New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-06-20
The White Man Problem
He Must Be Taught and Humanized
To Be Fair to Negroes
To the Editor Of The Tribune.

lem" makes stronger my convicton The.
such as he are right, that there is no rscro
,roblem. On the contrary, there is a wh;,.
mans problem, the first element Of which !.
% get fair view and fair statement Of N.
relations of the whites and the blacks in
this country from the white dominators Of
the South and their imtators in the North.
Mr.. Jacobs confuses social equality with
equality of civil rights. Political rights are
the rights to vote and 10 be represented in
the creation of the laws which describe legiti.
mate and prescribe illegtimate actions in the
democracy. Civil and civic rights are those
rights which emerge from the condition, 81
civil life. public association. and which de-
mand recognition in the equal interest Of all
who participate in that life. These include.
conspicuously, the right of chosen residence.
IN. right TO travel in all public conveyances
without discrimination. the right of access 10
all means of public education. as schools, Ii.
braries and museums; the right TO be served
IN all shops, theatres, restaurants, hotels and
other places of public entertainment and &C.
commodation; equality of presence on the
streets and in parks. When We come to the
terms social equality social rights" we
have reached, should say, the line between
public and private, and the one right that
energies from the weller of confused dehni.
ton is simply and only the right Of each
householder to choose the friends and guests
who will be persona grata in his or her home.
The Cause of Lynchings
at is only the vilest wretches who are
lvnched," says Mr. Jacobs. meaning, Of course,
those who are guilty of sexual offences. There
is no excuse for such an assertion. Statistics
carefully compiled for years, based on re-
ports from the South itself, show that only
about one-third of the lyncnings were due to
rape, attempted rape and unsubstsntisted
charges of rape, combined. Negroes have
been lynched for scores of offences and al
legged offences, from rape TO "impertnence'
And if you are going 20 lynch, and with
torture, black men who are charged with the
usual crime" why do you not lynch, and
with torture, white men who are charged with
the same crime?
Yes. some negroes were attacked by white
men in New York recently. Why? Because
the white men were trying TO enforce the
Southern rule of mo social equality mean
ing by social equality" the civil right to
buy goods where white men we're purchasing
the same kind Of goods Why twit the North
with following your example?
THE colored schools, as a rule are as good
az the white schools" viii Mr.. Jacobs put
his assertion TO the test of fact by giving US
the figures from the various states Of the
South, showing the appropriations per capita
of school population for white and black, the
pay of teachers, the length Of school terms?
And travelling accommodations ARE as
good as the whites have? Are they in other
states as they are asserted TO be in Virginia,
of which state only Mr.. Jacobs ventures to
testify? And is their isolation, which Mr.
Jacobs says so delights them, always re-
spected?
Winding Ones Own Business
We of the North repeatedly are told TO
mind our own business. Well, why did the
white South rage within all its borders when
Booker T. Washington was invited by Iheo'
dore Roosevelt to sit at table with him?
Why did the dinner Of the Cosmopolitan Club
in New York some years ago bring 10 US cries
of angry denunciaton from Virginia TO the
Gulf? Why is it obligatory upon us to mind
"our own business" while the South need not
exercise like sef-restraint?
I'VE respect the negro in Virginia The
negroes are leaving Virginia because we
voted whiskey out of our state Respect
men because they want 10 drink themselves
70 death? Queer. As a matter of fact, they
"respect" no negro who does not kow-tow to
every white man. They tolerate him as an
economic asset so long as he Willingly re-
mains disfranchised and a manual lsborer.
" hen he becomes a Booker T. Washington,
Kelly Miller, W. L. B. Du Bots, Carter
Woodson, they grandfather-clause him or
thrust him into third class Jim Crow car.
Respect
And only the Southerner knows the negro'
As only the Turk and the Kurd and the Anaut
know the Armenian as only the Cars Rus
SLAMS knew the Jew. That is always the plea
of the denier of equal rights-only the op'
pressor understands the oppressed! No
man can understand people and treat them
justly who sees only the race label, who is.
nores individual merit, discourages individual
aspirations and achievements, bsmes and
submerges the race as a whole for the trans
gressions and weaknesses OF some of its men,
bers.
No democracy is possible where there are
castles of race, where any race is denied equal.
ity of opportunity, of political and ciVii
rights, where its members are set apart as
perpetually inferior, where always they may
90 down lower, but where never they may
come up higher
close as | began: II is the white mans
problem; first, his education. his humaniza'
ton. ELWIN c. WALKER
New York, June IS, 1917.
To Russia via Prison