Page:The Afro-American Press.djvu/360

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352
THE AFRO-AMERICAN PRESS.

on the matter of social equality: "We are not troubled about social equality, but we are concerned about a fair vote, an impartial trial, equal public accommodations and courteous treatment. Our inalienable rights must not be denied, suppressed or abridged. "We shall insist upon being treated as friends, not as aliens; as brothers, not as strangers." Shortly after this we find him advising the Afro-American as to the best way he can survive in this country. "We ought to cultivate business principles and business matters. They will help us to retain what we have, and aid us in accumulating a great deal more. The success of our well-to-do and wealthy men is due to the careful observance of the principles and methods enumerated above. If we adopt their principles and follow their methods, we shall not lose anything, and the probability is that we shall gain something." Mr. Franklin, while doing able service as a correspondent, would make a wise advocate in the editorial chair.


Mr. J. Gordon Street, Reporter Boston Herald, and General Correspondent Afro-American Press.

"J. Gordon Street," said T. Thomas Fortune to Dan A. Rudd of The American Catholic Tribune, in a conversation the two had, some time ago, in Boston, Mass., "is one of the best newspaper correspondents in the country."

Mr. Street is a West Indian by birth, and first saw the light May 25, 1856, in Kingston, Jamaica. His journalistic career began in the fall of 1884, as the Boston correspondent of The Detroit Plaindealer. At the time of his taking charge of that paper it was little known in Boston. He did his best to push it, and very soon it was found in the homes of the leading colored people of Boston. The most prominent white Republicans in Massachusetts had the paper placed in their hands. He kept with The Plaindealer several months.