The American Law Enforcement League of Minnesota was the organization that raised money through "Cuba." It was founded in 1898 by attornies Fredrick McGhee and William R. Morris, algon with J.Q. Adams, editor of The Appeal.  The League was devoted to "the moral and material advancement of the colored race" and "the encouragement and respect for, and observance, of the law (26)." 

 

The American Law Enforcement League of Minnesota was engaged in what some historians refer to as racial uplift.  Racial uplift was an effort by upper and middle class blacks to improve the condition of all black people in the face of structural oppression (disfranchisement, segregation, poverty, political abandonment, mob violence, etc.) and ideological oppression (demeaning stereotypes, the belief that black people are inferior to whites).  Racial uplift worked on both fronts, and this section of the site explores how and why people engaged with it.