Negro Congressman?

When a man dies, his deeds come to life again for a moment. Major General William J. Behan, aged 87, died last week of heart disease in New Orleans and the South remembered him as a hero, not only of the Confederate Army, but of the White League, which battled the Carpet Baggers on the streets of New Orleans in 1874. His famed Canal Street victory, commemorated now by a marble shaft, put an end to the evils of Reconstruction in New Orleans, driving out the northern Republicans and their Negro tools. Major General Behan was elected Mayor of New Orleans in 1882 and, having rid his city of the Carpet-Bag type of Negro officeholder, continued to be a doughty Democrat until 1893.

Then, as a protest against removing the protective tariff on sugar, he bolted his party and turned Republican. His political ideas had changed with the times, with Louisiana's necessities.

Southerners took what counsel and comfort they could from Major General Behan's record, in the face of a situation in the North over which they had much concern but no control. For the first time in 27 years, a Negro was going to Congress. In Chicago, Mayor William Hale ("Big Bill") Thompson directed the selection of one of his Negro ward bosses, a large, greying "race man" of somewhat Thompsonian demeanor, to succeed the late Martin Barnaby Madden as the Republican nominee for U. S. Representative from Chicago's largely Negroid First District.*

The new nominee, named Oscar De Priest, was by no means the unanimous choice of his fellow blackamoors. William L. Dawson, a Negro who had run against Representative Madden in the April primary and lost by less than 12,000 votes, promised to contest Mr. De Priest's nomination in court. Up-and-coming younger Negroes said that Oscar De Priest was the oldtime Uncle Tom type, not well suited to represent the modern negro in Congress. There was, moreover, a vice-graft shadow on the De Priest record as a member of the Thompson machine, in which he had functioned as Chicago's first Negro alderman and as a Cook County commissioner.

But these obstacles looked small last week and Chicagoans as well as Southerners counted on seeing Oscar De Priest's large, dusky figure in the House chamber next session. The last Negro Congressman was Representative George Henry White who served in the 55th and 56th Congresses from Tarboro, N. C. Before him there were 19 Negro Representatives and two Negro Senators. A majority of them were members of Reconstruction Congresses and men of small education. Ten, however, went to college; five were lawyers; others were preachers, teachers, planters. Seven were born slaves. Both the Senators were elected in Mississippi. Senator Hiram R. Revels filled an unexpired term in 1870-71. Senator Blanche K. Bruce served the full term of 1875-81. When last a Negro's voice was heard in Congress it was pleading chiefly to make lynching a Federal offence. Should Chicago's De Priest reach the House, doubtless he will take up this plea where North Carolina's White left off, although the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People last week announced that a 39-year record had been broken--no lynchings reported anywhere in the U. S. for four months.

* Another cause of unrest in Southern bosoms was the defeat of Senator Fess, Republican Keynoter, for delegate-at-large in the Ohio primary last month, by E. W. B. Curry, a Negro. Mr. Curry stood fifth in the slate of seven delegates for Candidate Hoover, which defeated a Willis slate headed by Senator Fess.

Also, last week, in Washington, a movement was reported among Negro organizations to hold a national convention next month and nominate a white-black ticket for President and Vice President.