THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO
Many solutions of the Negro problem have been proposed. Men so gifted
with imagination that they do not find it necessary to consider
either logic or facts, over and again, in a single speech or magazine
article, have solved it to their individual satisfaction. Such proposed
solutions are usually no less preposterous than visionary. With these
I have nothing to do. As elsewhere in this study, so also here, I
consider only what seems to have a firm basis of fact.
However, in passing, I may be pardoned, if I have the temerity to
suggest the following, which, although seemingly fanciful, yet may
have sufficient ground in reason as to merit some consideration:
If about 100,000 square miles of territory on the Gulf of Mexico,
embracing, say, Louisiana east of the Mississippi River, excepting New
Orleans,—the southern part of Mississippi and Alabama, the part of
Florida south of Alabama, and a small part of southwest Georgia, were
set apart as a State or States to which all the Negroes in other parts
of the country be encouraged or obliged to migrate, it might result in
great good to both races.
Something like half the population of this section are Negroes, while
the whites that are here are mostly in the towns and cities. The area
suggested is more than that of New York and Pennsylvania combined.
There would be room for all Negroes in the country for generations
to come. As the Negro states would be members of the Union, with
representatives and senators in Congress, the Negroes would have an
opportunity under the Federal Government to develop a political and
social world of their own removed from the overshadowing presence of
the white man. If the Negro showed himself unable to develop the power
of local self-government under such an arrangement, his case would be
absolutely hopeless. However, there are so many difficulties in the way
and so many objections that might be made that no one need either hope
or fear that any such thing will ever be undertaken.
But somewhat more in keeping with common sense and prevalent ideas
is the proposal that Negroes be encouraged to distribute themselves
equally over the country; thus relieving the South of its burden of
Negro population. If such an equalization of the Negro population
could be carried out, the Negro then being everywhere few in numbers
to the whites, could the better be held to the white man’s standard
of conduct. Not only so, but the Negro would have an opportunity to
absorb the white man’s civilization more quickly, if ever. In addition,
the race question would cease to be sectional, and laws mutually
advantageous to both races could then be passed.
Before going further, even at the risk of digressing,—for it is a
matter of justice to the Negro,—it should be said in favor of the Negro
that even though he is the most alien race among us, no question as to
his patriotism is ever raised. He has fought in all our great wars and
has shown himself patriotic to the core.
A day or two after President Wilson had made his German War address
before Congress, the writer happened by the _Star_ bulletin board in
Washington, and noticed a German talking to a big burly Negro against
war with Germany. He pointed to the bulletin board and told him not
to believe anything he saw there for it was all lies made in London.
The Negro seemed to listen in a half-disgusted sort of way, but as he
started off he was understood to say:
“I wish I was with some colored soldiers in Europe. We would show the
Germans how to fight.”
The Negro has no kindred country to look to, so he is undivided in his
allegiance. This cannot be said of all other races among us,—not of the
Japanese and Chinese who seek admission at our Pacific shores. Like the
Negro they cannot be assimilated by our people. In numbers, however,
they would constitute a much more dangerous element to our welfare and
safety than the Negro. Japan is almost abreast of our civilization
and the western nations are doing their best to train China to be
an antagonist worthy of their steel, should she ever have cause to
cross swords with them. Large numbers of Chinese and Japanese would
not only add to our race problems but would increase our chances for
friction with their home governments. In addition they might constitute
a reverse army of the enemy in our midst in case of war. But no such
danger need be feared from the presence of the Negro.
I have just adverted to the fact that the yellow race and the black
are not easily assimilated with the white race. It may be well that it
is so. To the normal white man amalgamation with these races is almost
unthinkable. Nevertheless, there are a few misguided individuals who
surely have either a mental or a moral twist who persist in joining
together that which nature has put asunder.
A few years ago, a minister sent the following telegram to the
Governor of California:[145:1]
“I have just married a Japanese to an American and have done
more for God and Uncle Sam than the alien land bill will do in
1000 years.”
It is not the ungodly that cause the suffering in the world so much as
the bigoted if well-intentioned fools. Self-elected good people can
usually be counted on to cause a lot of mischief. If those who set
themselves up as leaders and ethical teachers would but first make sure
that they were possessed of at least a fair amount of common sense!
In a recent Methodist Conference at Roanoke, Virginia, the statement
was made that the records of some churches in Massachusetts show that
in the previous year “17 per cent of the marriages were those in which
Negro men married white women or white men married Negro women.”[145:2]
This is the more remarkable when account is taken of the very small
Negro population of that State.
It is even sometimes asserted that the Negro would bring to the white
race some qualities which would tend toward the development of a more
perfect man. But such an idea has no basis in fact. The following
quotation is to the point:
“We have ample experience to go upon in South America, in the
West Indies, in the Southern States themselves. The mulatto
exists and has existed for generations, not in hundreds or
thousands, but in millions; in what respect has he proved
himself the superior of the pure Spaniard, or Portuguese, or
Anglo-Saxon? Does South American history bear testimony to
his political competence? Have his achievements in science,
in literature, in music, been superior to the un-Africanized
peoples? Or waiving the question of superiority, has he ever in
these domains, produced meritorious work in any fair proportion
to his numbers? I do not say that it is impossible to make
out a sort of case for him, by the ransacking of records and
the employment of a very indefinite standard of values. But
I do most emphatically say that no conspicuous or undeniable
advantage has resulted from the blending of bloods, such as
can or ought to counteract the instinctive repugnance of the
South.”[146:3]
It is said that an investigation of 2200 Negro authors showed that
nearly all of them come from the mixed stock.[146:4] How many of
these would take first, second, or even third rank in the literary
world? It is needless to answer. Indeed, Negroes and mulattoes have
been toilers in the United States for generations but who ever heard
of an important labor saving instrument invented by them? The same
abilities or characteristics which would make a white man only locally
important would make a Negro or a mulatto famous. There were thousands
upon thousands of white men intellectually and otherwise superior to
Booker T. Washington who gained but little recognition, but because
he was a negro, or rather mulatto, Washington’s abilities stood out
in striking relief. Mulattoes ought to furnish the leaders of the
Negro race for the best white blood runs in the veins of some of them.
Although mulattoes may furnish the Negro leaders, there can be no doubt
that they also furnish far beyond their share of the vicious and the
criminal elements of the race as well.
It may be pertinent in this connection, however, to observe that in the
South the two races have been gradually drawing apart, amalgamation or
miscegenation is becoming more and more repugnant, the conditions which
favored it do not obtain to anything like the extent as formerly, as
a consequence the mixing between the whites and the blacks is rapidly
lessening. Although the census shows an increase in the number of
mulattoes from decade to decade, the increase is mainly due to the
mixing of mulattoes with pure Negroes.
Some students of the subject, who seemingly are more familiar with the
conditions in the North and the border States than with those of the
farther South, sometimes estimate from one-third to one-half of the
Negroes in the United States to be mulattoes. This, I am confident, is
a mistake. I was reared in a border State, have spent some time in the
North as well as in several Southern States, and have been in many of
the leading cities of the South. My observation leads me to believe
that the Census, in this respect, is more nearly correct than any other
source of information.
The Agents of the Census, in 1910, were instructed to “report as
‘black’ all persons who were evidently full blood Negroes and as
‘mulattoes’ all other persons having some proportion or perceptible
trace of Negro blood.” Accordingly in a population of 9,928,000 Negroes
in the United States there were found to be 2,050,000 mulattoes, 20.9
per cent, or a little more than one-fifth.
By geographic divisions the percentage of mulattoes among the Negroes
was as follows: New England, 33.4 per cent; Middle Atlantic States,
19.6; East North Central, 33.2; West North Central, 28.7; South
Atlantic, 20.8; East South Central, 19.1; West South Central, 20.1;
Mountain, 28.6; and Pacific States, 34.7.
Of the Northern States, Michigan took first place, with 47 per cent of
mulattoes among her Negroes. Maine was next, with 45.9; and Wisconsin
third, with 39.4. Those with the smallest percentage were Wyoming, 13.1
per cent; New Jersey, 15.8; and Pennsylvania, 19.2. The Southern States
having the largest percentage were, Virginia, 33.2 per cent; West
Virginia, 32.5; and Missouri, 28.4 per cent. A large number of States
in the South had a small percentage of mulattoes among their Negroes:
Maryland, 18.6 per cent; Georgia, 17.3; Mississippi, 16.9; Alabama,
16.7; South Carolina, 16.1; Florida, 16.0; Delaware, 11.9; and the
Eastern Shore of Maryland which borders Delaware on two sides, had only
11.1 per cent, or _one_ mulatto to every nine Negroes; thus the Eastern
Shore has the distinction of having fewer mulattoes in proportion to
its Negro population than any other section. It is therefore evident
that in the North the proportion of mulattoes among the Negroes is from
about one-fifth to almost one-half; while in the South the proportion
ranges from above one-eighth to about one-third. In the States where
the bulk of the Negro population is found it is only about one-sixth.
With slight exceptions, it seems to be true that the fewer to the
white population the more mulattoes there are in proportion to the
number of the Negroes.
Indeed, may it not be true that the much larger proportional number of
mulattoes among the Negroes of the North in no small measure accounts
for the greater proportional amount of crime among the Negroes of the
North? So it would appear that the amalgamation or miscegenation of
the whites and the Negroes is not a leveling up but rather a leveling
down process; at best nothing otherwise than building up the Negro
by lowering the white. So no greater nor more fearful calamity could
befall the white race in America than that the Negro should lose
his identity through being absorbed by this great division of the
Anglo-Saxon race.
Again, many optimistic white men have thought that the Negro could be
raised to the white man’s level by means of the training and culture
that comes through the study of books. To these education for the
Negro has been a watchword. To a large extent Southern whites have
been in sympathy with the education of the Negro. Indeed, many years
ago, contrary to what one not familiar with the South might suppose, a
prominent man in North Carolina in seeking a congressional nomination
on a platform hostile to Negro education failed even to carry his
home county. And efforts to restrict the amount appropriated to Negro
schools to the part of the school taxes paid by Negroes have failed.
Since 1870 the South has spent on Negro education around $230,000,000
and is now appropriating for that purpose near $10,000,000, annually.
It is doubtful if the Negro contributes in taxes even half the amount
spent on his public schools. In 1912, according to the Educational
Report of that State, North Carolina spent $436,480.08 for Negro
teachers and Negro school buildings, of which the Negro contributed
in taxes for schools $190,378.81, or a little more than two-fifths.
Texas spends not far from $2,000,000 a year on Negro schools, and
Georgia about $850,000. The District of Columbia, indeed, spends more
per capita on Negro pupils than on whites. However, this is a notable
exception.
There are also more than six hundred private and denominational
schools of secondary and college grade in the United States for the
higher education of the Negro. The property of these is valued at
about $28,500,000.[151:5] From 1865 to 1917 about $65,000,000 has been
contributed to Negro education in the South through various religious
and philanthropic organizations.
But notwithstanding the fact that the illiteracy of the Negro race
had been reduced by 1910 to about thirty-three per cent, there is a
widespread feeling of disappointment in Negro education. Not that it
has made the Negro more criminal as has sometimes been said, however,
this is not yet well determined, but rather that it has failed to make
him a greater producer, or to aid him to adjust himself to economic
conditions. Instead of firing him with the desire to do more and better
work, too often he quits it altogether.
As a teacher or a preacher the Negro has a wide field for his race
needs him and the State and the Church pay him. But as a doctor,
lawyer, or other professional, poverty and pauperism (the condition of
the greater part of the Negro race) militate against them. In addition,
the Negro has not yet sufficient confidence in the professional skill
of those of his own race as to cause him to employ them exclusively.
There is a growing conviction in the South that the first aim of
Negro education should be to fit the Negro for the opportunities of
his social and industrial environment. Also that it should endeavor
to strengthen his will power, in order that he may overcome his
constitutional inertia; and that it should give him a knowledge of
sanitary living, thus preventing disease.
In the South Carolina Public School Report for 1915, the State
Superintendent of Schools has this to say:
“The Negro is here and is here to stay. He cannot remain
ignorant without injury to himself, his white neighbors and to
the Commonwealth. His training should fit him for the work that
is open to him. . . . While industrial education is needed for
both races it is especially desirable for the Negro.
“The money now expended for Negro education is largely wasted.
Can we afford longer to allow this large element in our
population to follow their present practices and remain in
their present condition?”
Such schools as Hampton Institute and Tuskegee have fairly well
demonstrated that industrial education is at least a good thing for
the Negro. In these and other such schools thousands have been given
an inspiration for a higher plane of living. Indeed, it is claimed
that very seldom is any graduate of these two schools convicted of
crime:[153:6] The influence of Tuskegee on the Negro in a material way
may be appreciated by the statement that in 1881 when the school was
opened in Macon County, Alabama, not more than fifty or sixty Negroes
in the county owned land, but in 1910, 503 Negroes in the county owned
61,689 acres, “probably the largest amount of land owned by the Negroes
of any county in the United States.”[154:7]
If a few Negro industrial schools make such a good showing, then why
not multiply the number? Indeed, it is yet too early for either the
Negro or his friends to indulge in too much optimism in regard to the
matter. For while it may be true in general that whatever is done in
behalf of a lower element in a society benefits the whole society, at
the same time, it needs to be borne in mind that to the extent that
it is done to the cost or by the neglect of a more homogeneous and
wholesome element in the society or if it in any way militates against
such element it is a questionable proceeding.
What if the industrial education of the Negro should be found to
conflict with the interests of the white laborer or skilled worker?
Does any one suppose that it is the purpose of the South so to educate
the Negro (or even allow him to be so educated) as to enable him to
take the bread from the white man’s mouth? And does any one suppose
that the laboring white man of the arrogant and aggressive Anglo-Saxon
race will stand tamely by with folded arms while there is danger of its
being done?
This is the central point of the whole situation. But in the South
the contest between these two conflicting interests is not yet, as
the demand for labor skilled or unskilled is too great. The Negro
has had and can have all the work he wants and more for the asking;
indeed, often his labor is anxiously solicited. How long this will
continue no one knows, positively. However, when the population of the
country reaches 150,000,000 or 200,000,000 then labor will likely be
as plentiful here as it is now in Europe. Then, the labor of the Negro
will hardly be solicited, rather otherwise. The white man’s sympathetic
attitude toward the Negroes’ many shortcomings is fast passing. When
the Negro is required to measure up to the white man’s standard and is
found wanting, what remains for him?
Furthermore, the Negro might as well get fully in mind that, although
the white man sometimes may win without merit (yet often fails to win
even though deserving to do so), for the Negro himself, even though
merit may not win, without it he will have absolutely no show. He must
be not only as well adapted to an occupation, or qualified for it, as a
white man but better.
Until lately those especially interested in the welfare of the Negro
might have entertained the hope that he would hold his place in his
customary occupations or even make them in great part his very own.
This would have been a kind of segregation to occupation analogous
to his segregation as regards residence and at least as advantageous
to him. But in hardly more than one occupation is such the case. As
a porter he seems to have the field practically to himself, and as
hod-carrier he is in demand. But as a barber he has fast been losing
ground. The Negro as a waiter takes more pride in his occupation and is
more polite and obliging than the white man of the waiter class but he
is even being displaced in this work. Even as a farm laborer, for which
service he has been trained for generations, he is losing his grip.
“Too slow, unreliable, inefficient” are some of the counts against him.
The idea that prevails outside the South that Negroes do practically
all the work on Southern farms is far from the truth. More than half
of the cotton crop is raised by white labor,—in Texas, three-fourths
or more. Even in sugar and rice fields white labor is getting
common.[156:8] Often, indeed, a farmer will not employ a Negro if he
can get a white man.
Indeed, the Negro farm laborer and the Negro farmer are the greatest
stumbling-blocks in the way of the agricultural development of the
South. Were it possible to remove from the South at least three-fourths
of these and replace them with whites whether native or foreign
there can be no doubt that the production of Southern farms would be
wonderfully increased. It is an injury to the South and to society as
a whole that the Negro has under his control even as much land as at
present. When his “slipshod” farming gives place to more scientific and
businesslike methods there will be more farm products for distribution.
The inefficiency of the Negro as a farmer is strikingly shown by a
study of the conditions in several Mississippi counties:
“Lowdnes County with three Negroes to one white man, having
21,972 blacks and 7121 whites, requires 3.15 acres to make a
bale of cotton, while James County, with three whites to one
negro, having 13,156 whites and 4,670 blacks, requires 1.98
acres to make a bale. The farm lands of Jones county are valued
in the census reports at $2.85 per acre and the farm lands of
Lowdnes County at $9.83 an acre. Yet the poor lands of Jones
County under intelligent cultivation produced nearly twice
as much per acre as the rich lands of Lowdnes County when
cultivated mostly by Negroes . . . in every comparison made
between a white county and a black one the black was the most
fertile, yet the white was nearly twice as productive.”[158:9]
Such a poor showing for the Negro almost persuades one that he deserves
to be supplanted by whites in farm work and in farming, even if he
should not be. At present the South holds out unequaled attractions
in the way of climate, rich soil, and cheap lands, to those of other
sections of the country who may be seeking farm homes. And there can be
little doubt that with the passing of the free public lands the tide of
immigration in the near future will set in that direction, in spite of
the presence of the Negro. Then what will become of the Negro when he
shall have to compete with the thrifty hard-working Poles, Bohemians,
and native Americans from the North and the West? Will he be simply
pushed aside and left to gravitate to a still lower level? Nothing will
save him unless he soon wonderfully changes in habits and disposition.
So the Negro may as well look forward to the time when he will be
supplanted in these occupations to which he thinks himself so well
adapted and in which he thinks himself so well fortified,—those of farm
laborer and farmer.
Finally, may not the unquestioned physical deterioration of the Negro
since his emancipation as shown by his susceptibility to disease
together with his high death rate portend the ultimate practical
extinction of the race in the United States? During slavery times
the Negro was fairly well fed and usually worked according to set
regulations. Evidently such food and training had no little to do with
developing a sound body, and disciplined his mind to some extent as
well.[159:10]
According to De Bow, the mortality of the free Negroes before the War
was a hundred per cent greater than that of the slaves. It even appears
that the death of the Negroes in the South at that time was less than
that of the whites. In Charleston, S. C., the average death-rate from
1822 to 1861 was 25.98 a thousand for whites and 24.05 for Negroes.
About the same was true of some other cities. From 1865 to 1894,
however, the average death-rate at Charleston was 26.77 a thousand for
whites and 43.29 for Negroes.[160:11] No doubt the slight increase of
the death rate among the whites was due to the rapid increase among the
Negroes as the whites necessarily came more or less in contact with the
Negroes.
Indeed, very significant in this connection, is the statement made in
the “Negro Year Book” (1914-15) that an average of 450,000 Negroes
in the South are seriously ill all the time, and that 600,000 of the
present population will die of tuberculosis.
The Census shows that both pneumonia and tuberculosis are diseases
very fatal to Negroes. And strange as it may now seem, in slavery
times Negroes were thought to be practically immune from tuberculosis.
Indeed, it is said that, about 1882-3, there was exhibited at a clinic
in Charleston, S. C., what was supposed to have been the second case of
tuberculosis ever found among Negroes.[160:12] This is very remarkable,
if true.
In each city of the following list of twelve is given the number of
times more deaths that occurred from tuberculosis among Negroes in
1910, according to the Census, than among whites: Providence, 1.82;
Richmond, 2.05; Boston, 2.46; Atlanta, 2.48; New York, 2.64; New
Orleans, 2.70; Memphis, 2.80; Philadelphia 3.00; Baltimore, 3.14;
Washington, 3.34; Charleston, S. C., 3.55. It may be noticed that
more than three and one-half times as many Negroes as whites died of
tuberculosis in Charleston. The comparative statistics for pneumonia
differ not very much from those of tuberculosis.
However, the ratio of death-rate from combined causes is much lower
than this. The average death rate a thousand in eight Northern States
in 1910 was 21.9 for Negroes and 15.1 for whites; while the average for
two Southern States was 23.7 for Negroes and 15.2 for whites. In ten
Northern cities it was 23.64 for Negroes and 15.99 for whites; for the
same number of cities in the South it was 30.60 for Negroes and 17.22
for whites.[161:13] Again, in thirty-three Northern cities the death
rate among Negroes was 25.1 a thousand and 15.7 among whites, while
in twenty-four Southern cities the death-rate was 29.6 for Negroes and
16.9 for whites. For the fifty-seven cities together, 27.8 for Negroes
and 15.9 for whites.[162:14] Thus, it is seen that the death rate among
Negroes is not far from twice as great as among whites, but contrary to
the general impression it is less in the North than in the South.
Moreover, statistics show that the Negro is not increasing in this
country as fast in proportion as is the white man. Indeed, he seems
to be falling behind in his own percentage of increase. Between 1890
and 1900 his increase was 1,345,318 but from 1900 to 1910 it was only
993,769. Again, the percentage of Negroes in the population of the
country decreased from 19.03 per cent in 1810 to 10.69 per cent in
1910, and from 14.13 per cent in 1860 to 10.69 per cent in 1910. In
other words, while the whites increased nearly three and one-half
(3.4) times between 1860 and 1910, the Negro increased only two and
two-tenths (2.2) times.
That this difference between the increase of the two races was not due
to the immigration of whites is shown by the fact that from 1800 to
1840 when there was scarcely any immigration of whites the population
of the country increased more than three and a fifth (3.21) times,
while from 1870 to 1910, an equal number of years, when immigration was
almost at its height, the increase was only a little more than two and
a third (2.38) times. Again, during the fifty years, 1790 to 1840, it
increased four and a third (4.34) times; also, between 1810 and 1860 it
increased in the same ratio (4.34); while for the fifty years from 1860
to 1910 it increased only something more than two and three-fourths
(2.86) times.
Indeed, it is said that “the Southern States, which have received
practically no immigrants since the Civil War, have increased their
population as rapidly as the Northern States; that is, the increase of
population among the Southern whites has been equal to the Northern
increase assisted by immigration.”[163:15]
While these facts may not be sufficient evidence that the Negro will
finally become extinct in this country, nevertheless, it is impossible
for one to escape the conclusion that as the years go by the members
of his race will become fewer and fewer in proportion to the whole
population. As this comes about the Negro will gradually cease to be
such a problem, as at present.
FOOTNOTES:
[145:1] _Baltimore American_, May 23, 1913.
[145:2] _Baltimore Sun_, March 30, 1917.
[146:3] William Archer, in _McClure’s_, July, 1909.
[146:4] C. A. Ellwood, “Sociology and Modern Social Problems,” p. 241.
[151:5] Negro Education (Government Report), Vol. I, p. 8.
[153:6] “Education and Crime,” _South Atlantic Monthly_, January, 1917.
[154:7] Scott and Stowe, “Life of Booker T. Washington,” p. 176.
[156:8] Year Book, Dept. of Agriculture, 1910, p. 193.
[158:9] Quoted by A. H. Stone in “American Race Problem,” pp. 177-8,
from J. C. Hardy, “The South’s Supremacy in Cotton Growing,” p. 9.
[159:10] “There were imported in the British West Indies 4,000,000
Negro slaves and when they were manumitted there were 800,000. Into the
Southern States 400,000 were imported and there were before the war
4,000,000; this decrease in the former and increase in the latter are
strong facts. The climate influence was on the side of the West Indies.
There must have been a very different treatment.”—Charleston (S. C.)
_Mercury_, Nov. 23, 1863. Quoted by it from a London paper, written by
an Englishwoman who had spent a short time in the South.
[160:11] R. W. Woolley, _Pearson’s Magazine_, Feb., 1910, p. 210,
quoting Drs. Seale, Harris and W. C. Woodward.
[160:12] Report of Board of Prison Inspectors of Alabama, Sept.,
1910-1914, p. 45.
[161:13] Northern States: Me., Mass., Mich., N. J., N. Y., O., Pa.,
and R. I.; Southern: Md. and N. C. These were the only Southern States
mentioned in this connection in the census. Northern cities: New Haven,
Boston, Detroit, Atlantic City, Trenton, Cleveland, Springfield,
Philadelphia, Chicago, and Kansas City; Southern: Washington,
Baltimore, Wilmington, N. C., Mobile, Atlanta, Savannah, New Orleans,
Memphis, Charleston, S. C., and Richmond.
[162:14] Department of Commerce Bulletin 129, p. 44.
[163:15] C. A. Ellwood: “Sociology and Modern Social Problems,” p. 212.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
The text has been preserved as originally printed.