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THE CRISIS

wish to know my color, I am a Negro woman and there are plenty of people around here who want to go home because they are not treated right here. My friend, who is writing for me, does housework for white people, cleaning seven rooms including the scrubbing and sweeping. She only gets 60 cents a day for all that work and, dear Editor, you know by that, we have to leave this place. We hear of people over in S. C., Ga., and Ala., and we want to go too.
If you can get this information before my CRISIS you will please send it to me.
MRS. JOSEPHINE CLEMMONS.
Muskogee, Okla.

I have just read in your April CRISIS a letter in the Outer Pocket, written by Donald W. Moore, Halifax, N. S., in reference to the lynching in Georgia. Yes, it seems most strange to any one who lives in the Northern States and has never had any experience of the life that colored man in the South has to undergo. They are handicapped in everything, even to the extent of self-protection, and in most instances they are handicapped in practical protest more than anything else. Ninety per cent of the lynching that happens is over before the Negroes know that anything has ever happened, or that any crime has been committed. When the Negroes know it's over, the whites are all prepared to lynch others who make the lease protest in any form and accord them the same treatment. If the Negroes (in certain sections) have meetings or form any kind of an organization to perfect a protest, they are lynched for plotting against the white people (just as was done in Early and Worth Counties in Georgia). So you see protest is useless in any form as the State's Militia is white. If they are called out, it's only to protect the white man in his law-breaking, and not to do justice. I would just as soon be in the jungles of Africa bare-handed as to be in a Georgia jail with the Georgia Militia on guard if I had been suspicioned of doing something or one of the many things that constitutes a crime to be lynched according to their inflamed minds.
There is nothing the matter with the colored people in the South. They are not afraid of the lynchers, but they are afraid of the backers. That is the men who uphold them and they are the officials from County Justice of Peace to the Governor of the State.
I think the Negro has the nerve to fight but like all other right thinking people, they know it would be a useless fight with the odds so strong against them and consequently they have decided on the most damaging and best revenge. That is to leave the South. It will be more far reaching than any rebellion. This migration is going to reach every part of the Southland. It's not only going to harm the proprietors but the entire white population from the cradle to the grave, from the poor devils who commit the crime to the rich land-owner who protects him.
I have been living in the South all my life and all I've got is this. My whole life's savings that I worked for is practically lost as I can't sell it for any price. I sold it to get rid of the awful fear of being killed just as Crawford of S. C. was murdered. I have decided to leave everything just as it stands and maybe some day I might realize something from my property. But I doubt it very seriously. Just as I have decided to do thousands have decided to do the same thing. The best thing the Northern Negro can do is to help educate his Southern brother into the Northern ways, for he is here to stay.
_ _ ___.
The April CRISIS is excellent, as good a number as you have ever had. Ma, it and its whole "staff" from the editor down to the humblest office boy thrive and flourish.
MARIANNA G. BRUBAKER.
Bird-in-Hand, Pa.

In perusing the January CRISIS, I observed an article under the heading "Migration and Help" in which you repeat your argument that the Southern Negro who is assured of employment should continue to go North. Permit me to agree with you and assure you that although you handle every subject you take up in a masterly way, even you cannot understand the trials the poor Southern Negro must undergo merely to exist. I appreciate the fact, sir, that you are a very busy man, but beg that even if you do not deem this narrative worthy of a place in your magazine, or too lengthy for publication, that you will at least peruse it from start to finish. I wish to tell a story here that may serve to give

THE OUTER POCKET

you a little more of the actual facts sursounding the Southern Negro.
A young friend of mine was compelled to stop school after finishing the English Course and being transferred to the 1st year Normal of a reputable local high school. As far as he went he finished with honors, having captured the class prize for at least four consecutive terms. Coming out of school he looked around for fitting employment and was employed by a grocer. Began as all around boy at $1.75 per week and in one month was promoted as driver on a small route at $3.00 per week. Being eager to get ahead he worked his way on up and after serving the grocer about 18 months, he had filled every position from warehouseman, bill collector, billpayer and clerk to drummer for trade and salesman for goods that no one else could sell at the salary of $6.00 per week and board. He left this grocer and entered the service of a steamship company as laborer at $1.50 per day. Was promoted to cooper at same pay. On a certain occasion the company could not secure the services of a white man capable of holding position of storage clerk for the steamships. This is a very responsible position, the steamship freight manifests being made up from the report of the storage clerk. The agent of the line, having observed that my friend appeared to be intelligent, have him the position. He made good and asked for more pay, receiving $2.00 per day on condition that when the ships were not in port he work ont he docks at $1.50 per day as a laborer. At this time he was 18 years of age. A new foreman employed by the company took the clerk's job away from him and gave it to a white man, the white man receiving $3.00 per day, and my friend's wages being reduced to $1.50 per day permanently. He left this company's service and went to St. Louis, Mo., being employed in a hotel as elevator man at a salary of $18 a month and board. The place being a family house, the tips were small and few. Having someone dependent on him and it being absolutely necessary that he get more money, he returned home.
To-day he is a laborer at $1.50 a day with every good prospect of remaining so. White boys who worked side by side with him as a dock laborer to-day are businessmen, pushed along by men already in business. Many of them could scarcely write their names and that was the limit of their education. The agent of the steamship line politely informed him that if he was a white man he would get him a position as clerk or warehouseman at a salary of $60 or $75 a month, but as he was a Negro he could do nothing for him.
This story is often repeated in our Southland. The young Negroes will not go to school, and if you tell them it will benefit them, they ask you what benefit is yours to you! What can we answer? Those who are educated, not having enough to travel and pay expenses until they get good employment, become despondent and take to drink, dice and other vices to forget the dreams they once cherished as ideals. This Northern migration offers a splendid opportunity for the Southern Negro of ambition. Our white neighbors here have previously arranged matters so a Negro would never save money enough to get away from his oppressors, an those Negroes who are fortunate enough to rise to some extent have joined hands with the white men in this pleasant occupation. Now, my friend is a young man of age, but discouraged and having responsibility on him he cannot leave home unless already assured of immediate employment. I hope some young man hearing this, in your land of opportunities, may be aroused to appreciation of the opportunities offered him.
E. H. BrOWN.
New Orleans, La.

I am very glad to renew my subscription to the CRISIS, to the Northern California Branch. I enclose also a small subscription to the Anti-Lynching fund, wishing only that it might be larger. I take every opportunity of speaking privately and in public of the sad situation which distresses every friend of the colored people. I feel that this country can do but little for the safeguarding of the law of nations or for international friendship so long as the law of the land is so flagrantly flouted and the friendship of different races is so far from realization here. I wish the Association and the CRISIS great success in the constructive work of education, conciliation, and defence
HAROLD E. B. SPEIGHT
Berkeley, Cal.