their aims and objects. The white man is quick
to judge the Negroes by those he meets in his every-day life.
Unfortunately, these are too much in evidence, giving color to the
charge that all Negroes look alike. The better Negro is not, as a
rule, seen; his works, as a rule, are not known; his refinement, his
morals and industry are not advertised--hence a wrong notion as to the
bent and intent of the race is noised abroad. Prejudice is not
confined to one side alone; both races show it to a hurtful extent.

Hon. Robert Allen, one of the most noted criminal lawyers of Texas,
said to a jury: "While it is true that we all have some trace of race
prejudice against the Negro, which makes it hard for us to do him
justice, I can not see why it is so; I know it should not be so. If
the Negro owes us something, we also owe the Negro something. It is a
mutual debt of gratitude that we owe each other. We as a race are
inclined to think that the white man is against us naturally. It is
true to a great extent, but we have reasons for thinking that the
white man thinks more of the law-abiding, intelligent, taxpaying
Negroes than he does of that set that turn up on election day, looking
for something. It may be that the white man is jealous of the Negro's
success, but I rather think that it is a mistaken notion. It is not
toward the better class that he hurls his hatred, but against that
class that the Negro himself is learning to fear. Until the colored
man changes his position and conditions it will be useless for him to
look for that consideration and respect that is accorded his more
fortunate brother and fellow-citizen. The Negro must not conceive the
idea that he has no friends among those now in supremacy; neither must
he entertain the belief that fortune will come to him without effort
on his part, or that citizenship will receive the proper recognition
without improvement in his morals and political attitude. These are
the days of newer and greater things in every conceivable direction.
The Negroes are taking but a small part in their creation, glory and
profit. If there are men among us who can be the means of bringing
better conditions to the great Negro masses, and who can weed out the
slow, dull, plodding process of evolution, they should not be denied
the opportunity. The masses seem to be hedged about by a wall of
indifference. Negroes have such little respect for their own kind that
the thing is becoming proverbial.