The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-03-25
WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK
canty on the Race problem. !

S@HIy OVftHe race ProoIen.I
To the Editor Of The Journal:
r r h e j % u r n takes exception to my
suggestion that the fifteenth amendme emit
should be repealed, and an amendment
adopted which would give the negro an
impartial tribunal in which to try all con-
troversies, both civil and criminal between
him and the white man in the south.
Tn durnal approves the educa-
tional test Of the right Of suffrage in the
south, and believes that in the course of
time, the negro will become educated so
that he can stand that test, and be found
entitled to suffrage. I'D
The educational test in the south is a
farce and fraud, and the more the negro
becomes educated, the greater farce and
fraud 1t will be.
But he ourna does not touch the
main point in the case. The negro should
be given a chance to develop, to become
Industrious and educated and to work out
his own destiny without being hampered
or prevented by every conceivable form Of
injustice and persecution.
The poor white trash of the south has
little or nothing himself, and insists that
the negro shall have still less in order to
prevent "nigger equality" If the negro
attempts to better his condition and ac-
cumulate property, there is a constant
temptation to every low ruffian to rob
him openly and to every dishonest schemer
to take advantage OF him and swindle
him under one pretext or another, and the
juries consisting merely of a lower class
OF whites, will nearly always put their
seal of approval on these outrages
Under these circumstances, it is i'm :
possible for tn enegro to better his conli-'
ton. There is no sense in his trying to
be Industrious and saving and to accumu-
late property to furnish plumber for the
low and dishonest whites; and the more
the negro is educated, the greater the
| race prejudice will be against him and
the more liable he will be to such persecu-
ton and outrage.
We should either find remedy for this
| state of things, or admit that we are ma
| ton of hypocrites and imbeciles.
| Il see no such remedy that is practicable
| except to provide means for protecting
| the negro and giving him justice and at
| the same time, allay and remove as much
as possible race hatred. In order to &C
cornplish this,qwe should repeal the fiji
teenth amendment or suspend it's operation
\ for about fifty years and provide federal
| judiciary that will give the negro justice
and enforce the fourteenth amendment
| There are two main reasons for the
public approval for the persecution of the
negro in the south: First, that his eXer-
else of the franchise will turn the south
into a negro governm emit; and, second, that
the PROPENSITY of few negroes to viola e
and injustice to the whole negro race.
! BY repeating Or suspending the fifteenth
amendment we will take away one great
incentive to the persecution of the negro,
and we can greatly remove and crush out
| this intense race hatred by providing an
| impartial tribunal that will punish him
| promptly and severely for violating white
women, and will punish with equal
promptness and severity those who burn
him at the stake-a tribunal that will give
the negro equal and exact justice in his
various controversies with the low and dis
honest whites who would plumber and per-
secute him in innumerable ways. u
;: Then the negro will have an opportunity
! to work out his destiny unmolested, which
he has not now; and if in the course OF
time, it is found that he has gained suffi-
! cient standing and influence that without
detriment to himself, the franchise may be
restored to him, it should be SO restored
II h e ou II | admits that negro suf-
I.frage in the south is a, huge failure, an6
like many others, it insists that we shall
continue to keep up the farce: that we
shall enter upon a hundred years or so OF
hypocrisy and insincerity in the north, an6
j anarchy, barbarism and cruelty. in the
south. - : -,
4 For my part, LIDO not want the negro tt
be the football of politics and the play.
thing of hypocrites.' ..
=. -. Thomas CAVITY