Dr. L. M. Holmes was the first speaker. His subject was “Negro Immigration into Boston from the South.” Dr. Holmes has charge of the Young Men’s Educational Aid association, and is well informed on this particular subject. He said that the majority of the Colored immigrants come from Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
John Daniels, who, as holder of the Harvard Fellowship of the South End House, is making a special study of the Negro population of Boston, spoke on “The Economic Situation of the Boston Negroes.” “There are in Boston today,” he said, “probably [Transcriber’s Note: the number is illegible. It’s five figures, and the first is a 1.] Negroes. The percentage of employment among them is larger than that for the white population as a whole, or for any element of it. This statement, however, is not to be regarded altogether optimistically. But turning to the kinds of work the Negroes are engaged in, we find the majority of them engaged in the meaner sorts of labor, unskilled labor for the most part, and commanding only the pay of unskilled labor. We find very few of them in the handicrafts and the trades. The problem, then, is not so much to get more work as to get better work.”
Charles Alexander spoke on “The Negro in the Professions in Boston.” He confined himself to the professions of law and medicine. “Boston has ten Negro physicians, and about 15 Negro lawyers,” he said, “a larger number in proportion to the size of the Negro population than in any other northern city. The color line is not so strictly drawn in the professions. Negroes here get white patronage.” He then went on to name the most prominent Negro lawyers and physicians of the city. He made special mention of Dr. Geo. F. Grant, who in dentistry has won international fame, and Dr. Thomas W. Patrick, head of a most successful school of pharmacy, all the students of which are white. Mr. Alexander expressed himself as optimistic regarding the future success of the Negro professional man in Boston.
Mrs. O. W. Bush, well known as a lecturer and club woman, spoke on “The Negro Woman in Boston.” She mentioned the considerable interest our women are taking in mothers’ meetings, temperance work and literary association. “The most important question,” she said, “is whether the women feel their responsibilities as wives and mothers.” She thought their responsibility is felt in proportion as the women share in the economic stress of supporting the family. “Oftentimes, however, too much of this economic stress falls upon the women. They have to work too much, and the home is neglected.”
Rev. Henry J. Callis spoke on “The Negro Church and Moral Conditions.” He said: “The condition of the Negro church in Boston has been far from satisfactory. At present not a single Negro church building is owned by its congregation. The church, moreover, is not supported by the most prosperous and intelligent Negroes, but by the less intelligent, who, from false pride, hold the church to too high an intellectual standard, one which cannot healthfully be lived up to. The great evil is, though, that the leadership of the Negro churches has not been carefully enough guarded. The leaders have not been the men they should be.” He then referred to the great growth in attendance and in financial support which has in the past year taken place at his church, the Zion A. M. E., at the corner of Columbus avenue and Northampton street.
Mr. Butler R. Wilson spoke on “Social Betterment Work Among the Negroes.” He said that the best sort of social betterment comes about from the unorganized mingling of Negroes and whites to understand each other. This mingling results in much individual social betterment.
Prof. T. N. Carver expressed himself on the general question of recognition of race. He thought the Negro should not try to unrace himself in name or in fact, but should endeavor to make his race one to be proud of. He should not “kick against the pricks” and waste his efforts, but should recognize facts as they are and make the best of them.
Mrs. Mary W. Ovington, who is working among the Negroes in New York, spoke briefly of conditions there. She referred to the question of race recognition, segregation or commingling, as one of the most present importance.
Mr. Robert W. Woods, head of the South End House, closed the conference by briefly summarizing the discussion. The two questions which stood out were, he said, that of the economic situation of the Boston Negro and that of the attitude of the races toward each other. Economically, the object to be attained is the extension of the field of labor, the conquest of higher grades of employment. As regards the racial question it is a most vexed one, the outcome of which cannot be predicted.
The South End House is this year undertaking to study the situation of the Negroes in Boston and to apply some efforts toward their social betterment. The conference above described was, it is hoped, only the first of a series of similar conferences designed to effect a better understanding and a more efficacious treatment of the problem.