tter winds
of persecution, under the dark sky of hate and proscription.
Corporations, churches, theatres, and political parties made the Negro
a subject of official action. If a Negro travelled by stage coach, it
was among the baggage in the "boot," or on top with the driver. If he
were favored with a ride on a street car, it was in a separate car
marked, "_This car for Colored people_." If he journeyed any distance
by rail, he was assigned to the "Jim Crow" car, or "smoker," where
himself and family were subjected to inconvenience, insult, and the
society of the lowest class of white rowdies. If he were hungry and
weary at the end of the journey, there was "no room for him in the
inn," and, like his Master, was assigned a place among the cattle. If
he were so fortunate as to get into a hotel as a servant, bearing the
baggage of his master, he slept in the garret, and took his meals in
the kitchen. It mattered not who the Colored man was--whether it was
Langston, the lawyer, McCune Smith, the physician, or Douglass, the
orator--he found no hotel that would give him accommodations. And
forsooth, if some host had the temerity to admit a Negro to his
dining-room, a dozen white guests would leave the hotel rather than
submit to the "_outrage_!"

The places of amusements in all the large cities in the North excluded
the Negro; and when he did gain admission, he was shown to the
gallery, where he could enjoy peanut-hulls, boot-blacks, and
"black-legs." Occasionally the side door of a college was put ajar for
some invincible Negro. But this was a performance of very rare
occurrence; and the instances are easily remembered.

When courts and parties, corporations and companies had refused to
accord the Negro the rights that were his due as a man, he carried his
case to the highest earthly court, the Christian Church. He felt sure
of sympathy and succor from this source. The Church had stood through
the centuries as a refuge for the unfortunate and afflicted. But,
alas! the Church shrank from the Negro as if he had been a reptile. If
he gained admission it was to the "Negro pew" in the "organ loft." If
he secured the precious "emblems of the broken body and shed blood" of
his Divine Master, it was after the "white folks" were through. If the
cause of the Negro were mentioned in the prayer or sermon, it was in
the indistinct whisper of the moral coward who occupied the sacred
desk. And when the fight was on at fever heat, when i