time is the most important factor in the economy of God in working out the destiny of races and nations--we shall encounter fierce ant antagonism, but we shall win in the end, for we shall have God and justice and fair play on our side.

In view of the present condition of affairs in which we find ourselves we beg to direct attention to the following facts:

1. Since 1868 there has been a steady and persistent determination to eliminate us from the politics of the Southern States. We are not to be eliminated. Suffrage is a Federal guaranty and not a privilege to be conferred of withheld by the States. We content for the principle of manhood suffrage as the most effective safeguard of citizenship. A disfranchised citizen is a pariah in the body politic. We are not opposed to legitimate restriction of the suffrage, but we insist that restrictions shall apply alike to all citizens of all States. We are willing to accept an educational or property qualification, or both: and we contend that retroactive legislation depriving citizens of the suffrage rights is a hardship which should be speedily passed upon by the courts. We insist that neither of these was intended or is conserved by conserved by the new constitutions of Mississippi, South Carolina or Louisiana. Their framers intended and did disfranchise a majority of their citizenship because of "race, color and previous condition," and we therefore call upon the Congress to reduce the representation of those States in the Congress as provided and made mandatory by Section 2 of Article XIV of the Constitution. We call upon Afro-Americans everywhere to resist by all lawful means the determination to deprive them of their suffrage rights. If it is necessary to accomplish this vital purpose to divide their vote in a given State we advise that they divide it. The shibboleth of party must give way to the shibboleth of self-preservation.

2. The increase of mob and lynch law in the Republic must be a source of regret and grief to every law-abiding citizen. It has become a source of reproach at home and abroad. We feel that this cancer on the body politic is breeding a contempt for law which will spread over the whole body of the Nation unless a stop is put to it. The recent outbreaks of it in Illinois, North Carolina and South Carolina have shocked and disgusted the Nation. We regret that the President of the United States saw fit to treat with silence this vital matter in his second annual message to Congress, and yet we indulge the hope that the President will adjust the matter affecting the outrages in the Carolinas to the satisfaction of all fairminded men and to the honor and glory of the Nation.

3. The separate car laws have grown to such provoking proportions, and they are so unjust, degrading and oppressive in their operations, that we deem it urgent to direct attention to them here. We urge and advise in the interest of justice and decency, that the graduated passenger rate prevailing in North Carolina be substituted for the infamous system a now in force in most of the other States of the South. It is a principle of common carrier, is not worth the paper it is written on south of North Carolina. Is this fair or just, or in accordance with common or Statute law practice in the United States? A contract valid in one State of the Republic should be valid in every State. With all citizens other than Afro-Americans it is

4. In the interest of humanity we request that the penal institions of the South be reformed. The horrors of them depicted by Geo. W. Cable years ago instead of growing better have grown worse, as Governor Atkinson of Georgia showed in the last days of his conscientious administration of his office. The indiscriminate herding of males and females and juveniles in the convict camps of the South constitutes one of the most glaring scandals in the administration of justice in the Republic. The horrors of Siberia as depicted by George Kennan and Stepniak are humane in comparison with these horrors within our own land. Read the reports of Governor Atkinson's special commissioners on the Georgia convict camps! And this is only one of eleven similar conditions. Separate the males from the females; give the juveniles asylums of their own and the opportunity to reform. The other States of the Union do it, why can't the South? It has wealth enough, it only needs inclination. We appeal to its inclination. As a matter of fact there must be no less than 500,000 Afro-Americans in the Southern States who are held to involuntary service, contrary to the XIIIth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and the peonage statutes thereof.

5. Intelligent citizenship is the strongest safeguard of the State, and as the people have decided, in the failure of the passage of the Blair Educational Bill, that each State must tax itself to educate its own citizens, a principle entirely just, and as the taxation for school purposes in the Southern States is wholly inadequate to obliterate the abnormal illiteracy of those Stateside in large part to the maintenance of separate schools for the two races, necessitating a double expenditure of moneys raised by taxation for school purposes, we suggest that a part of the public domain of each of the Southern States be devoted to the schools of higher learning and industrial training and for a more effective maintenance of the public school system of those States, for each race, share and share alike, to be controlled and apportioned to the schools by the Honorable Secretary of the Interior.

6. We feel that a more general distribution of the Afro-American race throughout the States of the Union and the new territories of the Republic, in order to reduce the congested population of the Southern States, would do much to simplify the race problem in those States, and we urge that such distribution should be encouraged in all reasonable ways. We have to sympathy whatever with the schemes of those who wish to have the race leave the United States for foreign countries. We shall remain here and fight out our destiny in the land of our fathers.

7. We favor both higher and industrial education, and are gratified at the splendid growth of the love of education manifested by the eagerness with which our people fill the avenues of education open to them.

8. We are gratified at the development of business enterprises of all sorts among us and we wish to encourage all such, as being among the strongest levers in the uplifting of the race.

9. We submit our cause to the fairminded men of our own land and of the world at large, and invoke the Divine interposition in our behalf.

Document No. 1.State ex rel David J. Ryanesvs.Jerry M. Gleason, Registrar.No. 65,432,Civil District Court, Parish ofOrleans, Division of Orleans.Case to test the validity of the Louisiana Constitution of 1898, made in violation of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States.

DOCUMENT NO. 1.Published under the auspices of the Legal Bureau, National Afro-American Council, and issued from the offices of the Secretary of the Bureau, 2011 Vermont Avenue, Washington D.C.OFFICERS OF THE BUREAU:Frederick L. McGhee, Director,John H. Hannon, Chairman, Finance Committee.Jesse Lawson, Secretary, Finance Committee.Joseph Hannoe, Treasurer, Finance Committee.Hon. George H. White, Chief Counselor.THE ATTORNEYS IN THE CASE:Hon. A. E. Pillsbury, Boston, Mass.Hon. A. A. Birney, Washington, D. C.Major Armand Romain, New Orleans, La.Hon. George H. White, Tarboro, N. C.Frederick L. McGhee, Esq., St. Paul, Minn.To the Honorable the Judges of the Civil District Court in and for the Parish of Orleans, State of Louisiana:

The petition of the State of Louisiana, on the relation of David Jordan Ryanes, domiciled in this City of New Orleans, Parish of Orleans, State of Louisiana, respectfully represents:

That your relator is a native born male citizen of the United States, and of the State of Louisiana; that he is more than twenty-one (21) years of age; that he is a member of the African race, and that his father and mother and all other ascendants were of the African race; that he was born in the State of Tennessee in the year 1841, but that he removed to this State, and has been an actual resident of the State of Louisiana and of the City of New Orleans, uninterruptedly, since the month of March, 1860; that he has been a registered voter in this State and Parish, and has actually exercised his privilege as such for the last thirty (30) years or thereabouts.

Your relator, therefore, specifically alleges that he has been an actual bona fide resident of the State of Louisiana for more than two years; of the Parish of Orleans for more than one year; and of the Ninth (9th) Precinct of the Eleventh (11th) Ward of said Parish of Orleans for more than six months.

Your relator further alleges that he is unable to read and write; that he does not own any property assessed to him, upon which any taxes are or ought to be paid; that on the first day of January, 1867, and prior thereto, he was a resident of this State and parish afore-said, 000427and was not then entitled to vote under the constitution and laws of the State of Louisiana; and that neither his father nor grandfather were entitled to vote under the constitution and laws of the State where they then resided, the first day of January, 1867, or at any date prior thereto.

Your relator now specially alleges that on the 10th of July, 1901, he presented himself to the Supervisor of Registration for the Parish of Orleans, the Hon. Jeremiah M. Gleason, who is domiciled in this parish and State aforesaid, and now defendant herein, and that your relator made formal application for registration as a qualified voter of the Ninth Precinct of the Eleventh Ward of said Parish of Orleans.

Your relator specially alleges that the Supervisor of Registration, defendant herein, refused to register the plaintiff unless your relator could and did comply with the requirements and provisions of Article 197 of the Constitution of the State of Louisiana, adopted on the 12th day of May, 1898, and of the Acts of the General Assembly of said State passed in order to carry out the provisions of said article of the constitution.

Your relator now specially alleges that the action of said Supervisor of Registration in refusing to register him is illegal, and without proper constitutional right and authority; that said refusal to register is but a step, and is tantamount to a complete denial of your relator's right to vote, as your relator cannot vote without being registered; that your relator will be unable to vote at the next elections, both State and congressional, to be held in this State, unless he is duly registered; that said refusal, therefore, is an infringement upon your relator's rights and privileges as a citizen of this State and of the United States; that your relator will be deprived of the benefits conferred upon him by the franchise clauses of the Federal Constitution, and thereby subjected to irreparable injury.

Your relator now specially alleges that the defendant Supervisor, in his said refusal, invokes the pretended authority of Sections three, four and five of Article No. 197, of the Louisiana State Constitution of 1898, and also Sections five, six and seven of Act 199, of the General Assembly of 1898, which Act carries into effect the provisions of said Article No. 197, of the Constitution.

Your relator now specially alleges that said Sections three, four and five of Article No. 197 of the Constitution of 1898, and said Sections five, six and seven of said Act No. 199 of 1898, certified copies of which are filed herein and made a part hereof, and any other law or laws carrying out the provisions of said Article 197 of the Constitution of 1898 are illegal, null and void, and cannot, and should not be enforced for the following reasons, to wit:

First: That said Article 197 of the Constitution of said Sections three, four and five thereof, as well as the Act of the Legislature passed in pursuance thereof, collectively constitute one unlawful plan of suffrage qualifications based upon discrimination on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude, which is, therefore, in violation of the Fifteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution.

Second: That said Article 197 of the Constitution and the various sections thereof, as well as the sections of Act No. 199, of 1898, were intended to affect poor and ignorant negroes only, and actually to disfranchise only poor and ignorant negroes, situated similarly to the relator herein, thereby denying to said poor and ignorant negroes 000528the equal protection of the laws to which they are entitled, and, therefore, the said article and the said sections, collectively and separately, are in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.

Your relator now specially alleges that under the authority of the said Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, the protection of which he now invokes, he is entitled to be registered as a qualified voter of the Ninth Precinct of the Eleventh Ward of the Parish of Orleans; and that the duty of the said Jeremiah M. Gleason, Supervisor of Registration, defendant herein, is clearly a simple ministerial duty; and that the said relator is entitled to a certificate of registration from the defendant herein.

Your relator further specially alleges that a Writ of Mandamus is the only proper remedy which will effectually protect the rights privileges and interests of your relator herein, and thereby enable him to vote at the next elections to be held in this State.

Wherefore, the premises and the annexed affidavit being considered, your petitioner prays that citation issue herein according to law, and that proper notice be served upon the defendant herein to show cause, on a day to be hereafter fixed by the Court, why a Writ of Mandamus should not issue herein, ordering and commanding the said Jeremiah M. Gleason, Supervisor of Registration for the Parish of Orleans, to inscribe the name of the relator herein upon the books of his office as a duly qualified elector and voter of the Ninth Precinct of the Eleventh Ward for the Parish of Orleans.

And your relator further prays that, after all due delays and hearings, there be a judgment in favor of the relator herein and against the defendant, making the said Writ of Mandamus peremptory.

And relator further prays for all costs of suit and all legal, general and equitable relief.(Signed.) Armand Romain,Atty. for Relator.

Affidavit:David Jordan Ryanes being duly sworn, deposes and says that the foregoing petition has been read to him and that all the facts contained therein are true and correct.his(Signed.)David J. X Ryanes.mark

Sworn to and subscribed before me this, 12th day of July, 1901.(Signed.)H. Generes Dufour. Notary Public.

Order:Let Jeremiah M. Gleason, Supervisor of Registration for the Parish of Orleans, show cause on the 6th day of August, 1901, at eleven o'clock A. M., why the Writ of Mandamus should not issue herein as prayed for in accordance with law.(Signed.)W. B. Sommerville,Judge.

Our plan of organization is as follows: Any person who has sufficient interest in the matter can send invitations to leading Afro-American citizens who are interested in the amelioration of the condition of our race, to meet in some private house, church or hall, according to the number invited.

If as many as ten assemble and are willing to subscribe to the objects set forth in the constitution, they can be organised by the election of the following officers: President, Vice-President, Secretary. Assistant Secretary, Treasurer, Chaplain, Sergeant-at-Arms and an Executive Committee consisting of five members.-- See constitution.

Religious and secular organizations, Afro-American newspapers, academic schools and colleges which have for their aim and work the mental and moral elevation of the Afro-American race, are invited to unite with the Council. Such organizations can be identified with the Council by the payment of five dollars, which must be sent to Mr. J.W. Thompson, Box 493, Rochester, New York.

FIRST QUARTER--ORGANIZATION.The Afro-American Council--Its Aims and Needs.Local Organizations, and how they shall be effected.How shall the National and Local Councils be sustained?

SECOND QUARTER--MORALS.Race conduct in public places: (a) On the street. (b) Public conveyances. (c) Churches. (d) Parks and panic grounds, etc.

CRIMINAL STATISTICS OF THE RACE.(a) Police courts. (b) Reform schools. (c) Jails. (d) Penitentiaries.RACE MORALITY AND HOW TO STRENGTHEN IT.(a) In the home. (b) Social circle.(c) Church.

THIRD QUARTER--BUSINESS.How can we foster business enterprises among us?(a) Agriculture. (b) Merchantile pursuits. (c) Manufactures. (d) Horticulture, etc., (e) Shall we trade with our own business and professional men ? If not, why not? (f) Business reciprocity with those who employ Afro-Americans.

FOURTH QUARTER--LYNCHING.Lynching: Its cause and cure.

The effect of public sentiment on the lynching evil, and how to create it.

What is the best method to collect funds for the Anti-Lynching and Legislative Bureaus?

What does the Constitution of the United States guarantee to the Afro-American?How can the Afro-American secure his Constitutional Rights? Shall the Afro-American vote for his own best interests ?How shall our boys and girls be employed ?Scientific farmers the need of the hour.The necessity of higher education.The necessity of industrial education.Shall we discourage excessive emotional worship among us ?Question to be asked at each meeting: "Are there any matters of local interest which need our attention?"

These topics have been prepared with the ideas that the Local Councils shall hold their meetings once a month. Where the Councils have no regular meeting place, they should, as far as possible, hold their meetings in the churches of different denominations.

At the meeting of the National Afro-American Council held in St. Paul, Minn. July 9, 10, 11, 1902, the following officers were elected: President--T. Thomas Fortune, New Jersey.First Vice President--William A. Pledger, Georgia.Second Vice President--William H. Steward, Kentucky.Third Vice President--George H. White, District of Columbia.Fourth Vice President--John C. Dancy, North Carolina.Fifth Vice President--I.B. Scott, Texas.Sixth Vice President--H.T. Johnson, New Jersey.Seventh Vice President--E.H. Deas, South Carolina.Eighth Vice President--Charles W. Scrutchin, Minnesota.Ninth Vice President--Mrs. R. Jerome Jeffrey, New York.Secretary--Cyrus Field Adams, Illinois.Financial Secretary--F.L. McGhee, Minnesota.Corresponding Secretary--Mrs. Fannie Barrier Williams, Illinois.Assistant Secretary--Miss Martha V. Webster, Kentucky.Treasurer--John W. Thompson, New York.National Organizer--George W. Clinton, North Carolina.Sergeant-at-Arms--J.H. Dillingham, Minnesota.Chaplain--Rev. Walter Brooks, District of Columbia.Directors of Bureaus.Education--W.T. Vernon, Kansas.Legal--J. Madison Vance, Louisiana.Business--Emmett J. Scott, Alabama.Ecclesiastical--M.C.B. Mason, Ohio.Emigration--Nelson Crews, Missouri.Literary--Mrs. J. St. P. Ruffin, Massachusetts.Anti-Lynching--Mrs. I.B.W. Barnett, Illinois.Newspaper--P.J. Smith, Massachusetts.Vital Statistics--Dr. J.E. Porter, Minnesota.Executive Committee.Chairman--Alexander Walters.Secretary--Cyrus Field Adams.Alabama--Booker T. Washington, Emmett J. Scott, Miss Cornelia Bowen.Arkansas--E.C. Morris, J.C. Corbin, Mrs. H.E. Carolina.California--Allen Allensworth, Lincoln Dennis, Mrs. Minnie Benson.Colorado--J.S.C. Sharp, W.B. Townsend, Mrs. Mattie Brown.Connecticut--Walter Scott, S.P. Peaker.Delaware--W.C. Jason, S.B. Elbert, Mrs. E.K. Kruse.District of Columbia--J.A. Taylor, J.H. Hannon, Miss Lucy E. Moten.Florida--M.M. Moore, M.M. Leeway, Mrs. J. Clinton.Georgia--W.E.B. Du Bois. B.J. Davis, Miss A.D. Clithroll.Illinois--Cyrus Field Adams, Ferdinand L. Barnett, Mrs. Ida Barnett.Indiana--S.A. Furniss, George L. Knox, Mrs. Lillian T. Fox.Iowa--John L. Thompson, I.E. Williamson, Mrs. W.H. London.Indian Territory--W.H. Smith, Dr. Semms, Mrs. C.D. Jackson.Kansas--James H. Guy, W.T. Vernon, Miss Mamie Dillard.Kentucky--W.H. Steward, J.C. Jackson, Miss Martha Webster.Louisiana--M.S. Alexander, James Lewis, Mrs. S.F. Williams.Maryland--Ernest Lyons, Harry S. Cummings, Mrs. Ella Smith. 0008Massachusetts--E.E.Brown, P.J.Smith, Mrs. Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin.Michigan--C.S.Smith, S.M.Grant, Mrs. M.F.McCoy.Minnesota--W.T.Francis, Harry Shepherd, Mr. J.E.Porter.Mississippi--Isaiah T.Montgomery, W.E.Mollison, Mrs. Lizzie W.Coleman.Missouri--Nelson C.Crews, R.W.Foster, Mrs. J.Silone Yates.Nebraska--F.L.Barnett, Fred L.Smith.New Jersey--Alexander Walters, Jesse Lawson.New Mexico--H.O.FlipperNew York--J.E.Mason, W.A.Alexander, Mrs. Jerome Jeffrey.North Carolina--John C.Dancy, C.R.Harris, Mrs. R.C.Bearden.Ohio--H.C.Smith, W.A.Scarborough, Miss Amelia Taylor.Oklahoma--L.E.Page, E.P.McCabe, Mrs. I.E.Page.Oregon--A.D.Griffin, J.N.Fullilove, Mrs. J.N.Fullilove.Pennsylvania--C.H.Brooks, E.W.Moore, Mrs. N.F.Mossell.Rhode Island--J.W.Henderson, W.H.Coffey, Miss Elizabeth Carter.South Carolina--E.H.Deas, J.R.Levy, Miss A.G.Moorer.Tennessee--J.C.Napier, N.A.Crosswait, Mrs. N.L.Napier.Texas--R.L.Smith, C.W.Luckie, Mrs. Alice Dunn Logan.Virginia--John Mitchell, Jr.W.I.Taylor, Mrs. Maggie W.Steward.Washington--C.A.Rideout, J.R.Hawkins.West Virginia--J.R.Clifford, Geo.E.Curry, Miss Otelia Kent.Wisconsin--J.J.Miles, S.H.Minor, Mrs. E.Williams.The sixth annual meeting of the National Afro American Council will be held at Louisville, Ky., in 1903. The exact date will be decided by the Executive Committee.