The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-10-28
CITY NEWS.
FEELS COLOR Line
"A Competent stenographer Cant
Earn Her Living Because She
Is Colored.
Other Women Refuse to Work with
Her and She's in
Despair.

Minneapolis has given a fresh illus
tration of the statement that race
prejudice may be as bitter and disas-
trous for the individual in the north
as in the south.
To-day, Blanche w. Renix, COM
petent colored stenographer and book
keeper. has been obliged to give up her
single-handed struggle against preJu-
dice and to appeal to phllanthrOplc
people to aid her in overcoming
condition Of affairs that has become
intolerable.
Miss Renix has made a long and
brave fight against great odds and
asked no special help from any one.
Now, all that she asks or desires Is
an equal opportunity of getting work.
Her competency she has proved In
many tests and is ready and willing
to demonstrate it at any time.
Since coming to Minneapolis two
years ago, because she felt that it
offered a wider field than her former
home in Des Moines, Iowa, she has
made innumerable applications for
position and has given satisfactory
evidence to many employers of her
proficiency: but prejudice on the part
Of the employer or of the employees
with whom she would be associated
has always resulted in her being told
that, while she was we'll fitted for the
work in every way, she could not have
the position on account Of her color.
Men have given positions to other stem
ographers known to be inferior, be-
cause they could not overcome preJu-
dice.
One firm of. out-of town lawyers
was very much impressed with her
application and was not unwilling to
abandon the idea of securing her serv-
ices even when they found Miss Renix
was a colored girl. They arranged
to have her go, when they found she
had a mother who would accompany
her and make home for her, but
they had been unable to find place
where the family could live without
causing too much friction, and SO nave
been unable to carry out their plans
While this case was pending, another
applicant pertly told one of the firm
that he was preparing trouble Tor him
self in giving the preference, to col
ored girl, for, if he should employ her,
he would never be able to get any
self-respecting white girl to take the
place afterwards-that such action
would cause the firm to be blacklisted.
Unable to get a position, Miss Renlx
undertook work as a public stenog-
rapher, and in this she was fairly sue
cessful until the ill-will Of other Wom-
en- forced her out of one location after
another. The women employees or
larger OIIlCe ODJCSI W LII
presence. She has been told that she
ought to be hopping the halls or
working in the kitchen instead of try
ing to force herself into office work.
The only definite cause of complaint
alleged by the women DIRECTORS Is that
"she. uses the same washboWl and
| towel that we do" 49,
e. Miss Renix's plan has been to Sc
cure deskroom in some office, paying
| for it in service, and she has had no
difficulty with her office associates, In
! spite of the fact that the taunt gained
currency in her last location that
those men in room - must be awful
ly poor, for they have colored
stenographer.' .-. b.
One big milling firm gave her case
serious consideration, but their other
employees would not work with her,
so she was told that if she could Sc
| cure six other colored stenographers
that they might work in a room by
themselves the company would take
them. AS this condition was clearly
! impossible, there was little encourage
ment in that proposition.
Miss Renix is graduate of the Dies
Moines high school and secured her
business training in a business col
lege there, supplementing 1t with
special training in Minneapolis. She
has mother to support and is able
and willing to do it If she can only get
| work. She is determined not to give
up the struggle here, altho she says:
during these two years have often
prayed to die and have cursed the day
that I undertook to earn my living
by a business requiring education"
On the point of employing educated
colored people Minneapolis does not
rank with st. Paul, where there are
from six to ten stenographers and a
number in other clerical positions