Well Known Social Activists Visit City
Various social crusaders have visited Williamsport over the years. Two of the most prominent were temperance crusader Carrie Nation and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune, Here are excerpts of the coverage of their visits to this city in 1902 and 1937 respectively.
The Williamsport Sun
Nov. 8, 1902
Carrie Nation Visits The Saloons of Williamsport And Gives the Proprietors Thereof a Piece of Her Mind
Carrie Nation is doing the town today. Last night she lectured before an audience at Association Hall. As she strolled down the streets this morning she was the center of attention everywhere. Men jostled each other and women walked squares ahead and sparred for points of vantage and small boys fought for the privilege of getting close to her.
Dressed in a sober black gown, with a little bonnet on her head, she passed through the storming throng. In the saloons she walked directly up to the bar, put her right arm on top, and pointing her finger directly at the bartender she would tell them what she thought without mincing words.
She told them, “Do you know sir, that you are in a business that is taking the bread and butter out of the mouths of wives and children of this town? Poor men come in and drink this vile stuff and then go home and beat and abuse their wives and children. God will surely punish such wickedness. You ought to be ashamed of the business and get out of it right away. Why, no decent women would come in here to buy anything, and you have no business running a place that a decent woman can’t visit. Yes sir, you are going straight to hell, and you had better take warning and quit while you have the time.”
During her trip she visited the hotel of M. J. Winters. In the barroom she encountered a corpulent man in the act of drinking a glass of beer. Carrie started to tell him of the evils of the thing, when he made some remarks which did not please her. Turning to the crowd, she said, “Look at him! He looks like a beer keg out on a pair of skates.”
“: That’s all right, I’ve been in jail, and that’s more than you can say,” retorted the man.
“Yes, I’ve been to jail, she said, but I got out. But you’re going to hell, and you’ll never get out.”
She told a reporter, “I would rather have my boy a decent bootblack than an ordinary lawyer. There are some good lawyers but only those who are Prohibitionists. A lawyer who is a democrat [] will see you out!”
The Williamsport Sun
Nov. 3, 1937
Mrs. Mary Bethune in Address Challenges Negro Race to Meet Responsibilities of the Day
The talk given by Mrs. Mary McLeod Bethune, outstanding Negro leader and an impelling personality, before an audience of 550 in the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church last evening was a challenge to the members of her race to meet their responsibility in a day like today, to equip themselves to take their places in American society.
Mrs. Bethune, who is president and founder of Bethune Cookman College in Florida, and director of the division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration, feels that here is a better interracial understanding in this country than ever before, and that new opportunities for education and development are opening up for the Negro people.
“It is a brighter day for us,” said Mrs. Bethune, “and we are making advances never made before.”
She went on to point out the finer relationship between the white and dark races which had developed because of the better knowledge on the part of white people of Negro problems.
Mrs. Bethune inspired those of her people present last evening to make good the chance they have now to learn and to develop, to become integrated as part of the American program. She told of the hardships of her people in the South and related some of her experiences in establishing the college for people in Daytona Beach, where there are now 423 students.
Complied by Lou Hunsinger, Jr.
Sun-Gazette Staff
