Mr. Baker’s Description.
September 7, 1907
Summary
Mr. Baker shares his negative outlook on black oppression.
Transcription
Mr. Baker’s Description.
This worthless Negro, without training or education, grown up from the neglected children I have already spoken of, evident in his idleness around saloons and depots-this Negro provokes the just wrath of the people, and gives a bad name to the entire Negro race. In numbers be is, of course, small, compared with the 8,000,000 negroes in the South, who perform the enormous bulk of hard manual labor upon which rests Southern prosperity.
How The Working Negro Lives.
Above this low stratum of criminal or semi-criminal negroes is a middle class, comprising the great body of the race the workers. They are crowded into straggling settlement’s like Darktown and Jackson Row, a few owning their homes but the majority renting precariously earning good wages, harmless for the most part but often falling into petty crime. Poverty here however lacks the tragic note that it strikes in the crowded sections Northern cities. The temperament of the Negro is irresponsibly cheerful, he overflows from his small home and sings and laughs in his streets; no matter how ragged or forlorn he may be good humor sits upon his countenance, and his squalor is not unpicturesque.
This worthless Negro, without training or education, grown up from the neglected children I have already spoken of, evident in his idleness around saloons and depots-this Negro provokes the just wrath of the people, and gives a bad name to the entire Negro race. In numbers be is, of course, small, compared with the 8,000,000 negroes in the South, who perform the enormous bulk of hard manual labor upon which rests Southern prosperity.
How The Working Negro Lives.
Above this low stratum of criminal or semi-criminal negroes is a middle class, comprising the great body of the race the workers. They are crowded into straggling settlement’s like Darktown and Jackson Row, a few owning their homes but the majority renting precariously earning good wages, harmless for the most part but often falling into petty crime. Poverty here however lacks the tragic note that it strikes in the crowded sections Northern cities. The temperament of the Negro is irresponsibly cheerful, he overflows from his small home and sings and laughs in his streets; no matter how ragged or forlorn he may be good humor sits upon his countenance, and his squalor is not unpicturesque.
About this article
Source
Location on Page
Upper Left Quadrant
Topic
Contributed By
Benton Camper
Citation
“Mr. Baker’s Description.,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed January 20, 2026, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/855.