The Truth About Lynching and the Negro in the South / In Which the Author Pleads That the South Be Made Safe for the White Race

by Winfield H. Collins

It may be pertinent in this connection, however, to observe that in the South the two races have been gradually drawing apart, amalgamation or miscegenation is becoming more and more repugnant, the conditions which favored it do not obtain to anything like the extent as formerly, as a consequence the mixing between the whites and the blacks is rapidly lessening. Although the census shows an increase in the number of mulattoes

from decade to decade, the increase is mainly due to the mixing of mulattoes with pure Negroes.

Some students of the subject, who seemingly are more familiar with the conditions in the North and the border States than with those of the farther South, sometimes estimate from one-third to one-half of the Negroes in the United States to be mulattoes. This, I am confident, is a mistake. I was reared in a border State, have spent some time in the North as well as in several Southern States, and have been in many of the leading cities of the South. My observation leads me to believe that the Census, in this respect, is more nearly correct than any other source of information.

The Agents of the Census, in 1910, were instructed to “report as ‘black’ all persons who were evidently full blood Negroes and as ‘mulattoes’ all other persons having some proportion or perceptible trace of Negro blood.” Accordingly in a population of 9,928,000 Negroes in the United States there were found to be 2,050,000 mulattoes, 20.9 per cent, or a little more than one-fifth.

By geographic divisions the percentage of mulattoes among the Negroes was as follows: New England, 33.4 per cent; Middle Atlantic States, 19.6; East North Central, 33.2; West North Central, 28.7; South Atlantic, 20.8; East South

Central, 19.1; West South Central, 20.1; Mountain, 28.6; and Pacific States, 34.7.

Of the Northern States, Michigan took first place, with 47 per cent of mulattoes among her Negroes. Maine was next, with 45.9; and Wisconsin third, with 39.4. Those with the smallest percentage were Wyoming, 13.1 per cent; New Jersey, 15.8; and Pennsylvania, 19.2. The Southern States having the largest percentage were, Virginia, 33.2 per cent; West Virginia, 32.5; and Missouri, 28.4 per cent. A large number of States in the South had a small percentage of mulattoes among their Negroes: Maryland, 18.6 per cent; Georgia, 17.3; Mississippi, 16.9; Alabama, 16.7; South Carolina, 16.1; Florida, 16.0; Delaware, 11.9; and the Eastern Shore of Maryland which borders Delaware on two sides, had only 11.1 per cent, or one mulatto to every nine Negroes; thus the Eastern Shore has the distinction of having fewer mulattoes in proportion to its Negro population than any other section. It is therefore evident that in the North the proportion of mulattoes among the Negroes is from about one-fifth to almost one-half; while in the South the proportion ranges from above one-eighth to about one-third. In the States where the bulk of the Negro population is found it is only about one-sixth. With slight exceptions, it seems to be true

that the fewer to the white population the more mulattoes there are in proportion to the number of the Negroes.

Indeed, may it not be true that the much larger proportional number of mulattoes among the Negroes of the North in no small measure accounts for the greater proportional amount of crime among the Negroes of the North? So it would appear that the amalgamation or miscegenation of the whites and the Negroes is not a leveling up but rather a leveling down process; at best nothing otherwise than building up the Negro by lowering the white. So no greater nor more fearful calamity could befall the white race in America than that the Negro should lose his identity through being absorbed by this great division of the Anglo-Saxon race.

Again, many optimistic white men have thought that the Negro could be raised to the white man’s level by means of the training and culture that comes through the study of books. To these education for the Negro has been a watchword. To a large extent Southern whites have been in sympathy with the education of the Negro. Indeed, many years ago, contrary to what one not familiar with the South might suppose, a prominent man in North Carolina in seeking a congressional nomination on a platform hostile to Negro education