Evening star., 1902-08-23

apart a land of Goshen for the abiding
place of the sable sojourpers, pevertheiess
this land is establishing itself BY the sheer
force Of racial gravitation. The tendency
black centers, Notwithstanding the opera
ton of potent dispersive Influences, has
been Widely noted and remarked upon. A
careful study of this populat tiop shows that
1t is solidifying along the fiver aourses and
in the fertile plains of the south, where it
was most thickly planted by the institution
of slavery. While these black belts would
have covered a territory as large South
Carolina at the beginning of the civil war
thirty years later they have grown to an
area greater than that Of all the New Eng
land states. IL
Expulsive Power Of Prejudice.
There are several causes which conspire
to perpetuate the segregative tendencies of
the negro population:
Il. Under the social conditions now pre-
vailing the negro Is compelled to flock with
his kind. He is thrown back upon himself
by the expulsive power of prejudice. The
negro possesses the social instinct In high
degree, and cannot endure Isolation. The
thinly veneered tolerance which he receives
when scattered promiscuously among the
whites by no means satisfies his longings.
He longs for his own church and society
and forms of social life.
2. The white population shuns open
rivalry or contact with the negro on terms
OF equality. Wherever white men and wo-
men have to work for living they avoid
those sections where they have to compete
with the negroes; and If indigenous to such
localities they often migrate to where the
black rival is less numerous. For this rea-
son immigration avoids the black BELTS
Whenever a community Of northern agri-
culturists settle in the south they usually
select a white neighborhood, and in some
instances at least, they have been known
to freeze out the negroes by methods of
their own devising.
Negro in Agricultural Districts.
'3. As manufacturing industry moves
southward, the poor country whites will be
drawn to the cities as operatives and work
men along lines of higher mechanical skill,
leaving the negro in vast numerical pre-
ponderance in the agricultural districts.
These factors operating separately and
cooperating conformity will perpetuate the
black belts of the south and make per-
manent this modern land of Goshen.
THE political, social and Industrial fu-
ture of these localities is 4 matter of Seri-
Gus Importance. These belts are so dis
tributed among the states that they cannot
maintain political integrity. They do not
follow the Atlantic coast line, but only
tangential to it at several points, and there
fore their commercial Importance is ma
terially lessened The negro constitutes a
majority in only two states; but even in
these the white mans superior political
sagacity will enable him to maintain gov
ernmental control for any calculable period
of time
1.-The educational, social and industrial
life must be elevated by the negro himself
under the stimulus of local and national
assistance. 1t is here that must be worked
out the future of the race on this cOnti-
nent. The great masses will be gathered
in these belts in the corresponding
black wards of our large cities, from which
the volatile particles will fly off in all direc-
tions to be dissipated and lost.
Would Lapse Into Barbarism.
"It is no reproach to these people to say
that if left to themselves they would lapse
into barbarism. No people, unaided, can
lift themselves from a lower to a higher
level of civilization. 1t is a social, it is
a physical, impossibility to lift ones self
by pulling against the straps on ones own
boots. But this land of Goshen is not to
be left alone; there will always be num-
Der Of whites aftiIiating with, the negroes
for purposes of philanthropy or gain.
Hampton and Tuskegee and Fisk are types
of phianthropic helpfulness. There is need
of autochthonous enterprise. Young men
of ambition and education will be forced to
such communities as field to exploit their
powers. The secret and method Of New
England may thus be transpanted to the
south by the hands and brains of sons of
Ethiopia. 1t is here that the great educa-
tional and developmental problems must
ha nrlxp cd ont