The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-01-22
1T CRIME
Remarkably Strong Sentiments on the
Negro Question by Governor Yard
aman in His Inaugural Address
Wants Distribution OF School Fund
Put Into Power OF the Legislature
Should Try to Educate the Negroes
Heart and Hand-PeOple OF the
Nation Should Demand Repeal of
18th Amendment.

Jackson. Miss. January 19.-1n his
inaugural address delivered today be-
fore a joint session Of the Mississippi
legislature. Governor James K. Yard
aman declared hat the growing ten
dency of the negro to criminal assault
On white women is nothing more or
less than the manifestation of the
racial desire for social equality. In
strong terms, he declared that edu-
cation is the curse of the negro race
and urged an amendment to the state
constitution that will place the dis
tribution of the common school fund
solely within the power of the legis-
lature. Continuing his discussion OF
h negro question, Governor Varda-
man said:
las a race, he is deteriorating
morally every day. Time has demon
strated that he is more criminal as
n free nan than as a slave, that he is
increasing in criminality with fright
full rapidly being one-third more
criminal in 1890 thar in 1880.
The startling facts revealed by
the census show that those who can
read and write are more criminal
than the illiterates, which is true of
no other element of our population.
u oAAi ao IlloN lax lAiAA
eracy among the negroes is oun in
New England where it is 21.7 per
cent. The maximum was found in
The black belt-LouiSiana, Mississippi
and South Carolina-where it is 65.7
per cent. And yet the negro in New
England is four and one-half times
more criminal. hundred for hundred
than he is in the black belt. In the
south, Mississippi particularly, 1 know
ha &c -nx-fr r-o-r0 -4.- W.,
can scarcely pick up a newspaper
whose pages are not blackened with
the of an uncomfortable
crime committed by a negro brute,
and this crime, / want to impress
upon you, is but the manifestation of
the negro's aspiration for social
equality, encouraged largely by the
character of free education in vogue,
which the state is levying tribute upon
the white people to maintain.
The better class of negroes is not
responsible for this terrible condi-
ton. nor for the criminal tendency of
their race. Nor do 1 wish to be I'M
derstood as ~censuring them for it. ]
am not censuring anybody nor am ]
inspired by i'll will for the negro, but
I am simply calling attention to a
most unfortunate and uncomfortable
condition of affairs. What shall be
done about ft7
MY own idea is that the character
of the education for the negro ought
tn be changed. If, after years of
earnest effort and h expenditure of
fabulous sums of money to educate
his head. we have only succeeded i n
making a criminal out of him and i'm
periling his usefulness and efficiency
as a laborer, wisdom would suggest
h a we make another experiment and
see if we canno improve him by
educating his hand and heart. There
must be a moral substratum upon
which to build. or you cannot make
a desirable citizen"
The governor also declared that the
people of the nation should rise up
and demand the repeal of the 18th
amendment.