Activities Among Negroes
Miss Nellie Dobson represented this city during the recent, annual conference of the National Association of Colored People (N. A. A. C. P.) held in Chicago. Appearing on the musical program before this organization were many of the best colored singers and musicians of America. Miss Dobson participated in one program of music, given as build a test contest, during which such well-known singers as Mme Anita Patti Brown sang. Musical critics of Chicago were united in a statement in which they said: "The final outstanding voice and the one carrying the most difficult part was from that of Nellie Dobson of Oakland, California." She is now in Oakland on a brief visit with her mother, and through the courtsey (courtesy) of the Fanny J. Coppin club will be presented in a home coming reception and recital Tuesday evening in First A. M. E. church of Oakland.
Last Sunday morning was designated California Native Sons and Daughters day for the morning service in First A. M. E. church. Mrs. Sarah Collins, a native daughter and former resident of Oakland, conducted the services. In her opening remarks she recalled when she graduated from the Silver street school in San Francisco as the first colored girl to graduate in the United States for a Kindergarten teacher. Her father, the late Rev, J. B. Sanderson, was then considered the leading educator among the race on the Pacific Coast.
Miss Leana Randolph, owing to the sudden death of her mother during the week, was unable to appear on the program, but sent a paper which Rev. Pryor read. It recalled that her grandfather, the late Rev. Barney Fletcher, was the founder of African-Methodist Episcopal church on this coast. Many numbers were rendered after which a collection of nearly a hundred a dollars was added to the pipe organ fund.
Mrs. Sarah Collins, during the six weeks she has been visiting her relatives in Oakland has been the guest at many social functions. Among the most pretentious was a birthday dinner given by Mr. and Mrs. William Morey, which was in the nature of a family reunion; telegrams of congratulations were received from all over the coast but the most treasured was one from Dr. Paul Collins, her son, who is recognized as the leading eye, ear and nose specialist of his race in America. Mrs. Collins left this morning for her home in Newark, N. J.
Mrs. Addie W. Hunton, as president of the New York State Federation of Colored Women's clubs, attended the recent biennial convention of N. A. of C. W., at which meeting she was elected as Parliamentarian of the organization. She is recognized as the most forceful speaker today of her race, appearing before the American public. She is highly educated, a master of several languages and has enjoyed foreign study and travel.
She is the widow of the late Will Hunton, the first Y. M. C. A. executive secretary for colored work in America and who later became the first international colored secretary for Y. M. C. A. work. He, too, was exceptionally well educated, and during his entire career of twenty five years in this position he enjoyed the cooperation of his wife. The experience thus gained fitted Mrs. Hunton for the position she now holds as consulting secretary in the national board of Y. W. C. A. She is also a distinguished member and officer in the International Council of the Women of the Darker Races of the World. Recently she made an investigation for this organization in Haiti, West Indies.
Immediately following the close of the biennial of the N. A. of C. W. Mrs. Hunton, together with friends, motored to southern California, returning to Oakland Monday afternoon and at 8 p. m. that evening delivered a message of a "Broader Interracial Understanding," at the Tenth Avenue Baptist church radio broadcasting station. In this address she made an appeal for equal educational opportunities for all children of every race and afterwards an opportunity to earn a living irrespective of race or color. She stated that in New York City there are employed six hundred colored school teachers and declared the public school system is not impared (impaired) because of this mixture of teachers.
Mrs. Hunton is a member of the executive board of the N. A. A. C. P. in New York City, and was invited by the local branch to address the members and friends on Monday evening in North Oakland Baptist church. She told her audience this organization is working for full citizenship and social justice for the race. In the crusade against lynching, inaugurated a few years ago by this organization under the leadership of the late Mrs. Mary B. Talbert, she declared, the colored club women, of the United States raised the sum of fifteen thousand dollars, which they used in this campaign. Money was spent for a full page page advertisement which appeared for just one day in all the leading daily papers throughout the United States. This article told in a gripping manner the story of lynching and its barbarism, with its danger of undermining the very foundation of the government of the United States. The defeat of the Dyer anti-lynching bill, she said, was due to the indifference of the colored citizen in not supporting the N. A. A. C. P. with money sufficient that it might carry on a campaign of education in favor of the bill so forceful that the United States senators would have noted the united action of the race and believed that the race actually did wish it to become a law.
Mrs. Thomas Nevin of St. Louis, Mo., who is an officer in the branch in that city and, as president of the St. Louis Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, raised last year over a thousand dollars for the home office in New York of the N. A. A. C. P., spoke at length on business efficiency for colored women as one way of solving the inter-racial misunderstandings.
She was followed in a short address by Mrs. Asbury of Tacoma, Washington, who, as the president of the Federation of Colored Women's Clubs of that state, told of the interest the club women had in the success of the N. A. A. C. P. She said she personally had organized many branches in the northwestern part of the United States and told of the value she had found the organization to be in effecting better inter-racial understanding.
Tuesday afternoon Mrs. Hunton was invited to address a group of students in the Y. W. C. A. but on the campus of the University of California in Berkeley. There was present a large group of women and men from both races, in addition to the students. Mrs. Lillian Jetter Davis, a colored musician of national note, had also been asked of to sing on this occasion some rare old spirituals."
Mrs. Hunton, in her soft toned voice, delivered a message so convincing that more than once her hearers were seen to brush away tears. She told of the effect of the Y. W. C. A. conferences bringing about a better and a broader inter-racial understanding, especially in the southland, and of the great value of the college group of students in solving problems between the. races. Most effective was her relation of the value and good derived from an address delivered by Mrs. Mary McCloud of Bethune at the Y. W. C. A. Blue Ridge conference, in the very heart of the South. She then reviewed the educational aspirations and accomplishments of the colored people in all lines, both in the United States and abroad. She spoke of a colored girl from California who is now in Rome completing her voice culture and of another who is in France, having won a degree in a university there.
She concluded by telling in a gripping manner her experience on the battle fields of France during the World war.
Mrs. Hunton afterwards asked the mistress of ceremonies to permit her to present to the audience colored women who were present from Baltimore, Md., Berkeley and Oakland, who had been working for a broader interracial understanding in their own respective districts.
Following this a young woman student presented Miss Ida Jackson, the only colored public school teacher in Oakland, who a graduate of the University of California and, as a Y. W. C. A. worker, conducted a class during the spring conference held in Asilomar. Miss Jackson's sponsor said no white woman "Y" worker ever missed attending this class during the entire ten days of the conference.
The Linden branch, Y. W. C. A.. tendered Mrs. Hunton a tea Wednesday afternoon in recognition of the great service she is rendering the colored women of the world.
During the past week Oakland has had a large number of colored visitors of distinction, who had planned to attend the biennial but could not reach Oakland in time. Among them, en route to Yellowstone park, was Dr. Fitzbutler Washington of Louisville, Kentucky.
Miss Azalena Blackburn of Pittsburgh, Pa., and Mrs. Davage of Atlanta, Ga., were the weekend guests of Mrs. Woodson. The following members of the same party were weekend guests of Mr. and Mrs. Davis of 36 West street. Mrs. J. M. Mundy of Henderson, Ky., the wife of the pastor of St. Clements Colored Episcopal church and Supreme Register of Deeds of the Supreme Court of N. A. S. A. E. A. and A.; Mrs. John Snowden of Lexington, Ky., Grand Worthy Councillor (Councilor) of Order of Calanthe of Kentuck (Kentucky), club worker, and public school teacher: Mrs. E. H. Brown, a teacher in the Junior High school of Henderson, Ky., and the organist of the Colored Episcopal church, in that city; Dr. and Mrs. Garland Chissell of Baltimore, Md. Dr. Chissell is a member of the staff of Providence Hospital and an active member of the N. A. A. C. P., while his wife is an active Y. W. C. A. worker, and of the Baltimore Civic League and the DuBois Circle of Literary workers.. This couple have been so impressed with Oakland they have prolonged their stay that they may study the beauties of Northern California. They are old friends of Dr. Ward and Mrs. Lydia Smith Ward of this city, whose guest they have been during their stay.
The United Brothers of Friendship lodge and the Mysterious Ten held their annual meeting this week in Oakland. They held memorial services for the departed members Sunday evening in First A. M. E. church, and on Monday evening a public reception in Parks Chapel. There were many strangers from Southern California and elsewhere in attendance.
