Following the color line : $b An account of Negro citizenship in the American democracy
History
Following the color line : $b An account of Negro citizenship in the American democracy
African Americans; United States -- Race relations
They fought the Jamestown Exposition because it had a Negro Building,
which they called the "Jim Crow Annex," and they fought the National
Christian Endeavour Convention because the leaders could not assure Negro
delegates exactly equal facilities in the hotels and restaurants. Of
course the denunciation of the white South is continuous and bitter. It is
noteworthy, however, that even the leaders of the movement not only
recognise and conduct separate newspapers and ask Negroes to support them,
but that they urge Negroes to stand together politically.
_Boston Negroes Seen by a New York Negro Newspaper_
But the large proportion of coloured newspapers in the country, the
strongest and ablest of which is perhaps the New York _Age_, are
supporters of Washington and his ideals. The Boston correspondent of the
_Age_ said recently:
It is unfortunate in Boston that we have a hall which we can get free
of charge: we refer to Faneuil Hall. They work Faneuil Hall for all
it is worth. Scarcely a month ever passes by that does not see a
crowd of Afro-Americans in Faneuil Hall throwing up their hats,
yelling and going into hysterics over some subject usually relating
to somebody a thousand miles away, never in relation to conditions
right at home. The better element of Negroes and the majority of our
white friends in this city have become disgusted over the policy that
is being pursued and has been pursued for several months in Boston.
Your correspondent can give you no better evidence of the disgust
than to state that a few days ago there was one of these hysterical
meetings held in Faneuil Hall and our people yelled and cried and
agitated for two hours and more. The next day not one of the leading
papers, such as the _Herald_ and the _Transcript_, had a single line
concerning this meeting. A few years ago had a meeting been held in
Faneuil Hall under the leadership of safe and conservative
Afro-Americans, both of these newspapers and papers of similar
character would have devoted from two to three columns to a
discussion of it. Now, in Boston, they let such meetings completely
alone.
If there ever was a place where the Negro seems to have more freedom
than he seems to know what to do with, it is in this city.
In spite of the agitation against drawing the colour line by the radical
party, however, the separation is still going on. And it is not merely
the demand of the white man that the Negro step aside by himself, for the
Negro himself is drawing the colour line, and drawing it with as much
enthusiasm as the white man. A genuine race-spirit or race-consciousness
is developing. Negroes are meeting prejudice with self-development.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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