The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-07-05
THE DIVERSE SIDE OF THE PICTURE

1AC VI llule DTluSS III us IT,
venges, and now Texas judge has been as
sassinated, supposedly by colored man
whose daughter the judge had wronged
before his marriage. The negro is said to be
initiative, and the influence of example will
not be lost on him. 1t has been an axiom
of the unwritten law of public opinion in
the South that a colored man even suspected
of wronging a white woman is deserving of a
violent and EXTRA judicial death. This, too
despite the fact that the statutes of most
Southern States provide the death penalty
for such crimes. 1t has always been worth
a pegro's life to be suspected
of this infamous crime. The formality
of proof was nearly always dispensed with
delay was never to be thought OF, and a
thou art the man" from any reputable
white man sealed the victims fate. From the
establishment of slavery in America the
colored woman has always been regarded as
the legitimate game of the white mans pas
sion. From outrages against the black race
there was no appeal and no court of recourse.
1t is not to be wondered at that the shoulder
ing feeling of revenge for these accumulated
wrongs should at length break out The
same feeling that inspires white father to
take justice into his own hands and avenge
the wrongs of child is felt no less
strongly in the heart OF him whose skin hap
pens to be black. The ties that bind the lat
ter to his children are no less strong than
between father and children who are white
An outrage upon black woman is to her as
infamous and crushing as upon a woman of
fairer skin. From ages of oppression and
wrong the black man is but emerging upon
an era of freedom and liberty. That he has
so we'll met the duties and responsibilities of
his new sphere is vastly to his credit. Patient
to a marvellous degree under wrongs that
would have driven many to madness, he
has accepted his deliverance with a
manliness that is commendable. He
was willing to forgive and forget; to take
hold of the obligations of American citizen
ship under overwhelming disadvantages, and
by sincerity of purpose endeavor to win his
way to an honorable position in life But
the persecution of slavery days still followed
him. His veracity was impeached on the
evidence of the meanest kind of mean white
men, and every conceivable crime was I'M
hesitatngly charged upon him His property
rights were worthless and his claim upon
life even was held only upon the sufferanee
OF his late masters and still more brutal over
seers. He has been the victim of every indig-
nifty, until it would seem that forebearance
would cease to be virtue. In this instance
the father whose daughter was wronged by
judge of the superior" race had every pre-
cedent for shooting him at the first opportu-
nifty. This he did, and if thereby justice has
been thwarted in its legal execution, it is by
no means unprecedented, and it will be hard
to find anybody, whose sense of justice is
strong, but will say that, under the provoca-
ton, and with no hope of obtaining an i'm
partial hearing in the courts, this colored
father cannot be blamed for following the
precedent and Staying the lecherous despoiler
of his daughters peace and honor.