RACE
COOPERATION
By GEORGE MADDEN MARTIN
An account of the successful effort in two-thirds of the counties of
thirteen Southern states to promote justice and
good-will between black and white
Reprinted from McCLURE'S MAGAZINE for October 1922
(Copyright 1922 by the McClure Publishing Company, New York)
\ yfcCLURE'S is committed by
tradition to serve loyal, hu¬
mane, and just causes—and to keep
its pages clean and wholesome and
unafraid.
Volume 54
No. 8
McCLURE'S
S. S. McClure, Editor
October
1922
Race Cooperation
An account of the successful effort in tivo-thirds of the counties of
thirteen southern states to promote justice and
good-will betiveen black and white
By George Madden Martin
The purposes of this movement for racial cooperation, the extent of its influence and its application to
specific problems are described in the following article by George Madden Martin, a Southern woman
and author of the Emmy Lou stories which delighted the readers of McClure's a score of years ago. Mrs.
Martin has known the Negro in the " black belt" of Mississippi, in Louisiana and Florida, in the rice-country
of Carolina and has lived u side by side with him in rural Kentucky." The black man, she holds, has two
worst enemies: " the over-zeal01.1s advocate who claims too much for him, and the execrable creature wearing
a white skin who says, '/ hate a nigger.'"—The Editor.
"I know of nothing that appeals so directly to the
intellects and sensibilities of thoughtful men as the treat¬
ment the Negro has received among us, North and South,
in the present and in the past ... I look back . '.
and I see him, not as a squalid serf, picturesque in his rags,
or as we behold him on the minstrel stage, the clown in
the pageant making merry with cap and bell, but as an
image of impending sorrow crouched beneath the roof-tree,
God's shadow upon the dial of American progress, whose
cabalistic figures the wisest have not been able to read."—
Henry Watterson.
THE words quoted above, written by Henry
Watterson, appeared in The Century Magazine,
April, 1882, forty years ago. He was then, and
always, to the hour of his death, the sane friend
and trusted counsellor of the Negro race. And through¬
out the South are innumerable other good friends of the
Negro, many of these doubtless unknown to him, whose
silent steady influence is of unsuspected benefit to him
in many a locality, many a section of the country,
where race breeds friction.
It is because these white friends do exist in un¬
suspected numbers throughout the South, and because
they believe that through discussion and cooperation
between the races better inter-racial relations may
obtain, this article setting forth their ideas, is written.
Economic prosperity is essential to general progress.
Economic justice is a primary condition to general peace
and contentment. It is upon truisms such as these
alone the white friends of the Negro in the South feel
they can rest their case. Any program of economic
betterment that excludes or ignores the Negro, merely
retards the economic betterment of the South as a whole.
On the other hand, the principal of Tuskegee Institute,
Dr. Robert Moton, says:
"It is not too much to say that if the Negro could
in every case receive economic justice, a large part of what
we call the race problem would be solved. In many cases
he would be in a position to solve his own problems."
Human misfortune beats more mercilessly upon
those who are already unfortunate. The color line
holds in industry. In the cities, the country over, the
black man is the first laborer to be discharged, the first
to have his wages cut, the last to be re-hired. Negro
women and girls engaged in domestic service in cities
and towns, the country over, too often are without ade¬
quate provision for their physical well-being and com¬
fort, and without proper moral safeguards during the
hours of their rest and recreation. In our larger centers
of population the Negro must live and must labor in
conditions that are unsafe and unsanitary. And it
is the generally accepted practice in the South that
Negroes are paid a lower wage than is paid the white
employee for the same kind and character of work.
What more baffling and discouraging to the industrious,
self-respecting Negro than his knowledge of all this!
The facts are ugly, and they are against us.
The Negro's Handicap in Farming
In the rural districts in the South fully eighty
per cent of the Negro population is engaged in the
different phases of agriculture. There are about a
thousand counties in the South, and there are about
nine hundred thousand Negro farmers in this section.
Negro tenant farmers suffer from the disadvantages of
makeshift methods of accounting, and irregular terms
of settlement with their landlords. Many of thesa
Negro tenant farmers are ignorant and unable to keep
their own accounts at all, while their landlords do not
always take the time and trouble to keep systematic
accounts themselves. The result is that the disadvan¬
tage of the doubt in such cases falls on the Negro
farmer. Housing conditions for these Negro tenants
on many farms are deplorably bad. Many planters
still provide their tenants with nothing better than a
one-room log cabin, or one-room box house, which is
conducive to neither comfort, vital energy, nor morality.
In some places in the South it is still impossible for
Negroes to buy land at any price. The effect of this
McCLURE'S FOR OCTOBER
policy is bad. Without the responsibility that attaches
to land ownership, the Negro farmer tends to become
restless, indifferent, unreliable and unaspiring. It is
short-sighted policy also that is based on the idea that
the planter gains where he makes it necessary for his
tenants to come to him for all of their food supplies.
And the system of farming with such Negro labor as
the planter may obtain from prisons and through the
courts by payment of
fines and fees for the
offenders, the system of
peonage, works injury
to all around, to white
and black.
It is consciousness of
these economic disad¬
vantages the country
over, to go no further in
the enumeration of the
Negro's wrongs, that, as
Mr. Watterson says,
weighs upon the minds
and sensibilities of his
white friends. Says The
University Race Com¬
mission, composed o f
representatives of all the
leading state universities
of the South:
"The South cannot
realize its destiny if one-
third of its population is
undeveloped and ineffi¬
cient."
Says Dr. George
Stoves, of the Social
Service Committee of
the General Conference,
M. E. Church, South:
"Treat the Negro
half-right, and he is the
best common laborer in
the world. What would
he be if we treat him
wholly right?"
The attempt is con¬
stantly made by the un¬
thinking and uninformed
white, to fasten upon the
Negro of to-day as per¬
force a racial trait, the
characteristics of the
old-time, easy-going
Negro as popularly con¬
ceived, the childlike,
shiftless, irresponsible,
Negro of fiction and the stage. The attempt is as short¬
sighted as the supposition is untrue.
The paragraph which follows appeared not long ago
in The Saturday Evening Post:
"The long period of serfage . . . brought out in
him the best and the worst of his traits—patience in suffer¬
ing, or with work in hard conditions, adroitness in catering
to those above . . . fear of punishment from which
there was no appeal, lazy enjoyment of any pleasure pos¬
sible, waste without counting for the morrow, since one
had no responsibility or obligation to do more than get
through appointed tasks from which escape was impossible."
This is not a character sketch of the old-time Negro
as revealed to us during and just after slavery, though
Paul Thompson
Two eminent Negro Leaders—Robert R. Moton (left)
and James Weldon Johnson
it well could be. The paragraph occurs in an article
upon Russia by Princess Cantacuzene, and describes
the Russian peasant under and just after serfdom. A
common condition will produce a like result regardless
of the race or the color upon which it operates.
White Man Doesn't Know the Negro
A serious obstacle to a proper consideration of the
Negro question lies
in popular and mis¬
taken notions of the
Negro. There is no
predominating Negro
type. Alfred Holt
Stone, one of the larg¬
est and most successful
planters of the Missis¬
sippi Delta region, in
an address at the Uni¬
versity of Virginia, said
on this question:
"There is no such
concrete thing as the
Southern Negro, just as
there is no such definite
and delimited individual
as the Southern white
man. The Negroes
present a large variety
of differences of com¬
plexion, native intelli¬
gence, education, inher¬
ited and acquired
characteristics, tempera¬
ment and disposition.
In short they differ
among themselves in all
these respects which dif¬
ferentiate individuals and
groups of any and every
other race."
In other words, the
white man in the
United States will
never see the Negro as
he is, until he sees him
as an individual, and
sees his case as an indi¬
vidual case. The
Negro tenant farmer
cannot read, write or
cipher. The Negro
college student majors
in economics. The
Negro editor sits in the
Pan-African Confer¬
ence assembled in
London, Brussels and
Paris consecutively.
The Negro child in the remote districts, ragged and
barefooted, attends school three months out of the year.
A Negro high school senior receives a first prize in a
poetry contest held by the Empire Federation of
Woman's Clubs. The Negro field-hand shuffles as he
plays his mouth-organ. Henry Burleigh sets down the
spirituals and songs of his race. Charles Gilpin plays
"Emperor Jones" in an O'Neill play.
Dr. D. C. Barrow, Chancellor, University of Geor¬
gia, comments thus upon this lack of knowledge of tba
Negro on the part of the white man:
"It is not strange that a want of knowledge should exist
on the part of white people as to the Negroes.
RACE COOPERATION
' \Vith abolition of slavery the Negro was turned loose
In a large measure to find his own way. The effort was
necessarily a groping search. Sympathetic understanding
between the two races was in a large measure destroyed
by the experiences of reconstruction. It is not worth while,
however, to thresh over this straw except in so far as to
state^ these things as causes of the misunderstanding.
"The Negro, in making his independent effort to adjust
himself to his new condition, did not always go as wisely
as he would have gone if sympathy had been enlisted in
his behalf. He did go, however, and he did grow.
"The changes which came about were more or less care¬
fully hidden from his white associates. He thought this
necessary.
"One effect of this was to have the Negro undergoing
a change of which his white neighbors were not aware.
He, on the contrary had the white man as an open book."
Dr. Edgar Gardner Murphy, author of "The Present
South," and a Southern authority on racial conditions
in general, says:
"The moment the Negro passes out of the servant class,
lifts himself into the property owner class, becomes a busi¬
ness man or becomes a leader among his own people, by
that very process of lifting himself up, he passes out of the
knowledge of the white people, so that the strata of Negro
life that offers the best of what the Negroes may become,
is not known to the white people. There is among many
white people the assumption that every Negro is an un¬
educated Negro."
The World War had its effect upon the Negro as
it had upon all other peoples. It marks an epochal
change in the consciousness of the race here in the
United States. Says the Rev. Cary Montague, Editor of
The Southern Churchman, of Richmond, Virginia,
speaking through his own paper:
"It brought to him a great awakening. He awoke to
find himself able to do, and do well, a great many things
he had not known he could do, and no one else had known
he could do. He stands to himself today in an equivocal
place between the old and the new."
The Great War brought to him unforeseen oppor¬
tunities. It thrust him into the draft and the army,
bringing to him a consciousness as never before that
he, too, was a citizen. The same editor through The
Southern Churchman points out that he bore his full
share in the struggle, that he put two hundred and
twenty-five million dollars into Liberty bonds, gave
his two million dollars for relief work, shared in the
work of the Red Cross, went overseas, was cited for
bravery, was awarded the croix de guerre, and that he
made the discovery that he, too, was a thorough-going
and feeling American.
The War also thrust him, a concededly valued factor
as never before, into the industrial world. An unfore¬
seen hand opened to him the door to economic equality
and freedom. His unprecedented migration to the
North at this time, and the awakening of the South
to the dangers of labor shortage, revealed to him his
economic value to the South as never before. BeUer
jobs, better treatment, higher pay, the country over,
taught him much that he has not forgotten.
Singularly enough the boll-weevil — of all agents —
since the War, has done its unforeseen economic part for
the Negro also in some sections of the South. It has
reduced the value of cotton-producing land to a point
where in some localities, it is being offered to, and
purchased by, Negro farmers and laborers.
Now all these things, however vaguely known to the
whites, are well known to the Negroes. They have an
increasing number of newspapers and magazines that
make a specialty of publishing such facts and spreading
them among the race.
The reaction which everywhere followed the signing
of the Armistice was seen first in the United States in
the abruptly changed attitudes of the black and white
races. Changed conditions called for too sudden a
readjustment between the two. There was in some
sections a movement to resurrect the Ku Klux in prep¬
aration for a rumored uprising of the Negroes. There
was a general undertone of excitement and apprehension
among the Negroes over rumored plans of whites to
repress and oppress all Negroes, especially Negro sol¬
diers. Unwise leaders and counsellors appeared in both
Former Governor Brough of Arkansas
races. Race riots became more and more frequent
throughout the states.
White Friends Seek to Dispel Prejudice
When these grave conditions of bitterness and vio¬
lence began to be apparent, there came together in
Atlanta a group of men and women representing all
sections of the nation; some of them had been for
years laboring for better race relations; others had
in different phases of war work in America and over¬
seas been brought into touch with the Negro soldier.
These men and women, recognizing that this undeniable
progress in the teeth of great odds had stimulated the
hope and ambition of the Negro race, and reminding
themselves that the aspirations of the human heart
cannot be suppressed without disaster, agreed that
some way must be discovered to dispel this race sus¬
picion and hatred, and if possible make what threatened
to be a national calamity, contribute to permanent
improvement in the relations of white and black
Americans.
The following statement was given out to the peo¬
ple of Atlanta as an expression of the spirit animating
the conference:
"We, a group of Christians, deeply interested in the
welfare of our entire community, irrespective of race or
"The Work of the Com¬
mission is Sane and
Constructive."
Underwood and Underwood
McCLURE'S FOR OCTOBER
class distinction, and frankly facing the many evidences
of racial unrest, which in some places have already cul¬
minated in terrible tragedies, would call the people of our
own beloved community to a calm consideration of our
situation before extremists are allowed to create a condition
where reason is impossible. In no spirit of alarmists, but
with the clear vision of earnest men, conscious of the
responsibility which a Christian democracy imposes upon
self-reasoning and self-governing citizens, let us strive to
meet our obligations in the spirit of Jesus Christ. .
"We do not believe that there is any one statement
which we may make, or any one act which we may perform
which will solve all the supremely difficult and delicate
problems that face us, but we are confident that by con¬
ferences conducted by
leaders of both races,
coming together in the
spirit of Jesus Christ,
there will be an atmos¬
phere of mutual confidence
and wisdom out of which
shall come plans and enter¬
prises for the righting of
wrongs, and the creation
of fair and just oppor¬
tunities for even the least
of our brethren."
The Negro himself,
born into race conscious¬
ness and race pride over¬
night, as it were, looked
askant at the movement.
He welcomed friends,
but scanned carefully
and even suspiciously
the gifts they bore. Yet
never had he greater
need than at this time
of friends; wise friends;
sane friends; honest
friends; real friends;
friends to help him to
such an understanding
of true conditions as
would lead him to shun
alignments that would
compromise him, to de¬
nounce cajoleries that
would flatter him, and
to refute false hopes that
falser counsellors held
out to him. Friends who
cared for him and be¬
lieved in him, who never
have in the past, and
never will in the present abandon him, who recognize
their need of him as his of them, and who see in a
common frankness and cooperation, the road to common
trust and common welfare.
After many conferences between these men and
women gathered at Atlanta, it became apparent that
as nearly as possible the facts should be secured and
such work begun as these facts seemed to demand.
Three things were clear at the start:
1. The white people of the South have a con¬
viction that they understand the Negro best. Yet the
white man of the black belt in Mississippi, or in Ala¬
bama, sees his racial problem as one thing, and the tide¬
water planter of South Carolina, and the farmer in
Arkansas, sees his as something altogether different.
Chicago in her turn considers that she alone grasps
her own racial difficulties relating to the Negro. Omaha
sees hers as peculiarly hers. And so with Ohio, or Mary'
International Newsreel
"I believe that through Inter-racial cooperation there will come a belter
understanding between the races; more helpfulness; more useful¬
ness and in the end the great betterment of all citizens"
—Governor Edwin P. Morrow of Kentucky
land, or New York City, or Boston. So with the
Pacific coast. Attempts on the part of any one section
to settle the racial troubles of another, as a rule breed
fresh bitterness and fresh misunderstandings.
2. On the other hand, common counsellings among
wise leaders of both races in local troubles in whatever
section, have led to better relations time upon time.
After riots in Southern cities the representative whites
have called in to conference representative Negroes.
3. And further, we American white people will
discuss without self-consciousness, our duties born out
of present ' conditions to every people under God's
heaven except the one
that, as things are now,
we must stand or fall
with.
The Need of Joint
Discussions
With these three
outstanding c o n c 1 u-
sions in mind, the men
and women gathered in
conference at Atlanta
felt and declared that
the time was come
when the American
people, white and
black, must get to¬
gether and discuss their
differences.
The National War
Work council of The
Young Men's Christian
association at this
point appropriated a
sum of money sufficient
to make a beginning
(later other appropria¬
tions were made) and
the Inter-Racial com¬
mission was formed
under the leadership
of Southern men, with
authority to do any¬
thing possible to find
a way out of the
tangled race situation
which the war had left.
After much study
by the commission of
existing conditions, it
was agreed that be¬
tween the best white and the best Negro men and
women of the South, there is little communication
or understanding. That this gulf is due to race
prejudices, the after effects of reconstruction, the
agi ation of designing politicians etc., etc. That
as a result, white people in the South, in spite of
frequent claims to the contrary, have been kept from
a knowledge of the aspirations and capabilities of the
best class of Negroes. And the best Negroes have
grown farther and farther away from the best white
people, and there is a tendency with the Negro people
to a loss of faith, not only in the Southern whites, but
in whites generally and their civilization.
It was apparent therefore, that the first task was
to bridge the gulf between intelligent white and Negro
men and women. This was attempted by the commis¬
sion by building from the bottom. After making a
survey of the counties of the South having an appreci-
RACE COOPERATION
able Negro population, an attempt was made to bring
together in each of these counties, a small group of
not over six to ten white and Negro leaders as a
permanent committee of counsel and cooperation.
These are known as Inter-Racial committees.
These county inter-racial committees in turn were
asked to cooperate with the State Inter-Racial commit¬
tee made up in each state of leading church men,
business men, lawyers, and others interested, who would
guide the work of the local committees. In most of the
states the governor cooperated in creating the state
commission.
Cver all state com¬
mittees and county com¬
mittees is the Southern
Commission on Inter-
Racial Cooperation,
with headquarters in the
Palmer
Atlanta.
On the general com¬
mission, including rep¬
resentatives from thir¬
teen Southern states, are
five Negroes out of a
total membership of
fifty-eight. The Negro
members are: R. R.
Moton, president of
Tuskegee institute; Dr.
John Hope, president of
Morehouse college,
Atlanta; Bishop R. E.
Jones, of the Methodist
Episcopal church North,
New Orleans; Dr. Isaac
Fisher, editor of the Fisk
University News, Nash¬
ville, and Dr. John M.
Gandy, president of the
Petersburg Normal and
Industrial Institute,
Petersburg, Florida.
There are eight
women on the commis¬
sion of which Mrs. Luke
Johnson of Atlanta is
director of w o m a n's
work. Other women
members are Mrs. J. D.
Hammond of Islip, N.
|Y., director of the
Southern Publicity
bureau; Mrs. J. H.
Cranford, Jasper, Ala¬
bama; Mrs. Archibald Davis, Atlanta; Mrs. Z. I. Fitz-
patrick, Madison, Georgia; Mrs. T. W. Bickett, Raleigh,
North Carolina; Mrs. W. D. Weatherford, Nashville,
and Mrs. B. B. Mumford, Richmond, Virginia.
John J. Eagan, Atlanta manufacturer, heads the
commission. Dr. Will W. Alexander, of Atlanta, and
R. H. King, of Atlanta, member of the international
committee of the Young Men's Christian Association,
are directors.
Heading the state organizations are ministers,
attorneys, social workers, college presidents and a
governor.
The list of chairmen of state committees follows:
Alabama—John D. Rather, attorney, Tuscumbia.
Arkansas—Dr. J. H. Reynolds, president of Hen-
drix college, Conway.
Florida—Dr. J. G. Venable, pastor Riverside Pres¬
byterian church, Jacksonville.
Georgly—Dr. M. Ashby Jones, pastor Ponce de
Leon Baptist church, Atlanta.
Kentucky—Governor Edwin P. Morrow, Frank¬
fort (honorary chairman). P. C. Dix, state secretary
Y. M. C. A., Louisville (active chairman).
Louisiana—L. M. Favrot, department of educa¬
tion, Baton Rouge.
Mississippi—Dr. C. W. Crisler, Galloway Memorial
Methodist church, Jackson.
North Carolina—Dr. William L. Poteat, presi¬
dent of Wake Forest
college, Wake Forest.
Oklahoma—Judge
J. R. Keaton, attorney,
Oklahoma City.
South Carolina
—G. Croft Williams,
Secretary of the state
board of charities,
Columbia.
• Tennessee — Dr.
W. D. Weatherford,
president of Southern
College of the Y. M.
C. A., Nashville.
Texas—Dr. R. E.
Vinson, University of
Texas, Austin.
Virginia—Dr. R.
E. Blackwell, president
o f Randolph-Macon
cclb^e, Ashland.
At this moment
the commission is
functioning in these
thirteen states. Its
work thus far has met
with approval and en¬
couragement from the
press, the bench, the
jar, the church, the
faculties of schools
and colleges, the medi¬
cal profession and the
business men. Eight
hundred county inter¬
racial committees have
already shown their
value in their com¬
munities.
A few counties
hesitated to cooperate
at first, but in almost
citizens were found who were
If the conditions indicated by these charges should continue both
God and man would justly condemn Georgia more severely
than God and man have cotuiemned Belgium and
Leopold for the Congo atrocities."—-Former
Governor Dorsey of Georgia
every case substantial
ready to lead.
This commission on inter-racial cooperation now
functioning at Atlanta, states its own case:
"All the members of the Commission on Inter-Racial
Cooperation live in the South, and have been throughout
their lives intimately related to Southern institutions and
Southern communities. They are leaders in various phases
of Southern life, legal, educational, industrial, agricultural,
church and civic. The service of these men and women to
the commission has been voluntary. They have been actu¬
ated solely by a desire to serve in relation to a national
problem, recognizing that in the adjustment of race relations
in America, the South must bear the major responsibility.
"The commission believes that race hatred and force
will only complicate race relations in America more seri¬
ously, and that the only alternative to these is to be found
McCLURE'S FOR OCTOBER
Persons and agencies already in the communities may be
set to work for the welfare of the whole community, and
not merely for the white community."
Southern Leaders Called Together
Immediately following the permanent organization
of the commission at Atlanta in 1919, three members
of the commission, Rt. Rev. Theodore D. Bratton,
Episcopal Bishop of Mississippi, Dr. Wm. L. Poteat,
president Wake Forest College, N. C., and Dr. R. E.
Blackwell, president, Randolph-Macon College, Vir¬
ginia, sent invitations in the name of the commission
to a hundred leaders of these state and county commit¬
tees over the South, to attend a conference at Blue
Ridge, N. C., August 18-21, 1920. The findings of this
conference are embodied in a report entitled, "An
Appeal to the Christian People of the South." This
report opens as follows:
Mrs. T. W. Bickett. member of the women's con inu-
ation committee of the InLr-racial movement
in the counsel and cooperation of men of character, intel¬
ligence and good-will. To that end the commission has
sought to bring together in every locality in the South,
the strongest white and colored leaders of this type. Wher¬
ever this habit of conference between the leaders of the races
has been practiced, racial peace lias
been easy to maintain, and many
community improvements benefi¬
cial to both white and colored have
'been made.
"The commission is convinced
that the local community is the
place in which permanent improve¬
ment in race relation., must be made,
and that the problem of race rela-
1ions in its larger aspects is but
the sum total of numerous local
situations, and that these can be
satisfactorily adjusted only by con¬
ference and cooperation between
the white and colored leaders.
None of these within themselves
.are race problems, they are nation¬
al problems which affect all races,
but which are often found in a
more aggravated form in communi¬
ties which are composed of two
different races.
"The Commission on Inter-
Racial Cooperation will do what¬
ever it can ^o to cooperate with
che local inter-racial committees.
However, it cannot be too strongly
emphasized that the success of this
effort to secure inter-racial good will
and justice depends upon the sincere
and intelligent effort on the part
of local inter-racial committees.
"The activities are not new.
Paul Thompson
"I can bear testimony to the increasing good-will
between the two races and to their cooperation in
many things for the public welfare."—Former
Governor A. H. Roberts of Tennessee
"We, a group of white Christian men and women of the
South, absolutely loyal to the best traditions and convic¬
tions of the South, and especially to the principle of racial
integrity, voluntarily assembled upon the invitation of the
Commission on Inter-Racial Cooperation, and after prayer¬
ful and careful consideration of prevailing inter-racial re¬
lations and conditions, do deliberately declare it to be our
profound conviction that the real responsibilities for the
solution of inter-racial problems in the South rest directly
upon the hearts and consciences of the Christian forces of
our land.
"We are also persuaded that the best method by which
to approach the consideration and solution of such problems
is through local organizations composed of the recognized
Christian leaders of both races, organizations similar to the
Christian Council formed and functioning so effectively
under the Inter-Racial Christian leadership of Atlanta,
Georgia.
"It is a matter of common knowledge that grave in¬
justices are often suffered by the members of the Negro
race in matters of legal procedure, travelling facilities,
educational facilities, and public press, domestic service,
child welfare, and in other relations of life. Therefore we
venture to make the following observations and suggestions."
Whereupon follow declared
and definite stands upon the
subjects of lynching, legal justice,
travelling facilities, sanitation
and housing, education, and an
appeal to fellow Christians of
both races to unite in a sincere
and immediate effort to solve
inter-racial problems according
to the principles of the Gospel,
and for the highest interest and
benefit of all concerned.
As stated already, there are
now eight hundred committees in
eight hundred counties of the
South. Of these forty per cent
are functioning with fair effi¬
ciency. This means that in eight
hundred of the thousand counties
of the South, have been found a
little handful of white men and
colored men who desire to co¬
operate and work out together
this and that concrete trouble;
that in eight hundred counties
there is a group willing to sit
down and talk things over.
Many of these county com¬
mittees have already shown their
value in bettering their com¬
munities. Their activity has not
sprung from any outside pres-
RACE COOPERATION
sure. It has been planned in frank open counsel of
white and colored leaders, the home folks. The work
of these cooperative committees is not work for colored
people, but work with colored people for community
betterment. Since the committees are without author¬
ity they must rely upon the various organizations
already functioning, and which are, or should be,
concerned with race relations, such as city or county
boards administering health, education, recreation,
streets, sewers, and lights; private organizations such
as churches, associated charities, child-caring agencies;
civic agencies such as the press and public service
corporations.
Work Commands Enlightened Consciences
All of the colored people do not have confidence in
the movement, nor do all the white people subscribe
to its aims. But it represents the most enlightened
conscience, and the mutual good will of the South. It
sprang out of the desire on the part of Christian white
people to meet the demands of social justice. And it
has been made possible by a small group of colored
people who are not too much embittered by the past
to give their white friends this opportunity to prove
that they are sincere in their desire to find the basis
of lasting racial peace, and to safeguard to the Negro
a fair day of full opportunity.
The wisdom and necessity of cooperation between
the two races have been frequently emphasized, not
only by statesmen of national influence but by men of
the South, both black and white.
William Howard Taft, Chief Justice of the United
States Supreme Court, declared in 1920 in a letter to
Dr. John R. Mott of the National War Work council:
"/ am satisfied that the work done by the Inter-racial commission
has greatly promoted a sense of justice and friendliness between
the races.'"—T. W. Bickett, late Governor cf North Carolina
"The only hope of the Negroes of the South is through
their own efforts and through the cooperation of the South¬
ern whites with them. I earnestly urge you not to with¬
hold further aid out of your war fund because of the im¬
minence of the danger of race conflict due to the condi¬
tions produced by the war."
Governors of Southern states
are giving material aid to the
Inter-racial commission. Gov¬
ernor Edwin P. Morrow of Ken¬
tucky is not only an advocate
of racial cooperation but is a
member of the commission in his
state.
Former Governor Charles H.
Brough of Arkansas in a tele¬
gram urging the National War
Work Council to make a part
of its funds available for the
inter-racial movement, said:
"Arkansas vitally interested in
renewal inter-racial appropriation
from War Work council for 1920
in order to take care of vital and
important work being done by our
splendid inter-racial commission.
Quick and definite action is abso¬
lutely essential for the success of
future progress which means the
suppression of race disturbances in
our state. The work of the com¬
mission, is sane and constructive."
Former Governor A. H.
Roberts of Tennessee during his
term of office said of the work Mrs- Luke Johnson,
of the commission: work for the Inter-,
"Will you permit me to express my appreciation of
the fine work that has been done in Tennessee by the State
and local inter-racial committees. I can bear testimony to
the increasing good-will between the two races and to their
cooperation in many things that make for the public wel¬
fare."
The late Governor T. W.
" Bickett of North Carolina, who
died recently, said of the move¬
ment:
"I have been deeply interested
in the work done by the Inter¬
racial commission. I am satisfied
that it has greatly promoted a sense
of ;ustice and friendliness between
the races. In my opinion it would
be a calamity for this work to be
discoi tinued."
Former Governor Hugh M.
Dorsey of Georgia in his pam¬
phlet, "The Negro in Georgia,"
in which he considered charges
that Negroes had been lynched,
held in peonage and driven out of
the state by organized lawless¬
ness, said:
"In some counties the Negro
is being driven out as though he
were a wild beast. In others he is
being held as a slave. To me it
seems we stand indicted as a people
before the world. If the conditions
indicated by these charges should
continue, both God and man would
justly condemn Georgia more
severely than God and man have
director of women's
racial commission
McCLURE'S FOR OCTOBER
"The Inter-racial movement in the South was inspired
by a desire to make a practical contribution to the solution
of the race problem. The race problem cannot be solved
by either race alone. The Inter-racial movement while
recognizing rights, emphasizes duties 011 the part of each
race. The only way to help the black man is to help him
to help himself."
R. E. Jones, Negro, New Orleans; Bishop of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, North, says:
J. H. Reynolds, President of tiendr.x
College, Conway, Arkansas
Isaac Fisher, Negro,
professor at Fisk Uni¬
versity, Nashville:
William J. Hutchins, President of Berea college,
Berea, Kentucky, says:
"I heartily endorse the work and methods of the Com¬
mission on Inter-racial Cooperation with which I have had
some familiarity."
George Colvin, State Superintendent of Education
for Kentucky says:
"The white people of America must actively, with a
genuine, unselfish friendliness continue to help the Negroes
industrially, intellectually and morally, not only for the
sake of the Negro but for the whole nation. In order to
obtain the best constructive results there must be real
sympathetic cooperation between the leaders of the two
races: there should be an earnest effort to understand the
causes of bad feeling and open friction."
R. E. Blackwell, Pre
college, Ashland, Virginia:
:nt of Randolph-Macon
"A movement that
has the support of church
women of all denomina¬
tions and of social leaders
as well will meet with no
antagonism. Indeed what
has surprised me is to find
that the conscience of our
people of all classes is so
quick to respond to the
appeal we make for coop¬
eration with the Negro in
his efforts for improve¬
ment."
condemned Belgium and Leopold
for the Congo atrocities."
Former President Wilson,
during his second term declared
in the course of a public
address:
"I know myself, as a Southern
man, how sincerely the heart of
the South desires the good of
the Negro and the advancement
of his own race on all sound and
sensible lines. Everything that
can be done in that direction is
of the highest value . . . Our
object is to know the needs of
the Negro and sympathetically
help him in every way that is
possible to his good and for our
good."
Bishop Theodore Bratton of
the Episcopal diocese of Missis¬
sippi says:
''The progress of proper
racial relations must be faster
than at present if the Christian
forces are going to reach and overcome the un-Christian
forces which are too busy and too blatant."
"Ivdied what has surprised me is to find
that the conscience of our people of all classe v
is so quick to respond to the appeal we make
for cooperation."—R. E. Blackwell, Pres¬
ident of Randolph-Macon
College, Ashland, Virginia
"In the history of the
South this was the first
ap;enc\ ever set up to give
the Negroes and whites a
chance to see into each
other's hearts on a large
scale."
Serving actively in
the movement
are such lead¬
ers in both
races as Dr.
John Hope,
Dr. M. Ashby
Jones, Chairman
cf Georgia
Inter-Racial
Commission
RACE COOPERATION
Negro, president of Morehouse college, Atlanta;
John H. Little, Louisville, head of the Pres¬
byterian Colored Missions; Mrs. T. W. Bickett,
Raleigh, N. C.; Dr. James E. Gregg, Hampton, Va.,
principal of the Hampton Normal and Industrial
institute; Dr. M. B. Adams, president of George¬
town college, Georgetown, Ky.; Bishop George Clement,
Negro, Louisville; Bishop Benjamin Kaily, Savannah,
Ga.; Bishop Thomas C. Darst, Wilmington, N. C.;
Bishop Thomas Denby, Little Rock, and Bishop Wil¬
liam Mercer Green, Meridian, Miss., bishops of the
Episcopal church; Bishop E. G. Richardson of the
Methodist Episcopal church, Atlanta, Ga.; Dr. Wm. J.
Martin, president of Davidson college, Davidson, N. C.;
Dr. F. A. McKenzie, president of Fisk university, Nash¬
ville; R. F. Beasley, North Carolina state commissioner
of public welfare.
Examples of Cooperation
The following colleges and universities in Kentucky
are cooperating with the Inter-racial Commission of
Kentucky:
Center College, Danville, (white)
Wesleyan College, Winchester, (white)
Berea College, Berea, (white)
Georgetown College, Georgetown, (white)
Eastern State Normal, Richmond, (white)
Simmons' University, Louisville, (colored)
Lincoln Institute, Lincoln Ridge, (colored)
Colored State Normal, Frankfort, (colored)
While none of the Southern colleges has officially
endorsed the movement, many university men are on
the inter-racial committees, and a number of these
colleges actually are cooperating. Among these are:
Southern Baptist Theological seminary, Louisville,
(white)
Fisk University, Nashville, (colored)
Southern College of the Young Men's Christian
association, Nashville, (white)
As an example of how local inter-racial cooperation
works, take the writer's own state of Kentucky. This
state ranks high in illiteracy. Precarious and unhappy
in many ways is the lot of the Negro child in the small
town community. Nor is it fair to expect him to meet
the competition in life without his quota of ordinary
common schooling. The inter-racial committee for
Breathitt county, long known as bloody Breathitt, a
proup of whites and blacks working together, secured
three acres of land and erected an adequate school
house for the Negroes of Jackson, the county seat, the
building costing seven thousand dollars.
It is manifest that the Negro teachers should be
better educated than those taught. It follows that in
the absence of available high schools or normal schools
for the colored people in the rural districts, the teacher,
himself or herself, the product of the county grade
schools, will be deficient in adequate standards. The
inter-racial committee of Graves county, whites and
blacks working together, assisted materially in creating
sentiment making possible a high school for the colored
people of Mayfield. Kentucky, the building costing
twenty-five thousand dollars.
The committee in Fayette county, working together,
aided in securing a bond issue in Lexington for a hun¬
dred thousand dollar hi^h school for the colored people
cf that city. The building is about to be erected.
There is no more important work for local Inter¬
racial committees than preventive measures to be taken
against the possibility of mob violence in their commun¬
ities. In some sections the danger is always imminent,
in others probable and in all possible. The average
man does not think so, and yet experience shows that
in places where the danger seems least, such things
have occurred. Mob violence is not simply a question
that involves the Negro race, but the entire structure
of our society and civilization.
How a Mob Was Dispersed
A depraved, drug-crazed Negro killed the sheriff
of Hopkins county, Kentucky, when this officer went to
arrest him, unarmed and fearing no violence. A mob
immediately formed in Madisonville, and not only were
there threats of lynching the murderer on every hand,
but also to burn the colored section of the town. The
colored members of the Inter-racial committee got
together and called a conference with the white mem¬
bers. The colored members of the committee agreed to
offer a reward for the arrest and conviction of the
murderer. They immediately Jiad struck off hundreds
of hand-bills, signed by representative Negroes of the
region, regretting the killing of Sheriff Hunter, who was
known to be especially friendly to the colored people,
and distributed these among the angry threatening
mob. The effect was immediate, for when these white
men saw the attitude of the colored citizens, and were
convinced they had no sympathy for the lawless element
among their race-, the mob quitely dispersed, and Hop¬
kins county and the State of Kentucky were saved the
disgrace of a lynching, and possibly the lives and hornet
of innocent colored people. The Negro was subse¬
quently arrested, tried at Madisonville without any
disturbance whatever, convicted, and electrocuted. The
Negroes of the community paid their proffered reward,
refusing assistance from their white friends, who, moved
by their upholding of law and order, wished to help
them.
At Corbin, Kentucky, a colored man was accused
of seriously cutting a white man. In this case the man
later was found to be innocent, and the real offender,
a white man, apprehended. At the moment, however,
mob spirit ran high, and all the colored people of the
town were herded together, put aboard trains, and sent
out of the county. The Inter-racial committee for this
county later secured the indictment of some thirty
members of the mob, and the ringleader was sent to
the penitentiary.
The instinct for recreation and play is natural in
all races alike, and alike for all its wholesome gratifi¬
cation makes for better health, better morals, better
efficiency, and greater contentment. Segregation in
cities forces the Negro to live and play in unwholesome
and unsanitary conditions.
Prejudice fades before knowledge. Let any one-
interested observe, for example, the expending of public
funds in communities where any proportion of Negroes
live. They are the last to be given paved streets, the
last to get hospitals or playgrounds, the last to be con¬
sidered in all respects that make for better living con¬
ditions. The most needy, as a rule, theirs are the needs
last to be considered or met.
Commercial clubs in a number of cities of the South
have undertaken the improvement of relations between
the races. In Nashville, the club committee meets
with a committee of Negro citizens for frank discussions
of a program to improve the condition of the Negro. A
similar plan was recently adopted by the Memphis
Chamber of Commerce.
In the Memphis territory, the Chamber of Com¬
merce at the request of the local Inter-racial commit¬
tee working according to program through already
existing agencies, appointed a committee to inquire into
better living conditions for the colored people in Mem-
McCLURE'S FOR OCTOBER
phis. As a result of the findings of this committee, the
business men in Memphis agreed to give two dollars
for every one dollar given by a Negro, for improving
recreation conditions for colored people in that city.
The Inter-racial committee for Jefferson county,
Kentucky, moving through the park commission, has
the promise of two play grounds and a swimming pool
for colored people in the congested Negro district of
Louisville.
The country Negro is often timid and backward in
finding his best market. Yet the Negro farmer's pros¬
perity is the country merchant's prosperity. An Inter¬
racial committee in Tennessee moving through the
farm bureau for better markets for the Negro farmer,
reports the case of a
young colored man ap¬
pearing at a local farm
bureau:
"Can a man like me
on the outside have a look
in here?"
He was told that any
farmer who had any¬
thing to sell was welcome.
This colored man has
since brought in one hun¬
dred thousand dollars in
shipments of chickens
from his county, starting
with a small flock. This
the Tennessee Inter-racial
committee calls self-de¬
velopment in a local com¬
munity.
Any man, white or
colored, who knowingly
through the medium of
the jranchise, creates
prejudice between whites
and colored here in
America, is an enemy to
both races. Intelligent
whites and blacks rather
will try to anticipate all
grounds for such issues.
How Race Prejudice
Retarded Progress
The Negro vote in
Louisville two years ago,
defeated a bond issue for
the betterment of the Louisville University, an insti¬
tution from which colored students are excluded.
Bad feeling between the races was engendered. Re¬
cently the Inter-racial committee for this territory
helped to put over a million dollar bond issue for
the public schools. Going to the Board of Edu¬
cation it secured a statement that 18 per cent of
the issue would be devoted to the colored schools.
The colored people considered this division just and
generous and almost to an individual lined up in favor
of the issue. The good will this time engendered by
this cooperation between the Board of Education and
the colored people, went a long ways in restoring former
relations. The University bond issue, is to be put to
the public again in the near future. The Inter-racial
committee is now seeking for some possible common
ground that will insure its passage.
Cooperation between local committeees and the
press of each community, has led many editors through¬
out the South to adopt a policy of handling Negro news
which will not agitate the sensational features of race
relations. Incalculable damage can be done by flaring
headlines. The abandonment of a sensational policy
in news and headlines both in the white and Negro
press is desirable. Almost every editor who has been
approached on this subject by inter-racial committees
has gladly cooperated.
A complete list of the newspapers cooperating is
difficult to furnish, the majority of the editors in the
South proving themselves ready to cooperate. Among
the representative newspapers now cooperating through
editorials and news columns are The Charlotte Observer,
The Greensboro News, The Nashville Banner, The
New Orleans T ime s-
Picayune, The Dallas
News, The Atlanta
Georgian, The Memphis
Commercial Appeal, The
Louisville Post, The Her¬
ald, and The Courier
Journal, The Lexington
Leader, The Macon Tele¬
graph, The Jackson News,
The Record, a Catholic
weekly of Louisville, and
The Christian Observer,
Louisville.
In the face of a racial
outbreak, The Pensacola
Journal featured a com¬
munication from a leading
white citizen of such
standing as would com¬
mand a general and
respectful hearing, the
effect of this appeal pre¬
venting a lynching. Un¬
der the caption, "Let the
Law Rule," this appeal
said:
"The ship that weathers
a bad storm is the one that
passengers select for future
travel. So the community
that retains its poise in
socially stormy weather, is
the one which wise people
select as their permanent
home. Such a storm we
have now upon us, and I
am pleading for community
poise and calmness, so that we may find the proper solution.
"A homicide took place on Friday. Let us be calm.
I am informed the facts are:"
After details of the crime the story proceeds as
follows:
"Sheriff , of Santa Rosa county, when notified
..., placed his deputies on the trail and succeeded in arrest¬
ing the Negro He wisely eluded the excited neighbor¬
hood and like a veteran of experience, brought his prisoner
to the Pensacola jail for safe keeping.
" Now I wish to plead with my fellow-citizens
of Santa Rosa county to follow the e::ample of this excellent
sheriff. Friends, let us be calm. Let the law reign supreme.
This is not a case of heinous, wilful, premeditated homicide.
No atrocious motive is laid bare by the act of this darkey.
He was at his own home. He was on his own rented farm.
He was asserting his right not to loan his cutter. He was
assaulted by one man and held by another.
"Remember, I am not blaming any one. I am plead¬
ing with you not to momentarily forget the dignity of your
A leader of his race—Dr. John M. Hope, President of
Morehouse College, Atlanta
RACE COOPERATION
citizenship and resort to violence. We have courts of law
dealing out justice. All the witnesses are living
Let us not besmirch, soil, stain or defile the good record
that Santa Rosa county has made in the last years of good
citizenship. I am your fellow-citizen, etc., etc."
As stated, this appeal together with the editorials
of the Pensacola press prevailed, and it appears that
the Negro, who acted in self defense, will get a fair trial.
The Louisville newspapers recently featured the
startling news of a school girl returning home here in
the city, being dragged into an alley by a Negro, and
her hair cut off. The local inter-racial committee in¬
vestigated. Racial outbreaks have started on less prov¬
ocation. Weakening under cross exam¬
ination, the girl broke down and con¬
fessed that having had her hair bobbed
against her parents' wishes, she was
afraid to return home and tell the truth,
and so made up the story. The facts
proven, every newspaper in the city
gave the correct version.
Knowledge
Preconceived
Versus
Ideas
The second state Inter-racial Con¬
ference for Kentucky, Governor Edwin
P. Morrow, honorary chairman of the
state committee, was shortly held in Louis¬
ville at the Jefferson county courthouse. A
portion of the report of the findings
committee as adopted by the Con¬
ference follows:
"Resolved that we place on
record our gratitude to Almighty
God for his grace as shown in
the improvement of the
racial situation, and the ad¬
vance of the Negro race in
Kentucky.
"Resolved, that it is
essential not only to inter¬
racial harmony but to the
highest welfare and the best
progress of each race, that
there be equal justice and
impartial enforcement of
the law in the courts for
both races. Only thus can
common interest and the
security of the commonwealth and our institutions be
conserved.
"Resolved, that it is most earnestly recommended that
students in the high schools, academies, colleges and normal
schools, both white and colored, be given an opportunity
to become familiar with the history, literature, songs, and
aspirations each of the other race, with a view to banish
prejudice from the minds of youth by substituting knowl¬
edge for preconceived ideas.
"Resolved, that the fiscal courts of Kentucky be urged
to appoint Negro County Farm Agents, and to assist the
Negro farmers in becoming up-to-date producers and citi¬
zens.
"Resolved, that appreciative attention be called to the
fact that in Louisville colored taxpayers serve on both petit
and grand juries apparently in just ratio to their respective
numbers. What is safe in Louisville is certainly safe else¬
where in the state, and we express our earnest hope that
the Negro will be given his share in this field of service._
"Whereas, mutual understanding is obviously the fair¬
est basis for good will and agreement, and
"Whereas, the most direct avenue of approach to inter¬
racial understanding lies in community action, and
"Whereas, abstract discussions are, on the other hand,
the cause of much racial misunderstanding, therefore be it
"Resolved, that we urge for adoption the principle
that concrete cases and situations in local communities be
made the basis of inter-racial adjustment."
The women of the South, white and colored, can do
much to aid in this inter-racial readjustment. The
Southern white woman in fact has spoken for herself.
In the beginning of the year 1920 the women of
the Assembly of the Southern Presbyterian Church,
Mrs. H. P. Winsbury, of Missouri, and Mrs. Archibald
Davis, of Georgia, Chairmen, became convinced that
the "existing racial situations in the South were a chal¬
lenge to Christian faith," and also an opportunity "to
show to the whole world the power of Christianity to
settle racial differences and to meet inter¬
racial crises everywhere."
They, therefore, created a commission
for the purpose of "Studying the whole
question of race relationships, the needs
of Negro women and children and the
methods of cooperation by which better
conditions might be brought about."
This commission began its operations
by seeking to know something of the atti¬
tude and thought of the leaders of Negro
women of the South. An unusual oppor¬
tunity for doing this was afforded them in
the meeting of the biennial session of the
National Colored Women's Clubs in Tuske-
gee, Alabama, July, 1920. In that body of
800 Negro women, they found speakers,
writers, poets, artists, business women,
teachers, secretaries, lawyers, bank¬
ers. As they listened to the ad¬
dresses and debates and wit¬
nessed the executive ability of
these educated Negro women
they realized that in that
body was massed a poten-
. tial power of which they
had not dreamed.
'In the history of the South this was the first agency ever set up
to give the Nc grots and whites a chance to see into each
other's hearts on a large scale."—Isaac Fisher,
professor at Fisk University, Nashville
Women of Two Races
Go Into Conference
Before going to Tus-
kegee a group of these
Negro women had been
asked to remain after the
close of their biennial
session for a day's conference with the represen¬
tatives of the white denominational commission.
When this conference, held by the women of the
Southern Presbyterian Assembly, was reported to the
Commission on Inter-Racial Cooperation, this organi¬
zation offered to finance a meeting which should be com¬
posed of the official leaders of all the denominations
and Christian agencies of women in the South.
This conference was held in Memphis, Tennessee,
October 6-7, 1920, and was attended by leaders of
women's organizations from sixteen Southern states,
to wit: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky,
Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia, Missouri, Mary¬
land, and West Virginia.
Negro women were invited to speak to the confer¬
ence. They spoke of "What it Means to Be a Negro,"
"The Negro in His Home," and "The Difficulties of
the Daily Life of the Negro Peoples."
The Negro women whose advice had been sought
at Tuskegee had been requested to prepare a paper
setting forth the things which they considered respon-
McCLURE'S FOR OCTOBER
sible for some of the unhappy conditions of the day.
This they did in a statesmanlike paper of broad Chris¬
tian spirit. With this and the addresses of the two
days' conference as a basis, the committee on findings
made a report which was unanimously adopted, as
follows:
"We, a company of Southern white women, in confer¬
ence assembled on the invitation of the Commission on
Inter-Racial Cooperation, find ourselves with a deep sense
of responsibility to the womanhood and childhood of the
Negro race and also with a great desire for a Christian
settlement of the problems that overshadow the homes of
both races.
"We recognize and deplore the fact that there is fric¬
tion between the races. But we believe that this can
largely be removed by the exercise of justice, consideration
and sympathetic cooperation.
"In order that the results of this conference may be
perpetuated and enlarged, we recommend:
"a. That a continuation committee be appointed to
devise ways and means for carrying out the work considered
by this conference.
"b. That this committee be composed of one woman
from each denomination and Christian agency here repre¬
sented and that it be empowered to add to its membership
as may seem necessary.
"c. That each local community form a Woman's Inter¬
racial Committee which may include representatives from
all religious, civic and social service bodies working in the
community, and that this continuation committee recom¬
mend plans by which this may be accomplished."
A continuation committee for immediate conven¬
tion and beginning of the work consisted of the follow¬
ing women: Mrs. Luke Johnson, Griffin, Ga., chairman;
Mrs. J. G. Jackson, Little Rock; Mrs. Archibald Davis,
Atlanta; Mrs. T. W. Bickett, Raleigh, N. C.; Mrs. J.
H. Cranford, Jasper, Ala.; Mrs. W. D. Weatherford,
Nashville; Mrs. Z. I. Fitzpatrick, Madison, Georgia.
The Negro Woman's Response
And what of the Negro woman's response to this
evidence of the Southern white woman's interest in the
racial problem? They, or one group of them, speak
as follows:
"We, the members of the Southeastern Federation of
Colored Women's Clubs assembled in Atlanta, Ga., June
1921, desire to state our position on some matters relating
to the welfare of colored people and to enlist the sympathy
and cooperation of Southern white women in the intecest
of better understandings and better conditions, as these
affect the relations between white and colored people.
"First of all we wish to express our sincere gratifica¬
tion in the fact that race relations in the South have ad¬
vanced to the place where the white women of the South
are conscious of the part which colored women must play
in any successful effort to adjust the unhappy conditions
about us which have distressed the hearts of all lovers of
right and' justice and dangerously threatened the common
welfare and the safety of the Nation.
"We are also keenly alive to the growing tendency to
give a larger place to the influence of womanhood in the
affairs of the Nation and to the fact that there is an increas¬
ing number of Southern white women whose vision includes
the welfare of women of every race and condition; who
desire to secure equal opportunities for development to all
womanhood and are determined to face the truth without
flinching and to give themselves, at whatever cost, to creat¬
ing an enlightened sentiment among their own people, and
establishing a new and better foundation for relations
between white and black women in the South."
The value of this step towards racial cooperation
and understanding is not to be measured, since under¬
standing is the basis of any sort of agreement. There
is a reaim wThich no laws can reach, "the realm of
neighborly good will and interest, and it is in this realm
the inter-racial movement would work, seeking to
create so real a feeling of common interest that causes
of bitterness and ill will are eliminated."
It is only in such a sphere of good will that con¬
structive work can be done, just as the real spirit of
cooperation can come only with cooperative activities.
It is when peoples act together they come to see that
they think alike, and act alike, and this demonstration
is more valuable than protestations of friendship.
These conclusions as given are not only those of
the writer individually. Gathered from many sources,
and often in the actual phrase, they are the opinions of
a number of thoughtful men, leaders in various phases
of Southern life.
It is not the opinion of Southern people that con¬
ditions may be rapidly changed, or changed at all with¬
out patient effort and persistence. No one among
them but knows that the future adjustment of the re¬
lations of the white man and the Negro in the United
States will tax the wisdom, forbearance, and statesman¬
ship of the best of both races. And no man among them
but knows that adjustment now or for the future, can¬
not be made by the decision of the white man without
regard to the rights and interests of the Negro.
The Problem of The South
Here is a problem to be solved by the South that
has been solved nowhere else in history, as Henry
Grady, editor and orator of the South, long since
pointed out, "to carry in peace and with justice within
the body politic, two separate races under conditions
where assimilation cannot be, two races that in human
probability will never be quit of each other."
It is not a task for limited sympathies and petty
natures.- It is not a task that can be done by the ma¬
chinery of mere organization. It is a spiritual task,
as leader after leader throughout the South reiterates,
clerical and lay alike—-"A task to be carried out in the
spirit and according to the ethics of the Man of Gal¬
ilee." "It is an old, old story, and touches every phase
of Southern life. Prejudices are stubborn. It is a long,
long road ahead."
Democracy, as that Southern authority on the
racial question, the Rev. Cary Montague, of Richmond,
quoted before, points out, is a building not made with
hands. Faith in humanity has made it. The destiny
and happiness of the human race are in it. Its founda¬
tions rest upon the character of the man at the bottom.
The Negro is at the bottom of the Southern half of our
American democracy. The superstructure cannot en¬
dure unless we recognize him as part of the whole.
As said at the start of this article, economic pros¬
perity is essential to progress. Economic justice is a
primary condition to general peace and contentment.
The Negro responds to justice, kindness and gener¬
osity. He makes surprising headway with his limited
opportunities. This his friends everywhere admit. A
larger measure of economic justice alone for him will
add to the peace and prosperity of the South.
The purpose of this article is to bring the plan of
the Commission on Inter-Racial Cooperation to the
attention of the country and especially of the South at
large. It appeals to the South to get "behind the move¬
ment solidly, upholding the local committee in each
community, that its every possibility for good be tried
out. It repeats that the Commission as now function¬
ing in thirteen states, represents the most enlightened
conscience of the South, white and black, and holds
that it is the most philosophic step yet taken to pro¬
mote justice and good will between the races.