Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-05-12
THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH.
How CoIored People Fare in Railway
Trains, Street Cars, and other Con-
veyances-A Statement of the Facts by
Prof. Haygood, of Emory College,
GanrQia-Tha Rapa 0uaafinn


Prof. Haygood, of Emory College
GeOrgia-The Race Question.
The Chicago Aduance in its current
issue prints a letter from President Hay
good, of Emory College, Oxford, Ga, an
ex-Confederate soldier, who has been
prominent since the war as an educator
and an advocate of the protection of the
colOred people in all their rights. Presl-
dent Haygood answers inquiries ad-
dressed him by a Northern friend,
Christian minister and a Republican in
politics, as to the treatment accorded
negroes in the South. He says:
l. 1t has been a long time since there
| was any trouble about street cars: no.
| thing serious since the year Of their in
/ PRODUCTION in the South. | do not mean
! that in all those years no single white
man has spoken rudely to a negro in a
| street car, that no single negro has spoken
rudely to a white man in street car.
The millennium has not yet come. But
do mean there is no trouble about street
cars and their free use by both races. l
have used street cars in the following
cities of the South: Richmond, Charles
| ton, Savannah, Augusta, Macon, Atlanta,
! Nashville, Louisville, Memphis, New Or
| leans-shall l add st. Louis? In the last
census Missouri is ranged with the
western States.'' In all the cities named
| have been in street cars where whites
and negroes rode together. Every day in
the year, in all Southern cities where
there are street cars, the two races ride
in the same cars, without let or hindrance.
| don't believe that either race really en-
| joys having the other in the same car.
Their manner toward each other when
| sitting close together is the manner of
| fine people and working people in the
street cars, and on the elevated road cars,
as l have seen them in New York. The
| one case always reminds me of the other.
,. Negroes do ride in railway cars.
They are passionately fond of railroad
riding, and those who live near the roads
spend much of their little money in rail-
reading. The companies are delighted to
have them ride. Ii pays well. Embar-
easements grow out of pFOmiscuOus sit
| tings-whites and blacks together in the
same car. 1t is not for the peace and
| comfort of either race to mix up in the
cars. l am not writing of what should or
| should not be, but of what is. The rail-
road men say: ''We cannot safely admit
| all negro men and women to our ladies'
| coaches. We cannot know which ones it
| is safe to admit. And so. for the sake of
| peace and order, we admit nOne.''
The methods of the railroad people are
I not uniform. In South Carolina four
L
have found in the best car, on the leading
| road of the State, q few very well dressed
colored people. Most of the negroes on
! that train were in the forward and sec
| Ond-class car, also used as a smoker.
| Most of the negroes were smoking, and,
on my last trip over this road, some of
them, | regretted to see, were drinking.
! Prohibition is needful for this race as well
| as for white people. Freedom has in
| creased drunkenness to a fearful degree
among these unfortunate people. AS a
rule they vote with the whisky people.
Drinking" is one of their CELEBRITIES" l
asked the conductor:
"How do you manage to have so few
| negroes in the ladies' car, seeing that you
admit some p
He said; This road sells first and
| second class tickets. Those negroes you
| see in the ladies' coach bought first class
tickets and ride IN that car. Most of
them prefer the second-class car and the
cheaper rate.''
Glow does the plan work ?" l asked.
every well,'' he answered.
| On other rOadS-ahd this is the preYa-
| lent Georgia systematic custom is, on
| regular passenger trains, to have one car
| divided into two compartments, one end
| being dedicated to smokers" the other
| to cOlored people. Some roads will not
allow white people to sit in the compart-
ment assigned to negroes. Many times
! have seen white people asked out of it.
| Twice, entering by mistake. / have been
asked to 90 to my own part Ofthe car. But
| this rule is not very rigidly enforced:
! sometimes the smoking end is Overfull,
1 and the smokers settle down among the
| cOlOred citizens. Ottener the cOlOred end
| is Overfull, and the cOlOred brethren and
sisters settle down among the smokers.
| AS rule the cOlOred people make a
| smoker out of their compartment when
they alone occupy it. White smokers
! ask the cOlOred for lights and matches
| (and it is a rare thing to find a colored
man without matches. The colOred ask
! the whites for tobacco as well as lights
| Smokers are democratic, and the inter-
| changes of smoking facilities are con-
! slant and easy.
Sometimes the colOred people are over
crowded, and this is wrong. have seen
a few colored women made sick by tobac-
| co smoke whether from white or black
! lips l could not tell J, and this was an out
rage. But the sickest women. / ever saw
! from tobacco smoke were white women on
! an emigrant train in the West, on a road
not controlled by Southern men. The
| most horrible car L ever entered was on
road running out OF New York city. 1t
| was a summer night in August. 1881, 1t
was packed with foreign emig rants going
westward. They seemed to be very poor.
| President HaygOOd calls attention to
/ the methods employed by the Pullman
| Sleeping Car Company (Which is not a
| Southern institution to keep negroes out
| of their coaches. As to the question
whether race prejudices are growing
| stronger in the Southern States he saws:
/ do not believe that race prejudice grows
| stronger. This is only my opinion, and it
| is hard to prove opinions. | state the
! case as / see it. 1t surprises me that the
race prejudices are not stronger. The
| negroes, with all their weaknesses, have
no small amount of common sense If
| they paid very much heed to unwise and
OyerzealOus friends who urge them twice
| Ito stand up for their rights where they
| eXhOrt them once to industry, to sObriety,
| to economy, to thrift, and to the use of all
means in their power to grow more and
more worthy of rights-race prejudices
| would be stronger than they are.
CAS- to Northern settlers in the South, he
saws there are Southern men, and there
are Northern men. They are not all
! saints, and some who are not saints come
| among US. Some have inhamed race pre-
| JUDGES wherever they have stopped even
for little time. Some of this class spend
the winter in the South stirring up
trouble. They spend the summer North
telling the tale of their lnartyrdOm and
making money. The most hurtful man
! have known as to this matter of stirring
race prejudices has been vibrating be-
tween Georgia and the Northern States
since 1865. Last month he was in Georgia
manipulating certain 'colored pri-
mares.' Last October he was in Boston
seeking Endorsements and help for a
paper-scheme of schools for ''poor
whites" For twenty years he has been
engaged in ''shrring up the people
South or North as suits his plans.
But, as general statement, it is utter
| " untrue that Northern settlers are out
! lawed. There is not a Southern city
| where Northern men are not in good posi-
tiOn-hardly a village where they are not
| in business. There are thousands of them
| in country places, comfortably settled
| and kindly treated. For the first few
| years after the war our Southern villages
and country people were shy of them, and
| cold to them. We were then passing
/ through the agonies and chaos of recon-
struction. 1t is different now. The South
ern people want their country settled.
! They have millions of acres of land to
sell. They are eager for immigrants.
| With few exceptions, our people would
rather have yankees" or "NOrtherners'
than any foreigners whatever. There is
room in my county, Newton, for five hun
| dred families. Let them come.
l believe that most elections in the
South are as fair as in any State where
there is a very great difference in the
| character of voters as to intelligence
wealth and influence. Illiteracy and pow
erty never control elections except under
the manipulation of intelligence, money
or power. l believe that some elections
/ in the South are unfair. Cheating in cleo
tiOns is as inevitable as it is easy where