The Twin City star. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1910-19??, 1913-01-25
WHITMAN ON THE PROBLEM.
Emancipation Was Righteous Act, Says
New York District Attorney.

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Two thousand people, Of whom at
least 80 per cent were colored. attend
ed the meeting at Young's casino, in
New York, Sunday afternoon. Jan. IL,
held under the auspices Of the Nation
al Association For the Advancement
Of Colored People. Pressing public
duties prevented Charles 8. Whitman n,
district attorney for New York. from
being. present The speech which he
had prepared was read by the Rev. A.
Clayton Powell, D. D., pastor Of the
Abyssinian Baptist church.
Other speakers were DR.. W. e. B.
Du Bois, editor Of the Crisis Magazine
and director Of publicity and research
Of the National association; Mrs. A.
w. Hunton, special worker for the Y.
M. G. A.; Joel e. Spingarn. formerly
professor of comparative languages at
Columbia university and. now chair
man Of the vigilance committee which
is the New York branch Of the Ma
tional association, and Professor Will
liam Pickens Of Talladega college.
Bishop Alexander Walters presided.
In the address Of District Attorney
Charles s. Whitman. read by DR.. A.
Clayton Powell, that official said that
the oppressor, sometimes in ignorance.
exercising the power which is his as a
result of circumstances, for which he
may not always have been held re-
sponsible, often as much the victim Of
conditions, environment and tradition
as the oppressed, IN time, by the very
nature of things, has become a crea-
ture, in mind and body, lower and
weaker than the object Of his oppres-
sion.
Negro slavery was a menace to the
white man. That its continued ex-
istence must have caused deteriora-
ton of the fiber, mental, moral and
even physical, Of great people is, he
believes. now apparent to all IRE
spective Of the events Immediately fol-
lowing the war and the federal legis-
lation of the reconstruction days. all
familiar with American history must
agree that the emancipation of the
slave was an even greater boon to the
white man than it was to the black.
It was the white man who made the
Negro q slave. 1t was the white man
that was responsible for the being
which $50 years Of unrequited toll had
made him. 1t was the white man
who, by the very act Of emancipation,
deprived him Of whatever hep COM
fort or protection the old system had
offered him. It was the white man
who declared him to be a citizen and
an equal, having given him no oppor-
tunity to prepare himself for equality
or for citizenship.
OF course the emancipation was
righteous act, and Of course its bene-
fits, moral and in the end material. to
the white race are so obvious that
they admit Of no discussion. but the
Immediate gain or advantage to vast
numbers Of the colored race is not SO
obvious. The statistics Of crime In
this country fail to show that the
members of our colored population are
predisposed to crime. The percentage
of law violators is not larger among
the native black men than among the
native white men, Notwithstanding
the fact that the average opportunity
to better their condition is greater in
the case Of the white men born in
New York than it is in the case of the
black men born in New York.