In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

16 Z 2 The Black Judases Washington, D.C., 1898 Rochester had provided an unexpected opportunity for Alexander Walters to demonstrate his leadership skills on a broader stage. No national organization comparable to the new Council had ever survived for long; most had collapsed within months or years, victims of internal difficulties, both administrative and financial, or external pressures. If the Council were to endure, its foundation would need to be secure, its goals precise, and its leadership unified. Recruitment of new members was the key. It was a tall order for the untested bishop, whose only experience so far had been within the walls of a highly structured religious denomination. Yet as Walters returned to his Jersey City home, his optimism far outweighed historical precedents. Before leaving Rochester, he and other leaders had discussed ways to stimulate participation in the organization, including sites for future meetings. For all its hospitality and symbolic appeal, Rochester was never likely to generate much of a crowd; its isolation and the expense of getting there, particularly during winter, were strong disadvantages. To maximize future attendance, the Council needed a centrally located site, one with a larger Afro-American base. Weather and time were other factors. Waiting too long to meet again might dampen the enthusiasm awakened in Rochester. As winter drew near, a southerly site would be far more appealing. Six weeks after leaving Rochester, Walters decided to invite interested delegates to the nation’s capital the week after Christmas , citing availability of reduced holiday train fares. A natural choice by almost every criterion, Washington was easily accessible by train from all directions and featured both tourist sites and a reasonably affluent population of black citizens, numbering nearly ninety thousand, the nation’s largest. Advance publicity would the black judases 17 be provided by two black weekly newspapers, Calvin Chase’s Bee and the newer Colored American, edited by Edward Elder Cooper, and almost certainly by two white daily newspapers, the Evening Star and the Washington Post.1 Yet drawbacks remained. Washington was still largely a southern city, and an increasingly segregated one. Congress, while technically in session, would recess during the Christmas holidays, making possible calls on sympathetic Republican congressmen unlikely. Washington’s winters were far milder than those farther north, but heavy snows were not uncommon in late December, making weather a concern for visitors from the South. But such considerations were secondary, and on November 1, Walters issued an open letter to interested parties to convene in Washington on December 29, “to consummate the work so auspiciously begun at Rochester, giving ample time between the issuing of the call and the date of the meeting for all needed.” A nationwide spate of lynchings and widespread racial discrimination made such a meeting imperative, if Afro-Americans were to “organize and perpetuate an organization for self-protection.”2 Such an organization was almost unanimously favored by editorial sentiment among Afro-American journalists, Walters declared. Among them was Ed Cooper, head of the District of Columbia’s new branch of the Council, which was handling arrangements for the meeting. “The Afro-American press,” Walters wrote, “is almost a unit in its demand for a national organization which has for its objects a fair representation in the government;” resisting mob and lynch law and demanding the arrest and punishment of mob participants; resisting “tyrannical usages of railroads, steamboats,” and other forms of transport; and action on a litany of issues involving discrimination against members of the race.3 The bishop hoped to attract a broad cross-section of sensible leaders to the meeting, but only those who could afford the dues. The meeting was open to those “willing to contribute $5.00 annually towards carrying out of the purposes of the Council,” a small but not insignificant sum. Among those certain to attend the Washington meeting were three members of the black elite: high-ranking officeholders Henry P. Cheatham and Judson W. Lyons, both appointed by President McKinley, and the nation’s only black congressman, George Henry White ( North Carolina Republican), a McKinley favorite about to win a second term.4 The president had enjoyed heavy support among black Republicans in 1896 and had appointed a record number of black men to federal office during his first year. Midway through his term, however, he faced dwindling enthusiasm among black supporters disappointed by his recent lack of ardor for using black soldiers during the war with Spain. Some black leaders had lately begun to chafe...

Share