Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1900-11-03
The sEPARATE OARS AEB THE
NEGRO.

washington EOsr says some
good things" sometimes concerning
the citiz IN of color i often ex ercises
spirit OF charity and good will which
is gratifying IL not refreshing to many
OF US who remember its former unkind
usterances Of other days.
No one, we think but an ex slave
owner or the son OF one OF the South
ern sutocrsts could or would have pub
lished the article which appeared ia the
PosT's editorial columns of Monday Oct.
29th, 1900.
It said:
We find in late issue of the New
Orleans Times-Democrst some timely
and, as we think, sensible remarks
spropos OF the efforts to separate the
! blacks from the whites in the street
cars.
The Council last night, by q decis-
i've vote OF II to 4, defeated the seps-
rate car ordinances, providing for the
separation OF Negroes and whites in
the street cars. Other Southern cities
operated star ears ct one time; all
have abandoned the system, but three
Il
cars in the last few months, and thew
have operated the System with q most
unsatisfacsory result to the public and
the car companies.
The new system has had the effect
10 drive the Negroes from the ears,
thus cutting down the revenues OF the
companies, and therefore entailing a
less frequent and lees satisfactory SER
vice for the public.
There Is, further the extreme diff
Iculty OF enforcing the law, and il was
never enforced in the star car DAYS,
when white men, in q hurry, paid no
attention to it, but insisted on mount
ing the first car that came along wheth
er it had or had not star on it,"
The so-called star car" was in oper-
alton in New Orleans as far back as
1855, but, as our esteemed contempor-
ary says it Batisi1e d no one, and soon
fell into disuse From the very begin
ming the whites disregarded the ordi.
nance. They took the "star" cara
whenever it suited their convenience,
| thus showing-whst is o notorious fact,
that the Southern whites are not ut. all
afraid OF contact with their colored
fellow creatures The system was fest
censured by the whites of the former
slave owning class. who had been used
TO Negroes all their lives, and did not
| object to them or shrink from them,
and who realized, besides, that it oper
Ated wantoR and cruel humiliation of
what was then . very numerous and
highly respected element OF abe popu
IIstion-known as the "eesoroon colo.
n.y." This was largely composed OF
persona OF Independent means, OF dis
tinet culture and rehnement, and Of
very considerable influence. Among
them we're merchants, professional
men, capitalists, brokers, sugar plant
ers, notsries, musicians. aud artists.
/ The idea OF excluding these people
from public carriers to which the white
, hoodlums, and riff raft Of the city we're
\ freely admitted was too absurd for toll
Grafton, Public sentiment ma short
work of the star Cal" then. Public
/ sentimant, after more than thirty
years of experience has frowned down
the effort to revive il new.
VIII the City Council of Richmond
and Brother r. L. PETERS, who of cred
the Jim Grow" ordinance read and
ponder these utterances The Posr
continues:
Tle old "sctofoon colony" has been
declmAted since then. Finding in New
Orleans less than perfect opportunity
hundreds OF them have gone 10 Europe
TO realize their ambitions, or st least
to Ind their moral and intellectual
level under perfectly unrestricted oon-
ditions. Some Of them, We are glad so
know, have reaehed eminense in lit
erature and art. Undoubtedly, ali of
them have found q wider arena and A
more encouraging encourage. But the
spirit which crushed the "star Gar"
nonsense thirty years ago survives to-