Page:The Afro-American Press.djvu/536

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528
THE AFRO-AMERICAN PRESS.

organization to exhaust every legal remedy to secure rights which the Constitution guarantees. There is no question that if the league be non-political, that we shall have thousands of white men who will aid us in every material way. The sense of justice, both North and South, among the intelligent people is greater than a casual observer would suppose. The agitation pushed so far has been productive of rich, yet unexpected fruit already."

The New York Age said: "Interest in the Afro-American league constantly augments. From all sections of the country letters are received, asking for information upon which the league should be organized. Leagues are springing up at points so far apart as to indicate unmistakably how extensively diffused and deep rooted the idea has become in the minds of the people. ·········· Let us have a national meeting. We submit in another column the plan of organization published by us September 10, 1887, for the guidance of those who desire now to move in the matter of organization, and we do so because the correspondence from all parts of the country for information as to plan of organization has grown so enormous as to be a drain upon our time."

The following constitution was then offered by Mr. Fortune:

Sec. 1. Any person of the age of eighteen and upward (without regard to race, color or sex) can become a member of this league by subscribing to its constitution and by-laws, and by the payment of the entrance fee and monthly assessment of————.

Sec. 2. The objects of this league are to protest against taxation without representation; to secure a more equitable distribution of school funds; to insist upon fair and impartial trial by judge and jury of peers, in all cases at law wherein we may be a party; to resist by all legal and reasonable