Daily new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1897-1906, 1903-07-03
ASKS EQUAL JUSTICE
Same Law Should Apply to
the Negro as to the
White Man.
SPEECH or BOOKER WASHINGTON
Lynch Law Not Confined to One Sec
ton of country-No Legal Punish.
ment Too Severe for outrages on
Women.

Louisville, July Before an i'm
mense audience Booker T. Washing
ton, head of the Tuskegee normal
school, delivered an address. He said
the recent regrettable events in con-
nection with the race question went
to show that lynch law is not confined
to any one section of the country.
These events, he said, tend to simplify
the race problem by making 1t ma.
tional. He appealed to the negro to
be calm and to exercise self-control.
Among the other speakers was w.
II. Lewis, assistant district attorney
OF Massachusetts,, who was appointed
several months ago by President
Roosevelt.
Principal Washington said in part:
"In the present season of anxiety
and almost of despair which possesses
an element of the race there are two
things | wish to say:
First, let no man of the race be-
come di outraged or hopeless. There
are in this country, north and south,
men who mean to see that justice IS
melted out to the race. Such a man
is Judge Jones, Of Alabama, to whom
more credit should be given for blot
ting out the infamous system of peon-
age than to any other man.
Second, let lis keep before us the
fact that, almost without exception,
every race or nation that has ever
got upon its feet has done so through
struggle and trial and persecution.
No one should seek to close his
eyes to the fact that the race is pro-
crossing through serious and trying
period,
Let nothing lead us into extremes
OF utterance or action. 1t is, in the
long run, the race or individual that
exercises the most patience, forbear-
ance and selfcontrol in the midst of
trying conditions that wins its cause
Let nothing induce us to descend to
the level OF the mob In advocating
this policy | am not asking that the
negro act the coward we are not cow
ards. The part we have played in de-
Tending the flag of our country is suf-
cient proof of our courage.
THE recent outbreaks of mobs EN-.
phasiZed two lessons, one for our race
and one for the other citizens of our
country, south and north; for it is to
be noted that the work of the lynch
ers is not confined to one section of
the country. The lesson for us is that
we should see to it that no effort be
spared to impress on our own people
that these crimes should cease. We
should let the world know on all
proper occasions that we consider no
legal punishment too severe for the
black or any race who outrages a
woman.
THE lesson for the other portion
OF the nation to learn is that both in
the making and in the execution the
same law should be made to apply to
the negro as to the white man. There
should be melted out equal justice to
the black man and the white man
Whenever the nation forgets or is
tempted to forget its basic principles
the whole fabric of government for
both the white and the black man is
threatened with destruction. This is
true whether it relates to conditions
in Texas, Indiana or Delaware 1t is
with nation as with an Individual:
whatever we SOW, that shall we also
reap. If we sow crime we shall reap
lawlessnesS.