San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-06-06
REASON FOR so DOING.

| budb 10 oulIou ny SOlOiOu Luoh, hds
this to say concerning recent occur
renee in this state of freedom and
equality before the law. The Free
man says:
The following is to the News from
its correspondence at Dallas:
Tonight AL Hawkins, a white man,
while under the influence of drink,
| jostled against Nelson Walker, col.
ored, who was returning from church
with his wife and child. Walker I'M
dertook to resent the insult whereup-
on Hawkins drew knife and literally
cut him to pieces"
"The above account of the killing OF
harmless, unprotected, unarmed
and unoffending Negro, is only link
in the concentration of Outrages Of
which, from day to day, the
Negro is victim. 1t is next
to an impossibility to peruse a
daily paper without seeing an
account of the killing of some inOf-
fensive negro, under captions similar
to these, "a black fiend pays the pen
atty of his crime" "a negro rapist
executed by order of judge lynch"
"a negro lynched," Negroes becom.
ing offensive are ordered to leave the
country" etc., etc. Captions, nine
tenths of which, have not the slight
est coloring of truth in them. Right
here the Journal would have it under
stood that it does not pretend to say
tina: none of the negroes are guilty of
the crimes imputed to them. But
insists that the guilty parties be
given a fair and impartial trial by the
powers that be, and not be left to the
mercy of mob law. According to the
above excerpt, Nelson Walker,a quiet,
peaceable, unoffending, law-abid-
ing citizen, returning from church
with his wife and daughter, is run in
to mo doubt for the purpose of raising
rumpus) by drunken hoodlum,
and in attempting to resent the in
suit is literally cut to pieces. With
his life he pays the penalty of the
crime" of which any man who loves
his family would be guilty, viz: de-
Tending them. Had this been a
white man, set upon by drunken
negro while quietly returning from
church with his family, the negro
would have been made to play solo
on one string. But as it is negro
who is the victim, there is no clothes
lire missing"
There is an awful accent of hard
truth in this arrangement of the law
and humanity of Texas as seen in the
treatment of the white Of
fender and the colored offend er.
To say not one word abou
race, conditions, politics, or any
thing connected Herewith, it does
seem so basebOrn, cOwardly and uu-
manly to crowd poor inOtlensive
people to the wall as the colored PEG
pie are crowded every where The
sou,h is 10y no means alone in this
thing, but the life and limb of a col
Ored man is more secure in the north
ern states, and such an occurrence as
that recorded in the News would en-
danger the neck of the white wretch |
who perpetrated such an outrage. 1t
is fact, however, that while the old |
time southerner looks more kindly |
than a northern man does the life of a |
colored person is counted oflittle worth |
in most sections of the south today. 1t
is pitiful thing, but it is true. All
our boosted refinement and chivalry is |
not strong enough to evolve o cOnsid- |
GRAFTON of color from the problem of
human conduct in the vital matters |
of life and death. Surely the right to
live is not denied the colored man in |
the mind of his white neighbor and |
fellow citizen. Perhaps, however,,
there be more than are supposed, who |
say with the Charleston News and |
Courier, "The acknowledgements of the |
Negro was undoubtedly crime
against civilization and a sin against |
God" All the same, these people
should understand that from |
the provisions of the Fifteenth |
there is no escape, |
and that the negro having been |
made a free man is entitled to the |
and privileges which that
granting Of freedom entails. He GER
tainly has the right to walk the |
streets unmOlested if he behaves him |
self, and if he does not he is as
to the law as his white |
neighbOr. He has the right to pro-
tect his wife and daughters from in
suit and his home from invasion, and |
to deny him these rights or practically |
to suppress them is most unjust anu |
There is altogether too
much cause,fo the complaint made by
the Freeman and the cowardice OF
the thing not to say cruelty and in
justice cannot be cOndOned. 1t is
cowardice for the strong