Cayton's weekly. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1916-1921, 1919-08-16
HOW SHALL THE BLACK MANS
BURDEN BE LIFTED?
MANS
Current Opinion.)

Prof. Edward Raymond Turner of the Uni
versity of Michigan, and by Herbert j.
Segmann for the New York ''Nation."
They raise the entire Negro question in it's
most sensational aspects and indicate that
relations between the races are getting
worse rather than better. Professor
Turner's method is historical. With a
broad sweep and grasp of detail that at
times is gruesome, he traces the history of
torture throughout the ages, eliminating in
our Southern lynchings. Mr.. Seligmann
confines himself to contemporary events,
which he treats in spirit of indignation
tinged with irony. He tries to show that
passion is aroused over mob murders not
because they are committed in defence Of
Southern womanhood but because the entire
relations of white and colored races are in
volved. He tells us that in casual CONVEX
satiOns in Mississippi Delta cities the follow
ing stimulants to mob murder were cited to
him:
q. The nationwide campaign for equal
rights for Negroes This is specifically re-
ferred to in the editorial of the Vicksburg
Weekly Herald of May 16 2 Induction
of Negroes into the United States army,
putting them equality with white
men, Cheap politicians, of whom Senator
Vardaman is typical, refer to French
women-ruined Negro soldiers,' using every
resource of this kind to foment race hatred.
which is their chief stock in trade g. Sur
vival of the fear of Negro domination in
herited from carpet-bagger days. 4. The
economic motive in all it's variants, based
upon the determination to deny the Negro
his rights, to keep the niger in his place..
s. The sport in torture: Page 1 of the
Viclzsburg Evening Post, recounting the
murder of Clay, had this passage: Have
you had enough fun, boys?' leader asked
Yes, cut him down. -
Unfortunately Mr. Seligmann proceeds
racial animosity is exhibited not only in
lynchings. Race riots are constantly
threatened
"Not one Negro to whom I spoke in the
Delta region but wished to get away Daily
life for them is almost intolerable. Negroes
are subject to every insult and abuse, not
to mention Jim-Crowism and they have had
too much experience of the courts to rely
on them 1t is not surprising that they
have purchased arms in a number of South
ern cities with the intention Of defending
their lives and the lives of their families if
conflict is provoked. A disastrous race riot
was narrowly averted in Memphis, Tennes-
see, on the nights of Friday and Saturday,
May % and "a. Says the Commercial APP
peal of May 81: There was powder train
all over Memphis Saturday. That there was
no explosion was due to sheer luck
Somehow we have drifted into tense racial
relation. It is nobody's fault and yet it is
everyone's fault Open threats of attack
had been made by white men, to avenge the
death Of street-car conductor The mayor
and city officials in conference were in
formed that the Negroes of Memphis had
arms and ammunition, and proposed to use
them in selfdefence Police and sheriff's
deputies were posted and what might have
become a bloody race conflict was averted
With every lynching the danger of such
conflict increases Convince men that they
have no stake in society and the courts, and
no refuge in an enlightened public senti-
ment; insult, injure, and degrade them with
out redress and you create the desperation
out of which springs violence''
Many influential Southerners see the
hat Nv So1