Page:The Negro a menace to American civilization.djvu/213

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THE NEGRO
189

THE NEGRO ^ 189 COLOR IN CONGRESS Mr. Murray of South Carolina on the Negro and His Future — From Slavery To Congress — He Predicts the Eventual Supremacy of the Negro — Mr. Douglass and Mr. Bruce. (Written for The Evening Star.) The only colored man in Congress comes from South Carolina. His name is George Washington Murray, and he represents 216,000 people. His district is the famous black district, which was represented by Gen. Robt. Smalls, and it is the biggest negro district of the Union. It is two hundred miles long, and it winds in and out like a snake, scalloping the Atlantic coast and cutting the State of South Carolina like a saw. It is the district set aside by the whites of that State for colored representation. It contains few towns, and only one-fifth of its population is white. There is no question about Geo. W. Murray's an- cestry. Every feature of his cannon-ball head is modeled on African lines. His complexion is that of the ace of spades, and his features are of the pro- nounced negro type. He is by no means a bad-look- ing colored man. He stands about five feet eight inches in his stockings, and is broad-shouldered and strong-limbed. He has shown himself to be a man of nerve, and a politician of shrewdness. He talks well, but butchers the king's English in many of his sen- tences. He has had to fight for all that he has and his education has been acquired in almost as remarkable a way as was that of Fred Douglass. I had a talk with him last night, about himself and questions relating to his race. How One Colored Man Was Educated I first asked him as to his history. He replied: " I was born in the district in which I live, just about forty years ago. My parents were slaves, and when Abraham Lincoln freed the negroes I was just eleven years old. I had no money and no one to take care of