Morning journal and courier., 1883-04-14
THE NEGROES OF oraE RLAC
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THE NEGROES OF sspHE BLACK
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 Rev. J. L. Tucker, of Jackson, Mississippi, who bes dons much missionary work araerg negroes in the South, has made public some very interesting facts and opinions concern ing the relations of the Church to the color ed race. MT. Tucker thinks that the negroes in 'the black districts'' have degenerated since their emancipation. He calls their religion an unconscious hypocrisy, form without substance They do not compre- bend, he says, the idea that religion should teach morality. In support of this assertion he writes as follows: In the midst of pray CT have known them to steal from each other, and on the way home from prayer meeting they will rob any hen -roost that lies conveniently at hand, and this without any thought of sin against God, and even without any perception of an incongruity. The most pious negro know is one confined in penitentiary for an atrocious murder, who can see no especial sin against God in his crime, though he acknowledges an of- fense against man. I have known negro preacher guilty of incest, another of habitual theft, third with two wives, being married to neither, a fourth who was a constant and most audacious liar yet who were earnest and successful preachers. l could give names, dates and witnesses for these and twenty other similar cases, and it would be easy to find any required number more. Yet the four men of whom I speak were not con- scious of hypocrisy, and their known sins did not diminish their influence with their race. It was impossible to hear them preach or pray and doubt their absolute sincerity. * in one county in Mississippi there were dur ing twelve months three hundred marriage licenses taken ont in the county clerks office for white people. According to the propor- tion Of population there should have been in the same time twelve hundred or more for egroes. There can be no legal mari age of any sort in Mississippi without a i- esnse. There were actually taken out by colored people just three
 A number of southern clergymen, white and black. testify to the truth of MT. Tuck CTS description of the moral condition of the negroes in ''the black belt" A colored preacher writes: Not one of our social circles, if we can be said to have any, is clean morally, and two-thirds of the whole are members of the church. colored man only few days ago contended with me that the negroes were right in certain of their practices, because the Lord Jesus himself said that seven women should lay hold of one man" While the bishops and clergy in Mississippi and South Carolina confirm MT. Fuckers statements, those who know the colored people in Virginia, West Virginia, Missouri and the other States where they are more under the influence of the whites dis sent from it.
 MT. Tucker presents plan for raising the moral tone of the negroes which has much merit. He would have transepts built in the white churches for celored worshippers, and their instruction undertaken and always directed by white people. Every parish should have day schools. industrial schools, and Sunday school and hospital, especially for the aged; and southern men and women who know the peculiarities of the race should do the work. 'All your labor, :" he says, 'is thrown away until you know the idi osyncra- sies of the alien race and can adapt your pres- sentation of truth to their perceptive uoyrers