The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1903-08-03
The Booker WASHINGTON Riot.

The Booker Washington Riot.
riot between factions of his own
color at lectu- by Booker r. Wash
ington, in church in Boston, comprise
hVe points OF fresh phase of the ne
gro problem in the north.
Inc light was one of factions One
crowd held with Washington and one
with his opponents over the question
or the proper sort of training that the
race requires in it's preparation for
lie, citizenship and independence from
poverty and the ills that accompany
II. washington stands for industrial
and moral education, thrift, good
homes and law and order citizenship.
In his programme he has the stron g
and impulsive sympathies of good men
north and south. He has been encour-
aged in thousand ways and by mil
lions of serious voices to persist along
the conservative and practice lines he
has adopted as a leader and counselor
of his people.
The factions were both Of colored
men and women. There was con-
certed plan by his opponents to go to
the meeting and raise a controversy
with Washington. The faction oppOs-
ed to him was made up of the average
Boston negro who has been cOddled
and maleducated by the social and pO-
litical equality monomaniacs of that
city until they can tolerate nothing
short of the free admission of the race
TO every place and privilege with white
people. They have been taught that
the color of their skin, because ii is a
badge of special privilege, should ad-
nit them to even more distinction,
rights and prerogatives than the aver
age white man enjoys. until now they
feel inSulted when asked to look with
honest ambition on the ways OF work,
OF political subsection under equal
laws and to doing practical things for
the general uplifting of their race.
Their desire is social preferment and
their dream is political domination
and by these u , supreme tokens they
are a dangerous element III any COM
munity north or south.
The personal pivot of the Boston
razor riot was Booker T. Washington.
This is emphatically significant. Wash
ingtOn has spoken before great audi
ences, white and mixed, and said
things of weight upon negro conditions
that have won for him esteem and nee
essary cooperation from northerners
and southerners honestly interested in
finding the equitable and enduring
modus vivendi between the two races
In this country The Constitution re-
marked some time ago up II the repeti-
tious hardness Of the experiences Of
Washington as the Moses of his peo-
pie He has now had also the eXpe-
rience of Paul on Mars Hill before an
areopagi of his own blood. Or was it
more like Paul's experience III Ephe-
sus. when his own people followed
Demetrius, the chief of the silver
smiths-in this case by the negroes fol
lowing the Notwithstanding He
would ruin our craft and by this craft
have We all our GAIN
This riot happened in church The
enraged negro, whether graduated
form the end of hoe III Georgia or
from Harvard in Massachusetts, runs
m hind and deadly violence without
regard for God or the conventions Of
man A church is just as good fight
ing ground LOT MIN do d 9iauSHtc i o.
house. Razors, knives and hatpins
were out and seeking blood. And so
much of Professor James prophecy
has come to pass. The other viii fol-
low and the day hastens to its dawn
when q negro will be hung on Boston
common, perhaps from the outstretch-
cd arms of Crispus Attucks statue, or
mavbe at the head of Commonwealth
avenue with the bronze face OF Will
liam Loyd Garrison looking down upon
the scene with unchanging aspect.
Lastly. the riot was in Boston. 1t
uould he a mean. uncharitable thing
70 tell Boston all the miserable steps
nv which her people have led them
-o1vas and sheir negro guests to this
diepraceful Eruption. 1t is to be hoped
tbat Boston will not need a wider and
bIoodier lesson to enforce an under
atonding Of her mistaken education of
nogro aspirations and aggressiveness.
u will not pay Boston to factor social
ID nolitical dynamite as 1t has been
ding This riot is the first evidence
80 .ha fact and Boston seldom follows
NV craft that does not pay.
rho negro question is a southern
,oat,on 1t is understood here by
Sot,, races and if Boston and the north
Iii lot It alone 1t will be speedily set
W. W. nth Justice to both races, with
ont anger and without Dat'ie'