Daily Kennebec journal., 1898-06-04
oIRCN BUYS IN BLUE,
Soldiers Who Suffer From the South Race
Prejudice.

| leSai and other, based upon race and
ooior' Whlch exist in all the Southern
Std'es that there would be more or less
Vi tiouple OF one sort and another when
| the lour black regiments of United
NtateS regulars We're ordered from the
western army posts to Southern
poihts, TO be in readiness for active ser
wee on the South Atlantic and Gulf
coa5ts ana in Cuba in the war between
the United States and Spain The
members of these regiments have snent
the last 20 years in army service in the
western states, where they have been
as Tree from determinations based
upon race and color as their white
companions in arms: they have con-
sequently, and rightfully, come to be-
ileVe that they are entitled to the same
privileges and immunites in pubIi..
places and accommodation and the like
as white soldiers.
Having enjoyed this freedom and
having been held in the highest esteem
by the people of the West because of
their sobriety. manliness and courage
IN defending life and property from IL
dian depredations. when ordered TO 20
INTO other states to uphold the honor
and integrity of the nation against the
common enemy they naturally re-
belled against a lot of restrictions of
small and large degree the enforcement
of which worked great inconvenience
and the degradation of their manhood
and self-respect. This came about in
short order when the Twenty-fifth In
fantry reached Chattanooga and found
that, they We're debarred by law and
custom from nll ,.1n =
common resort. amusement and enter
tainment, and We're really free from
insult and arrest nowhere except in the
camp at Chckamauga. On the public
streets they We're insulted and arrested
upon flimsy pretexts. The uniform Of
the United States army was no more
protection than if they had been a lot
of black loafers and scrubs, as they
found upon more than one occasion. A
Southern policeman is the biggest
thing on the streets, and even soldier
of the national defense has to move IN
when ordered or get pulled" with o,
without provocation. 1t is necessary
to see Southern policeman in action
to appreciate the Importance of him.
But the straw that broke the camel's
back was the enforcement of the
- tt'i t'AN ii ii u itillltSStt DIl lilC
railroad between Chattanooga ana
Chickamauga Park. The black SOL
diers We're given to understand that
they could not ride in the common cars
With the white soldiers. but must ride
by themselves in the Jim Grow" cars
made ana provided for Afro American
people, black. yellow and almost white.
as the case may be. Anybody who
I-,,y., n; ,J,.
Crow cars knows that they are. in
most cases, of the poorest and yilest
character, no better than the smoking
coaches. and oftencr than otherwise
heing one-half of the common smoking
ear ana invariably jammed up against
the baggage car or the engine.
Into this apology for a coach Afro
Americans are forced indiscrmnately
the clean and the unclean. the decent
and the uncouth. the conVicts and the
bishops. the road and turpentine farm
hands and the teachers in schools and
colleges male and female. There is no
distinction and no escape. This arbi-
trary rcmanding of the entire travel
ing Afro-A American public To a common
level of Vileness and degradation.
where they are subjected to the in-
7pltiltt ti " IlItt row HIt'S anu til' ulttt-
torial impudence of trainmen. is prac-
ticed in all the Southern states except
Virginia and North Carolina, and is 4
greater source of discomfort and in
Justice and friction between the races
than any other law or regulation in
the Southern states. No sclf-respect-
ing black man or woman ever submits
to this separate car rascality without
help it. He would be a brute in OH
tuseness if he felt otherwise. All his
feelings and his sense of justice are
violently outraged by the regulation
and the manner of its enforcement,
The soldiers of the TWenty-fifth IN
fantry rebclled against this Jim Crow
car arrangement between Chattanooga
and Chickamauga. When ordered to
get out of the common coach and INTO
the Jim Crow car they refused to
obey orders. The conductor stopped
| the train and refused to order 1t 10
| move on until the soldiers should obey
| him. The chances are that the tram
| would be standing on the track until
| now if a post adjutant had not beeh
aboard and commanded the soldiers 20
| obey the conductor. The adJutant
! right to give the command Is nol ul.'-
puted. but the propriety of his doing 50
| is The only legality that inheres in
an unjust law or regulation is physical
ability to enforce it. The separate car
| laws of the Southern states are OF TINS
| character. They were conceived IN m
! iquity and enforced in brutality. pure
and simple. The soldiers oseyed the
officer but the injustice and the Insult
remained with them. and the Whoie oi
them decided to use the cars only when
they were forced by necessity to do
SO. But this must prove an ineffectual
remedy, even for the black boys III
blue.
The incident, based upon degrading
condition. should challenge the att"n-
| ton of the whole country to a p"dy oi
laws which should have no place on
the statute books of any state ne
Northern and Western states lohS ago
discarded all such laws. and there Is
no rhyme or reason for their existence
and enforcement in any Southern STATE
the white people of which are in no sense
better than the white people OF the hor'il-
crn and western states. 1t does not mat