Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1898-07-23
Mr.. Mitchell.

Mr.. Mitchell.
Dear Sir:-ln looking over the last
number of the PLANET was much inter
ested in what Tread on one Of its pages.
The extracts from the CLEVELAND
GAzErrE express my opinion exact
ly.
''The closer the north and south get
IS a result of the war the harder it will
be for the Afro American" I have
watched the progress of the war very
carefully and have not failed to see
that the "union of the two sections will
be at the expense OF the colored broth
err" Ihave shuddered when 1 thought
of what the end would be- But then,
GoD REIGEs.
Nh. FORTUNES REMARKABLE ASSERTION.
wish could feel that Mr.. Fortune
was wrong when he said that President
Mckinley had established "a dead line
beyond which an Afro-American can
not go into the volunteer army" but it
is just as ex pected. How could it be
otherwise when the Presidents right
hand man and confidential advisor
was so long accustomed to looking up
on colored men in sbackles confined in
his chain-gang
Mr.. PLATT AND THE coNvICTs.
Perhaps it is not generally under
stood that this man and Thomas C..
Platt of New York, both leading Re-
pubIicans, were for years lessees OF
convicts, most of whom were colored
men. Papers stated that they made
500, 900 a year from the labor of TIE
convicts in Tennessee They paid the
state $101 900 for their labor. The
death rate among these convicts was
simply appalling; and their sufferings
have been described by abler pens than
mine.
leave these things all with Him be-
fore whom not sparrow falls without
His notice. 1.-The Negro must be kept
down." is heard in the camp. and es-
pecially is it heard and the principle car
ried out in our courts of Justice.
BISHOP TURNER'S UTTERANoEs.
In another column you quote what
Bishop Turner says. (God bless Bis
hop Turner for his boldness.) Enough
men have been lynched to death to
reach q mile high if laid one upon the
other, and enough women and children
10 form the head and foot slab, if they
could be arranged to stand upon the
head of each other"
Alas Alas would to God that this
could tell the whole story. But it is
only in comparison as a drop of water
to the bucketful, when compared
to the great multitude that have drag
ged out a wretched existence in jails
and convict camps. and whose bodies
I'LL unknown graves or, as IS done in
Georgia, taken to the djssecting table.
AN OUTRAGEOUS SYSTEM.
Nothing but the middle passage''
has ever proved such destruction to
the colored race this side of the Afri-
can Goa st, as the convict-lease system
in the Southern States. A pen picture
of it's horrors would rival that given OF
the Spaniards in Cuba, or the Turks in
Turkey, or the Russians in Siberia.
Let us look at Mississippi where Negro
convicts have been flogged to death,
In three years three hundred and six
ty-seven convicts died cut OF an aver
age number of little over seven hun
dred-over one-half. Nearly every one
was colored.
A FEARFUL DEATH-RATE.
The death rate among the colored
convicts was more than double that OF
the whites, which showed worse treat
ment. / will give a few instances to
show how some of them died. They
whipped one man who was in 8 dying