Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1904-03-18
FEELS coLoRED LINE.
A Competent Stenographer Can't
Earn Her Living Because She
Is CoIored.

Extracts from Minneapolis Evenin!
Journal.
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.
Today, Blanche w. Renix, a com
petent colored stenographer and book
) keeper, has been obliged to give w
her single handed struggle agains,
prejudice and to appeal to philan,
thropic people to aid her in overcom'
ing a condition of affairs that has be.
come intolerable.
Miss Renix has made 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.
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 SER
vices even when they found Miss
ItSuiA Was d lOiOlSu Sill. NY 90
ranged to have her go, when they
found she had 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 have been unable to carry out
their plans. While this case was
pending, another applicant pertly told
one of the firm that he was prepar-
ing trouble for himself in giving the
preference to colored girl, for, if he
should employ her, he would never
be able to get any self-respecting
white girl to take the place after
wards-that such action would cause
the firm to be blacklisted.
Unable to get position. Miss Renix
undertook work as public stenog-
rapher. and in this she was fairly sue
cessful until the ill will of other wo
men forced her out of one location
after another. The women employees
of larger Office buildings object to her
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 t.she uses the same washbowi
and towel that we do"
Miss Renixs plan has been to Sc
cure desk room 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 a colored |
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 |
there was little encOur-
agement in that proposition.
y Miss Renix is a graduate OF the Des
Moines high school and secured her
business training in business col
|ege there, supplementing it with spe-
cial training in Minneapolis. She has
a 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, although she
says: During these two years
have often prayed to die and have
cursed the day that l undertook to
earn my living by business requir-
ing 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 of other clerical positions.