The Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1931-1952, 1931-01-22
Southern Born Lawyer Says
Mistake Was Made to Let
Miss Anderson Sing to
White Folk.

Editor the Herald: Without as
signing any logical reason at all.
and apparently basing his contention
upon the number of miles we are
removed from the Mason-Dixon line
and the land where "Jim Crow spirit"
prevails. | note with some astonsh-
ment that our most conscientious
and sincere citizen, Rev. Dwight C.
Smith, through the columns of your
paper, very soundlv pans" the man
agement of our best hotels for al
legedly refusing accommodation to
Miss Marian Anderson, an accom-
plished colored lady singer who re-
Gently sang to white. audience at
one of our leading churches.
Will you lend space and give ear
to one born and reared south of the
Mason-Dixon line in that sunny land
of Tennessee, where it was a signal
for battle for colored boy to so
much as swim in the old swimmn'
hole used by the white boys, where
no colored persons ever ate at the
same table with white folks, and
"Jim Crow cars" were invented.
There was a mistake made in Miss
Anderson's case, but it was not
made by the management of the
best hotels of our city--instead the
mistake was in ever permitting Miss
Anderson to be heard from the ros-
trum of a white church. If she has
talent, and no doubt she has, let
her display it in the uplift of her
own race where that talent is needed.
South of the Mason-Dixon line or
at the North Pole, in Africa, in the
land of her nativity or in Harlem.
she is colored lady, out of place
entirely before any white audience.
| would not attempt to enter into
an argument with Rev. Smith in
volving authority to be found in the
scriptures in support of his very
charitable attitude. but if l UNDER
stand my Bible God. through his SER
want Noah, cursed the forefather of
Miss Anderson's race and the seed
that came after him, for we read in
Genesis 0, 1927, "And he (Noah)
said. cursed be Canaan; servant
shall he be unto his brethren and
he said Blessed be Jehovah, the
God of Shem; and let Canaan be his
servant. God enlarge Japheth and let
him dwell in the tents of Shem, an
let Canaan be his servant"
That having appeared rioht to the
all wise Father. and He having in
that way sought to DISTINGUISH. ! see
no reason why l should after all
these years be asked to override His
Judgment.
The writer is not believer in
slavery. Fifty thousand men of my
section, few at time, travelled by
night guided by scouts, and lay hid
in DAYTIME, in order to get to ioin
the Union army and fight against
slavery. My foreparents and rela-
tives were among them.
If we may be permitted to give
purely mercenary reason or excuse
for the action of the management
of our hostelries. one is to be found
in the indisputable fact that hotel
is a business institution. founded
upon business policies and not upon
sentimental policies, and if it ex-
poets to succeed it must be such an
institution as will be to the liking
of the majority of its guests, pres
emf and prospective. In or out of
Bellingham white folks in the main
would not approve of the MANAGE
ment of first class hotel admitting
Miss Anderson. or anv member of
her race. 1t is argued that an excep-
ton should have been made in her
case because she is cultured and
talented, for the defender of her
right says: But I had imagined that
perhaps our hotels might see the alb
surdity of the discrimination in this
case. if not in all cases." No hotel
could be expected to establish a
the demand of the great maiority of
its guests, and vet break it at will
and be compelled to defend its action
in so doing with no better excuse to
offer.
I can. without feeling of any dis
approval whatsoever, concur in Rev.
Smiths commentator of the Y. w.
c. A. for takine Miss Anderson into
their very fine home. They are en-
gagged largely in welfare work-the
hotels in business enterprise.
A Yankee. who never had any ex-
perience in bringing up niggers, has
about as much right trying to tell
Southerner how to do it. as an old
maid has to try to give a grand
mother lesson on baby raising.
am in no way connected with
any of the hotels in Bellingham.
Sincerely yours.