Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1777-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities external link and the Library of Congress. Learn more
Image provided by: History Colorado
Newspaper Page Text
THE STATESMAN. ORGAN OF THE COLORED PEOPLE IN COLORADO, WYOMING, MONTANA, UTAH AND NEW MEXICO. VOL. XVI STEWED IN OWN BROTH Bruce Grit Prophesies Failure of Thomas Dixon’s Campaign of Villification The Negro has taken up the cudgel in hist own behalf and will make some of the apt liar* take to the tall tim ber If they do njt choose fitter sub ject*. Our good friend John K. Bruce of Yonkers. N. Y., better known as Bruce Orlt. la out in a pamphlet an swering some of our critics who aver that the Negro lit a failure as a sol dler. Persons who wish valualile data and good sound *Mbunder" to fight the enemy with, will lo well to send him 15 cents for a copy. In his closing pages he uises a shy at Tom Dixon, whose play is now touring the North ern States, to the end that his falla cies may lie accepted as truth. He Is the sturdy gladiator of old. piercing the Joints of his appoints armor with as quirk and light touch as a skilled fencer. In pari, he says: The denunciation of the Clansman by Negroes Is the very best kind of an DENVER, COLORADO, FRIDAY, MAR 2 1906. I advertisement of Hs scurrilities and historical distortions It cannot hurt but will help It immeasurably. Criti cism and denunciation of things we personally dislike are sometimes more helpful to their success than the elo qucnce of silence. The best protest and answer to Mr Dixons dramatic slanders will be for Negroes every i where in this country where this play Is to be shown to treat it and its au thor with silent contempt The more we say about It, the more we de nounce it, thclotigcr it will last. We should always and in all places show ourselves to In* the very opposite of what Mr. Dixon in this play alleges Negroes to have been, at the period of which It treats. If within forty years the Negroes have not been able to emerge from the condition which they ! did not create, and in which they are pictured in this coarse and brutal pla> then they deserve to be pilloried by this reverened author-playright, who seems to live in the past, and to thrive and fatten on offal. The Negroe s trues: and best white friends will not I>ermit themselves to be influenced by this play. The Negroes’ enemies, with whom the wish is father to the thought, will naturally attend each performance and applaud the inform ers We would nt throw a straw in the way of Rev. Dixon, to hinder him 1 in his cowardly and unrighteous pur isfilt or a race which has show* only (kindness to his. which has suffered more, endured more, to make his race strong and powerful, than he perhaps is willing to admit. He believes that he is right, we who are the subjects of his clerical venom know that he is wrong. The true white Christians of America, who possess the spirit of the lowly Nar-arene. know that he is no friend of either race who appeals to the lowest passions of both, in a mad desire to stir up strife and create bad feeling between them. We believe in liberty, and so believing, we would not curtail the right of Mr Dixon to exercise the liberty which the consti tution of our country gives to every man. "O Liberty, dream of the Ages of Ages. The pole star directing humanity's way. The riddle half read by the Poets and Sages. When shall thy To-morrow become our To-day.” We would not deny to any man. even Rev. Mr. Dixon, liberty to make an egregious ass of himself by discard ing the holy robes of an ambassador of Christ to become an apostle of the devil, a sower of discord, a purveyor of the gospel of bate, a revolution ist. an euemy of peace and harmony, and an iconoclast. Mr. Dixon is clear ly within his rights, as an American citizen let him exercise his rights. The production of the Clansman, in New York or elsewhere, cannot in anyway injure the Negro who is de termined not to be injured by methods so out of harmony with the truth, justice and fair play. Honest men of all creeds and all races are not particularly concerned about what the Negro did forty years ago. but with what he is and is achiev ing to-day—this is the vital question. Those who ir« UwdUar with history know that the civilisation of the South is responsible for the Negro whom Mr Dixon holds up to scorn and ridi cule in his books and play. The South has had over a century to produce the kind of Negro it would like lo see in this country, but its civilization, re ligion and morals do not seem to have been equal to a task so stupendous. In now holding the Negro up to the gaze of the world as an object to be hated and despised. Mr. Dixon fails wofully to even hint at the cause of all his alleged moral and political lapses during the stormy period of which lie writes so volubly and dogmatically. There are worse people than Negros in the South, and Mr Dixon is one of them. We are content to let the pub lic do its own thinking about the Clansman. Personally, we are noc afraid of the aftermath, for we still have lost neither their self-respect, their sense of honor nor their love of justice. The Clansman is not going to turn the world over this year. J EBRUCE. Written by Robert Bums. I July Nairne has been credited with the authorship of the song. "The Land o’ th Leal," for over a hundred years. It is now settled that Robert Burns wrote the song on his deathbed, Lady Nairne changed it. making it ridicu lous. no. as