The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1915-02-20
A PROTEST FROM FREEDOMS
BIRTHPLACE.

A PROTEST FROM FREEDOMS
... BIRTHPLACE.
l hang my head for shame that a
committee of the Anglo-Saxon Race,
to which I belong, has reported to
the Congress of the United States a
bill to provide separate cars for Col
ored American citizens in the District
of Columbia at the seat of the Ma
tiOnal Government. Such bill, if pre-
sented at the close of the Civil War,
fifty years ago, would have excited
less comment. g.
1t is rather late in our country's
history to separate any class of our
FELLOW citizens from another class in
facilities for travel. Representatives
of the Hebrew, Irish, Teutonic, Slavic
and Latin races may ride where they
please. If Booker Washington, on
whom Harvard conferred degree of
LII. D.; Prof. Pickens, who was an
honor man at Yale; Du Bots, the ed
itor of 'The Crisis" former Assistant
Attorney General Lewis; and William
Monroe Trotter must be put into sep
arate cars in Washington as being un-
fit to associate with their fellow citi-
zens, it is time vigorous protest were
made.
This is much more Objectionable in
the capitol of the, Nation than else
where. Visitors from other nations
who come to see our Congressional
Library and other public buildings
will have an object lesson hourly be-
fore them in the separation and de-
graduation of our fellow citizens.
One provision of the law which it
is sought to pass is fine of $1,000 or
imprisonment for six months for any
one who violates it's provisions, and
this applies to those in charge of
street cars, taxicabs or any vehicle
where fare is charged. Conductors,
porters, etc., are authorized as special
police for it's enforcement.
Premeditated.
That this is a part of a previously
determined and clearly defined South
ern policy is obvious from a letter
written the Editor of this paper by
Thos. H. Caraway, who is one of those
who reported the proposed law and
who wrote on the stationery of the
House of Representative under date
of Octover 1918: - =.
PERSONALLY, shall vote for every
measure that tends to segregate the
races, with reference to residence,
transportation, and occupation, and I
believe that measures of that kind
will be passed at the coming term of
Congress"
From this it appears that he wishes
ColOred people to live only in a GER
tain part of the city, ride only on cars
set apart for them, and to deprive
them of many occupations where they
can earn an honest living.
The writer Of this editorial takes
this ground, that segregation is always
a badge of inferiority and is so in
tended, and that any segregation
based on color alone, is always wrong.
Let no one think that We would do
away with classes in society. There
will always be wide gulf between
the educated and the ignorant, the
virtuous and the vile, the coarse and
vulgar and the gentle and refined,
but all these conditions are not based
on person having one-eighth or one
thirty.second of African blood in his
veins but are based oupon conditions
which the individual can change if
he will. The writer believes the
time has come when the Colored race
should repudiate the leadership of
those who advise further forbearance
and subserviency and tame submission
to everything proposed. If at the
recent visit of the editor of this paper
to the White House he had gone
in at the back door with a basket
asking for cold victuals, all would
have been we'll, but when he went in
at the front door of the White House
and looked the President straight in
the eye and asked for justice, he was
met with the remark that he spoke
with background of passion" and
that the "tone Of his voice" was not
acceptable. No doubt he spoke with
some warmth. He would be less than
human If he had not, when he felt
that he was spokesman of 100000
American citizens, asking not for fav-
ors, but for rights. The race should
repudiate the leadership which seems
to be more concerned with the supe.
rior advantage of leghorn pullets for
farmers and the fact that there is not
yet hog apiece raised in. each Col
ored family in the South, than it is
with the fact of the loss of the ballot,
lynchings, African exclusion, intermar-
riage and finally separation in cars,
based on color alone. Let us pray
for leader who shall get out Of the
arena of the barnyard and get into
the arena Of freedom and the rights
of man. en-.
Lose not Freedom Gained by Adolf.
tionists. .
Let us not lose the freedom for
which Garrison, Phillips Sumner,
Andrew, John Brown and a host OF
others laid down their lives. Let us