Trouble At Washington.
July 27, 1907
Summary
Blacks in Washington want to “fight Jim-Crow discrimination from the bottom up, starting at jails and workhouses”.
Transcription
Trouble At Washington.
The colored people of Washington have deemed it proper to fight “Jim crow” discrimination in the jails and workhouses of the District. We cannot say that it makes much difference one way or the other in that department, but evidently the idea was to begin at the bottom and work upward. We cannot see that there should be any discrimination in Washington, in view that the Civil Rights Bill as enacted into law is in full force and effect.
We are of the opinion that indiscreet utterances will do more harm than good. It is better to wield the weapon than it is to threaten to wield it as these white folks are very well posted as to our strength is any direction, and they are also kept well informed by conveniently inclined colored folks as to our dispositions and temperaments.
Our experience has been that there is relatively more race prejudice in Washington than there is in Richmond.
The colored people of Washington, or, at least, some of them, are largely responsible for this anti-Negro feeling. Many colored people, who move to these sections do not seem to know the value of politeness. They are loud in demanding their rights and slow in enforcing them when they are denied. In their impotency they give voice to language that tends to estrange people who would be disposed to champion their cause.
The greatest draw-back is our poverty. The vaporings of a moneyless people have a tendency to awaken ridicule. We should accumulate money. A man who is not able to contend for his rights upon his own responsibility is handicapped in court before his case is even heard. The law is so construed as to permit a Negro-hating white man to do just as he pleases, and it takes the best white talent with the best kind of gentlemanly Negro material to get a favorable decision in a court of law.
Some of our people will yet realize that a reversal of these onerous conditions will take place in the South-land. When white southerners champion our cause, as they will ultimately do, the Northern acrobat on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States will be as forward in ruling in our favor as he has been in rendering decisions against us.
For our part, we have been relegated to the Devil, so to speak, and all applications for relief on our part are now being addressed to His Majesty. When colored folks are discriminated against in the jails of Washington, the official home of President Roosevelt, whose word there is law and whose nod is a command, then we might as well “hang our harp upon the willow” and be silent for many days.
The colored people of Washington have deemed it proper to fight “Jim crow” discrimination in the jails and workhouses of the District. We cannot say that it makes much difference one way or the other in that department, but evidently the idea was to begin at the bottom and work upward. We cannot see that there should be any discrimination in Washington, in view that the Civil Rights Bill as enacted into law is in full force and effect.
We are of the opinion that indiscreet utterances will do more harm than good. It is better to wield the weapon than it is to threaten to wield it as these white folks are very well posted as to our strength is any direction, and they are also kept well informed by conveniently inclined colored folks as to our dispositions and temperaments.
Our experience has been that there is relatively more race prejudice in Washington than there is in Richmond.
The colored people of Washington, or, at least, some of them, are largely responsible for this anti-Negro feeling. Many colored people, who move to these sections do not seem to know the value of politeness. They are loud in demanding their rights and slow in enforcing them when they are denied. In their impotency they give voice to language that tends to estrange people who would be disposed to champion their cause.
The greatest draw-back is our poverty. The vaporings of a moneyless people have a tendency to awaken ridicule. We should accumulate money. A man who is not able to contend for his rights upon his own responsibility is handicapped in court before his case is even heard. The law is so construed as to permit a Negro-hating white man to do just as he pleases, and it takes the best white talent with the best kind of gentlemanly Negro material to get a favorable decision in a court of law.
Some of our people will yet realize that a reversal of these onerous conditions will take place in the South-land. When white southerners champion our cause, as they will ultimately do, the Northern acrobat on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States will be as forward in ruling in our favor as he has been in rendering decisions against us.
For our part, we have been relegated to the Devil, so to speak, and all applications for relief on our part are now being addressed to His Majesty. When colored folks are discriminated against in the jails of Washington, the official home of President Roosevelt, whose word there is law and whose nod is a command, then we might as well “hang our harp upon the willow” and be silent for many days.
About this article
Source
Location on Page
Lower Left Quadrant
Topic
Contributed By
Benton Camper
Citation
“Trouble At Washington.,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed September 14, 2026, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/618.