The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1916-02-05
NEGROES AT THE THEATERs.

| Mr. Editor Thanking you for your
indulgence, l beg to say that regret
not having a personal acquaintance
with Mrs. Mary Brown, but l am
pleased to see that my article under
above caption was of sufficient inter-
est to attract the lady's attention and
to draw forth from her a criticism
| From reading the lady's reply l be-
lieve that she has correct ideas about
position and character, and / am sure
that her unjust accusation of me was
owing to her misunderstanding my
article. 1t is possible that she and
l have a different definition of "a rep
resentative audience" Although |
have seen the term often, have never
read its definition, and l take it for
granted that representative audience
/ may have one or more classes repre-
sented, and usually whenever there
is large gathering of Negroes which
has for it's motive something of popu-
lar interest, several classes are rep
resented, such as the professional, So
ciety, laboring, domestic and sporting
and have sufficient knowledge of the
world and of human nature to know
that not all the members of any class
possess the same degree of character.
No where in my article did l men,
tion First class" or second class"
Negroes, but on one thing we both
agree-that is, there was some very
bad behavior shown in the audience
and | naturally surmised it came from
the members of that class or type
whose environment was such as not
to inspire in or obtain for them a
knowledge of good manners.
Pursuing the theme of Negroes at
the theater further, | have seen wom-
en- of our society class, l presume, at
tend in most elaborate costumes and
have seen many Negroes unduly de-
monstrative in approval or disapprov-
al of the acts, forgetting that fine cos
tunes are out of place in the least
conspicuous places and that the actors
are not offering their talent for the
entertainment of Negroes, and prob
ably would not appear on the stage
for the benefit of an entire Negro au-
dience.
The editor of this paper ought to
be commended for his manly stand
and should be supported in his effort
to appeal to the race pride of Negroes
to stop assisting in their own humilia-
tion at the Orpheum theater. When
that theater was at its old stand on
n 1, . 4 ,e
tributed to it's support, and actors of
our race among the best of their class
on its stage entertained with credit
and satisfaction its audiences. Dur
ing that time to my knowledge there
was no outbreak of race friction and
there was no action on the part of
Negroes that interfered with the gen.
eral attendance. Yet when the new
Orpheum opened its doors, it was
found that the seats provided for Ne
groes only were so high above the
stage that it was actually uncomfort-
able to try to see and hear, and th'
entrance to these seats was from a
side door in the alley. Yet Negroes
are attending this theater instead of
boycotting it, which the race to a man,
woman and child should do. This ac-
tion would be practical expression of
race pride and would command the
respect of other races.
Concluding, if Mrs. Mary Brown will
admit to herself that she accused me
wrongfully through mistake, l will be
pleased, and l would like to meet her
with others of her class to endeavor
to effect some measure to improve the
| manners of that type of the race un-
der discussion. j. A. WILSON.