The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-05-31
WHY The SOUTH is SENSITIVE.
RELIGIOUS ASPECT or THE Ne
Gro PROBLEM.


The Rev. dr. W. W. Landrun, 81 ALBANIA
| Ga, Voices the Conscience OF Inc
, South--White supremacy Dut! O"ed
| TO God, He Declares Traditions Iha'
Deny social Equality to the Negro
ATLANTA. Ga, May 3O-There is no
man who is better qualified to speak for
the religious element Of the South than
the Rev. DR.. W. W. Landrum. pastor OF
the First Baptist Church OF this city, and
there is no part of the country where re-
ligious influence is stronger or more lar
reaching than in the Southern States,
| Dr. Iandruin, in speaking upon the negro
! problem, may fairly and truthfully be said
TO voice the conscience of the religious
| South on that vexed problem. Himself
Georgian by birth, his father and his
grandfather before him were distinguished
representatives of the pulpit in this state.
As to the negro question, DR.. Landrum
has not only the advantage OF intimate
| touch with the sentiment on the subject
which emanates from all that is best and
most conscientious in the Southern social
fabric, but he has also had special oppor-
tunties for studying the question in its
educational aspect. He is chairman OF
| the executive board of Spe!lman College,
an institution endowed largely by Nortn-
ern money and devoted exclusively to
| the education of young negro women.
He is a graduate of Brown University and
! is now president of the Home Mission Board
of the Southern Baptist Convention.
| Under the title of A Voice From the
| Silent South" DR.. I.andrum prepared
/ especially for THE Sun the following presen-
! tation OF views on the question OF the
negro = ni,c
| There is now less heat and more light on
the problem. Optimism. on the part OF
negrophiies. vanishes after generation Of
! facts. Pes~imism. cherished by negro
! phubists il proved to be nightmare.
"Meiorism marks the present temper OF
sobec thinkers. The silent South, the men
| and women in this section who do NEST
! for the negro and say least about 1t. are
I more hopeful Of the future than ever
| before.
This element are not gnostics on the
! one hand, or the doctrinares who profess
| to be able To forecast the outcome of the
| race during the twentieth century, nor
! are they easy-going agnostics on the other.
| They belong to the Pauline class Of seers.
They are merognostic. They say We know
in part and we prophecy in part
Whether the negro will be this or that
or the other. one century or twenty CEN
his best friends in the South to-day Pres
ent duty is plain.
BY common consent, North and South.
he is to-day not - much the ward Of the
nation as the charity pupil Of southern
. Christianity and patriotism Politically,
az the reoen, decisions of the Supreme Court
: clearly demonstrate. the negro disappears,
Socially, whatever ab)rtive attempts NAV
be put forth in Washington to reverse
racial instincts, the negro is universally
shut out of Anglo-Sayon homes
"Industrially, Internationally rcligiously.
the black man may expect to receive not
only justice, but generosity al the hands
of the silent South. The sectional con-
science awakes to find a new door of op-
portunity to do ra'ional and helpful work
for the inferior race, now that his political
and social subordnaton are preached by
the saints, sagcs and statesmen of the
country from one end to the other. For
the first time since reconstruction the silent
South feels tho force Of pobiesse obiige.
All Americans unless there be one in
the highest place in the nation who con-
sp.cuo,.sy disseHts. having agreed to let
the South settle the social relations OF the
negro according to its own code of ethics
and ,me-honorei conventionaiity, the
South the silent South. a. all events that
eschews partizan politics except in some
sectional crisis. warns with fresh phlan
thrOpic zeal for the negro's welfare. With
social equality exploded as worse than
fantastic and foolish, aye, positively I'M
wise and wicked. the mora! and religious
reserves Of the South will don the uniform
and heroically fight for the black mans
! uplifting. -..-..-
ton can never be understood except in the
liph. of it. history. First of all, in the light
OF its religious history Slavery was once
preached a. IA divine institution. Adolf
tionism and a heism once meant the same
thing. Stonewall Jack sons courage was
born Of the conviction that he was engaged
, i'm n holy war. All SOG'hernerS are, a. bot
tom. as religious aS the Beers Of Africa
This fact has been too often overlooked, 1t
is meaningful
To-day Southern people are the most
literalistic and the most cronservativo body
of Christians in IN" world. Gods provl-
,enco. thev concede. ha, overthrown slavery
and they bow before His sovereign will to
that extent
"God's choice Of the Auglo-SaXon race as
the elect of mankind they maintain win
deafness grasp. Anglo-Sayon in the die
tionarv of the plous Southerner, means
modern Israel.
For two and a half centuries they
learned the doctrine at their mothers knees,
and drank il in with their mothers milk.
To this hour the doctrine beats in the blood.
absolute supremacy on the part OF the
white people they believe to be duty they
owe to God. Inideiity. in this sphere, Is
the unpardonabic sin. No Protestant pas
hold his office if his parish!oners suspected
him of most remote tendency toward any
thing that snacked Of negro social equality.
Newspapers have little, if anything, to
saw on this aspect of the negro question, but
il is paramount and universal. Dsloyaltv
to social separation between the two races
is a crime against God, according to the
rock bottom convictions of the religious
populaiion which is the controlling leaven
of Southern citizenship.
The negro question is fundamentally
religious question. Hence Southern sem
sitiveness concerning il.
"Furtherrnore, the South maintains that
il is the most American section of the Repub-
lie 1t invites study Of the census on the
subject 1t is proud of having the largest
percentage of native Americans. II claims
the largest proportion of hereditary Ameri-
cans, the original Revolutionary stock.
Along with this fact is the most intense
devotion to what the South regards the
best traditions of our forefathers Among
these is the dogma that AnSiG-Saxon Amer
leans are the real Americans, and. because
such must rule for the good OF all citizens of
whatever extraction.
pure blood is next in importance to pure
religion. Pure blood is an article of
rue religion. Pure blood is patriotism. and
patriotism is an Indispensable concomltant
of Southern pic,y. Dis\oralty, therefore,
TO Anglo-SaXon unta;nted blood is not only