Tennessee I: Nashville

1899-1913: Tennessee I: Nashville

(More Entries, Links, and Publications Are Forthcoming)

--A portrait of "Rev. Sutton E. Griggs" appears without explanation between pp. 56 and 57 of the Aug. 1899 issue of the National Baptist Magazine, which at that time was being published by R. H. Boyd's National Baptist Publishing Board, perhaps indicating that Griggs had moved to Nashville and begun to work for the NBPB by the summer of that year

--9/13-9/18/99 Attends the 19th Annual Session of the National Baptist Convention held in Nashville’s Mt. Olive Baptist Church and (on 9/14) addresses the Convention, according to the Journal of the Nineteenth Annual Session of the NBC, which identifies him as being “of Virginia” and publishes a photo of Griggs with the caption "Latest addition to our [i.e. the National Baptist Publishing Board] Editorial Staff" (48, 32)

--9/17/99 Is identified and profiled as an "Eminent Leaders of the Negro Race" in a Nashville American article about the annual NBC meeting

--In its Oct. 1899 issue, bet. pp. 96 and 97, the NBM publishes the same photo of Griggs with the same caption ("Latest addition to our Editorial Staff") that will later appear in the Journal of that year's NBC annual meeting.  On the page facing the image of Griggs is a group portrait of the four Corresponding Secretaries of the NBC Boards, including R. H. Boyd (Home Missions) and, for the first time, E. W. D. Isaac (Baptist Young People's Union), who presumably moved from Texas to Nashville around this time to assume the position 

--1899 or 1900 Adopts a daughter named Eunice

--1900 Appears in the Nashville City directory every year from 1900-1912, with the exception of 1907 (when he spent “six or seven months,” according to the Nashville Globe, in Philadelphia)

--1900 US Census places Sutton E. and Emma J. Griggs in Davidson Co. (Nashville), TN

--1900 Becomes pastor of the First Baptist Church of East Nashville, TN  http://www.firstbaptisteastnashville.org/about-us/church-history.html

--Feb. 1900 Imperium in Imperio is one of the African American books to be exhibited at the Paris Exposition, according to a 2/17/00 article in the St. Paul Appeal

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83016810/1900-02-17/ed-1/seq-2/

--Late Spring 1900 Allen R. Griggs, Jr., of "Dallas, Tex.," completes the three-year Academic (i.e. college preparatory) Course at Roger Williams University in Nashville, and he continues on as a Special Student during the 1900-1901 academic year, according to the school's Annual Catalogues

--Early June 1900 Attends a celebration in honor of Bishops Tyree and Smith at St. John's AME Church in Nashville, according to a 6/9/00 NA article

--8/13/00 Is announced as the principal speaker for the colored Labor Day celebration to be held at Watkins Park in the NA; a 9/2/00 NA article likewise identifies Griggs as "the orator of the occasion" 

--9/3/00 Delivers a "strong address" at the Watkins Park Labor Day festivities, according to a 9/4/00 NA article; a 9/5/00 article in the Baltimore Sun characterizes it as an anti-McKinley-pro-Bryan speech given “to a big negro assemblage” in Nashville, which links Griggs's position to Bishop (Henry McNeal) Turner’s

--9/12-9/17/00 Attends the 20th Annual Session of the NBC at Richmond’s Fifth St. Baptist Church, proposing a resolution that the NBC endorse Boyd’s National Baptist Convention Pastor’s Guide and Parliamentary Rules and serving on the Committee on Enrollment (Journal of the Annual Session of the NBC 134, 154)

--11/3/00 Publishes “Appeal to Negroes!” suggesting that blacks vote Democratic, in the Indianapolis World

--11/4/00 An article in the NA states that Griggs "Will vote for Bryan"-

--1900-1901 Emma J. Griggs is enrolled as a first year College Preparatory student (10) and also takes classes in piano (31) and shorthand and typing (36); meanwhile, Sutton Griggs is listed among those who "have addressed the students . . . during the year" (104), according to the Thirty-Fourth Annual Catalogue of Central Tennessee College

--1901 Founds the Orion Publishing Company in Nashville

--1901 Is featured in E. C. Morris’s Picture Gallery of Eminent Ministers and Scholars  http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/morris/ill321.html

--Feb 1901 Reads "a strong paper" on "The Present Outlook of the Race" at Nashville's First Baptist Church, according to a 2/23/01 NA article

--2/18/01 Alberta T. Griggs dies at age 17 in Dallas, according to a 2/24/01 Dallas Daily Times Herald item

--Spring 1901 Publishes Overshadowed (Orion), which is dedicated to his sister Alberta  https://archive.org/details/overshadowednove00grigrich

--5/30/01 Mary T. Griggs dies at age 21 in Dallas, according to a 6/2/01 DDTH item

--6/18/01 Speaks "concerning the improvement of the ministry from an education standpoint" at a meeting of the Peabody Institute for Colored Teachers held at Nashville's Pearl High School, according to a 6/19/01 NA article, which reports that "He urged the expansion of intellect so as to open up avenues of life, to give employment to the boys and girls of the race"

--7/25/01 Is a delegate at the Colored Baptists of Tennessee Sunday School Convention held at Nashville's Spruce St. Baptist Church, according to a 7/26/01 NA article 

--In its Aug. 1901 issue, the National Baptist Magazine announces the publication of Overshadowed and promises a review of the book in the next issue but this never appears

--In its Sept. 1901 issue, the Baptist Home Mission Monthly (Vol. 23, no. 9, p.1) reports that two of Griggs's sisters, one aged 21 and the other 17, have recently died

--9/11-9/16/01 Attends the 21st Annual Session of the NBC at Cincinnati's Zion Baptist Church, serves as a representative on the NBC’s Baptist Young People’s Union Board for Tennessee and co-authors the Report of Committee on Enrollment; moreover, Boyd’s annual NBPB Report lists Overshadowed “by S. E. Griggs (described as a "beautiful, thrilling, pathetic story" and "the greatest of all the novels that have been written about the Negro race since the coming of Uncle Tom's Cabin") as well as Whose Principle Shall Die--Vass’ or Boyd’s, “A booklet by Rev. Sutton E. Griggs, B. D.,” among the books “published by the Board this year” (Journal 10, 26, 71, 72, 69)

--9/19/01 Is slated to speak as part of the "Memorial Services to honor the memory of President McKinley" at Nashville's Howard Congregational Church, according to a 9/18/01 NA article

--Late Sept 1901 Along with Fisk President Merrill and Rev. W. S. Ellington, is a speaker at Howard Congregational Church, according to a 9/20/01 NA article 

--Late Sept 1901 Gives an address at the opening ceremonies for Walden University in Nashville, according to a 9/24/01 NA article

--Mrs. Emma J. Griggs, of "Nashville, Tenn.," attends Roger Williams University as a Special Student during the 1901-02 and and 1902-03 academic years, according to the school's Annual Catalogue

--Delivers a lecture at Roger Williams University entitled "Forces That Win" during the 1901-02 academic year and is scheduled speak on the subject "The Young Man and Literature" the following year, according to the school's Annual Catalogue

--Late Oct 1901 Is said to have "Created a Scene" at the annual meeting of the Tennessee Negro Baptists, according to a 10/20/01 NA article

--Late Dec 1901 Is elected Vice president of the (colored) Tennessee Teachers' Association at a meeting held in Pulaski, TN, according to a 9/29/01 NA article

--Early 1902 Publishes The New Plan of Battle and The Man on the Firing Line (Orion), which advertises the forthcoming publication of Unfettered (Orion) and declares, “The scene of battle is to be the family fireside, where the American people are to learn from books what to think and do with regard to the Negro,” adding, “Thus to a new field are we summoned to do battle for an honorable station in life”

--1902 Publishes Unfettered (Orion), which is dedicated to his sister Mary  https://archive.org/details/unfetterednovel00grigrich

--1/19/02 Is scheduled to speak on a topic "concerning the race problems" at Clark Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church in Nashville, according to a 1/18/02 NA article

--Early June 1902 Is present at a meeting of the NBC's Executive Committee held in Nashville, according to a 6/13/02 NA article

--6/30/02 A review of Unfettered, stating that the novel has many "solid truths," appears in the NA

--7/14/02 A notice about Unfettered appears in the Chicago Inter Ocean

--Late July 1902 Speaks on "The Negro in Literature" at the annual Negro State Baptist Convention held at Nashville's Mount Olive Baptist Church, stating, "We must write negro books for negro children," according to a 7/19/02 NA article, and also reaffirms black Baptists' moral support for Roger Williams University at the meeting, according to a 7/20/02 NA article

--Late July 1902 Is named as one of the Nashville delegates to the annual convention of the National Negro Business League to be held in Richmond 8/25-8/27/02, according to a 8/1/02 NA article

--Early Aug 1902 Delivers an address as part of a symposium on "The negro's contribution to his own development," along with H. T. Kealing et al., at the Negro Congress in Atlanta, according to a 8/9/02 NA article 

--8/23/02 Bruce Grit (John Edward Bruce) declares Unfettered “will make the brethren think” and says “Read it” in the Colored American

--9/17-9/22/02 Attends the 22nd Annual Session of the NBC held in Birmingham’s Shiloh Baptist Church, serves as a representative on the NBC’s BYPU Board for Tennessee, as secretary of the NBC’s Committee on Resolutions, and as a member of the Committee on Enrollment, and delivers the address “The Negro, the Prime Factor in Racial Development” on 9/19; moreover, Boyd’s annual NBPB Report lists Overshadowed, Whose Principle Shall Die--Vass’ or Boyd’s, and Unfettered “by Sutton Griggs, Nashville, Tenn.,” who "still maintains that vigorous style in Unfettered which has made his first book so popular," among the books published by the Board (Journal 11, 138, 151, 15, 67, 68)

--Early Dec 1902 Is identified as a member of a committee of the Men's League of Nashville's Howard Congregational Church that endorses a "Movement in favor of law and order," according to a 12/9/02 NA article

--12/20/02 In a National Baptist Union article entitled "Our Writers Should Be Encouraged," Virginia Broughten states, "'Overshadowed' and 'Unfettered,' by Sutton E. Griggs present a solution of the race problem in such vigorous and novelistic style that they get the attention of all who choose to secure them" and urges that her readers buy them to "encourage the writer" 

--12/28/02 Is scheduled to speak to the Men's League and Christian Endeavor Society of Howard Congregational Church, according to a 12/27/02 item in the NA   

--Late Jan 1903 Goes "to Kansas City on a lecturing tour," according to a 1/18/03 NA item

--Early Feb 1903 Returns "from his Western lecture tour" and has "assumed control of the Clarion [newspaper] on his return to the city," according to a 2/8/03 NA item

--Late Feb 1903 Serves as the principal speaker at a meeting of the Douglass Club celebrating Douglass's eighty-sixth birthday at which he delivers a speech entitled "The Spirit of Douglass as Applied to Problems of the Hour," according to a 2/22/03 NA item 

--Late May 1903 Is "operated upon a third time at Dr. Wilson's Infirmary [and] is out of danger and is rapidly recovering," according to a 3/23/03 NA item   

--Late May 1903 Preaches "on Christians as strangers" in the ninth of a series of lectures held at Howard Congregational Church in Nashville, according to a 5/20/03 NA item and a 5/21/03 NA item

--6/14/03 Preaches the missionary sermon as part of the commencement ceremonies to students at Fisk University, choosing "'Go and do thou likewise,' taken from the tenth chapter of Luke" as the subject, according to a 6/15/03 NA article

--Late July 1903 A. Julius Williams is in the process of dramatizing Griggs's novel Unfettered, according to a 7/19/03 NA item 

--7/23/03 Gives an address on behalf of the clergy at the meeting of the National Negro Business League at the State Capitol in Nashville, at which Booker T. Washington is the principal speaker

--Late August 1903 Delivers an address of welcome on behalf of the clergy to delegates attending the annual National Negro Business League meeting at the Capitol building in Nashville, saying "that while the negro race had its loafers and idlers, those who were trying to uplift the race were teaching that there is no disgrace in working honestly with a pick and shovel," according to a 8/20/03 NA article

--9/13/03 Preaches the 12th annual sermon of the Driver’s Mutual Association at the First Baptist Church in East Nashville, where he is the pastor, according to a 9/19/03 piece in the Indianapolis Freeman

--9/16-9/21/03 Attends the 23rd Annual Session of the NBC held in Philadelphia’s Holy Trinity Church, serves as a representative on the NBC’s BYPU Board for Tennessee and as a member of the State of the Country, Resolutions, and Enrollment Committees, delivers (on 9/17) the address “The Outgoing of Missionaries and What’s Next” (in which he speaks at length about Africa, according to a 9/26/03 article in the Friends’ Intelligencer)—a speech that Rev. A. Barber of Texas praises as “eloquent” in a Resolution recommending that the NBC endorse and publish it “for general distribution among the race.  Resolved, further, That we recommend to the patronage of our people the excellent books of which Bro. Griggs is the author”--and (on 9/18) Griggs gives “a short address on ‘Negro Literature’”; moreover, Boyd’s annual NBPB Report lists Overshadowed, Whose Principle Shall Die--Vass’ or Boyd’s, Unfettered, and a second edition of Unfettered among the books published by the Board, and the NBC passes A. Barber and J. M. Codwell’s Resolution expressing “itself in favor of the production of a series of articles by the Rev. Sutton E. Griggs, B.D., to be published in a book or other form of publication that will answer ‘The Leopard’s Spots,’ in particular, and such other books as have been written for the purpose of traducing the colored race” (Journal 12, 13, 165, 179, 16, 95-96, 138)

http://iw.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/HistArchive?p_theme=eapdoc&p_action=doc&p_product=EAPX&p_nbid=I66C53UPMTQyNzA0OTMwMy41MTA0MTU6MTo0Om55cGw&f_docref=image/v2:13706568C081F936@EAPX-137DEA070BC2C5D0@2416420-137BE31BCB3990D0@13-13834045EE824CA5@Twenty-Third+Annual+Session+Of+The+National+Negro+Baptist+Convention&p_docref=image/v2:13706568C081F936@EAPX-137DEA070BC2C5D0@2416420-137BE31BCB3990D0@13-13834045EE824CA5@Twenty-Third+Annual+Session+Of+The+National+Negro+Baptist+Convention&p_docnum=-1

--9/20/03 After being introduced as “editor and poet,” delivers the address “What the Negro Shall Contribute to His Own Development” that is openly critical of “Prof. Booker T. Washington’s policy . . . which pleased the Southern white man because it proscribed the Negro” to the NBC’s Woman’s Convention (Journal of the Woman’s Convention, Auxiliary to the National Baptist Convention 310)

--Early Nov 1903 Attends and is introduced at the Tennessee General African Methodist Episcopal Conference, according to a 11/6/03 NA article   

--Dec. 1903 An ad in the 12/26/03 issue of the National Baptist Union lists Overshadowed among the books for sale through the National Baptist Publishing Board, 523 N. Market St., Nashville

--1/1/04 Speaks at the Emancipation Day exercises at Fisk University, along with J. C. Napier, according to a 1/7/04 article in The Advance, delivering an address in the Memorial Chapel on "Our Larger Mission," according to a 1/1/04 NA item 

http://search.proquest.com/americanperiodicals/docview/574737570/CEBDA645836C4C1BPQ/127?accountid=35635

--Feb. 1904 Spends two weeks in Louisville, KY, “engaged in some literary work” and lecturing

--3/21/04 Speaks about "Jere Baxter as a Promoter" at a mass meeting held at Nashville's Tabernacle Baptist Church, stating, "there were but two solutions to the [race] problem.  Whether the negro would be absorbed into the political and industrial life of the country, or rejected entirely.  There was no middle course, he insisted, and the recent Ohio riots indicated that the time may be near when the negro must 'pack up and get out,'" according to a 3/22/04 NA article 

--3/23/04 Objects to the way remarks he made were characterized in the NA, stating, in a Letter to the Editor, "I do not believe that the race problem hinges upon the culture of the negro, as might be inferred from your report, as every negro in the land might have a classical education and the 'race problem' would still be with us"

--Early April 1904 Is scheduled to make an address at Nashville's Howard Congregational Church, according to a 4/2/04 NA item

--5/4/04 Is scheduled to "address the theological graduating class" as part of the commencement exercises at Walden University, according to a 5/3/04 NA item 

--Mid May 1904 R. H. Boyd attends and makes an address at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville (Journal of the annual meeting of the SBC, p. 24); A. R. Griggs, Sr., journeys to Nashville to attend the SBC meeting and to plan the upcoming NBC annual meeting to be held in Austin, TX, according to a 5/15/04 NA article 

--5/29/04 Is scheduled to give a sermon as part of the commencement exercises of the Agricultural and Mechanical College for Negroes in Normal, AL, according to a 5/24/04 NA item

--Late May 1904 Delivers “a most masterly lecture at the Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church” in Columbia, TN, entitled “When the Battle Is Won or Lost,” according to a 6/4/04 piece in the IF

--6/21/04 Lectures on the race problem at the Friendship Baptist Church in Chicago, adopting a position opposed to Booker T. Washington, according to a 6/25/04 Broad Axe article

--8/28/04 Is scheduled to preach at Howard Congregational Church in Nashville, according to a 8/27/04 NA item

--9/14-9/19/04 Attends the 24th Annual Session of the NBC at Austin’s Ebenezer Third Baptist Church, where he discusses Boyd’s NBPB Report and the Report of the Committee on the State of the Country, serves on the Enrollment Committee and the Special Committee to Confer with the Railroad Commissions, and on (9/18) preaches “from Matt., 16:26 Theme: ‘Christianity’s Ideal Education,’” described as “a wonderful discourse” that “made a lasting impression on all who heard it" (Journal 112, 182, 198, 179, 169)

--9/16/04 In her annual address to the NBC’s Woman’s Convention, held at Austin’s Second Baptist Church, President Mrs. S. W. Layten asserts, "There is need of more literature of our own production," adding, "Recently a friend said to me, 'Who is Sutton Griggs?  I never dreamed he was a colored man; I never dreamed we had so forcible, so clear, so chaste, so realistic a writer.'  How many of us purchase, read or advertise his books, while our bookshelves are crowded with Corellie [sic] and Evans and other writers” (Journal of the Woman’s Convention 328)

--Early Oct 1904 Attends and offers prayers at the annual meeting of the NBPB in Nashville, according to a 10/5/04 NA article

--1905-1906 Publishes three versions of The Hindered Hand (Orion), and sells stock in the Orion Publishing Company, $1000 of which is allegedly purchased by East Nashville First Baptist deacon John Brown

https://archive.org/details/hinderedhandorre00grigrich

http://img2.imagesbn.com/p/2940015505849_p0_v1_s260x420.JPG

--2/2/05 Along with four other people--NBC Baptist Young People's Union Corresponding Secretary E. W. D. Isaac, Howard Congregational Church Pastor James Bond, and educators W. A. Crosthwaite, and Dr. S. W. Crosthwaite--files an application for the incorporation of The Orion Publishing Co., which is approved by the Tennessee State Secretary of State on 4 Feb. 1905; the application states, "This company is clothed with the authority and power to publish periodicals, magazines, books, and newspapers.  It may do all classes of Job Printing, and buy and sell books, papers, and literature in general.  Said company may transact any business in consonance with the publishing business.  Its capital stock shall be Ten Thousand ($10,000) dollars" (Record Group 42, Secretary of State Charters of Incorporation, Volume U-6)

The Secretary of State of Tennessee grants a charter to "The Orion Publishing Company, of Davidson County, with a capital stock of $10,000," according to a 2/4/05 NA item

--Early March 1905 Is scheduled to preach the fifth anniversary sermon at the Spring Street Baptist Church, according to a 3/11/05 NA item

--4/14/05 Delivers a lecture entitled "Facing the Crisis" to 1000 students from Roger Williams and Walden Universities at Meharry Auditorium in Nashville, telling the audience, "In the new era toward which our country is tending, . . . we shall soon be led forth from our sheltered position and be told to run our own race," according to a 4/15/05 NA article

--5/16/05 Charles Alexander favorably reviews The Hindered Hand in Alexander’s Magazine, although the book had likely not yet been published

--Early June 1905 Delivers the commencement address "at the colored department of the Tennessee School for the Blind," according to a 6/6/05 NA item  

--Late June 1905 Delivers an address at Nashville's Mount Olive Baptist Church as part of the bon voyage party for R. H. Boyd, who is scheduled to depart 7/1/05 for the World Baptist Convention in London, according to a 6/29/05 NA article

--Late June-early July 1905 Addresses an NBC meeting in Topeka, KS, according to a 6/16/05 article in the Iowa State Bystander

--7/21/05 Registers the copyright for The Hindered Hand

--9/4/05 Serves as the principal speaker at the colored Labor Day festivities held in Nashville's Midway Park (at which R. H. Boyd also addresses the crowd), stating, "negroes did not even dream of asking [for] social equality.  Riding on street cars, however, he asserted, was not a social act, and declaimed against the separation of the races," according to a 9/5/05 NA article 

--9/16/05 The Freeman publishes a very positive review of The Hindered Hand, which asserts that the novel "is intended for the eyes of those who are not familiar with conditions as they exist" and concludes, "It is hoped that the book will be widely read, for it deserves that and more"  http://docs.newsbank.com/s/HistArchive/ahnpdoc/EANX/12C55E7576CF6328/0D0CB5FCC016CE55

--9/22/05 Speaks at the Hopkinsville, KY, Emancipation Day festivities

--10/5/05 A short, mixed review of The Hindered Hand, likely written by Fannie Barrier Williams, appears in the New York Age

--Early Oct. 1905 Speaks in support of the Nashville streetcar boycott, according to the NYA

--Oct. 1905 Speaks at the Illinois Colored Women’s Baptist Convention

--10/25-10/30/05 Attends the 25th Annual Session of the NBC at Chicago’s Olivet Baptist Church, serves as a representative on the NBC’s BYPU and Education Boards for Tennessee and as a member of the Special Committee on Young People’s Christian and Educational Congress, is appointed to “a special Committee on State of the Country” and “a committee to send the ‘Hindered Hand’ to the Crown Heads of England and Governors of the States,” and (on 10/26) delivers an address “The Mission of the ‘Hindered Hand,’” after which “time was given for the sale of the book”; moreover, J. M. Codwell offers a Resolution stating not only that “Rev. S. E. Griggs has in his endeavor to answer Thomas Dixon in the publication known as ‘The Hindered Hand,’ succeeded admirably well and to the ample satisfaction of this Convention” but also that the NBC “gives its official approval to this task by seeing to it that” various elected officials “as the wisdom and financial ability of the Convention may dictate” receive “complimentary copies of the publication,” and “pastors of the churches everywhere be requested in the name of this Convention to urge upon their congregations and friends to subscribe, pay for and read this book”; additionally, J. Anderson Taylor offers a resolution that the NBC "indorse the book, and pledge our moral support to the book and its author" and "That a copy be sent to President Roosevelt, his cabinet and all the crowned heads of the world" (Journal 151, 33, 116, 151)

--Nov. 1905 Alexander’s Magazine publishes a second, largely negative review of The Hindered Hand by John Daniels

--11/16/05 Fannie Barrier Williams discusses Griggs’s writings and efforts to “establish and endow a thoroughly well-equipped [black] publishing house” in the NYA

--11/30/05 The IO of Chicago publishes a short notice of The Hindered Hand

--Jan. 1906 The AME Church Review publishes a long, mixed review of The Hindered Hand, which deems Griggs’s situation as a Southern black novelist all but untenable

--1/18/06 is listed as the principal speaker at a public meeting of the Philadelphia Association for the Protection of Colored Women whose object "is to meet and assist destitute colored women arriving here from the South," held at Griffith Hall, Crozer Building, Rev. Dr. Hughes O. Gibbons presiding, according to a 1/17/07 article "To Protect Colored Women" in the Philadelphia Inquirer.  However, a description of the event in the January 1906 issue of the Bulletin of the Inter-Municipal Research Committee mentions several speakers but not Griggs (Vol. II, #4, pp. 2-3)

--April 1906 The Public publishes a short, mixed review of The Hindered Hand, arguing that “the black man’s brief, like the white man’s, must be read by every fair-minded judge”

--8/15-8/18/06 Attends the second meeting of the Niagara Movement at Harpers Ferry, as indicated by a front-page photo in the 8/25/06 issue of the Cleveland Gazette, and is appointed the Movement's Tennessee State secretary  http://iw.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/HistArchive?p_theme=eapdoc&p_action=doc&p_product=EAPX&p_nbid=L67N54KQMTQyNzA0OTEyOC4xMjMwMzoxOjQ6bnlwbA&f_docref=image/v2:137066C4DB01D8B5@EAPX-13896922A0837C80@2417485-13891B2D285D1D58@20-138EC281A36E6622@The+Niagara+Movement+at+Harpers+Ferry&p_docnum=-1&toc=true&p_docref=v2:137066C4DB01D8B5@EAPX-13896922A0837C80@2417485-13891B2D285D1D58-138EC281A36E6622

http://docs.newsbank.com/s/HistArchive/ahnpdoc/EANX/12D660B895439A80/0D0CB5FCC016CE55 

http://scua.library.umass.edu/digital/dubois/312.2.839-02-21.pdf (scroll down)

--Late Oct. 1906 Lectures on “The Seat of Power” and sells copies of The Hindered Hand at the Citizen's Forum in Kansas City, KS, according to an 11/3/06 Wichita Searchlight article  http://docs.newsbank.com/s/HistArchive/ahnpdoc/EANX/138B689859831027/0D0CB5FCC016CE55

--10/27/06 A lengthy notice of The Hindered Hand appears in the Richmond Planet

--11/25/06 Speaks at True Reformer’s Hall in Washington, DC

--Dec. 1906 Delivers a sermon at the Bethel A.M.E. Church in Baltimore

--1907 Publishes The One Great Question (Orion) in Philadelphia and Nashville  https://archive.org/details/onegreatquestion00grigrich

--1907 W. A. Freeman’s The Devil between the White Man and the Negro discusses Griggs and quotes from The Hindered Hand at length  http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/012503007

--1907 Spends several months in the East, opening a branch of Orion in Philadelphia, and allegedly selling as much as $9000 worth of stock in Orion in New York City, Philadelphia, and other places

--Late Jan. 1907 Delivers an address entitled “How to Win the Battles of the Races” at Ebenezer A. M. E. Church in Baltimore, which speaks of countering Thomas Dixon et al by founding a bureau in Philadelphia to disseminate “literature favorable to the race,” according to the Afro-American

http://search.proquest.com/hnpbaltimoreafricanamerican/docview/530286625/225693104D764975PQ/4?accountid=35635

--Feb. 1907 Establishes the Human Brotherhood Movement, located at 116 N. 12th St. in Philadelphia, “to equip [people] with literature” in response to the “forces arrayed against the race,” according to a 2/22/07 NG article, an 11/16/07 IF article, and a 2/23/07 AA item, which states that Griggs is to be the principal speaker at the first mass meeting of the Movement to be held at the Sharp St. Memorial M. E. Church in Baltimore on 2/24/07, an event being held "under the auspices of the Central Group of Maryland," at which he will "start the circulating library of the G. C. by presenting several volumes of books on the race question, and will also set forth the purpose of the H. B. Movement of America" http://iw.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/HistArchive?p_theme=ahnpdoc&p_action=doc&p_product=EANX&p_nbid=F5FQ4CKIMTQyNzA1MDg2Mi4zOTcwMDA6MTo0Om55cGw&f_docref=image/v2:12B28495A8DAB1C8@EANX-12C55F3966AD4E60@2417896-12C55F3997AF4B20@3-12C55F3A8D7B6698@[Human%3B+Brotherhood%3B+Philadelphia%3B+Strenuous%3B+Speaking]&p_docref=image/v2:12B28495A8DAB1C8@EANX-12C55F3966AD4E60@2417896-12C55F3997AF4B20@3-12C55F3A8D7B6698@[Human%3B+Brotherhood%3B+Philadelphia%3B+Strenuous%3B+Speaking]&p_docnum=-1

--3/22/07 Speaks on the “present-day condition of the Negro” to the Brooklyn Philosophical Reading Circle

--April 1907 Rev. Mr. Windrow of St. Louis takes over at East Nashville First Baptist during Griggs’s absence, according to a 4/26/07 NG article

--June 1907 “[R]eturns to the city [Nashville] after an absence of several months” and “will be in the city the best part of the summer,” according to a 6/28/07 NG article

--Early July 1907 His impromptu address to the Grand Lodge, Knights of Pythias, in Knoxville "held the audience spellbound for fifteen minutes," according to a 7/12/07 NG article

--9/9/07 Departs from Nashville in a Pullman car with several other ministers (including R. H. Boyd and E. W. D. Isaac) and their wives, taking the Southern route through North Carolina, for the annual NBC meeting, according to a 9/13/07 NG article.  Griggs is described as piloting the Nashville contingent from the train station to 1225 New York Ave. in Washington, D.C., in a letter printed in the 9/27/07 issue of the NG

--9/11-9/16/07 Attends the 27th Annual Session of the NBC at Washington, D.C.,’s Metropolitan Baptist Church, serves as a representative on the NBC’s Education Board for Tennessee, and reads the report of the Committee on State of the Country (which identifies the Negro problem as "undoubtedly the one great question for American civilization to answer"), all of which is adopted by the NBC except for “Section 5, pertaining to the ‘Brownsville Affair,’” with which NBC President Morris takes issue and in place of which he proposes alternative language that is adopted by the NBC (Journal 14, 120, 119); for a humorous account of the Griggs-Morris dispute at the convention, see J. O. Midnight's 9/21/07 AA column, which apparently provoked a stinging retort from Griggs in a publication edited by Isaac, according to Midnight's 12/27/07 column

http://search.proquest.com/hnpbaltimoreafricanamerican/docview/530347315/225693104D764975PQ/6?accountid=35635

http://search.proquest.com/hnpbaltimoreafricanamerican/docview/530299320/48F4C039115E439APQ/10?accountid=35635

--Sept. 1907 Contributes money for equipment in the Manual Training Department at Nashville's Pearl High School, according to a 9/20/07 NG article

--9/29/07 Delivers a speech entitled "The Program for the American Negro" at Nashville's Howard Congregational Church in connection with the ceremonies honoring the retirement of Howard pastor James Bond, according to a 10/4/07 NG article

--Late Oct. 1907 Speaks "to a packed house" at the Turner Normal School in Shelbyville, TN

--10/30/07 Makes an address at the 39th annual meeting of A. M. E. Church held at Nashville's Payne Chapel

--Early Nov. 1907 lectures on “The Final Test” at a YMCA event in St. Louis, reports the St. Louis Palladium

--11/2/07 Delivers “The Unspoken Message of Our Educational System to the Negro Teacher” to the Nashville Teachers’ Reading Circle, according to a 10/27/07 NG article

--Mid-Nov. 1907 Speaks at different venues in Montgomery. AL http://iw.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/HistArchive?p_theme=ahnpdoc&p_action=doc&p_product=EANX&p_nbid=C69M56SSMTQyNzA0OTM3Ni42NjczMTE6MTo0Om55cGw&f_docref=image/v2:11B0124EA8AEC7F0@EANX-11BB0BEA040140D8@2417897-11BB0BEA955E13D8@21-11BB0BECCD381820@To+Discuss+Race+Problem+Sutton+E.+Griggs%2C+of+Nashville%2C+to+Address+Negroes+of+Montgomery&p_docnum=-1&toc=true&p_docref=v2:11B0124EA8AEC7F0@EANX-11BB0BEA040140D8@2417897-11BB0BEA955E13D8-11BB0BECCD381820

--12/16/07 Griggs's church hosts a concert in connection with the Day Home, a charitable organization for children that Griggs "has done much to promote . . . by personal influence and material aid," according at a 12/13/07 NG article

--Late 1907 Publishes Pulled from Shelter (Orion) about the NBC debate over how to respond to the Brownsville Incident

--Late 1907 The AA reports that Griggs will soon pursue his work in a building owned by E. W. D. Isaac in Nashville where the Clarion (the NBC's BYPU newspaper edited by Isaac) is published, in a 12/28/07 item; this is echoed by a 1/3/08 NG article stating that the Clarion Printing Co., the NBC’s BYUP (headed by Isaac), and the offices of Griggs and E. M. Lawrence have been moved to 409 Gay St.

--1/16/08 Publishes a Letter to the Editor about police brutality in the Nashville American

--March 1908 Speaks at Pearl High School in Nashville, according to a 3/20/08 NG article

--May 1908 A letter from R. H. Boyd is read at and printed in the Journal of the annual session of the SBC held in Hot Springs, AK (p. 224-26)

--Early June 1908 Speaks at the Colored Baptist Chautauqua in Marlin, TX, organized by his father, according an item in the Dallas Morning News (his first time in Texas since 1904) http://iw.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/HistArchive?p_theme=ahnpdoc&p_action=doc&p_product=EANX&p_nbid=H61R4EAKMTQyNzA0OTgyMy41NjQyNzg6MTo0Om55cGw&f_docref=image/v2:0F99DDB671832188@EANX-106E52776F2816F9@2418092-106E5277E5CB86D4@6-106E527999DC6F91@Colored+Baptist+Chautauqua&p_docref=image/v2:0F99DDB671832188@EANX-106E52776F2816F9@2418092-106E5277E5CB86D4@6-106E527999DC6F91@Colored+Baptist+Chautauqua&p_docnum=-1

--6/17/08 Concludes a series of lectures in Dallas at St. John's Baptist Church http://iw.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/HistArchive?p_theme=ahnpdoc&p_action=doc&p_product=EANX&p_nbid=E6EO5BWXMTQyNzA0OTY0OS4zODY5ODE6MTo0Om55cGw&f_docref=image/v2:0F99DDB671832188@EANX-106E52D6769F459C@2418110-106E52D6CC50131E@4-106E52D84E8486E2@Local+Notes&p_docref=image/v2:0F99DDB671832188@EANX-106E52D6769F459C@2418110-106E52D6CC50131E@4-106E52D84E8486E2@Local+Notes&p_docnum=-1

--July 1908 Speaks at the Tennessee Baptist Convention at Nashville’s Roger Williams University

--7/21/08 Speaks in Murfreeboro, TN

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      --Early August 1908 registers the copyright for Pointing the Way (Orion)  https://archive.org/details/pointingway00grigrich

--Late August 1908 Speaks at a banquet honoring James G. Merrill, retiring President of Fisk University, according to a 9/4/08 NG article

--9/16-9/21/08 Attends the 28th Annual Session of the NBC at Lexington’s Baptist Churches (where he is addressed thrice as “Dr. S. E. Griggs” and once as “Rev. S. E. Griggs, D. D.”), serves as a representative on the NBC’s Education Board for Tennessee, speaks (on 9/17) on “the subject, ‘The Amicable Adjustment of the Race Question and the Part Our Young People are to Play,’” exchanges (on 9/21) “remarks of felicitation, showing that there is mutual regard for each other” with President Morris on 9/21 (presumably over the NBC’s response to the Brownsville Incident), and asks for the NBC’s “further endorsement of his efforts” and “moral approval” in connection with Pointing the Way, which he describes as a continuation of his response to Thomas Dixon (Journal 113, 175, 179, 206, 15, 112-13, 175, 179)

--9/18/08 Discusses the “Race Question,” appeals to the audience “to take his last book, and thus help him in his earnest endeavor to help us,” and sells a “goodly number of books” at the NBC’s Woman’s Convention, held in Lexington’s First Baptist Church (Journal of the Woman’s Convention 296)  

--1909 Becomes an Advisory Board member for W. E. B. Du Bois’s “Encyclopaedia Africana” project

--1909 Publishes Needs of the South (in January) and The Race Question in a New Light (both Orion)

--Jan 1909 Notices for Needs of the South appear in the Broad Ax and Washington Bee

--3/29/09 A notice about The Race Question appears in the Cincinnati Enquirer

--5/16/09 Preaches the Baccalaureate sermon at Roger Williams University

--9/15-9/20/09 Attends the 29th Annual Session of the NBC at Columbus’s Baptist churches, makes (on 9/17) “a brilliant address on matters affecting the welfare of the race” just prior to B. T. Washington’s speech to the NBC, is appointed to the “Committee to Edinburg" [i.e. the World Missionary Conference to be held in Edinburgh in June 1910] and the Committee of Twenty-five “to petition the railroads for better treatment of our women,” and asks “that the courtesy of endorsement extended to the ‘Hindered Hand’ be changed to his latest work, ‘The Southern Situation’ [presumably Needs of the South],” which is granted (Journal 173, 189, 201, 201)

--Mid-September 1909 is introduced as one of the visitors to the NBC's Woman's Convention (Journal of the Woman’s Convention 310)

--Late Sept. 1909 Announces to his congregation at East Nashville First Baptist that he has “about made up his mind to give up the pastorate,” according to the NG

--10/31/09 Speaks to members of the Savannah Men’s Sunday Club and appears at several Baptist churches, according to the Savannah Tribune

--11/13/1909 In a letter, W. E. B. Du Bois asks Griggs for names of prospective Horizon subscribers and Niagara Movement members http://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-b002-i316

--1910 US Census places Sutton E. Griggs, age 36, in Davidson Co., TN (Nashville Ward 19)

--2/9/10 Replies on behalf of the NBC’s Education Board to the NBC’s Investigating Committee (Journal 148)

--March 1910 Has been named to the powerful position of (Corresponding) Secretary of the Educational Board of the NBC, and turns day-to-day operations of East Nashville First Baptist over to an assistant, according to a 3/18/10 NG article

http://www.kean.edu/~english/docs/GriggsNBC1910.jpg

--Late April 1910 Lectures at the New Hope Baptist Church in Dallas, according to a 4/30/10 IF article

--May 1910 Notice of a meeting of the Sentiment Moulding Movement (hosted by Mrs. Sutton Griggs, Webster St., East Nashville) appears in the 5/20/10 issue of NG

--Late Aug. 1910 Speaks at the annual NBC Far West meeting in Portland, OR, according to a 8/27/10 BA article

--10/3/10 Speaks at the Kansas State Baptist Convention in Ottawa, according to a 10/1/10 notice in the Wichita Searchlight

--9/14-9/19/10 Attends the 30th Annual Session of the NBC at New Orleans’s Baptist churches, serves as the Corresponding Secretary of the NBC’s Education Board, and introduces a resolution that “the second Sunday in February of each year be set apart as National Education Day,” which passes (Journal 144, 206); in his annual address President Morris reports that the northern-based American Baptist Home Mission Society has disclaimed its 1905 pledge of $15,000 toward the establishment of a NBC Theological Seminary, which, likely, it is feared, "would greatly hamper the efforts of Secretary Griggs," although the Educational Board and the Convention proper vow "to go forward with the proposition" (Journal 42) 

--Oct. 1910 Speaks at the General Baptist Convention meeting in Dallas, according to the Dallas Morning News http://iw.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/HistArchive?p_theme=ahnpdoc&p_action=doc&p_product=EANX&p_nbid=N64A51GNMTQyNzA0OTg3Ni41MDEyODQ6MTo0Om55cGw&f_docref=image/v2:0F99DDB671832188@EANX-106DE1B874FE0594@2418966-106DE1B93A30267A@10-106DE1BC027B2154@Negro+Baptists+in+Session&p_docref=image/v2:0F99DDB671832188@EANX-106DE1B874FE0594@2418966-106DE1B93A30267A@10-106DE1BC027B2154@Negro+Baptists+in+Session&p_docnum=-1

--Nov. 1910 Speaks in Fort Gibson, OK

--Late Nov. 1910 Speaks at the Arkansas Baptist Convention in Little Rock

--Jan 1911 Spends ten days in Memphis, according to a 1/27/11 NG item

--9/6/11 Lectures on “The Basis of Hope for the Negro” in Louisville and inspires the formation of “a general organization to look after the external and internal affairs that affect our race . . . known as the Human Brotherhood,” according to a front page 9/16/11 IF article

--9/13-9/18/11 Attends the 31st Annual Session of the NBC at Pittsburgh’s Baptist churches, serves as the Corresponding Secretary of the NBC’s Education Board, responds in an “able, eloquent and soul-stirring” address to the speeches welcoming the NBC to Pittsburgh, is lauded for his efforts to raise “funds to establish a great Baptist Seminary to be located in Nashville” by President Morris, and on (9/17) introduces in “eloquent and forcible language . . . Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois, the noted scholar and principal speaker of the evening” (Journal 22, 45, 39, 121); in his annual address Morris quotes with gratification the following statement in an editorial in the National Baptist Union-Review: "Rev. Sutton E. Griggs, Secretary of the Educational Board of the National Baptist Convention, and one of the most noted orators and authors of the Negro race, is having great success at the head of the Educational Board of the Negro Baptists, raising funds to establish a great Baptist Seminary to be located in Nashville" (Journal 39)

--November 1911 register the copyright for Wisdom’s Call (Orion)  https://archive.org/details/wisdomscall00grigiala 

--Late Nov 1911 Gives a sermon at Walden University in Nashville

--12/4/11 Speaks on “The Esther of the Negro Race” and is honored by a large audience at the St. John A. M. E. Church in Nashville as he is about to embark on a journey to Washington, DC, to provide elected officials and Supreme Court Justices with copies of Wisdom’s Call, according to the AA and the NG

http://search.proquest.com/hnpbaltimoreafricanamerican/docview/530321440/225693104D764975PQ/11?accountid=35635

--1912 Seeks to give a copy of Wisdom’s Call to the three presidential candidates and others in Washington, DC

--Feb 1912 Is said to be “on a speaking tour” in the East, according to a 2/16/12 NG article

--March 1912 NG accuses Griggs of making false statements and suggests he will be recalled by the NBC in connection with the effort to establish a national black Baptist seminary, charges Griggs denies in a letter to the editor of the NG

--3/17/12 Preaches at the First baptist Church in Little Rock, AK, according to a 3/23/12 AA item

--April 1912 Attends the Florida State Baptist Convention meeting in Palatka, according to a 4/20/12 AA article by J. O. Midnight

--June 1912 Urges blacks to vote for Roosevelt in an address before the NBC's Baptist Young People’s Union in Chicago, according to a front page 6/28/12 NG article and a 7/6/12 AA article

--7/4/12 and 7/8/12 Lectures on the “Basis of Hope for the Southern Negro” at Chicago's Ebenezer Baptist Church

--July 1912 Delivers a lecture in St. Paul, according to a 7/13/12 Appeal article

--7/29/12 Endorses Roosevelt in the presidential race, according to the IF and the NG http://iw.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/HistArchive?p_theme=ahnpdoc&p_action=doc&p_product=EANX&p_nbid=V57J44CAMTQyNzA1MTEyMi4zNzM2NjI6MTo0Om55cGw&f_docref=image/v2:12B28495A8DAB1C8@EANX-12CC9DC37AEDA1E0@2419597-12CC2FBD454E2B68@3-12E04B4B95607150@[Sutton+E.+Griggs%3B+Negroes%3B+Mr.+Roosevelt]&p_docref=image/v2:12B28495A8DAB1C8@EANX-12CC9DC37AEDA1E0@2419597-12CC2FBD454E2B68@3-12E04B4B95607150@[Sutton+E.+Griggs%3B+Negroes%3B+Mr.+Roosevelt]&p_docnum=-1

--9/11-9/16/12 Attends the 32nd Annual Session of the NBC at Houston’s Baptist churches, is identified as the Corresponding Secretary and Treasurer of the Education Board, is appointed to “a committee on World’s Tour, to study the conditions of Negroes,” speaks on "The National Idea and the Uses It May Serve," in which he asserts, "we must show our national strength by doing something great" by demonstrating "our determination to establish" a national theological seminary despite the ABHMS's refusal to honor its pledge of $15,000 toward "this much needed institution," is reported to have "made a more extensive tour through the state of Florida this year than he did through the other states" in his capacity as Corresponding Secretary, and in his Educational Board address delivers "an able, eloquent plea of one whose heart is burdened with the struggles of his race" (Journal 59, 200, 58, 66)

--10/28/12 Lectures on “Good Citizenship” at the Bethel A.M.E. Church in Indianapolis, urging “an independent stand where the Republican party is concerned,” according to a 10/29/12 Indianapolis Star article

--11/3/12 Speaks (on “The First Great Need of the Colored People” or the “Christian Citizenship of Man”) at the New Crown Garden as part of a YMCA event in Indianapolis, according to a 11/2/12 IF piece

--11/22/12 Griggs claims in a letter published in the NG that Wisdom’s Call has been well received in Chicago

--Late 1912 Defends his decision not to reimburse R. H. Boyd, who has apparently sued him in connection with The Hindered Hand, asserting that Boyd should seek the funds from the NBC, in the 12/13/12 issue of the Nashville Tennessean

--12/23/12 Lectures on “The Duty of the Hour” at the Spruce St. Baptist Church in Nashville, according to the NT, which notes, “His last appearance before the local colored people was a year ago”

--1/1/13 Delivers an Emancipation Day oration in Atlanta, according to a 1/3/13 NG article that refers to him as being “of Nashville”

(Below: The organ from East Nashville First Baptist Church, which dates from Sutton Griggs's time as pastor of the church when it was at a different location, and the historical marker for Nashville's Watkins Park, where Griggs spoke to thousands of black people on Labor Day in 1900)