JIM-CROWIN AT DRUID HILL PARK.

Several weeks ago we published an item in reference to certain groves being set apart in Druid Hill Park for colored people, and feeling some doubt about the matter and not willing to say much about it until we had it in an official way, we addressed the following letter to the Board of Park Commissioners:

Gentlemen:

“To the Honorable Board of Park Commissioners of Baltimore City.

Reports have come to us that, contrary to the custom prevailing ever since the groves in Druid Hill Park have been in use for Picnics, that certain groves have been set apart for certain people. That is to say, that certain groves have been set apart for colored people and certain ones for white people. Will you kindly inform us if this is true?

“Will you also kindly inform us as to whether this action has been taken• by your Honorable Board, and if not incompatable with your custom, will you please state the reasons why the Board has taken this action?

“Has there been any friction between white and colored on the same groves and at the same time? In fact we would be glad to have all the information possible on the subject.

“Thanking you in advance for the courtesy of a reply to these questions, we are very truly yours,

The Afro-American Ledger,
J. H. Murphy, Editor.

The following is the reply.

CITY OF BALTIMORE, DEPT. OF
PUBLIC PARKS AND SQUARES, Offices, Druid Hill Park.
June 7th, 1905.

Mr. J. H. Murphy, Ed.,
Afro-American,
307 St. Paul St., City.

Dear Sir: –

Your communication of the 24th ult., addressed to the Board was duly considered by the Board at the meeting yesterday evening, and the rule adopted by the General Superintendent by which certain groves are set aside for the colored people and certain other groves for white people, was duly approved and it was ordered that the same be not changed.

It is believed that the groves set apart for colored people are in every way as desirable as those set aside for white people, and Afro-American applicants have been uniformlly satisfied with the permits granted.

Н.
Very truly,
J. V. KELLY.

It will be seen by the above that the Honorable Board of Park Commissioners have approved of the action of its superintendent, but gives no reason why it has done so, nor does it give any reason why this discrimination should be.

We havenot heard a word from anybody as to why this action was taken in the first place by the super-intendent. The only reason that seems at all plausable to us is that the superintendent felt that colored people ought to be discriminated against in some way, and as there was no reasonable excuse for keeping them out of the Park, there must be some way found to let them feel that this great people’s play ground was not to be as free for them as for other people.

From the time Captain Cassell took charge of Druid Hill Park until the day of his death, except at the Mansion House, colored people enjoyed every right that white people enjoyed, and the colored people felt that there was at least one place in Baltimore where they were free. It has ben the policy of the better class of colored people to frown down any thing which looked like rowdyism on the part of colored people in this park, and they were willing and did all that they could to keep good feeling on the part of all. A new Pharoah has arisen, who knows not Joseph, and the result is that persecution has begun. Just where it will end we do not know. Perhaps some day men will grow to men’s sizes and not be pigmies, either in brain or stature.