SPEECHES & WRITINGS FILE "Another Side of Washington's Race Question" Another Side of Washington's Race Question. The whole country has become deeply interested in the relations existing between the white and colored people of the national Capital since congress man Heflin shot a colored man in the back as the latter was leaving a street car. The people of the Empire State have been particularly interested, because one of the bullets aimed at the colored man struck a white New Yorker, who lay at the point of death for days and, after his life had been despaired of, finally recovered to prove that miracles are still being performed in modern times. Before the unfortunate- I had almost said disgraceful incident- the average white American outside of the District of Columbia had hardly thought of the Race Problem which was clamoring tox be settled in the Capital of the United States. Since then the reports about the general depravity of the colored people of the District, the antipathy felt toward them by the whites and the consequent disturbances between the two races have been circulated so frequently there is danger that some of the newly elected Congressmen may be afraid to come to Washington to take their seats and discharge their duties to the State. In a recent issue of Collier's Weekly with the Heflin incident as a text statements were made concerning the relations existing between the white and colored people of the District which were so at variance with the facts that they should be corrected and denied in justice to each race. In the first place Congressman Heflin was not obliged to shoot in self defense, because the colored man drew a razor upon him. The colored man not only had no razor, but he did not even have a pocket knife at the time he was shot. In the second place it is slander upon the white people of the District to represent them as being so timid and cowardly that they not only fear to protect themselves against bullies of whatever race, but criticize brave Congressman from Alabama who chivalrously beards the lion in his den in their behalf. If honey were no object 2 2 object to me, I should be willing to part company with a thousand dollar bill for every anonymous letter which congressman Heflin received from "timid whites who criticized him for 'stirring up trouble' in the District". In no city of the South- for, after all, Washington lies on southern soil- are the relations existing between the white and colored population more amicable than they are in the Nation's Capital. Indeed, in few cities in any section of the country is there less friction between the two races than there is in Washington. Clashes between white and colored people very rarely occur. The white people of the District- particularly the "old cits", are accustomed to the large colored population and even if the new comers are stricken with nervous prostration shortly after their advent here owing to this dusky presence, they soon recover and become immune to future attacks. White men in the professions, the doctors and lawyers particularly, treat their colored brothers in the same vocations with the greatest courtesy, as a rule. Altho colored doctors are not admitted into the white Medical Association, the white doctors do not hesitate to consult with colored doctors and cheerfully work with them on any case to which they are called. White lawyers have no objection to being associated with colored lawyers and the two are frequently engaged to work on the same case. It would be strange if in a city of 200,00 white people there should not be a few specimens to make the exceptions which prove this general rule. There is one colored judge in the municipal court here, Robert Heberton Terrell by name, who was appointed to the position about eight years ago for a term of four years. Just before his first term expired the foremost white lawyers and representative white men in all walks of life, many of them Southerners wrote petitions and went to the President in person to urge his reappointment. So far as he is able to recall, he has never been treated with the slightest discourtesy by the white lawyers( many of whom are Southerners) who practice in his court. 3 Colored and white people rarely work together in the same organization in Washington, and there are exception even to this general rule, but if an enterprise is launched for the benefit of the whites, one is sure to be formed for the welfare of the colored population- usually by intelligent- resourceful colored people themselves. A serious clash between the two races which even resembled a mob has never occurred in Washington. If there has ever been even a near race riot in this city, the oldest inhabitant fails to recall it. If you should tell the average white Washingtonian that his life and that of every other white man are in danger who endeavor[ed] to prevent violation of the law on the part of any miscreant whether black or white, and that "the tinder, the tar barrels and the fuel for a great social conflagration are ready in place awaiting only the lighted match and the hand to use it", he would think you had either been inhaling the perfume of poppies or that you were the great grandson of Munchausen. If such a catastrophe ever overtakes Washington, it will undoubtedly be induced by the incendiary utterances of blatant demagogues or criminal mischief makers who take their pen in hand for the express purpose of planting evil thoughts in the brains of impressionable human beings. If one should visit the public schools established exclusively for colored children, he would be surprised that anybody could find much fault with them. There are no better colored schools anywhere in the United States than can be found in Washington. The buildings erected for colored children compare favorably with those provided by Congress for the whites. The curriculum in the colored schools is the same as that in the whites. In short, the public schools for the colored children of Washington are provided for as liberally as are those for white children, as a rule. If the colored children of Washington drop out of school during the first three or four years, they differ in no respect from their little brothers and sisters in white. All over the United States, without regard to race, 4 color or previous condition of servitude a painfully large number of children are either taken out of school by their parents or drop out, before they reach the High School. But among the colored children of Washington there are many exceptions to this rule. Last June 80 pupils graduated from a four years course in the Academic High School 42 from the Armstrong Manual Training School, while 33 young men and women graduated from a two years course in the Normal School after completing a four years course in the High School. In spite of almost insurmountable obstacles which colored youth are obliged to surmount in order to secure positions which are not menial, the success attained by a goodly number of the graduates of our colored High Schools is remarkable. It would take a whole article, not a short one either, to relate to the deeds of prowess performed by the colored High School graduates of Washington. It is true that one finds all shades of colored people in Washington from those who are as African in complexion and feature as were their fore parents in the Dark Continent to those who are as perfect types of Blondes as are indigenous to the soil of Sweden. But if there is a growing feud between them, I have been unable to get any evidence of it by a careful and conscientious canvas on the subject among all shades, colors, classes and kinds. It is also true that fair colored people do occasionally make up their minds to "pass for white" in Washington and actually succeed, but this phenomenon occurs no more frequently in Washington than it does in any other large city - by no means excepting those in the Southern States. But there is no more likelihood of "race hybridization" in Washington than there would be in Jackson Mississippi, for the sentiment on that subject is the same here as it is there. For thirty years there have been colored members on the Board of Education. The white people have become accustomed to their presence on the Board and there is no more relation between that condition and the number of private schools in the District than there is between the binomial therem and 5 green cheese. From the President of the United State on down the line distinguished men in Washington send their children to the public schools for white children without causing a great amount of comment. Owing to the attitude of the labor organizations toward them it is difficult for colored men to secure employment in the trades, altho many succeed admirably as first class mechanics, and a surprisingly large number of the most unfortunate class manage to keep soul and body together by doing jobs. Among the lowest there are comparatively few vicious specimens and all the [most] shocking crimes which have been committed in the Dstrict can not be laid at the colored man’s door. There are more intelligent, well do to colored people in Washington than in any other city in the world. In spite of this fact and despite the breadth of view entertained by the best white people truth compels me to admit that there is a great deal of prejudice against colored people in Washington. Into one theatre they are not allowed to go at all and in all of them certain seats are set apart for them. In some of the churches colored people do not receive a very warm welcome and in a few colored people are asked to take the back seat or sit in the gallery even in the Capital of this Christian, democratic land. Altho Washington has been called the Colored man’s paradise, it would be possible to cite many reasons to prove this is a misnomer. But in spite of the prejudice which is thick enough to cut with a knife the white people and their colored brothers and sisters get along very amicably indeed, Nobody outside of our insane asylum dream[ed that a war between the races is either an imminent or a remote possibility. In short, nobody in the Nation’s Capital feels that the city is over a smouldering racial volcano and that the citizens are practically sitting on a can of nitro-glycerine. Mary Church Terrell 3267 T St. N.W. Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.