YMCA Secretaries Conference, Toronto, 1876
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@ Springfield College Archives and Special Collections
Description
Joseph Hardie, a white southerner, urges delegates at the YMCA convention in Toronto to raise $500 to support the hiring of a "suitable man" to organize African American YMCAs in the South. Within minutes, $700 is pledged by delegates, including $100 from George Williams, founder of the YMCA movement in London, England in 1844. With money raised at the Toronto convention, George D. Johnston, a former Confederate general, is hired as traveling secretary for African American association work in the South. (Light in the Darkness: African Americans and the YMCA, 1852-1946).A penned caption on the back reads "6th Sec. Conf 1876 Toronto". Another pencilled caption reads "#40 RAL Mr Morse".This photograph depicts a group portrait of attendees at the YMCA Secretaries conference held in Toronto, Canada in 1876. The men are sitting in four rows for the portrait. According to customs of the time, some of them are looking away, some of them are resting their heads in their hands and some of them are looking straight at the camera. Notice the banners behind them. George Williams, the founder of the YMCA is in the exact center of the group (second to the top row).
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