Thus through the power and magnetism of Miss Schofield, was the influence and good-will of a large and influential white family secured for the benefit of the Negro population of Lick Skillet neighborhood, at least.
CHAPTER XIV.
Lynching of Negroes.
Miss Schofield had great confidence in the ultimate conversion of the white people of the South to the cause which she represented and looked to the support of her work by them as one of the essentials to the achievements of the highest success. She, however, went about securing the cooperation of the whites in a manner entirely different from the means employed by Booker T. Washington in accomplishing the same end. She drew attention of the white people to the necessity for her work by making them mad; by expressing to them the inconsistencies of their position on the race question and demonstrating to them the hypocrisy of their actions, she caused a great deal to be done for the Negroes that would have been delayed for years had more persuasive measures been taken to reach them. She told the Christian missionary workers that the presence of the Negroes here provided the best means possible for them to show by actual demonstration rather than by words of mouth, tongue or pen, that Christianity was literally and figuratively true. That it really did mean the showering of blessings on men of all kinds and races. “If the Negro is an enemy” she told them, “show the benighted heathen here and carry the message to his friends in China that thee love thine enemy. By your actions before his eyes here in this country prove to him that thee are the people that tell the truth; that Christians will not take advantage of even Negroes; that thee are patient, kind and generous in thy dealings with that part of thy own population that is ignorant and benighted. Above all prove to him by thy treatment of the Negro that thee has no prejudice on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude. Let them see by thy relation to the Negroes that thee looks upon mankind as brethren, indeed, in whose service thee are not only willing to work but to suffer for the good thee may do not alone to the Negro but to the heathen as well.”
She went to the intelligent, cultured white people, leaders of the churches, schools and Southern civilization itself, all that she could reach, and told them plainly and bluntly that any course other than that outlined would surely bring Christianity into disrepute, especially if they themselves approved a different course, or permitted a different course to be pursued without their protest. She showed them their responsibility and their duty both as a Christian and a member of civilized society, and left them without a single prop upon which to stand in defense of the position taken to keep the Negro down.
Having no patience with anyone who for gain would sacrifice righteousness or who would not suffer pain that justice be done she was rather uncharitable in her criticisms of the Southern white people. But the sternness and rough, rugged honesty and sincerity she used in expressing her convictions appealed to them, as they are a people essentially frank in their manners and actions. One of the great men in the United States Senate from the South has won and retained the respect of the people of the whole country by reason of his frankness on this question of race prejudice. His radicalism is common to most of the people of the South and seeing this characteristic of the people, Miss Schofield pandered to it early in her work and drew to herself a large measure and esteem and respect that could have been earned in no other way. She made people respect her by respecting herself in holding fast to her conception of the principles of honesty.
Miss Schofield was not less severe on the people of the North than of the South in her arraignment of the prostitution of the power of government in permitting the commission of outrages and injustices to go unpunished. In assailing the sin of race prejudice and hypocrisy in the Southern people she was assailing with equal force the same thing wherever it existed and as it is more prevalent at the North that section of the country really received the burden of her denunciation. The fact that the power to punish the crimes against the Negro race lay in the hands of the people of the North but was seldom exercised, gave her greater cause for denouncing her folks, which she did unmercifully. She felt that the crime of lynching Negroes could be largely suppressed by the Federal authorities and was not reluctant in advocating the intercession of the general government in the enforcement of the Federal statutes guaranteeing every citizen the protection of life and liberty, even if “States’ Rights” were trampled under foot. Being absolutely honest in all her promises she did not look for dishonesty in others, especially not in the people of the North who had spilled so much blood and expended hundreds of millions of dollars in extending the guarantee of life, freedom and liberty to the Negroes. Their failure to make their promises in this matter good was shocking to her sense of honor and inspired her greatest contempt.
In words of eloquence, made eloquent by both the truth in them and the manner of delivery, she told the people of the North that the rights of man rose above the rights of state government as the Alps rise above the valleys; that government, both state and national, is only good in so far as it respects and protects human rights. “If a state government fails to measure up to its duty in its functions affecting the most vital rights of the people,” said she in an address in the North, “then it becomes the duty of the general government to interfere. If the latter likewise fails then it is the duty of the people to overthrow it, not, indeed, by powder and shot and shell but by the votes of citizens.
“But in the South thousands and thousands entitled to vote under authority of the general government are disfranchised; their rights are not being respected by either the general government or the state. If this is permitted to continue thee can not respect thyself, much less expect those perpetrating the fraud to respect thee. During the last quarter of a century the number of deaths at the hands of mobs in this country has averaged 184 annually, eighty to ninety per cent. of which has occurred in the South.
“Can thee respect thyself or expect the respect of the Southerners if these crimes are allowed to go unpunished?
“If the government of the several States were sincere in the representations of their attempt at government that would not be any excuse for no action being taken by the general government. Failure to govern is alone sufficient for action.