The Negro As A Hobby

The Planet quotes the 14th and 15th amendments explaining just how unconstitutional the “Constitutional” Convention of Virginia actually is.

The Constitutional Convention of Virginia seems now to be a veritable white elephant on the hands of the people of Virginia. Most of the work is being done by committees and none seems to be attracting as much attention as the one to which has been assigned the duty of restricting the elective franchise. All kinds of reports are being circulated as to what the committee will do. The latest is that a poll-tax qualification of $1.50 will be required. This was tried once before and soon became one of the most unpopular measures ever placed upon the statute books. We cannot fully understand Senator John W. Daniel. He is chairman of that committee. He is sworn to support the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. Article XIV is as follows: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of the state in which the reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law, nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Could language be plainer? It is mandatory and there can be no escape from its plainly expressed provisions. Article XV reads: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by previous condition of servitude.” This too is equally sweeping and yet the Richmond Dispatch of Sunday July 28th, the reporter stated: […illegible….] For the suffrage problem is the problem of all. It is not the wish of the advocates of a real estate qualification that there be any educational requirement. This latter is regarded as a makeshift so far as it would be effective in eliminating the Negro vote. The Negroes are rapidly learning to read and write. It is not improbable that the class of colored illiterates is decreasing more rapidly than is the class of white illiterates. The Negro is also acquiring real estate more rapidly than is generally supposed. That is, the number of Negroes owning realty is steadily increasing.” He continues: “But it is a fact that there are few Negroes who own land to the value of $300. At least that is the view of the advocates of the real estate qualification. While there are Negroes who own small pieces of land, there are said to be few who own pieces worth as much as $300. The advocates of the real estate qualification are most earnest. The fact that they are so much in earnest, and the further fact that they number nearly one-third of the committee. Which is a much greater than is claimed by the advocates of any other plan, gives hope to its advocates.” He says further: “The Suffrage Committee will meet again Tuesday morning. It may report in two weeks. It has the most difficult work of any of the committees. Every plan of suffrage proposed maybe be objected to on the ground that it will cut some of the white men of the State out of the right to vote. It is the belief of the advocates of the real estate qualification that is will deprive fewer whites of the right of suffrage than any other proposed as a method of eliminating the mass of the Negro vote.” One of the members was desperate indeed, for he is quoted as follows: “One of the most prominent members of the convention said yesterday that he was considering the propriety of offering a resolution which should provide that none of the tests provided in the suffrage clause should apply to the full-blooded Negro. He will probably offer the resolution. This is regarded as significant, as indicative of the fact that the whites of the State are not opposed to the Negro exercising the right of suffrage simply because he is a Negro. ‘The old issues’ Negroes are not giving any trouble, and have not given any.” The plan to disfranchise white men’s Negro offspring would indeed raise a howl from one section of the state to the other. The body should engraft a provision making it a felony for a white man to carnally know a colored woman and vice-versa, fixing their punishment at confinement in the penitentiary from one to five years. Some of our females are so white now that they charge us with bad manners because we hesitate to speak to them on the streets. If the constitutional convention will take hold of this end of the question, it will be the cause of much satisfaction on the part of the advocates of the rights of the full-blooded Negro. This then is an insight into the situation. How can Christian legislators or atheistic ones with honorable intentions disregard the amendments, which they as citizens are bound to support? This is the question of questions and will be a source of embarrassment in Alabama as much so in Virginia.

“The Negro As A Hobby,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed January 20, 2026, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/814.