Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/89

 "PAP" SINGLETON 75

When in the fall of 1880 Singleton went to Illinois and Indiana he had a double mission: to see if there was room for "exodusters," and to deliver Republican speeches in favor of Garfield. As to the first he received no encouragement, but he delivered several speeches on conditions in the South and noti- fied Illinois and Indiana that unless conditions were bettered and a Republican president elected a great migration across the Ohio might be expected. ^^ In November after the Republican victory, Singleton declared that to him was due the credit for making Indiana safe for Garfield. He explained it by saying that after he learned that the Democrats feared colonization of negroes by the Republicans, he had gone to their leaders and told them that "unless they allowed the state to go Republican he would import 250,000 negroes into the state." They were so impressed, he says, that several thousand failed to vote, and thus the state was saved to the Republicans."* In spite of the vivid imagi- nation shown by these incidents, they indicate that Pap had learned that neither Republican nor Democrat in the North would welcome an exodus of negroes.

After the exodus ceased the negroes who had come to Kansas felt that they needed race organization and a settled policy in order to enable them to do their best. Almost at once they had become of importance as voters and as laborers. So in January, 1 88 1, Singleton called and presided over a colored convention in Topeka, which considered means of bettering the condition of the race. A result of this meeting was the organization on March 4, 1881, in "Tennessee Town," Topeka, of the "Colored United Links," Singleton being the "founder and president." ^® The objects were to "consolidate the race as a band of brethren," and to "harmonize together," to keep the race out of labor dis- putes, to care for the sick and the destitute, and to provide for training the children in trades from which they were now ex- cluded by the jealousy of the white laborers. "In unity there is strength," and "United we stand, divided we fall" were the

^Danville (III.) Republican, July 30, 1880. " Scrapbook, p. 35. ^ Scrapbook, p. 15,