By W.H. Davenport
It is the year before the next General Conference convenes and the interest in that body and its personnel has already become intense. Men are realizing that the next General Conference will be an epoch-making one, and they are struggling and striving to be counted in the delegations. Bishop J.S. Caldwell, the senior and far-seeing bishop of the denomination, presides over the Philadelphia and Baltimore conference, and notwithstanding its size and the strenuosity of the struggle for election, he maintained his calm throughout, while the guesses and hopes of yesterday were smothered in the facts and realities of today.
The scholarly W.O. Carrington, former dean of theology in Livingstone College, now professor in Howard University, Washington, D.C., pastor of John Wesley, the stalwart M.L. Blalock of Harrisburg, princely presiding elder and forceful preacher; E.B. Watson, rising star and successful pastor of Varick, Philadelphia; S.Q. Swan, ill but who improved under the sonic of the situation, presiding elder of ambition and purpose; H.D. Tillman, a former presiding elder of ambition and magnetic pastor of Big Wesley, Philadelphia, and that old stalwart and reliable war-horse, J.W. McCoy of Baltimore, were elected delegates after three hours of steady balloting.
The lay college elected the soulful Mrs. Daisy Caldwell-Tucker, and that proud Chesterfieldian, J.C. Overton as lay delegates.
Other members of the delegation are E.D.W. Jones, C.C. Williams, A.A. Crooke, and Mrs. Ida V. Smith, preacher’s friend and helper. The alternates are J.T. Daniels, W.D. Battle, H.J. Callis, B.J. Bolding, W.E. Henderson, F.R. Killingsworth; Lay, G.C. Scurlock, Mrs. Alice Matthews, wife of Dr. W.W. Matthews. The New Jersey conference elected J.E. Rogers, 27 years minister of that conference, its singer and historian as well as presiding elder. Also Presiding Elder W.M. Langford, gatherer of antiques and dashing preacher; the peerless S.L. Corrothers, original and tempestuous; I.B. Turner, steady, dependable and constructive, while the charming Mesdames Alice Wheeler-Hoskins and Emma Johnson of Burlington are the lay delegates.
But the Philadelphia and Baltimore conference did something beside elect delegates. It bought $4,000 worth of bonds which have been floated in the interest of Mother Zion Church. In a little church extension rally they raised in five minutes $122.40. the other items are: education, $638; Church Extension, $333; Foreign Missions, $473.50; conference schools, $475; Tercentenary, $3,400; Livingstone College Endowment, $107; support of conference, $653.75; general claims, more than $6,276.
Bishops L.W. Kyles and W.L. Lee were present and were of great assistance to the presiding bishop. Dr. W.H. Goler was there, happy in the affection of those he taught, and of those he knew.
Wilmington, Delaware, sent up an interesting delegate in the person of Mrs. Ethel Spencer, whose efforts for a playground and night school for her people have been endorsed by the mayor and the judges of the courts.
H.L. Holt, private secretary to the bishop, and pastor at Washington, N.C., in compliance with the request of Bishop Caldwell and the urgent need of New Bern, will got St. Peters. It is a happy appointment and it is now up to St. Peters to go steadily on.
The era of good feeling is here. The Philadelphia and Baltimore conference, as did the New Jersey conference, according to reports, closed a most glorious session, despite the presence of 10 candidates for the bishopric.
Many of our Southern papers are greatly excised about the Negroes chasing “the will o’ the wisp of the North.” Their sudden love and anxiety for us are pathetic.
The Negroes desire better wages, better housing conditions, better protection in and out of the courts, better educational facilities and opportunities for the education of their children, and less rot about being doomed to eternal inferiority.
The N.A.A.C.P. should be happy. All of its charges against conditions in certain portions of the south are being substantiated every day in every way. Durham, N.C.
From the front page of The Star of Zion, Charlotte, Thursday, June 7, 1923. Star of Zion, the official organ of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.
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