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169 [ 8 ] “Forget Personal Grievances”: Uniting the Community as Elder Statesman Throughout his career, Thomas supported the Republican Party in the belief that it offered the best opportunity for African Americans to achieve political equality. Given the small numbers of African Americans in Chicago and Illinois, he saw efforts to divide the African American vote as injurious to the cause of African American equality. Although in the 1880s the Democratic Party in the North made appeals for the African American vote, Thomas never lost sight that the party’s southern wing was increasingly enacting discriminatory Jim Crow measures in the South. He recognized that the Republican Party was far from perfect. In the 1880s and 1890s the party appeared to be abandoning the cause of the African American, as seen in the 1883 Supreme Court ruling on the civil rights bill, Republican president Chester Alan Arthur’s dealing with white Southerners on patronage questions , and the failure of the Republicans to enact voting right protections and school funding measures for the South.1 Thomas had often noted the party’s failings in its dealings with African Americans at Republican conventions and party caucuses. Despite being a loyal Republican, he himself had suffered defeats at the party’s hands, both electorally and in his efforts on behalf of others. In letters to the editor and in public comments, he had proven that he could be highly critical of his party when he thought it was betraying his community or the cause of civil rights. The Creation of the Afro-American League With that in mind, it was not surprising that when in 1889, T. Thomas Fortune , an African American journalist from New York, called for a national convention of African Americans to discuss the problems facing the African American community, Thomas supported the idea, even though Fortune was known as an independent in politics and had supported Democratic candidate “fOrGET pErSONAL GrIEvANCES” 170 Grover Cleveland in the 1888 presidential election. Unlike the 1883 and 1885 state “colored conventions,” where it was obvious the convention organizers were seeking to attack the Republican Party, Fortune, despite his political record, appeared to be focused on issues of community self-help, something Thomas could support. In an editorial in his newspaper, the New York Age, Fortune described those supporting him as “Afro-American Agitators” who expected their rights and, like their abolitionist predecessors, would not stop until they achieved success. In describing these “agitators,” Fortune wrote, “the ‘Afro-American Agitator’ expects that his rights under the Constitution as amended shall be conceded to him, not grudgingly and in part, but freely and in whole.” Thomas qualified as an agitator by this definition.2 Fortune was one of three African Americans who called for a national convention to discuss race concerns in 1890. John G. Jones had also called for a convention, as had Washington, D.C., hotelier Perry Carson. All three individuals worked separately on their proposed conventions instead of working together to hold one convention. Ironically, Jones opposed Fortune’s convention because he felt “it would divide the colored vote.” Despite his stated reason for opposing the Fortune convention, Jones appears to have opposed it because it rivaled his proposed convention and because he felt Fortune had stolen his idea.3 Fortune wished to use his convention to create an Afro-American League, which was to be a national umbrella organization composed of state branches. The focus of the league was on the deteriorating conditions in the South, where Jim Crow laws, segregation, and disenfranchisement were occurring. Fortune proposed five measures the league could take to help African Americans. These measures included creating an Afro-American emigration bureau to “scatter the race through the different parts of the country,” creating an Afro-American bank, and creating committees to promote legislation favorable to African Americans. He also proposed forming committees to promote technical education and industry in the African American community. Fortune wanted the league to be nonpartisan. These were ideas that Thomas could support.4 Although Jones opposed Fortune’s convention, most of Chicago’s African American political activists, such as Ecton, Bish, Morris, Howard, Baker, Robert M. Mitchell, and H. J. Mitchell supported it. Several of Chicago’s African American social leaders did as well, including Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, Dr. C. E. Bentley, and attorney S. Laing Williams. Even Lloyd G. Wheeler, Jones’s ally at the Illinois conventions, supported the Fortune convention, and Ferdinand Barnett signed the initial call. Fortune would...

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