Alfred H. Stone Collection
Volume: 66

25. W[illiam] H. Councill, Address to the White People of Alabama ([Normal, AL]: n.p., [1901]). ([4] p.)

Appeal to the white citizens of Alabama to avoid getting caught up in the racist rhetoric of white politicians running for office. “I love Alabama. I have been true to her at home and abroad. . . But today, I am alarmed! I tremble for the future of my people. Many of the public speakers did not appeal to the highest sentiment in man, but held up the Negro in a manner to make the white masses hostile to him. With all your best efforts for many years to come, it will be hard to undo the harm which was done to my race by that campaign into which was put to much unkind feeling. . . . If your race is in superior condition, then God has placed the races in inferior condition under your care for kind treatment, and not to be mistreated and crushed. Will you do the work of God, or must He take it in His own hands as He has always done when men failed?” (The author was a black legislator, educator, and editor in Alabama.)