The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1901-08-31
THE NEGRO nv TIT
NORTH AND SOUTH.

North are beginning to take q
commonsense view of the negro
question:, and are showing q
1t used to be that all a writer had tc
do to become popular in the North
was to print a lot of falsehoods and
absurdities about the poor, down.
trodden, inoffensive colored brothe,
in Dixie. The South was pictured
rs sort of hell where Southern
devils We'd with each other in in.
venting engines to Cypress and
torture a mild, though much
prosecuted race. On the other
hand, the North was described as
the heaven of the black man.
There he was fed on milk and honey;
he enjoyed civil, political and
social equality; he was taught Latin
and Greek in the universities; he
was given the best rooms in the
hotels and front seats in the opera
houses; his valor and patriotism in
spired the poets and orators and
the story of his oppression won the
solicitous care of philanthropic
souls. The negro is fruitful SUBJ
ject for theoretical study. A
benevolent person in Maine or
Massachusetts,, who had learned all
about the negro by reading Uncle
Toms Cabin and the illusions of
New England poets, found it an
easy matter to tell the people OF
Louisiana and Mississippi what to
do to solve the race question. But
time has conquered the passions
and Prejudices of the war and
sobered the judgment of men. In
stead of studying the negro at long
range, the leading thinkers Of the
North have had an opportunity to
see the negro as he is and not as he
has been described by dreamers. |
1t is perhaps a little late, but
tardy justice is better than none at
all. And 1t is no doubt a source of
to the South that
Northern writer's of character and |
ability acknowledge that the North
has been grievously mistaken in its
of the negro, and that,
after all that has been said and
written, the South is the real friend
of the black man. Speaking along
these lines the distinguished Rebecca
Davis said recently:
''When the negroes were freed they
were suddenly thrown, an idle, seething
mass. upon the country. Common sense
would have pointed out to their new friends
in the North that they should be trained to
10 the work which they had formerly done
and which somebody must now do, more
than before, and for wages.
common school education would have been
enough with the training for this work,
which is not only that of field laborers, but
If masons, carpenters, b1acksmths, etc.
Any one acquainted with con-
aitions in the North and South
knows that the negro has a far
better chance to earn a living south
IF Mason and Dixon's line than
north of it. The South understood
The negro and instead of trying to
make scholar of him, gave him an
opportunity to work. But the
North filled him up with Greek and
Latin and turned him out to starve.
Mrs. Davis says further:
Snow, when he has mastered these
studies. they refuse to allow him to use them
o earn a living. With the universities
urning out hundreds of graduates yearly it
; impossible to find position for one of
hem in Northern city higher than that of
waiter or valet. The Northerner is as .
brutal in his injustice to the educated negro :
o-day as the stakeholder was to the field
land. He cannot enter into any profession
II business IN the North without a struggle |
more bitter than death. The unions shut
him out of their trades. His only chance of i
uccess is as mechanic among his old r
masters in the South.''
1t is safe to say that, regardless
# Northern opinions, the South
vill continue to be practical, but
nst, in its dealings with the negroes.
When the negro will show a dis
,osition to work and behave ,
imself, he will be kindly treated,
Mt he will never be permitted to
overn.
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