the condition of colored people, by reviewing the marvellous progress along all lines achieved by the race since the Civil War, by empahsizing the irreproachable record made by the colored soldiers from the Revolutionary War to the martyrdom into which brave, colored troopers rushed last summer at Carrizal, I di did everything in my power to create optimism and to inspire with hope the members of the graduating class. I have spoken in every State of the South, and rarely have I addressed an audience in that section in which no white people were present. I have alway pleaded for my heavily-handicapped race and expressed the hope that some day they would enjoy greater freedom and be given an equ al chance.But up to date the Comptroller of Baltimore is the first man, white or any other color, who has ever publicly denounced me for anything I have said. It is possible to take a sentence or two from any address and distort it into meaning anything a hostile, illiberal angry man wants it to mean. Moreover, some people cannot bear the truth, no matter how tactfully it is told. No doubt, the haughty, the tyrannical, the unmerciful,the impure and the fomentors of discord take a fierce exception to the Sermon on the Mount. Mary Church Terrell, Washington, D.C. June 26, Washington, D.C. My Dear It has been suggested that I write you concerning an engagement to deliver an address in your City. I can speak for you about if you wish me to do so. If that date does not suit you, please name one as near the night suggested as possible, and I shall gladly make the change if it can be done. My terms are a guarantee of $30.00, but if the sale of tickets amounts to more than $60.00, I ask for half of the proceeds of the sale instead of $30.00. For a long time, I spoke without compensation, and I wish I could continue to do so, but I can no longer pursue such a course, in justice either to my family or to myself. Enclosed are some excerpts from the press which show the estimate placed upon my efforts by some widely read newspapers, and well known people. If you, yourself, do not care to make arrangements for the lecture, please send me the names and addresses of those in your City who might want to do so. I shall also be grateful if you will send me names and addresses of some reliable people living near your City. While I am in your section, I would like to touch as many points as I can. Please let me hear from you immediately. Very truly yours, 5 I thought it was my duty to let some of the Freon officials know how a colored woman in the United States felt about the matter, so I sent the following letter to Premier Poincare: Jan 17, 1923. Premier Poincare Paris France: Insert letter here. Altho I received no reply to this letter and it relieved my mind greatly to know that some one in France learned how shocked colored people in the United States were that those brave black troops, some of which saved civilizarion that the Premier had cabled this country at the Marne had been withdrawn from the Ruhr in deference to the wishes of [those] people steeped in race prejudice and replaced by white soldiers. VAN COURT RENTAL AGENCY RENTALS AND REAL ESTATE 222 TO 230 BANK OF COMMERCE & TRUST BUILDING TELEPHONES 6-1466 AND 6-1467 ELMER HARRIS, Mgr. MEMPHIS March 6, 1926, Mrs Mary Church Terrell, 1615 S. Street, N. W. Washington, D. C. Dear Madam: The Income Tax Reports must be in the hands of the Internal Revenue Department not later than the 15th inst., To date I have not received from you a memorandum of the income received by you from sources other than your Memphis Real Estate and of the expenses paid by you other than on your Memphis real estate and on the allowances which you are entitled to. If you want me to make out your Income Tax you had better let me have this by return mail. It will be necessary for us to get Affidavits, etc., as to the value of the property which you sold on last year as of March 1, 1913. In your letter advise me if your husband will take credit for the full $3500.00 exemption which a married couple is entitled to. If you will let me have this information promptly I will make up your tax report and send it to you. Very truly yours, VAN COURT RENTAL AGENCY BY D.S. Van Court DSVC:GB 100 25 25 10 10 $170 20 4 investigated the charges against the black troops when she was in Geneva and found, according to the testimony of reputable people living in the region where the atrocities were alleged to have been committed, that these black soldiers had conducted themselves with more courtesy and consideration than any white troops who had been stationed there. The German delegates told Mrs. Catt that there was no movement i n Germany to ask France to remove these colored troops and that, so far as they knew, there was no complaint in Germany on that score. Mrs. Catt says that the three German women with whom she talked in Geneva promised to investigate the charges against the colored troops which were being circulated in this country and to let her know later. "I saw all three of them in London early in December," says Mrs. Catt, " and again they reiterated the same statement made in Geneva, which was to the effect that atrocities such as are being described in the United States could not have been committed by the Army of Occupation without the masses of the people of Germany knowing about it, and that they had heard nothing which warranted such charges being made." And there has recently been an indignanat disclaimer of the propaganda campaign against the black troops which was made by some of the leading business men in the Rhineland. Director Ruetten declared that investigation by the Rhineland Traffic Association had shown that the stories of molestation of the population by the troops of occupation were untrue. I cannot sign the petition asking for the removal of the black troops with these facts staring me in the face. The propaganda against the black troops is simply another fiolent and plausible appeal to race prejudice. It is ver painful to me not to do anything which you or the organization that I love would like to have me do. Knowing you as well as I do, however, I feel sure you do not want me to be untrue to myself or to the race with which I am identified simply to please my friends. I do not want to be a stumbling block or a nuisance as a member of the Executive Committee. I am willing to resign. You have always been such a true friend to me, my esteem and affection for you are so great. I do not want to do anything which will embarrass you as the head of the Internation al League for Peace and Freedom. I am not at all sure I can be present sat the annual meeting next month. I shall try to be there. Please speak frankly to me. I am not narrow. I want to know the truth and do right. With gratitude to you for the many kindnesses to me in the past and with the highest esteem, I am sincerely yours. Mary Church Terrell. In a few days I received the following letter from Miss Addams written by her own dear hand. March 29, 1921 My dear Mrs. Terrell: I was chairman of a Committee in the Chicago Branch on the colored troops on the Rhine and came to exactly the same conclusion which you have reached - that we should protect against the occupation of enemy territory , not against any special troops. I am quite sure you will find the annual meeting absolutely fair on the subject and I hope very much that you will be able to attend the meeting on Monday, April 11th when the matter will probably come up. I have just come back from and found your letter here. Please excuse this hasty reply. Faithfully yours, Jane Addams. This letter was a great relief to my mind. I was glad not to be forced to resign from the Executive Committee of the League, for I enjoyed working for peace and the contacts made with the fine women who were members of it were an education and an inspiration to me. It also afforded me an excellent opportunity of getting out of the "Ghetto" in Washington and mingling with women of the dominant race. But two years later the question of removing the Black troops again disturbed the public mind and this time France succumbed to the clamor which was raised. [by] [I decided to write a personal letter of protest to the Premier Poincare] TELEPHONE: WATKINS 10015 Who's Who in Colored America Corporation PUBLISHERS 1133 BROADWAY NEW YORK, N. Y. April 27th I927 Mrs. Mary Church Terrell, Washington, D.C. Dear Mrs. Terrell, We have your letter and regret very much indeed that the error you have shown us, has occurred. We set you a proof for correction before the book was printed, but we never did receive that proof. Possibly you did not get it because it was sent to I6I6 instead of I6I5. The change will certainly be made in the next edition which we hope will come out within the next few months, as the book has received a very good reception. Kindly make check payable to Who's Who in Colored America, as per bill herewith. Very truly yours, Who's Who in Colored Am. Corp. A Few Cases of Friction. Although I have been more or less intimately associated with white people all my life, have entertained views on the Race Problem which were consider er quire radical by some, and have always expressed my opinion , I have had no open break with them as a group and I have had friction with individuals very few times. As a member of the Board of Education I might have fallen out with a man whose friendship I prized most highly because he insisted upon dismissing a supervising principal who was an excellent officer and one of the finest teachers in the corps but who in the kindness of his heart [had given because he] had given her salary to a teacher in dire need and distress [her salary] [some money] in a manner not prescribed by the rules. [The member] Capt James Oyster was a prosperous business man who believed so thoroughly in [not] business methods [that] he insisted that any school officer who failed to observe and use them should be put out, no matter how fine a n instructor or officer he might be. [and inspire the youth and everything else.in the public schools.] I valued the friendship of this man because he was always willing to assist me in my efforts to put thru measures which I believed would improve the schoolsystem, and [because] I could rely absolutely upon any promise he made, [and] because e h was courageous and outspoken almost to a fault and because he had no prejudice on account of race. When it looked as though our friendship could not weather this [the] storm , after I had tried to convert him to my point of view and had failed, I resigned myself to my fate, but held firmly and desperate ly to my efforts to save the supervising principal from dismissal. I finally succeeded in saving the school officer and retaining the friendship of Cap tain Oyster as well, because he was a broadminded man and when he finally yielded a point, [that was an end to the matter.] he let the dead pest bury its dead. During [In] the eleven years I was a membr of the Board of Education altho I often differed materially with the others, both colored and white, I never had bitter words [or had] an open break with anybody. Perhaps I came as near having friction with a few members of the Executive Committee of the Internationa League for Peace and Freedom as with any white people with who I was ever closely associated . I was asked to sign a petition requesting the removal of the black troops from occupied German territory. [One of the women who made The most te rible crimes] I was told that the other members of the Executive Committee were willing to sign it and that it was especially desirable for me to affix my signature, The Association for the Study of Negro Life and history, Incorporated JOHN R. HAWKINS, President CARTER G. WOODSON, Director S. W. RUTHERFORD, Secretary- Treasurer Lecturers and Investigators ALAIN L. LOCKE CARTER G. WOODSON CHARLES H. WESLEY JAMES H. JOHNSTON RUTH A. FISHER ROBERT C. WOODS JOHN J. McKINLEY IVA R. MARSHALL EXTENSION DIVISION LECTURE BUREAU and HOME STUDY DEPARTMENT 1538 NINTH STREET, N. W. Washington, D.C. Teaching Staff E. FRANKLIN FRAZIER DAVID A. LANE LUTHER P. JACKSON MILES MARK FISHER CHARLES S. JOHNSON ALAIN L. LOCKE CHARLES H. WESLEY CARTER G. WOODSON JAMES H. JOHNSTON February 3, 1928. Dear Coworker: The District of Columbia Branch of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History will meet at the Y.W.C.A. next Friday at 7:30 P.M. Mr. G.D. McDaniels will speak on "Teaching the Negro His Place." The speaker was class orator at brown University and an officer with rich experiences in France during the World War. For twelve years he has taught in Baltimore, Maryland, and directed the Forum which is one of the most progressive discussion groups in this section. Extensive plans for the celebration of Negro History Week have been made throughout the schools. This Branch has a fine opportunity to appropriate the enthusiasm in the community. Come, therefore, and bring a friend of the cause next Tuesday evening. Yours truly WMB-R W.M. Brewer. 2 because the Committee wished to make the request unanimous. One of the women who talked with me about it was Mrs. LeFollette, wife of the late Senator from Wisconsin. What she said in favor of the petition impressed me deeply, [because] She had no race prejudice whatever and I [believed that her desire to have the petition signed] knew she wanted the petition signed because she believed it would pour oil on the troubled waters if France would remove the black troops from German soil [and reducing the friction between France and German] One afternoon Mrs. LaFollette invited me to her beautiful home to discuss the matter and we had tea together. I tried to listen with an open mind to the arguments she presented in favor of it, but try as hard as I might I could no see my way clear to comply with the request of he petition. and she always had the courage of her convictions whenever she felt necessary Again and again she had proved show[ing] exactly where she stood on the question of the colored american's right to a square deal. Both by word and by deed Mrs. LaFollette often placed herself on record as being in favor of any legislation or any effort designed to give the Colored, people the rights and privileges which other citizens enjoy. Because I held Mrs. Lafollette in such high esteem it would have afforded me great pleasure to comply with her request. I knew she wanted [One afternoon] the petition signed, because she believed it would pour oil on the troubled [she invited me to her beautiful home to discuss the matter and we had tea] waters to have France remove the black troops fro, German soil. [together.] One afternoon Mrs. Lafollette invited me to her beautiful home and we had tea together. I tried to listen with an open mind to the arguments she prewented in favor of it, but try as hard as I might I could not see my way clear to comply with her request that I sign that petition. But I felt it would be wrong for me to be the only member of the executive committee and I wrote the following letter to Miss Jane Addams, the President of the International Leagu Washington, D.C. March 18, 1921. My dear Miss Addams [In a few days I received a letter from Miss Addams saying she agreed with me so i heard no more about the petition which was to be sent by a peace organization in the United States asking France to remove her black troops from Germany.] CITIZENS VOLUNTEER COMMITTEE February 4, 1928. Friends: An effort was made last year to bring to the attention of the Colored citizens of this city the serious situation existing with regard to delinquency among our boys and girls. Those who heard the speakers that appeared before various organizations will remember that special mention was made of the extensive and commendable work being done by the Juvenile Protective Association, more than half of whose work is with Colored children. We have had representatives on the Board of Directors of the Juvenile Protective Association since its organization. Nowhere in its program or in the service it renders has there been any discrimination. In the face of these facts and notwithstanding such a large amount of its work is done in preventing delinquency among children of our racial group, we have contributed comparatively little toward the support of this organization. It happens that the Juvenile Protective Association is now in immediate need of money to continue its present effective program. We, least of any group in the city, can afford to have the effectiveness of the organization impaired. In fact, the urgent need is for this organization to be able to enlarge its program - an increase in the effectiveness of the Juvenile Protective Association, we firmly believe to mean a lower delinquency rate among Colored boys and girls. This committee has no official connection with the Juvenile Protective Association but we are convinced that its work is indispensable. We are asking 100 organizations to give from $25.00 to $100.00 each during this year toward the support of this work. It is necessary that as much of this amount as possible be raised in case immediately. We would like to appear before your organization in person but there are too many organizations and too little time - and it is necessary that our organizations act AT ONCE! Kindly make your check payable to the Juvenile Protective Association and mail to Mrs. Milton A. Francis, 2109 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., or to Mrs. George W. Cook, 341 Bryant St., N.W., or to the chairman, 181 - 12th St., N. W. It is hoped that we may have $1,000.00 cash in hand by February 29. Yours for the boys and girls of Washington, THE COMMITTEE: Archibald S. Pinkett William A. Clayton H. O. Hale E. E. Almond Mrs. Daisy E. Welch Rev. Charles E. Hodges Ralph Webster E. S. Hunter Mrs. Bertha M. Davis Mrs. M. A. McAdoo E. M. Clark John A. Davis Mrs. Susie E. Addelle Mrs. F. O. Clark J. H. Clark Mrs. O. Edmonds S. A. Gordon-Grant Mrs. G. E. Nightengale Mrs. S. E. Gray Louis H. Russell MADELYN J. LEWIS, CAMPBELL C. JOHNSON, Secretary. Chairman. 3 It is plainly my duty to write to you concerning a matter in which you are deeply interested, I know. I have been requested to sign a petition asking for the removal of the black troops from occupied German territory. The most terrible crimes are said to be committed by these black troops against the German women. I belong to a race whose women have been the victims of assaults committed upon them by white men of all races. As a rule, these men have ruined and wrecked the women of my race with impunity. For that reason I sympathize deeply with the German women, if they are really the victims of the passions of black men. I pity them in their present peril as I pitied the French women, when the newspapers told us of the brutal treatment they received at the hands of the German soldiers who were quartered in France. Because the women of my race have suffered so long and so terribly from assaults committed with impunity by men of all races, I am all the more pained at the brutal treatment to which German women are now said to be subjected by black troops. However, I am certain that the black soldiers are committing no more assaults upon the German women than the German men committed upon French women or that any race of soldiers would probably commit upon women in occupied territory. Our own American soldiers treated the Haitian women brutally. On good authority it is asserted that young Haitian girls were actually murdered by some of our soldiers. I can not vouch for the truth of that statement but it is not at all difficult for me to believe that white Americans would treat colored women as brutally as our soldiers are said to have treated the Haitian women. I can not sign the petition asking for the removal of the black troops, because I believe it is a direct appeal to race prejudice. In all the statements concerning the matter great emphasis is laid upon the fact that these troops are worse than white soldiers. That is a reflection upon them which I am sure they do not deserve. Charges are usually preferred against soldiers of all races who are quartered in the land they have conquered. I can readily understand that if a German woman had to be outraged she would prefer to suffer at the hands of a white man than at the hand of black men. But, even though that be true, I cannot sign a petition asking for the removal of these troops, because they are black. On good authority I have been informed that the charges preferred against black troops are not founded in fact. Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt Net Paid Sales Sunday Exceed 625,000 The New York Times "All the News That's Fit to Print" Circulation Department Times Square, New York Telephone Lackawanna 1000 [*Times Building*] December 14, 1927. [*Times Annex*] Mr. Robert H. Terrell Washington, D. C. Dear Sir: In response to many requests for delivery service to the homes and offices in Washington, The New York Times has made arrangements with:- The Capitol News Company 227 B Street Northwest Telephone: Main 4176 Washington, D. C. to deliver copies of the daily and Sunday editions of The New York Times in Greater Washington. The Cost will be only $2.00 a month. You will find it a satisfaction to know that you can have The Times " All the News That's Fit to Print " - of the world and of New York - at your door daily. The Time unrivaled political news will be particularly interesting to you, we believe, in the year ahead. Last Sunday more than 700,000 people purchased copies of the Sunday edition of The New York Times. Allow us to suggest that you either telephone the Capitol News Company to being service or send your instructions to us in the enclosed envelope. Very truly yours, The New York Times Circulation Department Charles Evan Hughes, former Secretary of State of the United States, says: "The New York Times is an exemplar of the highest standards of journalism". CW/H Enc. On the third day of the Congress Miss Addams called me to her and told me that the American delegation had voted unanimously to have me represent them the next night, Thursday. Altho the notice for such an important effort was very short, I decided immediately to deliver my address in German if I could, since Zurich is in German Switzerland and I wanted as many of the audience as possible to understand what I had to say. Everybody connected with the Congress was as busy as a bee. The resolutions and the other important papers which came before the delegates were all translated into three languages, French, German and English, so that I felt certain it would be difficult to get one of the official translators to help me. However, after diligent search I found a young woman who said she could assist me a little that (Wednesday) afternoon at three o'clock. She had to leave at six, to take a new position, she said, so that what we did would ha have to be done very quickly, knowing that it would take me longer to express myself in German than it would in English and that only fifteen minutes had been allowed me, it was very difficult to decide what to include and what to omit. But by six o'clock I had definitely made up my mind what to say and with the assistance of the clever, o bliging Swiss girl it had been translated into German. Wednesday night I did nothing but read and reread and study that German speech till nearly dawn. I was obliged to attend the meeting Thursday morning, for I had been notified that my resolution would be called for at that session. Nothing but serious illness or death would have kept me fr om being present on the occasion. After the other members of the delegation had presented all the sections on the steamer which they oared to offer I stated that I wanted to submit one in which I was very much interested. I then offered one protesting against the discriminations, humiliations and injustices perpetrated not only upon the colored people for the United States but upon the dark races all over the world. Several members of the delegation thought they could improve upon mine, but none of them expressed [*[5 and to which after prolonged and repeated discussions of the thought to be I was obliged to attend the meeting that morning but I had to present the [expressed and the manner of expressin it the delegates had agreed] resolution which I had written on the steamer and nothing but serious illness or death could have kept me away. After prolonged discussion as to the thought which they were willing for me to present and the manner of stating if the delegates agreed to allow me to present the following resolution:]*] [*[Betsy's Borrowed Baby.] Did Jeff Jackson Hear Caruso Jeff Jackson was up in the air that morning. He said so himself and Jeff was not the boy to "knock" himself by making such an admission, if there are not good and sufficient reason therefor. He could not keep his mind on anything that day, no matter how hard he tried. He had nearly woried his grandmother, Aunt Chloe, to death. She had sent him the store for celery and he had bronght back saleratus. The had told the grocer that the [the]first syllables of the thing he needed sounded like "sell", and the presiding genius of that establishment, not being a mind reader nor skilled in guessing games, could think of nothing that fitted that description except "seleratus". Then Jeff had been sent to for brown sugar and had brought back black molasses. In explaining this mistake he said when reached the store, [He said] he remembered that his grandmother had sent him for something [having a] very dark color, so he decided to get the darkest thing he could think of which happened to be black molasses. This was almost more than Aunt Chloe could stand. She rarely had to send to the grocery for anything, because the Reaves family for whom' she had cooked for years, always bought everything in great quantities. occasionally, however, she did have to get something extra for seasoning or for the concoction of a new dish, and then she hurriedly sent to the nearest grocery- but always in a spirit of condescension in her portly part. But this morning the trouble with Jeff was that everytime he went to the store, he saw the cause of his distraction- the alpha and omega of the thing which almost bereft him of reason. He had to pass by a large bill-board announcing in huge letters the coming of Caruso- the great and only Caruso. Just think of it! Caruso himself would sing the very net night in Waldon. And Jeff would have given at least five sevenths of his chances to reach Heaven, if he could only hear Caruso sing. But, since the African can no, more change his skin than the leopard his spots, there was no way in the wide world for Jeff to gratify this desire.*] 4 human begins could have made more earnest or conscientious efforts to help solve the problems of, reconstruction and readjustment incident to the great World War that did the women who took part in that congress. A stri kingaan never - to-be- forgotten feature was the good feeling existing between the French and the German women. The letters sentiments exchanging between the women of those two hostile countries showed their breadth of view, their sincerity of purpose and their determination to heal the breach beyond question or doubt. [In relating my contribution The congress convened Monday morning and Wednesday morning Miss Adf] On The third day of the Congress Miss Addams called me to her and told me [Wednesday] that the American delegation had voted unanimously to have me represent them the Next night Thursday. Altho the notice for such an effort was very short. [That meant that I was to speak the first time the evening meeting was to be a large one.] (Since Zurich [was] is in German Switzerland (I decided immediately to deliver my address if I could in German) [so that] and I wanted as maan of the audience as possible [could] to understand what I had to say. [wanted to tell them. I mean I decided to speak in German, if in the short time for preparation allotted me I could translate my thoughts into that language.] Everybody [After] connected with the Congress was as busy as a beee. The resolutions and the other important [matters] papers which came before the [Congress] delegates were all translated into three languages- French, German and English, so that I felt certain it would be difficult to get any the official translators to help me. However, after a diligent search I found a young woman who said she could assist me some that (Wednesday) afternoon at three o'clock. She told me she had to leave at six o'clock to take a new position so that we wd have to rush thru the job very fast. [she could not] help me long.] Knowing that it would take me longer to express myself in German than it would in English and that only fifteen minutes had been allotted to me it was very difficult to decide what to include and what omit. But by six o'clock I had definitely made my [mi] mind what to say and with the assistance of the obliging young Swiss girl it had been translated into German. Wednesday night I did nothing but read, reread and study that German speech till neatly dawn. Thursday [morning] I was obliged to attend the morning meeting. Because the resolution [which] protesting against discriminations, humiliations and injustices perpetrated upon colored people in the United States which (I had to present the resolution written on the steamer which I had written on the steamer. Not for world wd I have failed to be present on that occasion. This resolution Thursday I was obliged to attend the morning meeting because I [had] wanted to present the resolution protecting against the humiliations, discriminations and injustices perpetrated upon the colored people of the U.S. After the other members of the delegation had presented & framed all the resolutions which they cared to offer I asked if I might not submit one in which I was especially interested. After several substitutes had been offered for mine which did not include all the thots I wanted to present [I] the delegates finally agreed to let me offer the following X [*Thru the courtesy of Blaise Diagne , an African whowis the deputy for the colonies I visited the French [Chamber of Deputies] Chamber of Deputies. Monsieur Diagne was French to the finger tips, cultured , dignified and refined with the poise [of a man who] characteristic of a man who wields great power. His wife was a beautiful French woman, I was told, the mother of three children brought up as are the other little aristocrats in France. There were three or four African representatives in the Chamber and I was overjoyed to see that they were on perfect equality with the others. They [spoke] mingled freely with their lighter confreres chatted and laughed with them [and were addressed by them absolutely] addressed by them absolutely without regard to difference in race. [It was a sight] For a woman from a prejudice ridden country it was a sight worth going miles to see.*] [*See bottom of page 5 +*] NATIONAL PUBLIC WELFARE LEAGUE 569 East Georgia Avenue MEMPHIS, TENN. August 22, 1927. Mrs. Mary Church Terrell, Washington, D.C. Dear Madam: We are inclosing to you circulars concerning the works of Dr. Sutton E. Griggs, our greatest philosopher who has given more than thirty years of thought to the race question. We want the thinking part of our race to give thorough study of the books written by him. They should be in every home that stands for racial progress. We are asking that all clubs make a special study of the works of Dr. Griggs during the winter, and we feel that you will heartily thank us for the suggestion. Dr. C. V. Roman, noted scholar, philosopher and scientist. says: "Dr. Griggs is one of the clearest thinkers of this generation." Let us hear from you at once stating that you will use your influence to have your club study the works of the man who is giving his life for racial uplift. Many clubs have adopted the works of this author as part of their study course. Kindly send in your order at once. Send all orders to the National Public Welfare League, 569 E. Georgia Ave., Memphis, Tenn. Mrs. M.B. Woods, Director of study. difference in race. [It was a sight] for a woman from a prejudice ridden country it was a sight worth going to see. See follow of pages + 5 Altho [While] it is a great temptation to relate the many courtesies extended me during the Congress in Surich the kihdly expressions of interest in my group and the praise bestowed upon my address I shall resist it. It would be only half told anyway, no matter how hard I tried. While I was in Switzerland I wanted very much to revisit Lausanne as a young woman where, I had spent so many happy, profitable months studying, as a young woman, hoped [hoping] strongly that I would be able to find the family with whom I had stopped so many years ago. I went to the post office, therefore, and asked one of the of- ficials of [it] either Mlle. Sarah or Mlle. Marie Gowthorpe still lived in Lausanne . He told me they did, and [gave] me their address in a jiffy and in a few minutes I was standing before the door of their apartment. Altho they were greatlysur- prised to see me, they recognized me and we had a soulful reunion [time together] for a [that] whole afternoon [delightful] and evening renewing the good times we had together as girls._ In Paris where I spent five weeks on my way home I renewed [had] my acquaintance with Monsieur Jean Finot whom I had met for the first time in 5 years previously as I was returning from the International Congress of Women which was held in Berlin. Mr. Finot, as is well known, is the editor of La Revue Mondiale, and is the author of one of the most remarkable books on the race question which has ap- peared in years. "Le prejuge des Races", a thick volume in French, was transla- ted into English by the well known writer, W.T Stead, who was then editor of the Review of Reviews in England, and was afterward greatly abbreviated under the title of The Death Agony of the Science of Race. "Mr. Finot presented me with [both] the shortened English [French] edition [s] and gave me permission to have it re- printed in the United States. It is impossible to find stronger and more scien- tific arguments against the natural superiority or inferiority of certain races than are give in Mr. Finot's book. Nothing is more exhilarating and encourag- ing to a member of the underestimated group than a talk with this great French writer who believes heart and soul in the superior mental and spiritual endow ments of his dark brothers *Page 5 1/2 +*. For many reasons the interview [of an hour and a half] with Baron Nakino, Japan's representative at the Peace Conference in Paris right after the World War is indelibly stamped upon my mind. I felt that I had been in the presence of a brown philosopher and a real dplomat for an hour and a half. *Im P5 3/4* With Captain Bout- Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.