Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/90

 76 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

favorite mottoes on the circulars sent out to advertise the "United Links." ^^ Local orders of the "Links" were formed in each Kansas town that had a negro population, and for several years an annual convention was held at Topeka. The first con- vention in 1 88 1 showed a body of fairly prosperous negroes. At the conventions the opening song was always "John Brown's Body."

For various reasons some of the negroes, especially the ex- politicians from Louisiana and Mississippi, were dissatisfied with the "lily white" policy of the white Republicans, and their restlessness invited an attempt by the "Greenbackers" to capture the organization of the "Links." Singleton himself began to talk as an "independent," and declared that the Kansas Demo- crats had treated the negroes as well as the Republicans had. The "Links" and the "Greenbackers" had meetings on the same day at Topeka, and had a joint barbecue, but no fusion was effected. However for several years the Republicans were not certain of the entire negro vote.^® The "Links" flourished for some years and in 1887 Pap declared that the body had done much good in uniting the race and that the "hand of the Lord must of been upon him" when he organized that society;^^

The "exodusters" soon met opposition in labor matters. The migration caused a lowering of wages and the poorer whites became incensed against the blacks in the parts of the state where the "exodusters" were more numerous. One of the professed objects of the "United Links" was to avoid trouble by trying to regulate wages. The negroes were willing to work for less than white laborers, and on this account white employers and white laborers were divided in their opinion as to what the negroes should do. The latter were inclined to take the advice of the employers. There was complaint that negro youths were not admitted to the trades.**^

" Scrapbook, pp. 3, 10, 15.

^ Topeka Commonwealth, July 23 and August 2, 1881 ; Scrapbook, pp. 3, 6 ; the Topeka Tribune (negro paper), 1881.

"Scrapbook, September 10, 1887.

1885 ; letters from Kansas negroes to the writer.
 * ^ Scrapbook, p. 15, January 26 and March 4, 1881 ; St. Louis Post-Dispatch,