THE SKETCHER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2451, 6 March 1901, Page 63

THE SKETCHER.

THE NEGRO ARISTOCRACY OF AMERICA.

(H. N. Tickert, in Pearson's Magazine.)

Thirty-eight years have now passed since President Lincoln's Proclamation of Emancipation came into effect, and the negroes of America were made free to set about earning social advancement, and to win the confidence of the white man. Upon consideration of their status at the present day, one is forced to the conclusion that they have succeeded m doing neither one nor the other. This is partly because the average negro has a natural aversion to brain work, partly because he has not been encouraged in his attempts to enter the fields of skilleH labour, but chiefly because of that instinctive aversion that causes the white man to refuse to associate with his coloured brother. The great national problem, of which the Afro-Ameri-can is the centre, is still unsolved. In every way the position of the negroes is unsatisfactory. They had never been socially acknowledged by the Americans. Recently, when the manager of a popular theatre refused to admit a coloured lady to one of the fashionable parts of his house, his action was received with general approval. As skilled labourers they have nev»r received a fair change. When a negro, a short time ago, was drafted with a batch of recruits for the fire brigade, there was immediately an outcry. In JNew York at the present time it is difficult for a black man to obtain any really responsible position.

xhere was a silent change in the general feeling towards negroes when, it was known how gallantly the black regiments had fought at the battle of Santiago ; but within two months — that is to say, in the November of 1898 — the whole population of Carolina was up in arms against "the niggers." Many towns were in a state of complete terrorism, and wholesale murders of ti\e black and white population took place unde r appalling circumstances. Again and again has the aversion of the white man to 1».«coloured brother shown itself in these sadden and deadly outbreaks. Nevertheless, in spite of all this, and in spite of Ihe demand thait is continually being raised that the whole race should be exiled to Africa, no one can deny the existence of a kind of negro aristocracy in America, consisting of a certain number of cultured men and women, who are shining examples of what the negro race may achieve. This "negro aristocracy" is very limited in comparison to the vast population of Africans in America ; but for all that it forms a body of brilliant men and women, among whom it is only possible to refer to the best known in the limits of a magazine articler. . . .

Perhaps the most prominent Afro-Ameri-can of the present day is Booker T. Washington. He is a man of brilliant attainments, and one whose views are always listened to with the deepest respect. Mr Washington is the great teacher of his people. This in two senses. The last 19 years of his life he has devoted to fitting young negroes to enter life equipped mentally and morally, to compete with their one-time masters. At the Tuskegee Industrial and Normal Institute, of which he is the head, there are to-day nearly 1000 pupils and 100 instructors and helpers. The institution is maintained at a cost wJiich exceeds £20,(KaJ a year, nearly the whole amount being collected by Mr Washington's individual exertions. He is an educator, however, in a broader sense. I question whether there is a more eloquent public orator than he. His utterances are always listened to with the same respect ; his sagacity has widespread influence. Then, too, Mr Washington has an educational hobby. Once a year he presides over a fanners' parliament, which is attended by the chief coloured agriculturists in the district. At the convention they discuss all manner of things in relation to cultivation and production, make notes from their neighbours' experience, give him the advantage of their own tests, and finally return with their wits considerably brightened by this foregathering. Such are the chief interests- that Mr Washington has. He is a man, however, of the broadest sympathies, and is well versed on all topics of public interest.

The bonds issued for the £40,000,000 war loan, raised at the time of the SpanishAmerican war, bore the signature of Judson W. Lyons, who, as Register of the Treasury, is one of the best-known coloured men in, the country. Nor is he alone in occupying an important official position. There have been negroes holding seats in the House of Representatives and in the Senate. On one occasion Senator Bruce, a cultured Afro- American, was called upon to temporarily take the place of the vice-president. Unfortunately the entrance of the- coloured man into the political field was the occasion of grave public scandals, from which the African still suffers. Untutored as he was when the suffrage was extended to him, he made an easy tool in the hands of political schemers. The same condition is met with even to-day, and a fierce effort is being made in more than one Southern State, where they actually dominate, to bring about the disenfranchisement of the niggers. ... If the negroes were left to themselves, there is no doubt that their limited aristocracy would be greatly augmented in the future, so that eventually the black man would break down the bars of prejudice and win his way into the affections of the Anglo-Saxon. But meanwhile the storm is brewing, and the murmurs against the negro race gio^ louder day by day, so that it seems not at all impossible that the decree of banishment will eventually be passed, and the merry smile and sunny disposition of the genial darkey will no longer be known in America.