History does not anywhere record so much progress made in the same length
of time as that which has been accomplished by the Negro race in the United
States since the Emancipation Proclamation. They have come up from slavery
to be prominent in education, the professions, art, science, agriculture,
banking, and commerce. It is estimated that 50,000 of them are on the
Government pay rolls, drawing about $50,000,000 each year. They have been
the recipients of presidential appointments and their professional ability
has arisen to a sufficiently high plane so that they have been intrusted
with the entire management and control of the great veterans hospital at
Tuskegee, where their conduct has taken high rank. They have shown that
they have been worthy of all the encouragement which they have received.
Nevertheless, they are too often subjected to thoughtless and inconsiderate
treatment, unworthy alike of the white or colored races. They have
especially been made the target of the foul crime of lynching. For several
years these acts of unlawful violence had been diminishing. In the last
year they have shown an increase. Every principle of order and law and
liberty is opposed to this crime. The Congress should enact any legislation
it can under the Constitution to provide for its elimination.