Crisis in Mississippi

In the background of Ellen White’s statements about race relations are concrete historical situations—in Mississippi; Washington, D.C.; Nashville, Tennessee; and other places. Mississippi, of course, is of prime importance, because it was there that Edson White took up his pioneer work among Negroes, a project Mrs. White followed with great interest and much financial and moral support.EGWCRR 53.1

Edson White’s first serious difficulty relevant to this study erupted in Yazoo City, Mississippi, late in 1898. White was in church on Sabbath in Vicksburg when a telegram arrived telling of mail of “great importance” coming from Yazoo City and instructing him to wait for it. The letter said:EGWCRR 53.2

Mr. Rogers was ordered to leave here by some kind of a committee, who claim to have been informed by some colored people, that the Negroes were going to rise and slaughter the whites on Christmas eve, or shortly after. These informers (colored) state that these uprising Negroes are being wrought up by white people, and they (the committee), have gone no further into the investigation, but take these informers’ words as being correct, and have ordered all whites who are in any way connected with the colored race here to leave.... They, of course, do not represent the good people of this section.... Please do not connect our name in this matter to anyone as it would destroy our usefulness to you in helping adjust this great and uncalled-for calamity. I will quietly do whatever I can to peaceably settle things. ^{1J. A.. Crisler, Letter to James Edson White, quoted in letter from James Edson White to Friend and Fellow-Worker, December 18, 1898}

The letter was from a physician, J. A. Crisler, in Yazoo City. The next morning a letter came from F. R. Rogers, who was operating the school for blacks in Yazoo City:EGWCRR 54.1

Satan is loosed here. We are in trouble. Today at 1:30 p.m. two men rode up to the chapel where we are holding school and called me out and asked my name and told me “This business must stop. We went to the river last night to sink the boat Morning Star, but could not find it. It will never land here again, SO BEWARE.” ...Well, Bro. White, we are resting in the Lord and have left the case to Him. However, I applied to the Mayor for advice as to leaving the organ and other things in the chapel, as burning was threatened. The Mayor said all was safe and he would see me protected. ^{2F. R. Rogers to James Edson White, quoted in letter from James Edson White to “Friend and Fellow-Worker,” December 16, 1898.}

Commenting on these events in the same letter in which he quoted the two passages above, Edson White said:EGWCRR 54.2

On receiving these communications we all felt that great caution and much heavenly wisdom was required to enable us to take the proper course in this matter. The testimonies instruct us that great caution must be exercised so that

these evilly disposed persons shall not be aroused and the work closed up as a result ....EGWCRR 55.1

I am planning now to issue an extra of the Gospel Herald. In this we will show our leading denominational institutions .... It will explain that we have nothing whatever to do with politics, that we have not come down to invade the customs of the country, but only to make better men, better citizens, better Christians out of the people. The general impression is that we have some kind of a hocus pocus religion that we cannot get the white people to accept, and so have come down to try to get it off on the negros They want to know why we do not take it to the white people and not make a business of working among the negroes This extra will show that we are taking it to ALL classes and races. ^3Ibid

The same day White dispatched a letter to Rogers in Yazoo City in which he said:EGWCRR 55.2

Of course we are willing to trust all these matters to the Lord, and yet He requires us to be very cautious; and the Testimonies point out to us the necessity of such extreme care that prejudice shall not be aroused among this class of people down here, for, if it is, it will shut us off from the work entirely. ^{4J. E. White, Letter to F. R. Rogers, December 18, 1898}

Again, on the same day, he wrote back to Dr. Crisler:EGWCRR 55.3

I know that these people whom you mention are not of the better class of citizens, and yet they are the people who can really do us the most harm .... If anything should happen during the holidays of any nature whatever, in the way of a collision [sic] between the colored and the white people, we would be associated with this in spite of all we could say. ^{5J. E. White, Letter to J. A. Crisler, December 18, 1898}

A few days later he reiterated to G. A. Irwin his plans for a special number of the Gospel Herald, saying that it would make clear that “we are not connected with politics in any way and do not intend to be; and, further, that we did not come down to combat the prejudices or customs of the people in any way.” ^{6J. E. White, Letter to G A. Irwin, December 21, 1898}EGWCRR 55.4

To anyone who had read Ellen White’s counsels in volume 9 the relevance of this material is abundantly obvious. “Politics” in this period and place had strong overtones concerning race relations, a legacy of the Civil War, and the Reconstruction Era. These workers had done nothing to challenge the racial customs and beliefs of the white people, except that they were educating the Negroes. Yet their work and no doubt their lives were in danger.EGWCRR 56.1

By May of the next year, 1899, new trouble had arisen, this time from a white mob made up of what White described as “the best planters along the Yazoo River.” ^{7J. E. White, Letter to Ellen G. White, May 14, 1899} Edson White wrote his mother reporting the incident on May 14, 1899, but repeated the details more fully in a letter to her on May 25, fearing she had not received the first report:EGWCRR 56.2

Two weeks ago tonight a mob of about 25 white men came to our church at Calmer at about midnight. They brought out Brother Stephenson, our worker, and then looted the church, burning books, maps, charts, etc. They hunted for Brother Casey, our leading colored brother of that place, but he had escaped in time so they did not reach him. They then went to the house of Brother Olvin, called him out, and whipped him with a cow-hide. I think they would have killed him if it had not been for a friendly white man who ordered them to stop whipping after they had struck a few blows. They did not pay any attention to him at first, but he drew his revolver, and said the next man who struck a blow would hear from him, and then they stopped. During the time they shot at Brother Olvin’s wife, and struck her in the leg, but did not hurt her seriously. They took Brother Stephenson to the nearest railway station, put him on the cars, and sent him out of the country. They posted notice on the church forbidding me to return, and forbidding the steamer Morning Star to land between Yazoo City and Vicksburg.

The whole difficulty arose from our efforts to aid the colored people. We had given them clothing where in need, and food to those who were hungry, and had taught them some better ideas about farming, introduced different seeds such as peanuts, beans, etc., that bring a high price, ...and this the whites would not stand. ^{8J. E. White, Letter to Ellen G. White, May 25, 1899}

Ellen White makes the following statement in volume 9:EGWCRR 57.1

The colored people should not urge that they be placed on an equality with white people. The relation of the two races has been a matter hard to deal with, and I fear that it will ever remain a most perplexing problem. So far as possible, everything that would stir up the race prejudice of the white people should be avoided. There is danger of closing the door so that our white laborers will not be able to work in some places in the South. ^{9Testimonies for the Church 9:214}

It may seem, at first, difficult to believe that the opening sentence of the above paragraph could be written by a person who believed in the basic “equality” of all men. But when that statement is viewed against the background of these two incidents, the one in Yazoo City at Christmas time, 1898, and the other a few miles down the Yazoo River in May, 1899, we get a different picture. Edson White wrote his mother about both incidents, the latter in two letters, May 14 and May 25. On June 5, 1899, Mrs. White wrote to A. F. Ballenger about his proposed interracial colony. The letters from Edson White had doubtless arrived mere days before. She wrote:EGWCRR 57.2

The white people will stir up the blacks by telling them all kinds of stories: and the blacks, who can lie even when it is for their interest to speak the truth, will stir up the whites with falsehoods, and the whites who want an occasion will seize upon any pretext for taking revenge, even upon those of their own color who are presenting the truth. This is the danger. As far as possible, everything that will stir up the race prejudice of the white people should be avoided. There is danger of closing the door so that our white laborers will not be able to work in some places in the South. ^{10The Southern Work, 84} [Emphasis supplied.]

The words in italics are identical to those just quoted from volume 9, as are other words in this letter to Ballenger. For instance, in this letter we also find the words: “The relation of the two races has been a matter hard to deal with, and I fear that it will ever remain a most perplexing problem.” ^{11Ibid.; cf. Testimonies for the Church 9:214} These words make up the second sentence in the paragraph from volume 9 quoted above.EGWCRR 58.1

The first use of the statement that black people should not urge that they be placed on an equality with white people has not been located. However, it is known that this statement was penned as early as or prior to the year 1903, because in that year Ellen White wrote to her son saying: “I think I have already written that the colored people should not urge that they be placed on an equality with white people.” ^{12Ellen G. White, Letter 202, 1903 (to J. E. White, September 11, 1903).}EGWCRR 58.2

In her opening remarks in the above-mentioned letter to Ballenger, she also says:EGWCRR 59.1

It is the prejudice of the white against the black race that makes this field hard, very hard. The whites who have oppressed the colored people still have the same spirit. They did not lose it, although they were conquered in war. They are determined to make it appear that the blacks were better off in slavery than since they were set free. Any provocation from the blacks is met with the greatest cruelty. The field is one that needs to be worked with the greatest discretion. ^{13The Southern Work, 83}

Comparisons of the various manuscripts of Ellen White relative to race relations reveal that in many instances the materials in volume 9 were assembled from many E. G. White documents written through a decade prior to October, 1908, when the manuscript for volume 9 was prepared. For another example, one can cite Letter 165, 1903, written to W. C. White:EGWCRR 59.2

I am sending you today another manuscript on the color question. I wish to say, however, that I have not finished writing on this subject. I think that the less this subject is agitated, the better it will be. If it is much agitated, difficulties will be aroused that will take much precious time to adjust. We can not lay down a definite line to be followed in dealing with this subject. In different places and under different circumstances, the subject will need to be handled differently. In the South, where the race prejudice is so strong, we could do nothing in presenting the truth were we to deal with the color line question as we can deal with it in the North. ^{14Ellen G. White, Letter 165, 1903 (to W. C. White, August 3, 1903).}

This, and more of Letter 165, 1903, appears almost word for word in Manuscript 107, 1908, on which the article “The Color Line,” in volume 9, pages 213-22 is based. Also a large portion of the manuscript to which she refers in this letter ^{15Ellen G. White, Manuscript 77, 1903 (The Color Line)} to W. C. White is used in Manuscript 107, 1908. The point of all this is that although the manuscripts for volume 9 were not written until 1908, their historical settings can often be sought much earlier. ^{16Manuscripts basics to the articles in volume 9 are. “A Call for Colored Laborers,” Manuscript 109, 1908, October 21, 1908, Testimonies for the Church 9:199-203; “Proclaiming the Truth Where There Is Race Antagonism” Manuscript 103, 1908 October 19, 1908 Testimonies for the Church 9:204-212- “The Color Line,” Manuscript 107, 1908 October 21, 1908 Testimonies for the Church 9:213.221 “Consideration for Colored Laborers,” Manuscript 129, 1902, October 11, 1902, Testimonies for the Church 9:223-224. The article “The Needs of a Mission Field” was printed in the Review and Herald, LXXXIV (October 10, 1907)., p. 8. The source of several paragraphs placed on pp. 221, 222 has not been located.}EGWCRR 59.3

In the case of the statement that “colored people should not urge that they be placed on an equality with white people,” it is, as mentioned above, possible to look with some validity to Mississippi and the incident in Yazoo City and along the Yazoo River for historic settings or at least the general conditions pointed to in the Ballenger letter, for it was evidently sometime before 1903 that she first made the statement.EGWCRR 60.1

To put it simply, we know that the statement about urging to be placed on an equality was made prior to September 1903. We also know that both of the sentences that immediately follow that statement in volume 9 were made at the exact time that Edson White was encountering violence in Mississippi. Therefore the situations in Mississippi can probably be looked to as the background for the counsel about black people’s urging that they be placed on an equality.EGWCRR 60.2

If Edson White’s experiences or the situations outlined in the Ballenger letter have relevance, then the setting was one where prejudiced whites were determined to make it appear that the Negroes had been better off in slavery and where any provocation from the blacks was met with the greatest cruelty. It was in this setting that she said that Negroes should not urge to be placed on equality with white people. Why? Quite clearly not because that would be getting out of their “place,” as far as Ellen White was concerned, but because it would be done at the risk of life and at the expense of the work that was being carried on.EGWCRR 60.3

By the time Ellen White was assembling the materials for volume 9, she could not even make the unqualified distinction between North and South that she made in 1903 in her letter to W. C. White (“we could do nothing in presenting the truth were we to deal with the color line question as we can deal with it in the North”). By then, Springfield, Illinois, was smoldering with the fires of its bloody riot, and the whole nation had reached what might very well have been its darkest period in the history of race relations. When Ellen White repeated the sentence she had written to W. C. White she said, “in some places in the North.” ^{17Testimonies for the Church 9:213} (Emphasis supplied.)EGWCRR 61.1

In his May 14 letter about the Yazoo River mob violence, Edson White expanded on the implications of the situation in the light of a then-recent controversy in Battle Creek:EGWCRR 61.2

The fact is, the people of the North do not know anything of the true situation in this awful field. It is “Ku Klux” days right over and we are in the midst of it. At General Conference the field was taken up, and I am told that the situation was discussed, and those who had been in the field spoke plainly of the caution required in working the field.

But the wise Northern people would not accept such a theory, and felt that the color line was not to be regarded, and Dr. Kellogg sent for Mrs. Steele, the principal and proprietor of the Orphan’s Home at Chattanooga, Tenn. I understand she came to Battle Creek, and in her enthusiastic way told how she did not regard it, etc. Dr. Kellogg is all taken up with her ideas of this work. But I want to say, she has done more harm to the colored work by such talk than she can ever do in her home.

I am told this by Eld. (N. W.) Allee. He felt distressed at this turn in regard to the work. He said he realized that the workers among the colored people carried their lives in their hands. This is as true a saying as anything ever spoken. The North MUST realize that the workers coming here will have to be the most careful that it is possible for them to be. If not they will not only imperil their own lives, but will also imperil the lives and bring great distress upon the colored people themselves. ^{18J. E. White, Letter to Ellen G. White, May 14, 1899}

In August, Edson White had further convictions:EGWCRR 62.1

It is time people began to get the idea that there is earnest, stern work to be done in that (the Southern) field, and that the eight years of neglect of the past has rendered the work far more difficult. I can see that it is far more difficult than it was when we went down five years ago. Dr. Kellogg and others are for ignoring the color line at once, and defying the situation. They will close up the field if they carry out any such ideas.

The fact is, others might do more in this line than we can. Even in medical lines we cannot do as others who leave not the last message and the Sabbath to proclaim. I saw this again and again. ^{19J. E. White, Letter to Ellen G. White, August 19, 1899}

A few days later still Edson again wrote his mother, evidently commenting on discussions he had had in Battle Creek concerning the issue of the color line and Mrs. Steele’s influence:EGWCRR 62.2

I felt the necessity to counteract so far as possible the wrong mold which has been given to the work by the influence of Sister Steel [e] of Chattanooga, Tenn. I felt that her work has done much harm in some respects, as she is inclined to disregard all Southern prejudices and customs to be met in the work, which we know to be a dangerous thing. ^{20J. E. White, Letter to Ellen G. White, August 24, 1899.}

In his biography of John Harvey Kellogg, Richard W. Schwarz offers this interesting side light:EGWCRR 63.1

Dr. Kellogg did not confine his support of activities to aid under-privileged Negroes to those sponsored by Adventists alone. For a number of years he was an enthusiastic supporter of the Negro orphanage maintained by Mrs. A. S. Steele in Chattanooga .... Kellogg was a liberal contributor to Mrs. Steele’s work and encouraged her to solicit help among the Battle Creek Sanitarium’s wealthy patients. ^{21Richard W. Schwarz, “John Harvey Kellogg: American Health Reformer” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1964), p. 340}

It was within six months of the mob violence along the Yazoo River and less than a year after the dangers in Yazoo City, that Ellen White wrote to F. E. Belden in Battle Creek. She pointed to the fact that it was then (in 1899) much harder to help the Negro people than it would have been just after the emancipation from slavery. (Edson White had observed the growing difficulty in the five years he had been in Mississippi.) She mentioned to Belden how Negroes had been “deprived of the means of bettering their condition,” and how “almost every possible avenue to improvement” had been closed to them. God would “judge the nation for their neglect and abuse of His creatures.” She told Belden that “God calls for His workers to consecrate themselves to the cause of justice and reform.” ^{22Ellen G. White, Letter 165, 1899 (to F. Belden, October 22, 1899).} She also commented on the right and wrong way to carry out these objectives, and said that integrated schools were not to be encouraged. Then she added:EGWCRR 63.2

The age in which we live calls for decided reformatory action; but wisdom must be exercised in dealing with the race that has so long been degraded and abused. That which is now undertaken cannot be carried forward as it might have been had the white churches at the time of the abolition of slavery acted as Christ would have done in their place. ^23Ibid

If a reconstruction of the historical situation can be hazarded, it appears that Mrs. Steele, as a good friend of Dr. Kellogg, had convinced the doctor and others that the color line could be defied. Edson White had sought to combat this idea in Battle Creek. This situation could well be probed more fully, to discover in exactly what ways Mrs. Steele herself defied the color line in her work, and with what results. Also, the racial climate in which she worked needs to be compared with that in which Edson White worked. But even beyond this, Edson White notes that he, as an Adventist, had not only racial but religious prejudice to contend with, and that the latter prevented him from doing more in the line of combating the former.EGWCRR 64.1

On October 10, 1899, after the mob violence and after the controversy with Kellogg, Edson White wrote to a woman in Washington, D.C., who was planning to work for Negroes there. In the letter, he interpreted the Testimonies as he understood them.EGWCRR 64.2

Now in regard to the testimonies respecting colored schools unmixed with whites. I understand that this refers to the South only where mixed schools will not be tolerated.EGWCRR 64.3

God forbid that we should build up color lines where they do not now exist. You say, “I have been asked by several whether that testimony would apply here and whether they should separate them.” I would not undertake anything of the kind myself. I should feel that I would sin in so doing.EGWCRR 65.1

I think there is a rule that we may safely follow in this color line business. We must regard it only as it affects the outside element in such a way as to close up our work and injure its usefulness. If you disregard [White probably meant to use “regard”] the sons and daughters of Christ you cannot make divisions where God regards us all blood relation to the Lord, God Almighty and brethren and sisters of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. For us to build up anything of the kind will be as bad as the “Middle Wall of Partition” built up by the ancient Jews.EGWCRR 65.2

God has made [of] one blood all nations of the earth and He so regards them. If we are true children of God we will regard them in the same way. We are not to regard the prejudice of men in matters of this kind only as we are compelled to do so in order that we may be allowed to work for them where a different course would close the field to our work and make it difficult and impossible to reach the people at all. I do not think I have any further advice to give upon this point. ^{24J. E. White, Letter to M. A. Cornwell, October 10, 1899}EGWCRR 65.3

Of course, Edson White cannot be regarded as an “inspired” interpreter of his mother’s counsels any more than anyone else, but he worked more closely with her on this subject of race relations than any other person and was certainly closer to the situation than anyone else. It is significant, then, to notice that he interprets her testimonies concerning separate schools as given in order that the work for Negroes might not be closed by white prejudice, and says that the prejudice is only to be regarded when a different course would make it difficult and impossible to reach the people at all.EGWCRR 65.4

Ellen White’s frequent statements that Negroes should be trained to teach and preach for their own race is also illuminated by the situations that Edson White faced.EGWCRR 66.1

F. R. Rogers has already been mentioned. This assistant of Edson White, with his wife and small boy, arrived in Yazoo City in December, 1898, and took over the school work in Lintonia, a suburb of Yazoo City. After the violence there and a few miles down the Yazoo River, Edson White wrote:EGWCRR 66.2

At this place the prejudice was very strong against Bro. Rogers and his wife teaching the colored school, and we felt very sure that it was necessary to put colored teachers into this school and this would allay the prejudice. ^{25J. E. White, Letter to Ellen G. White, November 20, 1899}

By February of the next year, 1900, Edson White was saying:EGWCRR 66.3

Now, the fact is, I shall not favor sending many white laborers into the great cotton belt of the South, unless the ground has in each instance been carefully studied. I think in the main we shall have to put colored teachers into the principal part of the colored work for at least four of the great cotton growing states. Bro. Rogers will have to turn over his school at Wilsonia [another suburb of Yazoo City] to colored teachers very soon, and we are now planning for a man and his wife to come here at once and take up the work.

Threats are out now, and we do not know what moment there will be an outbreak. I want to be where the Lord can lead me so that I can have heavenly skill to see the trend of every situation and turn seeming defeats into victories. If we wait here until the lower element strikes, it will then be too late to do anything with either white or black teachers. If we move in time we can avoid the outbreak, I am sure. Bro. Rogers can take the position of Supt. of instruction, and that is admissible here. ^{26J. E. White, Letter to Ellen G. White, February 16, 1900}

To N. W. Allee, the church’s superintendent of the Southern States, White wrote in the same vein:EGWCRR 67.1

There is a matter of utmost importance that I must write you about. It is Bro. Rogers and the school at Lintonia. It is the settled conviction of the workers here that unless a change is made in the teachers of this school, and colored teachers put in, violence will be done to Bro. Rogers. I tried to talk this when you people were here, but it did not seem to impress you as it did us who are and have been on the ground through it all. Now I feel that the time has come when something must be done. I can never consent to keep this faithful man in such a place of danger as he now occupies.

I think I shall not favor white teachers coming into Mississippi in the future. I think it will result in nothing but disaster as a rule. ^{27J. E. White Letter to N. W. Allee, February, 1900}

These situations help clarify the counsel Ellen White gave in volume 9 concerning Negro people working for their own race. This was not given in a spirit of bigotry or discrimination, but as she herself said in a talk to the Negro students at Oakwood College, Huntsville, Alabama, on June 21, 1904:EGWCRR 67.2

We need, O so much, colored workers to labor for their own people, in places where it would not be safe for white people to labor. White workers can labor in places where the prejudice is not so strong. This is why we have established our printing office in Nashville .... You can labor where we can not, in places where the existing prejudice forbids us to labor. Christ left Jerusalem in order to save His life. It is our duty to take care of our lives for Christ’s sake. We are not to place ourselves, unbidden, in danger, because He wants us to live to teach and help others.

God wants the colored students before me today to be His helping hand in reaching souls in many places where white workers cannot labor. ^{28Ellen G. White, Manuscript 60, 1904 (talk given in Huntsville, Ala.., “The Work of the Huntsville School)}

When A. W. Spalding visited Yazoo City twelve years after Edson White’s experiences in Mississippi to interview the workers in preparation for his book, he wrote to W. C. White, Edson’s brother:EGWCRR 68.1

Bro. Rogers is fond of back streets when in Yazoo City. It was not so many years ago that his visits to this place were always made under cover of the night, and even this time we stayed at a boarding house on a back street, where the proprietor did not know his name or his business. He ventured with me upon one of the main streets.

Along that same street he was accustomed in days of yore to be accompanied by a string of boys holding his coat-tails, chorusing, “Nigger-lover! nigger-lover!” ^{29Arthur W. Spalding, Letter to William C. White, September 26, 1912}

In a similar letter a few days later Spalding tells how he stood on the spot where some years ago Bro. Rogers was knocked down, pelted with brickbats, had his hat shot off, and was chased to his home by a bloodthirsty mob. ^{30Spalding, Letter to W. C. White, October 6, 1912}EGWCRR 68.2