The Gazette

POLITICS IN "DIXIE"
How Necessary. Changes Can and Must
be Brought About.
White and Black Scoundrels Must be Scrapped
and a Real Democratic Government
Restored in the South.
(Special to The Gazette)
The November election left the solid
south shattered. How to Keep it in its
latest role is the one problem that
should be solved intelligently.
The
south has been kept solid by using the
"Negro" as an issue that would win.
The last election destroyed this issue,
though it was worked for all it was
worth. There must be new blood in
southern politics. The decent men of
all races must come to the front and
take hold of the government. Race
hatred and bitterness must be scrapped.
The old politicians must be scrapped with them. The white men
who have disgraced the south, slandered
their women, pilloried the Negro
and destroyed government should be
driven out of politics and that class of
colored men who have lived by selling
their franchise, acting as tools for corrupt
practitioners in politics as well
as making themselves a nuisance by
flocking to national conventions and
there making themselves nauseating
to every right-thinking person, must
and should be driven out of their
places as leaders in politics. There are
white men in the south who have not
yet entirely lost their sense of right
Dr. William A. Byrd.
and justice. There are white men in
the south who desire to make the
south a decent place to live in. These
men must be encouraged and the decent
colored women and the few colored
men in the south, that can be relied
upon, should ally themselves with these
white men and women and bring to
the south an era of law and order.
We are sorry to admit it, but it is
nevertheless true, that the mass of
colored voters, or rather colored men
in the south, are wholly unprepared
to handle the franchise. Their unpreparedness
is due to the fact that
the Democratic oligarchy has kept them
from the knowledge of politics for the
last twenty-five years. In addition to
their unpreparedness, there is a woeful
lack of interest in politics on
the part of colored men. Besides this,
the majority of them are afraid of a
white face and would not dare vote
if that face say no. The colored woman
is in a very much better political
condition. She is better educated and
is also a braver specimen of humanity.
She must be protected as well
as encouraged to intelligently join
with the "decency of the whites" in
restoring a democratic government in
the south. The Negro schools must
teach the young people civil government,
explain the constitution, acquaint
them with practical politics and
prepare them to handle the vote when
the time comes that they are eligible
to vote. The colored man that has
kept shy of politics must be made to
see that it is to his interest to be led
by competent men and women. The
white citizens of the south must run
the government not by excluding the
colored citizens but by bringing the
best prepared ones into politics and
by a friendly attitude gain their confidence.
Nothing can be gained by
stealing and suppressing votes. Any
man that will steal a black man's vote
will steal a white man's vote. if the
opportunity presents itself. Any man,
who will by force and intimidation rob
a black man of his vote will do the
same to any other man if he gets the
chance. The federal government must
see to it that every man and woman
of every race in the south have the
ballot and that this ballot is counted
as cast. No longer must the southern
colored man, who has made himself a
nuisance by taking money from every
man that came to him, however divided
these men may be in politics, be
tolerated. He must be driven out of
politics. There is no reason why colored
and white people should not vote at the
same poll and do so without insulting
or injuring each other. Then too the oppressive
laws now on the statutes of
southern states must be taken off. It
is to the advantage of all races that
they be discarded. We trust that wise
colored and white men in Maryland.
Oklahoma and Tennessee will take
hold of the government of these states
and make civilized spots out of them.
"Dixie" must be under the same laws
that the other portions of the country
are under. Life must be as safe there
as anywhere else. The colored man
must be as much a citizen with power
to vote in South Carolina as he has
in New Jersey. Men of "Dixie" you
now have the opportunity to righteously
solve your problems. Have you the
courage to do it?
(Rev.) Wm. A. Byrd.