Issues raised and presented in an “open letter to President McKinley” and what should, could, would have been done by the president.

Member of Colored National League (CNL) of Massachusetts, walked to Charles Street Church in Boston on October 3, 1899 to read an open letter to the president of the United States Mr. McKinley. They protested, “…notwithstanding your extraordinary, your incomprehensible silence on the subject of our wrongs in your annual and other messages to Congress, as in your public utterances to the country at large.”, and marched in a peacefully and demanded the president to use his authority and pass federal antilynching laws in order to resolve the atrocities and the brutal killing of blacks African Americans in Southern States, who were deprived their constitutional rights. A bright minded and articulated person by the name of Archibald H. Grimke’, a child of slaveholder in Boston, Massachusetts, Harvard University graduate read it out louder. As Robert Smalls, from South Carolina, born from slaveholder, bluntly showed in his deeds, all the atrocities done by white supremacists; he was brave enough to present facts and thoughts that the president would have known about the situation, however, ignorant off. The despised, segregated and hunted Southern black spoke out their voice by through their Northern brothers.  

Grimke exposed the real meaning of the constitution of the United States, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men,…”.  He criticized what white’s (Anglo-Saxon) position of who could define and set standards for who is human and who is not, except the Creator. Inexplicably, rampant white supremacists were performing the unimaginable horror to black African Americans. For example, the two day bloody riot which has shaken the nation, taken place in Wilmington, N.C, in Phoenix, S.C, where blacks were hunted and killed like dogs; during his address to congress however, the president, “neither word not act of sympathy” came forth. But he was smart and intuitive enough to mention important local and global events and interventions by Americans. Enslaved blacks were subjected to torture, being weakened and murdered. The hard fought war and all the amendments put forth were forgotten and civil rights denied either by the people who claimed themselves, “Civilized” or a president who called himself a, “Christians”. They all found it irreconcilable that, “…a nation which prates loudly of democracy and humanity, boasts itself the champion of oppressed peoples abroad, while it looks on indifferent, apathetic at appalling enormities at home, where the victims are blacks and the criminal white.”  Neither their words nor their actions were of human towards African Americans. Besides these, Grimke’ showed the president's ignorance to the slaughter of African Americans while he made tour of the Southern States. He knowingly made himself blind to the mob killings of blacks who were in due process of the law, the unmatched crime by Georgians burning a prisoner as they were watching theater, as Romans did threw Christians out in to the lions and tigers for amusement and watched them suffer the horrific and agonizing death; mob (Ku Klux Klans) killing of black preachers, and the ignition of killing happened in Alabama, Mississippi, Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas and the Carolinas.  Surprisingly, the writer found no president, or congress or white community willing to stand and fight for the rights of African Americans. However, the president and Americans were more than willing to reward and support the freedom of the Island Cuba, even used armed force to throw off the yoke.

On behalf of the Colored people of the Southern States, Colored Massachusetts demanded the president, called himself Christian, vowed to protect and defend the constitution, a leader of the free world, have the eye to look, humanity to be sensitive to all races, to confess and acknowledge his conscience about those atrocities and use his authority to fix the racial killings, segregation of black African Americans, whom Jesus has lived and died for so that congress and the people of the United States would hear and know what was really going on in these Southern States. After all, these people were humans, born from different mothers, were his brothers, and were citizens of the United States. The people of color wanted to be heard by the people of the United States, Congress and the world through the words of the president hoping change would come one day.

Sites Cited:

 Mecury Reader, "Open Letter to President McKinley" author- the Colored People of Massachusetts; Copyright 2012 by Pearson Learning Solutions, 501 Boylston Street, Suite 900, Boston, MA 02116.

America Past and present, Volume 2: since 1865 By Robert A. Divine, al (pp.209-210)