The Colorado statesman., 1912-04-20
HOW FAR ARE We
RESPONSIBLE FOR The
LIVES OF The NEGRO?
EDITORIAL PRES ERIAN
STANDARD, CHARLOTTE, N. c.

We all know too well the bad points
Of our colored brother, and we all at
times shudder over the peril that
threatens our women in lonely coun-
try homes.
Those who have read Thomas Dix
on's writing can see as in mig t.
mare the hideous crimes that are pos
sible, and too often probable.
1t may be well to dwell upon these
dark possibilities lest we be lulled in
to false security, but at the same
time we ought to ask ourselves how
far the white race is responsible for
much of this condition of affairs; how
far we have done our best to surround
this immature race with the best in
| fiuences, and how far we have con-
cerned ourselves with guarding him
against environments that tend to
poison his mind and kindle the worst
passions of his nature.
He is a foolish man who condemns
a race because many of them are GRIM
inals-forgetting the great number
and to bring up their children in hab-
us Vi luuuSIIy ana OTueT.
That there are good negroes we all
know; and those of us who are old
enough can recall the old days of the
colored nanny and Uncle Remus,
who had their counterpart on every
plantation.
We love the good negro, and all OF
us have some one of the race to whom
we are bound by tender ties, asso-
ciated as they are with our loved ones
long since dead.
1t is not, however, of the good and
Industrious negro that we would write.
Some other time we hope to do him
| justice, but it is of the bad negro we
would write. the negro who threatens
our home, and causes a chill of terror
to creep over the lonely inmates of
the country home.
| We would ask If the dominant white
race is doing everything possible to
protect these simple children of ma
ture? We are prompt to point out the
danger of the one-room cabin, where
purity of life is hard to preserve, yet
we say nothing of other Influences
that are equally as bad, which we per-
nit surround them.
Some few years ago when the Crit
tenden Home was first established in
this city, the managers had great diff
ticulty in finding location for some
time this Christian enterprise, like
Noah's dove, could find no rest for the
sole of its foot. 1t was objected to by
| Christian whites, though its inmates
were those who had turned to new
life, and needed help.
In Charlotte, Asheville and no doubt
in other cities, not Crittenden Homes,
but houses of i'll fame are allowed
within the bounds of the settlements
devoted to the negroes, though such a
thing would never be attempted among
the whites, and the effect is to train
up a race of criminals to be turned
loose.
In the issue of January 4, the Star
| of Zion, paper published in the in
terest of the negro race, has this COM
plant, that bawdy houses occupied by
whites are located in the heart of the
negro settlement, that negro homes
filed with young children surround
these places OF i'll fame, and that ne
gro children are thus brought face to
face with shameless ldebauchery
This paper states that there are
three of these houses adjoining the
large public school on South Myers
street, where 1,200 children of all
ages look out of the windows upCa
| lewd women and drunken men,
mingling together with no sense of
shame.
We hope that our Christian mayor
and his board of Christian aldermen
will take this matter in hand and stop
at once the sowing of seed that must
bring a harvest of horrible crime
DR.. R. F. Campbell of AshevflIe, in
its daily paper, has called the atten-
tion of the authorities there to the
same crying evil.
1t is the duty of every Christian
citizen to make his voice heard in pro-
test, for this is sin lying at our door,
and we know that we are our broth
er's keeper.