Chapter IX: Public Opinion in Race Relations (4)

I think that the great trouble with us already is that we have
allowed the white people to settle too many things for us.
The nation gave you constitutional freedom, but no man can
make you truly free except you yourself. The white man hates
nothing worse than a coward, and the American white man is the
most remarkable human being the world ever knew. He is God's
superman. As white and black have one destiny beneath the Stars
and Stripes, so have we the common duties of citizenship....

Woodrow Wilson is my leader. What he commands me to do I shall
do. Where he commands me to go I shall go. I had naught of
ill will toward Von Bernsdorf until Wilson pointed him out
as a national menace. Whom Woodrow Wilson cannot receive into
fellowship, I cannot receive.

A Negro resident of Chicago for fourteen years, formerly of Louisiana, said:

I went to Wilson's last inauguration in Washington and tried to
talk to the President. I got in the gate, but the guard would
not let me go farther without a pass. I went into every place
that men were allowed to enter and found no "Jim-Crowing" in
any public place. The nearest approach to it was in the printing
department of the government. There were several colored girls
all working at the same table. In other departments I had
seen white and colored together. I went into every washroom
on every floor of one building and must have washed my hands
twenty times.

_Negroes, real Americans._--A letter from a Negro workman to Governor Lowden said:

Why is it that intelligent colored people, the real Americans
and the most humble and purest nation that ever trod the soil
of America since they have been here--we have never thrown
any bombs; we have never written a black-hand letter and what
disgrace and shameful things we do it was learned to us by
our foreparents' masters down south because they taught them
to steal and murder and do all other most disgraceful things.
We have never bombed any white people's homes, but I cannot
see into it why it is that all nations such as the Polish,
Japan, Chinaman, Mexican, German and Russ and now you see what
they have done to this country; they have done everything to
overthrow this Government and have got the I.W.W. and the Red.
Where have we done such dirty deeds? We have enriched this
soil of America with our blood in every war for this country
and then cannot live where we want to as an American citizen.
We even shed our blood in France to save someone else money
and their homes, and the thanks we got when we come back was
a big race riot which I do believe was started by southern
white men to put a disgrace on the North because the North do
not lynch and burn as they do. Of course I know you cannot do
anything by yourself. But if you can get enough men who have
got a backbone to protect the ones who have always protected
them this outrage could be stopped. I read a piece in the
_Herald-Examiner_ that it would be a riot here; that has
poisoned the minds of so many people. So now I hope you will
try to stop such trouble.

_Defensive philosophy; silence does not mean contentment._--A Negro educator said:

Many white men of high intellectual ability and keen discernment
have mistaken the Negro silence for contentment, his facial
expression for satisfaction at prevailing conditions, and his
songs and jovial air for happiness. But not always so. These are
his methods of bearing his troubles and keeping his soul sweet
under seeming wrongs. In the absence of a spokesman or means
of communication with the whites over imagined grievances, he
has brightened his countenance, smiled and sung to give ease
to his mind. In the midst of it all he is unable to harmonize
the teachings of the Bible which the white Christian placed
in his hands with the practices of daily life. He finds it
difficult to harmonize the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood
of man, and his faith is put to the test in that "Providence"
which enslaved his ancestors, corrupted his blood and placed
upon him stigmas more damaging than to be a leper or convict
by making his color a badge of infamy and his preordained
social position at the bottom of human society. So firmly has
his status been fixed by this "Providence" that neither moral
worth, fidelity to trust, love of home, loyalty to country or
faith in God can raise him to human recognition.

_Votes for Negroes._--The _Crisis_ for January, 1921, said:

The astonishing thing about the Bourbon South is its
intellectual bankruptcy when it comes to the Negro. It
continually assumes that the Negro is a fool. Some Negroes are
fools, but the proportion among them is steadily decreasing,
while that among the Bourbons seems to increase. When the
average white Southerner faces the problem of racial contact
he has absolutely nothing to offer except what he offered
in 1861, namely: the Will of God, Force and Bloodshed, and,
"The best friend in the world to the Negro is the Southern
white man--the only one who truly loves him." We quote from
our ever-delightful friend, the editor of the _Macon_ (Ga.)
_Telegraph_.

The tragedy of the situation is that this man believes what
he says. He knows absolutely just the "place" for which God
made "niggers"; but to support this sincere belief he spreads
falsehoods. He says that the woman suffrage party by its secret
machinations "probably" caused the blood shed in the Florida
elections! He threatens murder for black men who want to vote,
and almost weeps over the misguided Negroes who have left the
Empire State of lynching and gone to Chicago.

There seems to be in this man's mind absolutely no conception
of the tremendous, increasing, unswerving development of the
Negro. To him all aspiration, unrest, and complaints of black
folk are conspiracies of whites. For the blacks he has no
program, no vision, except that they stay where they have always
been, growing more content with "Jim-Crow" cars, lynching and
disfranchisement.

It is inconceivable to the mentality of this section of the
white South that such a program is absolutely impossible.
That if, in the end, the price we must pay for aspiration to
modern manhood is death, and death in the most horrible form
of public torture and burning like that in Florida, if to live
we must die, then the South will have us to kill. Any man who
does not prefer death to slavery is not worth freedom....

The black man must vote. Every Southerner with brains knows
this. The Negro is awaiting his enfranchisement with greater
patience than the South has any right to expect. But he will
not wait forever. If he sees gathering signs of sanity--a
willingness to let the intelligent and thrifty vote, an honest
effort to establish law and order and overthrow the rule of
the mob, a desire to substitute honest industrial conditions
in place of the organized and entrenched theft of black wealth
upon which southern industry is based today--such a program,
tardy and slow and inadequate though it be, may count on the
infinite patience and long suffering of Ethiopia.

4. RACE CONSCIOUSNESS

_Ancient Order of Ethiopian Princes_:[83]

TO MY KINSMEN.--In a broad sense, the words "Negro" and "Nigger"
have no historical significance. They are used synonymously
in the white man's dictionary. "Negro" is a pure Spanish word
meaning "black." The word "Negro," therefore, may be descriptive
of a race, but not the name of it. In reality "Negro" is an
alias, or nickname applied to us originally, in much the same
contemptuous spirit as the black boy is called "Rastus" or
"Sambo."

The white man writes his history for us to study, makes his
scenario with his heroes and heroines for us to admire, and
supplies our newspapers. Through these instrumentalities he
almost entirely controls our thought.

Remember that "a word is the sign of an idea." The kind of an
"idea" that the "sign" stands for depends upon our teaching.
If we associate a word, then, with a noble or degraded idea,
we have been taught to do so.

You can easily prove this by experimenting with certain words
for yourself. After repeating each word tell what your idea
is and what you see: (1) Roman, (2) Paradise, (3) Statesmen,
(4) General. Is the idea or picture you get degraded? No. The
White Press, history, reel and teacher have taken care of that.

Now take the following words: (1) Lynched, (2) Jim Crow, (3)
Disfranchised, (4) Negro.

What is the result? The words "Lynched," "Jim Crow,"
"Disfranchised," are the signs of degraded ideas. Moreover,
"Negro" is very apt to creep into each one of the three mind
pictures and conversely one of the three into the "Negro" mind
picture.

Do you understand? Now why is that? That is what Ethiopic
culture teaches, through the "Ancient Order of Ethiopian
Princes."

If we believe that we come from nowhere and have no history
but that of a slave, our substance will be the charity of our
oppressors, and our future handicapped by doubts and fears.

Ancient history knows no "Negro," but ancient history does
know Ethiopia and Ethiopians. Change a family's name and in a
generation you cannot tell whether its foreparents were rogues
or saints. It is the same with a race. You cannot trace your
ancestors through the name "Negro."

Take away our birthright, our ancient honorable name,
"Ethiopian" and you have stopped the very fountain of our
inspiration. If we are "Negroes" we are by the same dictionary
also, "Niggers." The moment we realize, however, that we are
"Ethiopians," we can see the beams from the lamps of Ethiopian
culture lighting a pathway down the shadowy ages, and the
fires of ambition are rekindled in our hearts, because we
know that we came from the builders of temples and founders
of civilization.

Study this.

_Contrasts of North and South._--An investigator's report on home conditions of retarded children said:

The mother is eager to learn, and constantly talks of wanting
to attend night school if the opportunity ever offers itself.
She is eager for her girl to complete her education and wants
her to take a business course so she will be independent. "A
white man can take everything from the colored man but his
learning," Mrs. ---- said repeatedly.

In coming to Chicago she wasn't sure what she would find, but
she had heard that colored people had a show here. She brought
her child here to give her one. Chicago seems like heaven to
her now when she thinks of what she had been through in the
South.

When the investigator asked her about the church to which she
belonged she said: "Olivet. I goes every Sunday and Wednesday
nights to prayer meeting just to thank God that he let me live
to go to a place of worship like that, a place where my people
worship and ain't pestered by the white men."

The Chicago riot provoked probably the first full expressions of sentiment from Negroes in their own press. Underlying them are attitudes toward present race relations. There is a strong note of resentment, and the announcement of the birth of a "New Negro."

The war is credited with bringing about this change. More than 250,000 young Negroes, the pick of the race in health and intelligence, had returned to the United States, presumably with changed ideas, and perhaps with growing cynicism as to promises of fair treatment. Perhaps for the first time in American history the Negro group fought in the 1919 riot as a body against mob violence. The idea that these disorders are a result of active opposition to distasteful practices is prominent in practically every Negro discussion. "The Negro race is facing about" is a familiar statement. Said one Negro newspaper:

It is the utter ignoring of the Negro in the community life
that is responsible for these outbreaks. The controlling whites
were absolutely out of touch with the Negroes, and the races
came together in a quarrel and there was no means by which
the trouble could be settled.

A monthly magazine, the _Favorite_, said:

If the white man thinks that the rights, privileges and ordinary
pursuits of the Negro can now be annulled at this stage of the
world's affairs, he certainly has "another thought coming."
This Washington revolt is only the "handwriting on the wall."
Don't squeeze the Negro too hard; if you do you squeeze him to
the bursting point. The young Negro of today is far different
from his foreparents, and will not be content with anything
less than a fair deal.

The _New York American_ said:

The dangerous enemy of his race is the colored man that
advocates force as a remedy. There is such a thing as being
outnumbered beyond any hope.

A Negro newspaper replied:

There is such a thing, too, as a noble preference of death
to a life of slavery. Do Hearst and Arthur Brisbane think
the sentiment of "Give me Liberty or Give me Death" belongs
exclusively to a white skin?

A poem in the _Crusader_ and republished in the _Messenger_ and several other periodicals, carries this same idea:

IF WE MUST DIE

If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While around us bark the mad and hungry dogs
Making their mock at our accursed lot.

If we must die--oh, let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us, though dead!

Oh, kinsmen! We must meet the common foe;
Though far outnumbered, let us still be brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but--fighting back!

--CLAUDE MCKAY

_Defensive measures justified._--The general belief among Negroes is that resistance to violence is justified. Some view this display of counterviolence as simply defensive measures, some as retaliation, which in substance means the same.

The _Washington Eagle_, a Negro newspaper, commenting on the beginning of the Washington riot, said:

Notwithstanding the fact that these mobs, increasing in number
and in violence each evening, were allowed to harass law-abiding
colored citizens for three consecutive evenings, the colored
citizens showed no signs of revenge or retaliation. But when
the situation became so terrible that colored citizens could
endure it no longer they rose up almost as one man, and,
adhering to the first law of human nature, which says that
self-preservation is the first law of nature, they armed
themselves "to the teeth," to use the phrase of one of the
local newspapers. It was only when they showed this disposition
to fight back that the riot ceased.

The _Messenger_, a Negro magazine, said:

The world knows not that the new Negroes are determined to
observe the primal law of self-preservation whenever civil
laws break down; to assist the authorities to preserve order
and prevent themselves and families from being murdered in
cold blood. Surely, no one can easily object to this new and
laudable determination.

_Opinions of Negroes regarding the conduct of the police._--Negro condemnation of the police seems general. From a large selection of comments two are given. The _Favorite_ said:

History proves that nearly all race riots are started by white
policemen. East St. Louis, Houston and Washington, D.C., have
had terrible cataclysms provoked by white bluecoats who in
nine cases out of ten carry their prejudices with them whenever
they enter black belts. Instead of acting in behalf of law and
order white policemen usually act in behalf of some passion
that tells them Negroes are convenient brutes. For the safety
of the twenty-five thousand colored and ten thousand whites in
the Second Ward of Chicago we ask that every white patrolman
in the district be replaced by a colored bluecoat. Chicago
must not be added to the list of American cities cut off from
civilization by race riots, and it is up to Mayor William Hale
Thompson and Chief Garrity to see that the honor of that city
is preserved.

The _Washington Eagle_ thought most of the trouble was due to the overbearing attitude of the police. It said:

Bishop Cottrell, wiring from Holly Springs, Miss., wants the
President to call a conference of representatives of both races
to consider the matter of mob law. We doubt if the President
will take the trouble to do anything of the kind: while he
is thinking it over the police in every place had better be
instructed to have more respect for the rights and feelings of
the Afro-American people. Most of the trouble is to be found
in the insolent and overbearing attitude of the police.

_Negro opinions regarding white newspapers._--It is asserted by numerous Negro papers that certain white papers spurred the rioters to greater lawlessness in the Washington outbreak, and in some cases settled the date and place of assembly for attacking parties. The _Afro-American_ quoted from the _Washington Post_ an excerpt headed "Mobilizing for Tonight," and reading:

It was learned that a mobilization of every available service
man stationed in or near Washington or on leave here has been
ordered for tomorrow evening near the Knights of Columbus hut
on Pennsylvania Avenue, between Seventh and Eighth streets. The
hour of assembly is 9 o'clock and the purpose is a "cleanup"
that will cause the events of the last two evenings to pale
into insignificance. Whether official cognizance of this
assemblage and its intent will bring about its forestalling
cannot be told.

The _Afro-American_ added:

Commenting on this article Secretary Shillady of the
National Association declares: "In view of the fact that the
'mobilization' announced by the _Washington Post_ had not been
ordered by any authority, military or civil, does not the
passage show intent by the _Washington Post_ to bring about
such mobilization?"

Another Negro paper in Washington carried the criticism farther:

Editorials are supposed to concern those topics that are most
important to the community in which they are written. No one
can deny the importance of the race riots that disgraced the
name of fair America's Capital during the present week; yet
two of the leading daily papers of the city found everything
to fill their editorial columns but the proper attempts
to discourage mob violence and a disposition to place the
blame where it justly belongs. The rioting, in itself, was a
deplorable disgrace, but a greater disgrace is that the daily
newspapers should have encouraged the rioting by the glaring,
ugly headlines that they gave it, rather than discourage the
riots in editorials.

The _National Defender and Sun_ replied to an editorial of the _Chicago Tribune_:

In a recent edition of the _Chicago Daily Tribune_, which calls
itself the world's greatest newspaper, in discussing the recent
race riot in Chicago, it had this to say: "Can the two races
continue to live in peace in Chicago without segregation? We
have for some time criticized the South for its treatment of
its black citizens. We believe since the race riot in Chicago
that segregation, separate cars, will be the only cure to
prevent race riots in the future." We are very much surprised
at the statement of the _Chicago Tribune_. Does the world's
greatest newspaper forget that Atlanta, Ga., Memphis, Tenn.,
Arkansas and Texas, had great race riots, and that all of the
above-named states have their Jim Crow laws and segregated
district?

The _New York Age_ had this to say:

So much clamor and bad blood have been aroused by the repeated
charge of assaults attempted upon women in the city of
Washington, that more than ordinary significance attaches to
a news item found tucked away in an inconspicuous position
on an inside page of the _Washington Times_. It was headed:
"Woman Now Denies She Was Attacked," and read as follows: "The
case of an alleged attack on Mrs. Minnie Franklin, 1361 K.
Street Southeast, by two Negroes near Fifteenth and H. Sts.,
Northeast, Thursday night, was closed last night when according
to detectives, the woman said the story was a fabrication.
Several headquarters detectives questioned the woman yesterday
and then went over the ground where the alleged attack was
supposed to have occurred, but could find no evidence of a
struggle."

This reported case of "assault" had "scare" headlines at the
time it was supposed to have occurred, and it looked as if
the daily papers were trying to provoke another riot. Later,
by the admission of the accuser, the police and the press,
the charge was shown to be groundless. Time and again these
charges of assaults have been shown to be "faked," and the most
credulous should be brought to see the necessity of searching
investigation before pronouncing the accused guilty. Hysteria,
by newspaper suggestion, may be at the foundation of many a
case of reported "assault."

_Charges of southern propaganda in the North._--A wide distinction has been made by Negro observers between the Washington and Chicago riots, the former being called a typical southern, and the latter a typical northern, riot. Reasons for this are given in the different forms of incentive to rioting. The Washington reasons were largely sentimental and bore a striking resemblance to the Atlanta riot about 1906. Reports of attacks on white women, played up in the newspapers, were sufficient to set the current going. The sentiment of the South is said to have been behind this outbreak. Said the _Chicago Defender_:

It is easy to see that the southern white man is at the
bottom of race riots in the northern cities to which we have
migrated in recent years.... It is idle to suppose that the
black man was the only migrator from the South; every northern
community is practically overrun with southern whites of both
sexes. In many of the northern cities a majority of the white
women employed as clerks and saleswomen in department stores,
telephone operators and other fields of industry are from the
South. In every place where men are utilized, including public
officials, judges and prosecuting attorneys, some of them are
also from the South.

_Remedies._--The _Chicago Defender_ said:

To emphasize the fact that no self-respecting citizen had
anything to do with the disgraceful affairs recently witnessed
here and in Washington, thousands of circulars have been
distributed by our people and to our people filled with good,
wholesome advice as to being good, law-abiding citizens. Our
only salvation lies in harmony, and both elements must come to
understand that each is necessary to the other, and that with
all pulling together, democracy for America will no longer be
a theory, but a reality.

The foregoing examples of sentiment by no means cover the varieties of Negro opinion. They are merely illustrative of different types. The peculiarities of group behavior which appear to be the attributes of the Negro group would doubtless show themselves in any other groups similarly placed in the social scale. There would at the same time be no more likelihood of their being understood. Situations develop which appear to the uninitiated white observer strange and even dangerous. That they do represent very definite and calculated programs of action within certain circles of the Negro group may be illustrated by a few examples.

At a garment manufacturer's plant thirty colored girls were employed in a separate unit. When a white girl was employed, the colored girls walked out. They explained that when they first began work in a plant employing white girls a precedent for this action was given. If white girls were too proud to work with colored girls, then colored girls should be too proud to work with white girls. It required much effort on the part of the Urban League to correct their viewpoints.

A short time ago there was considerable agitation among certain groups of Negroes over the appointment of a Negro principal for one of the elementary schools. His appointment was strongly opposed by Negroes. Although this may have seemed inexplicable to white people, the action was not wholly illogical from the viewpoint of Negroes. The school in question, near the Negro residential area, had an attendance of about 70 per cent Negro children. Negroes reasoned thus: If a Negro principal were appointed the white teachers would eventually resign or for one reason or another be transferred; the white parents then would withdraw their children because there would be no white teachers, and so the first step would be accomplished toward segregation of Negroes in the public schools. It was segregation that was opposed, although the advancement of one of their number must be sacrificed.

Marcus Garvey, a West Indian Negro, with a remarkable genius for organization, four years ago began a venture on a commercial basis and developed it into a definite racial movement. He conceived the notion of establishing trade relations with Africa, and accordingly organized a steamship line. It was a large undertaking. There were few large Negro investors, and if money was to be raised it had to come in numerous small amounts rather than in a few large ones. Again, if commercial relations were to be established, there must be intelligent Negroes at the African end. The effort grew into another "Back to Africa" movement. To increase interest it was necessary to campaign actively, using appeals calculated to arouse the great mass of Negroes. This Garvey did with such success that his "Back to Africa" slogans created a far larger movement than his original commercial proposition. The Universal Negro Improvement Association attracted more interest and members. The _Negro World_, a newspaper with a constant and powerful appeal to racial pride, racial solidarity, and racial independence, is the organ of the movement. During the summer of 1920 a great convention was held. A provisional president of the Black Republic was elected, and was acclaimed the recognized leader of the black people of the world. The women were organized into "Black Cross" nurses and it was planned to establish a "Black House" in Washington. The movement has been widened to include the black peoples of the British colonies and Africa. An alliance of sympathy has been declared with peoples similarly disadvantaged. Thus Ireland's contention for home rule is supported, in spite of the supposed general hostility between the Negroes and the Irish in the United States. The movement is credited with 4,000,000 followers in different parts of the world.

VI. OPINIONS OF FIFTEEN NEGROES ON DEFINITE RACIAL PROBLEMS

What are Negroes thinking? Few white persons know the intimate reactions of Negroes to problems which they face daily. Yet it is obvious that the conduct of Negroes in practically every phase of life is determined by these very sentiments, which for the white world remain a closed book.

It was with this in mind that a series of questions was put to seventeen Negroes whose intelligence and public-mindedness qualified them for critical self-analysis as well as dispassionate examination of racial issues as they affect the minds, behavior, and policies of Negroes as a group. Ten of these Negroes lived in Chicago and represented an ordinary type of the intelligent Negro. Five of them lived outside of Chicago. Included in this latter number were two Negroes whose writings have been widely read and who may be said to exercise some influence over the thinking of Negroes.

The fifteen whose replies are presented here included business men, physicians, ministers, school teachers, lawyers, and social workers. Two were women.

ARE RACE RELATIONS IMPROVING?

_Question_: Putting aside for the moment the question of right
and wrong and the iniquity of the causes back of present
relations, do you believe that the relations are becoming
better or worse, or are they at a standstill?

_Answers_:

1. Better, decidedly better. If it becomes unprofitable to lynch
Negroes, or unprofitable to shoot them up in riots, they will
probably more and more be let alone. The riots in Chicago and
Washington mean that not only Negroes will lose their lives.
They also indicate to me that the Negro feels that his back
is more and more to the wall, and he is bestirring himself. So
long as he is satisfied, his case is hopeless. When he begins
to force respect he will usher in the dawn of a new day. Again
there is an increasing number of evidences that white people
are waking up to the conditions. Negroes feel that some of
the "Study Groups" are ineffective, but the fact remains that
at one time the race question was not deemed worthy of study
except by Negroes. When all is said, I would rather be living
in 1920 than in 1870.

2. The relations are becoming worse. Relatively speaking, race
relations in America have not kept pace with progress in many
fields along other lines. The great desideratum is that the
Negro change his point of view.

3. The present relations between the races seem more tense than
formerly. This is due to the fact that Negroes have developed
within the past few years a greater race consciousness, a
great race respect. The immigration from the South which
permitted him to enter into the industrial life of the North
with very few hindrances, to partake of its civic life without
an ever-constant reminder of race, was one of the main factors
in increasing race consciousness and race respect. Another
factor was the treatment as equals and fellow human beings of
the Negro soldiers by the French soldiery and people. These
things have caused the Negro to demand the respect which he is
entitled to as a man and the privileges due him as a citizen.
The whites at the present time still object to giving him
these. This causes friction. I believe, however, that it will
be lessened as soon as the whites realize that these demands
of the Negro will not be withdrawn but will continue to be
made with greater insistence.

4. Better.

5. Much was gained through the war. However, at the present
time things seem to be at a standstill.

6. Racial relations between all races were never more acute
nor more keenly felt and resented than during the present day.

7. Conditions, I believe, are getting a little better.

8. I don't believe that consideration of right and wrong
influences fundamental reactions. One's conception of advantage
and disadvantage determines the character of every act. I
believe that all social relations are in a state of flux and
that with the improvement of mankind which is coming with
the evolution of a sense of higher values there will be an
improvement in human relationships.

9. Race relations on the whole are growing worse instead of
better, and they are crystallizing in the wrong direction. The
whites are adjusting their conscience to their conduct, and
are consciously or unconsciously justifying violation of the
Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule, the Sermon on the Mount,
the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the
United States at the behest of race prejudice.

10. They are becoming distinctly worse as each year solidifies
the hatred and crystallizes the opinions of the whites which
immediately subsequent to the Civil War were in a chaotic state.

11. The last year or so has shown that riots are more quickly
started. In our opinion race relations are likely to get much
worse, especially if the present flood of European immigration
continues. But getting worse to become better is much like
a boil which, after it gathers and breaks, leaves the body
in a healthier condition. Negroes are becoming more and more
determined to enjoy their constitutional rights.

12. I am in doubt.

13. I am an optimist. I believe relations are becoming better.

OPINIONS ON SOLUTION

_Question_: Do you believe that money and the acquisition of
wealth make an appreciable difference in the degree of respect
in which Negroes are held by their white neighbors, or in the
treatment they receive?

=========================+=============+================+===================
Economic Progress[84] | 1866 | 1919 | Gain in
| | | Fifty-three Years
-------------------------+-------------+----------------+-------------------
Homes owned | 12,000 | 600,000 | 588,000
Farms operated | 20,000 | 1,000,000 | 980,000
Businesses conducted | 2,100 | 50,000 | 47,900
Value of church property | $1,500,000 | $85,900,000 | $84,400,000
Wealth accumulated | $20,000,000 | $1,100,000,000 | $1,080,000,000
-------------------------+-------------+----------------+-------------------

_Answers_:

1. Yes, money and wealth are the root of all good and evil.
In North Carolina, a rich Negro, McCary, who, it was alleged,
had been caught in intimate relations with a leading white
woman, was sued for money damages instead of being lynched.
Money and wealth must be widely diffused enough to make an
appreciable difference, however; isolated cases of wealth
ordinarily engender friction and hatred.

2. No, because I personally know many who are highly respected
and kindly treated in their communities though in very humble
circumstances.

3. I believe that money or wealth causes more respect to be
accorded within white people's hearts, but it is more likely
to increase racial feeling than to lessen it. The element
of jealousy among poorer whites probably gives rise to such
statements as keeping the Negro in his place. The whites of
better circumstances merely use these existing feelings to
gain their own selfish ends.

4. Yes, and no. Money is power. The power over a man's
subsistence is the power over his will. The individual who
has money is sought because he is in a position to confer
advantages. He is likewise hated because he can inflict
pain. Were race prejudice logical and based upon reason and
not hysteria, the procurement of money and the consequent
demonstration of basic equality would improve conditions.
However, the majority of persons do not think but are exploited.
Religious dogmas and racial antipathies being useful adjuncts
in the process are sufficient to outweigh material or rational
considerations.

5. Absolutely.

6. The possession of money causes whites to accord the Negro
more respect and better treatment if the particular Negro can
intelligently handle his affluent situation so as to demand
such.

7. I think that money and the acquisition of wealth make an
appreciable difference in the degree of respect in which Negroes
are held by their white neighbors; not that the prejudice
against the race is reduced considerably or possibly to any
extent, but because men worship dollars, and if they are
possessed by Negroes, Negroes fall in for additional respect
as the holders of wealth.

8. I believe that the acquisition of wealth causes marked
increase in respect, provided that a fairly large group of
Negroes in that community respectively are the possessors; but
for merely one or two persons to acquire wealth in a community
is not likely to inspire respect. It may cause its opposite.
I assume, of course, that a fair intelligence was necessary
to secure the wealth.

9. Intelligence and wealth are necessary to the self-respect
of the Negro. I doubt not that in many instances they would
increase racial friction for the time being; but the time
must come and is now near at hand, when the white race must
recognize that the whole is greater than any of its parts. A
community like Chicago, for instance, cannot be intelligent if
the Negro is ignorant; it cannot be competent if the Negro is
inefficient; it cannot be virtuous if the Negro is vicious;
it cannot be healthy if the Negro is diseased. Intelligence
and wealth will not of themselves solve the race problem, but
the problem cannot be solved without intelligence and wealth.

10. Money and wealth do make a difference in the amount of
respect accorded to individuals, as they lessen the causes for
class antagonism. The white man accords esteem to those who
are able to secure good clothing, decent homes, education,
and indulge in what are considered luxuries. These things,
too, increase the respect the Negro has for himself and make
him demand respect from others. The treatment accorded him is
not likely to be changed as his advancement tends to increase
hatred among the whites whom he rises above, and a desire not
to treat him as an equal among those whose level he reaches.

11. Money, commerce, rule the world. The average white man is
happiest when he sees the Negro down. But if the Negro has
money he is willing to conceal his prejudice and trade with
him. Money, in the possession of no matter whom, commands fear,
which is the nearest most human beings get to having respect
for others. While one rich Negro in a town, in most instances,
would receive pretty much the same treatment as other Negroes,
yet a hundred rich Negroes in that same town would certainly
make a big difference. Apply this ratio to the nation. A rich
Negro, even in Georgia or Mississippi, certainly has a far
pleasanter lot than a poor white.

12. Yes.

13. Yes, it does for white people. To quote a friend, "It is
easy for anybody to be respectful and courteous to a million
dollars." This is especially true of Americans.

_Question_: Do you believe that if Negroes were 100 per cent
literate it would make any great difference in race relations?
Are general and higher education likely to widen the breach
between Negroes and white persons, increase intolerance,
resentment, sensitiveness to insults, or can a quieted process
of adjustment or complete fusion of interests be expected?

==================================+==========+=============+=============
Educational Progress[85] | 1866 | 1919 | Gain in
| | | Fifty-three
| | | Years
----------------------------------+----------+-------------+-------------
Per cent literate | 10 | 80 | 70
Colleges and normal schools | 15 | 500 | 485
Students in public schools | 100,000 | 1,800,000 | 1,700,000
Teachers in all schools | 600 | 38,000 | 37,400
Property for higher education | $60,000 | $22,000,000 | $21,940,000
Annual expenditures for education | $700,000 | $15,000,000 | $14,300,000
Raised by Negroes | $80,000 | $1,700,000 | $1,620,000
----------------------------------+----------+-------------+-------------

_Answers_:

1. Education will help decidedly, especially that kind of
education which gives Negroes a command of some special
accomplishment in any field of endeavor. Higher education will
not in my opinion widen the breach if Negroes will consciously
and deliberately set out to educate white people as to their
ideals, ability and character, and at the same time labor to
increase the spirit of self-help and self-confidence among
their own group which will serve to decrease ignorance and
irresponsibility among the less fortunate and untrained members
of the race.

2. I conceive that literacy in itself is a cure for nothing
except illiteracy. One-hundred-per-cent literate Negroes
without proper use of their literacy may even make matters
worse. General and higher education may be expected to make
matters better only if there is general and higher education
among whites and the education on both sides is of the right
kind. In America, at present, education, where it touches
race lines, appears to be more propaganda than education. It
is reported that some histories of reconstruction taught to
Negroes by the state in parts of the United States emphasize
and detail their shortcomings and omit their virtues. Obviously
such education is education for mistrust, unrest, conflict.
It educates the races apart, and its logical consequence is
conflict. I am ready to answer, then, that general and higher
education which emphasizes likeness and passes over without
undue attention unlikeness, education which aims to have men
live in harmony and cooperation and does not aim to array
classes against classes and races against races by omissions
and emphasis, may be expected to better our race relations
in the United States provided it finds lodgment in the school
systems of both races.

3. If 10,000,000 literate Negroes were environed with
100,000,000 white men, the majority of whom were below their
cultural level, the dominant minds among the whites would
arouse ethnic antagonisms as an economic weapon to be used in
promoting their selfish ends. I believe that there is not a
single force, ethical, religious, or of any type, sufficiently
powerful to cause an individual to forego what he believes to
be his highest advantage, and the appeal to group instincts
is the easiest method of securing mass action.

4. If Negroes were 100 per cent literate they would certainly be
more sensitive to insults and more resentful. I should expect
a great increase in racial differences, unless those Negroes
imbibed a tendency to non-resistance. That, however, is far
from likely. With universal literacy, a larger acquaintance
with current events and conditions, Negroes could immeasurably
improve their living conditions, but their contacts with the
whites would be far more unpleasant.

5. One hundred per cent literacy among Negroes would make a
huge difference. In the long run it would lessen the breach
between Negroes and white persons, for Negroes would strive
for equality. The most essential thing is to produce a change
in the mental equipment of the Negro. The white man's mind
will take care of itself. What is needed is a more balanced
and equal meeting of the minds. But there would be bloodshed
at the beginning.

6. Resentment and sensitiveness to insults will increase
on the part of Negroes as they grow in intelligence, but as
their spirits rebel more insistently and positively against
insults, it cannot help but have its effect upon white men who
ignorantly mistreat them, and if the respect growing out of
love does not follow, the respect growing out of tolerance,
as in the case of the Jews in America, will ensue and result
in recognition of equal intelligence and culture.

7. Literacy must be 100 per cent on both sides to bring about
a "complete fusion of interests" or a "quieted process of
adjustment." Intelligent Negroes among uneducated whites would
aggravate the situation.

8. If Negroes were 100 per cent literate they would command
more respect, because men always command more respect when
they are intelligent.

9. I believe in education first, last, and always as a leveller
and as a bulwark of defense. There is no race prejudice among
broadly cultured people. Art knows no such distinctions.

10. (_a_) Yes. (_b_) Not, if at the same time the education
of the whites is broadened and made more general. (_c_) Better
education of both races will facilitate a fusion of interests,
beginning probably in economic relations.

11. It would make them much more bitter, for (_a_) the Negro
would be more sensitive to injustice and have more of the
combative spirit which literacy usually gives, and (_b_)
whites would be more jealous and anxious to show the Negro
his place. I believe that such an intensification of the
struggle is desirable and necessary, as I don't believe that
the brilliant ideas necessary for solution of the race problem
can come other than as the children of the most intense and
bitter racial conflict. Of course it would defeat its purpose
if such a conflict were bloody, as then we would have a long
period of the nauseating burden such as America suffers with
today, viz.: the North attempting to reconcile the South.

12. Literacy will make a difference also in race relations. The
difference will increase in degree as literacy advances beyond
the mere ability to read and write to a wider participation
in every field of educational or intellectual endeavor. As
far as I have been able to observe, the breach between whites
and Negroes is widened as Negroes advance in education and
culture. The educated Negro rarely comes in contact with the
white man as a menial or laborer--the only point of contact
which the great majority of white people want. He will respect
the Negro teacher, lawyer, doctor, or business man who knows
his work thoroughly and can do as well as he. He is not likely,
however, to find any reason to co-operate with this class of
Negroes, and the Negroes do seek such co-operation.

13. (_a_) Yes. (_b_) In slavery times whites made it a crime to
teach Negroes to read. That desire, in up-to-date garb, remains
in the breast of most whites today. To many white persons a
Negro of superior talent and refinement is a more detestable
production than the most pronounced rogue. Most white persons,
even of the best quality, are secretly displeased at a Negro
of this type. They were brought up to regard Negroes as being
below them, and the sight is a blow to their vanity. (_c_) A
dollar talks much more sweetly than Emerson or Shakespeare and
even Christ to most men, therefore a process of adjustment or
complete fusion of interests will be effected chiefly through
trade relationship, not esthetics.

_Question_: If unrestricted suffrage were given Negroes
throughout the United States, would matters be helped?

_Answers_:

1. Equal suffrage between the races in some parts of the country
would doubtless precipitate a temporary disturbance, but it
is not thinkable that under democratic institutions any group
or class can be permanently or for a long while refused equal
participation in the government under which they live and by
which they are controlled. Shall we do evil that good may come?

2. Every appreciable increase in power among Negroes will be
met with jealousy and repression by the whites. Unrestricted
suffrage does not mean much when people have guns at the polls
and dare other people to vote. Its inception would mean acute
racial trouble, I think, but if the Negroes used the same
means and methods to register their vote as the whites do to
keep them from registering it, and kept it up long enough,
ultimately conditions would be very much improved where Negroes
constitute about half the population of a unit.

3. Yes. Even though Negroes might not vote intelligently at
the outset, they would tend to vote for their own welfare.
The Negro does not feel wholeheartedly that he is a part
of the American people. But with the vote he would be in a
better position to work for common ends. Though voting for the
capitalist parties would not mean much to the Negro, a vote
for the money barons is better than no vote at all.

4. Unrestricted suffrage is a right as well as a privilege. It
is essential for building up the sense of responsibility and
loyalty among any group of people in a democracy founded on the
ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

5. Yes, the ballot is a protection which the Negro now is
intelligent enough to use and keep. In the present segregated
condition of the Negro, the ballot has a genuine property value.
Police protection, better lighted and better paved streets, I
am convinced, must come to him through the ballot or else he
does not get them.

6. Unrestricted Negro suffrage would help a great deal in
securing for Negroes the things it is possible to secure through
the use of the ballot. Political parties, as well as the Negro
himself, would realize the power of Negro suffrage and would
doubtless be inclined to cater to that vote. The exercise of
such unlimited suffrage is likely to increase for a time the
tenseness in race relations, as the whites would not readily
give up the domination they have secured. The agitation in
Ohio and in the Middle West over the exercise by the Negro of
his suffrage shows how clearly the white man fears the power
of the ballot when used by the Negro.

7. Other things remaining the same, it would not.

8. Not necessarily by that fact alone. The ultimate value of
the right of suffrage is conditioned by the intelligence with
which that right is used.

9. This goes without saying. In Chicago, Negroes exercise
considerable influence in the city administration, because
of their strong political power. The same is true of New York
and Cleveland. Apply this to the nation.

10. Yes.

11. Yes, if we had a third party with racial cohesion.

12. Suffrage to be effective must be taken and not conferred.
"Who would be free, himself must strike the blow." A man has
no right that he can't protect and defend.

_Question_: How about religion as a solvent of racial
difficulties and differences?

=========================+=========+===========+===================
Religious Progress[86] | 1866 | 1919 | Gain in
| | | Fifty-three Years
-------------------------+---------+-----------+-------------------
Number of churches | 700 | 43,000 | 42,300
Number of communicants | 600,000 | 4,800,000 | 4,200,000
Number of Sunday schools | 1,000 | 46,000 | 45,000
Sunday-school pupils | 50,000 | 2,250,000 | 2,200,000
-------------------------+---------+-----------+-------------------

_Answers_:

1. Religion, if it ever becomes a vital force in the everyday
affairs of people, will be one of the greatest forces in
solving race difficulties. At the present time its influence is
practically nil. The average church is still calling worn-out
theology religion; those which have adopted a more modern and
practical view of religion are too few to exert any influence
in race problems.

2. Religion per se, to my mind, has failed, but Christianity,
the spirit manifested by Jesus Christ in his life and which
he commanded his followers to imitate, if adopted in its vital
truth and simplicity by all professing Christians, could solve
all the difficulties.

3. Religion might be helpful in solving racial difficulties
if it were tried--but it has not been very largely tried yet.

4. Religion as a solvent of racial difficulties is necessary,
but both groups will need to practice it to the same degree.

5. The religion of America, or of any other country, is merely
an index to the national character. Religion expresses itself
in the church, and the church is a capitalistic institution.
Expressed religion in America, because its pecuniary existence
largely depends upon the rank and file of the people who
support it, will not rise above the prejudices and folkways
of that rank and file. Religion will not solve many racial
difficulties or differences.

6. Religion hardly touches the deeper motivations. It may
regulate details, but usually the priest-craft succeeds by
sophistry, emphasis or omission in avoiding certain fundamental
issues in their religious exhortations. It often appears that
the preacher is retained to idealize the crassness of the
world, and unpleasant things are simply taboo. He must look
to his salary.

7. It has no utility. It had no utility in the world war and
so a fortiori could have no utility in our race problem where
more bitter issues are involved.

8. Unfortunately religion has little sanction over the social
conduct where interest and passions are involved. This was too
sadly manifested in the world war. It is to be hoped, however,
that there may arise a moral and spiritual renaissance under
whose sanction religion may exercise controlling influence
over the frictional relations among men.

9. Very much overestimated is religion as a solvent of racial
differences. Neither Negroes nor whites have enough confidence
in it to put it into practical application. No one thing will
bring about the Negro's real emancipation. The fight must
be carried on in every sphere where prejudice has vitiated
relations.

10. Religion has failed to solve the racial difficulties and
differences in America because its principles have never been
practiced by the people. Religion has remained a beautiful
theory. If the religious principles were practiced there would
be no racial difficulties.

11. Utterly valueless. The average individual cannot think.
He lives only in the concrete. Material advantages outweigh
philosophical benefits. Deprive religion of the moving force
of fear which its exponents engender, and it will entirely
cease to be dynamic.

12. The religion of Christ will prove a solvent if men ever
give it a trial.

13. Religion, in our opinion, has never settled any question.
Nothing else contains so much the germs of strife. Mankind,
throughout the ages, has never been able to agree on it. The
history of Europe, Asia and Northern Africa is one long record
of warring religions.

SOCIAL ADJUSTMENTS

_Question_: What are some of the most pronounced mental
complexes experienced in adjusting your personal desires and
expectations to the present social system?

_Answers_:

1. A constant haunting feeling when in the presence of white
persons that they desire to shun me because of my color; that
they are eager to use me to further their ends under the guise
of piety or patronizing the "good-feeling-toward-your-people"
attitude. I suffer from time to time an acute embarrassment
because of uncouth conduct in the presence of white persons
on the part of uncultured Negroes. Such conduct embarrasses me
generally, but the presence of white persons who are supposed to
be inimical seems to be the dominant element in the situation.

2. The most pronounced mental complex which I experience in
adjusting my desires and expectations to the present social
system is not the "inferiority complex" with which most
Negroes are charged by the whites. I desire all that the social
system affords; but as to expectation it is necessary for me
to use auto-hypnotism to make myself expect it in order that
I can present to the white man the front of optimism, the
necessary air of expectancy to secure success. The shocks and
disappointments which a Negro must constantly experience tend
to get him in the attitude of expecting nothing.