A White Man's Predicament
January 12, 1895
Summary
A white man comes into the black community and accuses a black woman of stealing $89.
Transcription
A White Man’s Predicament
A white man, W.R. Dawes, who lives about seven miles from Rocky Mount, N.C., sat in the Police Court of this city last Monday morning. He came to town and despite the abuse showered upon our race sought the embraces of dusky damsels the like of which would have made a colored man of respectability sick both in body and mind.
But it was alright with this white man; of whom it was sententiously said that he could easily secure bail of a thousand dollars in this town. He accused a small dark-skin girl, who appeared to weight about ninety pounds with having robbed him of $89, in United States currency. The case has been certified to the Hustings Court. We cannot understand why these degraded Negro women and as persistently form an opinion of the race, based upon an acquaintance with them. Will the time ever come that they will be willing to stay over on their side of the line? Here was a white man of means. He has a family; but comes to Richmond, seeks the most degraded section of the city, sleeps with a common prostitute of the most degraded type, loses his money and then stands in court, surrounded by friends, and essays to lay claim to respectability and declares his financial standing. This is only one of many similar cases.
A white deacon of a church in Buckingham Co., died under a colored woman’s bed in the same locality, and the woman was kept in jail for months although he came there himself and must have died of his own free will and volition.
It is time that the mixing ceased. Let the respectable people of both races cry aloud against it.
If a colored man had been caught with a white prostitute Judge Lynch would have been appealed to and a funeral cortege been seen wending its way slowly to the grave-yard.
The way to keep colored men from white women is to keep white men from colored ones.
Some white men have insisted upon a separation; let them have it. Each race to its own, is satisfactory to us.
Mr. Dawes had the seat of his breaches torn off it is said in removing him from his Negro mistress’ house. He should keep the garment as a reminder, and in the future learn that he cannot degrade further a prostitute, and in the eyes of his Heavenly Father, he, himself cannot be much more degraded.
A white man, W.R. Dawes, who lives about seven miles from Rocky Mount, N.C., sat in the Police Court of this city last Monday morning. He came to town and despite the abuse showered upon our race sought the embraces of dusky damsels the like of which would have made a colored man of respectability sick both in body and mind.
But it was alright with this white man; of whom it was sententiously said that he could easily secure bail of a thousand dollars in this town. He accused a small dark-skin girl, who appeared to weight about ninety pounds with having robbed him of $89, in United States currency. The case has been certified to the Hustings Court. We cannot understand why these degraded Negro women and as persistently form an opinion of the race, based upon an acquaintance with them. Will the time ever come that they will be willing to stay over on their side of the line? Here was a white man of means. He has a family; but comes to Richmond, seeks the most degraded section of the city, sleeps with a common prostitute of the most degraded type, loses his money and then stands in court, surrounded by friends, and essays to lay claim to respectability and declares his financial standing. This is only one of many similar cases.
A white deacon of a church in Buckingham Co., died under a colored woman’s bed in the same locality, and the woman was kept in jail for months although he came there himself and must have died of his own free will and volition.
It is time that the mixing ceased. Let the respectable people of both races cry aloud against it.
If a colored man had been caught with a white prostitute Judge Lynch would have been appealed to and a funeral cortege been seen wending its way slowly to the grave-yard.
The way to keep colored men from white women is to keep white men from colored ones.
Some white men have insisted upon a separation; let them have it. Each race to its own, is satisfactory to us.
Mr. Dawes had the seat of his breaches torn off it is said in removing him from his Negro mistress’ house. He should keep the garment as a reminder, and in the future learn that he cannot degrade further a prostitute, and in the eyes of his Heavenly Father, he, himself cannot be much more degraded.
About this article
Source
Location on Page
Lower Left Quadrant
Topic
Contributed By
Cord Fox
Citation
“A White Man's Predicament,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed January 18, 2026, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/83.