The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1903-11-06
FRIDAY. NOVEMBER s.
PROFESSOR BASSETTS PLEA FOR
NEGRO SOCIAL EQUALITY.

guished himself in Il way that most
men of the south would not care 70
acquire distinction. This is Professor
Bassett. of Trinity College, Durham
Under the head OF Stirring the Fires
OF Race Antipathy'' he writes an ar
ticle for The South Atlantic Quarter
ly, his college magazine. In this ar
ticle he make some startling an
n~ouncements and expresses some re-
markabIe views for a southern man
of education and one who from obser-
walton and experience knows or should
know the true conditions at the south.
He goes TO a far greater extreme in
advocating social and political equal
ity for the negro than any southern
man and nearly ever nOrtherner
who has written on the subject. 1t IS
almost beyond belief that Il southern
man should hold such views and
should attempt through the magazine
OF which he is one of the editors to
force his opinions upon the people OF
the south.
We have not the space to give his
article ia full. but Will quote from II
so thai our readers may see what
manner of man his professor IN q
SOUTHERN college is. He begins h1G
article with the declaration that there
is a general increase at the south
IN opposition to the negro. The open
ing paragraph is:
Whatever be his view of the negro
problem the average American knows
that IN the last five years there mas
been a notable increase in the general
opposition to the negro. This deyel-
opment has occurred in both the south
and north. In the south it has mani
Tested itself more S~trenuously than in
the north. We see it there in reStrtc-
lions on the negro vote. in the passage
OF laws for Jim Grow" cars. IN an III
creaSing resort to lynChing. and in a
general augmentation of that sensitive
disposition on the part of sOutherneIs
TO take fire at the hint of negro out
rage"
Every man living in the south eN-
cept Professor Bassett knows that be
cause of the elimination of the negro
as a political factor the relations be-
tween the two races AVE become
much more cordial and friendly than
at any time since reconstruction days.
Does any one hold with the professor
that the Jim Crow car law was
passed. that the increased resort 10
lynching in cases of criminal assault
ON white women or that the dispOsi-
ton on the part of southerners to
take fire at the hint OF a negro ut
rage are the result OF hatred of the
negro by the Thite people Of the
south?
Few southerners. white or black,
will agree with him when he says:
This antipathy is not mutual. 1t IS
not the white man against the negro
and the negro against the white man.
It is not distasteful to the negro to eat
his dinner or to go to churches or to
theatres with white men. He is quite
willing to have equality. The race
feeling is the contempt of the white
man for the negro. 1t is the reaction
OF the superior against the touch of
the inferior: for the white man has
no doubt of his own superiority
He declares that it is doubtful if the
average southern white farmer would
admit tina the highest negro in Am
erica is superior 10 the southern hired
man n is white. Why pick
out the farmer to admit the superior
4Iy VI lie HoSTO. UT Why tnOISS the
white man who is forced by the ci.-
cumstances OF life 10 work for wages
as the one to whom he implies that
many negroes are superior. Had he
said it was the fact that the average
southern white man would not admit
d highest negro in America to be
n superior of the humblest white
ma no u-ar1lI I1,-a lo-,. -,,,oL ~,1,-o-
the truth.
On the subject of comparison OF men
of the two races he says:
"A man who's mind runs away
into baseleSS optimism is apt 10 point
TO Booker T. Washington as a prs
duct Of the negro race. Now Wash
ingtOn is a great and good man. a
Christian statesman. and take him all
IN all the greatest man, save Les.
born in the south in a hundred years:
but ne is not a typical negro. He dos
not even represent the better class OF
negroes. He IS an exceptional man:
and. endowed as he is. it is DrobaoI4
that he would have remained unedu-
Gated but for the philanthrOpic inter-
VentiOn OF white men,
Professor Bassett does not believe
IN making any distinction in. our So
cial life against the negro. In refer
ence TO the negro's place he says:
"To make him know mis- place and
10 make him keep his place. sum up
the philosophy Of many people in
reference 70 this intricate and perpleX-
ing problem. But we ought to remeIn-
Der Ca&t such an idea is neither scien-
tiff Ecr charitable. The place Of
every man il our American life is sucn
a one as his virtues and his capacities