The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-10-05
A BLACK COMM 0NWEALTH
THAT SHALL SERVE AS A REF
UGE FOR THE RACE.
IS WHAT THE NEGROES AIM AT
Virginia and South Carolina Negroes TaIkirg
About Advantages of, re thtm in
this State and Prep
ing TO Enigrate.
atlanta constitutional
BY FRANK WELDON.

BY FRANK WELDON.
Raleigh, n c., September 30-(Staff
Correspondence THE white race and
the black race in North Carolina are
engaged to-day in momentous struggle
for supremacy
Although it has been conducted in
peace, without loss of life or even the
letting of blood, it is as much war for
conquest as was ever fought and won
or lost by armed hosts.
The black race, united, solid agrees
sive, is marching as one man against the
divided white with the avowed purpose
of oyer-throwing what slight yestige of
their power remains and setting up for
themselves a sovereign negro state.
Then they will repeal the laws against
inter~marrage between the races and
mixed schools. and all other laws which.
in any manner, shape or form, provide
for seperate accommodations for whites
and blacks.
This may be denied for political eff
feet, but there is abundant evidence to
is furnished by the colored people.
Their aim is to COLOMBO and negroize
North Carolina and to so firmly establish
themselves in possession that the black
race will flock here form other Southern
States.
This is the solution of the race question
which the negroes are attempting fot
themselves. While some of our Southern
\. M
blem and others have said, with Grady,
that the two peoples were working it out
together and could only report pro-
gress,' colored men of additional stand
ing and wide influence among their own
blood undertook to solve the issues Oh
lines of their own The discovery OF
this fact came as suddenly and swiftly
as a meteor athwart November
nights sky. 1t is no secret that colored
leaders. ambitious for their race, have
matured in their minds plan by which
they hope to obtain absolute control OF
the legislative, judicial and executive
machinery and then to rapidly carry out
a scheme of colonization by which this
will become a thoroughly negro sovereign
State, with that population in the ma
jority and furnishing all officials in the
public service from United States Sena-
tors and governor down through judges,
legislators and solicitors, TO the last con-
stable and janitor.
If their plan succeeds, North Carolina
is to be the refuge of their people IN
America. Their brethren from all the
Southern States will be invited to come
here, cast their lot among their fellows
and together to work out their destiny
in whatsoever degree of prosperity and
advancement they may be able to achieve
for themselves.
This is no fairy story, no invention of
the imagination. but Il vital reality, for
the invitation is going out even now and
the word is spreading far and wide. |
heard it Wednesday on the southernrbor-
der of the State from reputable witnesses
who had that day returned from South
Carolina. Yesterday it was told to me
by men who had just come from Virgil
mia. The negroes IN the adjoining States
are discussing it and are enthused, and
the idea is spreading in ever widening
concentric circles.
IF North Carolina goes Republican
again this year, we intend to move over
there. The negro has more rights there
than anywhere else" This was the sub
stance Of the talk in both South Carolina
and Virginia. The blacks are very much
dissatisfied with the political conditions
in the former States and are anxious to
get away.
Nor is this a fanciful and altogether i'll
lusiye dream of commonwealth on the
part Of it's projectors. On the contrary,
it is far more practical than Bishop Tur-
ner's scheme to deport his people to Aft
RIGA and colonize and ciyilize the dark
continent. 1t is more practical, too,
than the plan suggested by our own
gifted Georgian, John Temple Graves,
who for years has been propagating the
theory of forming negro State some
where in our great Western domain. The
colored man of the South does not want
to 90 to Africa nor to the West. He
prefers this climate and this soil. Bish-
op Fetty saw that any plan which con-
templated an exodus of his people and
colonization by them Of new territory
would not be popular. Knowing that
the negro prefers to stay in the South,
Bishop Petty hit upon the bold scheme
of colonizing a Southern State with his
race and he believed North Carolina
was the one in which to make the at.
tempt