•LECTURE IV.
The Negro as a Religious, Social and Political Factor.
Kelly Miller, B. A., Howard University, Washington, D. C.
SCOPE OF LECTURE.
I.
The Negro as a Religious Factor.
The Negro, as we know him in America, is of a deeply spiritual nature.
This is made manifest by his passive Christian virtues of meekness,
humility and lowliness of spirit, and by the spiritual substance of his
plantation melodies.
The Christian cult, the suggestion of which the Negro caught from the
white race, was so peculiarly adapted to his ethnic characteristics that it
met with a ready and enthusiastic response.
The evangelization of the Negro is the only assured fresh conquest of
Christianity in modern times. In the United States the Negro has a
higher average of church membership than the whites, and constitutes
one-fifth of the numerical strength of all the Protestant denominations.
This race has a sufficient grasp upon the spirit and meaning of Chris¬
tianity to propagate and transmit it, although perhaps not able to for¬
mulate a theological statement of its doctrine.
The charge is made that religious profession has little effect upon the
Negro's practical life. When we consider the broad function of the
Negro church, and the original grossness and degradation with which it
has had to deal, it will be seen that, although religion has not yet done its
perfect work, the wholesomeness of its influence has been not only
manifest, but marvelous.
Who is he that condemneth ? When the white Christian violates the
vital precepts of his faith in dealing with the Negro, he furnishes an
example and an excuse for his weaker brother to transgress, though it
may be in a more flagrant and repugnant manner.
The most notable feature of Negro church life is its tendency toward
ecclesiastical independence. After receiving the original suggestion from
the whites, the Negro evinced a decided inclination to worship God under
his own vine and fig-tree. The Baptist and Methodist denominations,
representing the independent spirit, contain 98 per cent of all colored
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Protestant communicants. The Presbyterian, Episcopalian and Congre¬
gational churches, which have enjoyed the largest measure of white assist¬
ance, contact and control, have flourished only as a root out of dry ground.
Although these churches appeal generally to the more cultivated classes,
yet their numerical feebleness is in no wise offset by any superior vigor
of spiritual aggressiveness and force. Even in these denominations there
is a suppressed or expressed ambition for a larger measure of ecclesiastical
self-control.
The indifference of the educated Negro toward religion is only the first
effect of a shallow learning, which has affected his notions but has not
altered his nature; there still remains the substratum of deep religious
feeling.
From the white race the Negro will learn how to observe the estab¬
lished standards of conduct, and, through material assistance, will
be able to secure a better equipped ministry, thus assuring a more orderly
and pleasing manner of worship. On the other hand, though the whites
may fail to discern in the Negro that form and comeliness that they might
" desire him," yet they can learn from him valuable lessons in meekness,
humility, forgiveness of evil and lowliness of spirit, which constitute the
brightest stars in the galaxy of the Christian graces.
Religion furnishes the only sanction which can enable backward races
to contemplate the trend of modern movements with composure of spirit.
They play only a contemptible part in the rivalship for material and
political supremacy. The exceeding weight of humiliation under which
the Negro labors can only be relieved by a grasp upon the spiritual and
eternal verities. Science has no solace for sorrow. The love of money
is the root, and not the remedy of evil. It is only through belief in the
fatherhood of God that we can rely with serene assurance upon the ulti¬
mate recognition of the brotherhood of man.
II.
The Negbo as a Social Factor.
A stranger to our institutions would be most impressed by the separate
social areas which the two races occupy.
There exists among the Teutonic races a social fiction which relegates
the social life of a backward race to a separate and distinct sphere. The
civil, industrial and political disabilities under which the Negro labors
are but the legitimate outcome of the social fiction which divides the
races asunder. It is on this account that the Negro is not desired by the
white man to work in the same shop, or worship in the same church, to
lodge at the same hotel, or attend the same school, or be buried in the
same graveyard. Senator D. M. McEnery, of Louisiana, has frankly
epitomized the situation in a recent speech in the United States Senate:
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'' There never has been any disposition on the part of the people of Louis¬
iana to deprive the Negro of his political or civil rights. There has been,
and will continue to be, a determination, fixed and unalterable, to deny
him social privileges on equality with the whites, and to prohibit him
from aspiring to any equality in social life, which nature forbids."
It is essential to inquire how far this feeling is fixed and unalterable,
and how far it may be modified by conditions. In the Latin races it is
almost or altogether absent. Even among the Teutonic races it is subject
to a wide latitude of variability. The rigor of its exaction is in some
degree proportional to the weight of the Negro element. Many things
that were once held to be impossible have since come to pass. In indi¬
vidual and exceptional instances it has almost wholly vanished. In spite,
however, of such minor variations the feeling still persists in all of its
main and essential features, and no plan for the betterment of the Negro's
condition can wisely be based upon its disappearance within any calcu¬
lable period of time.
The Negro belongs to a backward race and has wide scope for growth
and expansion, even within the limits set by race prejudice; and if this
prejudice should ever disappear it will be after, and not before such
development.
The effect of prejudice is stimulating as well as repressive. It may yet
lead the Negro to industrial initiative, as it has already urged him to
ecclesiastical independence and social self-sufficiency.
As the Negro constitutes the submerged element of the general popula¬
tion he may be expected to produce more than his share of the defective
and delinquent classes. The race will continue to contribute great excesses
of crime, immorality and vice, so far as they can be tested by statistics.
We often attribute to color the evils that attach to condition. If similar
social classes among the whites were isolated and proscribed against,
equally lamentable results would doubtless be revealed. But we must
deal with conditions as they are and not as we wish they were. The
problem of philanthropy is to remedy existing evils, rather than to specu¬
late as to how they arose.
In comprehensive social status many of the Negroes have doubtless
stood still, some indulging in the license of liberty may have retrograded,
but the general drift has been in an upward direction.
III.
The Negro as a Political Factob.
The Negro was introduced into this country to labor with his hands.
There was no more thought of making him a controlling element in the
body politic than of conferring like privilege upon the lower animals.
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The two great wars of the Republic swept the current of public feeling
out of its accustomed channel. The Negro was the incidental beneficiary
of these two great conflicts. There was a lapse of nearly a century
between the Declaration of Independence and the Fourteenth Amend¬
ment to the Constitution. The Civil War heated the thermometer of
national feeling many degrees beyond its normal registry, but under the
tranquil influence of peace, it has again sunken to its accustomed place,
near the freezing point. The Negro in the South has been deprived practi¬
cally of all the political privileges conferred by the constitutional amend¬
ments, while his erstwhile political friends conceal their indifference by
seeking new issues across the seas.
Democracy implies approximate equality of power and prowess; any
element which falls obviously short of the general average will be treated
with indifference or contempt; and especially so, if characterized by a
physical brand which renders them easily distinguishable.
The Negro should utilize whatever measure of political privilege is
accorded him in friendly affiliation with the persons and interests from
which he derives his livelihood. On the other hand, the South is making
a serious mistake in depriving the Negro of all participation in govern¬
mental affairs. Good citizenship cannot be secured by holding up the
repressive, the harsh and the cruel features of government. The police¬
man's club is oftentime the only governmental instrument with which
the Negro comes in contact. It is essential that any backward people
should be trained in the beneficent function of government in order to
develop good citizenship.
The Negro has ever been willing to contribute, according to his ability,
to the welfare of his country. He is patriotic and loyal to her institu¬
tions, and is willing to defend them with his life.
IV.
Conclusion.
A factor is one of the elements which are productive of a given
result. The Negro as a factor does not operate independently, but
co-operates with other and more potent factors to make up the sum total
of our national life. A product entirely disappears when any one of its
factors reduces to naught- The political rights of the Negro are indis-
solubly linked with our theory of government. Concrete fulfillment of
abstract rights appears to be at present unattainable. History teaches us
that the path of political and social progress has never been a straight
line, but has ever taken a zig-zag course amid the conflicting forces of
right and wrong, truth and error, justice and injustice, cruelty and
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mercy. But the great humanitarian movement which has been sweep¬
ing over the world from the middle of the eighteenth century until now,
manifesting itself in political revolutions, in social and moral reforms,
and in works of benevolence and mercy, affords the amplest assurance
that all worthy elements of the population will ultimately be admitted
to share in the privileges and blessings of civilization according to the
measure of their merit.
REFERENCES.
History of the Negro Race, by George W. Williams, is the fullest and most
comprehensive historical treatment yet published.
The Philadelphia Negro, by W. E. B. DuBois, while professing to be a
local study, is practically an encyclopedia covering the essential
phases of the Negro problem.
Our Brother in Black, by Dr. A. G. Haygood, and
The Race Problem (pamphlet), by Rev. Robert F. Campbell, represent the
conservative religious view of the Southern whites.
The Plantation Negro, by Philip A. Bruce, represents, perhaps, the domi¬
nant sentiment of the Southern whites.
The Silent South, by George W. Cable, and
The Elevation of the Negro, by Lewis H. Blair, give the most advanced
views entertained by men of the South.
Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro, by Frederick L. Hoff¬
man, is a full statistical treatment, although the theories deduced
from the facts collected might be called a non sequitur.
Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race, by E. W. Blyden. In comprehen¬
siveness of range, philosophical insight and power of generaliza¬
tion, Dr. Blyden is undoubtedly the superior of any Negro who
has yet written on this subject, and perhaps of any man of either
race who has devoted his mental energies entirely to this study.
Africa and America, by Dr. Alexander Crummel, is a collection of brilliant,
trenchent essays, which have been quite influential in stimulating
public thought and action for the betterment of the race.
The Future of the American Negro, by Booker T. Washington, is a serious,
earnest discussion of the question from the standpoint of industrial
development.
The Occasional Papers of the American Negro Academy, are designed to
cover the leading phases of the question by intelligent and serious-
minded men of the race.
It may be interesting to note that the Congressional Library is making
a complete bibliography of books and pamphlets written by colored men.
A copy of such list may be had on application.
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TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION.
1. How can the whites help the Negroes to improve their religions
status ?
2. How far can oneness of faith be relied upon to modify the asperities
of race prejudice?
3. The effect of influx from the country upon the social life of the city
Negro.
4. What can be done to improve the social life among Negroes?
(a) In the country.
(b) In the city.
5. Is there any practicable, available remedy for the political repression
of the Negro ?
6. What effect will this repression have upon his industrial and moral
status ?