Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-12-29
NEGROES IN north
Economic, Not Social Discrim-
ination, Their Problem.
VIEWS OF R. R. WRIGHT
Group Conditions Of Race in Cities
Explained by w. E. B. Du Bots.
Almost Separate People.

| The problem of the negro in the north
| is economic rather than social, asserted
DR.. R. r. Wright. jr.. Of Philadelphia, in
an address this morning before the Amer
| lean Negro Academy, in session at Lin
| coin Memorial Church, 18th and R streets
| northwest.
| DIR. Wright has made considerable IN
quiry into the status of the negro in the
north. He received the degree of doctor
| from the University Of Pennsylvania last
June for sociological investigation.
Northern Negroes Achievement.
At the outset Of his address DR.. Wright
said it was the northern negroes who
| first started newspapers, magazines.
churches and fraternal orders for their
people. Richard Allen, Robert Purvis.
William Still, Frederick Douglass and
Absalom Jones were advocating the
abolition of slavery several generations
| ago. he said.
I'm the NORTH" said DR.. Wright. $50
far as civic privileges are concerned, the
negro has the same legal status as q
schools and colleges, and he enjoys an
unrestrained franchise.
But the real serious problem is the
one of making a living. Race prejudice
above indicated, as in matters economic.
Negro Disseminated Against.
1.-THE almost unanimous attitude Of the
labor unions of the north is to exclude
the negro. But the attitude OF exclusion
is not confined to the labor union alone.
for negroes do not have any better show
ing in trades which are not unionized and
in shops which are open than they do
when the union is in full power.
1.-THE competition which the negro in
the north has to meet Is the fiercest pos
sible, and keeps him eternally at 1t to
| make both ends meet. The result of this
economic stress Is reflected in every phase
of the northern negros life.
He looks at education from the point
of view of what 1t will bring rather than
it's cultural effects. He looks at the great
social bodies, such as fraternal orders,
from the point Of view of the money they
will provide in time Of need rather than
of their principles. And even the church
takes on an economic aspect as well as
a religious one
Race Group In Southern City.
DR.. W. E. B. Du Bots of Atlanta, Ca,
in a paper last night on 1.-The Social
| Evolution Of the Black South said he
| did not believe that systematic decep-
ton in the south, either on the part of
black men or white men. will in the long
run help that situation a single particle"
and that your Tillmans and Vardamans
| represent a certain disgusting but honest
| ignorance which acts upon its infOrma-
| ton, and some day. when they get the
right information, they are going to act
right
After speaking OF the influence Of the
house servant and the slave mechanic
| in ante-bellum times. DR.. Du Bots con-
tinued:
IF we would know the social condition
of the negro today. we must turn our
attention to the city negro. No matter
nsee for the or
| it's certain advantages to him there, the
black man who can take advantage ofthose
opportunities is represented in the coun-
try districts in small numbers, and can
not, under present circumstances, be rep
| resented by large numbers. save through
conscientious, systematic group effort.