To The Memory of Horace Roscoe Cayton (1859-1940),
Son-in-law of U.S. Senator Hiram Revels
and Seattle Republican Publisher,
Whose Courage, Forcefulness, and Dedication
Helped Make Our Lives Better

Seattle Republican and Cayton’s Weekly newspaper articles from the book Horace Roscoe Cayton: Selected Writings, Volume 1 - compiled and edited by Ed Diaz. These excerpts may be copied and distributed for educational purposes as long as proper credit is given. Information from this page may not be sold or distributed in any manner for profit.

Horace Roscoe Cayton: Selected Writings (Volumes 1 and 2) can be found in the Seattle Public Library (SPL), the King County Library System (KCLS), the University of Washington Libraries, and the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature at the Woodson Library in Chicago, Illinois.

Santiago Fighter Visits City

     Mr. Edward Prather, one of the heroes of the Santiago fight, is in the city visiting his sister, Mrs. Hiram Moore. Mr. Prather is 21 years of age, and a member of Company F, Twenty-fourth Infantry, United States Regulars. He is away on a furlough having been slightly wounded and broken in health as a result of the arduous work of the soldiers in the Cuban campaign. Mr. Prather was with Colonel Lipscomb, with General Kent’s division, and saw most of the fighting down there. He said: “I went down there weighing about 193 pounds, and I now weigh about 150, and I picked up a good deal since I reached the United States at that. I was hit by a spent ball June 26, and was then suffering terribly from rheumatism. So on the Fourth I was given my furlough and left on a transport for Tampa, Florida. The food was not bad and there was enough of it too. Of course I speak only of our own regiment. Our regular fare was bacon, hardtack, sugar, coffee and beans. No, we had no complaint to make as of food. It was in the hospital supplies the army was short.”
     Mr. Prather spoke of the daring courage and heroism displayed by the colored soldiers in the battle before Santiago de Cuba. For the benefit of the many readers of The Republican he told this story which shows the daring and courage of a colored soldier of the Twenty-fourth Infantry, who had charge of one of the gatling guns: “We were being driven back by the deadly fire of the Spanish soldiers, and by some way or other a shell got fastened in the gun operated by our hero, who stood by it striving to adjust it, although commanded by the officers to fall back with his company. He was standing in a very exposed place, and the Spanish soldiers were rushing toward him, and when within about thirty yards of him he had adjusted his gun and deliberately turning it on the Spanish, sent showers of leaden bullets into their ranks, driving them back, and winning a victory out of defeat for the American army, amid great cheering by his comrades.”
     Mr. Prather was taken to the Fannie Paddock Hospital Tuesday, where he now lies burning with typhoid fever, and it is very doubtful if he ever recovers to answer to the roll call. —Seattle Republican, September 2, 1898

Report From the Philippines

Philippine War Hero
     Sergeant D. P. Green, of the Twenty-fifth now doing service in the Philippines, is reported to the War Department for special bravery, having withstood the rush of some thirty insurgents until re-enforcement, who having heard the firing, came the distance of a mile to his relief. It is further reported that he killed seven of the insurgents with his own hands. Many other brave acts by the colored soldiers are finding their way to Washington City, which the world never hears about.

Philippine War Fatalities
     The following is the fatality roster (October 31, 1898 to January 28, 1899) of the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Infantry now in the Philippines:

Oct. 3, Robert McKnight, Company E, Twenty-fourth Infantry; Nov. 25, Wm. Dance, Company K, Twenty-fourth Infantry; Dec. 11, George Motley, Company H, Twenty-fourth Infantry; Dec. 12, J. Booker, Company K, Twenty-fourth Infantry; Dec. 14, George Kitchiner, Company K, Twenty-fourth Infantry; Dec. 18, Henry Cunningham, Company F, Twenty-fourth Infantry; Dec. 20, Isaac Watson, Company F, Twenty-fifth Infantry; Dec. 29, Reubin Weather, Company L, Twenty-fifth Infantry; Dec. 30, Winfield Marshal, Company C, Twenty-fourth Infantry; Jan. 2, John L. Porter, musician, Company H, Twenty-fourth Infantry; Jan. 3, ____ Shepard, Company F, Twenty-fifth Infantry; Jan. 5, Corporal Morgan B. Washington, Company B, Twenty-fifth Infantry; Jan. 5, Austin Greggs, Company C, Twenty-fourth Infantry; Jan. 7, Patrick Mason, Company I, Twenty-fourth Infantry; Jan. 11, John Pleasant, Company F, Twenty-fifth Infantry; Jan. 28, Nathan Cofiee, Company A, Twenty-fourth Infantry. ––Seattle Republican, March 9, 1900

Mrs. Cayton Mourns Death in Family

     Mrs. H.R. Cayton mourns the loss of her oldest sister, who died in Holly Springs, Miss., the 22nd of June. The South of that city, said in part of her as follows: “Mrs. Lillie Revels Houston, the oldest daughter of ex-Senator Hiram Revels, died at her father’s home in this city, June 22, 1900. She died as she lived, an earnest and faithful child of God.”
     The editor of this paper, who was a classmate of Miss Lillie Revels ere she married, also sorrowfully regrets to learn of her death. She had given her entire mature life of the betterment of the colored races, and she will be greatly missed in that line. —Seattle Republican, July 6, 1900

New York’s Race Riot

     Early in October there occurred a race riot in New York, in which a number of colored folks were badly beaten by police and the [white] citizens. This riot, it seems, started among the slums of both the Negroes and whites of New York City, and the police were called in to quell the same. Instead of dealing with the rioters as they should have done, they became distinct allies of the whites, and many hundreds of the colored folks were clubbed to insensibility in the streets, and in many instances persons wholly innocent of being connected with the riot in any manner, shape or form were badly beaten by the police. It is also said that many colored persons were hunted down at their homes, dragged out by the police and handed over to the infuriated mob, and were beaten unmercifully and were driven from place to place by the rioters.
     An investigation was ordered by the mayor of New York, apparently for nothing else than election purposes, for no sooner was the election over than the investigation was abruptly discontinued. Now, the colored folks do not believe that the police acted according to law in that affair and have applied to Gov. Roosevelt to continue the investigation from a gubernatorial standpoint, and their appeal has been favorably looked upon by the governor, and it is said that he will order a thorough investigation of the whole affair. It was but a short time ago that Mayor Van Wyek was threatened with removal by the governor for the part he played in the great New York ice trust, and it is given out now that if it be true that he has refused to continue the investigation, and that the police are guilty of the crime that they are reported to be guilty of, the governor may take steps toward the removal of Mayor Van Wyek from the mayoralty of Greater New York. —Seattle Republican, December 7, 1900

Ex-United States Senator Revels Dead

     The Negro race of the United States has lost a very able and learned friend and co-worker in the upbuilding of the race in the United States, as a man and citizen, in the death of Hon. Hiram R. Revels, ex-United States Senator from Mississippi. Dr. Revels died January 16, while preaching to his congregation in one of the annual conferences in the State of Mississippi. His life has been a long and useful one, both to himself and his race. He reared a large and interesting family, and all of his daughters ripened into womanhood and became useful women quite a number of years before he himself passed away. Whether as a preacher in Maryland, or as a co-worker of the antislavery league, or as a chaplain in the war, or as a preacher and teacher in Mississippi, or as secretary of state during reconstruction days, or United States Senator in the halls of congress, or as president of the first colored college in the South, or as presiding elder in the Methodist Episcopal Church, Dr. Revels always was a complete success. From early manhood until he died he labored in the cause of the Negroes and his efforts were always heavenly crowned, as said above with the utmost success. Ere he was called to his heavenly home, he had long since reached the octogenarian milestone, and during the last years of his life he could say without successful contradiction that he had done what he could for mankind, irrespective of race or color and was ready and willing to render an account of his stewardship when ever the Master saw fit to call him.
     Unlike most men of his race, who were once active in politics, Dr. Revels saw the handwriting on the wall in 1875, and permanently retired from politics, taking no part whatever therein, but devoting his entire time and talent to preparing the younger persons of his race for better citizenship and to be better prepared to fight the battles of life from a practical standpoint. The efforts of Dr. Revels for the Negro are perfectly well known to the writer, from the very fact that for seven years was himself a student at the college to which the ex-senator was president and from whose walls so many young men were sent out to become teachers, preachers, farmers and mechanics in the State of Mississippi, and is able to speak of him from personal experience. Many of the boys who did not take kindly to his fatherly chastisement while at the school learned to love him in after years and to commend him for such fatherly chastisement as he gave them while in the school. Perhaps every boy that was under his tender care at Alcorn University dropped a tear of regret when the Associated Press dispatches announced his sudden and unexpected death. That he was held in the highest esteem by all manner of men without regard to color or race was shown in the fact that at Holly Springs, Mississippi, the entire population, black and white, turned out en masse to do honor to his funeral occasion. The hundreds of persons who viewed the remains while it lay in the halls of his home at Holly Springs were addressed by the leading men of both colors of that city, and his entire life was held up to to the young Negroes by them as one most worthy of emulation.
     The writer hereof feels that he can speak with an earnestness concerning Dr. Revels’ life from another standpoint, which is, as he not only fretted and annoyed him while a school boy and caused him considerable trouble as do all school boys, but he further imposed upon him by marrying one of his daughters, and a rather historic daughter at that, as she was born the very month that Dr. Revels was seated in the United State Senate to succeed Jefferson Davis, and owing to the fact that he was led to the bar of the Senate by the great and noble Charles Sumner, this daughter was named in his honor. That brief mention of his death has not been made in this paper prior to this lies in the fact that the news could not be broken to the above-mentioned daughter on account of sickness. He leaves a wife, who is also quite ill at the present, and three daughters to mourn his loss. May there arise among the Negroes of the United States other such noble members whose lives will be devoted to their best interests, and it will soon see the overhanging clouds of gloom and disappointment banished from their upward and onward path of progress and prosperity. —Seattle Republican, February 8, 1901

Congressman George E. White Speaks

     The Speech recently delivered in the house by the Hon. George H. White, of North Carolina, the only Afro-American representative now in congress, is full of valuable information and well worth perusal. The following excerpts therefrom will no doubt be read with much interest:

     “I would like to advance the statement that the rusty records of 1868, filed away in the archives of Southern capitols, as to what the Negro was thirty-two years ago, is not a proper standard by which the Negro living on the threshold of the Twentieth century should be measured. Since that time we have reduced the illiteracy of the race at least 43 per cent. We have written and published nearly 500 books. We have nearly 300 newspapers, three of which are dailies. We have now in practice over 2,000 lawyers and a corresponding number of doctors. We have accumulated over $12,000,000 worth of school property and about $40,000,000 worth of church property. We have about 140,000 farms and homes, valued at in the neighborhood of $750,000,000, and personal property valued at about $170,000,000. We have raised about $11,000,000 for educational purposes, and the property per capita for every colored man, woman and child in the United States is estimated at $75.
     “We are operating successfully several banks, commercial enterprises among our people in the Southland, including one silk mill and one cotton factory. We have 32,000 teachers in the schools of the country; we have built, with the aid of our friends, about 2,000 churches, and support seven colleges, seventeen academies, fifty high schools, five law schools, five medical schools and twenty-five theological seminaries. We have over 600,000 acres of land in the South alone. The cotton produced, mainly by black labor, has increased from 4,669,770 bales in 1860 to 11,235,000 in 1899. All this we have done under the most adverse circumstances. We have done it in the face of lynching, burning at the stake, with the humiliation of ‘Jim crow’ cars, the disfranchisement of our male citizens, slander and degradation of our women, with the factories closed against us, no Negro permitted to run as engineer on a locomotive, most of the mines closed against us. Labor unions—carpenters, painters, brick masons, machinists, hackmen and those supplying nearly every avocation for livelihood have banded themselves together to better their condition, but, with few exceptions, the black face has been left out. The Negroes are seldom employed in our mercantile stores. At this we do not wonder. Some day we hope to have them employed in our own stores. With all these odds against us, we are forging our way ahead, slowly perhaps, but surely. You may tie us and then taunt us for a lack of bravery, but one day we will break the bonds. You may use our labor for two and a half centuries and then taunt us for our poverty, but let me remind you we will not always remain poor. You may withhold even the knowledge of how to read God’s word and learn the way from earth to glory and then taunt us for our ignorance, but we would remind you that there is plenty of room at the top, and we are climbing.
     “Now, Mr. Chairman, before concluding my remarks I want to submit a brief recipe for the solution of the so-called American Negro problem. He asks no special favors, but simply demands that he be given the same chance for existence, for earning a livelihood, for raising himself in the scale of manhood and womanhood that are accorded to kindred nationalities. Treat him as a man, go into his home and learn of his social conditions; learn of his cares, his troubles, and his hopes for the future; gain his confidence, open the doors of industry to him, let the words “Negro,” “Colored” and “black” be stricken from all the organizations enumerated in the federation of labor.
     “Help him to overcome his weakness, punish the crime-committing class by the courts of the land, measure the standard of the race by its best material. Cease to hold prejudicial and unjust public sentiment against him, and, my word for it, he will learn to support, hold up the hands of and join in with that political party, that institution, whether secular or religious, in every community where he lives, which is destined to do the greatest good for the greatest number. . . .           “This, Mr. Chairman, is perhaps the Negro’s temporary farewell to the American congress; but let me say, Phoenix-like he will rise up some day come again. These parting words are in behalf of an outraged, heartbroken, bruised and bleeding, but God-fearing, people—faithful, industrious, loyal people—rising people full of potential force.”  —Seattle Republican, February 22, 1901

Seattle Disgraced by Drawing Color Line

     Some twenty odd years ago there was organized in New England by Rev. Francis Clark an organization which afterward became known as the Christian Endeavor Society. It was at first an organization of the young members of the church formed into an active, militant, Christian force. Gradually it grew until it became the greatest and most far-reaching interdenominational Christian organization in the world. It spread from the United States to Canada, thence to Europe and Australia, and later to Asia and Africa. At the bi-yearly gatherings of the International Christian Endeavor Society in the last dozen years representatives have been present from far-off India, from Siam, from Japan, from China, from Australia, from New Zealand, from the Islands of the Pacific, from South America, from Africa and from Europe.
     The organization has been as broad as its name indicated - a Christian organization based upon the words of the Master which declared all men his children. At these international gatherings have been Hindus, Malay, Chinese, Japanese, Siamese, Africans and peoples from all races.
     Two years ago the city of Seattle extended an invitation to the directors of this great Christian organization to hold the next bi-yearly convention in this city. Every effort was made to show the directors that this city was one able and capable of entertaining such a gathering as would assemble here. They were assured that Seattle, while of the extreme west, is a Christian city; that it is a city of home-loving, God-fearing people; that everything would be done here that could be done in any place to entertain such distinguished visitors as would assemble in the city with the Christian Endeavors in 1907.
     But how are these promises being kept? For the first time in the history of Christian Endeavor conventions has a color line been drawn. Seattle has disgraced herself and offered a gross insult to her invited guests. And worst of all, the committee in charge of the entertainment of the thousands of visitors who will gather here have apparently endorsed the offense offered, or, at least, have condoned it. Real Christianity has been set aside in arranging for this world-wide convention and the Ogre of race prejudice permitted to raise its horrid head and dictate to the men and women who are in charge of the entertainment of the Endeavors who are coming from all parts of the world.
     As stated, the Christian Endeavor Society is as broad as Christianity itself; it knows no race, no creed. Among its members are men of all races and all creeds. Among the trustees of the international organization are three eminent divines of the Negro race. These men, simply because of their color, were refused entertainment at the Lincoln Hotel in this city, and the local committee instead of resenting such action have given it the stamp of approval. The stumbling stone laid in their way was so much greater than their Christian faith that they fell before it.
     That a hotel carrying the name of the martyred President Lincoln should raise the issue of race prejudice seems almost beyond comprehension. It should at once take down the name it has dishonored. Abraham Lincoln, like the Man of Galilee, knew no race, no creed. He knew only the universal brotherhood of man and he struck from the Negro in this country the shackles of slavery and made him a man.
     What has the color of a man’s skin to do with his character and conduct? Does any one who reads the great novels of Alexander Dumas stop to consider that he was of Negro blood? Does any one stop to consider that the great Murillo was of Negro blood? Does any one who reads the wonderful orations of John M. Langston or of Frederick Douglass stop to consider that either man was a Negro? Does any one stop to consider, when listening to the preaching of that wonderful preacher, Bishop William Arnett, that his face is black instead of white?
     When the Rough Riders were suffering so severely under the Spanish fire at San Juan and the black troops of the 9th and 10th Cavalry came running up the hill to their aid, did any one think of ordering these men to stay back because they were black? Was their patriotism any the less, or their love of country any the less because, perchance, they did not have white skins? Who stops to ask when viewing some magnificent structure, whether the architect was a white man, a yellow man, a black man or some other color?
     Christ in his last appearance with his disciples said unto them: “Go ye unto all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” Not to every white man, but to every creature. There are no brighter, brainier or brilliant men in all the Christian Endeavor organization than Bishop Lee, Dr. Johnson and Bishop Walters. They have accepted along with the other trustees of the organization, the invitation of this city to be its guests. And now are we to offer insult to our invited guests and tell them that the hotel selected by the local committee as the headquarters for the trustees of the international society will not receive them? Whether Negroes of Seattle would want to entertain these splendid representatives of their race or not has nothing to do with the question. As a city we have asked the officers and members of a great Christian organization to come here as our guests and before they can arrive we have allowed the word to go forth that we have refused to insist upon the same entertainment for all regardless of race or color. We have let the word go out that Seattle – that great, growing, enterprising young city of Puget Sound, away up in the northwest corner of the country – has drawn the color line; that she will not entertain the Negro members of the trustees of the Christian Endeavor Society at her hotels.
     What a commentary upon our boasted liberality: our boasted broad-mindedness; our boasted Christianity. It is shameful; it is disgraceful, and the worst disgrace of it all is that the local Christian Endeavor committee has not the courage of real Christians to meet the issue as it should.
     “For they have the form of Christ, but not the spirit thereof.” —Seattle Republican, May 24, 1907

Absorption of Korea

     Slowly, but surely, Japan and her rulers are becoming expansionists and absorbing as much foreign Territory as they can consistently do without attracting too much attention. Had the Japanese dared they would have extended their control over all China, but it would have precipitated a war with the Powers of the world and Japan was not yet ready for such a conflict.
     But a few days ago the Japanese government reached out and took in Korea, deposing her rulers and inaugurating officials of Japanese blood and sovereignty. For many years that country has been the bone of international controversy, and it doubtless was the real cause of the war between Russia and Japan. Since the termination of the war Japan has held a passive protectorate over Korea, but declared that she had no intention of annexing her unless some other power attempted it.
     In her preparations for a struggle with the United States, which may come soon or late, but will surely come, she felt the need of making that peninsula a part of Japanese territory, and so the final steps have been taken, and Japanese soldiers as well as civil officials now direct the affairs of that former government.
     How soon before these little brown men will deem it best to reach out after the Philippines and the Hawaiian Islands is a problem, but there is no doubt that they will do so sooner or later, which would mean a long and bloody struggle with the United States government. —Seattle Republican, August 2, 1907

Let’s Halt a Minute

     Is the Democratic party drunk with success, and in its drunken state, does it propose to make a despot of Woodrow Wilson? By a strict party vote it made it a crime for any one to criticize the president of the United States, and now it is following this up with a press censor bill that will make it impossible for the press of the country to call the public’s attention to the shortcomings of the Democratic party, if the censor so wills it. In spite of the fact that these are war times, President Wilson’s administration is nothing short of one great aggregation of mistakes. Pretending to curb the outrageous trusts and the actions of the corporate thieves that have operated all over the country, to the extent of causing as much or more distress among the citizens in general as is to be found in war-ridden England, France or Russia, and a thousand times more than is to be found in Germany, if reports be true, yet those evils have fattened and thrived under his administration. Owing to the trust-ridden conditions of the country, it would be impossible for the farmers to grow enough food, if every acre of land in the country was under cultivation, to cheapen the price to the consumers. The whole country is in a state of unrest and unless some steps are taken before the present administration draws its last breath we will be fighting ourselves instead of a foreign foe.
     The president, to all appearances has turned the management of the government over to the Southern Democrats and they are directing it along selfish lines instead of patriotic ones. This is supposedly a free country, but with the laws the Southern Democrats are putting on the statute books, from time to time, it is rapidly losing its freedom. Extortion in this country is now like unto a hydra-headed dragon that sweeps up the hills and down the valleys, seeking whom it may devour. In our patriotic zeal we are overlooking our country’s needs. —Cayton’s Weekly, July 14, 1917

Segregation Instituted at Camp Lewis

     It was like a clap of thunder from a clear sky that the editor hereof received the news last Sunday that segregation at  Camp Lewis had been instituted in its most humiliating forms. The ink on the editorial in Cayton’s Weekly of the day before was hardly dry when presto change, all the good things we had said about Camp Lewis had faded away like snow in June.
     Bulletin No. 114 had been posted in the camp, which denied the colored soldiers the privileges and accommodation of the Y.M.C.A. building and the Hostess House, and in the way of compensation for the loss of those privileges and accommodation a couple of other buildings were designated for use as the Colored Y.M.C.A. and Colored Hostess House.
     To say that such an order cast a damper upon which the buoyant spirits of the colored soldiers as well as the colored citizens of the Northwest is mildly putting it and while the soldiers were powerless to do or say a word in their own defense, yet the colored citizens moved immediately to the matter.
     S.H.Stone, president of the Seattle Branch of the  National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, called the executive committee together and telegraph messages were sent to the general headquarters in New York and to Emmett J. Scott of the War Department, acquainting each of the condition and appealing to them to do all within their power to have the bulletin withdrawn. The same news reached the Rev. W.D. Carter and he hurriedly assembled many of the leading colored citizens of Seattle and laid the matter before them, which body after learning what Mr. Stone had already done turned the whole investigation over to the Association.
     At the head of a committee of Howard T. Brown, Rev. Barber, Milton Vernon, Mrs. N.J. Asberry (Tacoma) and H.R. Cayton, Mr. Stone appeared before the proper authorities at Camp Lewis and with H.R. Cayton as spokesman, the grievances of the committee were laid before Col. Johnson. After hearing the same, he gave the committee his assurance that the matter would be given his immediate attention and added, “I do not doubt but it will be satisfactorily arranged.” Col. Johnson showed the committee every courtesy and so pleasant was the interview that each member of the committee left the room feeling more than hopeful that the objectionable order would be rescinded.
     That there is and will be more or less friction between the whites and the blacks of this country during the life time of those now living is quite apparent, but if the leaders of both sides will meet and go over the troubles with the same degree of fairness as did the Stone Committee and Col. Johnson of Camp Lewis, there will be much less difficulty in smoothing the troubled waters. ––Cayton’s Weekly, August 31, 1918

The Colored Policeman

     Seattle has had few colored policemen despite the fact she has, for the most part of her latter day history, had, for a western town, a rather large colored population. The natural antipathy of white men to colored men holding positions that will permit them to command white men is largely responsible for no more colored men having served on the police force than there have. But there is still another cause and it emanates in the bosoms of the white policemen, who not only objected to acknowledging a colored man a brother officer, but objected to a colored man getting a bunch of easy money as so many of the white officers have done.
     In order to head the colored men off under civil service rules, many subterfuges have been resorted to, even to invoking the aid of the civil service commission themselves, who adopted a rule that no man with a certain shape foot was eligible to act as a policeman in Seattle. In spite of opposition, however, periodically a colored man would break into the police circles and though they did not last long, they stayed for a while as will hereinafter be seen.

Isaac Evans
     It was in 1890 when the first colored policeman made his debut in Seattle in the person of Isaac Evans, who served as turnkey at the city jail. Politics ran the city in those days and Evans got his police job from his political pull. He was a rather fine looking fellow and had the requisite size to make a first class officer, and, yea, verily, as long as he lasted, he did make an ideal cop, but the white policemen tolerated him just so long, when they set about to devise ways and means to get him off the force. They used a couple of down town thugs to turn the trick, and after they had thoroughly instructed them, the thugs were sent to the headquarters in the patrol wagon. The desk man turned them over to the jailer who started away with his men. The trio had almost reached the jail door when the two thugs turned loose a string of vulgar abuse on Evans that would have made the hair on the head of an Indian statue stand straight up, whereupon Evans forgot his official capacity and endeavored to whip them both at one and the same time, but found he had a big job. The fight was fast and furious, but finally Evans went to the mat and the thugs left the room unmolested. A long story short, Evans was immediately officially beheaded. Mr. Evans has long since died, but regretted his mistake to his dying day.

Pleasant Ford
     Under the Ronald mayoralty administration two years after the unfortunate Evans escapade at the police headquarters, Pleasant Ford was given the position of driver of the police patrol wagon, which position he held for a number of months, when the force as a whole sickened of having a colored man about, even though he was not in uniform, and through political pull, for be it remembered both the police and the fire departments were subject to partisan changes at that time, Ford was let out. He was much chagrined at being let out because he had told his colored friends that the Democrats would never treat him as did the Republicans Ike Evans, and he moved to British Columbia where he subsequently died.

J. Samuel Peoples
     It was some fifteen years thereafter when J. Samuel Peoples ran the gauntlet of the civil service board and was assigned to duty. His first day out was with a day policeman, whose beat was up Second Avenue. The sight of a colored policeman in uniform on Second Avenue attracted as much attention as did Sells Brothers first automobile on the streets of Seattle. Though a man of iron nerve, yet by the time he was ordered in he felt as though he had been charging a riot mob all day or had been sent through a threshing machine. Sam Peoples was a policeman born and he soon won the confidence of his superior officers and was assigned to many difficult details. He was finally assigned to the Capitol Hill district, where he remained by petition of the residents of that section, for many months. He went from Capitol Hill to the Smith Cove district where he met his waterloo. By this time, his brother officers had tired of his presence on the force and fixed up a cat hop to get him off, and Sam fell for it and was immediately dismissed. Though he was forced to dismiss him the chief said, “He has made a splendid officer.”

Giles Graves
     Ten years or more after Peoples was dismissed Giles Graves passed a splendid examination and is assigned to duty as a city blue coat. Graves is of a splendid family and if he lives up to his parental teachings he will never go wrong, but if he tries to pattern after some of the get rich quick policemen of Seattle, he will go to hell in a hand basket. He was sent to one of tough districts of the city, on which to be initiated and if he does not fall before he gets started, it will be no fault of those who always seek to trap colored policemen. Graves has lived in Seattle most of his life and he has the reputation of being a splendid fellow. He has a wife and two children, a mother, sister and a host of friends in the city who wish him well.¹ —Cayton’s Weekly, April 12, 1919

¹ Graves spoke about his police duty during a 1976 interview with historian and author Esther Mumford. After leaving the police force he went into chiropody. At the time of the interview he was 88, just retired and living happily with his Chinese American wife of 41 years. Mrs. Graves, in the interview, stated that she was the first minority teacher in West Seattle where she taught at Lafayette School. (Washington State Oral/Aural History Program, Washington State Archives. Dr. Giles Graves; Esther Mumford, Interviewer. Accession No. BL-KNG-76 64em.).

Du Bois Vs. Scott

     That both W.E. Du Bois and Emmett J. Scott are men of more or less importance as well as usefulness in the uplift work of the body politic of the colored citizens of the United States is well known to all manner of man in this country, but when they pit their usefulness against each other and call upon the public to choose between the two, then, to speak plainly and to the point, they are both making genuine damphools of themselves, and at the rate they are traveling in their personal rivalry it’s only a matter of a very short time before both of them will be eliminated from the race leadership.
     Way down in his heart of hearts Du Bois knows that Scott tried to get all out of the war situation for the colored citizens of this country that his circumscribed position would permit. His position, to be sure, was but a sinecure and only created for political buncombe, and was operated under a chief wholly antagonistic to any good arising therefrom, but even at that Scott did some little good and no harm, and half a loaf is better than no loaf at all. He realized from the very outset that anything he got for the colored folk was like finding it and so, using the vulgar vernacular of the street, he did “his damndest.” After, however, it’s all over, comes Du Bois and practically accuses Scott of entering into cahoots with the Democratic colorphobia fanatics to prevent the colored soldiers from getting a square deal, which to us is preposterous.
     Like Du Bois, way down in his heart, Emmett Scott knows Du Bois has and is doing all within his mind and soul to make conditions better for the colored man in the United States, but he, Scott, hits back at Du Bois’ Crisis article in an open letter, which falls little short of declaring Du Bois a traitor to his race [. . .] hanging round to thrust his deadly stiletto into his, Scott’s, back. The letter was well written and with far more between the lines than on the lines.
     Both Scott and Du Bois are well educated and both well supplied with vituperative venom, and they have the ugly faculty of cutting and injecting their poison into the incision and yet smile most charmingly all the time they are doing it.
     Taking it all in, both Du Bois and Scott have thoroughly convinced all who have read the billingsgate against each other that both of them are such hideous monsters that to be hated they need but to be seen.
     The white man of this country will see to it that neither Du Bois, Scott nor any other colored man or woman reaches any very great eminence in this great governmental fabric, and it seems a willful waste of valuable time and energy for one colored man to set out in a like mission against another colored man. Even if we can, we will not all act alike. One will not see things in the same light as do others, but a happy medium can always be struck by persons with knowledge in their heads and Christianity in their hearts.
     Whether Du Bois possesses a greater number of human faculties than does Scott or vice versa, the public is wholly indifferent, and if the two possess an equal number and are to spend their equal human faculties in trying to silence the other, then the public will see to it that both are silenced, so far as directing the way to a better life is concerned. The world is plenty large for both of them and they, we trust, will soon fully realize this. Cut it out. ––Cayton’s Weekly, May 31, 1919

First A. M. E. Church

     It was the year of our Lord 1890, when S.J. Collins, I.I. Walker, John T. Gayton, Milton Roy and wife, Mrs. Fred Lawrence and C.H. Harvey, all now living in Seattle, with others who, from time to time, went to their final rewards, organized an A.M.E. (Bethel) Church in Seattle, from which evolved the present commodious and imposing brick structure. The Rev. Blakeney was the first pastor of the local organization, and he lost no time in purchasing a lot on which stood a large dwelling house, which was transformed into a church building by S.J. Collins, one of Seattle’s leading carpenters. With occasional adding to that structure it served the congregation a score or more years; yea, until it was torn down to give way to the present structure. It was then known as Jones Street Church, taking its name from the name of the street which is now known as Fourteenth Avenue.
     Since the founding of this church its pulpit has been filled by many of the leading churchmen of the country, as it for many years was the assembling place for the colored citizens of the community. The present structure was completed during the pastoral administration of the Rev. Osborne. The church edifice as it now stands has a seating capacity of one thousand, and its interior is finished and furnished in such a manner as to make it second to none. It has a membership of about 400. The services are in keeping with the culture and refinement of the present generation. The Rev. T.F. Jones is the pastor, and it can be truly said of him, the city boasts of but few more scholarly or eloquent pulpit orators. Though he has been in the city but a few months, he has identified himself with most of the general uplift work being carried on, and the First A.M.E. [Church] is again regaining its former prestige.
     The choir of this church is one of its outstanding features, and under the directorship of Mr. C.C. Daniels it renders musical selections that no church need feel ashamed of.
     The church edifice is situated on Fourteenth Avenue, between Pike and Pine [streets], and almost in a stone’s throw of Seattle’s great automobile district. Many of the leading men and women of the Northwest are members of this church, some of whom live as far away as Alaska and only periodically visit the church, yet they will not give up their membership. Rev. Jones gives evidence of popularizing this church as it never was before. — Cayton’s Yearbook, New Year 1923