The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-11-10
EQUALITY AND SEPARATION.

HOFbNNs
tee. The caste spirit that denies human
rights is all wrong. That which merely
requires separation may be both wise
and beneficent. II the phrase social equal
ity'' had been social separation" the
thing itself, that is much better defined
by the latter term than by the former
would scarcely nave had al advocate,
certainly have had few among the white
race I'VE those that go TO the tanatlcal
extreme of demanding the mingllng of
white and negro blood in marriage. About
the only valuable historical reference IN
Professor Bassett's paper on Race Anti
patty was that to the punishment admin
istered in Virginia and in North Carolina
for such degradation as the mlnglng OF
blood, in the one ease by marriage and
in the other without 1t. 1t Is a pity that
the law and It's punishment was ever 1e-
Taxed IN either case.
In protesting against social equality, in
the sense of social separation, the white
race is not trying to save itself from be-
ing equalled by the negro IN any line.
The white race has no reason. from his
tory, from ancestry or from present con-
ditlons. to fear the best efforts that the
negro can put forth for his own improve
ment, so little to fear that III the South
at least the white race has been most
generous IN helping to lift him up. No
white man objects to a negro becoming
as we'll educated us possible, TO his te-
coming the best workman possible for
him to become, to his becoming as great
in the spheres of oratory or OF author
ship, or IL any profession, as Is possible.
In fact, the South takes a sort OF collec-
tive pride IN the attachments OF a negro,
especially a full-blooded negro, when he
does not spoil them with conceit and
cffrontery.
Just, so, thoughtful men in the South
see 2 hopeful sight in the fact that there
is beginning to be formed a social sphere
among the negroes, from which are ex~
Guided the immoral and the vicious. And
no well regulated white man cares how
high III their own social rank, as com
pared with the white mans society, the
negro may attain. It Is only insisted that
the social spheres shall be absolutely and
forever separate. There may be more o.
less intercourse between the races in the
industrial, in the business. in the religious
spheres. except where these impinge upon
the social sphere. But the mingling Of
white and negro society means a condi-
ton too horrible for A~nglo-Saxons to
consider with any degree of federation,
even IN thought. IT may as we'll be said
that the defence of the South in the Civil
War would be as nothing to the spirit
with which the Anglo-Saxon woman de-
fend the right to their purity of blood.
1t might be said that they would die en-
masse in that defense.
The South Is net unjust to the negro
and the Southern mar in debarring him
with a determination as fixed as fate
from any social privileges in the same So
cial sphere, is not treating the negro with
lnpn1a1tv Ind ij1Ct hara ra vou1d Glya
to put in a word against an injustice that
he is to some extent the victim of now.
One of the best things that North Caro-
lima ever did was to separate the TWO
races On the cars and in the waiting
rooms Of our railroad stations. But the
Jaw requiring that separation requires also
that there shall be 70 difference in the
accommodations, and that law is not en-
forced as it should be. 1t would be a
generous thing If, by white initiative, the
railroads were compelled to obey the let
ter and the spirit Of that law. No, social
separation does not mean "inequality'' in
the sense of injustice. And the more we
think Of it the more we wonder that a
Southern man should have been guilty OF
the folly Of Professor Basset. He admits
that the negro wants social equality" in
the usual sense of that phrase-"it is not
dIstasteful to the negro to eat his din
ner or to go to churches or to theatres
with white men" He declares that the
negro considers the separation of the
races in a railroad car "a badge OF in
tolerance which he will some day seek to
wipe out And then he draws upon his
knowledge of history and says: y am
persuaded that il is in many respects the
old conflict between the Roman plebs ana
the Roman patrician over again. 1t ought
~ h n Shnrfo1. thnn thnt conflict md Tho
issue ought to be more fortunate, than
the issue of the Roman conflict; for. Am
erican life is richer and better than Roman
life
Now if Prof. Basset understands at ali
that reference to history, he knows that
the conflict ended with the ntermingllng
Of patrician and plebeian blood. But they
We're all Romans, not only of the white
race but of the Italic race. Does the
professor mean that III a shorter space OF
time, we shall see the breaking down OF
all barriers between these races that ara
at opposite poles from one another? Does
he look forward with complacency, con
sidering the greater richness of our Am
erican life, to the TINE when his own
descendants shall be of a tawny color?
Southern newspapers were criticised fol
suggesting to President Roosevelt. amen.
the Booker Washington dinner, the pos
sibility of an alliance between the houses
of Roosevelt and Washington. Professor
Bassett suggests the same thing for tue
whole Southern people after a short con,
fict.