Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1886 — Powderly Defends the Black—Parade and Picnic. [ARTICLE]

Powderly Defends the Black—Parade and Picnic.

Between four and five thousand Knights of Labor paraded tho streets of Richmond on Monday, lltli inst.. and all public offices and nearly all workshops, manufactories, and other business places in the city were closed in honor of the event. At the close of the parade speeches were made by Ralpn Beaumont, Mr. Tredel, and Mr. Litchman. Senatorelect Daniel, Mayor Harrington, and Gov. Lee wero to have made sjieeches, but they did not appear. Later there were games and races on the fair grounds, and the festivities closed at night with a banquet, at which white and colored delegates s- at together. Tho proposed banquet was abandoned. In consequence of questions which have been raised by the presence of Farrell and other colored delegates to the general assembly. Mr. Powderly has written a letter to explain why he selected Delegate Farrell to introduce him. His critics, he says, have seen fit to assert that, this action was an insult and an attack upon the laws of social equality. He continues : "My sole object in selecting a colored man to introduce me was to encourage and help to uplift his race from a bondage worse than thut which hold him in chains twenty-five years ago, viz: Mental slavery. I desired to impress upon the minds of white and black that the same result followed action in the field of labor whether that action was on the part of Caucasian or negro labor. Two years ago, in ah address delivered in this city, I said to the people of Richmond: ‘You stand face to face with a stern, living reality, a responsibility which cannot be avoided or shirked. The negro question is as jirominent to-day as it ever was. The first proposition that stares us in tho face is this : The negro is free, ho is here, and he is hero to stay. He is a citizen and must learn to manage his own affairs His labor and that of tho white mail will be thrown upon the market side by side, and no human eyo can detect a difference between the article manufactured by the black mechanic and that manufactured by the white mechanic. Botli claim nn equal share of the protection afforded to American labor, and both mechanics must sink tlioir differences pr else fall a prey to tho slave labor now being imported to thi3 country.’ ”