Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1889-12-20
FRIDAY. DECEMBER 20. 1889
Negroes North and South.

II is scarcely worth while TO undertake
10 convince the negro agitators who met
In conference in this city few days ago
that the people Of their race are better
provided for in the South than in the
North. Yet this is the fact. We were
once told in New York that it would be
worth q Negroes life for him to undertake
90 drive dray on Broadway. This was
years ago. but the same feeling still con-
trolls the laboring classes in that city, as is
evidenced by the fact that along the New
York waterfront this very week there was
n strike amongst the white employees due
solely TO their fixed determination not TO
allow negroes to come into competition
with them even in the humble occupation
OF the 'lonSshorcmen.
The turbulent negro agitators to whom
we referred in beginning this article are,
we suspect. most of them "colored peo-
plen aud not negroes. This distinction
between real negroes and those who have
n modicum Of white blood is not OF our
origination. II was drawn in an article
which we read few days ago setting forth
the intricacies of what Is styled the negro
problem" though according to the author
Of that article the real negroes are merely
used as tools by the agitators, these hitter
being " colored people"
& However all this NAV be, these igitators
who clamor about the wrongs under which
they suffer in the South must be blind in
deed if they do not know that the negroes
of the North have much greater reason 10
complain of the manner in which they are
treated by the whites amongst whom they
live. The preamble 10 the resolutions
which were adopted by the agitatOrs as
sembled in this city last Tuesday is in the
nature Of an indictment Of the white peo
pie Of Virginia for their maltreatment Of
the negroes. Yet there isin reality but one
count in this indictment. 1t IS remarka-
bic fact. TO which we call the attention of
the northern people of all parties and all
colors without distinction of race, color, or
previous condition of seryitUde, that
these agitators and stirrers-up of strife
charge their white fcllOw-citiZens with
committing no wrong upon them ex-
cept that Of preventing them from voting.
"Only this and nothing more.' The pre-
amblc is long, and plays the variations "
on the one wrong complained Of, but there
Is no other charge after all than the single
one that by q resort to questionable
methods the negroes here were in Novem-
Der. 1888, deprived of the privilege of ex-
ercising the right of suffrage in the cleo
ton then held for electors Of President
and Vicc-Presidcnt Of the United States,
= n ont 1 fro
voting for Governor.
In what occupations are the negroes em-
ployed in the North? rhe New York
World SAYS that they are cooks, boot
blacks. walters. porters, sleeping-car at
PENDANTS, coachmen, foOtmen, etc. They
are rarely employed in mechanical occupa-
tions or even at such unskilled work as
that of horse-car drivers, hod-carriers, and
The like"
In word, the negroes at the North are
engaged only in mental occupations, whilst
in the South most of the negroes are en-
gagged in tilling the soil, which the same
paper truly says "is no mental occupation
mt ALL"
The mote in the southern mans eye is
pointed out by the Virginia negro agita-
tors The beam in the northern mans
eye escapes their attention altogether. Is
1t not evident that these mischiet-makers
are mere seekers after place and pelf P
men who would make "hewers of wood
and drawers of water" Of their negro fell
iow-citizens ?-who dwell upon crimes
against the elective franchise because these
are the only wrongs in which they feel a
concern? Wrongs perpetrated in the
North are not worth noticing.
We submit that it is high compliment
b the people of Virginia that the most dis
satisfied and most turbulent Of the negro
ngitatofs here can find nothing 10 charge
them with except the exclusion Of few
ignoramuses from the ballot-bOx.