Phoenix tribune., 1919-08-02
WAsHINGToN-THE CENTER OF
DISGRACE
(6y Associated Negro Press)

Washington, the nations capital city.
has at last joined the shining galaxy
of cities of blood-Springfeld, o;
Springfield, ILL.,; Atlanta; Brownsville,
Houston, East st. Louis, ct al, ct al.
1t is grim and serious subject to
comment upon. Paris, London, Rome
and Berlin, and all the other capitals
of the world are seriously discussing
in their newspapers and houses of
legislation and on the streets, what
occurred in Washington.
Washington has raised the curtain,
ynd from being known as the center OF
freedom and justice, it has been trans
formed into the center of disgrace. Is,
or is not this the time for prophesies
or warnings? Whether yes or no, old
World newspapers are doing both. 1t
is hardly time for threats, by either.
whites or blacks, but the murmurIngs
of such startle the ears of the listener
at the listening post"
The white people of our nation, by
and large, have been weighed in the
balance, and they have been found
wanting They have been found want
ing in acting squarely and fairly on the
things they teach and preach and fight
and die for. We have accepted their
teaching and preaching at face value,
and we have fought and died for those
principles, only to discover they are
seldom put into practice. Patience has
turned to weariness, and enthusiasm
to disgust. We may not be accorded
equality in even handed Justice every
where, but we cannot be segregated
from the world wide condition of social
unrest A splendid group of white peo-
pie, North and South, East and West,
recognize this fact, and are much in
earnest over plans for treating us more
| like human beings. This fine group of
whites has yet to contend with that
shallow, demagogic element that stop
at nothing, but in their true light are
mere towards and notorious examples
of ignorance. 1t must be understood
by all of us that that group does not
represent the true spirit of America,
even though they have exercised the
greatest amount of nerve, speaking in
the slang sense only. Lynchings and
riots are their pastime, but their day
of reckoning is fast approaching.
The Associated Press, with its in
famous policy of giving us the worst
of everything, has run true to form
in its dispatches concerning the Wash
ington riots. Furnishing dispatches to
the daily newspapers; always in its
first paragraph, it attributes the
source of the trouble to our people
''molesting white women" That, the
| Associated Press knows, is always fuel
for the fire of fury. II is damnable
shame for such a great service to stoop
to such harmful and untruthful propa-
ganda. The Associated Press always
carries it's point, however 1t arouses
certain elements of whites to indigna-
! tion by the thoughts OF the ever "burly
black brutes," and it stirs the people
of our group to state of fighting mad
by the folly of it-for WE know "the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
the truth"
The American people are much in
need of militant, fearless, just and de.
termined leadership. There is very
little of it at this time in Washington,
or any other part. But it must come
before the climax is reached, and we
again have peace and good will. There
cannot be real peace and good will,
however, without justice, and this JUS
tice is not yet, not yet, not yet. Right
will prevail-some day, but between
this day and that day, there can be
only disaster after disaster, regardless
of consequences. if it is to be expected
that the Is 100000 people of this group
must forever and forever submit to the
wrongs of oppression. In tue light oil
common sense reasoning, it is mani
festly unfair and inhuman TO expect IT,.
-O---
.,-aarnanr tMtN tNnATEcNIII