Franklin's paper the statesman., 1911-11-25
TOO MANY DOORMATS.
Ostracism and Education Must First
Get Rid of Negroes Who Lack
SeIf-Respect Before We Can
Command the Respect
of Others.

SeIf-feSptCI oelOIC we Se'i
Command the Respect
of Others.
1t has so long been the habit OF
Negroes to rush into court to prevent
restrictions upon their civil rights
that the custom has a sort of sane
titv among us. We are not deferred
bv the repeated verdicts against us.
When CoatesVille frees its lynchers
and a Denver court decides that the
law permits "a reasonable segrega-
ton of the races" our faith in the
majesty of the law is still so strong
we seek no other means to secure un-
trammelled civil rights.
In this dilemma, common sense die
tates a change of tactics. Let's see
what we can accomplish with the,
money we spend for daily necessities
and luXuries. Under present condl-
tions, when one Negro is refused a
desired seat in a theater, dozen
others rush into seats set apart 1of
them. We are refused food and drink
in one white restaurant or saloon and
forthwith take our patronage over to
another We might present many such
instances to show that we have not
given proper value to the power we
have as patrons. Yet these will sui
flee TO illustrate our contention that
the race will not command the respect
of its white neighbOrs until 1t be-
comes selfrespecting and through
education and ostracism gets rid OF
its doormats.
We believe that we should have
equal privileges in theaters and other
places of public entertainment But
how in the name of common sense
can we justify the ease wit hwhich
we yield the point we contend for in
the courts, when we pay for the very
seats which we inveigh against? Does
our defeat in the courts justify us IN
being doormats, contemplate weak
linas who will thrust ourselves upon
white people even if we have to bear
the brand of pariahs in so doing? For
every Negro who protests against the
inferior seats permitted him, dozen
of his brothers cheerfully climb up to
the peanut gallery and seem happy at
the chance No wonder judge and
Jury do not consider that any dam
ages are due the Negroes who fight
civil rights cases because of insulted
dignity with the overwhelming evi
dence that other Negroes, apparently
as intelligent and res pectabIe, are
happy under the same conditions
What makes our action the more
ridiculous and contemplate is that
theaters are not necessity. They
are for entertainment. If Negroes are
so foolish as to be entertained annie
the humiliating conditions prejudice
makes, they are human doOrmats, thai
are under foot because they choose tC
be there. All the civil rights cases
cannot make men of such clods. This
is a bitter truth. Now is the time &c
oh hnir col
respecting Until we do that, let's
not complain so much that others dc
Sot respect us.
Now let us consider how We act II
the matter of eating and drinking
When we are refused in the fashion
able hotels, restaurants and saloons
the great majority of us simply go tt
other white hotels, restaurants anC
saloons. When our patronage ha!
made them prosperous, they move fur
ther up town, and themselves become
the fashionable places which discrim
mate We don't have to prove these
conditions, for few of us have faileC
to observe them.
1t makes no difference with the
doormats that colored businesses have
been opened largely as a protes
against prejudice. They do not wan
equal IlSHAS nan So IluCu dS me.
want to thrust themselves upon Whit
people who do not want them
Through insult and abuse, they rusl
in TO spend their money in shabb.
places which are in no degree bette
or even as good as our own places
All the talk about better goods an
better service is buncombe, and an
reader of this article who does no
believe us, need only peer into som
of the murky holes conducted b
white people which do a large colore
business. These doormats lack sci
respect The most glaring proof c
this fact is the satisfaction whic
some of them get from patronizing
Larimer street barrel house whic
has made one mans fortune and VIII
repays their patronage by refusin
them even the porter job in othe
fine saloons which he conducts 70
strictly white trade. Think of this,
Instead of the Indignation meeting
and the resolutions, condemning al
or part of the white people for de
priving us of our just due, it is con
mon sense that we should first Sc
our own house in order. Court case
fail us because white people desps
us just as we despise ourselves F'irs
let us say to the world that our none,
is going to be spent as becomes mer
and women. The business man. whit
or black who gets it, must treat III
right, must respect us as we respec
ourselves.