The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1920-12-03
RIGHT KIND or TALK FROM a
NEGRO TO HIS RACE

Gadsden County Times of last week
carried the following article, which
we believe should be read by all our
readers, white and black:
The recent election has again forced
the negro problem to the front in
the South in way not to be ignored,
and thoughtful southern men are
realizing that if it is to be solved in
our generation-if we are to work
out modus viyendi by which both
races can live in the same section on
peaceful terms-the best elements of
the negroes must cooperate with the
best elements of the whites to that.
end.
For that reason we are glad to see,
in contrast with the poisonous litera.
ture of negro papers published at
the North, letters now and then from
cI1ored men of the better type. pub
lished in southern newspapers, in
which sound advice is given to the
people of that race and they are urg-
ed to develop themselves along the
lines that will enable them to live in
peace and harmony with the whites
The very worst that is in them is
appealed to by much of this northern
negro literature that reaches them,
and there can be no surer and quicker
way tc make bad trouble for south
ern negroes than for them to read and
heed the preposterous and impossible
aspirations held out by these papers
to the colored population of the South.
But as above said, there are negro
leaders of another kind and we find
in the Mobile Register Of recent date
a letter from one Of them. Rev. c. E.
Moore, of Lakeland, Fla, which wei
republish as the right kind Of advice
to southern negroes from one of their
own race. and peculiarly right now.
The body of the letter is as follows:
The tine viii come when the col
ored people of the South will vote
with the white people of the South.
What is good for the white man is
good for the eolored man. We are
beginning to realize that we are under
ne obligations to the Republican party
of today. The Republican party of
today did not give us our freedom.
1t is not the Republican party of
Abraham Lincoln. As the southern
negro becomes a landowner. he re-
ceives the same benefits as the white
man in any increases in land values
In fact, anything that is done by the
white man ef the South to build up
our southern country benefits the
colored race also, even before he be-
comes a landowner, as he is given
his share in employment and good
wages. | have always been opposed
to anything that would create i'll
feeling between the white and colored
man. l remember after the Civil War
that it was the white people of the
South who provided food, clothing
and shelter for the negroes, after
they were set free. The Republican
party and the government failed tc
pension our race until we could be
come self-sustaining. do not believe
the white people of the South will
import labor to take the place of the
colored labor if our people will only
do their duty. Let us all try to use
hard sense on this proposition.
"The Republicans say they gave us
the fourteenth amendment. My OBJ
servation is that that amendment has
been a drawback to the colored race
instead of a benefit All people are
not created equal 1t will be genera
tions before the colored race is the
equal Of the white race. AS matter
of fact we we do not seek social equal
ity with the white race. We prefer to
have our own churches, schools and
neighborhoods."