The Newest South (1913)

For the first time in history, Southern white men and Southern black men have met under Southern white auspices and frankly discussed the race problems of the South before an audience of both races. At the Southern Sociological Congress the professional Negro lover was absent, and the white demagogue was silent. There was scarcely a word uttered which The Crisis does not cordially endorse.

It was a splendid occasion. It was epoch making, and men like Dillard, Hunley, Branson Morse, Hammond and Scroggs are the real leaders of the newest South.

But the old South is not dead. The Atlanta Constitution refused to report the congress. Hoke Smith’s Journal refused to report the congress and Hearst’s Georgian, under the disreputable John Temple Graves, did its best to foment lynching a black man since proven innocent, filling its columns with venom and lies and printing scarcely a word concerning the congress. The Bourbon South dies hard, but its doom is written in the stars.

---

Citation: Du Bois, W.E.B. 1913. “The Newest South.” The Crisis. 6(3):130.