Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1923-05-05
DR.. EMMETT ]. SCOTT MAKES GREAT PLEA
FOR THE RELEASE OF THE NEGRO RACE
IN THE SOUTH FROM ECONOMIC SLAVERY
preston News Service)

preston News Service)
Washington, ID. c., May 4.-As u re
suit of DIR. Emmett j. SCOTS tele'
gram to +. III. Gary, u heated commuh
ication was sent by him to j. NJ. Gibbs
secretary of the North Carolina Pine
Association, Norfolk, Va. objecting 10
DIR. SCOTS position and statements
thar colored people in the South are
in position to supply any labor Snort
age in the large industrial plants OF
the United States.
DIR. Scott replies to Mr.. Gibbs In
part as follows:
II write to acknowledge receipt OF
your letter of April 10. / fear from
the tenor of your communication that
ycu must not have read my complete
telegram. but Crly a portion thereon.
therefore, send YOU herewith SOY
of said telegram that you may more
fully inform yourself Of just what l
said to Judge Gary.
NEFUTES SUGGESTION HE is NOT
FAMILIAR WITH SOUTHERN
CONDITIONS.
evidently you rest under the ms
apprehension that l am, as you state,
unfamiliar with southern conditions
You are probably not informed OF the
fact that I am n southerner who spent
most of his life in the South, having
been born in Texas where for num-
Der of gears conducted newspaper
and of my having served for % years
in the heart of the Black Belt or the
South as secretary to the late Dr.
Booker T. Washington and OF the
Tuskegee Normal and Industrial In
stitute also served for 81 years as
secretary of the National Negro Bus
ness League. l am, therefore, ventur-
ing to suggest that l have fairly &C
tcurate knowledge of southern cond1
'tionS.
1.-The Carnegie Endowment for In
-ternational Peace commissioned mo
to make study of the whole program
of Negro migration during the war.
The conclusions of that study are set
forth in publication very widely dis
-tributed by that organization. / would
venture 10 call the conclusions Of that
study to your attention.
n M
DESCRIBES SOUTHERN
SITUATION
sssszssss .ss-.ss.s' =
~I approached the study Of Negro
migration in no spirit Of hostility. !
did approach it. however with very
definite feeling that the South owes
uhe Colored people a squarer deal
than it has been swing them. The nor
rible stories of peonage, the lynching
crime, the lack Of educational oppor.
Sunities. the residential and labor seq
resation laws. the jim Crow car sys-
TEN the destruction CT political privil
eges and the curtPilment of civil
fights. are all matters which stimu-
late the migration Of Colored people
from the South.
81 now come 70 that part of your let
ter in which you attempt to show that
there is a shortage Of labor in the
South. I am assuming you are referr-
5ig to Negro labor. If there is such e.
shortage in the South, the reasons,
therefore must be apparent to you.
Even when so per cent increase ia
wages has been made for Negro labor,
l wonder if one circumstance like
yourself. is not acquainted with the
tact that even when this increase has
been made it bears no adequate relat-
ion to the amount offered In other sec
ltiOns of the country.
tI must not fail to emphasize the
tact that the Negro Is no longer will
ing to accept the intolerable condi
lions to which I have referred and a
igv,red wage at one and the same
time 1t is matter of common knowl-
edge that the vagrancy laws of the
!, To i,,fi nnt dot
labGrers and to force them to work un
der intolerable conditions. 1t is equal
Iy matter of common knowledge thar
as a result of his refusal to work ur-
der the oppressed economic conditions
of the South he has even suffered him
self to be placed in prison. If unwill-
ingness to work under these restrict
I've and dehumanizing conditions is to
be interpreted as shortage of labor,
then, if there is not shortage of la
Dor in the lumber plants and other in
dustries Of the South there should be
such shortage.
COLORED PEOPLE SHOULD
LEAVE THOSE SECTIONS WHERE
THEY ARE OPPRESSED
81 very definitely feel that it is the
duty of Colored people wherever op.
pOrtunity offers to leave those sec
lions where lynching and peonage are
practiced upon them with impunity. |
know quite definitely the difficulties
that black men are likely to meet IN
some of the northern sections, bu.
these difficulties are inconsequential
when compared with the privileges OF
n free and untrammeled citizenship.
q! am sorry that you are disposed to
con-ider the ambition on the part Of
Colcred people to seek their fullest
development and the enjoyment of the
fullest American cit zenship, as being
unworthy. | should very much dislike
IN fool ibot tho South. natural