The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1889-07-25
RACE PREJUDICE.


matter is sent and received by white
people have aroused much local
criticism, which in turn has provok-
ed no little comment in the northern
press.
In one case, at Covington, La,
a negro was appointed who had
never been citizen, who was I'M
known TO the people Of the town,
and against whose character charges
were made. But the most conspic-
uous case has been that of the office
at Bay St. Louis, a summer resort
for well-to~do people of New Or
leans, of which it is really suburb.
Here negro was appointed post
master, whose selection is complain
ed of on account of his color.
The men of the families being
generally absent in the city during
the daytime, the postal business is
done almost exclusively by the
women and children, and the local
press complains that it is disagreed
BILE for these white women and
children to find black man in con-
troll of the office.
When such complaints by the
local papers reached the North, a
number Of the Republican organs
were moved to expressions of the
most violent indignation. Gan in
sane prejudice" it was called by a
Massachusetts paper, while the
loud mouthed Boutelle declared, in
his Bangor Wing and Courier, that
"this is simply monstrous."
Why white people at summer
resort in Louisiana should object to
taking their letters and buying their
stamps from black postmaster was
something which these New England
people professed TO believe past
their comprehension. "Why should
good colored man be offensive as a
postmaster ?" asked Boutelle, with
the air of man who thought he
knew that nobody could answer
his question.
In the same line were the remarks
of Assistant Postmaster~G General
Clarkson, who is quoted as having
talked in this way to one party of
protesting Southerners: "Does not
a colored servant cook your meals,
another wait on your table, another
shave your face, and still another
mix your toddy for you? You adj
NIT that. Well, then, I'm unable
to see why it is that if you can take
your breakfast from black hands,
you can't also take your letters and
newspapers from the hands of negro
postmasters. At the Office in ques-
ton, Senator, colored man will be
appointed before night"
Anything more ridiculous than
this sort of talk cannot we'll be inn
agined. A New Orleans paper had
objected to the appointment ofnegro
postmasters in the sea>coast resorts
of the South on the ground that these
places care frequenteG by the high
est, most refined and best educated
classes of Northern and Southern
people" that such people wanted
white men or women in the post
offices, and that "this desired quail
fication is not an outcome of section
al prejudice; Northerners and
Southerners alike demand it."
This is the exact truth. The
most refined and best educated peo-
pie in the North do object to negro
postmasters at summer resorts or
anywhere else, for that matter.
There is nothing extraordinary
about this particular manifestation
of the color prejudice. There are
other exhibitions of the same feeling
in the North as well as in the South,
which are even more remarkable.
A newspaper conducted by negro
men has recently been calling atten-
ton to the fact that the dry-goods
merchants of Boston will not en-
ploy black men as clerks, statesmen
and saleswomen, no matter how de-
serving the applicants, simply be-
cause they are black.
Another newspaper conducted by
negroes, mentions an incident which
indicates that color prejudice is
sometimes stronger among Northern
men than among Southern.
A correspondent of that journal
who visited Knoxville, Tenn, not
long ago, and observed the many
large buildings in course of erection,
was struck by the entire absence Of
negro mechanics. Knowing that
MANY If the host housoe IN fho c;tv