The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-05-15
ALARMING TO THE
 NEGROES OF SOUTH

Under the title "Whither Are We Drifting?' the Birmingham Reporter, a negro publication, of which Oscar lowing editorial:
 James w. Poe, president of the Col ored Citizens Patriotic league, with headquarters at Richmond, Va, has gathered statistics showing that about 350,000 of our race have left the south for the north during the past eight months, 73,000 going to Pennsylvania alone.
 This is an alarming statement alarming not only to the industrial ir- terests of the south Agricultural, min ing and manufacturing, but to the best interests of the negro race, which was so fast approaching the zenith Of it's power and influence in this south land of ours, after passing through the crucibles of ignorance, misguidance and oppression resultant from the darkness of former slavery. Fifty-two years of freedom from chains was just now reaching our dawn of civili- zation, enlightenment and general ad- vancement in the south, our own na- tive heath. The minds hearts and hands of our race were just awaken ing the appreciation of the white cit izenship to the fact that the negro race is a rich asset of community in- terests, a real sine qui non in tho south's general industrial uplift and advancement. and this appreciation IS strongly manifested in the educational advantages vouchsafed to our children by the white electorate of the south ern states, by the better protection afforded the persons and property of our people, and by the more liberal compensations accorded our honest toll in mine. field and factory.
 Evidence that former race prejudice is passing away in the south Is presented on every hand, and by virtue of our own strong efforts and by the grace of the whites among whom we were reared, we
 behold the star of hope rapidly rising. Why, then, should we at this late day abandon this field of hopeful endeavor and glorious achievement and seek new fields new environments and haunts un- known to us, among a people who do
 not know or understand the race to
 which we belong?
 That some abuses still exist in the
 south, We do not deny, but year by year these are being diminished. That greater abuses exist in the north Is almost daily
 recited, and they increase with the in flow of negroes from the south. Not least among the sufferers from
 this exodus will be the members of the
 negro race in the south, who need the numerical strength, the fellowship, the producing capacity, the general helpful ness of all who were born and reared among us, who have suffered with us and who have aided us in reaching this promising era of our existence Should the exodus continue, what Is to become of the negro professionals in the south the preachers, the doctors, the lawyers, the teachers-who have no patrons save members of our own race? Shall the church and school bell be husned and their doors closed to the few remaining? :? We appeal to the ministers and teachers, the lawyers and doctors of our race for an answer to this question:
 Our white neighbors are not to be the greater sufferers by this calamitous eX- odus.
 We appeal to the patriotism, the intel ligence, the wisdom of every Alabama negro to consider we'll the condition which confronts us race and to warn his every neghbor and co-laborer of the danger which confronts the present and future of our race, in listening to the siren voice and the sly artdce of the labor agent who for his own hggrandize- ment would break asunder the ties which | bind us as a race, destroy our hopes for increased strength and power and leave us only a few to battle for those things which mean uplift, human and righteous.