Cheer Name of Foraker.
September 7, 1907
Summary
At a meeting held in Boston, many blacks involved with the “Niagara Movement” speak about black suffrage and the importance of blacks being elected and voting.
Transcription
Cheer Name of Foraker.
Roosevelt and Taft Decried as False Friends.
A public meeting was held last night in Faneuil Hall under the auspices of the Niagara movement in observance of the centenary of the abolition of the American slave trade and the birthdays of Longfellow, Whittier and Agassiz. The hall was well filled, and at times considerable enthusiasm prevailed. A white man, Andrew B. Humphrey, who was one of Foraker, which was the signal for great cheering.
The audience was composed mostly of colored people, although there were at least 100 white men and women present. Only two of the speakers, Prof. DuBois and Br. Bulkeley, referred to the announced subject of the meeting. The other addresses dealt with the administration, Taft and Foraker.
The meeting opened with prayer by Rev. Dr. J. M. Waldron.
Vocal selections were sung by Miss Grace Majors and W. H. Richardson, with Mrs. William Parker Hare accompanying on the piano.
Dr. William E. B. DuBois presided and said in part:
That Niagara Movement.
“The Niagara movement was formed by 29 men three years ago for manhood suffrage. We are trying to prove to the world that the American nation ought not to change from the foundation on which it is raised.
“The slave trade was a demand for labor. In the centuries to come we are going to have an industrial system, not the making of wealth, but the making of men. He problem of the black or the white workman in the south is the problem of the white workman at the north. Freedom of political rights must be given to all workmen in this country if this country is to be a pure democracy.”
Yale Graduate There.
George W. Crawford, a New Haven lawyer and a graduate of Yale College, was the next speaker. He was followed by Rev. Dr. Charles S. Morris, pastor of the largest colored Baptist church in New York city, who said in part: “Is there any person in this audience who believes the American Negro has all the rights that belong to him as an American citizen? The ballot has been taken from our hands. We have been ‘jim crowed’ and peonized, and in some portions of this country we have no rights that a white man is bound to respect.
“The Niagara movement says that the ballot is what the colored man wants. Every time the Negro loses the ballot he loses his civil rights and his standing before the courts in the south: he loses his public schools or gets a shorter term of education. If in protesting against these wrongs against our race we Niagaraists are called ‘sore heads,’ radicals and the like, we are willing to be called such.
The Loyalty Of The Race
“Our race for its loyalty has earned the hate of one political party and the contempt of another. We would be unworthy of American citizenship if we who can vote do not use our ballot effectively. I have seen the bleeding forms of the Negro kicked out of the army by the man whose fame they pricked with bayonets on the sands of Cuba, and now next year they ask us to follow this leader again? (Cries of “Never!”) The ballot next year will register the black man’s will like lightning does the will of God.” (Great applause.)
Humphrey For Foraker.
Andrew B. Humphrey, secretary of the Constitutional League of New York, said he had been down in Kentucky where the administration failed to get an indorsement for Taft. He wanted the world to know that between Taft and Foraker he was for Foraker.
“Because Taft cringed before the President on that discharged soldier affair,” he said, ‘I do not believe he will ever be President of the United State.”
Dr. William L. Bulkeley, principal of public school 80, New York city, pointed out the steadfastness of Whittier, Garrison and Phillips in the cause as an example to be followed today.
The last speaker was Rev. Dr. R. C. Ranson, who said:
The Negro Here To Stay
“The Negro is not going to leave this country. Whether we are to be serfs is a very serious question. We ourselves are divided on this question. We are more acceptable in the south that in Massachusetts on the industrial question. The Negro made in God’s image must not be less than a man in this country. It is the duty for us to stand up as citizens.”
Letters were read from Mayor Fitzgerald, Col. Higginson and Frank Sanborn.
Address To The Country.
Dr. Dubois read an address to the country which cites that this has been a year of wrong and discrimination. It demands federal legislation forbidding exclusion of any person from interstate cars on account of color, and the full exoneration for the discharged colored soldiers. It concludes:
“We call on the 250,000 free black voters of the north: Use your ballot to defeat Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft, or any man named by the present political dictatorship. Better vote for avowed enemies than for false friends: but better still vote with the white laboring classes, remembering that the cause of labor is the cause of black men and the black man’s cause is labor’s own.”
-Boston Globe, Aug 29, ’07.
Roosevelt and Taft Decried as False Friends.
A public meeting was held last night in Faneuil Hall under the auspices of the Niagara movement in observance of the centenary of the abolition of the American slave trade and the birthdays of Longfellow, Whittier and Agassiz. The hall was well filled, and at times considerable enthusiasm prevailed. A white man, Andrew B. Humphrey, who was one of Foraker, which was the signal for great cheering.
The audience was composed mostly of colored people, although there were at least 100 white men and women present. Only two of the speakers, Prof. DuBois and Br. Bulkeley, referred to the announced subject of the meeting. The other addresses dealt with the administration, Taft and Foraker.
The meeting opened with prayer by Rev. Dr. J. M. Waldron.
Vocal selections were sung by Miss Grace Majors and W. H. Richardson, with Mrs. William Parker Hare accompanying on the piano.
Dr. William E. B. DuBois presided and said in part:
That Niagara Movement.
“The Niagara movement was formed by 29 men three years ago for manhood suffrage. We are trying to prove to the world that the American nation ought not to change from the foundation on which it is raised.
“The slave trade was a demand for labor. In the centuries to come we are going to have an industrial system, not the making of wealth, but the making of men. He problem of the black or the white workman in the south is the problem of the white workman at the north. Freedom of political rights must be given to all workmen in this country if this country is to be a pure democracy.”
Yale Graduate There.
George W. Crawford, a New Haven lawyer and a graduate of Yale College, was the next speaker. He was followed by Rev. Dr. Charles S. Morris, pastor of the largest colored Baptist church in New York city, who said in part: “Is there any person in this audience who believes the American Negro has all the rights that belong to him as an American citizen? The ballot has been taken from our hands. We have been ‘jim crowed’ and peonized, and in some portions of this country we have no rights that a white man is bound to respect.
“The Niagara movement says that the ballot is what the colored man wants. Every time the Negro loses the ballot he loses his civil rights and his standing before the courts in the south: he loses his public schools or gets a shorter term of education. If in protesting against these wrongs against our race we Niagaraists are called ‘sore heads,’ radicals and the like, we are willing to be called such.
The Loyalty Of The Race
“Our race for its loyalty has earned the hate of one political party and the contempt of another. We would be unworthy of American citizenship if we who can vote do not use our ballot effectively. I have seen the bleeding forms of the Negro kicked out of the army by the man whose fame they pricked with bayonets on the sands of Cuba, and now next year they ask us to follow this leader again? (Cries of “Never!”) The ballot next year will register the black man’s will like lightning does the will of God.” (Great applause.)
Humphrey For Foraker.
Andrew B. Humphrey, secretary of the Constitutional League of New York, said he had been down in Kentucky where the administration failed to get an indorsement for Taft. He wanted the world to know that between Taft and Foraker he was for Foraker.
“Because Taft cringed before the President on that discharged soldier affair,” he said, ‘I do not believe he will ever be President of the United State.”
Dr. William L. Bulkeley, principal of public school 80, New York city, pointed out the steadfastness of Whittier, Garrison and Phillips in the cause as an example to be followed today.
The last speaker was Rev. Dr. R. C. Ranson, who said:
The Negro Here To Stay
“The Negro is not going to leave this country. Whether we are to be serfs is a very serious question. We ourselves are divided on this question. We are more acceptable in the south that in Massachusetts on the industrial question. The Negro made in God’s image must not be less than a man in this country. It is the duty for us to stand up as citizens.”
Letters were read from Mayor Fitzgerald, Col. Higginson and Frank Sanborn.
Address To The Country.
Dr. Dubois read an address to the country which cites that this has been a year of wrong and discrimination. It demands federal legislation forbidding exclusion of any person from interstate cars on account of color, and the full exoneration for the discharged colored soldiers. It concludes:
“We call on the 250,000 free black voters of the north: Use your ballot to defeat Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft, or any man named by the present political dictatorship. Better vote for avowed enemies than for false friends: but better still vote with the white laboring classes, remembering that the cause of labor is the cause of black men and the black man’s cause is labor’s own.”
-Boston Globe, Aug 29, ’07.
About this article
Source
Location on Page
Upper Right Quadrant
Topic
Contributed By
Benton Camper
Citation
“Cheer Name of Foraker.,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed December 7, 2025, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/854.