Saturday 21 March 2009 photo 1/1
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It is the greatest bit of treachery that has happened to the race and that has happened in diplomacy, and, as I said yesterday, the other phase of it is pure graft. You know the Firestone Company of Ohio sent out a group of men after we left there, and those Negroes, King and Barclay, arranged to give to these people one million acres of land. Understand, Liberia is only the size of Ohio, the only independent little country left to the blacks, and to give away, although they the whites have eleven and a half million square miles of Africa already, another million acres, it is worse than murder. This 810 811 group of selfish Negroes gave away one million acres of land in violation of the constitution, as we will show you. The constitution of the Republic of Liberia reserves the land of the people of Liberia as a permanent home. The white people have all Europe, all the American continent. They have taken away nearly eleven and two-thirds million square miles of Africa, leaving only a speck of Liberia, and they want that. Where must the Negro live? Where must the Negro live but in the sea as a home?
Now we appeal to the conscience of white America because we believe the millions of white people in America will stand behind the principles of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, and I think we should send a petition to Mr. Firestone asking him not to take advantage of the concessions that these selfish Negroes have given away constitutionally or otherwise, because it is the only hope of the Negroes of this country and of Africa to redeem themselves. And I feel that if we appeal to the conscience of Firestone he will not take advantage of the situation. It is only going to be another outrage like the outrage in Peru. Those poor natives that have not been brought into the pale of civilization and modern arrangements! Going there with a group of men with no intention but exploitation, they will exploit them and work them to death as they did in the Congo and in Peru, because their only purpose is to get the materials and the wealth of the country, and can we allow such a thing to be perpetrated on the race?
(Cries of"No.')
God Almighty would condemn us for allowing another outrage like the Congo and Peru. You know what King Leopold did in the Congo, and what happened in Perth and we cannot sit here and allow this outrage to go on; and besides our petition to Coolidge that is to be presented on the 3rd, and to the congress, asking for a thorough investigation of this matter, we should send a petition to the Firestone Rubber Company and ask him not to exploit that bit of Africa left us as our only protection.
Now we appeal to the conscience of white America because we believe the millions of white people in America will stand behind the principles of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, and I think we should send a petition to Mr. Firestone asking him not to take advantage of the concessions that these selfish Negroes have given away constitutionally or otherwise, because it is the only hope of the Negroes of this country and of Africa to redeem themselves. And I feel that if we appeal to the conscience of Firestone he will not take advantage of the situation. It is only going to be another outrage like the outrage in Peru. Those poor natives that have not been brought into the pale of civilization and modern arrangements! Going there with a group of men with no intention but exploitation, they will exploit them and work them to death as they did in the Congo and in Peru, because their only purpose is to get the materials and the wealth of the country, and can we allow such a thing to be perpetrated on the race?
(Cries of"No.')
God Almighty would condemn us for allowing another outrage like the Congo and Peru. You know what King Leopold did in the Congo, and what happened in Perth and we cannot sit here and allow this outrage to go on; and besides our petition to Coolidge that is to be presented on the 3rd, and to the congress, asking for a thorough investigation of this matter, we should send a petition to the Firestone Rubber Company and ask him not to exploit that bit of Africa left us as our only protection.