"Thirty Years of Progress"
After the brutal lynching of a mentally disabled man, Henry Smith, this image in <a title="Detroit Plaindealer" href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/192"><em>Detroit Plaindealer</em></a> portrayed the failure of outgoing President Benjamin Harrison administration’s to condemn the lynching as a direct contrast to Abraham Lincoln’s leadership and the founding principles of the Republican Party. At left, President Abraham Lincoln is shown holding the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, and opening the door of freedom to an African American man leaving bondage; at right, in 1893 a mob sets him on fire. The image suggests that government in a civilized society would have shielded any accused criminal, but particularly one of Smith’s limited mental capacity, from mob action.
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2013-06-29 06:43:26
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Detroit Plaindealer
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">Edited jointly by <a title="Benjamin Pelham" href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/191">Benjamin Pelham</a> and his brother, Robert Pelham, Jr., along with William H. Anderson, Walter H. Stowers, and later Byron G. Redmond, the </span><em style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">Plaindealer </em><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">began publication in 1883. The editors sought to foster trust and promote civil rights for African Americans in Detroit and southern Michigan. After the paper ceased publication in 1894, the editors went on to pursue careers in public life. Benjamin Pelham came to be one of the most influential African-American leaders in Detroit.</span>
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2013-11-09 19:28:30
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Benjamin Pelham et al
<p><span style="font-size: 10px;">Benjamin Pelham was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1862. While working as messenger for the Detroit </span><em style="font-size: 10px;">Post </em><span style="font-size: 10px;">in the early 1880s, he edited and wrote articles for an amateur newspaper called </span><em style="font-size: 10px;">The Venture</em><span style="font-size: 10px;">. In 1883 he and his older brother, Robert Pelham, Jr., along with William H. Anderson, Walter H. Stowers and later Byron G. Redmond, founded the </span><em style="font-size: 10px;"><a title="Detroit Plaindealer" href="http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/192">Detroit Plaindealer</a>, </em><span style="font-size: 10px;">to promote African American economic interests and political rights. After the paper ceased publication in 1894, Benjamin Pelham went on to hold a number of appointed government positions, and was elected auditor of Wayne Country in 1906. He was known as one of the most influential African-American leaders in Detroit during these years .</span></p>
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2013-11-09 19:57:40
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