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[[4 images, 2 on each page]] 
 
MEN OF THE MONTH  

                          A FIGHTING PREACHER. 

IN the passing of William B. Derrick a creditably and deservingly conspicuous figure has been removed from the public life of Negro America.

[[1st Image, Title: THE LATE WILLIAM B. DERRICK.]] 

    Born at Antigua, West Indies, in 1843, this son of the tropics early sought room for the exercise of his talents in a larger field. England was only increased insularity to him, however, so he came to the United States, enlisted in the navy and served with dis-tinction during the Civil War. Shortly after the close of this conflict he became a minister, and in 1896 was elected bishop of the A. M. E. Church. 
    During all these years, however, Bishop Derrick found time to occupy a leading posi-tion as a Republican politician, and as such he was, perhaps, more influential than as a clergyman. He had the esteem of Blaine and Harrison and McKinley, and he was re-garded by the colored people as one of their chief spokes men.
    Bishop Derrick's attractive personality and oratorical ability won for him much con-sideration in England, to which country he made several visits after his episcopal conse-eration, and to his efforts are due to the growth of the A. M. E. Church in the West Indies and South America. 
                    
                                A CENTENARIAN.
OF the same calling, but of gentler mold and less renown than Bishop Derrick, 

[[2nd Image, Title: THE LATE WILLIS ALBERT JONES.]] 

was the late Willis Albert Jones, who had rounded out nearly a century when he died at Athens, Ga., March 3. He was born at Milledgeville, Ga., February 28, 1814. 

                              A GOOD MIXER.
"THERE is no reason why a black man or a yellow man or a citizen of any other color should be debarred from holding a seat on the school board. Nor can it be denied that it is only fair that the Negro 

[[3rd Image, Title: JAMES F. BOURNE.]] 

should have some representation on the school board, since a large number of Negro teachers and Negro children are subject to the local school system."
    Mr. James F. Bourne is the Negro referred to in the above editorial opinion from the Atlantic City Gazette. Mr. Bourne is a successful druggist, a taxpayer and a useful citizen, but the school board of Atlantic City refused to honor his appoint-ment by Mayor Bacharach last July. They appealed, without success, to the State board of education and they exhausted every Latin phrase in the legal vocabulary in the effort to get the courts to prevent a colored man from sitting with them. They have failed. The Supreme Court of the State has given Mr. Bourne his seat and the costs.   
 
                               AN ENGINEER.
WHEN a colored man finds that his job is worth his life in the South he usually leaves the job and takes his life northward. As a rule, the farther North he gets his life is nominally more secure, but as to a job, without which he can have no life, he cannot even have a "look-in," if his job, his life, means working side by side with white men in some factory. 
     Mr. George W. Brown has managed to take the horns of this dilemma without being hurt. Born fort-five years ago in North Carolina, he became a foreman machinist. His undermen told him to leave. He went to Baltimore, where he got a place as engineer in charge of a fore of 760 white men-from Europe. Finding that he and

[[4th Image, Title: GEORGE W. BROWN.]]

his family could not be admitted to the amusement parks and summer resorts, open alike to his employers and his undermen, he entered into partnership with Mr. Walter R. Langley for the development of a cooling place for colored people only, profits and expenses alike. They started with $300. Their property, including a steamboat with a capacity of 1,000, is now valued at $50,000.     

Transcription Notes:
Hyphens represent a break due the beginning of a new line Lines placed in the near center represent titles of these men