The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-11-07
1floral ano Religious.
" The Color Line.V

1
is general term which covers a GER
tain state of mind and state of society,
involving a multitude of civil and social
wrongs. 1t is not class line like that
i'm India. or money line, or a
character line, or an intelligence line,
but simply color line. 1t means an
aristocracy of skin, based according to
the southern senator, Eustis, upon " a
conscious, natural, eternal, inferiority
of the colored race" and against which
il is "profane to protest." 1t stands
for the perpetuity of invidious race dis
tinctions. 1t denies the brotherhood
of man. 1t assumes master and
subject class which, according 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 can not cross it. Christian faith
can not cross it. 1t is a line of skim
1t stands for the humiliation of, and
has practically annihilated, our civil
rights bill; it means an unprovoked
indignity 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 so. 1t in
sists not simply upon private social
inequities, which may be both natural
and right and with which neither state
nor church should interfere, but
upon public, civil and social subiec-
ton. Thus it prostitutes the Christian
church. 1t makes one class of Chris
tians ignore or refuse to fellowship
another class, equally Christian, lest
forsooth they should break over this
line of skin. Regardless 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, concert halls and public schools.
Let me mention a specimen out Of
hundreds that are daily occurring. a
cultivated lady, member of the First
church of Oberlin, former student of
the college and conservatory of music,
teacher of music for seven years in
Fisk University, 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 a
policeman is brought in to put her out,
lest her presence there should infringe
upon the divine right of this aristocracy
of skim A colored Christian girl goes
out from Atlanta University to teach
colored children in the country. A band
of southern gentlemen surround the
house where she lodges, announce to
her that she shall have till the next
night to get out of the town. This,
too, is to preserve the aristocracy of
skin. A cultivated white young lady
from the North, engaged in American
Missionary Association work, visiting
white southern friends during her va
cation, her occupation becoming known
as she enters the church with hei
friend on the Sabbath, is compelled tC
sit in the " nigger pew" at the back
end of the gallery or leave the house
not because she is black, but because
she teaches the blacks to read the Ser
mon on the Mount. Now, apart from
the fact that this spirit is low, rude
vulgar, cruel, the great thing thai
damns it is that it is ntiChristian. /
lies directly athwart the path of the
gospel which the church is commits
stoned to extend. 1t is not only the
fruit but the refined essence, the con
densed residuum, of the malignant poi
son of the old slave system which thu
war abolished only in form. In 1ndi;
there is some excuse for the spirit o
caste. 1t is the result of centuries o
heathenism where no gospel was eve
known. Here it has grown up under
and in spite of, the gospel of love. Ii
India, when man becomes Christian
he filings away the caste spirit as
heather relic, hostile to Christ. Her
it is maintained by protesting Chris
tians as ordained by God. In India
the gospel stands above such spirit
lifting men to higher plane of low
and justice. Here the gospel itself il
being dragged down to the level of tn
caste spirit. In India men are borl
into their caste and know no better
Here it is the result of system whicl
Christianity in its own defence had t.
wipe out in blood. In India the cast
spirit may control to some extent il
secular affairs even converted souls
but in religion that spirit is spurne,
away. Here black men and white me-
,cork together, in all secular affairs, bu
in religion they must divide. Now
what | hold to be true is this, that thi
whole system covered by the phras
color line" the colored car, colore
waiting-room, second-class car for first
class ticket, colored citizens denie
their place at the ballot-boX, jury-box
and concert hall-a blinded church dt
nying ecclesiastical fellowship to colore
Christians, statutes of Georgia whic
thirty years ago offered $500 for tn
head of Garrison and to-day forbid
Christian professor to teach his ow
child in his own college, this Who'll
fabric of the aristocracy of the skin
when called by its own name, is tn
work of the devil, which the Son {
God was manifested to destroy.
DR.. BrandS's ADDRESS before the Anaei
icon Missionary association.