Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1929-01-26
FACTS VERSUS FICTION.

We were dumbfOunded at the
recent meeting of the Committee on
Ordinances TO hear Rev. s. R.
Orren. pastor of the, East End
Baptist Church make the statement
that Negro leaders here were intrud
ing themselves in the white sections
of the city and were anxious to live
in exclusive ne ghborhoods. He went
so far as to intimate and say that
they desired to live on Monument
Avenue He cited that case OF a
Negro physician on Church Hill who
had moved into a white nelghbor
hood. ....
Being Christian and a leader of
white flock on Church Hill, we
were astounded to learn that a gen
tleman of his intelligence and learn
ing, and a follower of the good and
lowly Jesus should have let. his
Negro hating tendencies get the
better of his judgment.
On last Sunday we went over on
Church Hill and found out that he
referred to Dr.. Walter Brown, an
accomplished physician, who lives on
the border line, so to speak between
the white and colored sections.
He had resided there six years.
and in conversation with a white
resident. he told us that if all OF
the colored people were like Dr.
Walter Brown and his family there
could be and would be no objection
to them. He had been an asset and
not a liability to the section. He
said. that other white. neighbors
agreed with him. We then found
out that Rev. Fendall w. Williams
D. D., the able pastor % the Fourth
Baptist Church had taken the "bull
by the horns" so to speak.
He was in absolute accord with
the position taken by the Planet
and he was proposing the organiza
ton of a building and loan associa
ton to purchase the vacant land in
the neighborhood and to build new
cottages for colored people in this
exclusive. colored neighborhood.
This will give these white folks ga
Roland for their oliver" If they
do not want us to live near them,
We do not want them 70 live near
us. Our aim is to build Up Rich
mond and to have peace between
the races. This cannot be done by
legislation. As Hon. John Stewart
Bryan has we'll said, it is a civic
question. e.
Our people work here for white
folks and naturally desire to be as
near as possible to their places of
labor. Many of them rent the out
houses in white residences on this
account and many others live in
attics Those white folks who were
not raised by colored folks and do
not know either their value or their
advantages are the cause of the
trouble. AS to racial integrity as
an issue, this is q joke.
The Police Department could give
much information upon this all
important subject. 1t has TIE job of
keeping white men away from
colored women, many of whom are
iDsulted from week to week by
white men, who have a kind of
hankering after Negro women. A
colored man beat up a white man
a few weeks ago because of this and
no complaint was made by the white
man. He took his medicine.
We began thinking of the race
leaders here. Mr.. William A. Jordan
erected fine residence. Did he
purchase lot in the West End? He
could have done so with about the
same money. He went out in the
neighborhood Of the Negro Virginia
Union University. DR.. James 2.
Jackson purchased a lot, not in the
pa;obborbood of tbo Connfrv NIuh
(white) but out in the neighborhood
of the Negro Virginia Union
University.
DR.. L. D. Blaney purchased
lot. Did he select one in the white
section? No. He built residence
at an approximate cost Of fifteen
thousand dollars in the neighbor