The Evils and the Remedies
March 1, 1902
Summary
White Southerners warn against giving distant jobs to black people, to limit their travel, and they make claims about preventing rapes in the future.
Transcription
The Petersburg, Va. Index-Appeal in its issue of the 20th ult., discusses the reasons given by some of the southern representatives. To show the absurdity of the same we quote as follows:
Washington, D.C., February 18th.-- (Special)-- Congressman Loud’s bill to place rural free delivery carriers under the contract system will be vigorously fought by the southern representatives in both branches of Congress. The passage of the bill, they assert, will place these jobs in the hands of Negro constituents. There will be no restriction placed upon the bidders, and the enterprising Negro will want his share of governmental business, provided he can come up to government qualifications. Such a state of affairs is very well in the Western and Northern States, where the country districts are thickly populated, and where Negroes are few, say the southern representatives, but it will never do in a section of the country where the blacks are in great numbers, and where the country is sparsely settled. In explaining his opposition to the bill, one of the southern members said:
“We respect the Negro, and will aid him to better his condition in every legitimate way, but we will not allow a state of affairs, where it is possible for a Negro to travel over twenty or twenty-five miles of road and daily visit isolated farm-houses. Mind you, we are not against the Negro because he is black, but because it is made possible for irresponsible Negroes to obtain these positions, and create a great deal of fear throughout the country. The delivery of mail to rural districts is made by contracts. Bids are advertised. The contract is awarded to some supposedly responsible person. It turns out that the contract is sub-let--al though this is illegal, it is done in hundreds of cases-- and an irresponsible Negro is given the job. Perhaps temptation besets him. He gives way. A crime has been committed. There is a hue and cry, the white population is in arms, and a bloody race war is the result. It is the fear that such crimes will become common under the proposed conditions, and fear that such a race war will be the result, that makes the southern delegation oppose the passage of the Lous bill. None of these conditions might exist. The Negro might be a man of excellent character, but it would make no difference to the southerner in an isolated farm-house. The fears expressed above would be uppermost in the minds of the farming element, rural free delivery would have to be withdrawn, because the farmers would not accept their mail from Negroes, and the old condition of affairs would be resumed.”
The Index-Appeal says:
“It does not seem to us that the grounds alleged for opposition to the Loud bill are either sufficient or reasonable, and it is to be hoped that Southern representatives will pause and deliberate before they reject the advantages of rural free delivery system for reasons so inadequate.”
****
“This is a possible but a very remote danger, and we fail to see how it is increased by work in the rural free delivery service. Ordinarily this would be a protection against this danger, if there be any truth in the saying that an idle brain is the devil’s workshop, for the carriers mind would be largely engaged in the performance of his duties, and the sense of responsibility and of respectability as a United States official would undoubtedly exert a restraining influence upon him. On the other hand, the wretches who usually outrage women in isolated homes are the idle and thriftless who loaf about the country unrestrained, and who have time to make their plans and wo watch for their opportunity. Lone women in isolated homes are exposed to this danger all the time.”
The Index-Appeal concludes as follows:
“There is a remedy against this danger which Southern women in all country places, and in the cities, too, according to the experience of Lynchburg and Richmond, must adopt at once, and that is the practice of the use of firearms. Husbands and fathers and brothers should teach their female relatives how to shoot, and to shoot to kill. We are persuaded that this will do more to break up rape than any kind of law, not excepting lynch-law. Let it be generally understood that white women are not defenceless, but that they are armed for the purpose, and it will not be necessary to kill more than one or two rapists to reform the rest of them.
“Meanwhile, the free rural delivery system has come to stay, and the section which is the slowest to adopt it will be the section which will be behind all the rest in the growth of intelligence and prosperity.”
This is the right advice and we commend the editor of the Index-Appeal for his boldness in advocating such policy.
But there is another logical phase of the question. The term “Southern women” embraces the colored ones as well as the white.
Colored women would find it a healthy pastime, even though its expense might be an item to be considered.
This also coincides with our advice to colored men in the Southland in dealing with white mobs. They too should learn to shoot and to shoot to kill.
“Let it be generally understood that colored men in the Southland are not defenseless; but that they are armed for the purpose, and it will not be necessary to kill more than one or two lynchers to reform the rest of them.”
You are all right in your theory, Mr. Index-Appeal., even though we have worked it out to its logical conclusion.
Armed colored men will do well to take notice and prepare themselves accordingly.
Washington, D.C., February 18th.-- (Special)-- Congressman Loud’s bill to place rural free delivery carriers under the contract system will be vigorously fought by the southern representatives in both branches of Congress. The passage of the bill, they assert, will place these jobs in the hands of Negro constituents. There will be no restriction placed upon the bidders, and the enterprising Negro will want his share of governmental business, provided he can come up to government qualifications. Such a state of affairs is very well in the Western and Northern States, where the country districts are thickly populated, and where Negroes are few, say the southern representatives, but it will never do in a section of the country where the blacks are in great numbers, and where the country is sparsely settled. In explaining his opposition to the bill, one of the southern members said:
“We respect the Negro, and will aid him to better his condition in every legitimate way, but we will not allow a state of affairs, where it is possible for a Negro to travel over twenty or twenty-five miles of road and daily visit isolated farm-houses. Mind you, we are not against the Negro because he is black, but because it is made possible for irresponsible Negroes to obtain these positions, and create a great deal of fear throughout the country. The delivery of mail to rural districts is made by contracts. Bids are advertised. The contract is awarded to some supposedly responsible person. It turns out that the contract is sub-let--al though this is illegal, it is done in hundreds of cases-- and an irresponsible Negro is given the job. Perhaps temptation besets him. He gives way. A crime has been committed. There is a hue and cry, the white population is in arms, and a bloody race war is the result. It is the fear that such crimes will become common under the proposed conditions, and fear that such a race war will be the result, that makes the southern delegation oppose the passage of the Lous bill. None of these conditions might exist. The Negro might be a man of excellent character, but it would make no difference to the southerner in an isolated farm-house. The fears expressed above would be uppermost in the minds of the farming element, rural free delivery would have to be withdrawn, because the farmers would not accept their mail from Negroes, and the old condition of affairs would be resumed.”
The Index-Appeal says:
“It does not seem to us that the grounds alleged for opposition to the Loud bill are either sufficient or reasonable, and it is to be hoped that Southern representatives will pause and deliberate before they reject the advantages of rural free delivery system for reasons so inadequate.”
****
“This is a possible but a very remote danger, and we fail to see how it is increased by work in the rural free delivery service. Ordinarily this would be a protection against this danger, if there be any truth in the saying that an idle brain is the devil’s workshop, for the carriers mind would be largely engaged in the performance of his duties, and the sense of responsibility and of respectability as a United States official would undoubtedly exert a restraining influence upon him. On the other hand, the wretches who usually outrage women in isolated homes are the idle and thriftless who loaf about the country unrestrained, and who have time to make their plans and wo watch for their opportunity. Lone women in isolated homes are exposed to this danger all the time.”
The Index-Appeal concludes as follows:
“There is a remedy against this danger which Southern women in all country places, and in the cities, too, according to the experience of Lynchburg and Richmond, must adopt at once, and that is the practice of the use of firearms. Husbands and fathers and brothers should teach their female relatives how to shoot, and to shoot to kill. We are persuaded that this will do more to break up rape than any kind of law, not excepting lynch-law. Let it be generally understood that white women are not defenceless, but that they are armed for the purpose, and it will not be necessary to kill more than one or two rapists to reform the rest of them.
“Meanwhile, the free rural delivery system has come to stay, and the section which is the slowest to adopt it will be the section which will be behind all the rest in the growth of intelligence and prosperity.”
This is the right advice and we commend the editor of the Index-Appeal for his boldness in advocating such policy.
But there is another logical phase of the question. The term “Southern women” embraces the colored ones as well as the white.
Colored women would find it a healthy pastime, even though its expense might be an item to be considered.
This also coincides with our advice to colored men in the Southland in dealing with white mobs. They too should learn to shoot and to shoot to kill.
“Let it be generally understood that colored men in the Southland are not defenseless; but that they are armed for the purpose, and it will not be necessary to kill more than one or two lynchers to reform the rest of them.”
You are all right in your theory, Mr. Index-Appeal., even though we have worked it out to its logical conclusion.
Armed colored men will do well to take notice and prepare themselves accordingly.
About this article
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Lower Left Quadrant
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Contributed By
Brooke Royer
Citation
“The Evils and the Remedies,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed April 24, 2025, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/259.