The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-07-05

the white mans civilization. As the negro won,
there is the added menace to the race for whose
presence in this country the white man is re-
sponsible, and for which the white man must ever
be guardian. From this angle, the fight Is seen
to have been both cruel and cowardly. What
has happened might have been foresecn, even
if 1t was not expected. If its possibility had not
have been foreseen, there would have been no
occasion for the fight. Now that that has hap
pened which was, in the risk toreseen, let 1t be
hoped that out of shame will come national
repentance which will Danish prize-ring lighting
to the realms of other outwOn and outllved
amusements which bark back to the jungle and
the desert. Old John l. Sullivan, frankly
brutal prize-fghter that he was, may not have
had any but instructive emotions to influence his
stand. But when be refused to meet Peter Jack
son on account of his color, he ayerted from the
results of the sport" the graver consequences
and injustice which his successor has now
brought to a naturally inoffensive race.
In this connection, it would be we'll for the
negroes of Richmond and Virginia to reflect upon
some sober facts. They are not "better'' than
white men, They cannot whip" the white man.
If they think so from the premise of the JEFF
fries-J johnson fight, they lay up for themselves
bitterness, and sorrow, and defeat On the
other hand, they can not only emulate the white
man, but the white man will help them do so.
They can progress in all the things of peace, IN
industry They can, if they wish, have freedom
to emphasize their race in business, in the pro
fessions. They can individually and collectively
appeal TO negroes as negroes. They can show
the stuff of which they are made, and the white
man will rejoice if it be shown that It is good
stuff. In Richmond they have erected mag
nifcent bank building. They have shown that
they can finance and manage sound financial
institution. They are here competing, devel-
oping, growing In the light of such an object
lesson as that what does prize-fght matter,
and where is the worth in the example of a
beating at their own game white men who have
forgotten-if ever they imagined-the real
destiny of their race?
The lesson that negroes ought to learn jnst at
this moment is that the term white man.
means something more than the color of his skin.
It means something of character, a something
of stamina, something of cool purpose and
high ideals of which Jeffries never conceived
Jetfries, according to the real standards of the
race, is not and never as a white man" To
call him is in reality, as absurd as it would
be to say that man in general barks like dog
because in the wilds of Africa the great balloons
that walk erect with their fingers trailing the
ground converse i'll the short yelps out of which
in the mercy of time, human speech may have
been developed. Jeffries, physically and mental
", points backward to the dawn of the race. in
which the orderly end of life was the moment
when the teeth dropped from the jaw and when
stronger gorilla closed tenacious fingers about
his rivals throat. For white and black, civ
ilization holds to-day something better than
this and higher Because it affords a specimen
of either color is no sane reason or just ground
for supposng that it will tolerate the multi
plicitv of the breed or the imitation of the breed
example