Promotion of Prejudice (1911)

Complacent people sit before race prejudice with folded hands. How unfortunate, they say, but how unchangeable! Then they select the appropriate adverbs “always” and “never” to show the impossibility of great change in. such human attitudes within any reasonable time.

The trouble with such people is that they have no idea of the active campaign carried on quietly in this country to foment race strife and increase race prejudice in quarters where they would seldom, if ever, appear.

We select this week a single instance of this: There is in Massachusetts a sleepy, charming old town called Newburyport. It has a half dozen or so quiet colored folk. It also has a paper called the Herald. There is in Nashville, Tenn., a paper called the Nashville Tennessean and American. These two papers recently had the following editorials00editorials, not articles, mind you:

(Tennessean-American. July 28, 1911.)

THE NEGRO VOTE AN ANNOYING FACTOR
It is a significant fact that 85 per cent, of the Negroes in the Texas election on the prohibition amendment to the constitution voted against the proposition, and, when it is considered that the amendment was defeated by only about 5,000 votes out of a total number cast exceeding 450,000 it will be keenly appreciated how annoying it is for such a factor to hold the balance of power in deciding such a grave question.
Equally as large a per cent, of the Negroes in Tennessee are opposed to the laws regulating and restricting the sale of liquors. It has been the boast that 85 per cent, of them oppose prohibition.
Under normal conditions the Negroes are Republican, but when it comes to political contests which imperil or threaten the liquor traffic the Negroes, like the liquor people, become non-partisan, and vote with the party or faction advocating the traffic. A large majority of them favor the open saloon. They like whisky, and they want it sold where they may purchase it without the least restraint.

(Newbury Port Herald, August 7, 1911.)

THE ANNOYING NEGRO VOTE.

It is a significant fact that 85 per cent, of the Negrons in the Texas election on the prohibition amendment to the constitution voted against the proposition, and when it is considered that the amendment was defeated by only about 5,000 votes out of a total number cast exceeding 450,000, it will be keenly appreciated how annoying it is for such a factor to hold the balance of power of deciding such a grave question.
Equally as large a per cent, of the Negroes in Tennessee are opposed to the laws regulating and restricting the sale of liquors. It has been the boast that 85 per cent, of them oppose prohibition.
Under normal conditions the Negroes are Republican, but when it comes to political contests which imperil or threaten the liquor traffic the Negroes, like the liquor people, become non-partisan. and vote with the party or faction advocating the traffic. A large majority of them favor the open saloon. They like whisky, and they want it sold where they may purchase it without the least restraint.

Two things must be noted about this remarkable coincidence in the working of the minds of a country editor in Massachusetts and a city editor in Tennessee:

The alleged facts as to the Negro vote in Texas and Tennessee are misstatements of the truth, if not deliberate lies. Negroes in both States have supported prohibition in large numbers repeatedly and it is ridiculously untrue that 85 per cent, voted for liquor.
This is not the first time that identical editorials have appeared in Southern, Western and New England papers on the Negro problem. The Newburyport Herald has had these remarkable inspirations repeatedly.

What does this mean?

It means that the soul of New England and the Middle West is being progressively poisoned and aroused on race matters by matter manufactured by Negro haters in the South and then New England is calmly quoted to the South as coming around to their point of view.

Who is doing this philanthropic work? Who is paying for it? Is it our patriotic duty to sit and sleep while this deviltry is hatching?

Citation: Du Bois, W.E.B. 1911. “Promotion of Prejudice.” The Crisis. 2(5):196–197.