"What effect is the white man's prejudice having upon him directly?" Wyeth inquired.
"None! None! In the days of old, and even yet, the white man's prejudice was very hindersome; but, as time has wore on, and the races have come to expect each other as they know they will be, the prejudice of the white man is not near so hindersome as some a ouh people would have you b'lieve it. Of co'se," he added thoughtfully, "politic's is in a way denied him; but a great many more can vote than they do if they would pay the' poll taxes. All in all, you'll find so much ignorance, and ignorance by preference among them, and their minds are so polluted with the devil, until politic's as they are now, would not make much difference. I sometimes shudder when I look around me and listen, to conclude what the race is sometime coming to."
"You have a large number of churches, a hundred odd, I think. That should act as a great feature toward the moral evolution."
"Very little, very little," he returned, shaking his head sadly. "For this reason: The churches, while having, of course, many good men as their pastors, are filled up with more grafters, it seems, and mean rascals as well, until the calling is not fulfilled. I don't hesitate t' say that there are more grafters among the preachers, than any other profession among the colored people in this town. And the Baptists have, and still are, building so many little churches, until every dime available, and unavailable too, is used fo' this purpose, instead of some means to help the chillun."
"Don't you think, figuratively speaking, that there are too many Negro churches?"
"'Course the' is, a-course. Why there are more than seventy Baptist churches among Negroes in the town alone. That in itself, is an example of the utter selfishness tha' p'vails heh."
"How does it come about? It seems to me that the organization of the church system must be very loose, to permit of such a wholesale building of churches all the time. It would seem advisable that if they had fewer churches, with better conduct in the administration of those few, more good would result."
"Well, the Baptists are dominated, to some extent, by the association, but it is inadequate in many ways. For instance, when they rule a pastor out, he claims to a handful of devouts and friends, that he has been made the goat of a frame-up, starts him a church in some shack, or any other place where he can concentrate a few shouters, and continues."
"And what effect does all this have upon the children?"
He held up his hand in despair. "Brother, brother! That is the sad part. The colored child in this town is lucky, 'f he becomes anything else but a criminal before he does anything else. His surroundings 'n'—what's that other thing?" he stopped short, and held his hand to his head.