Page:The Negro a menace to American civilization.djvu/215

Rh his own, and my people are buying lands on time and are improving them. Some of them own farms of from one to two thousand acres, and there is a colored man in Washington today who farms seven thousand acres of land in Georgia. He owns more than this, but he has this amount under cultivation. I own a little farm of my own, and there are thousands of colored men in the South who own land. We are advancing right along in the accumulation of property, and the time will come when our people will be a com- mercial and business factor in the United States. I believe that our success depends upon our education and enrichment, and I look for the time when the negro will stand even with the white man as a prop- erty-owner." "How about property rights in the South? Are those of the colored people respected?" " Yes, I think so," was the reply. " The southern- ers are anxious that the negroes should own prop- erty, and they encourage them to save and invest their money. They treat them fairly so far as any of these things are concerned, but they do not give them a fair show in any political way." The Ku KIux in the South " How about the ku klux? " " There are no ku klux in the South, and there is very little terror arising at the polls. The whites are able to accomplish their ends without the use of shot- guns. They don't need them." " How about the feeling between the negroes and the whites ; will there ever be a war between the two races ? " " I think not. The negroes appreciate the fact that such a war would result in their destruction, and the fight that they intend to make is along business and educational lines. We propose to educate ourselves and to save our money, and when we become the equals of the whites in property and in business you will see that we have better recognition."