From The Mirror

(The punctuation and spelling in the newspaper article transcribed
here are as they appeared in the original document.)

May 17, 1883

A Colored Mass Meeting

   We, the undersigned Delegates in mass meeting assembled, in Leesburg, May 14, 1883, were duly authorized by the said meeting to present this petition. To the Hon. James B. McCabe, Judge of the County Court of Loudoun:
We, the undersigned colored citizens of said county would respectfully call your Honor’s attention to the following facts, namely, that twenty years have elapsed since the bondage of our people in the South was removed: Then we were a people comparatively without property, without the means of acquiring it and business capacity to manage it. Then we were uneducated and but few of us could read or write. Time has changed and improved out condition. Under the guarantees of the National and State Constitutions, and laws in execution thereof our people have made advances: our children are being educated, and knowledge is supplanting ignorance, and the many little homes show we are acquiring property. Thus we have become identified with the material interests of our State; we have homes to defend; lives and liberty to protect, children educated and to be educated; and in all that pertains to the order, peace and prosperity of society, we have a common interest in the general welfare. We were in a sad condition to have conferred upon us citizenship, but we are now much better prepared to appreciate it and meet its responsibilities. We disclaim any reflection upon the administration of justice; we know that hitherto we were in such condition as not to expect to participate in the administration of either. But we respectfully submit that that time has passed. Political society enjoins on us the same duties and requires of us the same that is exacted from its other members. For twenty years we have been trying to qualify ourselves for the duties of citizenship; we trust it is not presumption in us, to say, our efforts have not been unfailing; we desire in the future a fuller recognition of our rights and privileges which the laws of the land have guaranteed to us; hence we respectfully petition your Honor in the future, to recognize our rights, to serve as Jurors and Judges of Election.
   The Judge granted all of the above Petition except the right of being Judges of elections. He, the Judge said he did not know that we, the colored people, had any right to ask to be appointed judges of election, but we think we have that right too. The meeting adjourned to meet at Lincoln, August 4th, 1883.

Delegates