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
Even some of the ladies of our community are complaining of this
rashness. That it is demoralising the labour in the home department.
So in conclusion, in behalf of my community and other country
communities, I feel it my duty to raise a warning voice against all
such new foolish ku-kluxism.
Mableton, Ga.
T. J. LOWE.
While I was in Georgia a case came up which threw a flood of light upon
the inner complexities of this problem. In the county of Habersham in
North Georgia the population is largely of the type known as "poor
white"--the famous mountain folk who were never slave-owners and many of
whom fought in the Union army during the Civil War. Habersham is one of
the "white counties" which is growing whiter. It has about 2,000 Negroes
and 12,000 whites--many of the latter having come in from the North to
grow peaches and raise sheep. One of the Negroes of Habersham County was
Frank Grant, described by a white neighbour as "a Negro of good character,
a property owner, setting an example of thrift and honesty that ought to
have made his example a benefit to any community."
Grant had saved money from his labour and bought a home. He was such a
good worker that people were willing sometimes to pay him twice the wages
of the average labourer, white or black. On the night of December 16,
1906, the Negro's house was fired into by a party of white men who then
went to the house of his tenant, Henry Scism, also a Negro, and shot
promiscuously around Scism's house, and warned him to leave the country in
one week, threatening him with severe penalties if he did not go. As a
result Grant had to sell out his little home, won after such hard work,
and he and his tenant Scism with their families both fled the county.
"In Grant," said his white neighbour, "the county lost a capable
labourer--in its present situation, a most valuable asset--and a good
citizen."
Here, then, we have race hatred versus economic necessity. The important
citizens and employers of Habersham County came to Atlanta and presented
a petition to Governor Terrell, January 18, 1907, as follows:
TO HIS EXCELLENCY, J. M. TERRELL,
GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA, ATLANTA:
Whereas, on the night of December 16, 1906, parties unknown came to
the quiet home of one Frank Grant, coloured, a citizen of this
county, and shot into his residence, and then went to the home of
Henry Scism, coloured, a tenant of said Frank Grant, and shot
promiscuously around his (the said Scism's) house, and demanded of
him to leave the county under severe penalty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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