Encyclopedia Dubuque
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Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
COLORED ANTI-PROHIBITION LEAGUE
ANTI-PROHIBITION
COLORED ANTI-PROHIBITION LEAGUE OF IOWA ISSUE A CALL FOR A CONVENTION AT DUBUQUE
Charles Curtis, president of the Colored Anti-Prohibition League of Iowa arrived in Dubuque on July 31, 1890. Of the 5,000-6,000 colored voters in the state, an estimated 450 were members of the of the League which had started with only fifteen members. (1)
The meeting was held at SAENGERBUND AUDITORIUM on September 17, 1890 with sixty-three delegates and proxies from nine congressional districts. Charles B. Jones, president, offered the following resolution which was unanimously adopted:
Resolved, That we, as citizens of Iowa and not as negroes
or colored people, petition the members of our next
legislature to use every honorable means to repeal
that farcical law, so-called prohibition, and we
denounce the action of the fanatics in our last
legislature for not repealing that obnoxious law that
we deem an imposition upon the people of this state.
The following officers were unanimously elected by acclamation for the ensuing year:
President---Chas. Curtis, Marion
First Vice President---J. H. Willis, Dubuque
Second Vice President---R. Brody, Cedar Rapids
Secretary---Charles B. Jones, Council Bluffs
Assistant Secretary: J. W. Morgan, Dubuque
Treasurer---John Green, Sr., Dubuque
In 1891, the last reference to the organization stated that the convention that year would be held in Cedar Rapids.
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Source:
1. "A Colored Convention," The Herald, August 1, 1890, p. 4
2. "Liberians for License," The Herald, September 17, 1890, p. 5