Morning journal and courier., 1883-04-21
COMMUNICATIONS.
A Nesro's View of Some of Rev. J
 Fuckers Assertions.

Fuckers Assertions.
 To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 notice in your issue of the 14th inst. an | article headed "The Negroes of the Black Belt,' in which Rev. J. l.. Tucker, of Jackson, Mississippi, is represented as man who has had some considerable experience as missionary among the -colored people South, and who has been kind enough to
 furnish northern friends with valuable infor- ilfdtion Hs to the moral status Of the c0iored people in his section of the country at pres ent and their relation to the Church. Their religion, he says, Is an unconscious hypoe- risy a form without a substance" and has not yet taught his colored brethren that mo- raity is an indispensable ingredient of a Christian life. He says also that his colored
 brethren, after having a good time in their religious gatherings, on their way home don't think it a violation of any one of the ten commandments to carry along with them few of their neighbors' chickens (men have in this country been guilty of stealing hu- man fesh) the preachers being far below the mark in everything but lying and to crown his wonderful revelation he exclalms that 'the most pious negro know IS one in 8 penitentiary." Some southerners like to look on this side of the negro. On the whole the poor negroes South are in 8 much more deplorable condition to-day than they were in the balmy CD days of slavery. Their only salvation is to come and sit in the transepts of white churches and be taught honesty, morality and the practice of all the Christian virtues. What step!
 Well, while the stream of morality among the colored people, as mass, is not what we could wish, think if our kind brother would only think for moment of all the attendant causes that have conspired to leave our peo- pie as it were moral wreck-the degrading influences of 24O years, during which time virtue could only be Q name, and when no colored woman held as 8 chattel could de- fend that which constitutes the beauty of womanhood, but was at the mercy of mas ter in whom the animal too often predomina- ted-I think if our kind brother would only reflect upon the past, with it's bearing upon our present condition as race in this coun- try, he would become reticent on this ques- tion, and instead of throwing dirt into the stream of this part of suffering humanity, like the Good Samaritan he would be en- deavoring to heal it's wounds by throwing into it the disinfectant of brotherly love-
 Our brother offers as remedy for this evil the handing of the whole negro work South into the hands of southerners who uL derstand the s'peculiarities and idiosynera- sies of the alien race" I was born in Mis-
 sissippi in "Reb time," and have spent most of my days South and can say in all truth fulness that, as a rule, southerners feed the
 'tnigger' out of long spoon. And when northerners go South to teach and lift up the negro who is eager and struggling to rise, they are fed out of this same long spoon
 from which the negro sips. As a general thing the average southerner feels that the
 negro is 8 pretty good fellow-in his place. Our former owners South have had aDun-
 dant opportunities to help us since the eman' cipation, morally, religiously and education
 ally. Have they done it to any very great
 fha of ho S0uth fbr0h
 with love toward their struggling ''brother in black p What the black man most needs in the South, as far as our white friends are concerned, is to be let alone and protected Tn all his rights as are other American citizens.
 From whence have come horrible murders Tn the South Were not whites the perpetra-
 tors of these most cruel deeds, deeds which
 would, or should rather, make any communi- ty blush? I think much of the devilment that has been carried on in the South IS largely attributable to the attitude that the southern pulpit has taken in matters that
 materially affect not only the interests of the community, but of the whole country. As 8 rule our people, while ignorant, are peacea-
 bIy disposed and seldom disturb the peace or the community.
 think that the gravest question that con- fronts us now as a nation is white as well as black illiteracy in the South. If you want to see what the colored people are ooing, anu 
 vilIe Tenn and enter the class rooms or her three coIored colIeges-Fisk University, Gen tral Tennessee college and the Baptist 1nstl- flute, Go to Atlanta, Ga, and ask those pa tient workers there and at different educa- tionaI institutions in the South if there are no signs of development in character among those for whom they have untiringly labored since their recent emancipation. Ask the American Missionary association, that has worked so nobly in the southern field with it's eight chartered colleges, and smaller in- stitutions in full operation so far as means will allow, if their work in the expenditure of hundreds of thousands of dollars and the breaking down of many earnest toiiers, II their work for the moral and educational up- lifting of the race has been ln Valn The fact of the whole matter is, the average soutberner knows so little about such lnstl- tutions and the grand work that they are do- 1 inc. that it is not to be wondered at that now and then we hear from some one Of these expressions with reference to the race that inc better informed and disposed of his brethren will not themselves indorse. Be- | sides we must remember that many times these sweeping unreasonable generalizations come from minds narrow and contracted in | their compass, and what little capacity there 1 is in them is occupied by that which will by no means lead them to feel for fallen hu- manity as we find 1t.