The Omaha guide., 1932-10-22
EMIN1SCENCES0

a right to invite Mr.. Washington,
Mr.. Washington had the right toI
accept. But is it the best and high
est wisdom or the finest taste tol
make our friends suffer because it
is in our power to do SOP"
Reading these lines after
twenty-seven years, 1 appreciate
how many times my friends
have shown the finest taste in
not letting me suffer- i had a
n of adventure i'm going
where my race did not go,
where / was warned not to 60.
But 1 was not allowed to be in
discreet. 1 was quietly taken
care of, Their and always.
At the end of a Negro meeting,
1 went home alone or with a col
ored woman Once this did not
happen. I was walking in the eve
ming with a college student. We
went by a hack stand in charge
of an elderly Negro. "You stop
this" he said sternly to-the young
man. stop it," I had too little
knowledge then to see the lynch
ing back in his imagination, but 1
saw the place in which he put me.
While the professional class was
on the whole conservative, there
were some with a wide outlook on
conditions, and before long we had
a group, meeting for the most part
in Brooklyn, of colored and white,
called the Cosmopolitan Club. An.
DIRE Tridon, Frenchman. psychiat-
riSt, vas the president. DR.. Owen.
M. Waller, an able physician, an.
ardent admirer of DIR. Dubois, was
vice-president. DR.. Verina Norton
Jones was in the club, and one of
its best members vas the Reverend
Frazier Miller, soon to join the
Socialist cause. Among the whites
were single takers and, of course,
Socialists. We expected to discuss
many topics, but before the eve
ming was over we always got around
to the problem of race.
I recall one evening when we
examined photographs of families
that lived, some in the white, some
in the colored world. I had heard
Of these things but it wa a differ
ent matter to see pictures of Ne
groeS who had gone white, especial
ly when a brother, still in the COL
ored world, exhibited them.
Southern legislatures were at that
time passing laws to make a person
with a drop of Negro blood a mem
Der of the Negro race. Tragic con-
ditions were resulting.
South Carolina had refused
to pass this law, a member Of
the legislature U give this story
as it was told mel rising and
saying that they could not pos
sIbiy have such legislation in
that state. I'VE are all of us
niggers, more or less" was
printed from his speech in the
next mornings paper.
The club was small and con-
genial. Later it achieved sudden
lame and as suddenly oblivion.
While I was making social con-
facts I was reading continually on
1'N0AO 4QCot1Oll. OuCll
as 1t was! The newspapers and
magazines, with a few exceptions.
had no use for any educated Negro
except Booker T. Washington. He
knew that the Negro should receive
an industrial education and his re-
marks were always welcome. AS
the South had formerly been SEN
sitive to Northern criticism, so now
the North was ready to atone for
its reconstruction policy. The South
knew all about the Negro and the
North nothing. !
Tourgee's Fools Errand" was SUI
perceded by Dixon's 1.-The Leopard'sl !
The best publishers seemed !
eager to print rabid criticism Of the !
American Negro. :
Thomas, a renegade Negro, pub :
lished as nasty a book as can be :
found about his race, and Macmil-
published it. Back in the minds /.
of the white critics was the fear of
Negro domination, and the old slay-