The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1897-05-01

- 7
Alex. Caddotte.
EXONERATED OF THE MI
the stigma may not rest upon our nation
of denying to aspiring, brilliant. patriotic
young men of the colored race the op
portunities afforded to all others.
It is in the separate schools of al
grades, established in the Southern anl
in many Of the Northern states. for col
ored youths, that such youths have
reached their highest attainments. In
such schools they are handicapped by nj
ostracism, by no sense of inferiority. In
an atmosphere of perfect equality and
JUST 20, unaffected by race prejudice.
their capabilities are deyeloved az no.
where else, and the results are such ss
to rejoice every friend of their race. So
it would be in military and avail school
| The government has, in the army, al
ready recognized the necessity of defer
ring to the race prejudice by organizing
the colored recruits into separate regi-
ments. The results have been entirely
satisfactory. Now let ar opportunity be
given for the education of officers fol-
those regiments of their own color. And
after a colored naval school shall have
been sufficiently long in operation, it
may not be amiss to set apart We ssel
or two to be manned and differed by
colored sailors. The story of Robert
Shaw shows how little need be feared as
to their conduct.
With colored population OF some five
or six millions, allowing to that popula-
ton the same proportionpte number OF
cadets az are now appointed from the
whites, the proposed new schools would
each afford the opportunity of a military
or naval education to about forty or fifty
colored youths. Selected by the same
method of competitive examination now
so generally adopted in making nomina-
tions to West Point and Annapolis, they
would naturally be among the brightest
of their race. Let the opening be mace
for them, and we shall not only be for
ever done with the constant recurring
spectacle of an ignoble trace conflict"
in our present national academies, but a
step will have been taken tending power
fully to lift and encourage the colored
people of our Union.
The above appeared in the St. Paul
Pioneer Press Monday. We thought the
Pioneer Press was the leading paper in
Minnesota, and Republican one at that.
But it does not seem to be either, judg-
ing from it's very recent opposition to
the passage of an amended civil rights
bill, and the above, which is the rankest
thing that has come to our, notice from q
Northern Republican paper. II the
Pioneer Press expresses the sentiments
of the majority of the decent whites of
this country, then may God have mercy
on them. They will be safe from food
because God promised not to drown the
world again, and, they will not meet the
fate of the inhabitants of Sodom and
Gomorrah, because the would will not
be destroyed by fire until the last day,
which is so far off that such old fogies
canuot possible live so long. But they
will become the laughing stock of their
fellow men and be RELOCATED to the ex-
treme rear Of the progressive army that
is moving onward and upward all the time.
There are lots of whites who profess
to be great friends and we'll wishers of
their Afro.Americans brothers and sisters
but. who always bestow their friendship
in such. patronizing sort of way, or
with such badly disguised air that
seems to say 'tyou ought to feel very
gratefulfor my condescension" that, il
diegusts those upon whom such hypo.
critical slush is spattered. Now the
Pioneer Press doubtless thinks it has
evolved new idea. But in the words
of the song: sits the same thing over
again.. These 80 called friends who
profess to believe in separation az q
means of killing prejudice know that
nothing engenders it more. What is
necessary is to establish the fact that
the 10, 100000 Of Afro.Americaus in this
country. must not suffer any more
ostracism and separation on account OF
color or previous condition than any
other class of the cosmopolitan popula-
ton does.
There never was any need for the sep.
arate institutions Of learning which have
existed in the South, and in some parts
Of the North, and had they never been
started the whole country would be
many years advanced. Because there
was no other way for the Afro Americans
to get education they grasped the lesser
Of two evils. And that such schools have
produced those of US who reached their
"highest attainment" is far from being