The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-05-19

lIc atCEdSC sDttItSTICIS oblttipBI'
View of the Average Nortf,erner.
An Appeal for Patience and Sympa-
thy.
The Afro-American has been free 10
work out his OWE salvation for more
than forty years.
What will be his position and eondi-
ton after forty or fifty or a hundred
years more?
Some say that but few of them will
be here inAmerica then, that the race
as a whole will be %colonized into some
other countries of the earth.
l do not think so. Why? Because
attempts at colonization have been
made and have failed. They have not
proved successful in Liberia, in Hayti,
or in Mexico. Emigrant ships sailed
out Of Baltimore with but part of their
possible human cargo, when slavery IL
America was the alternative; and ships
would probably go out of Baltimore
with even less of a cargo in these days
of freedom. Face frankly the Difficult
ties of transporting 5000, 900 pee
pie away from America, 1t were a diff
ficult task for a willing people; but
these people are not willing. With
many, their local attachment is strong,
the ignorant are too suspicious to go;
the intelligent look to Mexico, to Lii
IBERIA and to Hdyti, and say "NEy
should WEI"
Others say the negro as such will
slowly disappear by amalgamationr Ivy
the absorption of the negro into the
larger mass of white. | think net
Why?
Because the facts of experience are
against it. During and shortly after
the Civil war, such public men as DR..
Croly, Theodore Tilton and Wendell
Phillips openly predicted and advocat-
ed amalgamation. No public man. /
think, would do 50 today. The white
people of the north do not desire it
for themselves; the white people OF
the south are determined it shall no
be with them; the leading negroes OF
the south are opposed to it. Dr.DuBolS,
of Atlanta University, a thoughtful and
scholarly negro, has taken a position
in his pamphlet, The Conservatism OF
Races" which every thinking man OF
the south will uphold; that the negro
as a race must grow and develop IN
America, and as a race make his Goa
tributiOn to the civilization Of TIE
world. After forty years OF liberty
while the Caucasian races are bleE dag
in America, the negro race is as dis
tinct as in the days of slavery; there
is more decided antipathy between The
common man Of the two races NV
tina then; hardly any intermarry; and
even the illicit relation Of the sexes
between white and black is growing
less and less froQueat in the south
Every man with the smallest per cent
of negro blood is classed as a negfC
and forced to associate with him; ane
so, there is no starting point for ANAL
.gomation or for the desire for it.
think the dominant sentiment OF Amer
ica-north and sOuth-white and bla +
agrees with the statement made II
my hearing by DR.. Booker T. Washing
ton last September in New York: "Thi:
problem is to be settled neither by NAL
gamation nor by deportation"
Mr.. F. l.. Hoffman, the careful an>
conscientious author of Race Trait:
and Tendencies of the American Nc
gro tells us that this serious prob
lem in our American life will set1
itself by the extinction Of the negro
He shows by statistics that the blfti
rate of the negro race is decreasing
and that the death rate is increasing
How, then, can we get away from tn
conclusion that the race is doomed
and that, in process OF time it VIII
die out? And yet, and yet, the pro
portion of negroes to the whole popu
IatiOn of the United States was in lS6
14.9 per cent; in 1890, in spite OF tn
tremendous white immigration n on
country, it had fallen only to 11.9 pc
cent: and 1900 to 11.6 per cent. Ii
1860, in the eleven southern states an'
in Maryland, Kentucky n IN
District of Colunbia-all the state
which at that time had One-fifth .
more Of the population cOlored-th
negroes made up 36.7 per cent. of tn
whole population Of the states;in 1SS
they composed 36.S per cent; n i
1900 36.I per cent. Thus we see Ina
facts and figures compel US to comics
or rejoice in the fact that the negro
to be with us here in America as a "ace
increasing in actual numbers, and yer,
slowly decreasing in proportion to tn
white population.
Now, let us see where these negloae
are, and what movements of poputa
ton among them we can discover
Ninety per cent are in the above men
toned southern states, making up )
per cent. of their population; the 9th
er 10 per cent. are scattered over til
rest Of the United States, averaSln
about 2 per cent, of the total popula
ton. These relative proportions hav
been nearly the same for forty year:
But, while not changing these genera
ratios, W. decided movements of POI
u1ation have been going on for mo-
than twenty years-frst a large MIN
Der of negroes have been moving con
stantly from the country to the south
ern towns and cities; and. sec