dence is gradually accumulating
to warrant the belief that a healthier atmosphere is coming out of the
storm. Passions cool after full vent is given, and the sober second
thought of races and nations invariably makes for peace, for law and
for justice. Upon this established principle of metaphysics the Negro
must base his hope for happier results in the near future. The South
has awakened to its vast opportunities, and there seems to be a
well-defined and determined effort on the part of the intelligence,
the culture, and the wealth of that section to make the most of its
bountiful resources. The commercial era opening in the South,
gradually bringing into control the conservers of Christianity, of
peace and of civil equity, will develop better conditions for the
Negro; for among the aristocracy--among the landowners and moneyed
classes--the black man has always found his best friends and most
ardent sympathizers. They understand the Negro more thoroughly than
many Negroes understand themselves, and the facts will bear me out in
saying that when our people have needed advice, or have appealed for
aid for churches, schools and for industrial opportunities, the
high-grade white classes of the South have never turned a deaf ear.
They have never been wanting in their approval of the self-respecting,
thrifty and law-abiding Negro, and have always been ready to
encourage him in the acquirement of a home, a farm or other real
property--frequently lending the money for the first large payment.
Many times they have exerted their influence to guarantee fair play
for such Negroes in the courts--even when their causes were laid
against a white man, or where white men had accused them of crime. It
cannot be denied that injustice has been practiced against us in all
sections of the South, and it is also true that the Negro's ignorance
and credulity have made him an easy prey to the unscrupulous; but
ignorant whites have suffered likewise, for he that knoweth little, no
matter what his race, is the natural victim of the sharper. With the
keenest of sleuths in our detective departments of the North, and with
courts and juries of unimpeachable integrity, crime stalks boldly in
its greatest cities, and arrogant corruption goes unwhipt of justice.
So, in the Southland, there are crimes and criminals and the law will
be powerless to bring them to book until a nobler sentiment is created
by the supremacy of the better classes, and the relega