"Doing the Pan": The African-American Experience at the Pan-American Exposition, 1901‪.‬

On the afternoon of November 11, 1900, members of the Buffalo, New York Phyllis Wheatley Club and their supporters gathered in the Michigan Street Baptist Church. The next day, Buffalo newspapers described the meeting under the following headlines: The Phyllis Wheatley Club meeting received national attention when the Cleveland Gazette, an Afro-American publication, printed a column entitled "Pan American Exposition Color Line". An excerpt from that article summarized the nature of the Buffalo Club's complaint. "Thus far not a single representative of the race has been properly placed by the management of the Pan-American Exposition, either as director, superintendent of a department, honorary vice-president or even clerk in any of the departments. Our people here are indignant at this discrimination and held a meeting November 11th in one of our churches under the auspices of the Phyllis Wheatley Club, composed exclusively of women." (1)