The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-19
The Color Line on Railroads.

The Color Line on Railroads.
Some time ago several eolored men made,
arguments before the Railroad Commission
of this State in behalf of equal rights for
people of their race on railroads. Their
arguments We're strong ones, and the justice
of their demand was recognized by the
commission and the railroad officials who
were present. They did not demand the
right to places in first-class coaches occupied
by white people, but they insisted uron
first-class accommodations when they paid
first-class fare.
A great many Northern people, who have
never had an opportunity to study the race
problem in the South are led to believe,
from articles which appear from time to
time in the Republican newspapers of the
North, that the coored people are denied
many privileges to which they are entitled
for no other reason than desire to make
them feel that they occupy au inferior posi-
ton and a settled purpose to compel them
to remain in that position. There is, of
course, prejudice against granting to col
ored people privileges which look towards
social equality, but this prejudice is not
confined to the South. II exists in the
North, but it is not so pronounced,
because the percentage of colored
people there is very small compared to what
it is in the South. If the colored people of
Georgia were to emgrate to Massachusetts
within the next year the evidences of preju-
dice against them there would be much
more numerous than they are in Georgia
to-day.
The colored people, however, are not
wholly blameless for the disposition that is
sometimes shown in the South to draw the
line between the two races very distinctly
They are aggressive, and if all restraint
were removed they would likely become
Extensively so.
In cases where they think their privi-
legeS are involved, they are much more apt
TO take more than they are entitled to, and
to exhibit much less courtesy than white
people under similar circumstances. A
resident of New York, in letter from Sa-
vannah, published in the New York Times
day or two ago, relates an incident which
came under his observation in a railroad
car near Waycross, in this State, which
shows that there are some Northern visi-
colored people of the South which are not
altogether admirable. In his letter be
says:
A short time since | wrote you from
Charleston in relation to the misrepresenta-
ton as to rights accorded persons of color
on first-cdss Southern railroad cars | have
since heard it asserted that in Georgia, at
least, these rights were denied them. To-
day on one of the first-clasS cars from Way
cross, Ga, to this place. were nine colored
people. Two couples occupied a seat each
The other five-men-each occupied an
entire seat. They all appeared to be &C
quaintances, and were evidently in one
party, but when several gentlemen and
la lies entered and were unable to find seats,
not one of them offered to sit with one of
his companions and thus make room,
as gentlemen usually do under similar
circumstances. Should Mr. George w
Gable have entered that car with
party of ladies, he would surely have been
amazed at seeing that neither the conductor
nor any passenger suggested that these ne
groes should double up and give a chance to
women and children, who had to go into
another car where white people who had
paid the same fare and were entitled to the
same accommodations as their colored
brethren), cheerfully divided their seats
with them. He would either have had to
quest the latter to vacate some of the seats
and sit together.
The colored people of the South may think
they have reason to complain of their &C
commodations in public conveyances in
some portions of the South, and perhaps
they have, but have they not many
things to learn Very many colored people
are courteous and considerable, and know
what is required of them when admitted
among orderly and self-respecting people
If the majority of their race were like them
there would, perhaps, be fewer difficulties
in accommodating the two races in public
conveyances If Northern visitors to the
South were to observe more closely, the
number of them who rush into print TO ex-
press their sympathy for the colored people,
and their condemnation of the prejudice
against social fellowship with them, would
be much less.