.;„. .¦•:,., .:.K ,,,-.: ;,„:,. .,., ,,.:t. .. . . J ;.v ... t» |i O D « b ILC) YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Gift of the Beinecke Foundation in memory of Edwin J. Beinecke Class of 1907 THE KEY A Tangible Solution of the Negro Problem OBI THE KEY A Tangible Solution of the Negro Problem BY JAMES SAMUEL^STEMONS Field Secretary of the Joint Organization of the Association for Equalizing Industrial Op portunities and the League of Civic and Political Reform THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY 44O FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK MCMXVI Copyright, 1916, by The Neale Publishing Company $-71 TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Foreword 7 Chapter I Why Crime Increases Among Negroes 1 1 II The North Holds the Key 21 III Negro "Optimism" 32 IV Why Discriminations Are Made. .. . 52 V Why Negroes Leave the South 59 VI Sophistic Reasoning 68 VII White Labor Not Barbarous 78 VIII Some Doubters Answered 83 IX A Tangible Remedy for Industrial Repression 103 X A Tangible Remedy for Disfranchise ment and Civil Repression no IX The Negro and Social Equality 129 XII How the Mob Spirit Grows 144 XIII The Obtrusive Negro 152 FOREWORD There have been during the past several decades various efforts, many of an earnest and highly in telligent nature, toward the adjustment of relations between the white race of America and the Negro. But, so far as I know, there "has never been a single thought or movement the author of which even claimed would do more than remedy one or two specific phases of the situation, — civil and political inequalities, or segregation and exclusion, or the terror of mob violence, or some other de tached symptom of race antagonism. Indeed, the declaration is not infrequently heard that no one mind can comprehend a remedy that would apply to the race question as a whole, but that the remedy is rather to be found in a gradual working out of every conceivable thought and plan that would tend to advance the manifold interests of the Negro and increase the respect and confi dence in which he is held by his fellow-men. I readily admit that there is no specific that would, presto, obliterate every form of race prejudice and antipathy and antagonism. In fact, such perver sity of human nature has not yet been effaced from 7 8 THE KEY members of the same race, or, for that matter, from members of the same family. But I do contend that those basic and essential points of difference between white and colored Americans, — differences that are the subject of controversy and contention and legislation and con fusion, — are capable of immediate mollification and ultimate obliteration, provided certain specific and well-defined lines of action be followed. I be lieve also that the chief reason why so little prog ress has been made in bridging the chasm between the races lies in the persistence with which each race assumes that it is the innocent victim of the other, without once pausing to consider what part it may itself be playing in making and keeping the other what it is. Those persons who insist that the race situation must be adjusted in accordance with certain nar row prejudices of the white man complain loudly and impatiently of the ignorance and viciousness and depravity and shiftlessness and inefficiency of the Negro. But they blind themselves to the studied insults and intimidations and proscriptions and oppressions and repressions that they them selves inflict upon that race, the only logical results of which are to engender and accentuate the very qualities that they are so relentless in denouncing. Those persons who insist that the question should be faced as if there was no side to it but that of FOREWORD 9 the Negro are continuously decrying the manner in which Negroes are being disfranchised and seg regated and outlawed and made to feel that they are mere pariahs and outcasts in the land of their birth. I do not want to be understood as in any way minimizing these injustices, or suggesting that many of them are not without the shadow of excuse. For all this, the very persons who are loudest in complaint seem never to think of the really tragic manner in which Negroes have, sometimes thoughtlessly and sometimes viciously, misused their political power and flown in the face of the most enlightened sentiment of their times. They seem oblivious to the fact that Negroes have sel dom identified themselves with, but have more frequently actively opposed, the great civic and political reforms of city, State and Nation, and that they have trained with and made themselves the pliant tools of the most vicious and discredited political influences of the country, the most logical results of which have been to strengthen and to spread the sentiment in favor of their disfran chisement and effacement from political influence. These persons likewise forget the manner in which a relatively small but obnoxiously conspicuous ele ment of Negroes by ostentatious rowdyism, vul garity, and obscenity on the public highway, in pub lic conveyances, and in public places generally, 10 THE KEY make themselves rudely offensive not only to the white race, but to the more refined members of their own race as well, the only logical results of which have been to give impetus to the movement toward the indiscriminate segregation and exclu sion of the Negro. These glaring shortcomings are bitter pills for either race to swallow. But until these conditions are boldly and unflinchingly faced by both races it would be the grossest folly to hope for the slight est progress toward true race adjustment by any short cut of mere education, of whatever kind ; by campaigns of protest and complaint, however fer vid; by crimination and recrimination on the part of either race, or by the most drastic coercive legis lation, whether it be to repress the Negro or to restrain the white man. The key to the entire problem of race adjust ment, then, is for each race frankly to face its own shortcomings and responsibilities with reference to the other, and to set for itself the definite and specific task of remedying the same. That the fol lowing pages clearly define these mutual duties and responsibilities, and as clearly point the way to their enforcement, I feel confident that every open- minded reader will agree. The Author. Philadelphia, October, 1916. WHY CRIME INCREASES AMONG NEGROES.1 Of late years the charge is being made by others than Southern politicians that crime and intracta bility among Negroes are on the increase, even in those localities where the Negro is popularly sup posed to be most favored. The lamentation is beginning to reverberate throughout the country that in deeds of violence and sundry reprehensible crimes Negroes are active to a degree out of all proportion to their numerical standing, and many sociologists are asking in all seriousness if a gigan tic mistake was not made in vesting the Negro with unconditional citizenship, in educating him as the white man is educated, and in supposing him to be capable of conforming to high ideals of civiliza tion. Pulpit and press have taken up this plaint, one metropolitan preacher in an impassioned ser mon not long ago referring to the Negro as a 1 This article was first published by the Philadelphia Public Ledger, in the year 1907, and later printed, together with the one immediately preceding it, in pamphlet form. 11 12 THE KEY "black peril," declaring that the question of Negro thieves, burglars, and murderers has become most alarming, and urging the maximum punishment for all such criminals, while newspaper and magazine writers are no less gloomy in their views. Som_ months ago, in an issue of one of the leading maga zines, a writer of international reputation, in an article that, upon the whole, must be taken as a defense of the Negro, and which was unusually liberal and free from bias, without qualifications, and without attempting to account for the alleged fact, declared: There have been many developments of one sort and another well calculated to fatigue and disappoint and disgust those who are all the time hoping for the best. There have been among' Negroes manifestations of brutality unparalleled, so far as I know, since the dawn of civilization. This is an astonishing charge, and while it will doubtless be regarded by most persons as unwar rantably harsh and sweeping, it must be conceded that the contention is not entirely without founda tion. But since it is the Negro as a freedman and not the Negro as a slave who has given rise to this charge in almost its entirety, it must also either be conceded that the implied inborn tendency of the Negro to depravity is peculiar beyond compre hension, — since two hundred and fifty years of demoralizing and dehumanizing slavery were THE KEY 13 powerless to develop it, — or that abnormal in fluences beyond his control have within the past few years conspired to engender in him adverse tendencies which normal conditions could not have awakened. That this late tendency of Negroes toward crim inality may be partly due to cumulative uncongenial and inharmonious conditions that have beset them since their emancipation, and not solely or even largely to their education, lack of education, racial inferiority, or inborn depravity, is a fact which seems to be entirely ignored by those who are loudest in lamenting the criminal propensities of that race. The hypothesis that education and a certain degree of civil and political freedom must of themselves either convert the Negro into a high and noble type of citizen or prove conclusively that he is incapable of attaining to such development is a sophistry which seems to be gaining in popularity. The fact that education, of whatever kind, is only a means to an end, which, if frustrated or inter cepted, may prove a misfortune, — by, among other things, destroying, through impatience and discon tent, the equipoise of nature, — rather than an in centive to nobler life, its legitimate end, seems to to be lost sight of by those who regard education as a panacea for every Negro ill. Such persons seem oblivious to the fact that unless the sentiment in favor of Negroes applying their education 14 THE KEY grows apace with the rate at which it is acquired, such education becomes a negative and often a questionable blessing. It is not my purpose to bring indictments against any section of this country for unjust treatment of the colored race, — for wide latitude must be given, especially on this question, to the frailties of human nature. But I do desire to show wherein much that is pointed to in Negroes as cause for impatience and complaint is due to the perverse and discouraging conditions, evitable or inevitable, just or unjust, by which they have been surrounded since their emancipation. It is an axiom as old as civilization, I believe, that the moral as well as the material advancement of a race, and especially of an undeveloped race, is governed by the degree of its industrial freedom, and that industrial restriction must of necessity result in the counter-restriction and dwarfing of the nobler attributes of nature. I will not say that most of the crime among Negroes is traceable to industrial restrictions. Aside from the fact that they have numerous other incentives to crime, — among them being the insidious influences of city life; the tendency to revel excessively in a new found freedom ; chafing at the barriers to civil and political liberty by which they are everywhere con fronted, and other influences too numerous to men tion, — it is by no means certain that Negroes would THE KEY IS not, under the most favorable conditions, add more than their quota to the criminal record. But I do maintain that a candid and impartial view of the industrial status of the Negro throughout the coun try will convince all who are open to conviction that industrial repression is having an unbounded tendency to drive him into the ranks of criminals. It has been pointed out by those who are most severe in decrying the criminal tendencies of Ne groes that they are, hundred for hundred, far more criminal in northern than in southern locali ties. I rebut this contention with the affirmation that industrial discriminations against Negroes are far more pronounced in the North than in the South. Yet, again, the South is by no means exempt from the charge of industrial discrimina tions against the colored race. It is contended by all labor reformers and by many sociologists that, upon the whole, the American workman does not receive a fair return for his labor; that his wages are not sufficient to enable him to bring up a family according to American ideals, and that wages in the South are uniformly lower than in any other part of the country. From these facts we have the proposition that the white workman is at his worst in the South, while the colored workman is at his best in that locality. Yet, not withstanding these extremes of white and colored 1 6 THE KEY labor in the South, according to statistics compiled2 by the Chattanooga, Tennessee, Tradesman, from reports received from the employers of nearly 100,000 hands, and which, so far as I have been able to ascertain are the only statistics of the kind ever compiled, the worst conditions of white work men, with the South as a basis, are vastly superior to the best conditions of Negro workmen. The statistics referred to were gleaned by The Tradesman in a study of white and colored labor of the South during a period of twenty-one years, from 1 88 1 to 1902, for the purpose of determin ing the advancement made by Negroes along the 2 The United States Bureau of Statistics made a compre hensive report in 1903 on the wages of farm labor and domes tic labor on farms in the United States, according to races. In his dissertation on colored labor the statistician says : "Nu merous reports speak of them as superior to the available white help, as improving in condition, — and as the best help for the South." Yet in no instance, save in California, — where "colored," it is explained, means Japanese, Chinese, and Indians, — are col ored men reported to be receiving as much in wages as are white men. I give the statistics of Alabama and New Jersey as fairly representative of the Southern and Northern locali ties mostly affected by Negro labor, New Jersey having a larger, percentage of Negro labor than any other Northern State. The wages of farm labor by the month the year around, with board, in Alabama were : white $9.79, colored $8.73 ; New Jersey, white $15.62, colored $15.27; while the lowest wages were in South Carolina: white $8.51, colored $7.62. For do mestic labor on farms the average wages were: white $9.32, colored $6.17. The highest rate was in California,, where white help received $20.01 and colored $24.33 per month; the lowest in Virginia: white $5.16, colored $4.66. THE KEY 17 lines of skilled labor, and of comparing the general efficiency of white and colored labor. In an edi torial summary of this examination, October 15, 1902, The Tradesman said: A careful scanning of these replies, with pretty full informa tion of the character of the various lines they cover, shows beyond question that the Negro has greatly improved in the last fifteen years in reliability, skill and general efficiency. The general tenor of the replies indicated perfect satisfaction with Negro skilled labor. Those with colored labor regarded the Negro in several kinds of furnace and mill work * * * as supe rior to white labor, and the majority preferred him to white as a common laborer. Several of our correspondents, speak ing in general terms, say the Negro, is, upon the whole, the better laborer. In the year 1893 this same journal, in speaking of the comparative numbers of white and colored laborers and of the wages received by both, said: Fifty-seven per cent of the employees are white. The wages paid to white skilled workmen average $3.51 a day, colored $1.52. Unskilled white workmen average $1.18 and colored $1.02 a day. Notwithstanding the general efficiency of col ored labor in the South, as adduced through these various reports, the disparity between the wages of white and colored labor 3 is such as to astonish 3 It seems that none of The Tradesman's correspondents 1 8 THE KEY those who are not familiar with the industrial dis criminations that are being made against Negroes throughout the country. Yet the status of Negro labor in the South is elysian as compared with such labor in other parts of the country. In states exclusive of the South the Negro is compelled not only to do certain kinds of work for much lower wages than are paid white workmen, but his field of activity is narrowed down to the most restricted limits. He is approximately at his best in the North as a waiter. Yet the wages of the Negro waiter are about one-third lower than are the wages of the average white waiter, while the best hostelries almost invariably refuse to employ Negro waiters at all. For example, although New York contains a greater number of hotels and finer ones than any other American city, there is neither a hotel nor restaurant in that city, which can be ranked as first class, that employs Negro waiters. If not a waiter, the northern Negro is usually forced into admitted discriminating between white and colored labor in the way of wages, all who expressed themselves on the ques tion claiming to pay both races the same wages for the same work. But the difference between the wages paid white work men and those paid colored workmen, at even common labor, at which a majority of the employers frankly admit that Ne groes are the more desirable, seems explicable upon no other hypothesis than that Negroes are either paid less wages than white men for the same work, or that white men are given preference over Negroes in the more desirable and better pay ing occupations in both common and skilled labor. THE KEY 19 the overcrowded avocations of the barber, porter, domestic, or common laborer; while from the broader and more paying branches of labor he is almost completely excluded. There are more than 100,000 miles of railway in the States exclusive of the South, having an aggregate number of upward of 500,000 employees, but the only position in this great industry that is open to Negroes is that of porter. It is the same, or worse, with street rail ways, shops, mills, factories, mercantile establish ments, and business houses. But it is needless to particularize. The fact that the Negro is being systematically excluded from every paying industry at the North is too obvious to necessitate confirmation. Nor will it require a philosopher to trace to this industrial repression much of the crime and reckless abandon of the Negro. I believe that, independent of the abject despair induced by an unequal struggle for existence, the surest way to engender in an indi vidual absolute indifference to the rights of society is to convince him that society is absolutely indif ferent to his rights. While I have ever believed that the true senti ment of representative citizens, North and South, is in favor of granting the Negro simple justice; of dealing with him in a way that will conserve the best interests of society, and that many, if not most, of the hardships imposed upon the race are 20 THE KEY due more to thoughtless apathy than to wilful de sign, countless thousands of Negroes interpret the policy of white men to hold them at arm's length, and curtail their industrial, civil, and political lib erty, as a united and unchangeable determination to oppress them and crush out their manhood. With a feeling of hopelessness in the face of such odds, as well as of resentment against such treat ment, many Negroes are turning against society with the recklessness born of despair. It is useless to urge, as some do, that this is a white man's country and that there is not employ ment sufficient for its owners. Aside from the fact that hundreds of thousands of European aliens are coming to these shores every year, — workmen who always and everywhere find ready access to em ployment in which Negro citizens are under no circumstances permitted to engage, — the Negro is here as a part of the body politic, through no desire nor effort of his own, and the interests of society, no less than the mandates of humanity, exact that he either be given a humane chance in the struggle for existence or be deported to where he may enjoy this greatest of all rights. Develop ments of the past few years proclaim in unmis takable terms that there is no more place in the economy of this nation for industrial slavery than there was for chattel slavery. II. THE NORTH HOLDS THE KEY. Some years ago a Southern white man wrote a book that gained considerable notoriety, the title of which was "The Negro: The Southerner's Problem." This book gave voice to what is com ing to be more and more accepted as the true status of the American Negro question — a conten tion that it is a problem peculiar to the South, and wholly dependent upon that section for solution. So firmly established has become this theory, that it might seem preposterous to suggest that the adjustment of this question lay more directly with the people of the North than with the people of the South. And yet such is the light in which the writer has ever viewed the race question. Aside from that phase of the question which is personal to the Negro, the fitting of himself for the duties of life (a question which is personal to every individual), the sum of the race problem is nothing more nor less than to adjust and har monize the relations of the Negro with his indus- 31 22 THE KEY trial, civil, and political surroundings. I purposely omit the term "social," for the reason that social intercourse is so peculiarly a personal question that each individual, of whatever race, must of neces sity find his own social level and his own social affinities. In the South this adjustment pivots on the civil and political status of the Negro ; in the North it pivots on his industrial status. In this way, North and South are united in giving vitality to the great American Race Question. The mistake of the past has been in dealing with this question as though the South were the only, or the chief, party thereto; as though civil and political conditions in the South could be right eously adjusted without righteously adjusting their complement: industrial conditions in the North. The Negro is important to the South as an indus trial factor. His cardinal need in any locality is a fair opportunity to work for an honest living. This opportunity he can find in no place outside of the South. Because of this fact his presence in the South is reduced to the mere question of existence. Taking advantage of this utter de pendence of the Negro on the South for existence, a class of white people of that section, by no means representative of the saner and more pro gressive element, are imposing upon him certain civil and political hardships, serene in the knowl edge that the utmost limit of such injustices will THE KEY 23 not (because of his inability to exist elsewhere) deprive them of the Negro as an industrial neces sity. Nothing seems more patent than that the sentiment of the better and more representative element of Southern people will never find true ex pression with reference to the Negro till the senti ment of that same element at the North shall make it possible for the Negro to find such industrial opportunities as will make his presence in the South no longer a question of necessity but a question of choice. There has never been a day when even the more reactionary element of Southern people (to say nothing of that larger class whose chief concern about the Negro has ever been that he be given simple justice) would not have made any reason able concessions relative to the Negro, had such concessions been necessary in order to retain him as an industrial necessity. But the crux of this entire situation in the South is that Negroes and the better class of white people alike are helpless and hopeless in the face of the more reactionary element, because this element is in a position to get all it ever desires of the Negro (his labor) with out making a solitary concession either to the Negro or to the saner class of white people. Re duced to a fuller analysis, the South, the pro gressive and the reactionary element alike, and the Negro (because of the detached and isolated 24 THE KEY position peculiar to that section) are placed in positions of mutual dependence. The South is forced to depend very largely on Negro labor, because it can get no other; and the Negro is forced to remain and labor for the South, upon any terms that suit that section, because of his inability to find employment elsewhere. But the position of the Negro is clearly the more abject and helpless, because, as has already been said, he is made utterly dependent upon the South for his very physical existence. The only logical result of the Negro being thus thrown upon the absolute mercy of the South as the only hope of his physical existence is for the basest elements of Southern people to go to the most inhuman extremes in persecution of the Negro, in the full knowledge that when they have gone to the utmost limit, the Negro will still be theirs to command as an industrial tool. And there is no safer proposition than this, that just so long, and just so hard as this element of Southern people can kick the Negro without running any risk of losing their option on him as a servant, just that long and just that hard will they continue to kick him. In a recent address in Philadelphia on the Southern race problem, a large plantation owner of the South, one of the most liberal-minded men of the country, said : THE KEY 25 The race problem in the South is, in large measure, a ques tion of distribution. Wherever a large class of people are placed at the mercy of another class, a certain element of the stronger cannot be restrained from inflicting injustices on the weaker. Under present conditions the Negro is, in some re spects, at the mercy of Southern white people; and so long as this fact remains it will be impossible to prevent one element from dealing with the Negro in such a way as to outrage the sense of justice of another element. In view of all this, it can be seen that the truly alarming menace to Negroes is the increasingly aggressive movement, fostered by this reactionary and anti-Negro element, which (as evinced by the incessant outbreaks against Negro labor and the consequent influx of foreign and Northern labor) is steadily growing in strength, to make the South no longer dependent upon Negro labor and to com pletely eliminate Negroes from the industrial equa tion of that section. It is most evident also that, if the masses of Negroes are not to become retro gressive pariahs in this country, this movement must be checked while they are yet industrial neces sities to the South; before incessant appeals to prejudice and passion, tending, as do such appeals, to discourage the recognition of Negro labor and to encourage the substitution of foreign and North ern labor, as completely excludes Negroes from the industries of the South as they are excluded from the industries of the North. It is manifest, therefore, that the "real race 26 THE KEY problem" of America is to change these conditions, which are more and more causing Negroes and the better class of white people of the South to be helpless and hopeless in the face of the more thoughtless and reactionary element. The remedy seems self-suggestive. If Negroes are forced to remain in the South because they cannot make a living elsewhere; and if an element of Southern people persists in persecuting them because it is aware that Negroes cannot get from within its clutches, the only logical and practical thing to do is to make it possible for Negroes to leave the South; to so adjust and equalize industrial condi tions that no man more than another will be forced to remain in any one locality as a necessary meas ure to his physical existence. It is beside the question to argue that Northern people might not be willing to do their plain duty in this connection. The point is not whether or not this situation will be met, but rather how it logic ally can be met. And the fact stands out that the Negro "problem" is as much a problem of the North as it is of the South ; that it cannot be cir cumscribed by sectional lines, and that the civil and political conditions of Negroes in the South will never be more righteous than are their industrial conditions in the North. To argue that the North will not give the Negro broader industrial rights is to argue that the South will not give him broader THE KEY 27 civil and political rights; and to accept this dual proposition is to proclaim the futility of further attempts to adjust the race question on any basis other than the complete industrial, civil, and politi cal subjugation of the Negro. When every argument, theory, and proposition respecting the race question has been exhausted, when every attempt to coax, cajole, or coerce the South into changing its attitude toward the Negro has come to naught, there will still remain the simple, homely, unchanged, unchangeable, undis puted, and indisputable fact, whether the North is willing to act upon that fact or not, that in propor tion as industrial opportunities are extended to Negroes in the North, in that proportion alone will the better element of the South be heard and heeded, — in that proportion alone will the less re sponsible element be precluded from shaping and dictating the policies of that section. The North can, therefore, aid in adjusting race conditions in the South, not by advising the South how to deal with the Negro, not by advocating the enactment of new laws nor the enforcement of old ones respecting the question, but by forgetting that there is a South, so far as the Negro is concerned, and directing its energies to the task of dealing justly with the Negroes at its doors. For forty years the North has offered its advice to the South as to how the Negro should be dealt with, while 28 THE KEY itself maintaining such an attitude toward him as to make his existence in that section next to im possible, and for forty years the conditions in the South of which complaint has been made have been growing steadily worse. A much-muddled school-teacher once asked a pupil how long it would require a frog to get out of a thirty-foot well if he climbed five feet one hour and fell ten feet the next; to which the pert lad replied that the frog, before he would get out, would find himself in a warmer climate. A similar problem relative to the Negro is put to humanity. The principles that for forty years have been so generally applied to race relations in this country have continued to make these relations more and more gloomy. At this rate of progress (?) how long an application of these principles will it re quire to adjust these relations to the satisfaction of the American people ? So far as the attitude of Northern people on this question is concerned, the less liberal-minded among them might entertain some hesitancy about allowing Negroes broader industrial opportunities, for fear that such opportunities might flood the North with colored labor. But no such fear could be entertained by those conversant with Southern race conditions. Paradoxical as it may seem, it may safely be said that as industrial opportunities for Negroes in the North increase, Negro emigra- THE KEY 29 tion to the North will decrease ; and for the simple reason, as I have already pointed out, that the Negro is so essential to the South as an industrial factor that even those of that section who are less friendly to the race would not, for economic rea sons, allow Negroes to find greater attractions in the North than they could find in the South. Despite the apparent hostility between the Negro and a certain element of Southern white people, the Negro loves and understands the South, and the real South loves and understands the Negro. Because of these facts the Negro will cling to the South as long as he is given the ghost of an opportunity, while the South will not main tain an attitude toward the Negro that might drive him from her borders. That the South is ex tremely averse to Negroes leaving that section is evinced by the fact that a majority of the counties in most of the Southern States place a prohibitive tax, frequently as much as five hundred dollars, on all persons who seek to entice Negroes to emi grate from that section. Moreover, although con siderable effort is being made to direct foreign immigration to the South, vast numbers of South-1 ern people are averse to supplanting Negro labor by foreign labor, many of them believing that when Negro labor is treated with justice it is the most peaceful, contented, and reliable labor that the South can secure. 30 THE KEY In May, 1907, the Farmers' Union of the State of Georgia, with a membership of 80,000, in their annual convention at Atlanta went on record as being bitterly opposed to foreign immigration to the South, the convention unanimously adopting a resolution condemning the immigration movement, and asking the Legislature to make no appropria tions to bring foreigners to Georgia. All the speakers paid high tribute to the Negro as a la borer, and said that he was infinitely preferable to such foreigners as it was proposed to bring to the South. It was at about the time of this farmers' convention that the Mobile, Alabama, Press, in discussing the question of foreign immigration, said: If the South would spend one-half the thought and energy and money in trying to improve the Negro laborer that it is spending to bring in foreign labor it would have the safest and best contented labor on earth. Viewed in the light that I have tried to set forth, it seems to me that the race situation is far from gloomy. It is simply resolved to a proposition as to whether or not the desire of Northern people to see the problem finally and righteously adjusted is sincere enough to impel them to take the steps necessary to that end. It should be especially re membered that the masses of Northern people seldom pause to think of the blighting hardships THE KEY 31 that are being imposed upon Negroes by this in dustrial repression, or of the overwhelming extent to which such repression influences race conditions in the South. When once they are enlightened on this point, there is not the slightest doubt that the responsible element among them will, — not only for the sake of doing their part toward ridding the country of this distracting problem but for the sake of abstract justice, — rise supremely to the demands of the situation. The greatest necessity is for a few of the more influential employers to lead the way, by giving such recognition to colored labor as their merits demand. III. NEGRO "OPTIMISM." Perhaps there is nothing that does more to stifle sentiment and paralyze efforts in favor of broader industrial opportunities for Negroes than does the rampant "optimism" of a type of Negro leaders of thought along these lines. For reasons that are wholly laudable in purpose, perhaps, but alarm ingly disastrous in results, certain moulders of thought on matters affecting Negroes have enacted a policy of ignoring those conditions and tend encies, the logical consequences of which are to retard normal development and intensify feeling between the races, while centering attention on those phases of the situation that are pleasant and flattering to contemplate. Pursuant to this policy of accentuating the advantages and ignoring the disadvantages of the race, these leaders make it a point to widely publish detailed accounts of the various property accumulations of the race, and to keep before the public every Negro who has made any kind of a financial success. The facts and figures thus given to the public have come to 33 THE KEY 33 be exceedingly familiar, and when lightly consid ered may seem imposing. But when analyzed and exposed to the light of reason, they prove little so far as the economic status of Negroes as a race is concerned. As well might the plea of white bread-winners for more just and equitable labor conditions be met by a bombardment of figures relative to the billions that have been amassed by the more fortunate members of that race, the bulk of which, be it re membered, is owned and controlled by a mere handful of men. While these optimists are des canting about the $600,000,000 that have been accumulated within fifty years by from 4,000,000 to 10,000,000 Negroes, there can be named as many as five groups, of five white men each that, starting with the same capital that was possessed by most Negroes, — nothing, — have within the same space of time accumulated as much or more than has the entire colored race. While no one gainsays the real progress that has been made by Negroes, all progress is compar ative, and when measured by the progress of thousands of their next-door neighbors, who had no more to begin with than had the Negroes (un less it be admitted that they had immeasurably bet ter opportunities, or vastly better sense), I see little about the material progress of Negroes over which to gloat ; I find little in the array of figures 34 THE KEY that are being so persistently paraded other than striking evidence of the tremendous gap that sep arates Negroes from the economic status of Amer icans generally, and I know that, had it not been for the blighting hardships that have been imposed upon them, their material conditions would be im measurably superior to anything dreamed of to day. But when these optimists are confronted with incontrovertible proof that Negroes are being sub jected to artificial restrictions that are steadily and inevitably working the colored man's industrial submergence in this country, they not only stifle any hope of improving these conditions but encour age satisfaction with the influences now dominat ing the race situation and engender a feeling that the two races cannot live in other than mutual hos tility and antagonism, by contending that relations between the races in America are more just, har monious, and equitable than in any other part of the world where two races, so avowedly dissimilar in character, temperament, and physical qualities, are thrown together in the same relative propor tions. Not only is this contention at variance with widely known facts (there being, as a single ex ample, almost as large a Negro population as that of the United States, — 8,500,000, in round num bers, fully one-third of the entire population, — in Brazil, where they formerly were slaves, and THE KEY 35 where now there is practically no civil, political, social or economic friction between them and their former white masters) , but it is an effort to recon cile public sentiment to adverse conditions in America, — an effort that could have no possible result other than reaction and retrogression. When this line of argument falls of its own weight, these preachers of the gospel of satisfac tion with whatever conditions may be imposed resort to the equally illogical proposition that Negroes must be an economic sufficiency to them selves, that they must create their own industrial opportunities, and that their material success or failure in life is subject to nothing but their indi vidual efforts. Such reasoners lose sight of the vital fact that the masses of Negroes, — as is and always has been true of the masses of all other civilized races, — are but humble workers for wages. They forget that the few Negroes that have risen and may be expected to rise above the level of wage-workers have not, nor could they be expected to have in so short a time as fifty years, or a hundred and fifty years, either the means or the ability to formulate industrial enterprises suffi cient to afford adequate employment for the mil lions that have not risen and never will rise above the level of wage-workers. And it seems little other than mockery to at tempt to impose upon Negro plebeians the impossi- 3 6 THE KEY ble task of creating for themselves the means by which to procure a living, while the only hope of the plebeians of the opposite race, with natural ad vantages immeasurably greater than those of Negroes, is recognized by practically every agency for social betterment as being founded upon a favorable opportunity to operate as hirelings the industrial enterprises which it has taken the brains of civilization centuries upon centuries to evolve. When the impossibility of this position is made manifest, these optimists have another alternative equally untenable, which is that Negroes so far sur pass other men in any line of labor sought that employers will be forced to employ them, because of their superior worth. "When it is profitable to employ Negroes, when their work is superior to that of other races, they will be employed," is an expression frequently voiced by those Negroes who feel that they are actually helping conditions when they divert public attention from the industrial submergence of their own race. There is not a branch of industry which has not been brought, by those who have had centuries upon centuries for patient training, to the highest degree of perfec tion ever known. Yet these optimists dumfound and discourage the members of their race by pro claiming to them and to the world that they must not only equal but surpass this labor, with its cumu lative skill of ages, before they will be entitled to THE KEY 37 share with it the common opportunities of a com mon country. When Negroes appeal from such blighting decrees they are "whining and complain ing." It is not my purpose to gainsay the need of thrift, and efficiency, and self-dependence on the part of Negroes, and it is freely admitted that the race as a whole is far from measuring up to a worthy standard along any of these lines. But I do protest against impossible demands being made upon Negroes, as a means of according with per verted sentiment, their failure to meet which de mands being heralded as a legitimate excuse for repressing them and crushing out their manhood. But aside from all this, it is evident to any close student of the race situation that various influences have arrested and are more and more tending to arrest the material progress of Negroes in every part of this country. In the remarkable letter that was sent to Europe in November, 19 10, by some thirty of the most intellectual Negroes in America protesting against the alleged false impression that had been made in that country by a prominent member of their race regarding the status of Negroes in America, the following representations were made : To-day in eight States where the bulk of Negroes live black men of property and university training can be and usually are by law denied the ballot, while the most ignorant white man votes. This attempt to put the personal and property 3 8 THE KEY rights of the best of the blacks at the absolute political mercy of the worst of the whites is spreading each day. Along with this has gone a systematic attempt to curtail the education of the black race. Under a widely advertised system of "univer sal education" not one black boy in three to-day has in the United States a chance to learn to read and write. The pro portion of school funds due to black children are often spent on whites, and the burden on private charity to support edu cation, which is a public duty has become almost intolerable. In every walk of life we meet discriminations based solely on race and color, but continually and persistently misrepresented to the world as the natural difference due to conditions. We are, for instance, usually forced to live in the worst quarters, and our consequent death rate is noted as a race trait and reason for further discrimination. When we seek to buy property in better quarters we are sometimes in danger of mob violence, or, as now in Baltimore, of actual legislation to pre vent. We are forced to take lower wages for equal work, and our standard of living is then criticised. Fully half of the labor, unions refuse us admittance and then claim that as "scabs" we lower the price of labor. A persistent caste pro scription seeks to force us and confine us to menial occupations where conditions of work are the worst. It is one thing to be optimistic, self-forgetting, and forgiving; but it is quite a different thing, consciously or unconsciously, to misrepresent the truth. To the above complaint may be added the fact that since a time approximating 1905 there has been an unprecedented, universal, and constantly growing tendency to enact laws and formulate cus toms the actions of which have been to segregate, repress, intimidate, and humiliate the colored race. During this period various States, as far East as Massachusetts, as far north as Michigan, and as THE KEY 39 far west as Nevada, have either enacted or se riously considered laws prohibiting either the co education or the intermarriage of Negroes and whites; other States have either enacted or se riously considered laws separating the races on public conveyances and in public places generally ; at least one State has enacted a law making it a crime for Negroes to use the same public telephone that is used by other people, while Negroes every where are finding it more and more difficult to obtain legal redress for infractions of their nom inal civil rights. These are incontrovertible facts, which tell their own tragic story. They are the legitimate progeny of a movement which had its ascendency, not in the dark days of Negro ignorance and depravity and poverty immediately following their emancipation, but which was originated at a time when the boast is being made that they represent the most gigantic strides in education, moral stamina, and material worth of any race in the history of the world. Nor is it optimism, but rather the most consummate madness, for Negroes and their sympathizers to beguile themselves with the belief that the eco nomic movement of Negroes as a mass will not be essentially downward in the face of such a rising tide of race repression. Indeed, there is every evidence that the industrial repression of Negroes is growing apace with their civil and political re- 40 THE KEY pression. From a study on the "Employment of Colored Women in Chicago," by the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, as reported by the New York Crisis, the following extracts are taken : However, the professional women do not have the greatest difficulty. The real barriers are met by the women who have had only an average education — girls who have finished high school, or perhaps only the eighth grade. These girls, if they were white, would find employment at clerical and office work in Chicago's department stores, mail order houses, and whole sale stores. But these positions are absolutely closed to the Negro girl. She has no choice but housework. When the object of the inquiry was explained to one woman, she said: "Why, no one wants a Negro to work for him. I'll show you — look in the newspaper." And she produced a paper with its columns of help wanted. See, not one person in this whole city has asked for, a Negro to work for him. The records of the South Side Free Employment Agency showed that the wages of colored women were uniformly lower than those of white women. Where the white cooks received $8 per week the Negro cook received $7, and where the white maid received $6, sometimes, but not as frequently as in the case of the cooks, the Negro maid received less. At the South Side Free Employment Agency during the months of January, February and March of this year (1910) forty-two positions for colored women were found. These forty-two positions were filled by thirty- six women, some of them coming back to the office two or three times during the three months. The superintendent said it was difficult to find places for the colored women who applied, and they probably succeeded in placing only about 25 per cent, of them. The fundamental cause of the discrimina- THE KEY 41 tion by employers against them is racial prejudice either in the employer himself or in his customers. One girl, who has only a trace of colored blood, was able to secure a position as salesgirl in a store. After she had been there a long time she asked for an increase in wages, such as had been allowed the white girls, but the request was refused and she was told that she ought to be thankful that they kept her at all. In many cases, especially when the women were living alone, their earnings, plus the income from lodgers, barely covered the rent. When they work by the day they rarely work more than four days a week. Sometimes the amount they gave as their weekly wage fell short of even paying the rent, but more often the rent was covered and a very small margin left to live on. Such treatment has dis couraged the Negro woman. She has accepted the conditions and seldom makes any real effort to get into any other sort of work. The twelfth question on the schedule, "What attempts have you made to secure other kinds of work in Chicago or elsewhere?" was usually answered by the question, "What's the use of trying to get work when you know you can't get it?" This exposition of the material status of colored women in Chicago would apply with equal fidelity to colored people, without regard to sex, through out the North. Moreover, it may unhesitatingly be said that there is not a branch of work which is open to Negroes to-day which was not as freely open to them ten years ago. On the other hand, there is scarcely a branch of labor which welcomed them ten years ago which is not gradually exclud ing them to-day. For example, with very few ex ceptions, the most successful Negroes to be found north of Mason and Dixon's line have gained a 42 THE KEY start in life by working as public waiters. To-day the Negro is being rapidly and systematically ex cluded from this branch of service. Contempor aneously with this reactionary sentiment against Negroes, and manifestly responsive to it, many, if not most, of the best hotels of Atlantic City, New Jersey, where Negroes formerly were employed almost exclusively, have dismissed their colored servants and substituted white ones; a fact that was conspicuously advertised in the daily press. In the winter of 1909-19 10 the hotels of Provi dence, Rhode Island, united in doing the self-same thing, — their formal explanation to the public be ing that they were merely behind other leading hotels throughout the country in not having long ago dispensed with Negroes, not only as waiters but in other capacities. Following closely this in cident, one of the best known hotels in Philadel phia, which had been employing Negro servants for more than twenty-five years, dismissed every Negro from its service, without a moment's notice, and installed white servants. In the early part of the year 191 1 one of the largest restaurants in this same city, which opened with Negro help more than a decade before, and had employed them con tinuously ever since, discharged every Negro from its service and substituted white help. But there is another fact of tremendous signifi cance relative to this situation, which is that this THE KEY 43 displacement of Negroes by white help entails an outlay of from ten to twenty-five per cent more in wages than is being paid to Negroes. There is a large restaurant in Philadelphia, which a few years ago decided to substitute white men for white women as waiters. To this end the manager, with whom the writer has long been personally ac quainted, advertised for and engaged thirty-six white waiters, at the wages of $8 a week for full time men and $6 a week for dinner men. On the day of the grand opening fifteen of these thirty-six men failed to put in an appearance, and the twenty- one who did report for duty began work murmur ing about the tasks imposed upon them, and the entire crew went on a strike on the afternoon of the first day. Chagrined at this action of the white men, the company at once decided to employ col ored waiters, offering them $6.50 a week for full time, and $3.50 a week for dinner men. I am speaking from personal knowledge when I say that a veritable army of Negro waiters responded to that call, and from that day to this the manager has had at his command an unlimited number of colored men waiting for some of the waiters to resign, or die, in order that they might find open ings for employment. This instance is merely typical of the manner in which the best Negro waiters are forced to scramble for work and conditions to which the 44 THE KEY most ordinary white waiters would not submit for one day without striking in rebellion. And, speak ing from a wide personal knowledge of this situa tion, I do not hesitate to say that were Negroes to refrain from working for vastly lower wages than white men would condescend to accept, in less than two years there would be scarcely a hotel of conse quence north of Mason and Dixon's line in which Negroes would have the remotest hope of obtain ing employment. The most ominous and discour aging part of this situation, however, is that it is not confined to the North, but is rapidly spreading to the most distant parts of the South. I have before me an advertisement, clipped from a Phila delphia newspaper, which is but one of many simi lar advertisements which may frequently be seen in almost any daily publication. It reads : Blankville, Florida.— Bayview Hotel, Blankville, Florida, claims distinction for location, safe construction and refined patronage. Modern in appointments. Rooms en suite with sun parlors, private baths or running water. Northern white help. In the heart of the tropical section. The significant part of this advertisement is the manner in which is paraded the fact that Northern white help is employed; and there is nothing more evident than that this persistent exploiting of white help, to the consequent belittling of Negro help, represents a systematic and wide-spread movement THE KEY 45 to drive Negroes from this branch of labor, which is by far the most lucrative to which they have ever found ready access, especially in the North. But even more threatening than this movement against Negro menials in the North is the growing sentiment against Negro labor generally on the part of an element of Southern people, alluded to in another part of this book. It is known that for years there has been a systematic movement on the part of an element of Southern people to divert the industrial hordes of Europe to that section, for the avowed purpose of supplanting Negro labor wher ever and whenever it can be done. It was this growing opposition to the lucrative and dignified employment of Negroes in the South which, in the year 1908, occasioned such marked sympathy with the strike on the Georgia Railroad against Negro firemen, an occupation in which Negroes till then had been engaged, without the slightest question, from the introduction of railroads in the South, and at which some of the railroad officials, in testi fying before the arbitration board which finally settled the strike, declared they were more efficient than the average white fireman. Nor would the strikers agree to resume work with the Negroes till the company was coerced into paying them the same wages that were paid the white men, on the theory that when the company no longer had the advantage of employing Negroes 46 THE KEY at lower wages they would gradually be dropped from the service. Still not satisfied with this concession, though they were pledged to abide by the decision of the arbitration board, these antagonists of Negro labor succeeded in having introduced in and se riously considered by the Georgia Legislature a bill to prohibit the employment of Negroes in any capacity on the railroads of that State. It was at about this time that the Legislature of the State of Oklahoma seriously considered a bill to prohibit the employment of Negroes as Pullman car por ters, hotel waiters, or in any other capacity which would bring them into close personal contact with the white people of that State. This onslaught against Negro labor in the South has even extended to the most humble branches of the Civil Service, where no man is supposed to be known by his race or color, it being said that many cities of that sec tion peremptorily debar Negroes as postal clerks. So late as February, 191 1, the Negroes of the cap ital of one of the largest and most representative Southern States were protesting piteously against the announcement made by the new postmaster as soon as he took charge of the office that he would appoint no Negro to the position of clerk. In the spring of 191 1 the entire system of the Cincinnati Southern Railroad was threatened with paralysis by a fierce and bloody strike of white fire- THE KEY 47 men, which was instituted for the deliberate and boldly announced purpose of forcing that railway to dispense with Negro firemen. To such alarm ing proportions did that strike grow that on the 1 2th of March nine Negro firemen were shot to death in their cabs by strikers or their sympathiz ers; two white deputy sheriffs were killed while defending them ; the engineers refused to haul any more trains on which Negro firemen were em ployed, and the several unions by which railway work is dominated volunteered to support the striking firemen in drastic measures to force the complete elimination of Negro firemen. The public press of the country maintained a significant reticence regarding this strike and its attendant tragedies, particulars only now and then filtering through the pages of a very few publica tions which seemed less intent than the press gen erally upon suppressing evidences of the sheer in humanity which prompted it. Particulars given out by the general committee of the strikers, how ever, were to the effect that the strike was directly caused by the general manager of the railroad ad vancing a Negro fireman over white firemen, and justifying his position by contending that Negro firemen were older in the service of the company than were white firemen, and that he considered Negro firemen "to be the equals of white firemen, and some are better than the white firemen." 48 THE KEY When the vice-president, and then the president, sustained the general manager in his position, the white firemen instituted their strike, giving out the statement that "it is a fight to secure to young white men of the South an opportunity of following the occupation of locomotive fireman without being compelled to go North or West to secure employ ment." But that this was a determined movement to not only eliminate Negroes from such employ ment in the South, but to prevent their employment in the North, is evinced by the fact that among the many oppressive conditions imposed upon Negroes before the strike was finally settled was the stipula tion that they shall not be employed as firemen north of Oakdale, Tennessee. This strike had hardly been settled when firemen of the Southern Railway, of Georgia, threatened a strike unless certain of their extreme demands against Negro firemen and hostlers were acceded to. Particulars of this trouble were likewise rigidly excluded from the public press generally, the public being kept in almost absolute ignorance as to the existence of such an industrial war. But it is known that the Southern Railway and its em ployees were engaged in a bitter contention over the situation for several months, and that, as is coming to be invariably the case, the company was finally forced to yield by, according to a statement issued by the chairman of the committee of the THE KEY 49 Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Fire men, agreeing to limit the number of Negro fire men to a certain percentage, which provision, it was said, would result in reducing the num ber of Negroes on all divisions. It was further stipulated that the white firemen and hostlers should receive a flat increase of ten per cent in wages. Their wages formerly were 20 per cent more than those of Negroes, the additional in crease of ten per cent causing them to be paid thirty per cent more than is received by Negroes for identical service performed with equal satisfac tion. This incessant fight against Negro firemen in the South, with results increasingly adverse to that race, clearly presages the fact that it will be but a short time (unless the movement is at once checked by the responsible people of this country arising in their might and asserting themselves) before this anti-Negro element, sustained by the hostile and abnormal sentiment which it is industriously creat ing, will demand and force as complete an exclu sion of Negroes from such work in the South as there is in the North. While settlement of the strike above alluded to was still pending, there were published particulars of the repression of Negroes along a wholly differ ent line in another Southern State. It must be ad mitted that the case in question is extreme, and 50 THE KEY doubtless unusual, though it seems thoroughly characteristic. The particulars are these : In a certain Southern State is a community com posed wholly of Negroes. Two colored men of that community were engaged in the grocery busi ness, and another colored man, who had been a schoolteacher in the neighborhood for years, hav ing a large family and being desirous of adding to his income for their support, also entered the gro cery business. Several miles from this community, some white men likewise engaged in business, and were said to desire the trade of this Negro com munity for themselves. Consequently they dele gated themselves a committee and called on the colored merchants in broad daylight and told them that the business of conducting groceries and specu lating were affairs that properly belong to white people ; that Negroes attempting to do such busi ness would cause trouble between the races, and that the only way for these Negroes to avoid such trouble would be for them to give up any aspira tions they might have to enter the domain of the white man by abandoning grocery and speculating business. The committee concluded by saying that it had come to warn the Negroes, and that if they did not heed the warning, they would have to take the consequences. The colored men closed their stores, for the sake of peace. These are but casual illustrations of the increas- THE KEY 51 ingly adverse and repressive conditions under which Negroes are loudly proclaimed to be "mak ing marvelous progress"; under which they are told that their "destiny is in their own hands," and that they must "work out their own salvation." These are the conditions about which any Negro who has the hardihood to utter a word of warn ing is branded as a "pessimist" and a "calamity howler." IV. WHY DISCRIMINATIONS ARE MADE. After bombarding the "optimists" of both races with facts and figures which force them to admit that the Negro's path of progress is not strewn with roses and that he is being subjected to indus trial discriminations which can have no other effect than to adversely affect every interest of his being, I am frequently asked with an air of impatience (as though it were a situation of my own making, with which I alone should be burdened) to explain why it is that such discriminations are made against Negroes. This is a question much easier to ask than to answer. Indeed, the man who can logic ally account for the growing disposition to exclude Negroes from the industrial life of this country must of necessity be capable of correctly analyzing the entire Negro question in its various phases; for the same influences which have brought about civil and political estrangement between the races are bringing about their industrial estrangement. It is in the preposterous but widely accepted theory that there can be and is normal economic development of the race in the face of an aggres- 52 THE KEY 53 sively hostile sentiment that lies the grave danger of the so-called optimism that hangs over this coun try like a pall. Nor is there warrant for attempt ing to explain the industrial subjugation of Negroes by contending that it is primarily due to their own lack of skill and fitness. Aside from the fact that every impartial and authoritative report regarding Negro labor in this country is unanimous in the contention that such labor is steadily improv ing in skill and reliability, the stock-in-trade of those who profess to see no cause for concern re garding the economic status of Negroes is that the race is making rapid strides in education, industry, wealth, self-help, and self-dependence. The anomaly of Negroes being displaced from the industries of the country in almost inverse ratio to their acquirement of industrial efficiency, and the concomitant excellencies regarding which so much sermonizing is being done, serves to utterly discredit these factors as being, by independent action, in any way potent to righteously adjust either industrial or other relations between the races. While it must be admitted that a lack of proper industrial training has greatly retarded the economic advancement of the race, it is most obvious that the deep-seated causes of their studied industrial repression must be traced to other and far different sources. The truth is that this grow ing tendency to exclude Negroes from honest labor 54 THE KEY is a logical and sympathetic response to the wide spread wave of sentiment against the race ; to the tendency to leave them severely alone ; to separate them from everything that stands for the progress and happiness of American citizens ; to allow them no part or parcel in the common opportunities of a common country, and to leave them, as the apolo gists for this repression blandly put it, to "work out their own salvation." Mr. Edgar Gardener Murphy (white), of Montgomery, Alabama, goes to the heart of this situation in his book, "The Basis of Ascendancy," when he says: And yet this movement (growing opposition to Negroes) is among us. I have already dwelt upon the significant intoler ance of its logic as it has viewed the interests of our Negro masses. Its more radical spokesmen have proceeded by easy stages from an undiseriminating attack ,upon -the Negro's ballot to a like attack upon his schools, his labor, his life — from the contention that no Negro shall vote to the contention that no Negro shall learn, and that no Negro shall labor, and (by im plication), that no Negro shall live. Weaker groups, if they remain at all, remain to serve rather than to share. The artificial means by which the white race has been self-converted to this oppressive and repres sive attitude toward Negroes are to be found in a systematic campaign of abuse and misrepresenta tion on the part of a certain class of politicians, public men, novelists, magazine and newspaper writers, and a perversive public press for the trans- THE KEY 55 parent purpose of manufacturing hostile sentiment against the race and keeping it in a subject and servile position. But Negroes themselves, by other means than industrial inefficiency, have played no small part in exciting the hostility which is more and more excluding them from honest labor. Of course there is abundant room for complaint about the unreliability, dishonesty, and lack of thorough ness on the part of Negro servants. But the same complaints are rife with reference to servants of other races, and it has never been demonstrated that under similar conditions Negroes are inher ently below the standards of other servants ; while it is common to hear staid and fastidious persons declare that they prefer the jovial and deferential service of Negroes to the glum and haughty service peculiar to some other races. But there are influences upon the lives of Negroes generally which could have no other effect than to detract from their industrial efficiency. Chief among these are the discriminating and dis couraging conditions under which practically all of their labor is performed. Negroes stand alone among the industrial forces of this country, in that practically no hope of advancement through faith ful service is held out to them. For example, on some, if not all, of the steam railways of the coun try it is possible for men to progress, and there are said to be instances of their having progressed 5 6 THE KEY through successive stages from humble track la borer to section foreman, road-master, division superintendent, and, finally, to president of the system, through no other influence than that of faithfulness to duty. In my very limited personal experience I have met a man who at the time, in the year 1890, was road-master between Denver and Omaha on the Union Pacific Railroad, he hav ing begun as track laborer. I know of but one railroad in the North, and but one State, Colo rado, where Negroes are so much as permitted to work as track laborers to any considerable extent, and in no instance do they ever rise above the level of section foreman, nor have I ever heard of more than three Negroes being simultaneously em ployed in this latter capacity. In like manner white men may win their way from brakeman to the highest positions of trust and honor in railway service. In about the year 1892 another man was taken from his position as train conductor on the same railroad and made division superintendent. The only position open to Negroes in railway transportation in the North is that of porter, and they are consequently depressed by the knowledge that no amount of devotion to duty will ever serve to advance them beyond service in that humble ca pacity. These discriminations are typical of the treatment that is accorded Negroes in almost every field of labor in which they find any recognition. THE KEY 57 The workers of all other races are inspired by the knowledge that either they or their children may hope for the highest positions connected with the work in which they are engaged. The Negro is depressed by the knowledge that he and his children and his children's children must continue to plod through existence in the humble positions in which they start. Negroes would be less than human if they did not become morose and listless and indifferent and despondent in the face of such persistently untoward and unreasonable conditions. But there are other, more positive, means by which Negroes are accelerating the reactionary movement against themselves, and which, as I have tried to make plain, includes the tendency to ex clude them from honest labor, none of which is more potent than the low civil and political stand ards that obtain among them. When we go to the genesis of this movement, it is to be questioned if an orderly and upright Negro has ever inspired a single separate car law, a single segregation movement, a single sentiment in favor of exclud ing the race from contact with other citizens. I do not mean to convey the impression that honor able and high-minded Negroes have not frequently been the direct and intended victims of such dis criminations, or that these discriminations are not often unjust and unreasonable to the last degree. But I do maintain that, when sifted to the bottom, 58 THE KEY it will be found in almost every case that the spark that has kindled these flames of race antagonism has been furnished by the thoughtless and irrespon sible element of Negroes. More than this; I se riously question if it has been the thoughtful and upright Negro, with a full appreciation of his duties as a citizen, who has in any degree inspired the feeling, now almost universal, that Negroes are not worthy of participating in the affairs of this Government on terms of equality with other citizens. This question will be discussed more fully in another part of this book. V. WHY NEGROES LEAVE THE SOUTH. To those whose study of the race question has been only superficial it is frequently difficult to pre sent satisfactory proof that Negroes find greater industrial handicaps in the North than in the South, because of the rapid manner in which Ne groes are leaving the South for the North. Among such persons is one of the most noted foreign diplomats who has ever sojourned in this coun try, — a man who has long been known as a deep student of American life, including the Negro question. The following is a letter that I received from this gentleman, broadly intimating that I would not find it easy to harmonize my contention that Negroes are seriously discriminated against in the North with their rapid migration to this sec tion. His letter follows : I havei read with interest the printed letter l and your own 1 This was a letter which I originally sent to the African Methodist Episcopal Ministers' meeting, of Philadelphia, call ing their attention to the industrial repression of Negroes, and appealing for their co-operation in remedying it. 59 60 THE KEY letter to me which you have sent me regarding the industrial disabilities under which colored men labor in the North. I do not doubt that you have facts which support the broad state ments you make regarding these disabilities and the sufferings they entail; but I should like to know a little more in detail what the facts are, in what branches of trade colored men are denied a fair chance, and whether it is owing to social preju dice or to the action of trade unions that they are prevented from obtaining employment. When in the South not long ago, I heard that a good many were leaving the South to go to Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio, and I find it hard to understand why they should do so if it is so difficult' for them to obtain work or fair treatment in the North. You could perhaps explain the position. To this letter I made the following reply : Replying to your esteemed favor of the 20th instant, asking for details regarding industrial discriminations against colored people in the North, I beg leave to offer you the following facts and conclusions: As to the specific branches of labor from which colored people are most rigidly excluded, I have only to say, as I explain in practically all of my writings, that as a very general rule they are almost completely excluded from all branches of labor north of Mason and Dixon's line, save those embracing domestic and personal service. To give spe cific illustrations: There are but three cities in the North, — Indianapolis, Indiana; Cleveland, Ohio, and Detroit, Michigan, —where Negroes are allowed to work as motormen and con ductors on trolley cars. I have personal knowledge of street railway conditions in Geveland, where about eight Negro motormen and conduc tors are employed, thanks very largely to the broad-minded ness of the Hon. Tom L. Johnson. Though Negroes have been thus employed in Cleveland for possibly twenty years, my last information was that not a serious accident had ever befallen THE KEY 6 1 a car which was manned by colored men. Indeed, it was com mon talk among white street car patrons of Cleveland that colored conductors and motormen were among the most polite and efficient men in the service of the Cleveland street rail ways. The same is true of all other railways in the North, there not being, so far as I know, a single colored engineer, fireman, conductor, yardman, switchman, or brakeman north of Mason and Dixon's line. The very fact that colored men fill every one of these positions, with the possible exception of engineers and conductors, in the South, is the best possible evidence that they are designedly and purposely excluded from such employment in the North for no other reasons than those of race and color. I am well acquainted with a very bright young Negro, one of the brightest and most manly whom I have ever met (and who till a year ago was an ordinary hotel waiter, since which time he has been a postal clerk) who less than six months ago related to me a characteristic incident which came to his per sonal knowledge relative to Works, of this city. I regret that in order that you may fully appreciate this entire situation it will be necessary for me here to mention the name of Mr , head of the Works, and one of the most noted philanthropists of whom Philadelphia can boast. It is no discredit to Mr that he acted as he did in this case, but it does illustrate the extent to which this situa tion hampers those who are known to be personally generous, and who, did they dare, would gladly shut their eyes to race and color in all questions of work and wages. The facts are these, as related to me by my friend, and later corroborated by various other citizens : Some eight years ago Dr , president of the Industrial Institute, together with a number of other gentle men interested in the advancement of colored people, conceived the idea that it would be a splendid thing to give a number of Negro students of a thorough practical training in the great Works, after they had completed a me chanical course at Consequently, Dr 62 THE KEY and his associates called in person on Mr , head of the Works, and proposed that eight picked Negroes from Institute be allowed to work in his shops for nothing, merely for the sake of the thorough and practical me chanical training which they could thus obtain. The reply of Mr was that his other employees would refuse to work with the Negroes, and for this reason he absolutely re fused to consider the proposition. Yet it is said that repre sentatives of practically every other race and nation are to be found in for the very purpose sought in behalf of these Negroes, the practical training to be thus acquired. Added to all of this is the fact that Mr is an ardent sup porter of Mr. Booker T. Washington's idea of industrial train ing for Negroes, seemingly oblivious to the fact that an indus trial opportunity is of more intrinsic value than an industrial education. So far as labor unions are concerned, they are no better and no worse than are the average persons outside of such unions. They merely observe, and at times a little more effectually carry out, the recognized policy throughout the North of ex cluding Negroes from all save the most menial and humble occupations. But the theory of labor .unions is against color discrimination, the American Federation of Labor until re cently refusing admission to any union which openly draws the color line. ThiSj however, is nothing more nor less than defer ence to public opinion, labor leaders being shrewd enough to know that the public would severely condemn them should they openly make color a basis of fitness in what they are pleased to term their unselfish efforts in behalf of the submerged masses. By openly standing for all that public sentiment demands, equal opportunities for all men, regardless of race or color, they are enabled to all the more easily and covertly go to the extreme of race discrimination without the remotest fear of arousing to resentment and action the great public conscience. In short, and I speak from an abundant experience, there is a deep- seated sentiment, only awaiting to be awakened, in favor of THE KEY 63 giving Negroes the same opportunity of working for an honest living that is extended to men of other races. So far as Negroes leaving the South for fiercer competition in the North is concerned, there is one fact which you should ever keep in mind regarding the South and the Negro, and I am saying this with full appreciation of the fact that many, perhaps most, of the Negro's truest and most devoted friends are to be found south of Mason and Dixon's line: You are a man of great prominence. When you go South to study social conditions that section at once places itself upon its good behavior ; it desires that you should seee it at its best, and the Negro at his worst, in order that you may be properly inv- pressed with "the white man's burden." The sheer brutality, and intimidation, and humiliation, coupled with what seems a set determination to crush out their manhood, to which all classes and conditions of Negroes in the South are everywhere called upon to submit, are conditions which are not brought forcibly to your attention when in the South; but for all this they are as gall and wormwood to countless thousands of Southern Negroes, whose sensibilities are as keen as are those of the whitest of white men. It is these conditions which are forcing many Negroes to turn their faces to the North, where they know that they will at least be allowed to hold up their heads, even though the struggle for existence may be far more severe. But with all of the severity employed by the South in dealing with Negroes, the rank and file of them, as the Charles ton, South Carolina, News and Courier so significantly points out, prefer such lives of terror to the starvation which con fronts them when crossing the dead-line of Mason and Dixon. Added to the facts set forth in this letter there could easily be cited an endless array of conditions and happenings that are beginning to cause many Negroes of refined feeling to feel that almost any place in which to live would be preferable to the 64 THE KEY South. In the year 1909 the accomplished daugh ter of one of the most noted Bishops of the colored race, a man who was easily the most influential, and one of the most wealthy Negroes in one of the great Southern States, resented the familiarity with which the white girls at the telephone ex change in their city addressed her by her given name. When they persisted in their manner she complained to her father. He called on the man ager of the company and asked that his daughter be treated with the same courtesy that was ac corded the women patrons of the white race. The manager not only refused to grant the Bishop's request, but, after intimating that he regarded it as an impertinence, made the incident public. The result was that an indignation meeting was held by a number of citizens, and the Bishop was given just five hours in which to take his family from the city. Needless to say, the good Bishop lost no time in complying with that command, and sought the more congenial clime of Ohio, where for a number of weeks he remained in virtual exile. At length, however, he addressed a most abject and humiliating letter to a number of white preachers at his home, expressing regret that what he said relative to his daughter had created such ah un favorable impression; disclaiming any purpose to assert his own equality or that of his family with THE KEY 65 the white race, and pleading to be allowed to re turn to his home. The white preachers were quick to respond to his letter, telling him that they would try to explain his position to the community and inviting him to return home. But their reply was not reassuring to the Bishop, and for this reason it is said that he never again ventured to resume his former resi dence. Shortly after this incident the Bishop died, in the prime of life, and opinion is general that his death was hastened by that harrowing experience. But such happenings are not confined to individ uals. Whole communities of Negroes are fre quently and indiscriminately driven from various parts of the South for reasons even more flimsy than in the case of this Bishop. During the latter part of the year 1910 more than 500 law-abiding and home-owning Negroes, for reasons so insignifi cant as never to have been definitely known, were forced to virtually sacrifice their property in a Southern community and flee to other parts of the country. In an earnest editorial against such ter rorizing of Negroes, the Savannah, Georgia, Tri bune (white) said: Not only do we deplore this state of affairs because of the fact that the majority of those Negroes that have left Turner County are peaceable, law abiding, hard working men and women, but because it is just such disturbances as this that are driving so many of our thrifty colored farmers out of the rural 66 THE KEY districts into the thickly settled towns and cities. There have been scores of energetic Negro farmers throughout Georgia within the past three months who have given up their valuable lands and have migrated to other parts of the country, because conditions have been such in these communities as to positively deny them that protection of life and property which all citi zens seek. To urge them to hold fast to their lands in the face of death is asking more than can be expected of them, and this departure of Negroes from the counties where such conditions as this exist is to be looked for so long as county authorities allow these unbearable wrongs to be perpetrated against our people without taking the proper measures to stop them. While penning these lines the postman hands me a Southern newspaper, dated March 4, 191 1, con taining particulars of the unprovoked and indis criminate mobbing of the Negro section in one of the largest cities in the State of Texas. The news reads : For three hours last night a mob of a thousand men and boys had possession of the downtown section. Half a dozen Negroes were roughly handled, scores of others were chased, and thou sands of dollars of damage done to buildings occupied by Negroes. The trouble started when a picture show exclusively for Negroes opened its doors at eight o'clock. Almost imme diately afterward the mob began to gather. Then a volley of rocks and bricks were hurled into the building, wrecking the place and scattering its occupants. The mob then began a sys tematic search for Negroes. Sweeping through Main, Houston and Commerce Streets, the principal business thoroughfares of the city, the rioters invaded every place where a Negro was seen, and if he was not fortunate enough to outrun his perse cutors he was set upon and beaten. In the height of the trouble the excitement was added to by the shooting and killing of a THE KEY 67 Negro porter by a bartender in an uptown saloon. At midnight a hard shower of rain dispersed the rioters. '; Closely following the lead of Baltimore, other Southern cities are seeking to make it a crime pun ishable by fine and imprisonment for Negroes to reside or conduct business on streets occupied by white people, and vice versa. These are some of the reasons why Negroes are leaving the South, though with Southern humilia tion and intimidation back of them and Northern repression and starvation in front of them, it is easy to be seen that their position is much like that of the man who found himself between the ,D. and the D. S. VI. SOPHISTIC REASONING. The glaring and disquieting proportions that the repression of Negro labor is assuming has served to arouse from their lethargy numerous in dividuals who, without previous -thought, or more than surface investigation or reasoning, and in utter ignorance of the various influences that for decades have conspired to bring this situation about, assume themselves to be fully capable of understanding the problem, and of dealing with it in a logical and practical manner. A logical se quence of such precipitate and thoughtless dealing with a situation of such insidious growth and com plex proportions is the making of grave and far1 reaching mistakes. Consequently, many of these tyros are doing Negroes a deep and irreparable injury, as well as encouraging and justifying their repression, by proclaiming from the house-tops that they experience no industrial handicaps save those of their own inefficiency. 68 THE KEY 69 This astounding contention is made because, for sooth, when a few Negro carpenters, or masons, or plasterers are called for by some charitably in clined individual to perform some relatively insig nificant and unimportant work for which white me chanics would not deign to contend, the supply is not always equal to the demand. The fact is over looked that practically no such work is open to Negroes with the great contractors, by whom all such_ contracts that give any assurance of paying and protracted employment are monopolized, and who almost invariably employ white mechanics to the total exclusion of Negroes, and that the Ne gro's only hope for work at such trades lies in the chance jobs that come through individuals who are not regular or extensive employers of labor. It is admitted that there are comparatively few Negro mechanics north of Mason and Dixon's line. But the reasons are plain enough to those who are capable of seeing beneath the surface, or reasoning from effect to cause. The Negro me chanics who were the products of slavery days have practically passed away, and the rising generations of Negroes absolutely refuse to expend time and money in learning trades at which they know they would have no hope of finding steady employment and paying wages. But there are many intermediate occupations be- 70 THE KEY tween the common laborer and the mechanic, from practically all of which the Negro is rigidly ex cluded, and for none of which a mere technical edu cation affords the slightest preparation. More than this, many of these intermediate callings pay vastly higher wages than does almost any trade that could be learned in a technical school. For example, the positions of engineer, fireman, con ductor or brakeman on the steam railroads of the North pay from three to ten dollars a day, and more. No industrial school has ever turned out a Negro graduate who would be allowed to fill a single one of these positions north of Mason and Dixon's line. There is not a person of ordinary intelligence who does not know that Negroes are excluded from such callings for no other reason than that of race. Indeed, no industrial school has ever turned out a single Negro graduate who would be permitted to serve in the humble capacity of motorman, conductor or lineman for the aver age street railway company north of Mason and Dixon's line. Yet, in the face of such blighting facts as these, there are those that claim to be friends of Negroes, — persons eager to broaden the colored man's industrial opportunities, — who are robbing the Negro of every vestige of sym pathy, and are making these conditions immeas urably more difficult to overcome, by persistently THE KEY 71 contending that it is Negro inefficiency alone that bars him from the broader fields of labor. It requires only a thought to remind one that it is but an infinitesimal part of the work of this coun try that is done by mechanics. The Bureau of In dustrial Statistics for the State of Pennsylvania groups the principal industries of that State under eighteen distinct heads, which include coal mining, cars, car wheels and castings, cement works, foun dries and machine shops, general industries, glass factories, leather (tanneries, etc.), paper mills, pig-iron furnaces, powder mills, rolling mills, steel ingots and castings, steel works, silk mills, slate quarries, textile mills, and tin plate mills. No in dustrial school can teach a Negro to perform the most simple task in any of these industries. And it is known of all men that Negroes are rigidly excluded from practically all such industries not only in Pennsylvania but throughout the North, and solely on the ground of race. How completely Negroes are excluded from the classified industries of Pennsylvania is shown by the report of the Bureau of Industrial Statistics, above referred to. This report shows that of the 498,763 people employed in the classified indus tries of Pennsylvania in the year 1908, 253,335 were white Americans (with 1,081,755 white Americans ten years old and over engaged in gain ful occupations), or 23 per cent of this element 72 THE KEY of labor; 242,457 were foreigners (with 494,537 foreigners ten years old and over engaged in gain ful occupations), or 49 per cent of this element of labor, and 4,785 were Negroes (with 58,805 Ne groes ten years old and over engaged in gainful occupations), or 8 per cent of this class of labor, 1,735 °f these, or more than one-fourth of the total number thus employed, being engaged in bi tuminous coal mining. In twenty-two establishments under the classifi cation of "Carriages, Wagons, Repairs, Axles, and Springs, 1,438 employees were white Americans; 378 were foreigners and only 6 were Negroes. Twenty-three firms engaged in cement production employed 3,323 white Americans; 4,847 foreign ers, and 12 Negroes. Of the workers in 34 foun dries and machine shops 2,963 were white Amer icans; 524 were foreigners and 57 were Negroes. In Philadelphia twenty-five establishments en gaged in the manufacture of silk goods employed 1,788 white Americans, 470 foreigners, and 4 Negroes. With sixty-nine firms in this city en gaged in the manufacture of worsted and woolen goods, 5,570 employees were white Americans, 2,267 were foreigners, and 2 were Negroes. Forty Philadelphia manufacturers of upholstery em ployed 1,651 white Americans, 622 foreigners, and 2 Negroes. Indeed, aside from the large number of Negroes THE KEY 73 employed as bituminous coal miners, the only other conspicuous instances of their employment in the industries of Pennsylvania are in the steel works that have rolling mills and make a finished prod uct, where 18,656 white Americans, 22,346 for eigners, and 1,103 Negroes are employed; and in the steel works that do not roll nor finish their products, where 3,570 white Americans, 1,672 for eigners, and 38 Negroes are employed. The 1909 report of this same bureau states that in the 18 principal industries of the State nearly half of the employees were foreigners. In other words, of a total of 663,755 workers, 342,198, or 51.6 per cent, were white Americans; 316,130, or 47.6 per cent, were foreigners, and 5,428, or 0.8 per cent, Were Negroes. But the most ominous aspect of this situation is perhaps to be found in the alacrity with which em ployers appeal directly to Europe, rather than to the hordes of impoverished Negro citizens, for any supply of labor that cannot be met by American white men; 6,000 Europeans, according to pub lished reports, having been brought under contract in the month of November, 1909, to work in the mills of the Pittsburg, Pa., district alone. This fact of itself completely discredits the glib conten tion, so frequently heard, that white workers, when antagonizing Negro labor, are actuated by motives of self-protection, their alleged fear being that, 74 THE KEY were they to allow Negroes a chance to work, they would be paving the way for Negroes ulti mately to crowd them out of employment. A more baseless apology for the repression of Negro labor has doubtless never been invented. More aliens have come to this country during the past ten years than have been added to its Negro population in three hundred years, and this flood of immigration is rising higher and higher with each succeeding year. It is axiomatic that the coming to America of foreign labor is minutely gauged by the demands for labor in this country, and any existent menace to white American labor is palpably to be found in this ever-responsive and irresistible horde of aliens, rather than in the limited and, to a far greater degree, undeveloped and unavailable supply of Negro labor. Just how much real fear white American workers have of being supplanted is evinced by the fact that they are never known to object to the wholesale employ ment of this foreign labor, or to working with such labor, wherever and whenever circumstances demand, while the employment of one woe-begone Negro citizen in other than the most insignificant capacity is usually regarded as cause for a fierce and relentless strike. The absurdity of holding that tens of millions of white workers, with centuries upon centuries for development and specialization back of them, THE KEY 75 actually fear to compete with a mere handful of Negroes, who are but three centuries removed from savagery, while complacently welcoming and working with the exhaustless millions of Euro peans, who have had ages of tutoring in the fiercest schools of competition, must be apparent to all who pause to think. It is obvious that where recognition is extended to Negro labor the immi gration of foreign labor to that extent will be checked ; that where recognition is not accorded to Negro labor foreign labor will inevitably respond to any demands for labor that cannot be met by white Americans, and that in either case the chief injury to white labor will be in the white men's sharing with other mortals the work that they cannot do themselves. On the other hand, it is well known that em ployers usually offer as their only reason for ignor ing Negro labor the contention, already pointed out, that white labor would refuse to work with Negroes. To what extent this fear is justified, however, has really never been given a practical test. There are a few conspicuous instances, nota bly the great packing houses of Chicago, the Black Diamond Steel Works, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and the Midvale Steel Works, of Philadelphia, — where employers have closed their eyes to the pos sible hostility of white labor, and for a number of years have been employing increasingly large 76 THE KEY forces of Negroes. But there are vastly more em ployers who will not run the risk of arousing white opposition to Negro labor, and who are forced to yield whenever they do. In the year 1896 the Philadelphia and West Chester Traction Company employed two Ne groes as motormen. The white employees entered a vigorous protest, and finally went on a strike. For nearly three days the president of this com pany, a prominent member of the Society of Friends, pleaded with these strikers to reconsider their action and permit him, as a mere act of jus tice, to retain the Negroes. But his pleadings fell upon heedless ears, and the Negroes were finally dismissed. From that day to this no other trac tion company in Philadelphia has had the hardi hood to employ Negroes in such a capacity in the face of such determined opposition on the part of white employees. In the summer of the next year, 1897, a sturdy and ambitious Negro applied for a position as motorman with what was then the Union Traction Company of Philadelphia. The two Negro Preachers Meetings of that city, several white churches, white preachers, and prominent laymen of both races made direct and repeated appeals to that company in behalf of this Negro during the entire summer of 1897, to all of which one reply was made : "Our white employees would object to THE KEY 77 working with a Negro." In the face of such re peated rebuffs in the most ordinary lines of labor, there is little wonder that Negroes long ago ceased practically all efforts to obtain recognition in the broader and more paying fields of labor. VII. WHITE LABOR NOT BARBAROUS. There is a popular impression that white work ers as a class are violently antagonistic to Negro labor. This I have found to be true of only the lower and less responsible among them. The great trouble with employers and employees alike, as I have elsewhere suggested, is that the question of colored labor has never been brought to a definite issue. Aside from the instances already alluded to, in which white and colored labor are jointly employed, there are at least three cities in the North, — Indianapolis, Cleveland, and Detroit, — where Negroes are employed as motor- men and conductors by traction companies. The Union Pacific roundhouse, at Denver, and nu merous less conspicuous establishments, employ goodly numbers of colored skilled, as well as com mon, workmen, who labor side by side with white men, not only as friends but as comrades. At tempts to employ Negro labor frequently cause more or less friction, on account of an element among the white workmen. But I have yet to hear of an honest and determined effort in this 78 THE KEY 79 direction that did not end in satisfaction to all concerned. The true sentiment of labor, as well as that of the public generally regarding the industrial rights of Negroes, was vividly expressed by an incident that occurred in St. Louis on the evening of November 17, 1 910. At that time Mr. Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor, made an address before the St. Louis Trades and Labor Council, during the sessions of the annual convention of the American Federation of Labor, in which he was reported to have read the Negro out of the organized labor movement. At the next day's session of the convention Mr. Gompers arose and made the following statement, which was immediately given to the press : Instead of "reading the Negro out of the labor move ment," my contention and the contention of the American Federation of Labor is to try to bring them into the organized labor movement of our country. We are trying our level best, and will continue to do so, to organize the men and women of toil without regard to their religion, their politics, their nationality, their sex or their race. I could not permit this entire day to pass by without thus publicly, in this con vention and in the presence of our visitors and their repre sentatives of the press, making this correction. The Executive Council of the American Federa tion of Labor also took up the incident, and a few days later issued a supplementary report, from which the following significant extracts are made : 80 THE KEY In view of the very grave misrepresentations of the press of the statement upon the Negro question, made by President Gompers in an address which he delivered in this city on the evening of November 17, and in addition to the refutation which he made on the floor of this convention on the following day, we feel that it is due to the American Federation of Labor and the great cause of labor which we represent that we, as your duly constituted officers, should take cognizance thereof. Numerous telegrams and letters, newspaper clippings and editorials, from every section of the country, all protesting against the declaration which he was alleged to have made, have been received by President Gompers, thus demonstrating that the misrepresentation of his statement has been given wide publicity, something which is not only a grave injustice to him, but a great wrong to our cause, the organized labor movement of the country, which this convention of Federated Labor has the honor to represent. It is inconceivable that in view of President Gompers' record of long years of life de voted to the cause of wage-earners, of those who toil, that he, and through him the American Federation of Labor, should be placed before the world in the position of declaring that any class of wage-earners, no matter of what race, creed, sex or nationality, should be "read out" of the labor move ment. So perturbed was Mr. Gompers over this inci dent that ten days after its occurrence he went to what to him was the unprecedented extent of deliv ering an address in one of the leading Negro churches of St. Louis, in which he undertook to explain his position and that of organized labor relative to Negroes. In the January, 191 1, issue of the American Federationist, Mr. Gompers, THE KEY 8 1 commenting editorially, on his address in this Ne gro church, said: From prominent members of the [Negro] congregation contradictions of the canard sprung by the reporter were sent out over the country, as had been done by many labor men and others who knew the truth. Thus, so far as possible, no step that could be taken to deny the reporter's story was overlooked. But he had done the damage. To this day pro tests are arriving at headquarters of the American Federa tion of Labor against our assumed exclusion of the Negro from the labor movement. They have come in the form of regrets from friends, denunciations from enemies, judicial head-wagging from statesmen, howls from fanatics. Some writers beg us to "reconsider" ; some think that we ourselves "do not deserve the confidence of the workers"; some adjudge our sentiments as "reprehensible"; one editor pronounces us as "drunk, brutal or stupid." Aside from the unusual extent to which Mr. Gompers and his associates went in order to re< move any impression that organized labor is hos tile to Negroes, the most significant and hopeful part of this incident is to be found in the avalanche of protests which Mr. Gompers himself admits the very suggestion of such an oppressive attitude to ward Negroes brought upon him and the American Federation of Labor from every part of the coun try. It must be said, however, that in all of this discussion the real danger to Negroes of organized labor has been entirely ignored. It is a recognized fact that organized labor is willing enough — in 82 THE KEY fact, anxious — that all other workers should swell the ranks of union labor. But the power possessed by organized labor to oppress Negroes lies in its tendency to monopolize certain branches of labor to the arbitrary exclusion of Negroes. Not till Mr. Gompers and his asso ciates shall seek not only to organize Negroes in the limited fields of labor in which they now find recognition but to welcome them to any callings for which they have the inclination and the ca pacity will they be in a position to proclaim to the world that it is not the disposition of organized labor to oppress any of those who work for wages. It is known, however, that the more enlightened element among laboring people, including most of the best-known labor leaders, is heartily opposed to the narrow restrictions that are being imposed upon Negro labor, and none would be more ready than this class to demand simple justice for the colored race should a decided movement be made in the direction of fairness and equal opportunity. VIII. SOME DOUBTERS ANSWERED. Since publishing a pamphlet on the solution of the Negro industrial problem, I find that there is a disposition on the part of many persons to argue : "Your reasoning is logical. The whole question, when summed up, is in truth merely one of eco nomics. Give Negroes industrial fitness, and then accord to them industrial opportunities, North as well as South, commensurate with such fitness, and the problem will be solved from A to Z. But can this be done ? Is there not a determination on the part of employers and employees north of Mason and Dixon's line rigidly to exclude Negroes from all save the most menial and beggarly-paid occupa tions? Would not, in fact, an attempt to force a recognition for Negroes in the industries of the North conduce to still greater racial friction?" In order effectually to meet such reasoning it will be necessary for me to repeat myself in a meas ure. Admitting, for the sake of argument, that the objections advanced above are well-founded and insurmountable, the fact would still remain, as clear and unvarnished as before, that there is no S3 84 THE KEY other course that can possibly lead to a true solu tion of this question. Nor does the question of time, — the question whether it would require five years or five hundred years to bring about such economic freedom, — in any way detract from the force of this proposition. But the persons who thus question the possibility of lifting this ban from Negro labor are merely speculating and giv ing voice to unfounded doubt as to the tendency of the more responsible element of Americans to be essentially just and reasonable of purpose; while the writer speaks and writes from years of practical experience and application along these lines, coupled with what he has found to be a fully-justified faith in the underlying current to ward justice and humanity, which courses through the life of the average American. So strong, however, has been the doubt ex pressed that there is any hope of Negroes being recognized in the industries of the North, and therefore that the race question can ever be righteously adjusted, that I feel obliged to make specific mention of some of the work that I have done in this connection, although it is personal his tory, which I would find it much more pleasant not to relate. For three years, — from November, 1894, to August, 1897, — I traveled through the States of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, delivering THE KEY 85 lectures on "The Industrial Wrongs of the Col- Order Race in the States Exclusive of the South, and Their Remedy," during which time I made upward of three hundred speeches on the ques tion, all, — with the possible exception of a score of them, — being in white churches. Eighteen months of this time, — from the spring of 1895 to the autumn of 1896, — I spent in Cleveland, Ohio, and vicinity, where I spoke in a large number of churches, some of them being among the most representative in that locality. The importance that these Cleveland pastors, and in fact a majority of the white clergymen wherever I traveled attached to this reform may be appreciated by the fact that every address which I made in a white church of that city was from a pulpit, at a regular Sunday morning or evening service, — usually evening, — the entire service invariably being devoted to a consideration of this cause. My first lecture in Cleveland was in the Mt. Zion Congregational Church, of which the Rev. Dr. Daniel W. Shaw was at that time pastor, and which was known as the bon ton col ored edifice of that city. The result of this speech was a second meeting, at which was founded the Industrial Rights League, which Dr. Shaw and a few other zealous colored men did all in their power to aid me in extending. But I found that in addition to the fact that col- 86 THE KEY ored clergymen would not permit me to discuss the question from their pulpits on the Sabbath, thus making it impossible for me to get an ade quate hearing, there was a far less generous re sponse from the masses of Negroes, and, for one reason or another, more of a tendency to oppose and discourage my efforts than there was on the part of the white people. In fact, for a period of eight months backed by the Rev. Dr. Shaw, a number of his most influential church members, and by the Rev. E. A. White, who had been elected president of the Industrial Rights League, I importuned the pastors and officials of some of the more representative of the many flourishing colored churches of Cleveland for a hearing on this question. But while some of these men, especially the pastors, listened to our pleadings with interest, or patience, or resignation, few of them seemed especially concerned as to whether we got a hear ing or not ; and it was soon brought to my atten tion that certain of the ambitious but misguided young laymen connected with one of the foremost churches had taken upon themselves the task of preventing my being heard by writing to and using their personal influence with the pastor and offi cials of the church. Aside from the two meetings in Dr. Shaw's church, two or three were held in rapid succession in President White's church. But because of the apathy and opposition on the part THE KEY 87 of those colored persons that were in a position either to help or hinder the cause at will, I suc ceeded in finding an opening in only one other col ored church in Cleveland. I was nearly eight months in gaining a hearing in this church (the one in which the young men had tried so hard to prevent my speaking), and the meeting was finally arranged by the church officials, who had become impressed by my earnest and repeated pleas to be heard, they opening the edifice to me on a Sunday afternoon, that being the only time at their disposal. Despite the un- seasonableness of the hour, a good sized audience came to hear me, the agitation over my efforts having by this time attracted considerable atten tion, and my address was well received. At the close of the meeting, however, the young presi dent of the literary society connected with the church and who had constantly, — though covertly, — worked against my being given a hearing, arose and announced that my address would be the sub ject for discussion at the literary society the fol lowing Monday evening, inviting me to be present for the purpose of correcting any false impression that might be made. This announcement caused the church to be packed to suffocation on the evening in question. To my amazement I found the entire affair to have been a concerted plan on the part of four or 88 THE KEY five prominent men connected with the church, most of them, like myself, just out of their 'teens, to distort and misrepresent my address of the day before, with the studied purpose of then and there putting a quietus on my efforts in that city. The first words of the first speaker, the presi dent of the literary society himself, disclosed the purpose of the meeting. He prefaced his remarks with the declaration that I was evidently working for my own selfish interests rather than for the interests of the race. He then proceeded to dis tort my address of the day before, declaring that I had preached strife and bitterness between the races; that I had urged those Negroes who had not the kind of jobs to which they thought they were entitled to take them by force, and those who had good jobs to give them up, because every other Negro in the city did not have an equally good one. Following the president's lead, one speaker after another attacked me with much the same disregard for truth and reason. After those that had palpably been picked for this onslaught had been heard from, the president refused to allow several visibly indignant men who desired to speak in my behalf to say a word, and announced that he would extend to me the customary courtesy of speaking for myself. To the credit of the large congregation, the tirades of these men found no THE KEY 89 responsive chord, and when I arose to speak, the audience was clearly in sympathy with me. I con fined myself to contrasting what I actually had said in my address with the absurd statements accredited to me by my self-appointed antagonists. Scores of people leaped to their feet and senten- tiously shouted that what I said was true; that they attended the meeting, had heard every word of my address, and knew that I had said nothing that could possibly give rise to the statements made by the previous speakers. The house was soon in an uproar, but there could be heard noth ing but acclaim for my efforts and condemnation for those who had so baselessly misrepresented and opposed me. My experience of eight months with the col ored people of Cleveland convinced me, however, that, while the rank and file of them were ready to listen with receptive minds to expositions of the serious industrial conditions which confronted them and were willing to encourage a movement that would remedy the same, there were certain adverse influences that would seriously handicap such a reform, unless I could demonstrate to them, — what I had always claimed, — that the better and more responsible element among the white people themselves would be even more ready than would Negroes to encourage that reform when once they became awakened to the grave situation 90 THE KEY demanding it. Consequently, immediately follow ing the meeting in the Negro church above re ferred to, I turned my sole attention to the white churches. Within about two weeks the pastor of a large Presbyterian church had agreed to give up his pulpit to me on a Sunday evening for the dis cussion of this question, and during the remaining ten months of my sojourn in that city there were but few Sundays when I did not speak on this question from some white pulpit either in Cleve land or its vicinity. As a result of this work among the white people, churches representing nine distinct denominations, — Baptist, Free Baptist, Presbyterian, Seventh Day Adventists, Christian, Congregationalist, Methodist Episcopal, Friends, and United Breth ren, — publicly expressed their readiness, some times by their pastors and at other times by a standing vote, to espouse the plans of the Indus trial Rights League as soon as I should present them with the constitution and by-laws as a guide to the work desired. I must here again, in order to gain full appreciation for the circumstances under which all of this work was accomplished, and make due allowance for subsequent failures, apologize for alluding to personal matters which I otherwise would gladly leave to the buried past. No organization, society, or individual was THE KEY 91 back of me in this movement, it being prosecuted solely on my own initiative. When I began it I had scarcely a dollar on which to depend, and was able to continue only through the voluntary con tributions that were made at my lectures. When it is considered, as above pointed out, that while working among the white churches in Cleveland I spoke on an average of but once a week, and that while working among the Negro churches I spoke on an average of but once in a while ; that, no matter how intense the interest manifested, the contributions never amounted to as much as five dollars, seldom to more than three dollars, and more frequently to less than two dollars; that I had to dress, pay my lodging, subsist, and send a little money, at least once a month, to my aged parents and a sister at my home in Kansas, and that nearly all this output was derived from this source alone, the fact will be better appreciated that my entire work among the white churches of Cleveland was retarded, and finally abandoned, because I could not procure the means, — twelve dollars at the most, — to cover the printing of the constitution and by-laws of the organization through which I hoped to make effective the re form I was advocating. It must be said that while in Cleveland I worked for several weeks as dinner waiter in a cafe, where I received a wage of four dollars and fifty 92 THE KEY cents a week and one meal a day. Although I ate nothing other than this one meal a day while thus employed, that meal was substantial, and it was by far the best fare that I enjoyed while in that city. During the greater part of my time in Cleveland my daily fare consisted of either a pound of broken crackers or a loaf of stale bread, either of which could be procured for four cents. Seldom did I have the means to invest in either fresh bread or fresh crackers; seldom could I afford to invest so much as five cents in a day's rations. It might not be amiss for me to say here that, while I was greatly encouraged both in the fre quency of my addresses and the generous re sponses to them during the first few weeks follow ing my first speech on the Negro question in No vember, 1894, my hardships in Cleveland were but a continuation of those that had followed me during the greater part of the winter and spring that preceded my arrival in that city. For weeks and weeks in traveling from town to town in search of hearings in the States of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, I had found the various churches engaged either in revival services or some form of entertainment peculiar to the winter and spring months, which frequently made open ings for me entirely out of the question. What little money I collected when hearings were more THE KEY 93 frequent was soon swept away, and early in the month of March, 1895, I found myself without a cent of money and with no chance for a hearing in sight.Confronted with such a predicament, my only alternative was literally to take to the proverbial tall timber, and from that time till I reached Cleveland, in the late spring, I spent night after night in some dense wood, with a bunch of leaves for a bed and a fire of broken branches to prevent my freezing. When by means of an occasional lecture I procured a little money, I would use that in going from one town to another, in search of other hearings, and when no money was in hand I would walk, — and likewise fast. Indeed, dur ing one part of my itinerary I went for three days and nights, — from noon on a Saturday till five o'clock the following Tuesday afternoon, — with out tasting a morsel of food. During these bitter months my struggles to keep up the appearance of respectability, which I knew I must maintain in order to elicit serious consideration from either race, were desperate. On many occasions did I thread my way to a creek or spring in the recesses of some friendly forest, there wash my threadbare clothes and hang them on a limb to partly dry by a fire, while I took a bath myself. However, to the great credit of the white people among whom my labors at that time were cen- 94 THE KEY tered, there were few occasions when I did man age to get a hearing when I was not treated with the utmost consideration and respect. Most fre quently on such occasions either the pastor or some member of his congregation entertained me as a guest, both before and after the meeting, and at no time was I made to feel other than a whole-souled welcome. For all this, could I have seen myself as others saw me, I suppose that there was nothing in my appearance to suggest a surfeit of pros perity. In fact, while I was a guest of the pastor of the last white church in which I spoke before going to Cleveland, he placed a hand affection ately on my shoulder and said: "Mr. Stemons, you must not feel in any way humiliated by what I am about to say, for you are doing a very noble and a very heroic work, one which few men of any race would have the courage to undertake. But tell me ; am I right in believing you to be on the verge of starvation?" The suddenness and unexpectedness of his ques tion for a moment nonplused me, but quickly re gaining my composure, I frankly told him of my experiences during the preceding few months. His sympathy for me was deep, and he urged me, con trary to my own inclinations, to go to Cleveland, where, he contended, I would find a larger field and broader opportunities. He told me that he and the Rev. Dr. Daniel W. Shaw, elsewhere THE KEY 95 alluded to, had been close friends in college, and added that he knew Dr. Shaw to be a broad- minded man, who would be sure to take a deep interest in the cause which I was prosecuting. He gave me a letter of introduction to Dr. Shaw, and made me promise that I would thereafter make Cleveland the center of my efforts. When, a few days later, I arrived at that city I found that my new-found friend had caused a strong personal letter to Dr. Shaw to precede me, and while that gentleman seemed all that his former college-mate had said of him I could not help feeling that his continued zeal in my behalf was inspired to a large extent by the earnest solicitation of his friend, — though my mission to Cleveland terminated with the unsatisfactory results already related. I shall make no attempt to defend myself against the not unnatural criticism that it would have been the part of wisdom for me to turn my attention to something else till I should be in a better position to prosecute this work — unless I urge that I was filled with a consuming zeal for the cause, and faithfully followed the light as I saw it. Still, in justice to myself, it must be said that during the few months immediately preceding my going to Cleveland, when I was finding it so difficult either to gain a hearing or to procure food, I made frequent efforts to obtain temporary 96 THE KEY employment, but found opportunities for work quite as scarce as opportunities to lecture. My work in Cleveland, and as a rule wherever else I spoke, demonstrated in a most pronounced manner that the industrial repression of Negroes is a subject to which few white persons, and, in fact, few Negroes, have given any practical thought. My addresses were usually regarded as positive revelations and served thoroughly to arouse the people to obvious conditions to which they formerly had been oblivious; and there was expressed on every hand a corresponding deter mination to render every service in overcoming so perversive a situation. My reception by organized labor was no less generous than by the churches. Arrangements were made by Mr. Max Hayes, then secretary of the Central Labor Union of Cleveland, — one of the strongest aggregations of local labor unions in the country, — for me to address them in their spa cious hall in the spring of 1896. Practically their entire meeting on this occasion was given over to my address and to a general discussion of the same. I told them frankly of the grave injustice that I believed organized labor to be inflicting not only upon Negroes, but upon the cause of labor generally by their ungenerous attitude toward Negro workers. I told them, to the accompani ment of loud applause, that there was in the ranks THE KEY 97 of organized labor too much of the spirit, "I don't care who sinks, so long as I swim," and that they would never win the respect and sympathy of the public so long as such an attitude was maintained toward any element of citizens who earn a living by the sweat of their brow. But it might be well to allow The Cleveland Recorder to speak for me on that occasion. It says: For more than an hour the young colored man held the delegates to the Central Labor Union spellbound by the charm of his oratory, while in burning words he told of the industrial wrongs of the colored race. The first person to reply to my address was a young woman delegate from the Laundry Work ers' Union. She declared that all I said about my race being discriminated against by union labor was true. Some of the unions, she said, had no written laws against Negroes, but most of them had unwritten laws by which they found it very easy to discriminate against members of the Ne gro race, even after they had become members. This she declared to be contrary to the mission of organized labor, and urged the necessity of taking higher ground before there could be any hope of materially advancing the cause of labor, or of winning public respect and confidence. Perhaps a score of delegates followed this 98 THE KEY speaker, talking in much the same vein. While some of them contended that their respective or ganizations did not discriminate against Negroes, every speaker, without exception, admitted that unjust discriminations were being made, and ex pressed an earnest desire to see such injustices removed. I feel that I would be doing the cause an injus tice did I fail to tell why I was forced to abandon this line of work in Cleveland, and later to cease it entirely. I left Cleveland in November, 1896, on a lecturing tour in the hope of realizing suffi cient means to have the constitution and by-laws of the Industrial Rights League printed, and then returning to that city during the ensuing winter and establishing the organization in the large number of churches that had expressed a willing ness thus to take up this reform. But fate decreed that such should not be ; and the winter found me in Buffalo, New York, where ensued about four months of one of the bitterest and most depress ing periods of my entire life. Soon after reaching Buffalo, I was fortunate in being accorded a good hearing in a large Free Methodist Church, and, soon after that, was given a hearing in the First Universalist Church, of which the Rev. Dr. Joseph K. Mason was then pastor. The news papers of Buffalo also, especially the Buffalo Ex press (which, in addition to various references to THE KEY 99 my work as a matter of news, printed a leading and very sympathetic editorial on the necessity of diversified employment for Negroes), like those of Cleveland, gave considerable attention to my mission. But with three or four exceptions, aside from the pastors of the two churches already named, all the ministers on whom I called either dismissed me with scarcely a show of concern or were palpa bly so burdened with their routine duties as to preclude the possibility of their turning aside for my plea ; and as the weeks lengthened into months it seemed that starvation would certainly be my portion. In my extremity I began to hunt for work, sometimes walking the streets from early morning till late at night ; but through that entire winter, and a goodly part of the spring, I did not find a single opportunity to earn a dollar by man ual labor. In the early spring I conceived the idea of set ting forth my thoughts on this question in a book let, which I termed "A Cry From the Oppressed." The pastor of a church in which I had previously been given a hearing was also a publisher on a small scale. So enthused was he over the manu script of my booklet that he eagerly assumed the expense of its publication, in the firm belief that it would attract wide-spread attention. The news papers and reviewers failed to give the publication 100 THE KEY any consideration, however, and for this reason it was a flat failure, so far as the general public was concerned. But by selling the pamphlets from door to door I soon realized sufficient money to reimburse the publisher for his expense, and also to start me on my pilgrimage from Buffalo, with its harrowing memories. From Buffalo I turned my steps in the direction of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where from the very name and history of the place, I felt assured that I would find a ready response to my humane plea. En route to Philadelphia, I spent three Sundays in Rochester, New York, where my efforts met with more hearty and uniform sympathy than perhaps at any other city that I visited. Openings were gladly made for me at Sunday morning, Sun day evening and mid-week services of the Roches ter churches in a way to very fully consume my time while there. The newspapers were generous in their attitude, a strong and wide-spread senti ment was soon awakened, and I left Rochester against the protests of several persons of both races who desired to see such a reform as I advo cated firmly established in that city. But I had visions of a far greater and more sweeping movement in the City of Brotherly Love, and I would permit nothing to stand between me and such a field. My coming to Philadelphia, however, was the opposite to what I had expected. THE KEY 1 01 I was soon made to realize that I could scarcely have gone to a less inviting field. I here found not the slightest inclination on the part of the many white clergymen on whom I called, — to some of whom I had strong letters of recommendation from some of their former associates, — to so much as seriously consider giving me a hearing on the question. The colored preachers were far more liberal; but their universal custom of ex cluding all secular topics from their pulpits on the Sabbath made it also impossible for me to get an adequate hearing among the colored people. However, I was invited to make an address on my reform movement before the African Metho dist Episcopal Preachers' Meeting of Philadel phia ; and my brief statement of the grave indus trial situation which confronted Negroes and the remedy therefor aroused these preachers to an unusually high pitch of enthusiasm. One of the most influential preachers of the connection seemed to express the general sentiment when he said: "Many of us preachers have grown old and gray while racking our brains in fruitless search of a remedy for this problem, and here comes a mere boy with a remedy as plain as day." One preacher after another pressed about me, extending warm congratulations, and offering to give me a hearing in his church. My first address 102 THE KEY was in Allen African Methodist Episcopal Chapel, of which the Rev. J. M. Palmer was pastor, and where (after an enthusiastic member had paid eight dollars from his own pocket to have the constitution printed) a branch of the Industrial Rights League was at once formed. This meet ing was followed by two or three others in the same church as well as by meetings in other churches. But since my coming to Philadelphia had been unheralded, these meetings were not very well attended and there was little about them to encourage any early hope of a wide-spread move ment. By this time summer was in full blast, people were leaving for summer resorts, and sev eral preachers, while expressing deep interest in the cause, dclared that they could do nothing prac tical before the coming autumn, and advised me to cease activity till that time. During all this time my means had gradually diminished, till finally I found myself reduced to the diet of stale bread and broken crackers that had been my portion in Cleveland. After enduring these hardships for about three months, and having become completely broken in health and spirits, I was forced to give up this line of work and turn my attention to the stern problem of keeping soul and body together. Since that time my work in this cause has been chiefly through the medium of my pen. IX. A TANGIBLE REMEDY FOR INDUSTRIAL REPRESSION. With the passing of the years the impression has more and more grown upon me that mere dis cussion of this question will do little good, and that the only hope of effectually dealing with the situation lies in a practical application of some such actively remedial measures as I had spent a lifetime in trying to put into operation. Conse quently, with this end in view, and through the co-operation of some of the foremost men of Philadelphia, a conference on the Negro question was held in the Central Young Men's Christian Association auditorium on November 21-22, 19 10. The Right Reverend Alexander Mackay-Smith, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, presided at the opening session of this conference, and the Rev. Dr. Wilbur P. Thirkield, President of Howard University, Washington, D. C, pre sided at the second session. Among those to deliver addresses at this con ference, and who, with two exceptions, took an active part in bringing it about, were such repre sentative white men as the Rev. Dr. A. J. Row- 103 104 THE KEY land, secretary of the American Baptist Publica tion Society; the Rev. Dr. Frank P. Parkin, super intendent of the Central District, Philadelphia Conference, of the Methodist Episcopal Church; the Rev. Dr. Edwin Heyl Delk, pastor of St. Matthew's Lutheran Church; the Rev. Edward F. Randolph, pastor of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church; Professor Carl Kelsey, of the Chair of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania; and such representative Negroes as the Rev. Dr. Charles Albert Tindley, pastor of Calvary Metho dist Episcopal Church, and Mr. B. F. Lee, Jr., field secretary of the Armstrong Association. The Association for Equalizing Industrial Opportunities was formed as a result of this con ference, and embraces the main features of the Industrial Rights League (as well as other ideas suggested by the experience of years), the promo tion of which I, for want of adequate means, had been forced to abandon a few years previously. The plans of this Association are to appeal directly to every preacher, — colored and white, — and through him to every church, and through these mediums to all right-thinking persons, for their combined influence in procuring for all men, regardless of race or color, unrestricted opportu nities for working to earn an honest living. In order to bring the question to a decided issue, and to place all fair-minded persons squarely on rec- THE KEY 105 ord regarding the situation, every person believing in the simple doctrine of giving every man a fair chance in the struggle for existence is to be re quested, through the Church or otherwise, to take the following pledge: I do solemnly promise to exert my influence to break down the barriers which prevent men, on account of race, from engaging in various branches of manual labor in this country. To this end I pledge myself never to refuse to employ or work with (as occasion demands) any person because of his or her race or color. Appended to this pledge are the following stip ulations, to which every adherent is expected to subscribe, and which embrace the comprehensive conditions under which the various churches would be united in this cause : We, the members of the Blank Church, individually and collectively, hereby subscribe to the above pledge, it being understood that in so doing we assume no further obligation than to, other considerations being equal, live up to the same. In taking this stand it is our belief that we are materially adding to the positive influences which must be exerted before the industrial disadvantages which are being imposed upon colored citizens can possibly be overcome. We believe further that when we are joined in this position by the masses of Americans who at heart are opposed to such industrial re pression we will represent a positive corrective influence in the face of which such unreasonable discriminations will be made an impossibility. 106 THE KEY It will be observed by the above passage that this pledge is conditioned on "other considerations being equal." There are varied and weighty rea sons for this qualification. The purpose of this movement is to establish the broad principle of equality of industrial opportunity, rather than to undertake precipitately to upset what in particular instances may have come to be the deep-seated prejudices and customs of decades. This pledge is so qualified as to exempt any man from binding himself to ignore race and color in matters of employment when he can conscietiously say that such a step would entail a personal sacrifice on his part, or do inexpedient violence to any prejudice or custom that might apply to his particular case. On the other hand, it has come to be a set policy on the part of many persons to meet any sugges tion that Negroes be accorded broader industrial opportunities with either the contention that spe cial favors are being asked for the race, and that Negroes are entitled to no more consideration than is accorded men of other races, or with far fetched sermons on "thrift and self-dependence." Against this policy of manufacturing excuses to exclude Negroes from any share in the industrial life of the nation, this movement would pledge the individual to give recognition to the Negro when, — and only when, — it should be in evidence that he could produce for his wages as full a return in THE KEY 107 labor as is rendered by average workers of other races. In fact, I have ever maintained that if the standard of efficiency among white workers is so high in any line of employment that only one Negro in one hundred can measure up to it, the ends of justice and equity will be served if that one Negro alone is given recognition while the ninety-nine are made to bear the logical conse quences of their failure to measure up to the in dustrial standards of the day. But if the average Negro, or any number of Negroes, can measure up to the standards of the average white workers in any calling, it is clearly unjust, un-American, and subversive of the highest interests of society for such Negroes not to be allowed the fullest oppor tunity to compete on their merits with such work ers in any and every such calling. It also may be inferred from the wording of the pledge that it carries with it no obligation on the part of any individual or church (other than those who may wish to be known as "active" mem bers) to contribute in either time or money for the propagation of this reform. The central object is to unite in sentiment and purpose the great body of Americans who at heart are in favor of social justice.and who can be most easily reached through the medium of the churches, and to make the terms of this union so simple that neither the question of money nor the question of time can be urged by 108 THE KEY any individual or any church as an excuse for with holding co-operation. It is assumed that when the far-reaching possi bilities of such a movement shall be realized, there are true philanthropists who would assure enough support for its propagation to preclude the neces sity of embarrassing and retarding the reform by calling indiscriminately upon individuals and churches for other than their moral support and co-operation. In order to make this remedy still more effective, the plans of this Association are to appoint in every community, from among its active members, a committee of representative citizens whose duty it will be to appeal directly to the proprietors and employees of industrial establishments and to ask them, in the name of American civilization, to extend to competent Negro citizens the same opportunity for earning an honest living that they extend to other citizens and to the millions of aliens that are flooding our shores. This commit tee, in order to avoid antagonizing employers and employees; to get their concurrent action and to encourage a frank expression of opinion regard ing the recognition of Negro labor, would initiate their efforts in this direction by submitting in a confidential letter to the employers and employees of specified industrial establishments a series of about a score of pointed questions involving their THE KEY 109 willingness or unwillingness to employ or work with competent Negroes, and why; their willing ness or unwillingness to subscribe to the terms of the foregoing pledge, and why. When the gravity and sheer inhumanity of this situation is once realized by the public there is doubtless not one employer or worker in ten who would not heartily agree to the request that Negro labor be allowed an opportunity to rise or fall by its own merits or lack of merits, and the constant pressure of an awakened public sentiment would gradually reduce those who are otherwise inclined to insignificant proportions. This, in a nutshell, is what seems to me the simplest possible, — the only possible, — remedy for a systematic, aggressive, and rapidly-spreading movement to exclude Ne groes from the industrial life of this nation which, if not checked, can have no other result than shortly to make life for the masses of industrially dependent Negroes in this country a physical im possibility. X. A TANGIBLE REMEDY FOR DISFRANCHISEMENT AND CIVIL REPRESSION. In order fully to appreciate the influences that control this situation it must not be forgotten, when considering the many hardships that are being inflicted upon Negroes, that there are, as I have already tried to make plain, certain civil and political shortcomings on the part of that race which go far toward bringing about the same. And however loth may be Negroes and their sym pathizers to face this fact, these hardships will continue to increase in severity so long as Negroes refrain from raising themselves above the level which needlessly excites antipathy. Despite the boasted increase in wealth, educa tion, and enlightenment among them, the fact had as well be faced, once for always, that, because of the alacrity with which the rank and file of Negroes follow the dictates of corrupt and design ing politicians, they have universally come to be regarded as a positive menace to popular govern ment in practically every community to which they no THE KEY m go. Gainsay this proposition who will, there is a wide-spread and constantly-growing sentiment throughout this country which either approves or condones the wholesale disfranchisement of Ne groes, and it can logically be traced to nothing but the glaring political puerility, subserviency, and, — far too often, — venality of that race. As a realization of the adverse effect upon the entire race problem of this folly on the part of Negroes has dawned upon me, I have more and more earnestly admonished against it. To the credit of the more thoughtful members of the race as a whole, they, too, are coming to appreci ate the vital necessity of drawing more sharply the line of demarcation between the decent and the indecent, the honest and the venal, the inde pendent and the subservient Negro, and my pointed criticisms of the race along these lines have met with considerable approval from that class of Negroes. This, however, has been more than counter-balanced by a number of recognized leaders, who for decades have been thinking in grooves on this question, some of whom, — perhaps all, — with entire honesty, no doubt, contending that no greater injury could be done the Negro than to admit that he is in any way responsible for the adverse conditions now being imposed upon him. The specious plea is made by these leaders that the white race, through its ranting dema- ii2 THE KEY gogues and vicious publications, is doing enough to placard the faults of the race, without any Negro essaying that role. These facts are ignored: That the public will not ceaselessly be swayed by defamation and abuse of the Negro, unless the charges find substantial basis in fact ; that the straightforward and unvar nished truth regarding the race is far less damag ing than the unjust and distorted impressions now so general ; that dodging, ignoring, or denying the truth will never offset the slanderous statements of wilful detractors, and that nothing could so win respect for the Negro and confidence in the race as would a frank recognition by its members of their own shortcomings and an honest effort to ward self-improvement. For all this, my several appeals to the race to grapple boldly with certain shortcomings were so persistently perverted and misrepresented by a few men who had the ear of the masses, yet who seemed unable to grasp my meaning and purpose, that by the time the con ference on the Negro question, to which reference is elsewhere made, was arranged for, a good-sized revolt had been manufactured against me and what my self-appointed opponents were pleased to term my "attacks upon the race." It should be observed, however, that this oppo sition was started and conducted, so far as the information that reached me indicated, by not THE KEY 113 more than four or five Negroes who, as has been suggested, conceived the idea that my candor re garding the shortcomings of the race would place it at a decided disadvantage in repelling the at tacks that were being made against it from all sides. But so formidable did this opposition be come, and to such extremes did some of my opposers go, that the committee of representative men of both races, with whom I was arranging for the conference, became deeply concerned, and earnestly advised me against including on our pro gram any attempt to criticise the shortcomings of the race. They argued that so much capital already had been made out of my strictures with reference to Negroes that for me to undertake further criticism at this conference would array the entire race against me, and make further prog ress in the cause an impossibility. I acknowledged the possibility of all they said, but contended that no real progress could be made unless the short comings of the Negro as well as those of the oppo site race were frankly faced. After contending over this point for more than six weeks, my sug gestions finally were acceded to, and I was assigned the task of pointing out the political shortcomings of the race in an address on "Civic Virtue and Political Independence as a Remedy for Disfran chisement and Political Repression." As the time for our conference drew nearer, the 114 THE KEY outbursts against the frank criticisms for which it provided grew louder. The three years of cease less labor, worry, anxiety, rebuffs, and disappoint ments, — in conjunction with other burdens of an entirely different nature, — which had attended my efforts to bring this conference about, had greatly depleted my health and vitality, and I felt as though, if that conference were a failure, I could not summon strength to continue the struggle. For all this, I had fully made up my mind as to what my duty to the Negro, no less than my duty to the country, demanded that I should say on this occa sion, and I was determined that no impending per sonal disadvantage should deter me from it. I felt as though I could far more resignedly accept defeat that might come as a result of my contend ing for what I believed to be right principles than I could accept seeming victory that might come as a result of my relinquishing such principles. Consequently I did not defer to the wave of oppo sition that had set in against me by modifying by so much as a word my previously determined line of argument. Yet, coupled with the mental anguish and nervous tension which this situation produced, I soon discovered in some of my most valued white supporters a disquieting disposition to make their support of the cause subject to a like support and co-operation on the part of certain recognized Negro leaders of the city, some of whom, as be- THE KEY 115 fore stated, had already taken a decided stand against me. From all of this it may readily be appreciated that, on facing the audience in that fateful afternoon, I was overwhelmed with the consciousness that I was about to deliver an ad dress that might easily array Negro leaders against me, and consequently cause white leaders to desert me, thus making difficult if not futile any further efforts on my part in a cause which was dearer to me than life itself. These are the feel ings under which I was laboring when, introduced by the chairman, Bishop Alexander Mackay-Smith, I began the following address: "When it comes to the question of politics and political equality, which for so long have been the bone of contention on the race situation in this country, there is much that might be said on both sides. And I want to impress upon you this one fact, that we will never come to a righteous adjust ment of this situation till we meet it with absolute honesty, absolute candor, and till each race frankly faces its own short-comings, and makes an honest effort to overcome the same. We had just as well, once for always, disabuse our minds of any idea that dodging the truth, apologizing, trimming, and winking at our own faults, whether we be white or black, will ever contribute a solitary thing to ward a righteous adjustment of relations between the races. To the extent that each race recognizes 116 THE KEY its own shortcomings and makes an honest effort to overcome the same, to that extent alone will this situation ever be righteously adjusted. "It is because of this fact that I dare to say of political equality that, while it is one of the basic principles of democracy, and that while democracy is perhaps the most ideal state of society, it em braces a situation which cannot be adjusted in a day, nor can it always be best served or promoted by coercive legislation. Political equality em braces a question of mutual responsibility and mu tual service between the individual and society; and whether we call it democracy or oligarchy, the Negro need not expect society to fulfil its political obligations to him unless he fulfils his political obligations to society. No race or class of people need expect to receive "all from society, under cover of democracy, and give nothing to society in re turn. And when we view this situation with can dor, nothing is more evident than that Negroes by their thoughtless, indiscriminating, and, — far too often, — venal use of the ballot, North and South, have contributed more than all other forces com bined to their own political undoing, and toward making universal the sentiment in favor of the absolute withholding from them of the elective franchise. The end and aim of political equality is not only to serve the immediate and selfish inter ests of the individual, but to serve and promote THE KEY 117 the best interests of society. And we must face the fact that when any race or class of people give conclusive evidence that they do not appreciate the value of the elective franchise ; when they forever run counter to the most enlightened public opinion, and follow the dictates of political bosses and po litical schemers, instead of the best sentiment and best interests of the community, they are doing more than all other forces combined to bring about their own disfranchisement, and it is a charitable man indeed who will contend that such political perverts and automatons should be permitted to continue to pollute the ballot and defeat the sacred will of the people for the mere sake of upholding democratic ideals. "And it is a deplorable fact that almost the entire performance of Negroes with the ballot has been to stroke the fur of the political cat in the wrong direction. A distinguished citizen of this country has referred to Negroes as a race of political chil dren. Colored people generally took great um brage at this pronouncement. But I desire to say that the political performances of the race, espe cially during recent years, more than justify this characterization. Not only have they stubbornly and persistently antagonized the political senti ment of the masses of Southern people, on whose good favor their very existence largely depended, but they have doggedly followed this self-same 118 THE KEY policy of running counter to the best sentiment and best interests of almost every Northern commun ity to which they have gone. Indeed, I do not know of a single instance in any Northern com munity, where their right to vote there have ever been none to dispute, where, when issues arose between the community and any political combina tion deemed hurtful to the same, the rank and file of Negroes have failed to vote against the com munity and for such corrupt political combinations. "This may seem like a harsh indictment against the colored race. But they are facts, and they are facts with which we must inevitably grapple, unless sentiment against Negroes in this country is to continue growing from bad to worse. I wish it were in my power adequately to impress upon you the grave and far-reaching injury which this lack of civic virtue and political responsibility on the part of a large element of Negroes are inflicting upon the entire race. Even the basest politicians are becoming disgusted with the manner in which Negroes permit themselves to be used as political tools. About a year ago I attended a meeting in a colored church in this city, held in the interest of the Association for Protecting Colored Women. The principal speaker at that meeting was a man who stood high in the official life of Philadelphia. In the course of his earnest address he gave to THE KEY 119 colored people the following significant and to me, surprising advice. He said: " 'If you colored people desire to retain the respect and confidence of the community you must be your own political masters. Do not permit any ward boss to tell you how to cast your ballot. Hold your ballot above price, and always vote your honest convictions." Continuing, this high official of the city of Philadelphia said to that audience of respectable colored citizens : "There is in this very ward, and within a stone's throw of this church, a division where Negro votes in the last election were sold' in blocks of ten." "And," he said in conclusion, "you colored people will never have the respect and sympathy of the community so long as such conditions are allowed to continue.' "It was but a few months ago that I read a most earnest and pathetic editorial in a Negro publica tion of Atlantic City, in which it was claimed that the movement to displace Negro waiters from the hotels of that city, and in fact to drive them out of -the resort, as far as possible, had been inspired largely by resentment on the part of the hotel proprietors against the manner in which Negro waiters, led by Negro gamblers and dive keepers, had opposed them politically, it being the hobby of these Negroes to work and vote against any hotel proprietor who seeks office, or joins any independent political movement for the good of 120 THE KEY the city. There has just been in one of the suburbs of New York City a striking illustration of this political folly of Negroes when, at the spring election a year ago, the Negroes, — in order to defeat the purpose of the good citizens who had organized for the purpose of bringing about cer tain much-needed municipal reforms, — permitted themselves to be used as the tools of the dominant political ring, which took scores upon scores of them to the polls in automobiles, where they cast their ballots just as commanded by their political masters, thereby completely defeating the inde pendent citizens, against whom they allowed them selves to be used. Not only were these the best citizens of the community against whom those Negroes thus permitted themselves to be arrayed, but they were those on whom the Negroes de pended for a living ; by whom thy were employed, and who had proved their friendly feeling toward the race by taking them from New York as indus trial adjuncts to that community. Yet, at last accounts, these same Negroes were still gloating over what they regarded as their political smart ness, and boasting of what they would still accom plish by working with the political schemers of that community, in defiance of the best citizens. "It would be fatuous to attempt to excuse this political perversity on the part of Negroes by con tending that the same conditions obtain among white people. I am quite ready to admit that the THE KEY 121 corruption, venality, chicanery, duplicity, and hypocrisy, which dominate the politics of America, in city, State, and nation, constitute one of the gravest indictments against the manhood of this country to-day. But there is this redeeming fea ture about white men : There is in every commun ity at least a respectable minority that absolutely refuses to be either led or driven like political slaves, and who boldly and above board register their protest against the high-handed corruption and jugglery that are striking at the very founda tions of American institutions. "But we must, as a necessary prelude to over coming these conditions, frankly face the fact that there is among Negroes no such a high-minded and independent element. I do not mean by this that all, or nearly all, Negroes are lacking in civic virtue and political independence. But I do mean that as a race they never study and vote for the best interests of the community; they never seek out and vote with the good citizens who are earnestly striving to stay the inroads of the polit ical schemers who are piercing the very vitals of democracy. Instead of this, — whether you want to call it independence or subservience; intelligence or ignorance ; honesty or dishonesty, — wherever you find the gang leader and the political schemer, there you almost invariably find all classes and conditions of Negroes, from the bootblack to the 122 THE KEY bishop, and from the dive-keeper to the most emi nently respectable citizen. No, I am not making an open attack upon my race. I am merely stating disgraceful and humiliating facts, which are as well known to every individual in this presence, and to every well-informed person in the country, as they are to me. And I desire to serve notice on colored citizens, here and now, that so long as they permit themselves to be used as the com placent tools of designing politicians, or refrain from separating themselves from those who do thus prostitute their ballots, just that long will sentiment in favor of their universal disfranchise ment continue to grow, instead of diminish, in de fiance of every democratic ideal that can be in voked. I repeat that political equality is a two- sided question, and that the Negro's surest road to such equality is to prove by his use of the ballot that he appreciates its value, and that he will not lower the American standard of civic virtue. "I have not dwelt thus on the shortcomings of the Negro because it was a pleasure, but because I felt it to be an imperative duty. I am no more indifferent to the plaudits and praise of those whom I seek to serve than are other mortals. An,d I began this address with the full knowledge that it would bring me scant praise and many impreca tions from those whose shortcomings I have pointed out as the only possible means of arousing them to the point of renouncing these conditions." THE KEY 123 But I am inspired by this assurance : That, though my name may now be hissed from shore to shore, there will come a time, when blind passion gives place to sober reason, — though it may not be till my soul has taken its flight to the God that gave it, — when I will be gratefully remembered by an awakened people as one who braved the incessant jeers and jibes of those who could not or would not think, and. pointed them to the only way in which they could possibly square themselves with enlightened public opinion, and take their rightful place as a' part and parcel of this great Republic. And I desire to say this, in my own defense, that however outspoken I may have been on this occa sion, or on any other occasion, in discussing the shortcomings of my race, it has been a rule of my life to never publicly agitate any evil for which there did not appear a practical remedy. Colored people should not be harshly censured for the shortcomings of which I have spoken, for no friendly critic has ever pointed out to them the gravity of this situation, or suggested a means by which it is to be overcome. But when these con ditions are brought before them, and their civil and political duty made plain, then there are no words which would be too harsh in condemnation of Negroes if they fail to do their utmost to square themselves with the demands of enlightened pub lic opinion. 124 THE KEY It so happened that various passages in my address were heartily applauded, while the con clusion was followed by a demonstration that left no doubt that the audience was in full sympathy with my position. I was followed in my address by the Rev. Dr. Charles Albert Tindley, one of the most powerful, courageous, and convincing Negro orators in the country, who spoke on "The De praved and Rowdy Elements Among Negroes, and How They Aggravate the Race Situation." There was considerable speculation as to how Dr. Tindley would deal with the situation presented by my address, for it had become somewhat known that pressure had been brought to bear, by some of those who believed me to be doing the race an injury by discussing its faults, to induce him to withdraw his name as a speaker at this conference. This gentleman lost no time, however, in making it known that he stood squarely with me in all that I had said and proposed in my address, and it is not too much to say that it was his stirring and eloquent address, such as few but he could make, that effectually crushed out any disposition that may have larked with any leader present to make further efforts to defeat my purpose of seeking an adjustment of the race situation by an honest dealing with both sides of the question. "Don't oppose Mr. Stemons," pleaded, — no, commanded, — Dr. Tindley. "Don't try to crush THE KEY 125 him. Do nothing to retard the remarkable move ment which he is setting on foot; a movement which means your salvation, and my salvation, and the salvation of the Negro race. Mr. Stemons is living ahead of his time, and just as sure as John was a forerunner of Christ, just so sure is this young man the herald of a better and brighter day for his race in this country. True, he has told us some things which were not pleasant. But he has told us nothing that was not true ; nothing that was not for our good ; nothing which does not demand the earnest and immediate attention of every thinking Negro in the land. It is true, as he says, that our race is being used as political tools. It is also true that such conditions are hurting our standing in the community. But we are not satis fied with our conditions. We are going to break the fetters that bind us, and there is not a Negro in the land who is not in debt to Mr. Stemons for so clearly pointing out the way to-day." When the meeting had ended I was warmly con gratulated from all sides for the stand that I had taken. Taking me warmly by the hand, one of the prominent white clergymen who had stood so loyally by me in the weary months leading up to the conference said: "Mr. Stemons, you may sleep soundly to-night, with the full assurance that our meeting to-day has 126 THE KEY forever set at rest any effort on the part of Negro leaders of this city to defeat your purpose." This conference also gave rise to the League of Civic and Political Reform as a means by which to raise the civil and political standards among Negroes, the salient features of which are em braced in the following pledge : I hereby promise to exert my influence to suppress political crookedness, public indecency and rowdyism on the part of an element of colored people. To this end I pledge my sup port of the League of Civic and Political Reform in demand ing of the constituted authorities of this city that they hence forth prosecute and penalize the dissolute and criminal ele ments among Negroes, and the dens and dives which breed them. As the most direct means of reforming these condi tions, I further pledge myself to oppose with my ballot any city administration, of whatever party, and any individual of any administration, who ignores our just and reasonable de mands for the suppression of either individuals or institu tions which are palpably hurtful to the morals or good name of the Negro or of the community: With the proviso that the activities and influence of this League shall ever be restricted to the ends here specified, and not used to advance the abstract political fortunes of any race, any party, or any individual. As in the case of the Association for Equalizing Industrial Opportunities, it is the purpose of this League to effect the reforms proposed through the medium of Church; that institution, when united in purpose, standing pre-eminently above all other agencies as a corrective social force. There fore it is planned to get every Negro preacher in THE KEY 127 every community to subscribe to the principles of this League and to use his utmost influence to in duce his followers to do the same. By this means the respectable Negroes of the entire country could shortly be united for the highest there is in the civil and political life of the nation. Like the Association for Equalizing Industrial Opportuni ties, this League also would impose no tax upon the churches or dues upon its members, the sole purpose being to secure and exercise the combined influence of those Negroes who stand for high civil and political ideals as a means of offsetting and repressing that class of Negroes for whose civic and political laxity the entire race is being made to suffer. The constructive work of this League is to be furthered by means of advisory committees composed, as far as possible, of equal numbers of representative citizens of both races in every community, upon whom will devolve the task of deciding wherein Negroes are lax in any civil or political duty, and of pointing the way to improving public relations generally between the races in that particularly community. There also would be grievance committees composed of "working" members, whose duties would be to carry out the suggestions of the advisory commit tees ; to initiate investigations of any civil or polit ical conditions that may be deemed hurtful to the civic life, morals, or good name of either the col- 128 THE KEY ored race or the community; to listen to and in vestigate all plausible complaints, from whatever source, regarding any individuals, institutions or practices which seem detrimental to the civic life, morals, or good name of either the colored race or the community; to decide the gravity of every such alleged offense against the suffrage or against society, and to suggest a means for remedying these evils. So combined and determined a stand as this on the part of the respectable Negroes of the country would palpably do more in one year to mollify feeling against the Negro race, and to break down the civil and political barriers of which they so, persistently complain, than would decades of empty tirades against race prejudice and race pro scription. XI. THE NEGRO AND SOCIAL EQUALITY.1 The yearning of Negroes for social contact with white people,— to visit their homes, sit at their tables, and marry their sons and daughters, — is generally supposed to be their most obnoxious and unmitigable weakness, as well as one of the greatest barriers to harmony between the races. Almost every claim of Negroes to civil and polit ical liberty is abridged, especially in the South, for fear they might use such liberty as stepping-stones to social intercourse, and the amalgamation which such intercourse might presage. But upon what authority is based the supposi tion that the Negro's thoughts by day and dreams by night are to mingle with white people upon so-called terms of social equality? It is admitted that Negroes of every degree of intelligence object to civil segregation, to separate cars, to exclusive schools, to discriminations against them in hotels 1 This article was written in the year 1903, and later was published in The Philadelphia Pilot. 129 i3o THE KEY and public places generally, — and it may be said that the more ignorant the Negro the more vocif erous are apt to be his protests against such dis criminations. But he protests not because of a prime desire to mingle with white people, but because he feels that his fundamental rights as a citizen are being assailed, — because he knows that such discriminations invariably place him at a dis advantage. The hypothesis, however, that Negroes are over-anxious to reciprocate purely social amenities with white people is founded either upon ignor ance of the Negro or upon a deliberate purpose to misrepresent that race. No one ever thinks of doing the common and ubiquitous tramp the injus tice of speaking or writing authoritatively of him without spending months, if not years, in his com pany, in order to study his life, and speak from his viewpoint. Yet many persons who would almost as soon have intimate and confidential rela tions with a leper as with a Negro, — persons who are no more capable of speaking from the view point of a Negro than is the ordinary individual of speaking from the viewpoint of a tramp, — are lashing the country into a fury over what they term the Negro's ambition for "social equality." Public sentiment based upon such superficial knowledge is manifestly unjust. There is no gen eral commingling and interchange of ideas be- THE KEY 131 tween the races. With white men, the church, the Young Men's Christian Association, and fraternal societies, if ever opened to Negroes, are opened with the greatest reluctance. White men never visit Negroes in their homes ; never attend either their churches or social gatherings; never read either their newspapers or magazines to catch the drift of their thoughts and aspirations. And so, speaking broadly, the white man's knowledge of the Negro is limited to what he learns of him as a servant, or the casual information that may come from seeing him on the street. From these facts, it is evident that those who claim that Negroes are yearning for social inter course with white people are drawing largely on their imagination; stating as facts propositions which they merely take for granted. Could some of these individuals, — who so dread the encroach ment of Negroes upon the social realm that they doubtless find it difficult to sleep at night, — but tiptoe, unnoticed, into almost any Negro home, pulpit, or convention, when the honest views of the race on social equality are being expressed, they would learn to their complete satisfaction that if "social equality" is dependent upon the desires or efforts of Negroes, it is a contingency so remote as to justify alarmists in casting about for matters of more immediate concern about which to torture their minds. 132 THE KEY Only a few days ago, in an important Negro convention, one of the leading men of the race, principal of a widely known Negro educational institution, in descanting on "social equality," pas sionately, and I thought with needless asperity, declared that the Negro has no desire for social equality with white people, and that "the only social request that he has to make of, the white man is that he keep outside of his (the Negro's) gate." It is quite true that many Negro orators have fallen into the habit of pleading for "social rights." But they say one thing and mean quite another. The Negro who has a special desire either to mingle socially or to intermarry with the white race is an exception, not a rule. Still, it were vain to reiterate this assertion were there no proof, other than mere words, of its correctness. With Negroes, as with white people, the sentiment of the race must be gauged not by the actions of individuals but by the attitude of the masses. It would be no more accurate to sup pose that because of the vagaries of individual Negroes in seeking contact with white people the entire race has a similar craving than it would be to suppose that because of the vagaries of indi vidual white persons in seeking contact with Ne groes the entire race is desirous of such relations. The most obstinate must accept the attitude of the colored race as a whole toward individuals of THE KEY 133 the two races who defy the social chasm as the only just manner in which to determine the true sentiment of the race on "social equality.' This proposition being taken for granted, I cannot more forcefully emphasize the Negro's conservatism in this direction than by saying that there are but two offenses, — so regarded by Negroes, — against their race which the masses of Negroes absolutely refuse to overlook. One is the voting by a mem ber of their race of the Democratic2 ticket; the other is the marrying of a member of their race to a member of the white race. Who cannot recall the bitter outbursts of resent ment that went up throughout the country, by Ne groes even more than by white people, some years ago, when Frederick Douglass was married to a noble and highly respectable white woman? Col ored people as a race have always admired Mr. Douglass and been extremely proud of him. But it is no exaggeration to say that he never regained the place in their respect and confidence which his marriage to this white woman cost him. It seems hardly necessary to say that were Negroes pin ing for social identification with the white race to the extent that is so generally charged, such inci- 2 Since writing this article there has been a marked change of sentiment on the part of Negroes toward the Democratic party, and political parties generally; a tendency to break away from political traditions, which presages the ultimate political emancipation of that race. 134 THE KEY dents as that of Mr. Douglass, instead of calling forth their universal condemnation, would be her alded by them as achievements of which to be proud. Not only do Negroes set their faces against amalgamation with the white race but they make known their abhorrence of such relations by let ting those who maintain them severely alone. The white person who marries a Negro is almost sure to be ostracised by the colored race, no less than by the white race, to such an extent that he or she will be made a veritable outcast. For a number of years the writer has had lodgings with a fairly intelligent and eminently -respectable widow who, in addition to trained nursing, makes a living, as do most colored householders, by let ting rooms. About two years ago there came to her house a colored young woman of marked cul ture and refinement who asked for lodgings for herself and husband. The women soon came to mutual agreements, the new lodger paid for the apartments, and departed to inform her husband of her success. Late that evening the landlady came to me, and, with the despair that might be expected of one who had invested the savings of a lifetime in a gold brick, exclaimed : "Oh, Mr. Stemons, what shall I do? What shall I do ? That new lodger has brought a white man into my house? Had she told me that he THE KEY 135 was white, she could not have paid me enough money for the room. But I have taken her money now, and they both seem so refined that I have not the heart to order them away. Yet I shall feel that my house is disgraced as long as they are bit." I suggested that since the woman, at the land lady's request, had shown proof of their legal marriage, and since they both were evidently re spectable, I failed to see the impropriety of accom modating them with lodgings. But she was obdu rate, maintaining that she had never believed in such mingling of the races, and saw no reason for changing her mind. The white husband chanced to be an Englishman of intelligence and refine ment. Living within a stone's throw of this same house is a white man of good connection, who holds an important position with a large business firm of this city. He has a colored wife. He fell in love with her in the South, and as the laws of that section are against the marrying of colored and white he brought her to Philadelphia and married her. Now they are the same as two exiles. Though they have been living in Philadelphia for a num ber of years, to all appearances a devoted couple, very seldom, if ever, is any one, either colored or white, seen to cross the sill of their well-furnished 136 THE KEY house, except on business. While they may not particularly crave the friendship of Negroes, it is undeniable that few "self-respecting" Negroes would deign to associate with them. The social relations between the races cannot be justly considered without to some extent con trasting the respective attitudes of white men and white women toward the colored race. Lawful marriages between whites and Negroes are, as is well known, comparatively rare, illicit relations between white men and colored women being the chief medium through which Negroes have been so generally bleached.3 Yet, surprising as it may seem, a vast majority of the legal marriages are between white women and colored men. This seeming anomaly is to be accounted for, I think, by the fact that the average white woman has a much higher sense of honor than has the average white man. While, as has been pointed out, mu tual attractions between individuals of the two races are comparatively rare, the licentious pro pensities as well, perhaps, as the moral cowardice of some white men impel them to evade, by con- 3 It should be noted that amalgamation between the races is not nearly so general as might from surface indications be supposed; a preponderant majority of "mulattoes," "quad roons,'' and "octoroons," instead of being the direct offsprings of white and colored parents, being the legitimate progeny of light, or very dark and very light, complexioned parents, whose white ancestors are frequently many generations re moved. THE KEY 137 ducting clandestine relations, the consequences of whatever attractions they may find in colored women; the white woman's high sense of decency almost invariably impels her to honor by marriage any affection that she may acquire for a colored man. This loftly honor of white women compels from Negroes a certain amount of chivalry and respect of which the world takes little cognizance. Only a few weeks ago a wealthy white lady, widely known because of her social standing as well as because of her literary attainments, in writing to a publication, for which she is a regular contrib utor, of her observations in the black belt of the South, said: The school we inspected was conducted by New England white men and women, but most of the time the white women (who were young, fair, refined and charming), were in charge of the school alone, their sole protectors being a few colored male teachers and a group of male students. All around them lay a thickly settled black peasantry. The laudation of Negro fidelity by this lady, coupled with the proverbial fact, attested to by all white institutions for the education of Negroes, that no white woman who has gone among Ne groes to uplift them has ever been offered the slightest insult by a Negro, proclaim more elo quently than could words of mine the Negro's in born chivalry toward and respect for white women whom he regards as his friends. i3 8 THE KEY Of course most persons know, or have heard of instances, wherein a respectable white woman has married a colored man. There is an incident, still fresh in the minds of thousands of persons, of a rich young heiress, a social leader, not a thousand miles from Philadelphia, who three or four years ago fell in love with and married her colored coachman. Of course her family and her social set at once repudiated her. Now she is living with her husband in a fine country residence in another State, practically unknown and unnoticed by col ored and white alike. I cite these incidents at random, — casual in formation that has come to me without the slight est effort on my part, — in order to be specific as well as general in my contention that there is no general ambition on the part of Negroes for social commingling with white people. Indeed, I recall but one instance in all my knowledge where Ne groes looked with charity upon a match between a member of their own race with a member of the white race. This was in the case of an elderly and saintly Englishman, who came from no one seemed to know where to my home in western Kansas about thirteen years ago. He was accom panied by a typical, yet refined and pious, old col ored woman whom he fondly introduced as his wife. He called himself a preacher. The colored Baptist Church of our town chanced to be in need THE KEY 139 of a pastor, and this Englishman was allowed to preach a trial sermon. He had such a simple and winning eloquence, and referred in such a matter- of-course way to Negroes as "my people," declar ing that for years he had ignored the white race for association with Negroes, that the deacons, after much bickering, consented to call him to that charge. But few, very few white people, other than those who go among Negroes as educators, find it so easy to engraft themselves into the social life of the race. In fact, Negroes frequently display a blind and baseless prejudice against the friendly advances of white people, which is positively exas perating to those of the race who are inclined to liberal-mindedness. The writer has a friend who is one of the most successful and widely known Negro pastors in New England. About eight years ago he was pastor of a flourishing church in a large town in the State of Ohio. In this town was a most esti mable young white lady who took a deep interest in the colored race. So anxious was she to do something for Negroes, and give some practical evidence of her friendship for them, that she relin quished her membership in one of the fashionable white churches and asked permission of my friend to teach one of the classes in his Sabbath school, which request the pastor readily granted. Then 1 40 THE KEY began her troubles. Most of the Negroes, instead of extending to her a cordial welcome, eyed her with indifferent contempt, while some of the more rude among them whispered in accents intended for her ears that they didn't see why she wanted to force herself upon Negroes, and that they failed to understand why she couldn't find enough Sab bath schools to teach in the churches of her own race. Filled with mortification and resentment, the pastor tried, to no avail, to impress his flock with the fact that the young lady's presence among them was inspired by the noblest friendship. The young lady braved the rebuffs of the Negroes for several weeks, in the hope of eventually convincing them of her unselfish interest in their race. But she finally went to the pastor, crying as though her heart would break, and told him that she could no longer bear the unyielding prejudice of his people. "A Southern White Woman," in a recent issue of a popular magazine, says : The best he (the educated Negro) can do socially is to meet the factory element, say, on their terms of insolent equality. And the proof of the Negro's innate vulgarity is that he is willing to do so. No matter how respectable he may be himself in character and intelligence, he will welcome to his board and hearth the meanest whites, and feel com plimented at their presence. From what source does "A Southern White Woman" obtain such concise information regard- THE KEY 141 ing the educated and refined Negro, since she ad mits in almost tjie same sentence that "I belong to a class in the South who know the Negro only as a servant?" Has she visited the homes of educated and refined Negroes in the South, and seen them "welcome to their board and hearth the meanest whites?" And if she does not visit these homes in person, though she may have knowledge that occasional visits by "the meanest whites" are made to the homes of the better class of Negroes, how does she know that Negroes feel especially compli mented by the presence of such whites? The long and short of the matter is that neither "A South ern White Woman," nor any one else can prove by other than her own vivid imagination that there is a tendency on the part of the better class of Negroes in any part of this country to court the social favors of either "the meanest" or the best element of white people. I consider it to be, how ever, a most unjust and undemocratic reflection upon labor to insinuate that "the factory element" is composed of the meanest whites, or that their "terms of insolent equality" are less warranted than are those of the more favored element; the chief claim of both classes to superiority over Ne groes being identical, — the color of their skins. Instead of whatever attention the better class of Southern Negroes may bestow upon the less fortu nate white element being an evidence of their 1 42 THE KEY "innate vulgarity," the feeling that prompted the writer of the extract above quoted to jump at the conclusion, with no other proof than that of a biased mind, that a Negro of necessity feels hon ored whenever he comes in contact with anything in the guise of a white man is evidence of the "innate" conceit and towering presumption of a certain type of white people. It would indeed be a most gratifying and hope ful sign were Negroes so far to depart from their proverbial contempt for the "po' white trash" of the South as to cultivate friendly relations with them. As to the causes of this mutual aversion of the races to social contact, — especially on the Negro's part, — they may not be so easily defined as might at first be supposed. With white people it is, perhaps, due to the Negro's recent position as a slave, coupled with the feeling that color alone makes the man, and that Negroes are of necessity inferior to white men. On the part of Negroes the prejudice might logically be supposed to be due to a feeling that, because respectable white people usually consider themselves so high above Ne groes, those who place themselves on a level with the race are to be regarded as having been either repudiated by their own race, or as being con scious of their own inferiority. This is unques tionably a great, perhaps the greatest, cause of THE KEY 143 this prejudice on the part of Negroes. But the theory loses much of its force when it is consid ered, as has been pointed out, that the race in gen eral looks with disfavor on unions between whites and Negroes, no matter how unimpeachable the character and standing of the white person may chance to be. The prejudice may, in fact, be partly due to a certain unconscious, indefinable feeling of superior ity over white men, due to a subconscious knowl edge that while Anglo-Saxon civilization is but two thousand years old, Negro civilization, — black, African Negro civilization, — according to the very highest authorities, is the most ancient civilization known to man. Be this as it may, while I consider race prejudice, from whatever source, as something of which to be ashamed rather than proud, — a menace to the higher ideals of life, — let those who regard it as a rare virtue be assured that it is one that the white race has so far failed completely to monopolize. XII. HOW THE MOB SPIRIT GROWS.1 If there has been a disposition on the part of responsible Americans to be indifferent to the fact that the ever-increasing spirit of lawlessness and mob violence in this country is rapidly leading to a state of affairs the ultimate consequences of which are sickening to contemplate, the horrifying outbreak in Atlanta and the more recent} on slaughts against law and order in various other parts of the country have scarcely failed to awaken them. It would be a needless use of space to mar- shall the vast array of evidence, still fresh in the public mind, as to how the country is drifting to ward a state of lawlessness, which, if not checked, will ultimately surpass the wildest dreams of the wildest anarchist. The vital need of the hour is for the people to turn from their apathy long enough to appreciate, once for always, the source from which is springing this terror of mob vio lence. Analysis of the mob spirit will prove that it is 1 This article was written in the year 1905, and later was published in The Philadelphia Pilot. 144 THE KEY 145 but the abnormal development and diversion of the latent and baser instincts of vast numbers of ordinarily rational and reasonable people into channels suggested and precedented by a very few persons whose moving impulses are by nature de praved and criminal. There is, most unfortu nately, a popular feeling that that form of mob violence which vents itself without discrimination upon innocent and defenseless Negroes, is inspired by innate hatred of that race. This the writer believes to be true only in part. As has already been pointed out, the born criminals of the country are perverting the popular conception of personal liberty, and creating a rapidly growing class of individuals whose highest delight is in violence against the persons and property of their fellow- men. To such diseased minds the sheer defense- lessness of individuals and classes is little less a provocation to violence than is the antipathy of race and color. The following incident must still be fresh in the minds of all readers : During the great street rail way strike in St. Louis a few years ago a refined young woman innocently boarded a trolley car that was manned by strike breakers. She was at once set upon and dragged from the car by a mob of strike sympathizers. The victim being a woman, the strikers had not the audacity to offer her any further indignities. But a woman in the mob con- 146 THE KEY ceived the idea of divesting the young woman of her clothing. This idea she carried out to the let ter, while her helpless victim, filled with terror and mortification, ran frantically down the street. Here was a suggestion, something new under the sun to the depraved and indiscriminating minds which have ever dominated mob activity. Because of this suggestion, no subsequent news of that St. Louis strike was complete which did not tell of even male members of mobs, emboldened by the audacity of that one woman, attempting to disrobe upon the public highway some defenseless woman, whose only crime was riding on a trolley car. It was only because of the general horror occa sioned by such high-handed tyranny that the sug gestion of this St. Louis woman did not become firmly fixed in the mind of every mob-crazed indi vidual in the land, thereby making American mobs as notorious for indignities to defenseless women as they are for wanton attacks upon defenseless Negroes. In the hurly-burly, and more or less self-centered interests of American life, it may not be every one who can as readily trace the recent indiscriminate attacks upon the persons and prop erty of the colored citizens of Springfield, Ohio; Springfield, Missouri, and Atlanta, Georgia, to their original source, as could be traced the attack of one hundred men upon a helpless woman in St. Louis to the attack of one woman upon another in THE KEY 147 the same city the day before. Yet every sequence has been as plain and natural in the one case as in the other. It is an incontrovertible fact that prior to the year 1900 no part of this country had ever wit nessed the indiscriminate mobbing and plundering of innocent and defenseless colored citizens be cause of the real or fancied crimes of individuals of that race. The history of such outrages against colored citizens begins with the spring of 1900, when the authorities of a certain town in the State of Texas undertook to arrest for some more or less trivial offense a Negro by the name of Charles. Mr. Charles decided that he would not be arrested, and proceeded to impress this fact upon the officers of the law by shooting them down as fast as they came in sight. Goaded to frenzy at having so many white men thus killed by one Negro, the hoodlums of that community rushed to an indis criminate attack upon colored citizens, beating and mutilating them, burning their homes, business houses, churches, and schools, — one of the latter institutions, with a large appropriation from the State, being so it was said, one of the finest and most thoroughly equipped schools for Negroes in the State of Texas. Here again was a suggestion, — something new to those who seek to divert the monotony of ordinary mob activity. It is a far cry from the wilds of Texas to the 1 48 THE KEY metropolis of the nation. Yet, before the echoes of this Texas horror had died, a colored man stabbed and killed a New York plain-clothes police man for what, in the policeman's failure to show his badge of authority, the Negro regarded as an indignity to his wife. During the funeral of this policeman, three days later, a gang of hoodlums, incited and abetted by the police of that precinct, began to mob and terrorize without discrimination the Negroes of that community, which state of lawlessness was allowed to continue for forty-eight hours. Just four days after this anti-Negro riot in New York was quelled, a Negro in the staid old town of Akron, Ohio, was charged with a grave offense. The rabble of that city at once fell upon the local ity which, as the writer personally knows, was in habited by an unusually peaceable, respectable, and industrious class of colored citizens, wrecking their homes and driving them from the city. These are, in the order given, the first three outbreaks against Negroes in general for offenses of individuals of the race which this country has ever known. These, and the subsequent demon strations against colored people in Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois followed one another in such rapid succesion as to firmly fix in the minds of mob-deter mined individuals the suggestion that any unusual THE KEY 149 crime by an individual Negro must be followed by an indiscriminate attack upon Negroes in general. Still I fail to see much more occasion for regarding this craze of mobs to terrorize and murder inno cent and defenseless Negroes as a natural out growth of antipathy to that race than there was for regarding the equally set determination of St. Louis mobs to offer gross indignities to innocent and defenseless women, whose only offense was riding on a trolley car, as a natural outgrowth of antipathy to women. It is evident that both of these crazes for mob violence, while not exactly parallel, emanated from one common source, — a mania of certain de praved and irresponsible individuals to violate the persons and property of any and all persons who are, for the time being, so unpopular, either be cause of who they are (as in the case of Negroes) , or of what they do (as in the case of the St. Louis woman) , as to be defenseless against such violence. When, by a trivial incident, the fury of mob vio lence was directed against innocent and defense less women in St. Louis, it was checked by public sentiment's instantly asserting itself. When, speak ing broadly, by an incident almost equally trivial, the fury of mob violence was directed against those innocent and defenseless Negroes in Texas, public sentiment remained comparatively apathetic 150 THE KEY and unresponsive. Result: The spirit born of that capricious outburst of passion has continued an undisputed growth till it now poisons with its venom the entire country. Prior to the year 1900 the persons and prop erty of law-abiding Negroes found reasonable se curity in any part of America. But, following the unprecedented mobbing of Negroes during that year, large cities at once became the only places, either North or South, which afforded them rea sonable protection against wanton and unprovoked mob violence; while the repeated riots in New York and other Northern cities, and the recent slaughter in Atlanta, prove that even large cities can no longer guarantee to upright colored citizens the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi ness, — which right is the corner-stone of our na tional existence. I reiterate, however, that this spirit of violence against Negroes feeds as little upon race antipathy as it does upon the defenseless state that makes Negroes the easiest prey to those whose passions are for violence for the mere pastime of being vio lent. The mob fiend is an irresponsible coward, who respects not color but force. He has no mis- THE KEY 151 sion that is not vile; no impulse that is not de praved. He is the enemy not only of the Negro but of society; and if not treated as such there will shortly be no appeal from his reckless decision. XIII. THE OBTRUSIVE NEGRO.1 One of the most persistent and, it must be ad mitted, well-founded charges to be made against a class of American Negroes is that they have an irrepressible fondness for attracting attention and making themselves obnoxiously conspicuous. It has been said by Southern white people that upon the successive elections of Republican Presidents Negroes may be noticed to assume a more defiant swagger ; to exact with greater insistence one-half of the street, generally, and to affect a bearing of greater importance. These same critics contend that, following the entertainment at the White House of a prominent colored man by the Presi dent of the United States, Negroes throughout the country became puffed up with a renewed sense of their importance. In Northern localities, where Negroes are al lowed greater freedom than they enjoy in the South, who has not seen a crowded street car hushed to everything save the vociferous babblings ,i 1 This article was first published by The Boston Transcript, November 12, 1903. 152 THE KEY 153 of half-dozen ignorant and uncouth Negroes ? On the streets, in the parks, in places of amusement, on public conveyances, wherever their presence is tolerated, this class of Negroes are sure to make themselves odious by their obtrusive actions. I differentiate advisedly between the ignorant Negro and the intelligent Negro, because this country has no higher example of quiet and well-bred de portment than is to be found in the average Negro of intelligence and refinement. But why is the American Negro, of all Negroes, thus prone to display a disgusting tendency to obtrude ? We are informed that Negroes are wel comed to the best society of England, France, and Germany, in which countries there is not the re motest suggestion on the part of Negroes of obtru sion or snobbery. Is not the difference between the European Negro and the American Negro due to the fact that the European Negro regards his so cial freedom as a matter of course, — a something for which he has no more occasion to feel elation than has the white man of like attainments ; while three centuries' serfdom has taught the American Negro that if he is not by nature inferior to the white man, he is so regarded by popular opinion? Because of the prevalence of this opinion, many ignorant Negroes feel called upon to be ever on the alert to force the impression that they are the equals of white men. Whenever anything occurs 154 THE KEY which might be construed as a lowering of the barriers to individual colored men, hosts of weak- minded and short-sighted Negroes regard it as so much of a personal triumph, and straightway begin to make themselves obnoxious (though such indi viduals are invariably the most unworthy of the race) by defiantly contending for the recognition and the privileges that have been extended to indi viduals of their race by individuals of the white race. Still, who can say that this trait of Negroes is not entirely human? No one revels in freedom as does the man who has long been in prison. Place the white man in a position where he will be looked down upon, scorned, and forced to occupy a minor social position for three centuries, and who will say that he would not, especially if ignorant and unrefined, hold up his head, expand his chest, and elbow his way at every inclination of his presump tive superiors to recognize his manhood? He would merely be saying in the exuberance of child ish enthusiasm: "Look at me, look at me I You have been regarding me as a mere creature, haven't you ? Well, I guess you see now from my actions and from the liberty I enjoy that I am a man, and a man of great importance." I see nothing more remarkable in such a display of feelings by a man who is given but slight and grudging social freedom than I see in a dog which, THE KEY 155 when let loose after being chained for a long, long time, runs and yelps and gyrates in a way that causes his companions that have never known re straint to stare in wide-eyed astonishment. The actions of this liberated dog may be objectionable not only to his companions but to his master as well; but obviously the only way of preventing such fantastic capers is to give him either perpetual restraint or perpetual freedom. The same is true of the Negro. So long as his social status (and the word social is here used as applied to democracy) alternates between absolute segregation and the most scant and reluctantly accorded freedom, so long will he revel in and exploit that freedom in a way repulsive to those who have never known such restraints. Objectionable as is the obtrusive Negro, — ob jectionable to intelligent Negroes no less than to white men, — there seems to be but one way of even partly suppressing him (unless is taken the backward step of placing greater restrictions upon the race), and that is by making a rigid distinc tion between the vicious Negro and the upright Negro ; the refined Negro and the uncouth Negro ; the obstreperous Negro and the well-bred Negro, by making it apparent to Negroes generally that any recognition of their race, whether social or otherwise, is a recognition solely of individual 156 THE KEY worth and a rebuke to those qualities that can only find expression in vulgar display. Until the white man shall consent to make such distinctions among colored people, he may make up his mind to be confronted at every turn by the obtrusive Negro, pending the time when all distinctions because of race or color shall be relegated to the dark and dismal past. a39002 003920262b