The Semi-weekly leader., 1919-07-26
CONDITIONS AT WASHINGTON
THAT ELIMINATED IN THE
RECENT RACE RIOTS.

II that race trouble" had to hap
pen we're glad as we can be it hap
pened in Washington and not at
jackson or in Mississippi or further
South. Washington was the legiti-
mate place for it to happen.
Here's what correspondent wrote
The Leader several months ago.
The saddest thing in Washington,
from white mans point of view, is
the niger question, though up here
they spell it negro" If this is "a
white mans country, white men
and women should be permitted to
enjoy life in the Capitol City of their
country without being subject to in
suit by too intimate contact with an
inferior race. But we are NOT.
Here the negro is in evidence every
where. He has free use to any seat
in the street cars, and he avails him
self of that privilege. He does not
mind in the least, he seems to enjoy
taking his seat by handsome, we'll
dressed lady. And as for getting up,
when the cars are crowded, as they
nearly always are, and giving or Of
fering his seat to lady, it never oc-
ours to hi Such a -l---l1t does not
percolate arongh
And he IS doofrkeeper in many OF the
government apartments. And he or
she is first assistant to the manager
of many of the apartment houses, and
the manager is uniformly absent.
Hence if you enter swell apart
ment house to inquire for a room, a
negro talks terms to you and asks
for "your references" Now what do
you think of that? And he works by
the side of white girls in the gov
ernment employ; and he uses the
same lavatory and the same commode
with the white men. And he rubs
up against you in the stores and
makes no pretense to make himself
small. He, and especially she, push
es in and seems to delight in holding
her own at bargain counters. And
they parade the parks and occupy
the seats like swarms of black-birds.
And they serve on the police force.
And official Washington, from the
President down, see it and know it
and stand for It,"
The South ought to make fight
against it., An organized, political
fight. In every congressional dis
trict in the south where white men
control the situation, the issue
should be raised, what are you GO
ing to do about the negro question
in Washington" Will you pledge
yourself to try to do something?"
will you promise not to sit still and
submit to the intolerable condition
that now exists there?"
And another way to fight it. The
young people of the South, ought to
refuse to come here and work for the
Government by the side of negroes.
If the Government will not protect
them, they should protect themselves
by refusing Government employ. The
Government needs them worse than
they need the government employ,
and If they cannot be protected from
such intimate business associations
with negroes, the boys of the South,
and more especially the girls of the
South, ought to stay away from
Washington. They ought not to
come here and submit to things that
down south they would not endure
for minute or mint of gold.
This negro question is. no mere
sentiment or race prejudice. 1t is a
fundamental, underlying, racial prin-
ciple, and the South ought to stand,
not only at home, but abroad, for its
principles. The South. through or
ganization and If it would, can make
this SO burning a question that time
serving, pot-house politicians, will be
afraid not to at least try to do some
thing to remove this stencil from the
Capitol City of the Nation.