Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1902-06-12
THE NEGRO PROBLEM.
Another Pertinent Article From
Wayne County's Colored
Philosopher.

EDITOR ARGUs:-I have been Sc
riously thinking over the shape and
condition of my race. hope you
will allow me to make mention of
some of my views through your
most valuable columns. The negro
race is like the people of all other
races, made up Of various kinds of
characters.
The honest, intelligent christian
C ass of the white race, knows our
true condition; they know all about
the circumstances. And they have
great sympathy and respect for
this same class of the colored race.
The time has now come for the ne
gro to make a righteous choice of his
true friends. Doubtless our good or ill
fortune greatly depends upon the
good or i'll choice Of our good or i'll
friends. There is great work ahead
for the negro to do if he would sue
ceed. The lack of a line of eminence
being drawn among the colored race
opens the doors to many a vice; it
puts the light of the colored race un-
der bushel, and men don't light a
candle for that purpose.
It is said, if the light that is in you
be darkness, how great is that dark
ness. It may be that you can edu-
cate a boy Or girl in fifteen or twenty
years, but doubt your educating q
race of people from total blindness in
thirty or forty years. I fully believe
that the proper time to commence
training child is at least twenty Or
twenty-five years before he is born.
I can't help from believing that with
the right kind of leaders and with
the proper instruction, the negro
would make a peaceful and profitable
citizen. His traits of humbleness
and obedience show this to be so. 1t
must be that ignorance is a curse, for
wherever you find the most igno-
rance in any race of people, there
you viii find the most prejudice.
This leads me to believe that in the
long run it will pay any State or
nation to educate its people. The
negro needs a practical education,
and the question comes up how is he
to get it? In the world of profess
sion his chances look dark. I pre-
dict that the twentieth century is
going to call for more and better
qualifications than the nineteenth
century ever called for.
IF the negro gets sick and is able
to pay his way he will send for the
best white doctor he can find; if he
needs a lawyer he will get the best
white lawyer he can find, and as for
preachers and school teachers, we al
ready have an over-supply. To
place the negro out before the busi-
ness world he is hardly in it at all,
and yet claim that the ambition Of
the colored youth must be turned to
that occupation in which he can put
his or her education into practical
use.
| claim that SO per cent. of all the
trouble between the races is some
where else than on the farms In
1889 thousands of colored people
went from North Carolina out West,
where they were told that twenty
barrels of corn and two bales of cot
ton would grow on one acre of land );
and the result is to-day that there
are not enough Of them left to re-
port back. Such moves as this are
very weakening in every respect to
the race.
A great many colored people of
North Carolina have taken a great
notion of late to go North. This will
only be at their own expense, and it
will settle itself in a short time. The
color line up North means one thing
and the color line down South means
another thing /; of the two give me
the one down South every time. We,
as weak race, need to be led to the
pastures of life, health, peace and
prosperity. There is not State in
the Union that can offer the negro
as good advantages all round as the
State of North Carolina has to offer.
The negro in North Carolina can
make himself all that he wishes to