The Chicago whip. (Chicago, Ill.) 1919-19??, 1920-04-03
A SQUARE DEAL FOR
THE NEGRO
By Rev. l.. K. Williams

passionately desires Improvement
On this point, Mr.. j. H. billiard,
writing the introduction to the
United States Government publica-
ton on NEGRO Migration says;
1.-THE desire of any people or class
of people to improve their condi-
ton of living is natural and
healthy desire. The migration oil
i Negroes from one part of the coun-
try to another, like all racial and
popular migrations in history, ex-
presses such desire and effect
Whether the movement results in the
desired advancement is another mat
ter. In any case, the desire and eff
fort, however originated, deserve
commentator, not condemnation.
When the migration movement was
highest, the Olivet Baptist Church,
Chicago, received may letters from
prospective migrants. An examina-
ton of AGA of these show the fol-
lowing as causes why the writers
desired to come North. Better wages,
eighty-five; better housing conditions,
forty-eight; better educational adj
vantages, 1873; better laboring condi-
tions, thirty-one; fears of lynching,
scventy-four; political and civic
justice, forty-six; to escape oppres-
sion and Jim Grow laws, thirty
four; threatened and property dam
aged or destroyed, fourteen; to be
travelling and see the country, nine.
Figures compiled by the United
States Labor Department in 1917
show that sixty-nine out of seventy
seven Mississippi Negro migrants
were at work, three not working be-
cause of illness.
The Negro knows the traditional
history and the attitude of the North
toward him. He has thought of it
as a thrilling fact. He loves all men,
and believes in this sections love
of right and justice. He is keenly
responsive, and his wise leadears de-
sire and see cooperation. He speaks
this country's language, practices its
every custom, is loyal to this govern
ment, is no hyphenate, but is zone
soul" American citizen, to the man
ner born. He is religious, believes
in the only true God, having more
than 100000 members in "old
line" long to aBptist churches, this
being the largest Baptist group in
teh world and many more than all
the Negroes combined belonging to
churches of all other denominations.
The Negro has between 8 and 9
per cent of his total wealth invested
in church and religious property,
lMhile the weather.: race has but lit
I'll pans IN Hhan per cent of it's
wealth thus invested.
Some Disadvantages
BY some, the Negroes former state
of slavery is not forgotten, nor has
he been forgiven for that enforced
humiliation and its present, though
swiftly departing, consequences.
Slavery has always made a deep
chasm between its promoters and the
enslaved, and fomented type of
class prejudice no less reckless and
Irrational than strong and unyield-
ing. Race marks and the Negro
color are counted by many as badge
of dishonor, inferiority, and just
grounds for opposition to him. Many
Negroes of very light color enter
places where darker ones cannot, and
are employed in large institutions
which maintain as policy, mo
Negro people employed here" To
base an inter-racial policy on color
and not character, on previous con-
, ditions and not present race worth
is an unphilosophical thing and serves
as a powerful deterrent to young
races rightful, ambitious and lawful
strivings. Mr.. Benjamin J. .Rosen-
thai of Chicago said: awe are our
brothers keeper and the sooner we
realize that race, creed and color do
; not make jot of difference, that a
man stands or falls by virtue of his
character, and that character, after
all, is the test, the sooner will we
make life happier, not only for
others, but for ourselves" He could
have said with added force and the
more rightful dynamic: Because we
are our own brothers brother, we
| should apply correct standards in
estimating human values"
The Housing Question.
Greed and avarice, exhibited in
charging the Negro higher rents
than others pay for the same prop
erty, are a logical sequence of not
applying to him, "a mans a man
for a. that" This has forced Negro
| Deople into unsanitarv houses whara