1 10 3 https://msstate-exhibits.libraryhost.com/files/original/8eb0d620fae151a340693195cc9bec26.PNG f6b42a3d6134ef9318bb3ee9966fc971 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Against All Odds: The First Black Legislators in Mississippi Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource DeeDee Baldwin Assistant Professor, History Research Librarian <a href="mailto:dbaldwin@library.msstate.edu">dbaldwin@library.msstate.edu</a> Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document NOTES ON THE SITUATION. Communicated.] "Scorn the prison and the racks; If you have truth to utter, speak, and leave The rest to God." Perhaps a few observations on the South in regard to its laboring classes, the relation and responsibility of the North for the present disturbed state of affairs, may not be inappropriate at a time, when, perhaps, all else becomes of secondary importance; even that perplexing game of chess now being played by Congressmen at Washington, gives precedence to this topic of all absorbing interest. The departure of so many of the native colored people from this section of the country, going northwest, breaking up their homes, hurrying, fleeing and aimless, in a disorderly and undisciplined manner is a circumstance that gives occasion for much thought, and demands the most careful and rigid investigation into the causes that impel it. The investiture of citizenship by a political party to those who formerly were slaves, their relation to the Government, and in some localities their participation in its affairs, involved difficulties of such magnitude which probably at that time were not contemplated; that diverted their attention from the legitimate needs of the country, in building up the places made desolate by the war, harmonizing differences and restoring good feeling, and directed it to meet the various perplexities the new relationship continually presented. These new difficulties greatly amplified legislation to honor drafts upon which that character was devised that became baneful in its effects, irritating almost to an incurable resentment the passions that should have subsided with the war; and among the newly enfranchised, encouraging a spirit of such miserable dependency, and exciting to their credulous minds the belief that the least of the ills incident to their existence would receive the healing balm of legislation. Adhering to a course that has been pursued, resulting from delusive views, or wrong and mistaken motives, shows a consistency that springs from very weak judgments or very obstinate minds. This is strikingly characteristic of some of the leaders of that party, after the mistakes of many of the reconstruction measures. That spirit of legislation, rampant at that time, devised just too much of a certain kind to be beneficial, and which was in its nature, too partisan to be salutary. Underlying all other causes, the germ of that legislation has developed much of the bitter fruit of sectional strife and antagonism; and to which is clearly traceable, the present unhappy condition of the colored laborer in this section of the country. The elevation of the slaves to freemen was an organic change in their condition that necessitated a gradual attainment of the ballot, instead of the sudden and impolitic manner it was conferred. The want of a right conception of its privileges and an intelligent exercise of it, demanded its careful bestowal. But this was not done. In consequence of which the "woes unnumbered" that they have endured, were entailed upon them. With the overthrow of corruption and ignorance, the intelligence of this country should have been directed to the amelioration of the condition of its laboring classes on a more broad and comprehensive plan. A more general diffusion of knowledge under a better system than they now obtain; the repeal of such laws as militate against the interests of the farmer; the assurance that no encroachment upon their liberties will be attempted, are chief among the measures of relief most imperatively demanded just now. Unless this is done, the agricultural interests of the South will suffer from continued emigration, which, unhappily, is being encouraged by some from motives looking to their own aggrandizement, which the present unsettled condition of the colored people are made to subserve. These demands are just and equitable, and should be met in a spirit of moderation and fairness; concession should meet these exigencies so freely and firmly as to place an effectual barrier against the spread of discontent; and bring with it an assurance of the encouragement of a better state of feeling, looking to the general welfare of the people and the prosperity of the country. A little reflection on the part of the colored people should convince them that peace and few things are preferable to great undertakings and great cares; that making haste slowly should govern them in breaking up their homes and leaving the place of their nativity. The removal of one's "household gods" is too serious a matter for experiment, and too sacred for inconsiderateness. Aeneas attempted his, only when the destruction of his burned and bleeding city admonished him there was virtue in flight. But they must not delude themselves with the belief that the Troy of their hopes perished with the overthrow of ignorant and corrupt domination. Whatever gratification the novelty of migration north may possess, or whatever hope it inspires, its delights, assuredly, will be lost in the difficulties that will be met in competition with its skilled labor, and prosperity retarded until this be overcome. For the ills that give character to the discontent that now prevails, redress should be sought for such as are vital to your happiness and prosperity. No agricultural necessity exists for migrating, soil, climate and nativity urge your stay. If political dissatisfaction exists, it is evidently beyond the power of immediate correction; time, eventually will regulate it. Your premature political birth, forced and sudden growth, and ephemeral life, were engendered by a policy too short-sighted and impolitic for healthy or continued existence. Through it, your career was violent and short-lived; letting loose the passions of avarice and ambition, unrestrained by moral principle, it contained the elements of its own destruction, and hastened the end now bitterly deplored. Your early training was in the school of agriculture, not politics; in the former you will succeed, commensurately, as habits of industry and economy are practiced, and merits general approbation and esteem, and will have all rights accorded you in proportion to the acquisition of such knowledge as will tend to the improvement of your minds, the elevation of your morals and the encouragement of temperance and virtue in your lives and character. Your happiness may be further promoted by a judicious exercise of moderation in your expectations, modesty in your demands and satisfaction with that degree of consideration which you can procure by your abilities in your intercourse with the other race. In no other section of the Union would forbearance have been exercised as it has in this. Hostilities would have existed North, or anywhere on the face of the earth, with far less encouragement than it has had here; and you will yet be convinced of the wisdom of the control of this Government having passed into intelligent hands, and felicitate yourselves upon its responsibilities being assumed by those whose training and culture qualify them for that end. <a href="http://msstate-exhibits.libraryhost.com/exhibits/show/legislators/samuel-w--lewis--madison-count">S. W. LEWIS</a>, Canton, May 17th, 1879. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource American Citizen clipping Subject The topic of the resource <a href="http://msstate-exhibits.libraryhost.com/exhibits/show/legislators/samuel-w--lewis--madison-count">Lewis, Samuel W., active 1879-1888</a> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource American Citizen Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1879-05-24 editorials lewis https://msstate-exhibits.libraryhost.com/files/original/2db2360a20648fb07feba187c863335a.PNG 7936aab27431615aa415aa1655e2e264 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Against All Odds: The First Black Legislators in Mississippi Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource DeeDee Baldwin Assistant Professor, History Research Librarian <a href="mailto:dbaldwin@library.msstate.edu">dbaldwin@library.msstate.edu</a> Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document <a href="http://msstate-exhibits.libraryhost.com/exhibits/show/legislators/emanuel-handy--copiah-county-">E. HANDY</a> TELLS NEGROES THEY DISGRACE RACE DENOUNCES VOTE SELLERS AND VOTE BUYERS IN OPEN LETTER. HOW TO UPLIFT RACE Declares Recognition Is Not Due Until It Is Earned - Must Stop Selling Votes and Set Better Example for Children to Do Away With Prejudice in Future. <a href="http://msstate-exhibits.libraryhost.com/exhibits/show/legislators/emanuel-handy--copiah-county-">Emanuel Handy</a>, one of the most prominent negroes of Atchison, deplores the weaknesses of his race in a scathing denunciation of the manner in which the negroes in Atchison exercise the right of franchise. In a letter to The Champion he asks what right the negro has for recognition in politics as long as he is willing to sell his vote for a bottle of beer and a few cigars, and incidentally hits the white vote-buyer hard. The letter follows: Editor of The Champion: The action of the negro has been so tremendous that I can only indicate it in a general way: that the negroes in Atchison have disgraced the name of civilization. It has been charged by the white man that the negro is burdened with a citizenship that he is not capable of maintaining; that their politicians are rotten, and that their politics exist only in circumstances which disgrace the United States. If the negroes of Atchison should ever expect to be recognized it is time that their folly should cease. So much for the negro hypocrisy, as selling their votes for all the beer or cigars they can get to last them three or four days. I have talked with the white people a great deal about not putting more colored men on the jury and here is the argument: The white people can't trust the colored man because he will sell out for a bottle of beer or a cigar; he will sell out his vote for all that he can get to drink for two or three days. The children of today will be the men and women of tomorrow, and oh, how careful should parents be in trying to prepare their children for the battle of life, which is chance. They must be the fathers, the mothers, the teachers a generation hence. What kind of men and women, what kind of parents and teachers will they make? That depends upon what the men and women of today are doing toward teaching the children which God has given unto them. Can any race on earth expect to be recognized with such a brand of character as that, knowing, as I do, that it is true of some of our people. The very men that told me are the very men that have been buying negro votes for 15 years, to my knowledge. What could I say? Nothing, because I know it to be the truth. Parents should think about the future welfare of their children after they themselves are dead. For, as our children are today so will our race be a generation hence. They are the great factors which will determine the destiny of the negro race. The character and destiny of a race is the fruit of the seed sown by a former generation. Character, conduct, success or failure is sown by a generation and the succeeding generation reaps the reward. No generation in the history of the world escapes the decree of this law of cause and effect. It has always been so; it is a law of nature, a law which is inseparable and controls all growth and decline, all human success and failure. What, then, will make our children of today obedient to the law will make our race law-abiding a generation hence. If we strive to make them liberty-loving citizens and lovers of morality, there will be no baffling negro problems for the coming generation, for these children of ours will be above all evil forces in America which are fighting against the race, and will win for their children a secure place in the battle of life. It will be a dike against the encroaching waters of prejudice, because they will be fit - because they will be strong. But we can't expect these things ever to come if we go on selling our votes for beer and cigars, as the white man says we are doing today. In making these allegations I want to say of the white man who buys the vote. He is stooping to conquer, and is no better than the one who sells. He is the aggressor, and, in my estimation, is not as good as the negro who sells. <a href="http://msstate-exhibits.libraryhost.com/exhibits/show/legislators/emanuel-handy--copiah-county-">E. HANDY</a>. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Atchison Champion clipping Subject The topic of the resource <a href="http://msstate-exhibits.libraryhost.com/exhibits/show/legislators/emanuel-handy--copiah-county-">Handy, Emanuel</a> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Atchison Champion Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1916-03-02 e handy editorials https://msstate-exhibits.libraryhost.com/files/original/ebc64035f95b9f0da12d5861d0a673b5.PNG 27fc490bb627af3a2803fc31d09ddb46 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Against All Odds: The First Black Legislators in Mississippi Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource DeeDee Baldwin Assistant Professor, History Research Librarian <a href="mailto:dbaldwin@library.msstate.edu">dbaldwin@library.msstate.edu</a> Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document FROM A COLORED VOTER To the Editor of the Los Angeles Herald: We are now in the midst of one of the most important campaigns in which this state has ever been engaged. I say important, because it is but preliminary to the great contest which will take place in 1900. This year the colored voters are no longer standing, as heretofore, shoulder to shoulder with the so-called Republican party, but they have begun to think and act for themselves. They are beginning to see that the Republican party of the present is no longer the party of Lincoln, of Sumner, of Morton. Republicanism no longer stands for principle and justice, but is now the party of trusts, monopolies, syndicates and combines. The colored people as a race are laborers. They are not office-holders, they own no railroads, they have no banks, they are at the head of no great corporations, but as a rule they are forced to obey the divine command, "By the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread." For more than thirty years the colored voters in every political campaign in this country cast their votes almost as a unit for and in the interest of the Republican party, until its leaders have come to feel that, no matter how much the negro is kicked and cuffed, he will still stand by the party and continue giving it his vote, that they might be again boosted into places of honor and trust; and if, perchance, there is some little office in some undesirable location given to one of our race, they point to it and say, "See what the g.o.p. is doing for your race. Only keep on voting with us, and perhaps some day, when you are better qualified, we will give you some little janitorship, where you may sweep our floors and scrub our windows." Do not understand that I would detract one iota from the glorious deed it performed some thirty years ago, when, at an immense sacrifice of life and property, it cast off the shackles from the wrists of the slaves and bade them go free; when they gave them the opportunity to stand forth and show themselves men. We have not been unmindful of these things, but have gone on letting them do the thinking and planning while we did the voting, until, with a shock, some of us were rudely awakened to a realizing sense that the noble old leaders of our party were gone, and their places filled by those who had only self-interest at heart. But let me say right here, while I wish to give them full credit for what they have done, yet the original purpose of the Republican party was not the abolition of slavery. When Douglas, Garrit Smith, William Lloyd Garrison, Lucretia Mott, Wendell Phillips, Sojourner Truth and a host of others were standing up nobly, battling for negro manhood, there was not yet any Republican party. No; there was no Republican party when this army of noble men and women were being mobbed, and rotten-egged and ostracised for creating the issues which culminated in birth of the Republican party, and the precipitation of the civil war. There was nothing in the Republican platform upon which Abraham Lincoln was elected president which aimed at any more radical measures than confining slavery within the territory then covered by it. When the south opened the war by firing upon Fort Sumpter, the Democrats of the north, like Benjamin F. Butler, rushed in to defend the union, and, without seeming to do so, became members of the Republican party. Indeed, as many men went into the war for the union who had been life-long Democrats as men who belonged to the Republican and other parties. These Democrats came out of the war as good Democrats as when they went in. They did as much to make possible the emancipation as their Republican brethren in arms. The men who controlled the Republican party and the advocates of abolition were distinct from the beginning. Had the white men been able to subdue the south without the assistance of colored men - had the southern confederacy listened to the repeated overtures of President Lincoln, it is very doubtful if I should be writing this article today. The anti-slavery men had to plead for every concession to freedom from the politicians of the war period. Let us retrace our steps for a few moments over the pathway by which we have come. Well do I remember that noble hero, Charles Sumner, who so bravely stood by our race in the introduction of the civil rights bill; how he stood by and defended it during the remainder of his life, and then, when on his death bed, he called the Hon. B. F. Butler to his bedside and, with his latest breath begged him to "Take care of my civil rights bill." The legality of that law was passed upon by a body composed of the finest legal talent this world has ever known. And yet, shortly after the passage of this law, we see the supreme court of the United States, composed of Republicans, deciding that the government of the United States was powerless to protect its colored citizens in the rights conferred upon them by that bill, asserting that civil rights belonged to the state, thus tacitly acknowledging the doctrine of state rights, over which so much precious blood had been recently spilled. Now, friends, was this a just decision? Where could we look for justice, if not from the judges of a Republican supreme court? Yet judges are not infallible. Listen to the Hon. Charles Sumner, in a speech delivered upon the Dred Scott decision: "Judges are but men, and in all ages have shown a fair share of frailty. Alas! alas! the worst crimes of history have been perpetrated under their sanction. The blood of martyrs and patriots, crying from the ground, summons them to judgment. "It was a judicial tribunal which condemned Socrates to drink the fatal hemlock and which pushed the Savior barefoot over the pavements of Jerusalem, bending beneath his cross. It was a judicial tribunal which, against the testimony and entreaties of her father, surrendered the fair Virginia as a slave; which arrested the teachings of the great apostle to the Gentiles and sent him in bonds from Judea to Rome; which, in the name of the old religion, adjudged the saints and fathers of the Christian church to death in all its most dreadful forms, and which afterward, in the name of the new religion, enforced the tortures of the Inquisition, amid the shrieks and agonies of its victims, while it compelled Galileo to declare, in solemn denial to the great truth he had disclosed, that the earth did not move round the sun. "It was a judicial tribunal which, in France, during the reign of her monarchs, lent itself to be the instrument of every tyranny, as during the brief reign of terror it did not hesitate to stand forth the unpitying accessory of the unpitying guillotine. Aye, sir, it was a judicial tribunal in England, surrounded by all the forms of law, which sanctioned every despotic caprice of Henry VIII, from the unjust divorce of his queen to the beheading of Sir Thomas Moore; which lighted the fires of persecution which glowed at Oxford and Smithfield over the cinders of Latimer, Ridley and John Rodgers; which, after elaborate argument, upheld the fatal tyranny of ship money against the patriotic resistance of Hampden; which, in defiance of justice and humanity, sent Sydney and Russell to the block; which persistently enforced the laws of conformity that our Puritan fathers persistently refused to obey, and which afterward, with Jeffreys on the bench, crimsoned the pages of English history with the blood of innocent women. Aye, sir, and it was a judicial tribunal in our own country, surrounded by all the forms of law, which hung witches at Salem, which affirmed the constitutionality of the stamp act, which it admonished "jurors and the people to obey; and which now, in our day, has lent its sanction to the unutterable atrocity of the fugitive slaw law." Had he lived until a later day, and heard the decision of the supreme court of the United States on the civil rights bill, it would no doubt have been placed in the same category. Now, friends, I do but echo the sentiments of a vast army when I say that the younger and more progressive men of our race are weary of having about two millions of colored votes sacrificed annually upon the altar of gratitude, to give power and emolument to an army of men who neither respect us for the sacrifice made nor reward us for the valuable services rendered. We have not deserted any party; the party has deserted us. We have not played fast and loose with the politicians; they have played fast and loose with us. We are sick of the farce, and we propose to make a change. There are perhaps 20,000 colored voters in the state of California. What good have these votes ever accomplished for us? What measure of respect have they gained us from our white fellow citizens? The negro is simply a political cipher and a voting machine. Why? Because, as voters, we have been entirely too partisan; because we have failed to assert our independence of opinion and freedom of thought; and have "crooked the pregnant fawning." As a race we have habitually overlooked our own interests in advancing the interests of white politicians, who profit by our loyalty and treat us with contempt after the election is over. One thing is certain - the ultimate solution of the race problem will be reached only when the negro becomes an intelligent, independent and progressive thinker. We must be up and doing. We have already slept too long. We have allowed others to think for us and to dictate our actions entirely too much. That our interests have so long been neglected and our faith abused is due entirely to the fact that we have stood in our own shadow, committing to others the matters we should have looked after ourselves. If we have rights denied us that are ours, we are ourselves to blame. "Who would be free, himself must strike the blow." <a href="http://msstate-exhibits.libraryhost.com/exhibits/show/legislators/george-washington-albright--ma">G. W. ALBRIGHT</a>. Los Angeles, October 28, 1898. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Los Angeles Herald clipping Subject The topic of the resource <a href="http://msstate-exhibits.libraryhost.com/exhibits/show/legislators/george-washington-albright--ma">Albright, George Washington, 1846-1944</a> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Los Angeles Herald Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1898-10-31 albright editorials