Microfilm Reel 285, File 543, "Lynching"

Dear Tumulty:

Will you not reply to this telegram as follows:

(Attached)

The President. C.L.S.

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TELEGRAM

[STAMP= ACK'D AUG 28 1916 T.M.H]

3 PO JM 85 NL 944am 27th

Boston, Mass., Aug. 26, 1916.

The President:

The Northeastern Federation of Woman’s Clubs in convention assembled in the City of Boston, Mass., Aug. 23-25, representing 6,000 women of this great republic, calls your attention to the lynching of colored Anerican citizens of the United States, both men women and children. We think "the United States should stand for something higher" than such barbaric amusement and we respectfully call upon you as Chief Executive, to break your silence and to protect all loyal American citizens alike.

Susie I. Amos, Secretary, Northeastern Federation

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MOTON, R. R., Tuskegee, Ala. December 4, 1916.

Expresses the hope that the President may at some time in the near future say something publicly on the Negro question, calling for justice to them and condemning lynching.

See 152

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Ackgd 2/17/17

February 13,1917.

To His Excellency Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, Washington, D. C.

Dear Mr. President:

The officers and members of this Association respectfully request that in your coming inaugural address you say something against the barbaric system of lynching which prevails in various parts of this country.

Public sentiment on the question is rapidly becoming aroused, as is shown by the editorials in the leading newspapers of South Carolina and Georgia, by the action taken by the Governors of Kentucky and South Carolina, and by letters from leading Southern men. While it is true that this crime under our system of government can be punished only by the local authorities, the disgrace falls upon the nation as a whole, and we can never effectively address the world on great moral questions so long as this

stain upon our civilization is permitted to continue.

We feel that you can do a great deal to help the cause of civilization and good government, and to hold up the hands of those who are trying to prevent mob violence in the United States by some strong expressions in your inaugural, and we respectfully request that you will take this matter into serious consideration.

Very truly yours, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE.

Oswald Garrison Villard Treasurer.

W. E. B. DuBois Director of Publications and Research.

Archibald H. Grimké President, District of Columbia Branch.

Moorfield Storey President.

John Hurst Vice-President.

J. E. Springarn Chairman of the Board.

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