Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1919-08-02
TIE RIOTS IN WASHINGTON.

1t is Il bold thing and II fine thin
and II loyal thing that our neighDor
the World does when it states TO its
Democratic readers III the South the
exact truth about the responsibility
for the race riots that have been
diSgracng the nations capital city.
We reprint with admiration these
fearless words:
zone of the most brutal forms Of
oppression is the punishment of Il
whole lice for the crimes Of indi-
viduals. For many years this has
Zen and it still is the practice in
American States that do not rccog
niZe the citizenship of the Negro.
"Deplorablc us all this lawcssness
is, the response of the black man to
the white man was bound to come
some time. The Negro has long been
free. He has acquired some educa-.
ton and property. He has made q
place for himself in industry. The
laws under which he lives guarantee
him equality. He escapes no reapon
sibility that rests upon the white
man. Yet in largo sections OF the
Union when riot is afoot he is
stripped of every right and driven
either into hiding or violence.
us there anybody in the South or
elsewhere who imagine that the
compulsory service of 100000 Ne.
grocs in the United States Army, in
many instances so creditably rs to
win high commentator, has had no
influence upon them or the mass OF
their people at home? Who is fool
ish enough to assume that with 239
600 colored men in Uniform from the
southern States alone, as against
S3C 90 white mer the blacks whose
manhood and patriotism were thus
recognized and tested are forever to
be floggcd, .lynched, burned at the
stake Or chased into conccalmcnt
whenever Caucasian despcradocs are
moved to engage in these infamous
pastimes?
eve grieye over the hardships Of
many subject peoples a long hSay off
and on accession manifest something
like indignation, but in all the world
there is hardly a population so God
forsaken and law-forsaken IS our
own blacks. Whether it is agreeable
or not, therefore the Washington
outbreak is warning to all Ameri-
cans that their race wars hereafter
are going to be race wars. The Ne
gro citizen is going to have his day
in court. 1t ought not to be necessary
for him to fight for it..
The truth OF this utterance sug-
gets some underlying truths.
For about half a century the -Four
teenth and Fifteenth Amendments to
the Constitution have been nullificd
in the Southern States by means of
the we'll known cXpedients Iractised
i'll that section in order to keep the
Negro from the polls and to deprive
him of the political equality which
those amendments were designed to
secure. The Negroes relationship" in
that quarter has been made mock
cry. The World describes accurately
his present status under the evaded
and mllified laws of his. country
when it refers to his people as "our
own subject race"
That is not the wnole story of law
lcssnesS and wrong. The Fourteenth
Amendment expressly provides that
when male citizens are deprived in
any States Of the right 10 vote for
Presidential electors or Representa-
tlVcS in Congress "the basis of repre-
scntation therein shall be reduced in
the proportion which the number of
such male citizens shall bear to the
whole number of male citizens twenty
one years of age in such State"
This penalty Of reduced potency in
Presidential and Congress elections
was intended to deter the white in
habitants of the Southern States from
doing that which they have openly,
VIGOROUSLY and dcfiantly done to the
subject race for fifty years or there
about. 1t has been and still is as
much Of a dead letter as the politi
cal equality Of which the subject
race has been deprived The South
crn states in contempt Of the Consti
tuition in the matter of the Ncgros