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Address all communications to
THE STAR PRINTING COMPANY
[11?]th Street Newport News, Va.

SATURDAY, JULY 24, 1915

THAT RICHMOND FAIR
Today ends the existence of one of
the greatest faces that has ever
been inflicted upon the people of this
section of the country.

Sometime ago the Congress of the
United States appropriated the sum
of fifty-five thousand dollars to assist
in celebrating the fiftieth year of the
Negro's freedom in this land, and
that money was entrusted to Giles B.
Jackson and some other men, whom
we have never heard mentioned, for
the consummation of the result nam-
ed; but never in all our experience
and observations have we seen a
more miserable failure in projecting
such an affair.

Instead of enlisting the help of the
Negro newspapers throughout the
country in promoting this enterprise,
Mr. Jackson essayed to advertise the
affair by issuing a publication called
the "Industrial Herald", which few
people read; and fewer still rememb-
er anything in it which they read,
and from the beginning to the end few
people seemed to take sufficient in-
terest in the Negro Industrial Expo-
sition to even help it to make a
decent headway.

The Richmond people who usually
make a success of any undertaking,
in which any of the citizens of the
progressive city is interested did not
take the trouble to lose any of their
time, in giving the concern the least
consideration. The celebration was
held in the grounds of the State Fair
Association therefore, there was no
necessity for the expenditure of any
money for buildings or improvements
and while there were a few things of
interest on exhibition, there were so
few that they were not of sufficient
interest to command the attention of
even the local people, let alone the
people from other parts of Virginia
or the country in general.

At no time during the existence of
the exposition, were there more than
a few—avery few—people in attend-
ance.

The more one inquired the cause
of the terrible frost, the more you
were met with the answer, the af-
fair was entirely a one-man concern,
and that since the success, if any
success, would be credited to Col.
Giles B. Jackson, the more determin-
ed was the public to show that the
failure should be attributed to the
same source.

That the affair was most miser-
ably advertised and more miserably
managed goes without saying, and
since it was in the hands of one
man, the Negroes of Richmond, of
the State of Virginia and the entire
country, have no regrets at its fail-
ure.

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