Item Information
Title
The Dispatch Friday September 24, 1920
Source
The Dispatch (Lexington, NC) Friday September 24, 1920. North Carolina Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, UNC-CH
Rights
In the public domain and may be used without copyright restriction.
Type
still image
Identifier
https://exhibits.lib.unc.edu/items/show/6470
Text
White Women Should Register
The white women of Davidson County are true to their racial instincts and desire just as much as the white men to maintain the supremacy of their race. They are confronted now with their opportunity. The passage of the Nineteenth Amendment places the ballot in their hands, and they should register when the poll books are opened for three weeks on September 30 and then vote in the election of November 2.
While this amendment does not let down the bars to negro women in this State, there is every indication that many of them, aided and abetted by unsavory political forces, will try to force their way to the ballot boxes in November and will attempt to use this amendment as a lever.
Here is what happened one day this week in the city of Richmond, where over 450 negro women have already registered, as told in a press dispatch from that city:
“City Registrar Woodson enrolled 126, all negro women, and his assistant Lamott Blakeley, 125. There was separation of the races at the registration offices, only white women registering with the equal suffrage representatives. (This reference to two white women registrar’s assistants.)
“Negro women protested clamorously against the refusal of the registrar to swear in as deputies several of their number who tendered their services. More than a hundred negro women were in line waiting to register when the doors were closed for the day.”
A bright spot in the Richmond situation is that the white women registered outnumber the negro women about four to one. Suppose, however, that there had been apathy among the white women while the negro women rushed to the registration places. In that case the safety of Richmond might have been imperiled.
The safety of good government in this State lies in the rule of the whites. Once upon a time the State tried the other alternative and it should never be forgotten. The white women of North Carolina will not fail her now but will stand side by side with their husbands and brothers to uphold her sanctity.
Rabid negro papers published in the North are being lavishly circulated among the negro women, urging them to attempt to register.
The white women of Davidson County are true to their racial instincts and desire just as much as the white men to maintain the supremacy of their race. They are confronted now with their opportunity. The passage of the Nineteenth Amendment places the ballot in their hands, and they should register when the poll books are opened for three weeks on September 30 and then vote in the election of November 2.
While this amendment does not let down the bars to negro women in this State, there is every indication that many of them, aided and abetted by unsavory political forces, will try to force their way to the ballot boxes in November and will attempt to use this amendment as a lever.
Here is what happened one day this week in the city of Richmond, where over 450 negro women have already registered, as told in a press dispatch from that city:
“City Registrar Woodson enrolled 126, all negro women, and his assistant Lamott Blakeley, 125. There was separation of the races at the registration offices, only white women registering with the equal suffrage representatives. (This reference to two white women registrar’s assistants.)
“Negro women protested clamorously against the refusal of the registrar to swear in as deputies several of their number who tendered their services. More than a hundred negro women were in line waiting to register when the doors were closed for the day.”
A bright spot in the Richmond situation is that the white women registered outnumber the negro women about four to one. Suppose, however, that there had been apathy among the white women while the negro women rushed to the registration places. In that case the safety of Richmond might have been imperiled.
The safety of good government in this State lies in the rule of the whites. Once upon a time the State tried the other alternative and it should never be forgotten. The white women of North Carolina will not fail her now but will stand side by side with their husbands and brothers to uphold her sanctity.
Rabid negro papers published in the North are being lavishly circulated among the negro women, urging them to attempt to register.