All attempts to settle the question of the Negro in the South by his
removal from this country have so far failed, and I think that they are
likely to fail. The next census will probably show that we have nearly
ten million black people in the United States, about eight millions of
whom are in the Southern states. In fact, we have almost a nation
within a nation. The Negro population in the United States lacks but
two millions of being as large as the whole population of Mexico, and
is nearly twice as large as that of Canada. Our black people equal
in number the combined populations of Switzerland, Greece, Honduras,
Nicaragua, Cuba, Uraguay [sic], Santo Domingo, Paraguay, and Costa Rica.
When we consider, in connection with these facts, that the race has
doubled itself since its freedom, and is still increasing, it hardly
seems possible for any one to take seriously any scheme of emigration
from America as a method of solution. At most, even if the government
were to provide the means, but a few hundred thousand could be
transported each year. The yearly increase in population would more than
likely overbalance the number transported. Even if it did not, the time
required to get rid of the Negro by this method would perhaps be fifty
or seventy-five years.
Some have advised that the Negro leave the South, and take up his
residence in the Northern states. I question whether this would make him
any better off than he is in the South, when all things are considered.
It has been my privilege to study the condition of our people in nearly
every part of America; and I say without hesitation that, with some
exceptional cases, the Negro is at his best in the Southern states.
While he enjoys certain privileges in the North that he does not have
in the South, when it comes to the matter of securing property, enjoying
business advantages and employment, the South presents a far better
opportunity than the North. Few colored men from the South are as yet
able to stand up against the severe and increasing competition that
exists in the North, to say nothing of the unfriendly influence of labor
organizations, which in some way prevents black men in the North, as a
rule, from securing occupation in the line of skilled labor.
Another point of great danger for the colored man who goes North is the
matter of morals, owing to the numerous temptations by which he finds
himself surrounded. More ways offer in which he can spend money than in
the South, but fewer avenues of employment for earning money are open to
him. The fact that at the North the Negro is almost confined to one line
of occupation often tends to discourage and demoralize the strongest
who go from the South, and makes them an easy prey for temptation. A few
years ago, I made an examination into the condition of a settlement
of Negroes who left the South and went into Kansas about twenty years
since, when there was a good deal of excitement in the South concerning
emigration from the West, and found it much below the standard of that
of similar communities in the South. The only conclusion which any one
can reach, from this and like instances, is that the Negroes are to
remain in the Southern states. As a race they do not want to leave the
South, and the Southern white people do not want them to leave. We must
therefore find some basis of settlement that will be constitutional,
just, manly; that will be fair to both races in the South and to the
whole country. This cannot be done in a day, a year, or any short
period of time. We can, however, with the present light, decide upon a
reasonably safe method of solving the problem, and turn our strength
and effort in that direction. In doing this, I would not have the Negro
deprived of any privilege guaranteed to him by the Constitution of the
United States. It is not best for the Negro that he relinquish any of
his constitutional rights; it is not best for the Southern white man
that he should, as I shall attempt to show in this article.
In order that we may concentrate our forces upon a wise object, without
loss of time or effort, I want to suggest what seems to me and many
others the wisest policy to be pursued. I have reached these conclusions
not only by reason of my own observations and experience, but after
eighteen years of direct contact with leading and influential colored
and white men in most parts of our country. But I wish first to mention
some elements of danger in the present situation, which all who desire
the permanent welfare of both races in the South should carefully take
into account.
First. There is danger that a certain class of impatient extremists
among the Negroes in the North, who have little knowledge of the actual
conditions in the South, may do the entire race injury by attempting to
advise their brethren in the South to resort to armed resistance or
the use of the torch, in order to secure justice. All intelligent and
well-considered discussion of any important question, or condemnation of
any wrong, whether in the North or the South, from the public
platform and through the press, is to be commended and encouraged; but
ill-considered and incendiary utterances from black men in the North
will tend to add to the burdens of our people in the South rather than
to relieve them. We must not fall into the temptation of believing that
we can raise ourselves by abusing some one else.
Second. Another danger in the South which should be guarded against
is that the whole white South, including the wise, conservative,
law-abiding element, may find itself represented before the bar of
public opinion by the mob or lawless element, which gives expression
to its feelings and tendency in a manner that advertises the South
throughout the world; while too often those who have no sympathy
with such disregard of law are either silent, or fail to speak in
a sufficiently emphatic manner to offset in any large degree the
unfortunate reputation which the lawless have made for many portions of
the South.
Third. No race or people ever got upon its feet without severe and
constant struggle, often in the face of the greatest discouragement.
While passing through the present trying period of its history, there
is danger that a large and valuable element of the Negro race may
become discouraged in the effort to better its condition. Every possible
influence should be exerted to prevent this.
Fourth. There is a possibility that harm may be done to the South and to
the Negro by exaggerated newspaper articles which are written near the
scene or in the midst of specially aggravating occurrences. Often these
reports are written by newspaper men, who give the impression that there
is a race conflict throughout the South, and that all Southern white
people are opposed to the Negro's progress; overlooking the fact that
though in some sections there is trouble, in most parts of the South,
if matters are not yet in all respects as we would have them, there
is nevertheless a very large measure of peace, good will, and mutual
helpfulness. In the same relation, much can be done to retard the
progress of the Negro by a certain class of Southern white people, who
in the midst of excitement speak or write in a manner that gives the
impression that all Negroes are lawless, untrustworthy, and shiftless.
For example, a Southern writer said, not long ago, in a communication
to the New York Independent: "Even in small towns the husband cannot
venture to leave his wife alone for an hour at night. At no time, in no
place, is the white woman safe from the insults and assaults of these
creatures." These statements, I presume, represented the feelings
and the conditions that existed, at the time of the writing, in one
community or county in the South; but thousands of Southern white men
and women would be ready to testify that this is not the condition
throughout the South, nor throughout any Southern state.
Fifth. Owing to the lack of school opportunities for the Negro in
the rural districts of the South, there is danger that ignorance
and idleness may increase to the extent of giving the Negro race a
reputation for crime, and that immorality may eat its way into the fibre
of the race so as to retard its progress for many years. In judging the
Negro we must not be too harsh. We must remember that it has been only
within the last thirty-four years that the black father and mother have
had the responsibility, and consequently the experience, of training
their own children. That perfection has not been reached in one
generation, with the obstacles that the parents have been compelled to
overcome, is not to be wondered at.
Sixth. Finally, I would mention my fear that some of the white people of
the South may be led to feel that the way to settle the race problem is
to repress the aspirations of the Negro by legislation of a kind that
confers certain legal or political privileges upon an ignorant and
poor white man, and withholds the same privileges from a black man in a
similar condition. Such legislation injures and retards the progress of
both races. It is an injustice to the poor white man, because it takes
from him incentive to secure education and property as prerequisites
for voting. He feels that because he is a white man, regardless of his
possessions, a way will be found for him to vote. I would label all such
measures "laws to keep the poor white man in ignorance and poverty."
The Talladega News Reporter, a Democratic newspaper of Alabama, recently
said: "But it is a weak cry when the white man asks odds on intelligence
over the Negro. When nature has already so handicapped the African in
the race for knowledge, the cry of the boasted Anglo-Saxon for still
further odds seems babyish. What wonder that the world looks on in
surprise, if not disgust? It cannot help but say, If our contention be
true that the Negro is an inferior race, then the odds ought to be on
the other side, if any are to be given. And why not? No; the thing to
do--the only thing that will stand the test of time--is to do right,
exactly right, let come what will. And that right thing, as it seems
to us, is to place a fair educational qualification before every
citizen,--one that is self-testing, and not dependent on the wishes of
weak men,--letting all who pass the test stand in the proud ranks
of American voters, whose votes shall be counted as cast, and whose
sovereign will shall be maintained as law by all the powers that be.
Nothing short of this will do. Every exemption, on whatsoever ground, is
an outrage that can only rob some legitimate voter of his rights."
Such laws have been made,--in Mississippi, for example,--with the
"understanding" clause, hold out a temptation for the election officer
to perjure and degrade himself by too often deciding that the ignorant
white man does understand the Constitution when it is read to him, and
that the ignorant black man does not. By such a law, the state not only
commits a wrong against its black citizens; it injures the morals of
its white citizens by conferring such a power upon any white man who may
happen to be a judge of elections.
Such laws are hurtful, again, because they keep alive in the heart of
the black man the feeling that the white man means to oppress him. The
only safe way out is to set a high standard as a test of citizenship,
and require blacks and whites alike to come up to it. When this is done,
both will have a higher respect for the election laws, and for those who
make them. I do not believe that, with his centuries of advantage
over the Negro in the opportunity to acquire property and education as
prerequisites for voting, the average white man in the South desires
that any special law be passed to give him further advantage over one
who has had but a little more than thirty years in which to prepare
himself for citizenship. In this relation, another point of danger is
that the Negro has been made to feel that it is his duty continually
to oppose the Southern white man in politics, even in matters where no
principle is involved; and that he is only loyal to his own race and
acting in a manly way in thus opposing the white man. Such a policy has
proved very hurtful to both races. Where it is a matter of principle,
where a question of right or wrong is involved, I would advise the
Negro to stand by principle at all hazards. A Southern white man has no
respect for or confidence in a Negro who acts merely for policy's sake;
but there are many cases, and the number is growing, where the Negro has
nothing to gain, and much to lose, by opposing the Southern white man in
matters that relate to government.
Under the foregoing six heads I believe I have stated some of the main
points which, all high-minded white men and black men, North and South,
will agree, need our most earnest and thoughtful consideration, if we
would hasten, and not hinder, the progress of our country.
Now as to the policy that should be pursued. On this subject I claim to
possess no superior wisdom or unusual insight. I may be wrong; I may be
in some degree right.
In the future we want to impress upon the Negro, more than we have done
in the past, the importance of identifying himself more closely with the
interests of the South; of making himself part of the South, and at home
in it. Heretofore, for reasons which were natural, and for which no one
is especially to blame, the colored people have been too much like a
foreign nation residing in the midst of another nation. If William Lloyd
Garrison, Wendell Phillips, or George L. Stearns were alive to-day, I
feel sure that he would advise the Negroes to identify their interests
as closely as possible with those of their white neighbors,--always
understanding that no question of right and wrong is involved. In
no other way, it seems to me, can we get a foundation for peace and
progress. He who advises against this policy will advise the Negro to
do that which no people in history, who have succeeded, have done. The
white man, North or South, who advises the Negro against it advises him
to do that which he himself has not done. The bed rock upon which every
individual rests his chances for success in life is the friendship,
the confidence, the respect, of his next-door neighbor in the little
community in which he lives. The problem of the Negro in the South turns
on whether he can make himself of such indispensable service to his
neighbor and the community that no one can fill his place better in the
body politic. There is at present no other safe course for the black man
to pursue. If the Negro in the South has a friend in his white neighbor,
and a still larger number of friends in his own community, he has a
protection and a guarantee of his rights that will be more potent and
more lasting than any our Federal Congress or any outside power can
confer.
The London Times, in a recent editorial discussing affairs in the
Transvaal, where Englishmen have been denied certain privileges by the
Boers, says: "England is too sagacious not to prefer a gradual reform
from within, even should it be less rapid than most of us might wish, to
the most sweeping redress of grievances imposed from without. Our object
is to obtain fair play for the Outlanders, but the best way to do it
is to enable them to help themselves." This policy, I think, is equally
safe when applied to conditions in the South. The foreigner who comes to
America identifies himself as soon as possible, in business, education,
and politics, with the community in which he settles. We have a
conspicuous example of this in the case of the Jews, who in the South,
as well as in other parts of our country, have not always been justly
treated; but the Jews have so woven themselves into the business and
patriotic interests of the communities in which they live, have made
themselves so valuable as citizens, that they have won a place in the
South which they could have obtained in no other way. The Negro in Cuba
has practically settled the race question there, because he has made
himself a part of Cuba in thought and action.
What I have tried to indicate cannot be accomplished by any sudden
revolution of methods, but it does seem that the tendency should be
more and more in this direction. Let me emphasize this by a practical
example. The North sends thousands of dollars into the South every year
for the education of the Negro. The teachers in most of the Southern
schools supported by the North are Northern men and women of the highest
Christian culture and most unselfish devotion. The Negro owes them
a debt of gratitude which can never be paid. The various missionary
societies in the North have done a work which to a large degree has
proved the salvation of the South, and the results of it will appear
more in future generations than in this. We have now reached the point,
in the South, where, I believe, great good could be accomplished in
changing the attitude of the white people toward the Negro, and of
the Negro toward the whites, if a few Southern white teachers, of high
character, would take an active interest in the work of our higher
schools. Can this be done? Yes. The medical school connected with
Shaw University at Raleigh, North Carolina, has from the first had as
instructors and professors almost exclusively Southern white doctors who
reside in Raleigh, and they have given the highest satisfaction. This
gives the people of Raleigh the feeling that the school is theirs, and
not something located in, but not a part of, the South. In Augusta,
Georgia, the Payne Institute, one of the best colleges for our people,
is officered and taught almost wholly by Southern white men and women.
The Presbyterian Theological School at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, has only
Southern white men as instructors. Some time ago, at the Calhoun School
in Alabama, one of the leading white men in the county was given an
important position; since then the feeling of the white people in the
county has greatly changed toward the school.
We must admit the stern fact that at present the Negro, through no
choice of his own, is living in the midst of another race, which is far
ahead of him in education, property, and experience; and further, that
the Negro's present condition makes him dependent upon the white people
for most of the things necessary to sustain life, as well as, in a large
measure, for his education. In all history, those who have possessed
the property and intelligence have exercised the greatest control in
government, regardless of color, race, or geographical location. This
being the case, how can the black man in the South improve his estate?
And does the Southern white man want him to improve it? The latter part
of this question I shall attempt to answer later in this article.
The Negro in the South has it within his power, if he properly utilizes
the forces at land, to make of himself such a valuable factor in the
life of the South that for the most part he need not seek privileges,
but they will be conferred upon him. To bring this about, the Negro must
begin at the bottom and lay a sure foundation, and not be lured by any
temptation into trying to rise on a false footing. While the Negro is
laying this foundation, he will need help and sympathy and justice
from the law. Progress by any other method will be but temporary
and superficial, and the end of it will be worse than the beginning.
American slavery was a great curse to both races, and I should be the
last to apologize for it; but in the providence of God I believe that
slavery laid the foundation for the solution of the problem that is now
before us in the South. Under slavery, the Negro was taught every trade,
every industry, that furnishes the means of earning a living. Now if
on this foundation, laid in a rather crude way, it is true, but a
foundation nevertheless, we can gradually grow and improve, the future
for us is bright. Let me be more specific. Agriculture is or has been
the basic industry of nearly every race or nation that has succeeded.
The Negro got a knowledge of this under slavery: hence in a large
measure he is in possession of this industry in the South to-day. Taking
the whole South, I should say that eighty per cent of the Negroes live
by agriculture in some form, though it is often a very primitive and
crude form. The Negro can buy land in the South, as a rule, wherever the
white man can buy it, and at very low prices. Now, since the bulk of our
people already have a foundation in agriculture, are at their best when
living in the country engaged in agricultural pursuits, plainly,
the best thing, the logical thing, is to turn the larger part of our
strength in a direction that will put the Negroes among the most
skilled agricultural people in the world. The man who has learned to do
something better than any one else, has learned to do a common thing
in an uncommon manner, has power and influence which no adverse
surroundings can take from him. It is better to show a man how to make a
place for himself than to put him in one that some one else has made
for him. The Negro who can make himself so conspicuous as a successful
farmer, a large taxpayer, a wise helper of his fellow men, as to be
placed in a position of trust and honor by natural selection, whether
the position be political or not, is a hundredfold more secure in that
position than one placed there by mere outside force or pressure. I know
a Negro, Hon. Isaiah T. Montgomery, in Mississippi, who is mayor of a
town; it is true that the town is composed almost wholly of Negroes.
Mr. Montgomery is mayor of this town because his genius, thrift, and
foresight have created it; and he is held and supported in his office
by a charter granted by the state of Mississippi, and by the vote and
public sentiment of the community in which he lives.
Let us help the Negro by every means possible to acquire such an
education in farming, dairying, stock-raising, horticulture, etc., as
will place him near the top in these industries, and the race problem
will in a large part be settled, or at least stripped of many of its
most perplexing elements. This policy would also tend to keep the Negro
in the country and smaller towns, where he succeeds best, and stop the
influx into the large cities, where he does not succeed so well. The
race, like the individual, which produces something of superior worth
that has a common human interest, wins a permanent place, and is bound
to be recognized.
At a county fair in the South, not long ago, I saw a Negro awarded the
first prize, by a jury of white men, over white competitors, for the
production of the best specimen of Indian corn. Every white man at the
fair seemed to be proud of the achievement of the Negro, because it was
apparent that he had done something that would add to the wealth and
comfort of the people of both races in that county. At the Tuskegee
Normal and Industrial Institute, in Alabama, we have a department
devoted to training men along the lines of agriculture that I have
named; but what we are doing is small when compared with what should be
done in Tuskegee, and at other educational centres. In a material sense
the South is still an undeveloped country. While in some other affairs
race prejudice is strongly marked, in the matter of business, of
commercial and industrial development, there are few obstacles in the
Negro's way. A Negro who produces or has for sale something that the
community wants finds customers among white people as well as black.
Upon equal security, a Negro can borrow money at the bank as readily as
a white man can. A bank in Birmingham, Alabama, which has existed ten
years, is officered and controlled wholly by Negroes. This bank has
white borrowers and white depositors. A graduate of the Tuskegee
Institute keeps a well-appointed grocery store in Tuskegee, and he tells
me that he sells about as many goods to one race as to the other. What
I have said of the opening that awaits the Negro in the business of
agriculture is almost equally true of mechanics, manufacturing, and all
the domestic arts. The field is before him and right about him. Will
he seize upon it? Will he "cast down his bucket where he is"? Will his
friends, North and South, encourage him and prepare him to occupy
it? Every city in the South, for example, would give support to a
first-class architect or housebuilder or contractor of our race. The
architect or contractor would not only receive support, but through
his example numbers of young colored men would learn such trades as
carpentry, brickmasonry, plastering, painting, etc., and the race would
be put into a position to hold on to many of the industries which it
is now in danger of losing, because in too many cases brain, skill, and
dignity are not imparted to the common occupations. Any individual or
race that does not fit itself to occupy in the best manner the field or
service that is right about it will sooner or later be asked to move on
and let another take it.
But I may be asked, Would you confine the Negro to agriculture,
mechanics, the domestic arts, etc.? Not at all; but just now and for a
number of years the stress should be laid along the lines that I have
mentioned. We shall need and must have many teachers and ministers, some
doctors and lawyers and statesmen, but these professional men will
have a constituency or a foundation from which to draw support just in
proportion as the race prospers along the economic lines that I have
pointed out. During the first fifty or one hundred years of the life of
any people, are not the economic occupations always given the greater
attention? This is not only the historic, but, I think, the common-sense
view. If this generation will lay the material foundation, it will be
the quickest and surest way for enabling later generations to succeed in
the cultivation of the fine arts, and to surround themselves with some
of the luxuries of life, if desired. What the race most needs now, in my
opinion, is a whole army of men and women well-trained to lead, and
at the same time devote themselves to agriculture, mechanics, domestic
employment, and business. As to the mental training that these educated
leaders should be equipped with, I should say, give them all the
mental training and culture that the circumstances of individuals will
allow,--the more the better. No race can permanently succeed until its
mind is awakened and strengthened by the ripest thought. But I would
constantly have it kept in the minds of those who are educated in books
that a large proportion of those who are educated should be so trained
in hand that they can bring this mental strength and knowledge to
bear upon the physical conditions in the South, which I have tried to
emphasize.
Frederick Douglass, of sainted memory, once, in addressing his race,
used these words: "We are to prove that we can better our own condition.
One way to do this is to accumulate property. This may sound to you like
a new gospel. You have been accustomed to hear that money is the root of
all evil, etc.; on the other hand, property, money, if you please, will
purchase for us the only condition by which any people can rise to
the dignity of genuine manhood; for without property there can be no
leisure, without leisure there can be no thought, without thought there
can be no invention, without invention there can be no progress."
The Negro should be taught that material development is not an end, but
merely a means to an end. As professor W. E. B. Du Bois puts it, the
idea should not be simply to make men carpenters, but to make carpenters
men. The Negro has a highly religious temperament; but what he needs
more and more is to be convinced of the importance of weaving his
religion and morality into the practical affairs of daily life. Equally
does he need to be taught to put so much intelligence into his labor
that he will see dignity and beauty in the occupation, and love it for
its own sake. The Negro needs to be taught to apply more of the
religion that manifests itself in his happiness in prayer meeting to the
performance of his daily task. The man who owns a home, and is in the
possession of the elements by which he is sure of a daily living, has a
great aid to a moral and religious life. What bearing will all this have
upon the Negro's place in the South, as a citizen and in the enjoyment
of the privileges which our government confers?
To state in detail just what place the black man will occupy in the
South as a citizen, when he has developed in the direction named, is
beyond the wisdom of any one. Much will depend upon the sense of justice
which can be kept alive in the breast of the American people; almost
as much will depend upon the good sense of the Negro himself. That
question, I confess, does not give me the most concern just now. The
important and pressing question is, Will the Negro, with his own help
and that of his friends, take advantage of the opportunities that
surround him? When he has done this, I believe, speaking of his future
in general terms, that he will be treated with justice, be given the
protection of the law and the recognition which his usefulness and
ability warrant. If, fifty years ago, one had predicted that the Negro
would receive the recognition and honor which individuals have already
received, he would have been laughed at as an idle dreamer. Time,
patience, and constant achievement are great factors in the rise of a
race.
I do not believe that the world ever takes a race seriously, in its
desire to share in the government of a nation, until a large number of
individual members of that race have demonstrated beyond question their
ability to control and develop their own business enterprises. Once a
number of Negroes rise to the point where they own and operate the most
successful farms, are among the largest taxpayers in their county, are
moral and intelligent, I do not believe that in many portions of the
South such men need long be denied the right of saying by their votes
how they prefer their property to be taxed, and who are to make and
administer the laws.
I was walking the street of a certain town in the South lately in
company with the most prominent Negro there. While we were together, the
mayor of the town sought out the black man, and said, "Next week we are
going to vote on the question of issuing bonds to secure water-works;
you must be sure to vote on the day of election." The mayor did not
suggest whether he should vote yes or no; but he knew that the very fact
of this Negro's owning nearly a block of the most valuable property in
the town was a guarantee that he would cast a safe, wise vote on this
important proposition. The white man knew that because of this Negro's
property interests he would cast his vote in the way he thought would
benefit every white and black citizen in the town, and not be controlled
by influences a thousand miles away. But a short time ago I read letters
from nearly every prominent white man in Birmingham, Alabama, asking
that the Rev. W. R. Pettiford, a Negro, be appointed to a certain
important federal office. What is the explanation of this? For nine
years Mr. Pettiford has been the president of the Negro bank in
Birmingham, to which I have alluded. During these nine years, the white
citizens have had the opportunity of seeing that Mr. Pettiford can
manage successfully a private business, and that he has proved himself a
conservative, thoughtful citizen, and they are willing to trust him in a
public office. Such individual examples will have to be multiplied, till
they become more nearly the rule than the exception they now are. While
we are multiplying these examples, the Negro must keep a strong and
courageous heart. He cannot improve his condition by any short-cut
course or by artificial methods. Above all, he must not be deluded
into believing that his condition can be permanently bettered by a mere
battledoor [sic] and shuttlecock of words, or by any process of mere
mental gymnastics or oratory. What is desired along with a logical
defense of his cause are deeds, results,--continued results, in the
direction of building himself up, so as to leave no doubt in the mind of
any one of his ability to succeed.
An important question often asked is, Does the white man in the South
want the Negro to improve his present condition? I say yes. From the
Montgomery (Alabama) Daily Advertiser I clip the following in reference
to the closing of a colored school in a town in Alabama:--
"EUFALA, May 25, 1899. The closing exercises of the city colored public
school were held at St. Luke's A. M. E. Church last night, and were
witnessed by a large gathering, including many whites. The recitations
by the pupils were excellent, and the music was also an interesting
feature. Rev. R. T. Pollard delivered the address, which was quite an
able one, and the certificates were presented by Professor T. L. McCoy,
white, of the Sanford Street School. The success of the exercises
reflects great credit on Professor S. M. Murphy, the principal, who
enjoys a deserved good reputation as a capable and efficient educator."
I quote this report, not because it is the exception, but because such
marks of interest in the education of the Negro on the part of the
Southern white people may be seen almost every day in the local
papers. Why should white people, by their presence, words, and actions,
encourage the black man to get education, if they do not desire him to
improve his condition?
The Payne Institute, an excellent college, to which I have already
referred, is supported almost wholly by the Southern white Methodist
church. The Southern white Presbyterians support a theological school
for Negroes at Tuscaloosa. For a number of years the Southern white
Baptists have contributed toward Negro education. Other denominations
have done the same. If these people do not want the Negro educated to a
higher standard, there is no reason why they should pretend they do.
Though some of the lynchings in the South have indicated a barbarous
feeling toward Negroes, Southern white men here and there, as well as
newspapers, have spoken out strongly against lynching. I quote from the
address of the Rev. Mr. Vance, of Nashville, Tennessee, delivered before
the National Sunday School Union, in Atlanta, not long since, as an
example:--
"And yet, as I stand here to-night, a Southerner speaking for my section
and addressing an audience from all sections, there is one foul blot
upon the fair fame of the South, at the bare mention of which the heart
turns sick and the cheek is crimsoned with shame. I want to lift my
voice to-night in loud and long and indignant protest against the awful
horror of mob violence, which the other day reached the climax of its
madness and infamy in a deed as black and brutal and barbarous as can be
found in the annals of human crime.
"I have a right to speak on the subject, and I propose to be heard.
The time has come for every lover of the South to set the might of an
angered and resolute manhood against the shame and peril of the lynch
demon. These people whose fiendish glee taunts their victim as his flesh
crackles in the flames do not represent the South. I have not a syllable
of apology for the sickening crime they meant to avenge. But it is high
time we were learning that lawlessness is no remedy for crime. For one,
I dare to believe that the people of my section are able to cope with
crime, however treacherous and defiant, through their courts of justice;
and I plead for the masterful sway of a righteous and exalted public
sentiment that shall class lynch law in the category with crime."
It is a notable and encouraging fact that no Negro educated in any of
our larger institutions of learning in the South has been charged with
any of the recent crimes connected with assaults upon women.
If we go on making progress in the directions that I have tried to
indicate, more and more the South will be drawn to one course. As I have
already said, it is not to the best interests of the white race of the
South that the Negro be deprived of any privilege guaranteed him by
the Constitution of the United States. This would put upon the South a
burden under which no government could stand and prosper. Every article
in our Federal Constitution was placed there with a view of stimulating
and encouraging the highest type of citizenship. To continue to tax
the Negro without giving him the right to vote, as fast as he qualifies
himself in education and property for voting, would insure the
alienation of the affections of the Negro from the state in which
he lives, and would be the reversal of the fundamental principles of
government for which our states have stood. In other ways than this
the injury would be as great to the white man as to the Negro. Taxation
without the hope of becoming voters would take away from one third of
the citizens of the Gulf states their interest in government, and a
stimulus to become taxpayers or to secure education, and thus be able
and willing to bear their share of the cost of education and government,
which now rests so heavily upon the white taxpayers of the South. The
more the Negro is stimulated and encouraged, the sooner will he be able
to bear a larger share of the burdens of the South. We have recently had
before us an example, in the case of Spain, of a government that left a
large portion of its citizens in ignorance, and neglected their highest
interests.
As I have said elsewhere: "There is no escape, through law of man or
God, from the inevitable.
'The laws of changeless justice bind
Oppressor with oppressed;
And close as sin and suffering joined
We march to fate abreast.'
Nearly sixteen millions of hands will aid you in pulling the load
upwards, or they will pull the load downwards against you. We shall
constitute one third and more of the ignorance and crime of the South,
or one third of its intelligence and progress; we shall contribute one
third to the business and industrial prosperity of the South, or we
shall prove a veritable body of death, stagnating, depressing, retarding
every effort to advance the body politic."
My own feeling is that the South will gradually reach the point where
it will see the wisdom and the justice of enacting an educational or
property qualification, or both, for voting, that shall be made to
apply honestly to both races. The industrial development of the Negro
in connection with education and Christian character will help to hasten
this end. When this is done, we shall have a foundation, in my opinion,
upon which to build a government that is honest, and that will be in a
high degree satisfactory to both races.
I do not suffer myself to take too optimistic a view of the conditions
in the South. The problem is a large and serious one, and will require
the patient help, sympathy, and advice of our most patriotic citizens,
North and South, for years to come. But I believe that if the principles
which I have tried to indicate are followed, a solution of the question
will come. So long as the Negro is permitted to get education, acquire
property, and secure employment, and is treated with respect in the
business world, as is now true in the greater part of the South, I
shall have the greatest faith in his working out his own destiny in our
Southern states. The education and preparation for citizenship of
nearly eight millions of people is a tremendous task, and every lover
of humanity should count it a privilege to help in the solution of a
problem for which our whole country is responsible.