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24                         THE CRISIS

J. Max Barber says in the Philadelphia Bulletin:

Conservative estimates place the number of Negroes who have come North during the last year between 150,000 and 300,000, while some reports from even Southern papers say that the number of Negroes who have shaken the dust of the warm savannahs of the Southland from their feet in the last year, is still lower. All agree that when the Northern ice and snow melt and the spring winds blow again, there is going to be a mighty exodus of Negroes from the South.

What sir, do you think is the cause of this vast migration? Negroes are not ordinarily a migrating race. A study of the history of Africa shows that for ages certain races have clung to both their territory and traditions; and that great migrations have taken place only when the pressure of great persecutions have forced these migrations.

It is in greater oppression; more flagrant injustice; more widely advertised lynchings to a hopelessly helpless condition resultant from wholesale disfranchisement; and to the pitiably low wages paid them, that are to be found the real reasons for the present movement. 

The white men of the South are assuming authority never dreamt of by the framers of the Constitution. Some of their laws which may be even technically right, are pernicious in principle and mischievous in operation where the Negro is involved. The air is full of a subtle, illusive intimidation; justice in the Courts is a sham and a delusion; the judges and legislators represent a plethora of small politicians and pettifogging lawyers.

But now that the Negro is leaving, the South would retain him. Already, the effect is wholesome. The harsh attitude is toning down. The South needs Negro labor, for it never did know how to treat white labor. It is the greatest thing that has happened for the Negro since emancipation.

That the South is awakening is shown by some plain statements in the Greenville, S. C., Piedmont:

It must be confessed that many white men in the South do not want the Negro educated and their power in most Southern states has been great enough to cripple the facilities provided for the education of the Negro. It is hard to get at the facts in the case, but it is asserted, and it probably is true, that the public schools for Negroes in this state do not receive for their support as much as the Negroes of this state pay in taxes for educational purposes. We have had demagogues cry aloud against any use for education of Negroes of taxes paid for educational purposes by white people. But, common justice and fair play ought to have required that those who raised or approved that cry should see to it that no taxes paid in by Negroes for educational purposes should be used to educate white children. The remarkable thing is that those of our citizens who are most bitterly opposed to education of Negroes are the very ones who probably would be hurt most if the exodus of Negro labor from the South should continue. As the Piedmont pointed out in a previous editorial, there is no way to force Negro laborers to stay in the South if they desire to go elsewhere. Nor will platitudes induce them to remain in this section. Substantial justice must be done them or the exodus will continue and ever increase in volume. It would be much easier and pleasanter to dodge discussion of this subject, but that will not solve the problem. The thing for us to do is to fearlessly face the problem and honestly discuss it. Does the South want to keep its great supply of Negro labor? If not, there is no need of a change in the South's treatment of the Negro; if it does, there must be a change.

A correspondent from the same paper writing from the West says:

If the South wants to keep all of its Negro labor and not share it liberally, it will have to offer equal inducements in wages, living conditions and opportunity and a fuller measure of equality in treatment. If, on the other hand, it wants to get rid of the Negro and substitute white labor, now is its chance.

Carroll and Burke will not be able to keep the Negroes in the South by inviting the white ministers and other big white men to speak to them. They have caught on to that old trick. Something must be done to better his condition financially, educationally, politically and morally. Talk will not do it. Why keep him illiterate and blame him for being so? Why segregate him to the back yards, swamps and alleys, and then call him a dirty filthy nigger? Why keep him out of politics and then say he is not a statesman? Brown and Stewart of Muskogee, Okla., specimens of Negro humanity, have few equals and no superiors as attorneys in this state. They handle the business for some of the richest white men in this state. The Negro asks no favor. All they ask is a man's chance. To hold the Negro the South must offer as much to his manhood as the North.

Such occasional sentiments do not mean that the Bourbon South has surrendered. The Raleigh News and Courier for instance is afraid that the Negro will return to politics:

The Raleigh Independent can prove a source of strength to the Negroes of Raleigh, of the State, if it shall so elect. But we are


                       THE LOOKING GLASS                     25

convinced that if the burden of its teachings shall be to have the Negro back in politics that it is mistaken friendship that is being shown.

At the Alabama Sociological Congress a white judge names Abernathy was very plain. Speaking of the Negroes he said:
says:

From the top of his bone head to the bottom of his flat foot, there isn't a chance to educate a Negro. God Almighty made them to hew wood and draw water and I'm opposed to educating them. Booker Washington has done more harm in Alabama than tuberculosis.

There's just as much difference in human nature and Negro nature as there is between the smell of limberger cheese and a bunch of roses. I believe in keeping him on the farm.

A colored man writes to the Montgomery Advertiser:

Thoughtful Negroes throughout the State, and the South, welcome the fact that men like Judge Abernathy of the Municipal Court of Jefferson county are giving their views on the race question at this time. We have known for a long time that the exalted seat of judge was filled in many places by men filled to overflowing with prejudice toward the Negro, and we are glad that Judge Abernathy now advertises this hidden truth to the world. If one takes the Judge's speech at its face value, you would readily conclude that it is impossible for a Negro to receive anything like justice in the Municipal Court of Jefferson county.

We are being told by the newspapers to stay in the South, that the Southern white man is our best friend, and that he understands us better than the people of the North. What is friendship? If the Southern white man was our friend, he would not take our vote away, the only weapon of protest that any people can successfully use, and then force upon us all other responsibilities of citizenship. If the Negro of Alabama had the use of the ballot, Judge Abernathy would have hesitated a long time before giving vent to such views as he gave before the Alabama Sociological Congress.

A CARD OF THANKS.
THE Flushing, N. Y., Times, under the heading "Heroic Lad Stops Runaway Horse" says:

Arthur Stuart, colored, 14 years old, a pupil in Public School 20, Sanford avenue, saved a number of children from injury and possible death at noon this Tuesday when he grabbed a runaway horse as it was racing down Sanford avenue, and stopped it.

The horse belonged to William Schmalkuche & Son, grocers, of 189 Franklin place. It ran down Bowne avenue from the store on the corner of Franklin place. The animal made a wild turn into Sanford avenue and was traveling toward Union street at a terrific rate of speed. A group of men on the corner of Sanford and Bowne avenue made no effort to stop the animal, but as soon as Stuart saw the runaway he ran into the road and grabbed the bridle. Stuart was dragged several feet before he got the horse under control but was uninjured.

Stuart stopped the horse just as it was about to run on the sidewalk where a hundred or more children were walking back to school.

In a later number of the Times appears this delicious "Card of Thanks:"

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph N. Stewart, 131 Forest avenue wish the Times to thank Mr. Schmalkuche & Son who keep a grocery store at 189 Franklin place, for the reward given to their son—two bananas and a few sticks of candy—when the boy risked his life to stop the runaway horse, and to save the lives of other school children.
JOSEPH N. STEWART.
Mr. Schmalkuche ought to send around at least one more banana. 

"THE BIRTH OF A NATION."
THE Dayton, O., Forum, a colored paper, has this bitter comment:

It is indeed deplorable that men who have attained the position in life of George L. Knox, publisher of The Freeman, and A. E. Manning, publisher of the Indianapolis World, should so forget their duty to the race variety of which they are identified as to sell out to Tom Dixon and other enemies of the Negro. The reader will find elsewhere in this issue a full account of the contemptible deed these men committed right here in Dayton. 

The twelve thousand colored citizens of Dayton had made a strenuous fight to prevent Tom Dixon's photo-play, "The Birth of a Nation," from showing in Dayton. They had, through persistent efforts, secured the co-operation and help of the Greater Dayton  Association (the largest civic body of business men in the United States), the Federation of the City Churches, the white Y. W. C. A., hundreds of white citizens had written letters of protest, the City Commissioners had passed a resolution condemning the presentation of the film, and were on the verge of passing an ordinance which would have prevented it from showing here, when these black Judases spoke in favor of the infamous photo-play.

After old man Knox cringingly stated that he had seen the film three times, that it was all right, as it showed the love of the Negro for his master and the love the black "mammies" had for the young white soldiers, the Commissioners got "cold feet," our