Leaders Should Stand Firm.
September 29, 1906
Summary
“Courageous leadership” is called for in the South, so the Planet claims that the better class of each race should push past the resentment felt between them and “stand our ground either on top of the earth or within its bosom.”
Transcription
Leaders Should Stand Firm.
Colored leaders of the Southland should stand their ground and not be driven out because the lawless elements see fit to threaten their lives. The situation down here is critical, we know, but already the work of depriving the race of abel, courageous leadership has been too successfully carried out. Few people realize the risk being taken in this section of the country in speaking for the rights of a progressive but downtrodden and oppressed people.
The cringing servile elements are with us and will be to the end of the chapter, but still manhood is at a premium. The trouble is with the vicious, hoodlum white elements, who are on a par with the vicious, hoodlum Negro elements. The better class of both races have much trouble in controlling both elements when led by unscrupulous men anxious to secure notoriety.
Just as white men find it difficult to repress a feeling of resentment against all Negroes for crimes committed against white people by some Negroes, so colored men find it difficult to repress a feeling of resentment against white people for crimes committed against Negroes by some white people. We should understand that we must discriminate in this matter and visit condemnation only in quarters where it is deserved.
The doctrine now being enunciated in the South that Negroes must not have firearms, while white men must own all that they can buy or have given them is not the logic or the doctrine that will have favor with any fair minded man be he white or black. A man’s home is his castle and so long as he confines his efforts to its defense, he is within his legal rights.
Despite all of the appearances to the contrary, there are tens of thousands of white men favorable to the Negro in Georgia. They are woefully in the minority however and the occurrences of the last few days would indicate that until the Negro decided to make friends with himself and in the matter of lynch law and mob rule protect himself, his last condition will be worst than the first.
Colored leaders, let us stand our ground either on top of the earth or within its bosom. Others have died for us. It seems to us that we van at least die for ourselves, while we “earnestly contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints.”
We can voice the words of Shakespeare in our reply to hideous warnings:
“There is no terror, Cassius in your threats,
For I am armed so strong in honesty,
Than they pass me by like the idle winds,
That I respect not.”
Colored leaders of the Southland should stand their ground and not be driven out because the lawless elements see fit to threaten their lives. The situation down here is critical, we know, but already the work of depriving the race of abel, courageous leadership has been too successfully carried out. Few people realize the risk being taken in this section of the country in speaking for the rights of a progressive but downtrodden and oppressed people.
The cringing servile elements are with us and will be to the end of the chapter, but still manhood is at a premium. The trouble is with the vicious, hoodlum white elements, who are on a par with the vicious, hoodlum Negro elements. The better class of both races have much trouble in controlling both elements when led by unscrupulous men anxious to secure notoriety.
Just as white men find it difficult to repress a feeling of resentment against all Negroes for crimes committed against white people by some Negroes, so colored men find it difficult to repress a feeling of resentment against white people for crimes committed against Negroes by some white people. We should understand that we must discriminate in this matter and visit condemnation only in quarters where it is deserved.
The doctrine now being enunciated in the South that Negroes must not have firearms, while white men must own all that they can buy or have given them is not the logic or the doctrine that will have favor with any fair minded man be he white or black. A man’s home is his castle and so long as he confines his efforts to its defense, he is within his legal rights.
Despite all of the appearances to the contrary, there are tens of thousands of white men favorable to the Negro in Georgia. They are woefully in the minority however and the occurrences of the last few days would indicate that until the Negro decided to make friends with himself and in the matter of lynch law and mob rule protect himself, his last condition will be worst than the first.
Colored leaders, let us stand our ground either on top of the earth or within its bosom. Others have died for us. It seems to us that we van at least die for ourselves, while we “earnestly contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints.”
We can voice the words of Shakespeare in our reply to hideous warnings:
“There is no terror, Cassius in your threats,
For I am armed so strong in honesty,
Than they pass me by like the idle winds,
That I respect not.”
About this article
Source
Location on Page
Lower Left Quadrant
Topic
Contributed By
Emma Roberts
Citation
“Leaders Should Stand Firm.,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed January 20, 2026, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/756.