Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1907-05-04

Ray stannard Baker need TO be en-
phasized. He said:
In Atlanta the proportion Of men
who 90 armed continually is very
large: the pawnshops of Decatur and
Peters streets. with windows like ar
senals. furnish the low class OF Ne
groes and whites with cheap revolt
vers and knives. Every possible ell
ement was here, then, for a murder
Gus outbreak: the good citizens,
white and black, were far away I'M
their homes; the bad men had been
drinking in the dives permitted to
exist by the respectable people of
Atlanta; and here they were gather
ed. by night, in the heart Of the city.
And finally trivial incident fred
the finder. Fear and vengeance gen
Grated it.: it was marked at first by
I sort Of rough. haif-drunken horse
play. but when once blood was shed,
/ the brute. which is none too we'll
controlled in the best city, came out
and gorged itself once permit the
/ shackles OF law and order 20 be cast
I of, and men. white or black, Chris
/ tian or pagan. revert 20 primordial
Isavagery. There is no such thing as
an orderly mob.
The above reads like a sermon and
I it's clear-cut conclusions sound like
Holy Writ He said further:
Crime has been committed by Ne
/ grOes. but this mob made no attempt
4 90 find the criminals. &c expressed its
blind, unreasoning, uncontrolled
race hatred by attacking every man.
woman or boy it saw who had black
/ face. A lame bOot-blaCk, an inof-
/ fensive, Industrious Negro boy. at
that moment actually at work shin
ing a mans shoes was dragged out
and cufed. kicked and beaten to
death in the street Another young
/ Negro was chased and stabbed to
death with jack-lnives 81 the most
unspeal1ably horrible manner
The mob entered barber shops
where respectable Negro men were
no work shaving white customers,
pulled them away from their chairs
and killed them. Cars were stopped
and inonensive Negroes were thrown
/ through the windows or dragged out
and beaten. They did not stop with
I killing and manning: they broke in
I TO hardware stores and armed them
selves, they demolished not only Ne
gro barber shops and restaurants,
they robbed stores kept by white
men.
This then is the feast Of revelry,
blood-shed and murder to which Mr..
Thomas Dixon invites the people Of
the South. Its portrayal by Mr.
Baker viii subserve it's purpose and
other communities will see the result
|of turning over to this lawlcss ele-
ment even for a moment the legal
control OF a locality.
The men perpetrating these crimes
were on a par with the Negro victims
they alleged to be I'm favor OF pun
ishing. AS a matter OF fact the
conservative white citizens mad been
deceived and under the guise of
furnishing the guilty. the thug, the
robber. the sneak-thief and the muir
derer INDUCED in lawlessness of the
most depraved and brutal type.
mr.. Baker continued.
or course the Mayor came out. and
the police force and the fire depart
ment and finally the Governor or
dered ont the militia-to apply that
pound Of cure which should have
been an ounce Of prevention.
IL is highly significant OF Southern
which the North does
not UNDERSTANDING the first In.
|stnct OF thousands Of Negroes in At.
lanta, when the riot broke out. was
not 90 run away from the white PEG.
/. pie but 20 run TO them The white
man who takes the most radlca
position In opposition 90 the Negro
race viii often be found loaninl
p money 60 Negroes. feeding them ant
81 their families from mis- kitchen. %,
, defending "his Negroes" in court ol
elsewhere. All OF the more Dromi
nent white citizens Of Atlanta, dur
+ Ing the riot. protected and fed man,
. coiored families who ran 10 them IN
their terror.
The above is as "true as preach
ing" The southerner will protec
his Negroes" but God help IN,
Negroes who belong to themselves
TT always pay for a poor Negro tc
De able 10 claim "a white owner
in the courts of the Southland toda1
the most amusing proposition tina
confronts police-justice or pre-
siding judge is how TO punish som,
Negroes. without offending some in
fuential white man. When a Negr,
has made friends with 'Marse" Bob
he can do many little irregularitie
with impunity and a poor white MAJ
of the lower type mas no show in
contest with this same Negro. VIII,
is backed up by the Southern MAG
e nate.
When he says Sambo is a good Ne
gro, that settles it. One Of IN
most stoutly contested battles for
Negroes rights came from Georgi
r. and was fought out all through al