[Alabama]. [Civil Rights]. Southern Society for the Promotion of the Study of Race Conditions

The Montgomery Conference. Under the Auspices of the Southern Society for the Promotion of the Study of Race Conditions and Problems in the South [caption title]

Montgomery, Al. 1900. 4pp., on a single folded sheet. Some bumping and creasing to top edge, a few short closed tears, minor soiling. Accompanied by a single-page typed letter signed with stamped signature. Old fold, minor wear along outer edge. Very good. Item #3101

A seemingly-unrecorded program for the first annual conference of the Southern Society for the Promotion of the Study of Race Conditions, composed of white men devoted to "the study of race conditions and problems in the South." The conference took place in Montgomery, Alabama over the course of three days in May in 1900. Though the Montgomery Conference was attended solely by southern white men, the effort was supported by Booker T. Washington and others in the African-American community, who saw it as a positive step to improving race relations, specifically on the subject of lynching. The present program includes a schedule of speakers and their topics, rules for the guidance of the conference, conference committee members, and more. The topics for discussion include "The Franchise in the South," "Popular Education in the South," "The Negro in Relation to Religion," "The Negro and the Social Order," and "Lynching as a Penalty." The speakers include Alfred M. Waddell, mayor of Wilmington, North Carolina; John Temple Graves, newspaper editor and anti-lynching advocate; Hollis B. Frissell, principal of Hampton Institute; J.L.M. Curry, a former slave owner who became interested in access to education for all following the Civil War; and D. Clay Lilly, secretary of the Southern Presbyterian Board of Negro Evangelization; and others. The program is accompanied by a form letter sent to members of the Armstrong Society (later the Urban League), stamp-signed by Edgar G. Murphy, organizer and secretary of the group, emphasizing the conference's focus as a sounding board for ideas, not an idealogical direction. A 240-page report, printing the various addresses was published and is relatively common; the present program and accompanying form letter are apparently unrecorded on OCLC.

Price: $750.00