The broad ax., 1907-06-15
Honey" she said. eagerly.

MAmmy! exclaimed the girl an
the two rushed into each others arms
clasping and kissing-the white gin
and the old black woman.
I thought to myself: There's N
Negro problem there: that's jus
plain human lovei"
Master" Superseded by Boss"
Often l have heard Negroes refel
to my white folks" and similarly
the white man still speaks of my Ne
groes." The old term Of slavery, the
use Of the word master" has wholly
disappeared, and in its place hal
arisen, not without significance, the
round term Boss" or sometimes
Cap" or "Cap'n." To this the white
man responds with the first name OF
the Negro Jim" or "Susie"-or Il
the Negro is old or especially re-
spected: Uncle Jim" or Aunt SUI
san"
To an unfamiliar Northerner one
of the very interesting and somewhat
amusing phases Of conditions down
here is the panic fear displayed over
the use OF the word "Mr" or Mrs"
No Negro is ever called Mr.. or Mrs.
by a white man: that would indicate
social equality. A Southern white
man told me with humor of his diff
culties:
Now / admire Booker Washington.
I regard him as a great man. and yet
couldn't call him Mr. Washington.
We were all in a quandary until
doctors degree was given him. Tha,
saved our lives! we call him DR.
Washington now"
Sure enough! I don't think have
heard him called DR.. Washington
since came down here. 1t is always
"Dr" or just Booker" They are
ready to call a Negro Professor" or
Bishop" or THE Reverend"-but not
Mr."
In the same way Negro may call
Miss Mary Smith BY the familiar
Miss Mary" but if he called her
Miss Smith she would be deeply in
censed. The formal Miss Smith"
would imply social equality.
I digress! But l have wanted to
impress these relationships There
are all gradations of Negroes between
the wholly dependent old family SER
want and the new, educated Negro
professional or business man, and.
correspondingly, every degree of
treatment from indulgence to intense
hostility.
must tell, in spite of .ack of room,
one beautiful story I heard at Atlanta,
which so well illustrates the old rela-
tionship. There is in the family Cf
DR.. ]. S. Todd, a we'll known citizen |
Of Atlanta, an old, old servant called,
Uncle Billy. He has !
been so long in the family that in
reality he is served as much as he |
serves. During the riot last Septem-
Der he was terrified: he did not dare
10 go home at night. So Miss Louise,
the doctors daughter, took Uncle
Billy home through the dark streets
When she was returning one of her
friends met her and was much
alarmed that she should venture out
n a time of so much danger.
What are you doing out here this
his time of night, he asked?
why" she replied, as If it were
he most natural answer in the world,
L had to take Uncle Billy safely
lome."
Over against this story I have an
recount of a Tennessee farmer who,
an Illinois Central Pullman
ar in Kentucky, and discovering
herein Negro Bishop and his wife,
enforcement of the "Jiui
row law. The train was held nine
minutes at Hopkinsville while a po-
ceman made them dress and move
nto the compartment for Colored pas
engers.
1 have now described two Of the T
hree great classes of Negroes: First ] I
he worthless and idle Negro, often I
criminal, comparatively small l..
umbers, but perniciously evident G
econd, the great middle class of Ne G
roes who do the manual work of the 2
outh. Above these, a third class,
'ew in numbers, but most influential I
/ their race, are the progressive, v
Negroes, who have 7
holly severed their old intimate ties a
ith the white people-and who have
zen getting farther and farther away q
ON them. OF some Of these leading
egroes in Atlanta / told last month, =
Id l shall have much more to say
&ha olag. g. no-Afnc orffnlaa