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[[left margin]]288[[/left margin]] [[left running head]]THE CRISIS[[/left running head]] 

launched a campaign against the new segregation ordinance in that city and resulted in the organization of a branch of the Association.
   At many of the branch meetings, notably Cleveland and St. Paul, there were distinguished speakers. Some of the branch meetings were of a distinctive character. Seattle and others gave emancipation celebrations. Tacoma held a Coleridge-Taylor memorial. The Northern California Branch arranged a series of educational meetings with paid lecturers as speakers. The Quincy Branch held a two-days' inter-state conference on the race question which attracted representatives from the surrounding states and many noted speakers. Chicago had a two-days' bazaar, which resulted in raising funds to open permanent headquarters. These meetings have been held in branches as far south as El Paso, Tex., and Shreveport, La.

The press notices of all these meetings make an encouraging showing. The Conference received a gratifying amount of editorial comment, and many papers carried telegraphic "stories." The Chairman's trip was widely noticed in the press, and the work of the Association has received publicity in the colored press as never before. Nothing gives us more encouragement than the growing sympathy which we find expressed for our work in colored newspapers throughout the country. In the white press a fairer attitude is on the whole discernible, but silence or deliberate falsification of facts continues to be the rule in some sections of the country. 

LEGAL WORK 
[[left margin]]CIVIL RIGHTS 
A large number of civil rights cases have been considered during the year. The appeals varied from that of the Negro who complained because a restaurant had discriminated against him by serving him but half a portion of an order, a single frankfurter, to that of the colored citizens of Tampa who requested the aid of the Association in securing for the colored people of that city library privileges in a new Carnegie institution now being constructed.
Largely through our efforts in improved Civil Rights Law was passed by the New York Legislature some time ago, but it still falls short of being the model statute which we had hoped to send forth for imitation to the legislatures of all the states. Partly as a result of the defects of this law, partly because of the lack of witnesses or the failure of complainants to follow up their cases, partly because discrimination in ice cream parlors, pharmacies, and the like, is not clearly included under the statute, partly because of the successful ruses of defendants or the deliberate refusal of justice by prejudiced courts or juries, as well as for other reasons, we have no definite victories to record in the courts of New York during the past year. But elsewhere through our branches, we have been successful in prosecuting a number of civil rights cases.

Baltimore succeeded through its attorneys, Messrs. McGuinn and Hawkins, in acquitting George Howe, a colored man who shot into a mob bombarding his house. This branch also succeeded in defeating the Frick Jim Crow Car Bill, which, had it passed Maryland's legislature, would have been state wide in its operation. The activity of the Baltimore Branch against the segregation ordinance is mentioned elsewhere. Detroit fought fourteen cases of discrimination in theaters and won four. Indianapolis secured the acquittal of two colored boys convicted of carrying concealed weapons. The boys had been arrested as the result of a fight with white boys who had been the aggressors in trying to prevent the colored boys from using a swimming poollying between the colored and white base ball parks.

[[right running head]]THE FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT[[/right running head]] [[right margin]]289[[/right margin]]

The Philadelphia branch took up the case of the bombardment of the home of a colored woman who with her son and two daughters moved into a house in West Philadelphia which she had purchased. A mob of one thousand "neighbors" turned off the street lights and bombarded the house doing great damage. The local branch at once got in touch with the police department and for seven months policemen guarded the house. This cost the city of Philadelphia $9.00 a day. The courage of this woman in remaining in her house contrasted favorably with that of a colored man whose family suffered the same treatment under almost identical circumstances but who, when pressed by the Association to push his case not only refused to prosecute or to stay on the ground but even declined to rent or sell his house to a colored family so that the Association could make a test case.

CIVIL SERVICE
Here again, careful investigation indicates defects in the Civil Service laws. The Association's attorney spent some time in investigating the discharge of colored clerks from the Atlanta Post Office. The postmaster claimed the men dismissed were inefficient or dishonest. This was not proved by the evidence of white people who testified to the contrary. No redress is possible while the present postmaster remains in office, nor can the race issue be raised with the National Civil Service Commission until its personnel is changed.

In Philadelphia the Association's first attempt to investigate the discharge of post office employees was baffled by the men themselves who claimed that they feared the attempts they were making to get certain politicians to redress their grievances might be jeopardized by our efforts to help them. Later they applied to the Association and the matter was taken up with the Civil Service Commission with no results except to reveal defects in the civil service act which gives the Commission no jurisdiction to review discharges from the classified service, even if the clearest proofs of race prejudice can be given. The Commission can review discharges only when proof is offered that they were for religious or political reasons. The Civil Service Reform League has been requested to incorporate an amendment in the civil service law to correct this and now has the matter under consideration.

The Association made an unsuccessful effort to secure the repeal of the executive order requiring all candidates for civil service positions to file photographs with their applications. In spite of claims that this order is only for the purpose of identification to prevent impersonation at examinations, it should be remembered that since it has been in force in the Philippines no colored man has received an appointment there.

SEGREGATION IN GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS
Our investigation and our agitation first called the attention of the country to this matter, and we are continuing both our investigations and our protests whenever needed.

SEGREGATION IN CITIES
The field of the Association's activities against segregation ordinances extends from Birmingham, Alabama, to Harlem, New York, and as far west as St. Louis. The Baltimore branch has won two cases and is now working on a third which it intends to carry to the Supreme Court of the United States. The Louisville branch has engaged one of the best law firms in the city to carry a test case to the United States Supreme Court. 

In Richmond, Va. the cases pending were investigated and it was decided inadvisable to cooperate because of local conditions. If the case now pending in Ashland, Va., is appealed to the Supreme Court the attorneys in charge will ask our assistance. Birmingham, Alabama, has announced its intention of passing a segregation ordinance but after listening to protests from the local com-