The Negro in Chicago: A Study of Race Relations and a Race Riot. Chicago Commission on Race Relations
such an appeal, not only to Negroes in this country, but to other dark-skinned races throughout the world. It is sought to weld them all together into a great nation. Glittering promises are set before the illiterate element of the Negro race, which has responded sufficiently to fatten the purses of some, at least, of the "prophets."
Redding was one of these "prophets." He was influenced by the white man, "Dr." R. D. Jonas, and had purchased from him the robe or toga which he wore during the parade of June 20. According to those who knew both men, he had first "stolen Jonas' thunder" and the following out of which the "Star Order of Ethiopia" had been manufactured. Having lost this, Jonas was willing to sell the regalia.
Jonas, it appears, had been promoting one movement after another among illiterate Negroes for six or seven years. At one time he conducted a co-operative store on State Street, in which he sold shares. He was often an orator at street gatherings and had been arrested a number of times. When Alexander Dowie of Zion City died, Jonas is said to have attempted to put himself into the vacant position. After the East St. Louis riots he appeared in Chicago in an express wagon with signs indicating that he was collecting funds for the Negroes of East St. Louis.
During the afternoon of the shooting, Jonas had been the principal speaker at a small, orderly meeting of Negroes in Johnson's Hall, 3516 South State Street, at which he had launched a campaign for Mayor Thompson as a third-party candidate for president of the United States. The Mayor, he said, was the only man who could be trusted "to carry out Roosevelt's work" and put through the treaty with Abyssinia which expired in 1917. He also referred to the efforts of the Jews to return to Palestine and of the Irish to free themselves from British domination, and suggested the desirability of a coalition of the Negro, Jewish, and Irish races. Redding's hold on many of the Negroes was partly due to the fact that he is a Negro and claims to be a native of Abyssinia, whereas Jonas is a white man.
Quite evidently the "Back to Abyssinia" movement was used as a means for exploiting credulous Negroes. For one dollar they could purchase an Abyssinian flag, a small pamphlet containing a prophecy relating to the return of the black-skinned people to Africa, a copy of a so-called treaty between the United States and Abyssinia, and a picture of the "Prince of the Abyssinians." Likewise when the propaganda had begun to take root, one might sign a blank form which would commit him to return to "my motherland of Ethiopia" in order that he might fill any one of forty-four positions, such as electrical engineer, mechanical draftsman, civil engineer, architect, chemist, sign-painter, cartoonist, illustrator, traffic manager, teacher, auto-repairing, agriculture, and poultry-raising. The blank itself was headed:
STAR ORDER OF ETHIOPIA
AND
THE ETHIOPIAN MISSIONARY TO ABYSSINIA
"A Prince shall come out of Egypt. Ethiopia shall soon stretch
out her hands to God."—Ps. 68:31.
This is to certify that my name was given to Elder Grover Redding, Missionary to Abyssinia, to show to my brothers in my motherland that I am with them, heart and soul.
Oh, Wonderful Land, God remembers Thee. He shall deliver Thee from under the heels of Thy Oppressors. He remembers when Asia condemned Him, and Europe put Him to death, and it was Africa who haven him until King Herod was dead. It was Africa's son who helped Bare his Cross up to Calvary. There was Africa's son the Apostle Phillip met, and he carried the Gospel to Thy land. It was Thee whose Queen came to King Solomon to prove him with hard questions. Ethiopia, Thou was first on Earth; Thou shall be last, for Jehova has spoken it. (See Scrip: Zeph. 3:8, 9, 10; Isa. 18 Chap.; Ps. 68:30, 31.)
STAR ORDER OF ETHIOPIA AND ETHIOPIAN MISSIONARY TO ABYSSINIA
This is to certify that I have signed my name as an Ethiopian in America in sympathy with our motherland Ethiopia. I henceforth denounce the name of Negro which was given me by another race.
At this point the applicant declares himself ready at any time needed to fill any of the positions in a list below, which he has checked and which he is qualified to fill. Blank space appears then for name, address, present occupation, city, state, and county. At the bottom appears the name of George Gabriel, described as "Abyssinian" linguist and native of Abyssinia, together with that of Grover C. Redding, secretary and missionary. The applicant is requested to mail the blank to 1812 Thirteenth Street, Washington, D.C., in care of Mrs. Dabney, or 115 W. 138th Street, New York City, care of Charles Manson, or Joseph Goldberg, Jaffa, Palestine.
The immediate inspiration of the Abyssinians, as previously suggested, was a visit to this country, more than a year before, of a delegation from Abyssinia, which had concerned itself with a renewal of the old treaty. It is pointed out that the chief reason why Negroes should be interested in this treaty is that they might use it to overthrow "Jim Crow" laws in certain states. Under this treaty Abyssinians had been guaranteed the right to travel at will in the United States under the protection of the federal government. Men like Redding had evidently interpreted this to mean that under such a treaty the United States would be bound to interfere in behalf of Abyssinians, if they should be discriminated against under a "Jim Crow" law.
Redding, however, had some sort of biblical interpretation for his movement. He maintained that his mission was indicated in the Bible. He quoted from the Scriptures these words: "So shall the King of Assyria lead away the Egyptian prisoners, the Ethiopian captives, young and old, to the shame of Egypt." Asserting that the Ethiopians do not belong here, and that they should be taken back to their own country, he construed a biblical passage as meaning that the time of their bondage in a foreign country should be the expiration of a 300-year period. This period, he said, began in 1619, when Negroes were first taken for purposes of slavery from Africa to America. He said that the burning of the flag was the symbol indicated to him through these biblical passages, and the sign that Abyssinians should no longer stay in this country.
As to the flag of Abyssinia, he had interpreted it thus: "The red means the blood of Christ; the green, the grass on which he knelt for you and me; the yellow for the clay. The Ethiopian flag is better known as 'Calvary's flag.'"
Jonas, from whom Redding had obtained these ideas of a Negro Utopia in Africa, claimed that he had introduced to President Wilson the Abyssinian delegation which had come to this country. He claimed the credit for having taken Redding into his home and cared for him several years ago at the behest of Mrs. Jonas, who had told him that he was a "smart young fellow."
The ceremonies and manifestations of the "Abyssinians" were marked by such fanaticism that responsible Negroes repudiated them and condemned the leaders along with other criminals and exploiters of the ignorant Negroes. The Negro World, organ of the Universal Improvement Association and Black Star Line, carried the following article.
Appalled by the violence aroused on Sunday night, when an American flag was burned and two men were killed by the Abyssinian zealots, colored leaders of the Middle West have begun a systematic campaign to eliminate white exploitation among the Negroes and to bring about better racial co-operation.
The Chicago police announced today that all the men wanted in the case, except two, are under arrest. They also promised that the career of Grover Cleveland Redding, self-styled "Prince of Abyssinia," and identified as a ringleader in the affair, will enter a new phase tomorrow when the frock-coated suspect is formally charged with murder, accessory to murder and rioting.
Oscar McGavick, one of the men sought, was arrested in Pittsburgh today. "Bill" Briggs and Frank Heans were taken into custody here. This leaves the police list with only two names, the Fernons, father and son. "Dr." R. D. Jonas, known on the South Side as a professional agitator, was released today, no evidence having been found of his direct connection with the shooting. Federal officials are investigating him.
According to the opinions of some of the leaders among Chicago Negroes the "Abyssinian movement," from which Sunday night's trouble indirectly resulted, is a legitimate and valid enterprise. It is but one of the manifestations of that bubbling activity which today characterizes the colored people of America in their struggle for race progression.
The trouble lies, they claim, in a group of exploiters and mountebanks, who, unauthorized by real leaders in the movement, have seized