The Truth About Lynching and the Negro in the South: In Which the Author Pleads That the South Be Made Safe for the White RaceCollins, Winfield H. (Winfield Hazlitt)
History
The Truth About Lynching and the Negro in the South: In Which the Author Pleads That the South Be Made Safe for the White Race
Collins, Winfield H. (Winfield Hazlitt)
African Americans; Lynching; Southern States -- Race relations
In addition, there are almost an unlimited number of what may be termed
Negro settlements scattered over the country. Such is Petersburg, on
a railroad two miles from Hurlock, Maryland, which may serve as an
example. It consists of about twenty-five houses and lots or little
farms, altogether embracing about one hundred acres. These are mostly
owned by the Negroes who live on them. They bought these little tracts
several years ago when the land was considered almost worthless as it
was so sandy and poor. The men till their lots and occasionally work
by the day for some of the surrounding white farmers. In season, the
women and children and some of the men as well go elsewhere to pick
berries. In the late summer all have employment at home for about two
months furnished by a white cannery, near. Altogether it seems to be
a very contented community. Each Negro is his own boss and can work
when it suits him and stop when he pleases. To make such a living as
satisfies him he need work scarcely half of his time. This just suits
Negro inclinations and consequently Petersburg is a little paradise for
the Negro.
However, the segregation of the Negro is not yet universal. In some
towns and cities as well both North and South they are more or less
scattered. In the City of Washington they are found practically
everywhere. In most cities they occupy the most undesirable parts—such
as any low muddy places or narrow alleys. In some small cities of the
South, while there may be a well defined Negro section, nearly every
well-to-do family has a Negro servant family in the back yard. La
Grange, Georgia, is an example.
But in the greater number of towns and cities the Negro section and
the white section have been clearly defined for years. Cambridge,
Maryland,—a city of about 5000 whites and 2000 Negroes,—is of that
sort. All the Negroes live in the Southwest section except two or
three families that live in a kind of alley near the bridge which
connects East Cambridge with the main part of the city. One sees but
few Negroes on any white street, not even on the main business street
except Saturdays when they do their shopping. But on the street just
west of the main business street and parallel with it, the business
street of the Negro section, only a few whites are ever to be seen
but it is always black with Negroes. Here are Negro grocery stores, a
drug store, barber shops, theater, schools, and churches. Very few
mulattoes are in evidence for the Negroes are nearly all of pure blood.
One never hears of any serious trouble between the Negroes and whites
of Cambridge for they live in comparative harmony with one another. At
East New Market in the same county, a railroad separates the white from
the Negro section of the town, while at Vienna, eleven miles distant,
the Negro section is several hundred yards from the white part of the
town.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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