A Mississippi View of Race Relations in the South

The purpose of all investigation should be to elicit truth. It is therefore the object of this discussion to give a truthful, accurate and unprejudiced statement of facts about the political, social and industrial relations of the white man and the negro in the South. It is to be desired that not even an allusion shall be made that may raise a feeling of sectional prejudice in the breasts of any.

There are few men not of the South who can appreciate the sad trials of the past, or realize the dangerous problems of the future. Some may see the true nobility, calm dignity and Spartan fortitude which the South has shown in meeting her responsibilities, few know what they really mean. The wrongs and mistakes of the past would have driven a less proud and noble race into anarchy.

When the perilous problems of the South are better understood, when the clouds which political passion create are swept away by a sincere sympathy and a desire to lend a helping hand, when a friendly interest takes the place of unfriendly criticism, when what is right is the aim of all then and not until then can pressing problems be intelligently solved.

The great body of the people of this Republic want to do right. They want to deal justly. The Southern people know the negro and understand him, let them work out and solve the serious problems surrounding them in a way which shall be of advantage to both races.

The social, political and industrial conditions which now exist in the South can only be properly appreciated by taking a brief backward view of what has gone before.

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From early colonial times to 1860 the South was a garden for the cultivation of all that was grand in oratory, true in science, sublime and beautiful in poetry and sentiment, and enlightened and profound in law and statesmanship. That period produced a roll too long to read of noble spirits, bright wits and great scholars, whose names and deeds are preserved in the archives of the nation's glory. From the Potomac to the Rio Grande the Southern gentleman held sway. The South was looked upon by its lordly owners as the most favored spot on earth. It was called the Fair Land by those who owned it and loved it. Ruin and desolation came upon this fair land and its people.

The boom of batteries in the harbor of Charleston on a beautiful April day in 1861 was the beginning of a bloody fraternal strife which laid desolate the happy homes of the people everywhere, brought about the sacrifice of a half million lives and cost the country ten billions of money. The war between the Confederate States and the United States brought about the greatest political and social revolution known to history. That revolution brought political, industrial and financial ruin upon the South. When peace came a race of servile slaves were made masters of her political destiny.