In Misery Again

Mitchell condemns the Richmond Dispatch for a recent article, and tells the editor of that paper to “cease whining.”

The Richmond Dispatch has returned to its avocation of “gnawing a file.”
Under the caption of “Educating the Negro,” it proceeds to show that the commonwealth expends upon the colored people five hundred thousand dollars more than these same people pay into the treasury of the commonwealth.
It declares that there is no evidence that education has raised the Negro in the scale of morality.
This is a point against the kind and quality of the education rather than a point against the Negro.
It reminds us very much of the adulterated kerosene oil which was sold in this city a few years ago. It was known that oil would burn but this oil would not burn.
It was not long before the trouble was ascertained and a better grade of the liquid sold to consumers.
This is applicable to the education of which the Dispatch speaks from three to six months in the school-room for the country districts with from six to nine months’ idleness will undo the work of any country school-man.
The depravity of colored people is equalled by the depravity of white ones, and there can be no truthful denial of this.
The education of the people is regarded as an investment, raising them in the scale of citizenship and tending to increate their value as citizens.
Where failure results, it is caused by the system and not by the education.
Mr. Editor, believe in the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ and cease whining.

“In Misery Again,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed January 25, 2025, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/1723.