The Journal of Negro History, Volume 4, 1919

    Houston, Tex., May 16, 1917.

Sir: I sincerely ask of you this very important favor I and my family consists of 4—husband, wife boy 14 years boy of 4 months also three others male of healthy and ambitious character also dependable to our race asking at any time, are you able to communicate with any firm or person needing such as are stated thereon. I sincerely ask you to refer such to said adress as we are only here asking the Lord to aid us out of this terrible state we are now in. We do any kind of work for an honest liveing.

    Jacksonville, Fla., July 1, 1917.

Kind Sir: in reading your paper I see where you could get me and my family a job so if can I would be verry glad as it is my wish to leave the south, any kind of a job all rite with me. I will remane, Yours truly.

    Pensacola, Fla., 5-19-17.

Dear Editor: Would you please let me no what is the price of boarding and rooming of Chicago and where is the best place to get a job before the draft will work. I would rather join the army 1000 times up there than to join it once down here.

    Warrington, Fla., 4-24-17.

Sir: i red the Chgo Deffedeer and i seen where yo was in the need of good men that wanted worke Sir I would like very much to leave the South and come north if I could get a imployment my trade is carpenter or seament finisher and I am willan to do any kind of worke that come before me I can do which I am not working at my trade now I am working in a store now and I can bring yo some good men all so bring my recommendashon with me Hopin yo will rite me at wonce and let me here from yo. My addres.

    Jacksonville, Fla., May 11, 1917.

Dear Sir: given me. Although i am badly disapointed because i realy want to be among the northern folk and i have got the means to leave here with and by the way you have explain matter to me it would pay me best to have a transportation so I can be sure of having a job when I gets there.

    Pensacola, Fla., 5-18-17.

Dear Sir: Just a few lines to ask your ade en getting a job as waiter. I am a waiter of 10 or 12 years exsperience in the city of New Orleans, 4 years here in this city also. I can cook and serve as butler, I am verry anxious to get up there becaus I have a family and I desire a study job en a more better city than this. If you know of any one will send a transportation for a good man please send for me. I am willing to pay my transportation back in monthly payments. I will appreciate any favor you can do for me along these lines as I am in need of a good job just now. Can furnish best of refrience.

    Mobile, Ala., May 3, 1917.

Dear Sir: Alowe me to congralate you on your wonderful paper it is a help to a lot of the people of our race it shows us the difference between north and south. We are doing fine in our way but would like to do better a lots of us would like to come up there but are not able and dare not ask some one to help us to go for the law will have us. I like your paper and would like to see more of Mobile news in it. Who is your agent in Mobile. There is lots of idle men in Mobile lots have trades but they are not supplied with work and can't get anything to go off with. Several men were arrested on being labor agents. Would like to correspond with you if you could help our pepel eny. You may let me no threw your paper.

    New Bern, N.C., May 5, 1917.

Dear sire: I seen you ade in the Chicago Defender for different occpatisions and I in close you for and transportation for ten men as I has them menny reddy now and wood be glad to leave at the earliest date and I can get as menny as you wont and all so I wont a job for my self because we ar in a bad condition in this country and wish to in press a pon your mind the condition of we poor colored people how we are geting a long in the south and I want to show you how we ar treated by the white of the south by sending you this strip to read for you self so I will close I wish to here from you in the return mail at wonce. Please

    Alexandria, La., May 5, 1917.

Dear Sir: I read your ad in the Chicago Defender paper where are in need of 20 bench molder witch mean machinery men who under stand the manufacture work and I am one who will be willing to learn the trade at small wage about $2.25 a day and I also have five more here who will come with me if you only send me six of your transportation soon as can and I also wish that you will not turn me down. I am looking for your letter promptly and will be deeply glad to get it as I trust in the Lord that you will send me six of your transportation as I am willing to come in work. we will come at once when you send them to me send me a special delivery letters with them in it and I will pay you when we are there.

    Atlanta, Ga., May 2, 1917.

Dear Sir: I am a reader of the Chicago Defender and is verry proud of it and by reading the Chicago Defender I saw your adv. and I want to consult with about a position in a Chicago firm. I would like verry much to get a position there or eny where above the Mason Dixon line. I am a competet chauffer or butler. I am married no children. My wife is a cook nearse or maid, and if you cannot supply me with some position within about 10 days will you please put me in tutch with some other employment and if you can supply me with eather of those posetins please write me. I am also a first class laundry man. I hold reference as good shirt ironer, coller ironer or extractor man in the wash room. Please let me here from you. the peoples is leaving here by the thousands.

    New Orleans, La., May 1, 1917.

Sur: in reding the defender i saw they advurtise that you sen transportation at advanced from Chicago now dear sur please let me know i am a maride man an hav a famly off 5 now if you cant sen for all send 2 one for me and my brother he live with me he is 18 yers old then i can arang for the rest after i get out there now pleas tri and do sumthing for me i am working her for nothing i will bee to glad to get a way from here so pleas sen me a pas for me an my brother and we will sen for the res of the famly after i get there ancer this letter soon as you get it try to get us work in the ware house or yard work i am a cook an utly man have to cook serv drink and short ordes an work al nite.

    Memphis, Tenn., April 29, 1917.

Sir: Seeing the wonderful opportunity that is being offered the colored man of the south by the northern industries and the aid in which your organization is giveing them it aroused within me the ambition that prompts every man to long for liberty. What I want to say is I am coming north and seeing your call for me thought I would write you and list a few things I can do and see if you can find a place for me any where north of the Mason and Dixon line and I will present myself in person at your office as soon as I hear from you. I am now employed in the R. R. shop in Memphis. I am a engine watchman, hostler, red cup man, pipe fitter, oil house man, shipping clerk, telephone lineman, freight caller, an expert soaking vat man that is one who make dope for packing hot boxes on engines. I am a capable of giving satisfaction in either of the above name positions. I bought a Chicago Defender and after reading it and seeing the golden opportunity I have decided to leave this place at once.

    New Orleans, La., April 29, 1917.

Dear Sir: I am writeing you the third time because i am anxious to leave the south and come north but up to this writeing i have fail to hear from you i notice in the defender that you are still calling for men i am engineer and all round machine man i am and would be very glad if you could locate me a position in the Molders Manufacturing or any thing pertaining to machine work. I am not in a position to pay my way out there and would like to get transportation for my self wife and nephew he all so can do machine work. So please let me hear from you.

    Monroe, La., April 30, 1918.

Dear Sirs: I was reading in the Defender one of your recent advertising about laborers wanted for foundry warehouse and yard work. I would like to respond to the advertising but I aint fiancel able also my brother we are both very poor boys and would like to get where we would be able to have a chanse in the world and get out from among all of the prejudice of the southern white man. please send me and my brother transportation tickets so we can come right away. I belong to church but my brother does not but you would not tell the difference by his actions. Please send tickets by the 15th of May. I am now working at public work I owe a few debts I want to act honest I want to pay all of my responsible debts so I can face my debtors anywhere in the world.

    Little Rock, Ark., May 7, 1917.

Sir: I am a reader of the Defender and i found in it on last Saturday April 28th why that you could place mens in iny job or trade they follows. I am riten you this letter an in it i am leting you know my condition so that if you ever did help a man in this way pleas help me the help is this. help me to get a job in yor city as blacksmith helper bareler maker helper or molder helper. i kin furnish references for those jobs. i has a wife and a 11 yr old girl who are now in the 7 grade and i wants to bringe them with me when I come i am now employed as black smith helper my pay is 26½ per hour but the white comes so hard onus in these departments so that we are frade to speak what is right becase they dont want us in those departments they has been trying to put us out for 4 years. before they begen to work a ginst ys we had all colord help but now they has 75 per cent white help and it is hard for this 25 per sent colord to stay hear and i found in the Defender just what i has ben looking for is a little help and if you will only do as i has said God will bless you. now remember i dont ask you to send me a transportation to come on if you will just get me a job for me i will be please at that and i will pay you charges when i come i will be ther in 4 or 5 days from the date i reseave yor ancer so pleas ancer as soon as you kin.

    New Orleans, La., May 23, 1917.

Dear Sir: As a constant reader of your most valuable paper the Defender and after viewing from time to time the services that you are rendering not only to the race of which you are one of its honored leaders but one who are doing services to the sacred cause of humanity, and your admireable editorials has impressed me so much until I feal that I know you personaly. now sire I note with pleasure that you are manifesting a very great interest in our people from the south and as I am a man of family and are always willing and ready to grasp any opertunity that will tent to better my condition I raise my head and I am now looking to the North of this benighted land for hope there I feal that if once there that I may be granted the opertunities of peacefully working out my mission on earth. without fear of molestation. Now sir I am a painter by trade. I am also a first class creol cook and as I above said that you seams very much interested in your newcomers well fare to the extent of trying to place them in some lucrative position. I ask you one favor and that is this will you please advise me as to if I come up there will you try and get me work.

    New Orleans, La., May 21, 1917.

Dear Sir: As it is my desire to leave the south for some portion of the north to make my future home I desided to write to you as one who is able to furnish proper information for such a move. I am a cook of plain meals and I have knowledge of industrial training. I recieved such training at Tuskegee Inst. some years ago and I have a letter from Mrs. Booker T. Washington bearing out such statement and letters from other responsible corporations and individuals and since I know that I can come up to such recommendations, I want to come north where it is said such individuals are wanted. Therefore will you please furnish me with names and addresses of railroad officials to whom I might write for such employment as it is my desire to work only for railroads, if possible. I have reference to officials who are over extra gangs, bridge gangs, paint gangs and pile drivers over any boarding department which takes in plain meals. I have 25 years experience in this line of work and understand the method of saving the company money.

You will please dig into this in every way that is necessary and whatever charges you want for your trouble make your bill to me, and I will mail same to you.

Wishing you much success in your papers throughout the country, especially in the south as it is the greatest help to the southern negro that has ever been read.

    New Orleans, La., 5-20-17.

Dear Sir: I am sure your time is precious, for being as you an editor of a newspaper such as the race has never owned and for which it must proudly bost of as being the peer in the pereoidical world. am confident that yours is a force of busy men. I also feel sure that you will spare a small amount of your time to give some needed information to one who wishes to relieve himselfe of the burden of the south. I indeed wish very much to come north anywhere in Ill. will do since I am away from the Lynchman's noose and torchman's fire. Myself and a friend wish to come but not without information regarding work and general suroundings. Now hon sir if for any reason you are not in position to furnish us with the information desired. please do the act of kindness of placing us in tuch with the organization who's business it is I am told to furnish said information, we are firemen machinist helpers practical painters and general laborers. And most of all, ministers of the gospel who are not afraid of labor for it put us where we are. Please let me hear from you.

    New Orleans, La., May 1, 1917.

Dear Sir: I am a reader of the Chicago Defender and while reading I seen where you are aiding those in search of work and I thought that I would drop you a few lines though I am far away but if there is any way that you could get a pass please try and do that much for us as we are a party of four good working men the southern white are trying very hard to keep us from the north but still they wont give us no work to do they dont pay us any thing and still dont want us to go. now please answer at your very earliest I am

    Dapne, Ala., 4/20/17.

Sir: I am writing you to let you know that there is 15 or 20 familys wants to come up there at once but cant come on account of money to come with and we cant phone you here we will be killed they dont want us to leave here & say if we dont go to war and fight for our country they are going to kill us and wants to get away if we can if you send 20 passes there is no doubt that every one of us will com at once, we are not doing any thing here we cant get a living out of what we do now some of these people are farmers and som are cooks barbers and black smiths but the greater part are farmers & good worker & honest people & up to date the trash pile dont want to go no where. These are nice people and respectable find a place like that & send passes & we all will come at once we all wants to leave here out of this hard luck place if you cant use us find some place that does need this kind of people we are called Negroes here. I am a reader of the Defender and am delighted to know how times are there & was to glad to, know if we could get some one to pass us away from here to a better land. We work but cant get scarcely any thing for it & they dont want us to go away & there is not much of anything here to do & nothing for it. Please find some one that need this kind of a people & send at once for us. We dont want anything but our wareing and bed clothes & have not got no money to get away from here with & beging to get away before we are killed and hope to here from you at once. We cant talk to you over the phone here we are afraid to they dont want to hear one say that he or she wants to leave here if we do we are apt to be killed. They say if we dont go to war they are not going to let us stay here with their folks and it is not any thing that we have done to them. We are law abiding people want to treat every bordy right, these people wants to leave here but we cant we are here and have nothing to go with if you will send us some way to get away from here we will work till we pay it all if it takes that for us to go or get away. Now get busy for the south race. The conditions are horrible here with us. they wont give us anyhing to do & say that we wont need anything but something to eat & wont give us anything for what we do & wants us to stay here. Write me at once that you will do for us we want & opertunity that all we wants is to show you what we can do and will do if we can find some place, we wants to leave here for a north drive somewhere. We see starvation ahead of us here. We want to imigrate to the farmers who need our labor. We have not had no chance to have anything here thats why we plead to you for help to leave here to the North. We are humane but we are not treated such we are treated like brute by our whites here we dont have no privilige no where in the south. We must take anything they put on us. Its hard if its fair. We have not got no cotegous diseases here. We are looking to here from you soon.

    Greenville, Miss., May 29, 1917.

Dear Sir: this letter is from one of the defenders greatest frends. You will find stamp envelope for reply. Will you put me in tuch with some good firm so I can get a good job in your city or in Cleveland, Ohio or in Philadelphia, Pa. or in Detroyet, Michian in any of the above name states I would be glad to live in. I want to get my famely out of this cursed south land down here a negro man is not good as a white man's dog. I can learn anything any other man can. Not only I want to get out of the south but there are numbers of good hard working men here and do not know where they are going and what they are going to. Also I could get a good deal of men from here if I could get in tuch with some firms that would furnish me the money as passes. Now in conlution, I want to know what is the trouble? I cannot get anything more through the Defender. I have written to the Defender some 3 or 4 times and eather articel was never published. I recieves a free copy of the Defender every week and the people here are all ways after me to write some doings to the Defender and if I write anything it is never published.

    Greenville, Miss., 5-20-17.

Dear Sir: I write you asking you some information as I am a reader of your paper I have been buying a paper every Sunday for 5 months I want to come to your city to live and every thing is so hard down here everything is so high and wages is low until we just can live I want to know what will it cost from St. Louis to Chicago. I can get from Greenville to St. Louis cheap by boat. I want to come up there the last of June. I ask you to assist me in getting a job I can do most any kind of hard work and have a common education. If you will look me up a good job it will be highly appreciated and your kindness will never be forgotten.

    Selma, Ala., 4-15-17.

Dear Sir: If you no of any firm or corporation who need a good reliable man please notify me I want get out of the south. I cant live on the salary I am getting I am not so bent on coming to Chicago. But anywhere up that way where there is an opening for labor please attend to this matter at once. I can do any kind of common labor please let me hear from you at your earliest convenience. I take the Defender every week I see where southern people are being put on jobs when they reach the North please look for me a job or hand this to some one that will be inturested in it.

    Moss Point, Miss., April 29, 1917.

Dear Sir: I read your advt in the Chicago Defender wanting laborers for foundry, ware house, and yard work with transportation paid. I'll come at once and lots of others here would also come if you will transport us there for we are anxs to get of southen soil.