River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1906-04-05
From Dixie Land.
CONTINUED FROM MARCH 49,

shows that many of these people,
especially in the North, think of the
negro as a homogeneous rather
than a heterogeneous race. That
the negro as race has many racial
characteristics that cause the aver
age northerner who is accustomed
to push things in hurry to look
upon him with a good deal of doubt
as to his being of much account
anywhere cannot be denied, but it
is well known fact that among all
of the ten millions of these people,
so recently the products of sla-
very that tended to make them and
their offspring dependent rather
than independent; to look to the
hands of others for support instead
of self support, it is rare that ne
gro tramp, or hobo, as northerners
call the white dead beat of that fra
ternity, is ever seen, or as one rep
resentative of the race expresses it
in one of his writings, a black
hand is seldom seen extended for
help"
Only last fall, as was travelling
in North Dakota and stopped for a
day at a little town about twenty
miles N. w. of Grand Forks, saw
able-bodied white men refuse $3.50
per day and board from farmers
who tried to get them to go out to
help thresh the wheat that was near
rotting in the shocks, and il is only
too common to see these white men
in the North roaming about beg
ging, under one pretext or another.
l don't mean to convey the idea
that there are not worthless charac-
ters among the negroes. There are
by far too many, but think | am
right in saying the negro race in
this country taken to-day from a
labor and industrial point of view
and representing but one-eighth of
the nation will compare favorably
with the other seven-eighths.
On the 21st and 22d of February
L attended the Annual Negro Con-
ference at Tuskegee, where farmers
and educators of the South gather
yearly to the number of 1000 to
2,000 II is stated by the secretary
that thirty states and the District
of Columbia were represented this
year, and am sure that could the
readers of the JOURNAL have been
present and heard what was stated
by the negro men and women from
the different sections of the country
as the other white people-sOme
from Chicago, others from New
York and other parts of the north
and still others from the south
and myself did, it would have been
something of revelation, not only
as 10 the success of these people,
but of the difficulties, obstacles and
privations that they have to encoun-
ter. Still l must say that while |
have attended quite a number of
large conventions of similar kind
among the whites of the North
never saw a more hopeful and I'M
complaining lot of people together.
Although l feel that l should not
ask for more space l would like in
closing to give two or three illus
trations of the reports made by ne
groes in this conference:
]. M. Sanifer, of Ethelville, Pick
ems Co., Ala, reported 100 heads of
families or ming 1883 acres of land.
He wore a good suit of clothes, the
cloth of which was spun by his wife
from wool grown on his own sheep
and the cloth woven and clothes
made by his wife. He had not had
to buy a suit of clothes for over
twenty-five years. He also showed
a number of white towels and bed
spreads spun and woven from the
cotton grown upon his land. Mrs.
Nelson of Tallapoosa Co. reported a
large settlement of co1ored people
who nearly all own land. She has
a good frame house, raises corn,
vegetables, hogs, etc., has six hun
dred pounds of pork, and fifteen
! gallons of lard. Don't keep the
long mouthed hogs" Got her first
start, a few years ago, by trading a
puppy for pig. A good example
for some white folks who can afford
to keep dog but who cannot
afford to keep pig. These are
only two of many reports that show
the efforts of this race to get up
In several cases reports were made
of communities OF negroes who had
bought quantities of land upon
which they raised cotton to gel
money for school purposes, where
the usual funds were not sufficient