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278 THE CRISIS [[3 images of young children with respective annotation of their states under]] PENNSYLVANIA | FLORIDA | NEW YORK gated in Jackson Ward but segregated in certain sections of that Ward, confined to the narrow limits of the blocks and even half blocks. "Here we are cooped up like fowl in a crate, packed together like sardines in a box, piled upon each other like rats in a trap. Not alone must we live in houses built for us in blind alleys, but we must live in houses built for us in the rear of other houses where there are no alleys, blind or otherwise, and where entrance and egress for the family in the rear house are to be gained only through the actual living rooms of the family in the front house. "There is located in Jackson War no public playground for children, no public park for adults, but in their stead is maintained a cemetery, a public dump for the city's refuse matter, a crematory for diseased, dead and putrifying animals. In this Ward we must live, move and have our being. In this Ward we must erect our churches and build our homes. In this Ward our children must be born, eke out a miserable existence and finally die. For this congested, unsanitary and unhealthy manner of housing we must pay fifty per cent. more rent than other people pay. "What does it matter that the death rate in this black belt is 36 per cent., while among the white people of the same class, but better housed, it is only 14 per cent.? What does it matter that the undertaker is the most popular business man and the grave digger the most over-worked individual in our community? What does it matter that we must ruthlessly sacrifice 22 per cent. of our kith and kin; that 22 per cent. more human lives is the extra toll we must pay for the privilege of living in Jackson Ward? What does it matter that 22 per cent. of colored people are by law actually murdered that the separation of the races may be an unqualified success?" But why multiply examples? It is well known to observers that segregation of the poor or the despised means not separation simply but subordination and oppression. It is for this reason that the colored people and their friends have been so deeply stirred from one end of the nation to the other. In the face of these facts consider the press dispatch published throughout the country. We reproduce its headlines and all from the Louisville (Ky.) Herald: [[3 images of young children with respective annotation of their states under]] TENNESSEE | ARKANSAS | TENNESSEE 279 OPINION [[3 images of young children with respective annotation of their states under]] PENNSYLVANIA | TENNESSEE | FLORIDA MUST BE LESS TALK OF RACIAL FRICTION —————— Booker T. Washington Advises Negroes Not to Fight Segregation Laws —————— Muskogee, Okla., Aug. 19. Booker T. Washington, of Tuskegee, Ala., to-night told delegates to the annual convention of the National Negro Business League, in session here, that there must be less talk of racial friction and more attention to the acquiring of intelligence and wealth if the Negro race is to progress. "Quit thinking of the parts of the cities you can't live in, but begin to beautify that part in which you can live," he advised in discussing segregation laws recently enacted in several cities. — LYNCHING "MINOR DISCRIMINATION" Leslie's Weekly, which has never been top-heavy with brains, has this delicious advice in an editorial on "The Negroes' Future": "Let not the Negro imagine because of lynchings and minor discriminations here and there that every man's hand is raised against him. The Negro must help himself. He must win a place for himself. Whenever he does this he possesses self-respect and receives also the respect of others." "Minor Discriminations" is excellent, and it must be gratifying to the 2,692 Negroes who have been publicly lynched and burned in the last 29 years to know that they are receiving the "respect" of others. Meantime, the London (Eng.) Spectator insists that President Wilson's first and largest duty is to stop the disgrace of lynching. Answering the criticism of a correspondent it says: "We, of course, knew as well as he does that the Constitution gives no power to the President or to Congress to apply our proposals to districts were lynchings have taken place. Therefore we suggested that the President should take the lead in inaugurating legislation, including, of course, the necessary amendment of the Constitution. We shall, of course, be told that such an amendment is absolutely hopeless. To which we [[Three images of young children with respective states underneath.]]
