ANTI-NEGRO PROPAGANDA
I am a white man.
I believe that the United States is a white man's country.
By all the instincts and traditions of my race, I believe that the United
States having been created by white men will be ruled by white men. I do
not believe that this doctrine applies merely to Tennessee and the rest of
the Southern States, but to the entire country. In spite of innumerable
criticisms hurled against the South in its handling of the negro, the
entire country is gradually beginning to see that the South is right,
because the South has demonstrated that the white race and the black race
can live side by side and work side by side without friction. In cases
where there is friction, the cause does not come from the best leadership
of the South, as will be shown later on.
Experience has shown that the two races get along better when they are
segregated. I expect to live to see the day when the people of the North
provide separate schools for white and negro children, when negroes will
not be elected to public office by white votes, and when politicians who
cater to negro votes are sent to political oblivion. That such a condition
will exist, I feel sure, but it will not be brought about by such
organizations as the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. It will come through an
enlightenment of public opinion.
The activities of the Ku Klux Klan along the lines of race prejudice are
the activities of the "professional Southerner," the political demagogue,
and the sentiment of the "poor white" of the South. They are typical of
the political spirit that has kept the South in bondage for thirty years,
a spirit that has sent mediocre politicians to Congress and to other high
offices, while abler men were shoved into the background.
The professional negro-baiter of the South has been greatly assisted by
white people and negroes in the North, and I believe that the most
valuable propaganda work for the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan which has
been done along racial lines has been that of Senator Boies Penrose, of
Pennsylvania. If Senator Penrose had been on the pay-roll of the Ku Klux
Klan, and had been completely wrapped up in the success of the movement,
he could not have secured more members than he did by issuing a statement
to his negro constituents that the time had come to accord complete
equality to the negro race. Of course Senator Penrose did not mean any
such thing, but a public statement that he favored an equal rights' bill
then pending at Harrisburg was a pleasant sop to the negro voters of
Philadelphia who immediately saw visions of the dining room of the
Bellevue-Stratford Hotel and the Adelphia. The fact that the members of
the Pennsylvania legislature quickly and very quietly choked the bill to
death showed the real sentiment of the white people of the State. The
result in the South, however, was highly inflammatory. Carried by the
Associated Press to every paper, its effect upon the minds of the people,
especially the ignorant and uneducated, was like pouring gasoline on a hot
stove. I am told that the enrollments of the Klan in the States comprising
the "Black Belt" jumped by leaps and bounds, indicating that the ambitious
Kleagles, looking for their four dollars a head, worked overtime in the
use of the Penrose article.
Another piece of political clap-trap that aided the Ku Klux organizers was
the action of the Speaker of the House, in the New Jersey legislature, in
permitting a negro to occupy the speaker's chair during part of the last
session. This was duly featured in the newspapers, and the Ku Klux Klan's
workers very promptly asked the question: "Do you want this sort of thing
to happen again in the South?" The answer came back most emphatically, "We
do not." "Then give me your ten dollars and sign here," the organizer
would reply. If there is a negro in the legislature of New Jersey, he was
elected by white voters.
The periodical attempt of fanatical members of Congress to reduce the
South's representation in that body on the ground that the negro is not
permitted to vote have generally been featured in the newspapers, and much
capital made of them by demagogic politicians. These things have aided the
campaign of the Klan.
Another powerful recruiting force for the Ku Klux organization is the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples, not "colored
people" but "peoples," meaning no doubt people of all races except the
white race. This organization through its press agency has issued
statement after statement that has been eagerly taken up by the few papers
that openly advocate Ku Kluxism, and used as effective propaganda in
securing more members.
An examination of the list of field workers of the Knights of the Ku Klux
Klan throughout the United States reveals the fact that strong propaganda
work is being carried on in cities where there is a large negro
population. In New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and
Indianapolis are active and aggressive headquarters from which encouraging
reports come to the Atlantic headquarters.
As a general proposition, I believe that the very existence of a secret
organization bearing the name Ku Klux is having an effect of promoting
unrest among the entire negro population of the South. While the negro
cuts but little figure in the section in which I was working, I learned
from published reports and from conversations with newspaper men that
there was a feeling of great uneasiness among the Knoxville negroes due to
the activities of the Klan. In Chattanooga, where, on account of its
anti-Catholic propaganda, the Klan is making strong headway, I found that
the racial situation was more accentuated. Chattanooga is a large and
important manufacturing center, and many of the big plants employ negro
labor. A negro workman possessing the skill and ability requisite to hold
his position can work at his trade in Chattanooga, and as a general rule
the laboring classes of the negro race are industrious, contented,
prosperous and happy. In talking, with men closely identified with the
manufacturing interests, I learned that the feeling of discontent and
unrest is taking the place of the negro's former attitude, and that should
the Klan succeed in gaining a substantial foothold it will mean the
emigration of large numbers of negro laborers to Northern States, a thing
that will seriously cripple the industrial life of the city. I found that
the Chattanooga manufacturers, almost to a man, were absolutely opposed to
the idea of having a Ku Klux Klan in the city.
All thinking men agree that the race question in the United States is one
of the most ominous in the entire country. All right thinking people
desire it settled peacefully and in a way that will not disturb the
economic and industrial situation. I believe that, if left alone, the
negro will work out his own salvation. The history of the South for the
past fifty years shows that the negro has been a most important factor in
the development and upbuilding of the section.
My experience and observations on the race question has convinced me that
in ninety-nine cases out of one hundred, where friction, serious or
trivial, has occurred between the white and negro races, it has been due
to the lower classes of the two races. Between the better-class white men
and the better-class negro, there is, always has been, and always will be
the best of feeling. I often have had Northern people say to me: "You
Southern people hate negroes!" I always hasten to correct the statement,
by replying, "The best people of the South not only do not hate a negro
but they hold him in high esteem. The better class of Southern white man
is the best friend the negro race has in this country today." The
"hatred," if such is the word, exists between the low-class negro and the
low-class white man, and if it were possible to analyze the real cause of
the racial disorders in the country, it would probably be found that they
are due to bad white men, bad negroes and bad whiskey.
While I make no charge that the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan have taken any
part in them, it is a fact, nevertheless, that since this organization was
started, there have been an abnormal number of instances of interracial
friction. In the State of Georgia, where the Klan is probably strongest,
there has been case after case of disorder. It seems to me that as an
organization designed to aid the authorities in the enforcement of "law
and order," the Ku Klux Klan has utterly failed to prevent these
occurrences. If the Klan is capable of sustaining the arms of the law, why
has it not done so in the State of Georgia?
Early in the summer of 1921, the whole country was shocked at the outbreak
of a race riot in Tulsa, Okla., when an entire community was plunged into
bloodshed and a vast amount of property destroyed. From the published
accounts of the riot, it started from the most trivial cause imaginable,
and in a short time white men and negroes were arrayed against each other
in regular pitched battle. In examining the list of field workers of the
Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, it is noticeable that there is a large force
of Kleagles at work in the State of Oklahoma, and the presumption is that
there is a Klan of Ku Kluxes in existence at Tulsa. Why did not the Klan
rally to the support of the authorities and "enforce law and order?" The
enforcement of law and order consists of stopping riot. Why was the riot
not stopped? In this connection, I heard the leader of the Ku Klux Klan in
Chattanooga, where I attended a large meeting shortly before resigning,
make the statement that several weeks prior to the outbreak of the Tulsa
riot he had been informed by a travelling man, also a Ku Klux, that a
clash between the races was likely to occur within a short time. If this
condition was a true one, why were the authorities and their valuable aids
and abettors, the Ku Klux Klan, not prepared to stop it?
A great bugaboo that is constantly harped upon by the professional
Southerner and by the Ku Klux organizer is the cry of "social equality"
likely to be forced upon the white people by the negro. This argument
appeals to the ignorant white man, but the intelligent man knows that
social equality between any races or people is a myth. There is no such
thing as social equality between members of the white race. Social
equality is a matter of opinion only, for while I might think that I am
superior to a person, that same person might think that he is superior to
me. Society is split into strata made up largely through community of
interest, and congeniality of ideas and thoughts. The man whose sole
thought in life is the accumulation of money regards only his own kind as
his equal; the social butterfly skilled in the arts of polite society
looks with horror upon the "impossible" person who is not; the scholar
seeks solace and equality among people of brains; and the philosopher,
looking at the whole human race with its follies and foibles, winks at his
brother philosopher and laughs at all of them. When such a thing as
equality exists between the members of the white race, then, and not
until then, will it ever become necessary seriously to consider the matter
of social equality between the white and black races.
While I believe in the principles of a white man's country and a white
man's government, I believe that the negro is as much entitled to his
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as I am, and that he should be
afforded all the protection that the courts and laws of the country can
give him. I have seen cases tried in the South where negroes have been
convicted of crime on evidence which, if presented against a white man,
would be thrown out of court. Such cases are, however, uncommon, as I
believe the average officer of the law in the South is usually fair and
square in his treatment of the negro race.
The only way, in my judgment, that the race question will ever be
successfully handled in the South, is by the promotion of better feeling
among the high-class men of both races, and then have these men work on
the lower classes. Let the leaders of the negro race take a strong stand
in opposition to the vicious negro, whose crimes against women and
children have done much toward placing the ban upon the negro as a whole;
and let the leaders of the white race cast aside the demagogue and impress
upon the lower-class white man that because his skin is white is no excuse
for the exercise of brutality toward the negro. Let the proposition be
sunk home that a white rough-neck, because his skin is white, has no
warrant to ride roughshod over a decent and law-abiding negro because the
latter's skin happens to be black.
In the Northern States, while the better class of negroes attend to their
own business and conduct themselves well, the lower-class negro should be
taught the value of decent behavior and good manners in public. Many
negroes, particularly the vicious element, come to the North, and imagine
that the treatment with which they are accorded gives them the license to
crowd into the street cars, and make themselves offensive generally to
white people. The negro with good manners wins his way wherever he goes,
but the noisy, pugnacious individual, but newly arrived from the country
of the "Jim Crow" street car does much to bring his entire race into
disrepute. At the risk of arousing the ire of my Ku Klux friends, I
advance the thought that a man can be a gentleman and a woman can be a
lady even if their skins are black; and that people who are white can be
offensive and boorish.
I am in favor of wiping out of our national life any organization, agency
or association that tends to stir up the race question in any manner,
shape or form, and leaving the subject to take care of itself under the
guidance of men in the South who are devoting their lives to the work. In
the city of Atlanta, there is an organization known as the Interracial
Association headed by Rev. Ashby Jones, a Baptist minister, whose father,
Rev. John William Jones was a chaplain in the Confederacy under General
Lee. Men of the highest standing, including Dr. C. B. Wilmer, a well-known
Episcopal minister of Atlanta, are in this movement, and I am informed
that since they have commenced their activities, there has been a great
deal of positive good accomplished in the elimination of discord between
the white people and the negroes. On the other side, Doctor Moton, the
head of the Tuskegee Institute, founded by Dr. Booker T. Washington, is
going up and down the South, preaching sane things to the negro and to the
white men. The leadership of these men represents the best thought and the
best effort of both races in the South. The leadership of William J.
Simmons and his Ku Klux Klan does not.
I think that the stirring up of the race question in the South, or
elsewhere, for that matter, is at all times as dangerous as playing with
dynamite, but the Ku Klux Klan has included in their propaganda against
the negro its fight on the Catholics and Jews. While they do not specify
in their ritual that this is the case, they imply it, and I have seen the
actual propaganda as it is handled. The classification of the white
Catholic and Jew with the negro is a stupid blunder, if nothing else. It
is stupid, because, in the event of trouble on an extensive scale stirred
up by this organization or by its psychological effect on the country, it
is splitting the white race into factions at a time when it should stand
together.
As I shall show further on, in discussing the history and structure of the
original Ku Klux Klan, there is absolutely no racial condition in the
South or anywhere in America today that warrants the existence of such an
organization. It is even worse than folly to make the religious element
figure into questions touching a section where racial matters are always
in the acute stage.
In order to swell its roster, and to bring under its banner of discord all
the elements in the country which it thinks it can handle, Ku Kluxism is
attempting to win the people of the Pacific Coast by putting forth the
doctrine of "White Supremacy" in relation to the Japanese question. I have
seen and heard read many reports from California indicating that the
Kleagles on the coast are doing a land office business and that the people
are "donating ten dollars" to the "noble cause" as rapidly as they can
sign the petition for citizenship. Without regard to the merits or
demerits of the Japanese question, as it affects the people of California,
there again creeps into the subject the discrimination against white men
by classing them as foreigners along with the Japanese. I know nothing of
the industrial conditions of California, but I am quite sure that a
portion of the prosperity and greatness of the State has been developed
by Catholic and Jewish people.
As a general proposition Southern people are exceptionally capable of
sympathizing with Californians in their peculiar racial problem, and would
probably back them in every way that is legitimate, but the Japanese
question is an international one, and should be and must be handled by the
State department in Washington, and not by the "Emperor" of the "Invisible
Empire" in Atlanta. The carrying on of a vigorous campaign for members of
the Ku Klux Klan on the Pacific Coast is an infringement on the duties and
prerogatives of the United States Government. If it is not stopped, it is
likely to lead to unpleasant and dangerous international consequences.