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NEEDS OF THE COLORED WOMEN AND GIRLS.

BY MRS. G.W. MOORE.

I have been asked to speak to you on the needs of four millions of women
and girls. The time allotted for this paper is far too limited for me to
give more than a glimpse of their real condition.

In considering the needs of the colored women and girls of the South, you
must bear in mind their past condition, present status and future
prospects, together with the forces that have contributed to each, before
you can know and feel the heart yearnings and struggles of my sisters.

No human lips can tell the story of that dark night that has left its
impress upon the habits, customs and life of a whole race of people. The
crudest results of that iniquitous system fell heaviest upon the colored
woman. From childhood, no matter how favorably situated, she was liable
to become the doomed victim of the grossest outrages. There was no
assurance that she would not be a constant associate in the field with
the coarsest and most ignorant men of both races, or at any moment, at
the caprice of the master, be sold. Swayed, body, mind and spirit, by a
master class who found it necessary to close every avenue of intelligence
in order to accomplish his fiendish purposes, this creature, made in the
image of God, was often taught that there was no God of justice for her.
Her body, instead of being a fit temple for the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit, was subject to the foulest demands of sensuality. No wonder they
sang,