Voice of the Negro (1904) Vol. 1, No. 12. pp. 601-604.

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The Frederick Douglass Centre

A Question of Social Betterment and Not of Social Equality

It would seem that the surest way to injure a colored person as an individual, or to bring discredit, if not failure, to a Negro Institution or enterprise of any kind, is to raise against him, her or it, the malignant cry of "social equality."

The truth of this was aptly illustrated in Chicago a few days ago, when one of the sensational dailies of this city, in a most startling manner and glaring headlines, "wrote up" one of the ordinary meetings of "The Frederick Douglass Centre," an organization recently launched in this city after the plan of Hull House, but wholly for the benefit of colored people who need it. Every feature of the affair was so exaggerated; what was actually said and done was so grossly misstated, in order to make it a "sensational scoop," that it went the rounds of the country as the most "astounding attempt to force social equality" that this country has ever witnessed.

The few Anglo-Saxon ladies who were guilty of this "social crime" of sitting in a parlor and interchanging views on the question of social betterment for the poor and needy, with a few colored women, and sipping tea together while they talked, were held up to the public as setting a "dangerous example" to the pure in heart.

The press East, West, North, and South took up, repeated, and passed along the "horrible" story of "The Black and White Tea," "White Women and Negresses," in the broad light of day in "a private residence, on a well-paved street, in view of innocent children going to school, and right in a neighborhood where there are churches, schools, policemen, drug stores, and other good things, sat together and planned together as to how they might together help to relieve social wretchedness in a big city and increase the effectiveness of human kindness and human love! Just think of it!

As if the horror of the thing was not sufficiently suggested by exaggerated type, the Kodak was used to heighten the contrast between the fair and plain faces of the company.

Was this misrepresentation of an innocent meeting among earnest, intelligent and love-giving American women justified? The newspaper that printed all of this hateful nonsense eagerly answers yes, and I suppose they were right from their standpoint, for the good women, Mrs. Celia Parker Woolley, Mrs. Magee, and Mrs. Dr. Shears, who were chiefly responsible for this "Black and White Tea," have been fairly overwhelmed with letters of indignant protest from men and women in all parts of the country. Some of the letters, especially from the South are too coarse for print. Now and then a letter of commendation was received, but most of them showed how ugly and intense is the spirit of caste in this country. Evidently the writers of these abusive letters addressed to their more humane sisters flattered themselves that they were administering a well-merited rebuke or punishment. Poor things! They little comprehended the mettle and character of the women who are the object of their abuse and vituperation. When certain of their more timid friends attempted to warn these Chicago women not to go too far in social matters, or to sympathize with them for being brought into such unenviable notoriety, all such advice, warnings and sympathy were immediately resented by them as cowardly. They are in earnest and not afraid of being misunderstood. They have a righteous purpose in hand and cannot and will not be hindered by the fears of those who are without purpose. They, as well as the competent colored women associated with them, are neither for or against social equality, but they are for what is right, what is just, and what is human and are willing to go, whenever and wherever, these promptings lead them.

In order to better understand the purpose and motive of the women who are responsible for this latest sensation over the "social equality" nonsense, it will be necessary to describe in full the plans, purposes and prospects of "The Frederick Douglass Centre." As already stated, this Association is in the nature of what is known as a Social Settlement, but it "stands for a new experiment in the work of social justice, though the deep moral necessity from which it springs forbids us to think of it as a mere "experiment." The city Negro has been the subject of much study by Sociologists in late years. There is no better place in the country than Chicago for this study. While the Negro population is increasing, the opportunities for their employment seem to be decreasing. It is also a fact that prejudice against the race seems to increase in the same ratio as its numbers increase. Many civil, social and political wrongs, and lessening of opportunities are plainly evident to people who have lived here long enough to know local conditions.

There is, however, in Chicago a goodly remnant of the old liberty loving spirit that is still responsive to the needs of those who are handicapped by reason of a dark complexion. Women like Jane Addams, Celia Parker Woolley, Mrs. Charles Henriotin, Miss Julia Lathrop, Mary McDowell and men like Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Judge Waterman, Rabbi [Emil] Hirsch and Dr. [Frank W.] Gunsaulus make it impossible for race hatred and prejudice to go unchallenged.66 It is this valiant spirit that prevented the Chicago Woman's Club from barring its doors to the admission of colored women, that mingles the children of all races in the public schools, and that keeps open all public places for all the people. It is also this spirit that conceived the idea of a Frederick Douglass Centre, as a social settlement. I do not know of a similar Institution in this country. Certainly there is none whose purposes are so comprehensive, its plans so intelligently conceived and well defined.

In the Prospectus issued the objects are stated as follows:

1. To promote a just and amicable relation between the white and colored people.
2. To remove the disabilities from which the latter suffer in their civil, political and industrial life.
3. To encourage equal opportunity, irrespective of race, color, or other arbitrary distinctions.
4. To establish a centre of friendly helpfulness and influence, in which to gather needful information and for mutual co-operation to the end of right living and a higher citizenship.

As now organized, the work will be carried on by six committees, as follows:

1. "Social Statics":

   1. To gather information about the colored people in Chicago and establish a scientific basis of inquiry and helpfulness.

2. "Business Opportunities":

   1. To extend aid and counsel to worthy men and women seeking self-support and suffering from race prejudice.

3. "Legal Advice and Redress":

   1. To inquire into cases of legal injustice fostered by race enmity and to uphold individual rights under the law.

4. "Sanitation, Housing, etc.":

   1. To improve the condition of living among the colored population.

5. "Club and Class Work":

   1. For intellectual culture.

6. "Civics:"

   1. For instruction in good citizenship.

At heads of these committees are some of the most prominent men and women in Chicago. I do not know of any organization in the country that has so quickly enlisted in its behalf such an array of high-grade citizens, who have eagerly volunteered their services for the work of Douglass Centre. In the list of over two hundred members of the Association you can easily select the names of prominent judges, lawyers, distinguished ministers, prominent men and women in other professions, business men and women, and these representing wealth and the highest culture.

Indeed one of the most hopeful things in the organization of this Centre is the eagerness with which the best people of both races responded to applications for membership.

If this movement does not succeed, its failure will not be due to lack of strong support by good people or for lack of a righteous purpose or an urgent need.

In the preliminary work of organizing the Centre, numerous meetings and conferences have been held in which white and black, rich and poor, prominent and ordinary folks have met together and frankly discussed the plans of the organization and work. Most of these meetings have been held in the residence of its gracious founder, Mrs. Woolley. With entire innocence of violating social proprieties, light refreshments have been provided and innocently partaken of, as a mere incident of the coming together for a high purpose.

The meeting that was made the subject of the sensational article already alluded to was a woman's meeting of the character just described. It was essentially a business meeting and not a social party. Such conferences, with the incident of tea drinking and its touch of social amenity, is of common occurrence in Chicago as elsewhere, and no one but a newspaper reporter with an inordinate greed for mischief making and its "quid pro quo," would have found anything in it to write about.

The Frederick Douglass Centre has been incorporated and the Board of Directors is made up of men of both races.

The president, Mrs. Delia Parker Woolley, of this city, is not only the head of this great movement, but it is her conception. She is a fine type of progressive womanhood. She has culture, social standing, literary training and ability; she is] a preacher, a club woman and a humanitarian in its broadest sense. She comes of Abolition stock and she has always kept alive in her breast the spirit that has given to us women like Miss [Susan B.] Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Julia Ward Howe and their kind.

We are fortunate beyond words in being able to claim as our friend, for this important work, a woman of such rare endowments and splendid consecration as Mrs. Celia Parker Woolley.

It is her hope, and of those who are associated with her, to make this Chicago movement so important in results that similar associations will be formed in other cities where the colored population is large. The possibilities of usefulness for the Douglass Centre are almost without limit. It is well that the colored people of the country should watch this movement and in every possible way encourage the brave men and women who have thrown aside social ease and social delights that they may be able to study and know what are our preventable distresses and hindrances and apply the remedy and the sure way of escape.