Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1890-04-18
FRIDAY. ........... APRIL IS, 1890
The Negro Convention.


assembled in this city on Tuesday and adj
iourned sine die on Wednesday were re-
ported in our paper yesterday and the day
before. II seems to have been an orderly
body and to have felt in some degree the
responsibility which rested upon 1t as
representing the negro element OF our
population. The reference to Mr.. MASSEY
in one of the resolutions and the reference
20 Governor McKMrxY in another were
not in good taste. Mr.. MASSEY is Superin-
tendent of Public instruction, and as such
will do his duty faithfully and fearlessly
under the law as il now stands whatever
theoretical opinions he may hold as to how
the school funds should be divided be-
tween the two races.
As 10 Governor McKISNEY, it may be
said that he could hardly have been ex-
pected to veto the bills which the conven-
ton censured him for signing even if he
had doubted their wisdom. The Cover
nor must confde to some extent in the
Legislature, especially when that body Is
composed largely of his political friends.
We have no doubt that he signed many
bill last winter which he regarded with in
difference, even if he did not doubt
whether he ought to sign il or not. We do
not mean to intimate that he ought not to
have signed the bills objected TO in the
resolution concerning him adopted by
the negro convention, but simply to
say that he was justifable in such case
in accepting the action of the Legislature
as responsive TO the demands of the people
The white principals in charge Of the negro
public schools in this city are, as we under
stand the matter, the choice of majority
Of the patrons of those schools. 1t seems
TO us eminently appropriate that the ne
groes should prefer white principals for
their graded schools. and white men as
trustees of their Normal School. Certainly
white men must be better qualified than
negroes to perform the duties of such
places. We cannot think it unreasonable
for the men who pay the taxes to desire to
exercise n proper supervision over the
schools which their money supports.
We shall not discuss here and now the
question raised by the convention as to
whether the laborer pays taxes for which
he gets no credit because they are paid in
directly. This is not practical question.
If the white men of Virginia should decide
not to allow their money to be longer used
in educating negroes. the negroes would
have TO remain uneducated. Abstract
theories as to what proportion of the taxes
they pay indirectly would not put negro
child into public school. We will add
that we have not been able TO concur in
Mr.. MAssEy's views on this question,
though our patience is sometimes we'll
nigh exhausted when we contemplate the
conduct of some of the "new-issue ne
groes, and we almost feel as If these ne
groes ought TO be abandoned to their fate.
Everybody nowadays believes in evo-
luton. Evolution accounts for every
thing. We all know that the condition of
things to-day is a result of the condition of
things which obtained yesterday. There
were great men before AGAMEMNoN. how
ever, and possibly as great as any who live in
our enlightened age. We do not know that
the negro is TO become black white-man
in the future; and we doubt whether it is
right TO teach the negroes that as the
white man has grown up to his exist
ing primacy from state no better than
their present condition they may hope to
produce HoMKRs and SHAKsPEAREs and BA-
CONS and MENTIONS OF some distant day in
the future.
One of the resolutions adopted by the
convention shows that the negroes are still
willing to be hewers of wood and drawers
Of water for the Republican party. And
yet the very negroes who adopted that re-
solution would in case Of trouble be sure
to call for help upon the white men whom
they always vote against. And it is proof
OF the blindness of the negro that he should
not be ashamed to declare in published
resolution that in Virginia the Democrats
have not been his friends in educational
development" Who. then, keep up all the
hne schools in which negro children are
being educated?
We agree that the negro must be allowed
TO emigrate If he desires so to do, or to
stay IN Virginia if he desires to stay here.
1t Is great pity that the negroes were ever
brought to these shores; but here they
are. and we must, If we can, be Just to
them.
On the whole the negro convention has
contributed nothing towards solving the
negro problem.