The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-08-06
WHITES THEMSELVES TO BLAME
For the Slow Progress in CiviIiza-
ton Made by Southern Negroes

To the Editor of the Globe.
eeg the indulgence of space in the columns
or your deservedly popular journal to thank
you for what l consider to be the fairest of
the many criticisms l have yet seen in the
Whlte newspapers of my comments In a
Washington newspaper on the Submerged
half of the black race in Nashville Tenn
What said was mild in comparison with a
recent deliverance of Mr.. 7. T. Fortune in
the New York Sun CT May II last in which
he not only relegates these ignorant black
people to outer darkness, as it were. but
draws the color line between the blacks and
mulattoes, more hateful and dangerous if
such a thing is possible than the invidicus
prescription which is pract!ced upon both
the blacks and the mulattoes in the South,
and which makes, his position the more rep
rehensible and unreasonable.
have no apologies to make to anybody
and no regrets for anything have said in the
article which you do me the honor to quote
and comment upon. You have correctly and
honestly interpreted my meaning and all
fair-minded men will acGuiesce in the state
ment you very sensib.y make. that if this
debased, vicious and criminal class Of my race
in the South, for whose existence the better
class of the white and colored people who are
really the culpable classes in that section are
responsible, lived in the North, you would ex-
clude them as vigorously as the Southerners.
Friction between this element in the South
produces and intenEtfies race hatred, and
am not so sure that the so-called better
classes OF negroes all over the country espe-
cially desire to come in contact with it.
1t is regrettable fact but neverthe 'ess
these people up to their own standards of
morality virtue and intelligence are abso-
lutely and positively out of sympathy with
this unfortunate class, and are doing nothing
in a practical way outside of building
churches for the material uplifting of this
great mass Of black ignorance. The sever
est critics Of the negro proper are those who
are neither negroes nor white men, those who
have been the largest benefciaries of the ne
gro's ignorance and credulity. This mass of
back ignorance in the South may thank the
guiding and restraining influences of the white
Christian civilization of that section for what
they have been and still are to a great eX-
tent. For two hundred years or more the
whites have been crushing them into grow
cling animality; and it is impossible for any
people to eXtemporize decent civilization
without space of a generation from the con-
ditions of slavery. My wrath rises against
the contemptuous Christianity of the whites
and my sorrow and pity go out to these
dark, sad millions of my poor, blind and
wretched people.
1t is not difficult to find a reason for this
condition among us, and 1t will not be diff
cult to find a remedy for it. If negroes North
and South would stop trying to be everything
else but negroes and bend their energies in
the direction of race elevation along practical
lines, there would soon be little to conn ain
of in this regard But all observant negroes
have noticed the tendency of the more intel
ligent and cultured people of our blood to
break away from the negro race entirely for
getting the fact that race as Dfsraei SAYS
is the key to history Respectfully
John Edward Bruce.
Albany N Y