Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1872-11-07
Color in Connecticut.

While distinction on account of color
has disappeared in the South, except
where kept alive by partisan efforts
that would array the blacks in a body
against the white citizens, we need
look only so far as the good city of
Hartford, Conn, to find most notorl-
Gus case Of prejudice against negro
blood. The Women's Christian As
ISOLATION of that city is n corporation
organized, as its charter states, "for
the purpose Of advancing the temporal,
moral and religious welfare Of women,
especially Of young women who are
dependent upon their own cXcrtions for
support That it has been doing a
good work there is no doubt, and it
has associated in its management many
Of the most philanthropic Christian
women of Hartford. But last week
there applied at its doors a young
woman dependent upon her own exer-
tons for support" asking the MD which
the Association promised to extend to
such as she. The applicant was thor
oughly respectable in character and
every way worthy Of assistance but,
although her complexion was fair and
nothing in her general appearance in
dictated mixture Of blood, the Christ
ian ladies discovered with horror a GER
tlin persistent curl in her hair and a
peculilr tinge about the fnger-tips
which testified to distant faint in the
otherwise pure white decent, and she
was forthwith turned out from the
charitable cdifce with the declaration
that the Women's Christian Association
recognized white woman alone. This
action of he Directresses was sustained
by a two-thirds vote of the Managers
with the explanation that, were colored
women admitted to the benefits of
the Association, Offence would be given
the white beneficiaries and the work
of the organization would be interfered
with.
1t does not increase ones respect for
the fine feelings Of these ladies to learn
that they have not felt contamination
in soliciting and excepting the contri-
buttons Of colored women for use in
their charitable enterprise, while it eX-
cites wonder that any association can
be so lost to the sense of even ordinary
decency as to refuse to contributors the
benefit of the money wrung from them
by persistent appeals. This is one step
beyond usual imprudence. On the main
question of the exclusion Of colored
women, it is gratifying to find the
Hartford Times, the leading Democrat
ic organ Of that section of the State,
taking firm and pronounced position
against the Managers of the Associa-
ton. In this the Times is sustained
by the clergy Of the city, and the lib
eral members of the Board of Manag-
ers have Indignantly withdrawn, refus-
ing to be compelled into such a false
position by the bigoted majority. The
practical effect Of this incident is Of
small account, but as illustrating 4
great principle it is momentous. Even
in New England, in the homes Of the
champions of freedom and equality,
and at the hands Of the sex whose
sympathies are naturally the most ten
der and demonstrative, a blow has been
struck at the principle Of equal rights,
the distinction has been made that the
slightest tinge in the blood shuts out
its possessor from the pale Of humani
ty, and the theory has been maintained
that the blacks, while assessed for the
benefit Of the whites, may never enjoy
equal privileges in the institutions sup
ported by their money. While this is
done in the name of the Christian
Church at the North, it behooves the
critics of the South to speak gently.
Bayone,s and guns, squadrons Of rough
riders and military Governors in batch
es, have been thought none too bad for
communities where such a denial of
the rights of colorcd people have been
even suspected. Northern prisons now
hold men less guilty Of violation of the
laws relative to civil rights than are
those punctilious women of Hartford. |
But while theGovernor of Connecticut
goes about the country belching denun-
Citations of "rebels" who refuse to accept |
the situation, his owncity supplies evi
dence that at home his friends are no
Post.