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Support PACG through Birdies for Charity - A Message from the Board

5/31/2022

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Chip in to support PACG through Birdies for Charity!
through Friday, July 1st *

Donate to PACG Bird #2363
A Message from the Board
​
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Chip in for a chance to win!

This year PACG is participating in the John Deere Birdies for Charity drive! Here is some information from their website about what this means for us:

When you chip in to help area charities, you could win! But your favorite charity will be the real winner. That’s because participating charities receive 100% of the donations pledged to them in this program, plus a bonus from the Birdies for Charity Bonus Fund which is a guaranteed 5% match.

John Deere Classic week is always exciting. Not just for the tournament, but also for what the tournament means for charities. Since 1971, the John Deere Classic has delivered over $145 million to regional charities, most of it through its innovative Birdies for Charity program. No other event on the PGA TOUR does it better -- and it's the generous and hardworking nature of this area that makes it happen! 

Progressive Action Update readers, you can win a two-year lease on a new car by submitting your pledge donation form by June 10th!

Click this link or the button below to donate online to PACG! Our "Bird" is #2363
​https://birdiesforcharity.com/donate?charity=2363

OR
​
​Download your Birdies for Charity pledge form here (or print off the pdf attached below). Fill it out (include PACG and Bird number 2363 at the top) and mail it to:

BIRDIES FOR CHARITY
15623 Coaltown Rd
East Moline, Illinois 61244

Make checks payable to Quad Cities Golf Classic Charitable Foundation.

* Important dates:
​Friday, June 10th: Pledges and Guesses for the Grand Prize are due. 
Friday, July 1st: Pledges and donations must be received.
June 27th through July 3rd: John Deere Classic Tournament Week
​
​Ann McCluskey
Treasurer, PACG
Donate to PACG Bird #2363
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Y15K Final Distribution

12/22/2021

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Y15K Fund Drive Distributes Final Gifts

A Message to Our Membership
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Last year's Y15K "Understand the Need" Initiative and fund drive inspired PACG members to donate to support various non-profits that were providing support to individuals and families hit especially hard by the pandemic.

One group benefitting from our members' generosity was the residents of Cobblestone Place, which provides affordable subsidized housing for people with low income. In addition to purchasing outdoor seating and a large dining table for residents to share community meals, PACG raised enough to give a $120 HyVee gift card to each of the 23 households at Cobblestone Place. PACG decided to gift the cards at this time, when need is greatest. We also had enough funds to purchase 5 rolls of bus tokens, which will be distributed by the property manager to residents in need of such.

Cobblestone Place also offers extremely affordable office space to various non-profits, including Progressive Action for the Common Good. Once the pandemic subsides, we will again hold meetings in their public meeting room.

Other organizations that benefitted from our Y15K drive: Catalyst Kitchen, Heart of Hope, and QC Alliance for Immigrants and Refugees. Remind yourself of this good work by rereading our Blog post here.

PACG is proud that our members rallied and donated to support the common good.

Julie Ross
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Y15K Fully Funded and First Funds Distribution

9/20/2020

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Y15K Funds - First Distribution
Saturday, September 12th

We are proud to announce that our community raised $12,500 for our Y15K Initiative fundraiser to provide assistance to people in our community who have been harmed by the economic downturn due to the pandemic. With the $7500 that the Board of Directors allocated for this purpose, we will be giving away $20,000 to those in need.

This initiative was started to give back to our community as a way to celebrate our 15th Anniversary as an organization. The plan was to give $15,000 in our 15th year. We are deeply grateful for your generosity, and are honored to have your trust for these distributions.

On Saturday, September 12th we had the first of two Y15K Funds distribution events. We did this live,  with a limited number of participants who were appropriately masked. 

​Watch our presentation of Y15K funds to Catalyst Kitchen, QCAIR and Heart of Hope here. 
​
Our Understand the Need Blog explains in detail what each of our recipient organizations plan to do with these funds.
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Y15K Initiative Fully Funded!

9/8/2020

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Y15K Initiative Fully Funded!

Message from the President

We are excited to announce that our Y15K fundraiser honoring our 15th Anniversary has achieved its goal! We will have more details about our success in next week's WEU. Thank you all for your continued support as we work for the common good of all in the Quad Cities!

Allison Ambrose
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Message from the President - Y15K "Understand the Need"

8/20/2020

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A Message from the President

Y15K Initiative Fundraiser

Dear Progressives,

I was happy to see many of you "attend" our Understand the Need  webinars, which presented the various ways we plan to use your Y15K donations! If you missed the webinars, you can view it on our website here.

Please consider donating to this initiative from the link below or on our website. In the upcoming weeks I hope to keep you updated on our progress toward achieving our goal of $7,500 raised. The Board will match funds so that we can donate 15K in honor of Y15 (PACG's 15th Anniversary)!

Allison Ambrose
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View Our "Understand the Need" Webinar for the Y15K Initiative

8/8/2020

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Y15K Initiative - Understand the Need  Webinar Available for Viewing

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​A Message from the Board

To help you learn more about the Y15K Initiative, we recently hosted two Understand the Need Zoom webinars where representatives from each group we plan to assist explained how they function to benefit our community and why they are in additional need today. Our webinar is available for viewing on our PACG YouTube channel here.

Here are more details about the organizations that we have chosen to support:  


QCAIR - Quad Cities Alliance for Immigrants and Refugees
Grant Curtis, President

1. QCAIR helps immigrants and refugees become strong, productive members of the Quad City community. We do this in one of two ways: providing direct assistance or referring to other agencies as appropriate and educating the Quad City Community on the talents, skills and abilities immigrants and refugees bring to our community. We pledge to uphold the following core values which provide us with the purpose and direction for our work: Quality – Collaboration – Advocacy – Integration - Respect.

2. The donated funds will provide cash assistance to low-income immigrants and refugees in Iowa who have not received relief from the federal government and have suffered adverse impacts as a result of the Covid-19 virus. The Illinois state government has given assistance to immigrants in their state, but Iowa has not. 
​
3. To learn more about QCAIR Inc., donate  or volunteer, please visit our Facebook page QuadCityAllianceforImmigrantsandRefugees or our website www.qcair.org.


Heart of Hope
Lynda Sargent, Founder and President

1. Heart of Hope is a ministry of Hope and Healing to the Hurting, dedicated to serving the community of Rock Island and the greater Quad City area. Our vision is to revitalize Rock Island neighborhoods, provide opportunities that empower individuals to become self-sufficient, and equip future generations for success. 

2. Heart of Hope is a nonprofit outreach organization solely dependent on contributions from individuals and from grant funding sources. We do not receive any state or federal funding. We are able to provide outreach-based services to those in need within our community because of the generosity of caring individuals who are able and willing to help us be the hands and feet to those in need within our neighborhoods. 19.8% of the residents in the City of Rock Island live below the national poverty rate. 38% of these  residents are children under the age of 6. Another 38% are residents over the age of 60. Heart of Hope has provided food and toiletry items for over 44,000 of these residents since opening our food pantry on May 1, 2014. We have distributed over 115,000 pounds of food in 2020. We continue to see the need for food escalate. Our records show a 40% increase in food pantry visitors between June and July of this year. We had 359 visitors to our pantry in June and 504 visitors in July! 

The funds we receive as part of the Y15K Initiative will mean we will be able to continue to meet this great need for food assistance within our communities. A second imminent need is the replacement of our 19-year-old, 15-passenger van for picking up the 3,000 to 5,000 pounds of food we distribute weekly. Funds would be used for both of these great needs. 

3. Heart of Hope website is HOHQC | Hope & Healing | Community Service | Quad Cities.


Palomares Social Justice Center and Catalyst Kitchen  
Melissa Freidhof-Rodgers

The Palomares Social Justice Center exists to help address the socio-economic needs and interests of the Floreciente neighborhood and other less empowered communities through advocacy, grassroots outreach, and culturally sensitive services:
  • Collaboration and Inclusiveness
  • People to People Empowerment
  • Cultural Awareness and Diversity
  • Equity
  • Creativity (supporting a space for critical thinking and activity)
  • Advocacy

Catalyst Kitchen Information:

1. The Palomares-St. John’s Catalyst Kitchen is a commercial kitchen located at St. John's Lutheran Church that neighbors can rent from the Palomares Social Justice Center. The kitchen can be rented by the hour and is an initiative to motivate our community to start a business and obtain official certification for the handling and selling of food.  This space helps launch budding entrepreneurs in taking the first steps in starting their business. Brick and mortar spaces require large amounts of funding and the Catalyst Kitchen provides a space to start a food business for a reasonable cost, while providing ongoing bilingual support and mentorship. Additionally, we provide individuals with the opportunity to obtain information on the certification process (in Spanish and English), starting a business, and general information on how to cook safely following sanitation codes. 

2. The funds from PACG will be used to help immigrant entrepreneurs pay for the ServSafe Food manager class and the required textbook, giving them a needed boost in taking the first step in starting a food business. With the Covid-19 pandemic we have had more immigrants wanting to start food businesses after losing their jobs and not qualifying for government assistance due to immigration status. This class is offered in Spanish and creates equal access needed to start a business. Funds may also be used to rent the kitchen for new business owners or to purchase small equipment. 

3. Connect with Catalyst Kitchen on our Facebook page. Information about the Palomares Social Justice Center can be found at their website.


Cobblestone Place
Allison Ambrose, PACG President

Cobblestone is a 28-unit affordable housing building in downtown Davenport, IA. The PACG office is located there; and, we hold many of our meetings and events in community rooms in the facility. Since management has always treated us so well, we decided to offer to help the people who live at Cobblestone. We asked residents what their needs were, and the Y15K funds will help fulfill those requests. Money will provide a park bench for  the outdoor yard, a dining set for the community kitchen that the smaller units use, and bus passes for residents. We are pleased that we can be "good neighbors" to those that live at Cobblestone.



​View our PACG  Understand the Need Webinar here.


Allison Ambrose, President
​
Donate to Y15K
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Support the Y15K Initiative - What You Can Do Now

7/25/2020

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15 Years - Y15K - $15,000

Donate to Y15K
Please help us celebrate our 15th Anniversary by supporting our Y15K fundraiser! Our goal is to raise $7,500 from donors, matched with PACG funds on hand, for a total of $15,000. We will donate the $15,000 raised to nonprofits in the community serving those in need. We especially want to help those negatively impacted by COVID-19.

Our funds will benefit:
  • The residents of Cobblestone Place which provides low-income housing;
  • Immigrants negatively impacted by COVID-19 through Quad Cities Alliance for Immigrants and Refugees (QCAIR);
  • Families experiencing hunger due to job losses through Heart of Hope;
  • Immigrants (and others) by providing food service job training and commercial kitchen support through Catalyst Kitchen.

To help you learn more, we are hosting Understand the Need Zoom webinars where representatives from each group will explain how they function to benefit our community and why they are in additional need today.

​Please click on one of the links below to register.

If you try to register before the event and the registration says it is closed, please contact our Office Manager at (563) 676-7580. She will send you a webinar link.

Y15K - Understand the Need - Tuesday, August 4th at 5:30 pm
Register: https://pacg.z2systems.com/eventReg.jsp?event=489&

Y15K - Understand the Need - Saturday, August 8th at 10:00 am
Register: https://pacg.z2systems.com/eventReg.jsp?event=494&

Download the flyer below to invite your friends!
​
y15k_flyer_.pdf
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A Message from the Board

​Progressive Action for the Common Good (PACG) is celebrating 15 years of working tirelessly for liberty and justice in the Quad Cities! We organized out of the belief that bringing progressives together on the issues that matter to them is important for democracy to succeed. Your support has allowed us to defend and advance progressive causes. In celebration of our 15th Anniversary, we would like to give back to our community and, in particular, to those who have been negatively impacted by COVID-19.  
 
On behalf of the Board, I would like to announce the Y15K (15 years/$15,000) initiative. We will match donations to PACG in the hopes of raising at least $7,500 from members so that we can infuse $15,000 into our community. These donations will be threefold: 

  1. to Cobblestone Place to help meet residents’ needs;
  2. directly to immigrants who have been affected by COVID-19 (with the help of Quad Cities Alliance for Immigrants and Refugees - QCAIR);
  3. to local non-profits that serve populations of interest to our Issue Forums. 
 
You are someone who has supported PACG in the past. We ask you to consider donating to our Y15K initiative. Remember that PACG is a 501(c)(3) organization and your donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. 
 
We are hosting Zoom presentations so that members can learn more about who we will support with Y15K. I hope you can join us! Please see the flyer for more information about this fund drive and our presentations. Thank you for your continued support for progressive issues and for PACG.

​Allison Ambrose

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What You Can Do Now - Save the Date for Y15K

7/17/2020

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Save The Date!
Y15K via Zoom
Tuesday, August 4th at 5:30 pm and 
Saturday, August 8th at 10:00 am

A Message from the Board 

We will be holding  two Zoom presentations to reveal our plans for PACG's 15th Anniversary celebration! Presentations will be held on both August 4th
at 5:30 pm and August 8th at 10:00 am. Choose whichever meeting best fits your schedule!

More  details coming next week!

Allison Ambrose
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African Americans in Davenport Struggled to Educate Their Children

2/16/2020

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Did You Know About the Struggles of African Americans in Davenport to Educate Their Children?

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As part of PACG's on-going fundraiser to pay for a large kiosk display at the MLK Interpretive Center, the struggle African Americans had to educate their children  is the subject of this week's blog post about local cultural and ethnic history. 

Local historian Craig Klein  has gathered the following information from research in eastern Iowa. 

The Colored School Controversy
As in other midwestern states, the struggle for equality in Iowa schools began long before the Civil War. Believing that blacks were inferior to whites, members of Iowa’s First Territorial Assembly enacted a general school law in January l839 that barred black children from attending school with their white peers. As a result, when Iowa gained admission to the Union in 1846, school laws already in place prevented black children from attending the “common schools” established in each county. Paralleling other “whites only” practices sanctioned by Iowa’s early constitution, this arrangement was supported by most Iowans in the late 1840s and 1850s. However, increasingly in the 1840s and 1850s, Iowans sympathetic to the plight of blacks began to question the wisdom and morality of this school law provision. Prompted by the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, the debate over equality in Iowa schools became heated in the 1850s. At the constitutional convention of 1857 in Iowa City, delegates favoring open enrollment for all school children met fierce opposition from die-hard opponents of equality. But when it became obvious that neither side would prevail, the convention approved compromise language that mandated the creation of separate, state-supported schools for black children. In the school law of 1858, the state legislature enacted this provision into law.[1]

The debate over equality in Iowa schools also resonated at the local level. Charting the course of the debate over this issue in Davenport, Iowa, from 1858 to early 1860, the following news articles and minutes of Board of Education meetings shed light on the controversy that arose over the city’s early “Colored School.” Though Davenport only had a handful of school-aged black children in 1858, their presence became a contentious issue. Formed in May 1858, the city’s first Board of Education apparently sought to resolve the issue by quietly allowing several black children to attend School No. 3 at the southeast corner of Sixth and Warren streets. But in a disparaging June 26, 1858, editorial, the Daily Morning News, a local newspaper with decidedly Democratic and southern sympathies, called on concerned citizens to have these children expelled-a summons that soon bore results. On September 15, 1858, thirty-eight Davenport residents signed a petition asking the Board of Education to expel “some four or five Negroes” then attending the Stone School House at the corner of Seventh and Perry streets. Because the school law of 1858 only allowed for mixed schooling if there was unanimous consent for it in the community, the Board of Education had no choice but to comply: on September 18, 1858, it ordered the expulsion of these children from the city school system.

While most citizens acknowledged that the Board had no legal recourse, the decision to remove the children disturbed many Davenporters. Seeking a solution to the crisis, they heatedly debated the issue amongst themselves, arriving shortly thereafter at a consensus to establish a separate school for black children outside the school system. Some residents favored this solution for pragmatic reasons as well: they feared opponents of tax-supported “free schools” would use the controversy to destroy the city school system. Apparently responding to public sentiment, the Board of Education moved on November 8,1858, to establish a separate school for black children in a room in the newly-constructed Baptist Church at the corner of Perry and Fourth streets. But it is unclear if this school ever opened. After failing to establish another separate school in April 1859 (whether it was in the Baptist Church or another location is unclear), the Board moved in late 1859 to establish a “Colored” school in a room in School No. 3 at the corner of Warren and Sixth streets. Opening in early December, this venture soon failed “for want of pupils.” Before mandating an open school system in the early 1860s, the Board reportedly tried one last time in l860 to establish a separate school for black school children in the Baptist Church. But this experiment was short-lived as well.


[1] Amie Cooper, “A Stony Road-Black Education in Iowa, 1838-1860,” Annals of Iowa 48(1986), 113-34

Source:   Davenport’s Pioneer African American Community:  A Sourcebook, p. 19

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​Citizen petition protesting the presence of black children in Davenport public schools. (Davenport Daily Gazette on Sept. 22, 1858)  On September 15, 1858, thirty-eight Davenport citizens signed a petition protesting the presence of black children in city schools.  Presented to the Davenport Board of Education, this petition appeared in the Davenport Daily Gazette on Sept. 22, 1858, along with copy of the Board’s September 18, 1858 decision to expel several black children from school.  (The 1868 date on the petition is in error.)
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The Stone School House - The school from which several black children were expelled in late September 1858.  Bowing to demands from thirty-eight citizens, the Davenport School Board expelled several black students in late September 1858 who had been attending School No. 2, also known  as the Stone School House, at the corner of Seventh and Perry Streets.  Newly built in 1854, the Stone School House was later renamed Adams School.​
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The Baptist Church - The site of Davenport’s first colored school.  Seeking to keep the controversy over racially mixed education out of the city school system, Davenport school officials moved to establish a separate school for black children in November 1858 in the newly-built Baptist Church at the southwest corner of Perry and Fourth Streets.  However, it is unclear if this school opened at this time.  After school officials failed to establish separate instruction for black children in School No. 3 (later known as Old Jefferson) in December 1859, black children were reportedly again placed in a segregated classroom in the Baptist Church.  Probably operating in 1860, this school soon failed as well. 
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The Brick School House - The site of a segregated classroom for black children in late 1859.  After Davenport’s first separate school for black children in the Baptist Church closed in the spring of 1859, school officials organized another "colored school" in the Brick School House at the southeast the corner of Sixth and Warren Streets.  (Also known as School No. 3, the building was later renamed Jefferson School.)  Though a woman named Mrs. M.A. Fearing was hired to teach this school for $20 per month, it soon closed because of low attendance.
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You can help preserve this history like this by making a donation to purchase a display screen for the Martin Luther King Interactive Center.

For other Blogs in support of this project, see also:

Did You Know About African American Women's Clubs in Davenport During the Progressive Era? 
 
Did You Know That Frederick Douglass Visited Davenport in April of 1866?

Did You Know That Aeronaut Professor John Byrd Piloted His Balloon from Davenport​ in August of 1883?

​
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Frederick Douglass' Visit to Davenport in 1866

2/14/2020

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Did You Know That Frederick Douglass Visited
​Davenport in April of 1866?

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Frederick Douglass
(image courtesy of the Library of Congress)   
During a lecture tour in Iowa and Illinois in late April 1866, black anti-slavery advocate Frederick Douglass spoke before a standing-room-only audience in Davenport's Metropolitan Hall on April 27, 1866.  Addressing the question of What shall be done with the negro? during the period of Reconstruction, Douglass eloquently appealed for black male suffrage and full political equality before the law.  Well received by his listeners, his extemporaneous talk lasted two hours.

Craig Klein shared this 1857  artist's sketch of Metropolitan Hall, where Frederick Douglass spoke. The Davenport Public Library special collections department located the image.

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The Davenport Public Library special collections department also located the image below of an announcement in the paper regarding Mr. Douglass' upcoming presentation.​
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As part of PACG's on-going fundraiser to pay for a large kiosk display at the MLK Interpretive Center, Frederick Douglass's lectures in Iowa and Davenport are the subject of this week's blog post about local cultural and ethnic history.

Frederick Douglass  (c. February 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York, gaining note for his oratory and incisive antislavery writings.[1] 

Local historian Craig Klein  has gathered the following information from newspaper articles in Iowa. We have decided to post them here in their original format because the language and descriptions used by the articles' authors is definitely a part of this rich history.


April 25, 1866 (Wednesday)—Davenport Daily Gazette--Announcement of Frederick Douglass' lecture schedule:   
By letters received from George S. Bowen, Esq. of Chicago, his Western Agent, we see Mr. Douglass has refused over thirty invitations to lecture in the West from lack of time.  He speaks in Moline Wednesday night, Muscatine Thursday, Davenport Friday, Morris Saturday, and Chicago next Monday, and is paid $100 for each lecture. [note: in 2020 this fee would be just over $3000.]

April 27, 1866 (Friday)—Davenport Daily Gazette--News item entitled The Lecture To-Night  
 The orator who to-night addresses our citizens at Metropolitan Hall was once and for many long and bitter years a slave-owned, held, and assessed as “chattels personal.”  At length he yielded to the promptings of his nature, gave scope to his ardent yearnings, and sought freedom in flight towards the North Star.  Then followed earnest efforts for knowledge; prolonged conflict with poverty; fierce contests against the hateful spirit of caste, which denied him his manhood; and, a length substantial victory.  In this at least, his triumph is complete in earning and winning for himself a confessed intellectual equality with the ablest and best logicians and orators of the country, and an undeniable superiority to thousands who in speeches in the legislative halls and on the stump have vainly tried to establish color of skin as a test of mental power, political rights, and moral worth.  This self-made man--if ever a man made himself by the industrious cultivation of God-given power is now one of the best, to say the least, public speakers in the United States.  Everywhere crowded audiences listen to and are profited by his irresistible arguments and eloquent appeals; and everywhere those who listen once would gladly hear again.  We need urge no friend of freedom to attend Metropolitan Hall tonight.  We would rather urge the attendance of those who have hitherto denied the capability of the colored race and would yet deprive them of full political equality before the law.  We could wish that every “anti-negro suffrage” man in this vicinity might hear Mr. Douglass tonight, and then tell us, if possible, why color of the skin should longer be the test of fitness to use the ballot.  There will be a crowded house tonight, sure, and we advise those who want good seat to go early.  Tickets at Luse & Griggs'.    


April 28, 1866 (Saturday)—Davenport Daily Gazette--Newspaper article entitled Fred. Douglass on Suffrage that summarized and commented on Douglass' talk the previous evening:  
The lecture of Fred. Douglass at the Metropolitan Hall last night, delivered to an audience which crowded every available seat and in part only found standing room, embraced and was mainly composed of a solid, logical earnest and unanswerable argument in behalf of impartial and universal suffrage.  “Reconstruction” was announced as the subject of the lecture, but that was but the text for the real theme.  Introducing text and argument by a rapid glance at the grave perils which now environ the country, with a President determined to enforce his policy if at all within the reach of possibility, with traitors where loyal men only ought to be and loyal men in places which traitors ought to fill, Mr. Douglass proceeded to state that the whole question of “Reconstruction” centers in and is embraced in the solution of the negro problem. “What shall be done with the negro” this lecturer urged is the question of the hour.  The answer was given by Mr. D. in a word--Give the negro the ballot; and to the support and defense of this answer the lecturer devoted the greater part of his effort.  He argued that the elective franchise should be extended to the negro because he is “a man;” because the ballot is necessary for his education; because it is essential to his protection; because he has earned it; because the Nation owes it to him for his help in the hour of trial and danger; because the Nation may need him again; because without giving it the National honor cannot be vindicated; because this is a country of universal suffrage; because the National peace will be hereby assured; and because sound Statesmanship requires it.  In enforcing these several reasons, Mr. Douglass presented argument after argument in a manner so clear and so convincing that it would seem impossible for any intelligent listener to escape his conclusions.  He showed how well and how nobly the negroes of the United States have vindicated their manhood, and how heroically they have attested their devotion to a country to which they owed nothing and from which they had received nothing but oppression and wrong.  He demonstrated the utter folly of the colonization scheme.  He exposed to deserved ridicule the idea that the negro must become annihilated and the whole race, in the United States, become extinct under the advancing tread of Anglo Saxon civilization; and made his hearers understand very clearly that the last hope of the extinction of the American negro expired with the death of that system under which alone there was possibility that they could “fade” out.

The objections to negro suffrage were briefly but forcibly met, particular attention being given to those on which Mr. Johnson lays so much stress.  Mr. Douglass showed conclusively that no possible evil would or could result from the doings of justice to all men in the Republic and the carrying out of the great principles of the Declaration of Independence and of the Constitution.

Thus much as a faint outline of this very able lecture.  Of its delivery we need only say that Douglass has lost much of his fire since we first heard him, in Albany, nearly twenty years ago.  His utterance is very deliberate and at times unpleasantly slow.  He seldom indulges in pathos and his style is entirely free from labored attempts to arouse the feelings of his auditors.  As stern fact, a new idea or an old one presented in a fresh light, a strong argument, a fervid appeal or a happy hit, over and anon occasions an outburst of applause, but no metaphors, illustrations or anecdotes are introduced by the lecturer to that end.  The lecturer and his audience move steadily on from premises to argument and from argument to conclusion, under the pressure of words simple and well chosen for that end.  Here is his strength as a public speaker.  Even while listening to him and moved by his argument and appeals, one is inclined to deny him the praise of being a great orator; yet if the provinces of oratory is to convince and arouse those to whom its words are addressed, it would be difficult to name many living orators, in the United States at least, greater than Fred. Douglass.  With more of the fire of youth, he would entrance and inspire an audience as powerfully as he now instructs and interests.  Yet this “man” was once and long a slave in these United States, and today if a citizen of Iowa, native American though he is, could not vote for a town constable, while thousands who were ten, eight or six years ago in other lands in utter ignorance of American institutions are gladly welcomed to the ballot box!  “This ought ye to have done and not left the other undone!” Let us pray for and “work” for, and fight for the grand victory for Justice and Liberty when all men of every race and color shall enjoy that perfect equality before the law that is their just due.  In Iowa, at least, the battle has been well begun.  The victory is surely coming and cannot be delayed.

The lecture occupied two hours in delivery and was almost wholly extemporaneous; Mr. Douglass had several sheets of notes but referred to them but three or four times. 


You can help preserve this history like this by making a donation to purchase a display screen for the Martin Luther King Interactive Center.

For other Blogs in support of this project, see also:

Did You Know About African American Women's Clubs in Davenport During the Progressive Era? 

Did You Know That Aeronaut Professor John Byrd Piloted His Balloon from Davenport​in August of 1883?
 

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass

​
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