Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1913-02-14
TAE NEGRO ANp THE.
NATION.

n NAHUM.
Tie Following Editorial Appear
ed in the Congregationalist
Of ] January End, Boston,
Mass, by Howard A
Bridgrnar, p. ..
Editor
aFffty years ago President Lincoln
I proclaimed emancipation for the
Southern slaves. Upon that New
Years Day four million black folk
saw the golden gates OF opportunity
swing to their hand. The nation plac-
"a the Negro and the white man upon
the same plane of citizenship. pledg-
cd equal protection for equal rights
OF life. liberty, property and the pur-
suit OF happiness. That was the white
mans pledge. The Negro, upon enter
ing the compact, assumed all the Oh.
legations OF citizenship, swore fealty
to our common country, pledged oDed'
fence to it's laws and shOuldered his
share OF taxation and of civic ana
military service. That was the Ne
gro's pledge.
aHow have the pledges been kept?
Ignorant, debased and defiled as a
race bv slavery, the Negro made his
start, Here and there helping hand
has grasped his own, but where one
has helped thousand have dlscour'
aged and hindered his progress WIN
marvellous courage, optimism ana
faith in God he has pressed on, ana
never in all history has race MADE
such progress in half century. Tne
worthy things that his detractors SAID
the Negro could not do he has done:
And the unworthy things predicted OF
him he has avoided as successfully
as the white man. 1t has been we'll
said by Judge Wendell P Stafford, OF
the District of Columbia Supreme
4 Court, that the black race in less
than fifty years of freedom has 1usti-
fed every claim of the Abolitionists.
It has shown itself brave in battle,
faithful in business. eager to learn
capable of acquiring and controlling
wealth and able to produce noble,
far.seeing leaders Of its own blood
During the past fifty years the Ne
gro race in America has Increased
from four million to ten million souls.
Negroes have established great
schools, have become the chief agri-
cultural producers of the South, have
acquired millions of property and have
achieved success in every profession
and calling. Statistics show that a
larger proportion of Negroes in Virgin
ia own their homes than of white peo-
pie in Massachusetts. In Mississippi
and Louisiana are more Negro farm
owners than white. Throughout the
country there are over a third more
white paupers per thousand OF popu-
lation than Negro, and the largest per-
centage of crime is committed by
white men.
sThe most bitter hatred and the
most devilish retribution are meted
out to the black man whose brutal
lust leads him to attack white women.
But the brutal lust Of the white man
invades the Negroes home, ruins col
ored girls by the thousands, and
there is hardly a protest from the
race that esteems itself superior. In
his childhood of freedom and citizen
ship the Negro has made the mistakes
of childhood. But against this are the
splendid successes of the rising race
as it gains education and finds oppor-
tunity.
I'm casting up accounts on this
semi-centennial we behold to the
shame Of our nation that fifteen
teen Southern States where the Ne
gro is most numerous have resorted
to contemplate subterfuges to ex-
.clude the colored citizen from the
polls, even the most cultured, able
and yirtuous, while admitting to full
rights of citizenship the most ignor-
ont, inferior and vicious white men.
The Negro is taxed for the support
OF government in which he is re-
fused a voice, to pay for schools in
which he does not receive his fair OPP
portunity, for the maintenance of pub
lie parks from which he Is excluded.
And railroad companies, for the same
fare that the white man pays, force
the black man into Jim Crow car,
dirty and cheap, while the white man
rides in wholesome comfort. A sim
liar injustice is found in the waiting
rooms. In the North the field of in
dustrial opportunity for the Negro is
being steadily restricted. No words
can express the inhumanity which has
5condoned the lynching without trial
OF sixty to one hundred colored men
each year during the past generation.
''All this Injustice has not been be-
cause the Negro was ignorant or poor
or vicious, but because he was Ne
gro. because Of the race prejudice
which has outlived the institution OF
slavery under which it began. What
becomes Of the pledges made BY our
great nation and who has broken faith
1.-The Negro or the white man? AS
citizens OF this Republic, as members
OF the Christian church. we are face
to face with serious problem in
which we have a personal responsible
ity. II democracy is to be an endur-
ing form Of government. II any man
IA to be secure in the inherent rights
Of manhood and In the political
rights Of free government, there must
be security for all men under that
government. If the Constitution con.
tinues to be defied and made a mock
cry in South Carolina, 1t will one day
crumble in Massachusetts, and ILL
nois. N s \. "A
81 Justice for an oppressed race
were the only issue, every Christian
white man in America should spring
forward to right the wrong. But all
that is best in American institutions
is at stake. The church in America
Is on trial There Is less danger from
the Bleases and Var damans and TIL
mans, whose verbal violence and bru.
tally defeat their own ends, than
from Indifference Of the men Of inf1u-
ence, culture, scholarship and Chris.
tan profession, North and South,
who do not help to remove this
hl3ohf ,,nn,1 arr national life PIX IN