Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 49, number 4, summer, 1966

              FISHEL:   CIVIL RIGHTS  ACT
ly "for their noble defense of the rights of Afro-Americans" and, speaking for Wiscon¬ sin's Negroes "unanimously," backed Green's election as a delegate to the convention.'"'
The convention droned through its uncon¬ tested nominations and its unexciting platform committee report. Just before the delegates acted on the motion to adopt the report. Green jumped to his feet and the chair recognized him. He asked if he could present an amend¬ ment to the report before the convention, and, after receiving the floor, proceeded to read a denunciation of "the cruel and barbarous treatment of American citizens in some of the Southern states. . . ." He sat down and, according to a reporter, "The cheers told Mr. Green that he had made a hit. The amendment and the platform were both unanimously adopted. . . ."~
There was a touch of pathos in this vignette. Green's "unanimous election" as a delegate was cause for self-congratulation by the Ne¬ gro group; their newspaper declared that it was a triumph which demonstrated what Ne¬ groes could accomplish "as a people," with the help of white friends. But the real problem was the failure of the 1891 civil rights bill and the "damnable prejudice ... on the part of some foolish, ill-bred people in our city. . . ." Almost as the editor was writing copy which would exhort Milwaukee's Negroes to "continue the fight for recognition" and "learn how to have nerve and 'kick'," William T. Green was on his feet before the convention, denouncing the mistreatment of Negroes who were hundreds of miles beyond Wisconsin's borders. Ignoring the proscription and "damn¬ able prejudice" at home, the colored delegate showed his "nerve" by aiming his "kick" at Southern whites.^^
While vilification of Southern practices had little practical effect. Green's move made po¬ litical sense. Green was still young, only twenty-nine, and had been admitted to the bar but three months earlier. He had just entered or was about to enter into a partner¬ ship with a white lawyer."*  His emergence as
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University   of   Wisconsrn   Archives
William   Green,  as  a   student   in   the   University   of Wisconsin Law School.
a leader of the Negro group was too recent for a direct challenge to the state Republican party. The party itself, struggling to return to power, had made an unsuccessful effort to enact a civil rights law in 1891 and was un¬ doubtedly not anxious to give the Democrats a wider opportunity to exploit the civil rights issue on the stump. The Green amendment attacking Southern barbarism was a safe com¬ promise, and the fact that the colored delegate was allowed to introduce it from the floor at least gave encouragement to Wisconsin's Ne-
fyHE REPUBLICANS lost again in the 1892 -*- elections, but the Negroes' public activity increased. Milwaukee's Negro newspaper, the Wisconsin Afro-American, soon to change its name to the Northwestern Recorder and be¬ come a monthly, was sprinkled with reports of race progress in employment and immigra¬ tion. "We need more colored people, but for God's sake, let them be a class who are willing
"' Wisconsin Afro-American, August  20,  1892.
-- Milwaukee Sentinel, August 18, 1892.
-" Wisconsin Afro-American, August 20, 1892.
'¦" Wisconsin Weekly Advocate, May 11, 1899;  In¬ dianapolis Freeman, April 2, 1892.
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