The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-02-02
THE COLORED MEMBER.

It is bad enough that North Carolina
should have the only Niger Congress
man. 1t is sufficiently humiliating to the
white people Of the Second district; sad
enough commentary upon the political
conditions that have obtained in this
State. What shall be said when that
niger Congressman gives utterance to
the following on the floor of the House:
Il have investigated the lynchings in
the South and find that less than 10 per
cent. of them are due to the crime Of
rape. And l desire to announce here
that if it were not for the assaults Of
white men upon black women, there
would be less of the other class"
Thus does the Manleyism of 1893 show
its head in 1900. Manley slandered
white women in a scurrilous negro news
paper having a local circulation White
justifies assaults by negroes on white
women by slandering white men in
speech in the Congress of the United
States. We are told that 'the public
galleries contained many colored people
who applauded this utterance vigorous
ly."
So far as this particular negro is per-
sonally concerned he may be dismissed
as beneath contempt. There is a far
graver side to the matter. This negro is
regarded by his race as a leader; he
both reflects the sentiment of his race
and his utterances react upon his fol-
lowers with an effect that was made
sufficiently plain by the vigorous APP
plause" with which his SANDER was
greeted by the negroes in the gallery
AS the blatant mounting of a mere ne
gro, Whites utterances are not worth
notice; as a fresh manifestation of ne
groism, of what the negro's attitude is
toward the white man, now and always,
its significance should not be allowed
to escape us.
When a negro of some education and
of more than ordinary intelligence among
his race can so far forget himself as to
use such language in a speech on the
floor of Congress, what is to be expected
of the more ignorant of his followers?
If there We're no other reason, this ut
the absolute necessity of permanent
white rule in this State. 1t makes plain
the fact that the negro has learned
nothing from experience and that he is
utterly devoid of all sense of official re-
sponsibility and of public decency-nay
more, that the negro in office regards
himself as the enemy of the white man
and is anxious to have his race share in
that sentiment. Therefore he becomes a
menace to the peace of the common
walth and danger to the safety of both
races.
The 'inoffensive negro OfficiaP' is
largely a myth. The negro may be in
offensive as a private citizen, but with
his induction into office he becomes a
new individual. White is typical of his
kind. Veuunous, forward, slanderous of
the whites, appealing to the worst pass
ions Of his own race, he emphasizes
anew the need of making an end of him
and his kind. That is what the white
people of this State propose to do. They
have had enough of Manleyism. They
have more than enough of negro Con-
gresham White. He must be made an
impossibility for the future, and will be-
The people Of this State will not toler-
ate that sort of thing. This has been
made sufficiently plain already. And
after next August it will be so plain that
even White, Pritchard, Butler and all
advocates of Manleyism will be able to
understand it.