The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-16
JUSTICE FOR THE NEGRO.

say Sometnlng LrOm tne cOtotcu man side-not in the spirit in which so many of our Northern friends. or unfriends. discuss it. but in the interests of justice for the negro. It ought to be plain to all that in Ala bama the negroes are practically at the mercy of the whites, dependent on them. and in almost every respect dominated by them. They are no longer a factor in our politics. they have no part in our so- cial life. and their industrial life is large ly controlled by the superior race. In | fact it may almost be said that the ne- groes of Alabama exisk by sufferance, for they really have little influence and no control in our social. official and political affairs, and but little in our industrial occupations.
 All this being true makes 1t so much the more incumbent on the white race to give the negro that equal and exact jus tice before the law which belongs to all citizens of our State. In most respects | the negro is but a child. No people of any civilized country are less able to care for themselves than are our negroes.
 
 thoughtless. they live more largely for the present and think less for the future than any people on earth who have had the opportunities they have had. To charge, as some do that these de- | fects or attributes of negro character are the result of slavery is to falsify history 1 and shut the eyes to facts. Whatever of t1- of.nr nk1 of nt,, ization the coiored people now enjoy. they owe to contact with the white race through centuries of slavery and years of | freedom. That they have advanced but little is due entirely to racial characteris- tics, which can never be obliterated and but slightly ameiiorated.
 And that negroes are but children of larger growth, and that they are to great extent the wards of the white
 race, are unanswerable arguments in fa- vor of just, humane and impartial treat
 ment of them by the dominant race. A
 contract made with a negro should be as
 invioiate as a contract made with white
 man. promise made to negro should
 be as sacred as a promise made to a white man. We should respect the rights of the colored working man just as tena- ciously as we do those of the white man, and it should be a source of pride to us. as the superior race. that we give the me- gro all the industrial, political and legal rights to which he is entitled as part of our citizenship. That he occupies. and must continue to occupy. lower place in the social, or even in the political, scale than the white man does is but another argument for justice in all our dealings | with him.
 But 1t is especially in our courts that we should be jealous of the negro's rights. The law is supposed to look with impar- tiaI eyes on the humblest and the highest citizen of our State. The scales of justice should be evenly balanced without regard | to race or color. The sacred shield of the law should cover the laborer in his cot as it does the rich man in his man.
 sion. Justitia virtutum regina-'Justice is
 queen of the virtues.' says the old Latin
 axiom, and that queen should reign with i, out regard to color or station.
 Do the colored people always enjoy that
 strict and impartial justice which the
 laws of Alabama are supposed to insure ', to all her citizens? Let the records of our courts answer the question, and we shall find much in that answer which Is
 not a credit to us as a Christian people .. For many weeks a court in this Capital City of Alabama has been patiently, in dustriously and conscientiously endeavor. ing to carry out the requirements of jus . tice between the white and the colored citizen. If all has not been done that should have been done, and if in some . degree there has been failure to punish I the wrong-doer because he Is white ana , his victim is black, we may congratulate g ourselves and our State that something
 has been done in the right direction, ant f that a start has been made to convinc, 11 the world that the negro has rights whicl n the white maR must and shall respect q Even if complete success is not attained : we have the consolation of feeling tha
 there has been long step taken in tn n impartial enforcement of the laws. F And let 1t be understood that in all tha T we have said as to the duty of the whit 5 people of Alabama, we have not intendet to intimate that the negroes themselve
 are relieved from any responsibility n ., They are to large extent the arbiter u of their own destiny. They can mak - themselves criminals and outcasts. What
 ever may be said in some quarters to tn contrary, the best friends of the negr
 are in the South. Though there ma,
 sometimes be, as we have seen. miscar " rage of justice, and though there ma = sometimes be oppression and exaction, Il
 the main the real Southerner will protec
 the negro and will treat him justly an fairly, if he shall show himself worth
 of it. The negro brute, the thief, the ray H isher need expect no mercy, but the negr who shows himself desirous of maintain t ing the good will and protection of hi O white neighbors will have no cause c S complaint.
 And. to sum up. we plead for equal an U exact justice to the negro. and We exhor t him to prove that he deserves and desire u kindly and human treatment.
 f
 s Since we come to think of it, one mus e have powerful optics, and subject to tor " tuous adjustment to keep line upon tn n political twists of The Advertiser.-M Sbil n Item.
 Cut 1t out! You've had experienc
 enough to enable you to follow the gyra