The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1888-11-15
1.-THE COLOR LINE"

| What is the "color liner what does
it stand for, North or South? 1t is a
general term which covers certain
state of mind and state of society, in
volving a multitude of civil and social
wrongs 1t is not caste line like that
in India, or money line, or character
line, or an intelligence line, but simply
a color line. 1t means an aristocracy of
skin, based according to the southern
senator ,EusUis, upon "a conscious, natur-
al, eternal inferiority of the colored
race" and against which it is ''profane
to protest." 1t stands for the perpetuity
of invidous race distinctions. 1t denies
the brotherhood of man. It assumes a
master and subject class which accord
| ing to it, God meant to be perpetual
and over which line there IS to be no
crossing forever. Intelligence must not
cross it, Moral worth cannot cross it,.
Christian faith cannot cross it. 1t is a
line of skim 1t stands for the annihila-
ton of, and has practically annihilated,
our civil rights bill /; it means an unpro-
voked inGignity flung daily in the face
of one part of Gods children by another;
and it means the SANDER of Almighty
God, that he intended this to be 80. 1t
insists not simply upon private social
INEQUALITIES, which may be both natural
and right and with which neither state
nor church should interfere, but upon
public, civil and social subsection. Thus
it prostitutes the Christian church. II
makes one class of Christians ignore or
refuse to fellowship another class, equal
" Christians, lest forsooth they should
break over this line of skin. Regard
less of character or intelligence, it makes
one class of men deny to another their
natural rights in the jury box, at the
ballot box, on steamboats, and railroads,
in hotels, concerts halls and public schools
Let me mention a specimen out OF hun
dreds that are daily occurring. A Gull
tivated lady. member of the First church
of Oberlin, former student of the col
ege and conservatory of music, teach
er of music for seven year in Fisk Uni
yersity, and eight years in Atlanta, buys
a ticket one evening to Gilmore's band
concert in Atlanta; goes in to take the
reserved seat she has purchased; Is
ordered out. She protests that the seat
| is hers and policeman is brought in TO
put her out, lest her presence there
should infringe upon the divine right OF
this aristOcracy of skin! A colored Chris
tian girl goes out from Atlanta Univer-
sity to teach colored children in the
country. A band of southern gentle
men surround the house where she lod-
gps, announce to her that she shall have
till the next night to get out of the
town. This, too, is to preserve the aris-
trocracy of skin. A cultivated white
young lady from the North, engaged in
American Missionary Association work,
visiting white southern friends during
her vacation, her occupation becoming
known, as she enters the church
with her friends on the Sabbath is
compelled to sit in the "nigger pew y
at the back end of the gallery or leave
the house, not because she is black, but
because she teaches the black, to read
the Sermon on tie Mount. Now, apart
from the fact that this spirit is low rude,
vulgar, cruel, the great thing that damns
it is that it is Christian. 1t lies d.
rectly athwart the path of the gospe
wi ich the church is commissioned to
extend. 1t is not only the fruit but
the refined .essence,th the condensed resid
uum' of the malignant poison of the
old slave system which the war abolish
ed only in form. In India there is some
| lOl lLC bDlllb Vi NuDNNs ~ 10 NhN
result of centuries of heathenism where
no gospel was ever known, Here
| it has grown up under and in spite of.
the gospel of love. In India, when a
man becomes a Christian he filings away
the caste spirit ae heather relic, hostile
to Christ. Here it is maintained by
protesting Christians as ordained by
God. In India the gospel stands above
such spirit, lifting men to higher
plane of love and justice. Here the gos.
pei itself is being dragged down to the
level of the caste spirit In India men
are born into their caste and know no
better. Here it is the result of a system
which Christianity IN its own defense
had to wipe out in blood. In India the
caste spirit may control to some extent
in secular affairs even converted souls,
but in religion that spirit is spurned
away. Here black men and white men
1Cork together, in all secular affairs, but
in religion must they divide?N)w what
hold to be true is this, that this whole
system covered by the phrase "coloT
line," the colored car, colored waiting
room seconed class car for first class tick
ct colore1 citizens denied their place at
the ballot-box, jury box, and concert
hall-a blinded church deny ing ecclesi-
astical fellowship to Colored Christians,
statutes Of Georgia which thirty years
ago offered $500 for the head of Garrison
and to-day forbid a Christian professor
to teach his own child in his own college,
this whole fabric Of the aristocracy of
the skin, when called by its own name ,is
the work of the devil, which the Son Of
God was manifested to destroy Rev,
DR.. Brdnds's address before the Amer
icnn Missionary Association.