| Summary: | In this message to the United States House of Representatives, President Ulysses S. Grant presents a statement he received from a group of African Americans in Montgomery, Alabama, who had assembled to discuss the "grave and menacing dangers that now surround and threaten them and their constitutional rights." In their statement, the convention members describe the ways in which their political and civil rights have been ignored in Alabama. They then suggest amendments to recently enacted civil rights legislation because "It is absolutely essential to our protection...that the laws of the United States shall be so enforced as to compel respect for and obedience to them." In closing, the group addresses the possibility of leaving Alabama altogether: "We have no reason to expect from our political opponents, now dominant in this State, the exercise of justice, mercy, or wise policy. Not recognizing the value of our labor, their leaders declare our presence as a curse to the State, and profess to look with pleasure upon our exodus from the State. The solemn question with us is, Shall we be compelled to repeat the history of the Israelites and go into exile from the land of our nativity and our homes, to seek new homes and fields of enterprise, beyond the reign and rule of Pharaoh?"
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