robert russa moton--racial good will (1916)

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RACIAL GOOD WILL

ADDRESSESBY ROBERT R. MOTONPRINCIPAL-BLECT OFTUSKEGEE INSTITUTE


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REPRINTED FROM THE "SOUTHERN WORKMAN"BY THE HAMPTON INSTITUTE PRESS

1916

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RAGE DEVELOPMENT *AMONG the most highly developed races we observe

certain dominant characteristics, certain very essen-tial elements of character by which they have so influ-enced mankind and helped the world that they were en-abled to write their names indelibly in history.Your education, your observation, your occupation,have brought you into close touch and into personal andvital relations with the fundamental problems of life.We may call it the trust problem, the labor problem, theIndian problem, or perhaps the Negro problem. I like tocall it the "Human Race Problem."The dawn of history breaks upon the world at strife,a universal conflict of man at war with his brother. Thevery face of the earth has been dyed in blood and itssurface whitened with human bones in an endeavor toestablish a harmonious and helpful adjustment betweenman and man. There can be no interest more funda-mental or of greater concern to the human family than theproper adjustment of man's relations to his brother.You and I belong to an undeveloped, backward racethat is rarely for its own sake taken into account in theadjustment of man's relation to man, but is consideredlargely with reference to the impression which it makesupon the dominant Anglo-Saxon. The Negro's veryexistence is itself somewhat satellitious, and secondaryonly, to the great white orb around which he revolves.If by chance any light does appear in the black man'ssphere of operations, it is usually assumed that it is re-

'Address delirered at Taskegee Commencemeat, May 19l2


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4 RACIAL GOOD WILLblack is generally projected against the white and usuallyto the disadvantage and embarrassment of the former.It becomes very easy, therefore, to see in our minds andhearts what is so apparent in our faces, "darkness thereand nothing more."

But you must keep in mind that the Negro is a tenthpart of a great cosmopolitan commonwealth; he is a partof a nation to which God has given many very intricateproblems to work out. Who knows but that this nationis God's great laboratory which is being used by the Cre-ator to show the rest of the world, what it does not seemthoroughly to understand, that it is possible for all God'speople, even the two most extreme types, the black andthe white, to live together harmoniously and helpfully.

PROBLEM OF ADJUSTMENTThe question which the American nation must face,

and which the Negro as a part of the nation should so-berly and dispassionately consider, is the mutual, social,civic, and industrial adjustment upon common ground oftwo races, differing widely in characteristics and diversein physical peculiarities, but alike suspicious and alikejealous, and alike more or less biased and prejudicedeach toward the other. Without doubt the physical pe-culiarities of the Negro, which are perhaps the mostsuperficial of all the distinctions, are nevertheless themost difficult of adjustment. While I do not believe thata man's color is ever a disadvantage to him, he is verylikely to find it an inconvenience sometimes, in someplaces.We might as well be perfectly frank and perfectlyhonest with ourselves; it is not an easy task to adjust therelations of ten millions of people, who, while they mayfleeted from his association with his white brother. The


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RACIAL GOOD WILL 5be mature in passion and perhaps in prejudice, are yetto a large extent children in judgment and in experience,to a race of people, not only mature in civilization, but theprinciples of whose government were based upon moreor less mature judgment and experience at the beginningof this nation. And when we take into account alsothe wide ethnic differences in the two races that are herebrought together, the problem becomes one of the gravestintricacy that has ever taxed human wisdom and humanpatience for solution. This situation makes it necessaryfor the Negro as a race to grasp firmly two or three fun-damental elementsrace consciousness, a high moralideal, and intelligent industry.

RACE CONSCIOUSNESSThe Negro must play essentially the primary part in

the solution of this problem. Since his emancipation hehas conclusively demonstrated to most people that hepossesses the same faculties and susceptibilities as therest of human mankind; this is the greatest victory therace has achieved during its years of freedom. Havingdemonstrated that his faculties and susceptibilities arecapable of the highest development, it must be true of theblack race, as it has been true of other races, that it mustgo through the same processes and work out the sameproblems in about the same way as other races havedone.We can and we have profited very much by the ex-amples of progressive races. This is a wonderful ad-vantage and we have not been slow to grasp it. But wemust remember that we are subject to the same naturalfactors in the solution of this problem, and that it cannotbe solved without considering these factors. The Negro


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O RACIAL GOOD WILLmust first of all have a conscientious pride and absolutefaith and belief in himself. He must not unduly depre-ciate race distinctions and allow himself to think that be-cause out of one blood God created all nations of theearth, brotherhood is already an accomplished reality.Let us not deceive ourselves, blighted as we are with aheritage of moral leprosy from our past history and hardpressed as we are in the economic world by foreign immi-grants and by native prejudice ; our one surest haven ofrefuge is in ourselves ; our one safest means of advance isour belief and implicit trust in our own ability andworth. No race that despises itself, that laughs at andridicules itself, that wishes to God it were anything elsebut itself, can ever be a great people. There is no powerunder heaven that can stop the onward march of tenmillions of earnest, honest, inspired, God-fearing, race-loving, and united people.

HIGH MORAL IDEALWith a strong race consciousness and reasonable pru-

dence, a people with a low, vacillating and uncertainmoral ideal may, for a time, be able to stem the tide ofoutraged virtue, but this is merely transitory. Ultimatedestruction and ruin follow absolutely in the wake ofmoral degeneracy ; this all history shows, this experienceteaches. God visits the iniquities of the fathers upon thechildren unto the third and fourth generation. "Thejudgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

Not long ago I stood in the city of Rome amid itsruined foundations, crumbling walls, falling aqueducts,ancient palaces and amphitheatres, today mere relics ofancient history. One is struck with wonder and amaze-ment at the magnificent civilization which that people was


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RACIAL GOOD WILLable to evolve. It does not seem possible that the Romanpeople, who could so perfect society in its organic andcivic relations and leave to the world the organic princi-ples which must always lie at the base of all subsequentsocial development, it does not seem possible that such apeople should so decay as to leave hardly a vestige of itsoriginal stock, or that such cities as the Romans erectedshould so fall as to leave scarcely one stone upon another.Neither does it seem credible that a people who could sowork out in its philosophical aspect man's relation to theeternal mystery, and come as near a perfect solution as isperhaps possible for the human mind to reach, that apeople who could give to the world such literature, suchart, such ideals of physical and intellectual beauty, as didthe Greeks, could so utterly perish from the face of theearth; yet this is the case, not only with Rome andGreece, but with a score or more of nations which wereonce masters of the world. The Greeks, Romans, Per-sians, Egyptians, and even God's chosen people, allowedcorruption and vice to so dwarf their moral sense thatthere was, according to the universal law of civilization,nothing left for them but death and destruction.

It is no reproach to the Negro to say that his historyand environment in this country have well-nigh placedhim at the bottom of the moral scale. This must be re-medied if the Negro is ever to reach the full status of civil-ized manhood and womanhood. It must come throughthe united efforts of the educated among us, unitednot for spoils, not to disgrace religion with immoralpractices, nor yet to merely protest and pass resolutions.No one can beat us solving the race problem by reso-lutions. Educated Negroes a thousand miles away fromAlabama have been kind enough to settle every questionand solve every problem affecting the race, by beautiful


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8 RACIAL GOOD WILLresolutions which are seldom read outside the immediatecommunity and often affect no one, not even the peoplewho pass them. We must unite to stop the ravages ofdisease among our people ; unite to keep black boys fromidleness, vice, gambling, and crime ; unite to guard thepurity of black womanhood, and, I might add, black man-hood also. It is not enough to simply protest that ninety-five out of every hundred Negroes are orderly and law-abiding. The ninety-five must be banded together to re-strain and suppress the vicious five.Though it is sad to relate, there is a widening chasmbetween the educated Negro and his less fortunatebrother. This may be natural but it is nevertheless verydisastrous. This chasm must be bridged by more practi-cal sympathy and a more friendly and vital personalcontact. The people must be impressed with the ideathat a high moral character is absolutely essential to thehighest development of every race, white quite as muchas black. There is no creature so low and contemptibleas he who does not seek first the approval of his ownconscience and his God, for, after all, how poor is humanrecognition when you and your God are aware of yourinward integrity of soul. If the Negro will keep cleanhands and a pure heart, he can stand up before all theworld and say, "Doubtless Thou, O Lord, art our Father,though Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel acknowl-edge us not."

INTELLIGENT INDUSTRYSlavery taught the Negro many things for which he

should be profoundly thankfulthe Christian religion,the English language, and, in a measure, civilization, andthese have placed him a thousand years ahead of hisAfrican ancestors.


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RACIAL GOOD WILLSlavery taught the Negro to work by rule and rote

but not by principle and method. It did not and, per-haps, could not teach him to love and respect labor,but left him, on the contrary, with the idea that manualindustry is a thing to be despised and gotten rid of, ifpossible ; that to work with one's hands is a badge of in-feriority. A tropical climate is not conducive to the de-velopment of practical energy. Add to the Negro'snatural tendency his unfortunate heritage from slaveryand we see at once that the race needs especially to berooted and grounded in the underlying scientific principlesof concrete things. The time when the world bowed be-fore mere abstract, impractical knowledge has well-nighpassed ; the demand of this age and hour is not so muchwhat a man knows (though the world respects and reveresknowledge and always will, I hope.) What the worldwants to know is what a man can do and how well hecan do it.We must not be misled by high-sounding phrases asto the kind of education the race should receive, but weshould remember that the education of a people shouldbe conditioned upon their capacity, social environment,and the probable life which they will lead in the immedi-ate future. We fully realize that the ignorant must betaught, the poor must have the gospel, and the viciousmust be restrained, but we also realize that these do notstrike the "bedrock" of a permanent, lasting citizenship.

If the Negro will add his proportionate contributionto the economic aspect of the world's civilization, it mustbe done through intelligent, well-directed, conscientious,skilled industry. The primary sources of wealth are agri-culture, mining, manufacturing, and commerce. Theseare the lines along which the thoughtful energy of theblack race must be directed. I mean by agriculture,


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lO RACIAL GOOD WILLfarmingthe raising of corn, cotton, peas, and potatoes^pigs, chickens, horses, and cows.

Land may be bought practically anywhere in theSouth almost at our own price. Twenty years hence, withthe rapidly developing Southern country and the stren-uous efforts to fill it up with foreign immigrants, it will bedifficult if not impossible for us to buy land. Don't getthe idea that because land is cheap today it will alwaysremain cheap. Don't be misled either with the notionthat because work is plentiful for the colored man, that itwill always be plentiful. God gave the children of Israelthe "Land of Canaan" but what a life and death strugglethey had had to take possession of it and hold on to it!God has given to the Negro here in this Southern countrytwo of the most fundamental necessities in his develop-ment land and labor. If you don't possess this land andhold this labor, God will tell you, as He has often toldother races, "to move on."The Creator never meant that this beautiful landshould be forever kept as a great hunting ground for theIndian to roam in savage bliss, but he intended that itshould be used. The Indian, having for scores of gener-ations failed to develop this land, God asked the Anglo-Saxon to take possession and dig out the treasures ofwheat, corn, cotton, gold and silver, coal and iron, andthe poor Indian was told "to move on."The Negro in Africa sits listlessly in the sunshine ofbarbarous idleness while the same progressive, indomi-table, persevering, white man is taking possession of hiscountry ; the same edict has gone forth to the nativeAfricanhe is being told "to move on."


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RACIAL GOOD WILL I IBEYOND THE COLOR LINE

Whatever question there may be about the whiteman's part in this situation, there is no doubt about ours.Don't let us fool ourselves, but keep in mind the factthat the man who owns his home, cultivates his land, andlives a decent, self-respecting, useful, and helpful life isno problem anywhere. We talk about the "color line."You know and I know that the blackest Negro in Ala-bama or Mississippi or Africa or anywhere else, whoputs the same amount of skill and energy into his farminggets as large returns for his labor as the whitest Anglo-Saxon, The earth yields up her increase as willingly tothe skill and persuasions of the black as of the white hus-bandman. Wind, wave, heat, steam, and electricity areabsolutely blind forces, see no race distinction, and drawno "color line." The world's market does not care andit asks no questions about the shade of the hand that pro-duces the commodity, but it does insist that it shall be upto the world's requirements.

I thank God for the excellent chance to work that myrace has in this Southern country ; the Negro in Americahas a real good, healthy job, and I hope he may alwayskeep it. I am not particular what he does or where hedoes it, so that he is engaged in honest, useful work. Letno one of us ever be ashamed or humiliated when we arecalled workmen ; let us be proud of the distinction.Remember always that building a house is quite as impor-tant as building a poem ; that the science of cooking is asuseful to humanity as the science of music ; that the thingmost to be desired is a harmonious and helpful adaptationof all the arts and sciences to the glory of God and good ofhumanity ; that whether we labor with muscle or withbrain, both need divine inspiration- Let us consecrate


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12 RACIAL GOOD WILLour brain and muscle to the highest and noblest service,to God and humanity.

COMMONPLACE VIRTUESI wish, first of all, to congratulate you, the members

of the graduating class, upon the fact that you have comethus successfully to the culmination of your career in thisinstitution. 1 congratulate you also upon the peculiarcharacter of the education you have received and upon theefficient and conscientious corps of instructors you havehad.May I briefly remind you of three very commonplacevirtues that may perhaps help you as you enter a broader,and I hope, more useful life.

SimplicitySimplicity is a quality that is hardly likely to be over-

worked ; certainly it is a very safe and sane side on whichyou may profitably err. It is charged that the educatedNegro is greatly inclined towards the superficial and showy,that he is much given to " putting on airs." Don't beafraid or ashamed to be even criticized because of naturalunaflfectedness, of extreme simplicity in dress, in speech,in conduct, and in character.

It is said that the " Bushman," dressed in the latestParisian fashion, struts proudly through the streets ofLondon in the firm belief that in a few short months hehas compassed all the vast distance between African bar-barism and modern civilization ; but, as a matter of fact,he has grasped only the foam and froth of civilization without considering the living water upon which they float.As I understand this institution, the object has notbeen to make of you mere farmers and mechanics, noryet cooks and dressmakers. It has not even tried to make


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RACIAL GOOD WILL I3mere teachers and preachers, although it has accomph'shedthat task most effectively ; but these vocations, how-ever well they may have been learned, are subsidiary tothe great object that lies at the base of Tuskegee Institute.It has tried, and I hope it has succeeded, in making ofof you men and women with strong, robust, generous,courageous, simple, Christ-like characters ; that, myfriends, is the "bed rock" upon which this institution wasfounded and upon which it stands, and that is the meaningof this magnificent gathering, this commencement. Thisschool, therefore, stands for real rational simplicity.

Self-respect

I want to ask you young people always to keep yourself-respect. Self-respect does not mean fanning, cring-ing, nor truckling. No one detests a fanning, truckling, orcringing Negro more than the aristocratic Southern whiteman, and no one respects the honest, law-abiding, straight-forward Negro more than the aristocratic Southern gentle-man. You will be careful, I am sure, not to confuse self-respect with self-conceit; they are sometimes woefullymixed, even by educated Negroes ; that is, Negroes whohave received diplomas from reputable institutions.

I am not unmindful of the conditions under which welive. It is very easy for a race to accept the valuationwhich others set upon it ; to conclude that it is after all"good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under thefoot of man," but there is no excuse for your going throughthe world with a sort of self-depreciatory demeanor as ifyou owed the rest of mankind an apology for existing.Remember that you are creatures of God's most perfecthandiwork and that any lack of appreciation on your partis a reflection on the God who made you. Rememberalso that though a Negro, and black, and though belonging


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'4 RACIAL GOOD WILLto a backward and somewhat undeveloped race, that Godmeant that you should be as honest, as industrious, aslaw-abiding, as intelligent, as cultivated, as polite, as pure,as Christ-like, and as godly as any human being who walkson the face of God's green earth.

Courage

Tliere is no reason why any Negro should becomediscouraged or morbid. We believe in God ; His provi-dence is mysterious and inscrutable ; but His ways are justand righteous altogether. Suffering and disappointmenthave always found their place in the divine economy. Ittook four hundred years of slavery in Egypt and a siftingprocess of forty years in the "Wilderness " to teach thechildren of Israel to respect their race and to fit them forentrance into the " Promised Land." The black manhas not as yet thoroughly learned to have the respect forhis race that is so necessary to the making of a great peo-ple. I believe the woes that God has sent him are butthe fiery furnace through which he is passing, that is sep-arating the dross from the pure gold, and is welding theNegroes together as a great people for a great purpose.There is every reason for optimism and hopefulness.The outlook was never more encouraging than today.The Negro never had more the respect and confidence ofhis neighbors, black and white, than he has today.Neither has he because of his real worth deserved thatrespect more than he does today. Could anybody, amidthe inspiration of these grounds and buildings, be dis-couraged about the future of the Negro? The race prob-lem in this country, I repeat, is simply a part of the prob-lem of life. It is the adjustment of man's relation to hisbrother, and this adjustment began when Cain slew Abel.Race prejudice is as much a fact as the law of gravitation.


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RACIAL GOOD WILL 15and it is as foolish to ignore the operation of one as of theother. Mournful complaint and arrogant criticism are asuseless as the crying of a baby against the fury of a greatwind. The path of moral progress, remember, has nevertaken a straight line, but I believe that unless democracyis a failure and Christianity a mockery, it is entirelyfeasible and practicable for the black and white races ofAmerica to develop side by side, in peace, in harmony,and in mutual helpfulness each towards the other ; livingtogether as "brothers in Christ without being brothers-in-law," each making its contributions to the wealth andculture of our beloved country.You are soon to join the ranks of the great army ofgraduates who have gone out from this institution. Theyhave set the standard very high ; they have renderedexcellent service for their people, their country, theirGod. Not a white boy or girl in all America has such achance to mould, to fashion, to help, to lead his people asis given to you. Not a white boy in all the world has hadbefore him as his teacher and constant inspiration sounique, so picturesque, so heroic, so devoted, so sublimean example of simplicity, of courage, of patient industry,of self-sacrificing devotion to duty, as you have had in theperson at the head of this institution.

A PRICELESS LEGACY

For nearly a quarter of a century I have had thehonor and the pleasure of the acquaintance and confidenceof your Principal ; I have been with him amid the varyingcircumstances and conditions under which the AmericanNegro lives and moves. I have heard him day after day,at the point of exhaustion, plead the cause of his race, thecause of his country, the cause of the black man, the cause


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l6 RACIAL GOOD WILLof the white man. I give this as my deliberate and care-ful observation, that I have never heard him say an un-charitable, an ungenerous word against white man, againstNorthern man, or against Southern man.

I have never seen him do or even countenance asmall or a mean, unkind act.

I have never known him to be too busy or too tired torender service with voice or pen or even means, where ahuman need demanded.

In all my experience I have never met a more simple,patient, sympathetic, judicious, courageous, generous,helpful character.What a wonderful inspiration this must be to thisclass, what a peerless legacy you have, what a beautifulheritage is yours. I thank God for you and for myself,that in His infinite wisdom and goodness He has given youand the Negro race such a leader, and to this nation sucha beautiful character.

I close with these lines from an anonymous poet on" The Water Lily ":O star on the breast of the river,marvel of bloom and grace.Did you fall straight down from heaven.Out of the sweetest place?You are white as the thought of the angel,Your heart is steeped in the sun,Did you grow in the golden city,My pure and radiant one?Nay, nay, I fell not out of heaven,None gave me my saintly white ;It slowly grew in the blackness,Down in the dreary night.From the ooze of the silent river,1 won my glory and graceWhite souls fall not, O my poet,They rise to the sweetest place.


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THE NEGRO IN INDUSTRY *THE Census of 1910 shows that two out of every fivepersons engaged in gainful occupations in the sixteenSouthern states are Negroes. Of the entire Negro popula-tion in those sixteen Southern states, 63 per cent are insome form of industrial occupation, while only 47 percent of the white people are thus engaged. Of all theNegroes who are engaged in industrial activities 60 percent are agricultural workers. The large majority of in-dustrial workers in the South are on the land ; and this isespecially hopeful so far as the Negro is concerned. It isalso significant that the number of Negroes engaged asagricultural laborers is about the same as it was fifty yearsago, though the Negro population has increased nearly 150per cent during that period. Something like a millionNegroes have developed from agricultural laborers tofarmers, there being, according to the Census of 1910,something like 890,000 in this class.

After all of the efforts which have been made to induceforeign immigrants to settle in the South, less than fiveper cent have so far availed themselves of the opportunityoffered, and a large portion of that five per cent has set-tled in the cities of the South. The Negro must be verylargely depended upon to supply all the demands for laborin agricultural as well as domestic lines. According toreliable statistics, the Negro has not only hitherto done thismore or less acceptably, but he has also gone rapidly intothe fields of skilled and semi-skilled laborers. He is,therefore, an indisputable factor in the present and futuredevelopment of our Southern states.

* An address delivered before the Southern Sociological Congress in Memphis, Tenn.,May 9, 1914


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1 RACIAL GOOD WILLOne reasonably familar with the situation does not

doubt that the South, within the next few decades, be-cause of its splendid soil and climate, its abundant rainfall,its special adaptation to the raising of cotton, its new andgrowing spirit of enterprise which demands modern scien-tific methods of agriculture, will become one of the mostimportant agricultural sections of the nation and the world.It is, therefore, not only important that labor and capitalshould work in harmony, but it is even more importantthat there should be inter-racial sympathy and co-operationalong all lines of economic and civic endeavor.

NEFD OF TRAINED WORKERSThoughtful Negroes as well as thoughtful white men

are agreed that the South offers the largest opportunityfor the Negro,economically, socially, and morally. It is alsoagreed by thoughtful people, black and white, that therural districts in the South offer the greatest opportunityfor the masses of colored people. It is fair to assume, then,

That, for the present at least, the South cannot de-pend on foreign immigrants for its farm operatives, itsdomestic and personal service, or its unskilled and semi-skilled labor;

That it must depend on the Negro for the present andalso the very distant future to recruit the ranks of thisform of labor ;That, if the Negro is to constitute the mass of indus-trial operatives of the South, it is imperative for the com-mon good that there should be sympathetic co-operationwith the white workers engaged in similar forms of in-dustry ;That every effort should be exerted on the part of theSouth to make these laborers, black and white, more re-liable, more skillful, and more efficient


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RACIAL GOOD WILL IQThat the laborer can be kept efficient and skillful only

as his environment is wholesome and strengthening andnot weakening and demoralizing ;That it is the duty of every patriotic Southerner to

use every possible means for the practical, sympathetictraining of these workers and their children through athorough, well-regulated school system.

It is frequently asserted by careless and thoughtlessspeakers and writers that all Negroes are lazy, shiftless,and inefficient; but the people who say this are not onlyout of accord with the facts of the case, but they often donot believe what they themselves are saying.What they mean to say is that some Negroes in everycommunity are lazy, shiftless, and inefficient ; but in practi-cally every district where Negroes are employed, whetheras farm laborers or as mechanical laborers, the verdictis that the large majority of Negro workers are reliable,many of them are skillful and very efficient, and not a feware almost indispensable. There are very few places inthe South where the employer would be willing to dis-pense with the services of his Negro employes.The South has made marvelous strides in industrieswithin the past forty years, but this would have been well-nigh impossible without its docile, cheerful, and willingNegro population. Notwithstanding the much discouragingtalk and the more discouraging, not to say unfair and un-just legislation, there cannot be found, even where theruling and the laboring classes are both of the same race,as much real, helpful sympathy and co-operation as existat the present time between the Negro and the Southernwhite man. The relationship is one that is difficult to de-fine, yet it is no less real. There are some individual whitemen who like individual Negroes, though they may thinkthey hate the race. Individual white men will do any


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20 RACIAL GOOD WILLreasonable thing to help individual Negroes. Yet a singlewhite man, here and there, may say any unreasonablething against the Negro race. There are Negroes whoare equally as inconsistent in their feelings and expres-sions regarding the white race.The white South, for its own self-interest, if for noother reason, should strive to make the individual rela-tionship which exists between the races a more generalrelationship, and the large mass of Negro workers con-tented and happy. It should encourage Negroes to live onthe farm and to buy up the waste and undeveloped landsof the South; it should offer every possible inducement forNegroes to remain in the South and on the land, wherethey can rear their children amid physical and moral sur-roundings conducive to their highest development andgreater usefulness to themselves and to the state.

VALUE OF KNOWLEDGE AND CONFIDENCEThe two races in the South truly deserve to be con-

gratulated, the Negro, because, notwithstanding all of thelaws and all of the discussions regarding the various formsof circumscription and segregation, he has not becomeembittered and has not grown to hate the white race ; andthe white people, because, in spite of all that has been saidand done, they have not lost confidence in and respect forand desire to help the Negro.Few white people know the Negro's real feeling onthe question of segregation. The Negro rarely discussesthis question frankly, for the reason that he does not thinkthat because he is black he is cursed and that the Creatorhas limited his possibilities so that he is unfit for associa-tion with other human beings. But, as a matter of fact,ninety-nine per cent, I should say, of the Negro race, ifthey should tell what they really feel, would say that they


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RACIAL GOOD WILL 21have no desire to be with white people because they arewhite; that, so far as enforced segregation and separationare concerned, they are entirely in accord with it, not be-cause of unfitness but because of racial incompatibility.One can observe this attitude in every Southern com-munity and in most Northern communities where there isany considerable number of Negroes.

In Southern communities, long before segregation wasever spoken of, there were Negro sections in almost alltowns.where the Negro lived happily, and there was practi-cally no trouble or feeling of unpleasantness because of it.The only persons who presumed to disregard the unwrit-ten law were certain white men who opened grocerystores, drygoods stores, and bar rooms which very fre-quently carried with them the lowest and most subtle sortof vices and degradation which would not be tolerated inwhite residential sections. What is true in urban com-munities is very much the same in rural communities.There were many counties in Virginia and in other statesalso where one could travel for miles on land owned bycolored people, and this happened without any law forcingwhite and colored people to separate.The Negro enjoys the companionship of his race andnever loses a chance to be with them, everything else be-ing equal. Like every other human being, he enjoysbeing with his friends whether they are black or white.But because a few Negroes here and there in the citiesand in the country have bought property alongside ofwhite people ; because the Negro traveling on the railroadwishes to ride in the Pullman car ; because at the railroadstation he applies at the only restaurant for a meal ; be-cause a few Negroes here and there go to Northern whiteuniversities ; and because the Negro protests against the" jim crow " car (which almost invariably means inferior


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22 RACIAL GOOD WILL

accommodations), and the separation on street cars, thefeeling in the mind of the average white person is, per-haps, that the Negro wants to be white and that he wantsto be with white people because they are white. Thereis absolutely no foundation in fact for this feeling.

NEED OF MORE PROTECTIONThe Negro has long since learned that property along-

side of white people in the cities and towns is more valu-able ; that his wife and children have more protection ;that the streets are better and cleaner ; and that he getsbetter fire protection, greater police protection ; and thatfor such a section there are more adequate sanitary arrange-ments. The Negro has discovered that if his land adjoinsa white man's land the county roads are better cared for.The roads in the Negro sections, especially where thecounty roads are infrequently used by white people, asis often the case, are generally neglected, and it is oftendifficult to get the road master to pay any attention to thatsection of the public highway. In many cases it is nevertouched. The fence and stock laws are much more rigidlyenforced by county officials and more carefully observedby both black and white wherever white people's propertyis concerned.

The truth is simply this. The white people are theruling, controlling, dominating, directing element of thiscountry, and they have the best of everything the bestparts of the cities, the best hotels and restaurants, the bestcars, and as a rule, the best schools, colleges, and univer-sities. When a Negro shows an inclination to be withwhite people, it is not because he wants to be with whitepeople as such, but because he wants to get the best asto land, position, education, comforts, conveniences, andprotection.


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RACIAL GOOD WILL 23It is self-evident that the Negro has practically no

share in the making or the execution of the laws. Heknows when he is segregated that underneath the segrega-tion is the idea that he is inferior and unfit for associationwith decent people of any other race. He knows thatin his section of the city the streets are not paved ; thatcriminals of his own race and often of other races are al-lowed to run at large and prey on the ignorant and inno-cent ; that in his section the health boards are not so par-ticular as they should be regarding sanitary surroundings;that street sweepers, who are often white, give little or noattention to sections where Negroes live ; and that Negrosections, because they are Negro sections, are almost in-variably neglected by city as well as county officials.

WHAT SEPARATION HAS MEANTSeparation, so far as I have been able to observe, has

never meant equal treatment or equal accommodations onrailroads or steamboats, in restaurants, on street cars, oranywhere else.Sometimes an effort has been made to make the public

service equal for both races, but those who have the su-pervision of it, because of lack of interest, or lack of sym-pathy, or perhaps lack of appreciation of the necessity ofcareful supervision, have allowed the accommodations todegenerate into places inferior and, in most cases, abso-lutely unfit for human beings of any race. In many cases,these places are as menacing to the health and lives of thewhite race as they are demoralizing and degrading, as wellas menacing, to the health and lives of the colored people.The Southern conscience ought to be aroused to thepoint of action where the white South will demand abso-lutely equal accommodations for both races in all places


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24 RACIAL GOOD WILL

where there is local segregation. In many places, if therewere Negro constables, magistrates, and policemen inNegro sections, there would be far less criminality on thepart of Negroes, because these officials would ferret itout and locate the vicious criminals of their race. Theywould, nine times out of ten, see that the offender wasbrought to justice. Negro street cleaners would be morezealous in their duties in their own sections. The crim-inality of the South, as far as the Negro is concerned,would be reduced fifty per cent if the authorities would callcolored men into service as constables and policemen.The white officers would, in this case, receive a surpris-ing amount of co-operation.No leader, either black or white, can give skillful,efficient, conscientious service when he is surrounded dayand night by all that tends to lower his health, distort hismind, weaken his morals, embitter his spirit, and shakehis faith in his fellow-men. The South's growth can comeonly when its laboring class is well housed, well fed, andsurrounded by all that tends to make it strong mentally,morally, and physically. Under the system of segregationwhich is at present being agitated and practiced in manyquarters, it is impossible for the Negro to grow normally,either in his physical, mental, or moral life. To that ex-tent he is inefficient and unsatisfactory as a laborer. Imuch fear he will grow more so.

JUDGING A RACE BY ONE CLASSThe next largest group of Negro industrial workers,

according to the Census of 1910, are the 1,324,150 of Ne-groes who are engaged in domestic and personal service.These have little personal contact and almost nothing incommon, so far as actual occupation is concerned, with a


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RACIAL GOOD WILL 2 5similar though very much smaller group of white people.Nevertheless, because of the very intimate relationshipwhich they sustain toward the dominant and law-makingelement, they are in many ways a most important factor ininter-racial problems. These domestic and personal-serviceworkers have been for more than a generation very largelythe " ministers-extraordinary and plenipotentiaries ofthe Negro race at the court of Southern white publicopinion." Their indiflference, their laziness, their shiftless-ness, their carelessness, their inefficiency, their immoralityand criminality, have played no inconsiderable part inshaping the mental attitude of most Southern white peopletowards the Negro. Their interpretation of the sermons,lectures, lawyers' briefs, physicians' prescriptions, theconduct, character, feelings, sentiments, and longings ofall the Negroes in the South, educated and otherwise, hasbeen the infallible foundation upon which the reputationof the whole Negro race, to a very large extent, has beenbased.Not all of this class are inefl&cient, shiftless, or crim-inal ; but the domestic- and personal-service element inany race, important as it is that they be efficient and sat-isfactory and able to hold their jobs, are not the best rep-resentatives of a race of people. They are apt to mis-interpret and misrepresent the intelligent, well-mean-ing, property-owning, and progressive class. It is unfairto the white race that it should shape its opinion of theentire Negro race by the Negro cook or butler who mayor may not be satisfactory. It is even more unfair to theNegro that the decision as to his morality, his intelligence,his ability, and his industrial efficiency should be deter-mined merely by this element.


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26 RACIAL GOOD WILLPROTECTION OF NEGRO WOMEN

A great difficulty that faces Negro girls who are en-gaged in domestic service is the lack of attention and careon the part of their employers. This has had more to dowith the moral degradation of Negro women than any othersingle phase of Southern life. Little or no interest is takenin these girls so long as they attend to their duties. Wherethey go, with whom they associate, the life they live, theenvironment in which they spend their off hoursthesefacts receive little or no consideration. This is perhapsnatural, but it is certainly unfair, not only to the Negrodomestic servant, but also to the white employer of theNegro servant. What is worse, it has made many a Negrowoman ashamed of her job.Many well-meaning white people take it for grantedthat the Negro will be lazy, dishonest, and immoral. Thatvery attitude, benevolent as it is, perhaps, is in itself mostunfortunate and dangerous. It is most unfortunate for theNegro that the white man should set for him a lowerstandard, either industrially, morally, or intellectually,than for himself, and should too easily offer a sort of halfapology for Negro weaknesses, failures, and inefficiencies.

EDUCATION THE SOLUTIONThis leads me to emphasize the very great necessity

of education for the Negro. There has been much crit-icism and some ridicule of educated Negroes, by per-haps well-meaning people. But, after all is said and done,the most successful, the most reliable, and the most influ-ential element in the Negro race, as in every race, is theeducated class the men and women who have done mostto cement cordial and sympathetic relations between theraces ; who have had the greatest influence for caution


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RACIAL GOOD WILL 2/and conservatism upon the reckless, radical Negroeswho have been most patient and most persistent in theirefforts to fit the whole Negro race for freedom and citizen-ship, in the broadest sense of the words, by practical,Christian education and by sane, wholesome advice.

It seems to me that the best means of cementing a morecordial, sympathetic, and helpful relationship between thetwo races is thorough, systematic training, and practicaleducation for both races, which means loyalty and efi5-ciency, and especially for the more backward of thetwo racesthe Negro. Our struggle, then, to bring allthe laborers of the South to the point where they canmake of this Southland, where cotton still remains theeconomic king, what it should eventually become, mustbe, first, to feed, clothe, and house them properly. Forthis they must be trained intellectually, morally, andspiritually; and for this training the white people, the direct-ing class, must see that all labor, black as well as white,has full and complete opportunity to get the very best,broadest, deepest, and highest that the Creator has givento all mankind.

I plead for the continued co-operation and backing ofthe South in the efforts and achievements of such second-ary and higher educational institutions as Hampton, Tus-kegee, Howard, Atlanta, Fisk, and Virginia Union Uni-versity, with a dozen other worthy institutions, not only forthe training they give the Negro, but also for what this train-ing has meant to the South and to the nation. It is onlyby broadening his horizon, enlarging his vision, increasinghis ambition, deepening his pride in himself and in hisrace, and thereby increasing his respect for himself andotherselves, that the Negro will be made truly efficientpermanent benefit to himself, to his race, and to his coun-try. And this should be the Christian duty and patrioticobligation of every true citizen, black and white alike.


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SIGNS OF GO-OPERATION*AT a meeting held recently in Virginia an old coloredpreacher in opening the service prayed thus: "OGod of all races, will you please, Sir, come in and takecharge of de min's of all dese yere white people and fixdem so dat dey'll know and understan' dat all of us col-ored folks is not lazy, dirty, dishones', an' no 'count ; andhelp dem. Lord, to see dat most of us is prayin', workin',and strivin', to get some land, some houses, and someed'cation for ourselves an' our chillun, an' get true 'ligionan' dat mos' every Negro in Northampton County is,doin' his lebel bes' to make frien's an' get along wid dewhite folks. Help dese yere white folks, O Lord, tounderstan' dis thing. Lord, while you is takin' charge ofde min's of dese white people, don' pass by de coloredfolks, for dey is not perfec'dey needs you as much asde white folks does. Open de Negro's blin' eyes dat hemay see dat all of de white folks is not mean an' dishones'an' prejudice' ag'inst the colored folks, dat dere is hones',hard-workin', jus', an' God-fearin' white folks in dis yerecommunity who is tryin' de bes' dey know how, wid decircumstances ag'inst dem, to be fair in dere dealin'swid de colored folks, an' help dem to be 'spectable menan' women. Help us, Lord, black an' white, to under-stan' each other more eve'y day."The prayer of this old colored man expresses, in acrude but effective fashion, the feeling and desire of thebest Negroes and the best white people of the South.The sentiment of this prayer is becoming more and moreuniversal, and it is influencing as never before the best

*An ddreii delivered before the Negro Chriitian Studenti' Convention held inAtlanta. May 6-10. 1914


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RACIAL GOOD WILL 29thought and highest aspirations of our Southern people.This, then, is the first fundamental sign of growing co-op-eration in our Southland. One who is reasonably familiarwith Southern conditions cannot but see on every handunmistakable evidences that the two races are growingmore and more to understand and sympathize with eachother in the common life which they now lead and mustof necessity continue to lead.

It is comparatively easy for a person to become dis-couraged regarding the situation, especially if he is gov-erned by the reports which he sees in the average dailypaper. There seems to be a popular desire, on the part ofpress dispatches, to emphasize the unsavory side ofNegrolife. How often one sees in a paper front page, first col-umnin glaring headlines, a report of some crime allegedto have been committed by a black man ; whereas, in thevery same paper, on the last page, and often in a mostinsignificant place on that page, with very modest head-lines, one finds a report of a white man charged with thesame sort of crime ! If there is a misunderstanding be-tween black and white people in any community, often incases where there are less than a half-dozen in the dis-turbance, the papers will report a "race riot" and give theimpression that practically all the Negroes and whitepeople in the community are up in arms against eachother.

This sort of propaganda, which has been indulged infor several decades and with increasing exaggeration, can-not but prejudice many people of both races against theNegro, and cause the casual observer to wonder if it ispossible after all for the black and white races, whomGod in His infinite wisdom and goodness has seen fit inHis own way to place side by side in large numbers on


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30 RACIAL GOOD WILL

Southern soil, to live helpfully and harmoniously together.But there is no real reason for discouragement. Theapparent hostility is more or less superficial and far fromthe actual facts of the situation,for, on sober second thought,there come to mind the rank and file of the Negro racethe law-abiding citizens who keep out of courts and out ofthe papers ; the earnest, thoughtful, growing numbers whoare working side by side with the best white people forthe solution of the race problem.

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONSImmediately after the war there was naturally a cer-

tain sort of paternal relation that existed between the whiteman and the Negro, but this was of rather a patronizingsort. This relationship exists even now to some extent,but it cannot long continue. There must come a differentand more lasting, and, in the long run, a more wholesomerelationship. The younger generations of the white andblack races have now come on the stage of action. Theirdealings are less cordial and less patronizing, and are morecold and businesslike. The Negro stands on his manhood.Few favors are asked except such as may be reduced to adollars-and-cents basis.

There was developed during the days of slavery aspirit of suspicion on the part of the Negro against whitepeople which the reconstruction period did not by anymeans lessen,and which has hampered the Negro, perhaps,more than it has the white man. This the Negro is rapidlyoutliving, and that is encouraging. Notwithstanding allthat has been said against the Negro from the press andplatform, the real situation was never more hopeful andencouraging than it is at present. Even the casual ob-server must see that there is growing a spirit of real co-


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RACIAL GOOD WILL 3^operation and sympathy between the races, and that neverbefore has there been a more earnest and sincere efforton the part of both races for mutual help and co-operation.There is a growing and genuinely honest disposition on thepart of Negroes everywhere to seek the advice as wellas the assistance and co-operation of white people in everymovement for the uplift of the Negroes. There is anincreasingly strong feeling on the part of Negro laborersand mechanics for unity and co-operation with similargroups of white artisans, and the white unions are seeingmore and more the necessity for a closer union of thevarious classes of skilled workers. This feeling will con-tinue to grow as men become better trained, bettereducated, and better Christians.

EDUCATIONAL CO-OPERATIONIn educational matters there is also growing sym-

pathy and co-operation between whites and blacks.The Negro is calling on school officials for a fair andequitable distribution of school funds. He is asking forbetter schools, longer terms, better pay for teachers, andbetter equipment; in many cases the Negroes, out of theirown earnings, are buying land for the schools and oftenputting up the schoolhouses, sometimes supplementingthe pay of the teacher, this generally being done with theadvice and approval of the local school officials, who aremaking appropriations for school purposes with a liber-ality such as was never before witnessed.Hampton Institute, through its Principal, Dr. HollisB. Frissell, and its trustees, notably the late Robert G.Ogden, and through the institutions that have grown outof Hampton, has done more than perhaps any other singleinstitution in making possible the sort of co-operation that


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3- RACIAI, GOOD WILLcounts for most in the development of the two races herein the South. Hampton Institute has established a plat-form upon which Northern men, Southern men, blackmen, and white men can work together for the good ofhumanity and the glory of God. Men and women frommore spheres of life, of more creeds and colors, are con-stantly meeting at Hampton for the discussion of vitalquestions and inspiration for larger work than in any otherplace, perhaps, in America.

Dr. Booker T. Washington has done more than anyother single man to bring the colored people to realizethe wisdom and absolute necessity of calling on the whitepeople for advice and aid, and I need not say that the re-sponse in most cases has been helpful and gratifyingthis attitude on the part of colored people has encouragedthe white people to take more interest in what is going onamong colored people in almost every line of endeavor.

We all know of the work of the Jeanes Board, throughwhich Dr. James H. Dillard has accomplished suqhsplendid service for God and humanity ; and we all knowalso of the work of the state supervisors of rural schools,of whom Mr. Jackson Davis was the pioneer. These twoagencies are not only linking together the common ruralschools in the communities in which they are at work, butare doing what is to me more importantthey are linkingthe two races together on the ground of common brother-hood,common needs, and common sympathy, in the citiesas well as in the country. Here is a great forward move-ment toward the co-operation of the races. In Savannahfor example, organizations like the National Negro Busi-ness League arc co-operating with the white people fora greater and better city The same is true in Nashville,as well as here in Atlanta and in other Southern cities.


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RACIAL GOOD WILL 33KNOWING AND WINNING THE SOUTH

Dr. Washington, usually under the auspices of theNational Negro Business League, with other prominentcolored men, has made what he calls "educational tours"through almost all of the Southern states, where thousandsof people, white and black, have gathered to listen to him.These thousands have received from the distinguishedNegro leader frank, yet sane, advice as to the best methodsof real co-operation and a more helpful relationship. Theseaddresses have had as cordial a response from white asfrom black people. It would be difficult to estimate thevalue of such trips in cementing more cordial, sympathicfeeling between the two races in these states.The unstinted thanks of the Negroes of the South aredue Dr. James H. Dillard, who brought into being, at theright time, the University Commission on Race Questions,a commission composed of representatives of all the South-ern state universitiesmen who, without sentiment, aregetting at the real facts regarding the Negro, with a viewto helping, not merely the Negro, but the white South andthe nation as well. The Negro is perfectly willing to bejudged on his merits by unbiased men, especially whenthey have before them the actual facts.

In Memphis there was recently held what was in someways the most remarkable gathering I have ever wit-nessed. There came together a large body of Southernmen representing all phases ofSouthern life, and an equallyinteresting and representative body of Negroes. Thesemen expressed frankly, dispassionately, and in a kindlyway their views on the race situation, offering sane, helpfulsuggestions as to adequate remedies therefor. Is it not ahopeful sign when black men and white men can thuscounsel together on common problems ?


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34 RACIAL GOOD WILLCO-OPERATION AMONG WOMEN

Our Negro women have shown consummate wisdomand tact in securing the co-operation and help of leadingwhite women in their civic movements. The Women'sCivic League of Baltimore, and all of our Virginia move-ments have been and are now headed by the most promi-nent and aristocratic white women. And here in Atlanta,Mrs. John Hope could not have accomplished what shehas so successfully achieved had she not asked the helpand co-operation of the white women of the city.

The fact that the Negroes are themselves becomingbetter organized and are willing to accept the advice andleadership of their own race for racial betterment and civicimprovement, makes it all the easier for the leaders ofthese organizations to throw the weight of their influenceon the side of sane co-operation with the best elementof our Southern white people. Few private schools arestarted in any community without the Negroes asking cer-tain of the leading white people to become members ofthe board of trustees. If they do not wish to make themreal trustees, which means owners of the property, theywill devise some kind of an advisory board, so as to linkwhite people to the movement, and thus secure their ad-vice and counsel, perhaps their financial assistance, andoften their influence with the county school officials.

BUSINESS CO-OPERATIONThere are in the South today about seventy Negro

banks owned, controlled, and operated by Negroes, alsonumerous building and loan associations In many of thesebanks the presidents or cashiers of the white banks havenot only given advice to their Negro competitors as to thebest methods of banking, but have opened up their first


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RACIAL GOOD WILL 35books and started them off, in many places overlookingtheir methods and work until the Negro banks could get ontheir feet. Only recently a Negro bank in Richmondcame near having a "run" on it because of some erroneousreport that was circulated in the community to the effectthat the bank was in trouble, and several of the leadingwhite banking institutions, through their presidents, toldthe Negro bank to pay all claims promptly, and that theywould furnish the necessary money if it did not havethe available cash. These banks knew that the Negro bankwas absolutely safe and solid and they had absolute faithin the honesty and integrity of its black president. Inalmost every community the Negro and white businessmen are on terms of harmony and co-operation, loaningand borrowing and crediting as if both were white or bothwere black. This spirit of business co-operation must andcertainly will continue to grow.

CO-OPERATION FOR BETTER HEALTHIt is perhaps along lines of health and sanitation that

one finds the heartiest co-operation between the white andcolored people. It is quite as important for white peoplethat Negroes should be clean and healthy, physically,mentally, and morally, as it is for colored people. Whitepeople see and understand this and are willing and glad tolend assistance and to co-operate as perhaps in no othermovement. Disease is common to all, and though germi-nated in the Negro cabin, is very apt to find its way to thewhite mansion. Disease, like vice and crime, knows nocolor line. As a result of the very important meeting re-cently held in the city of New Orleans to start a healthcampaign throughout the South, the white people areurging the Negroes to enter into this movement and havemet with a very general response.


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36 RACIAL GOOD WILL

THE NEGRO ORGANIZATION SOCIETYThere grew out of the Hampton Negro Conference amovement which we have called the Negro Organization

Society of Virginia. This movement has for its object thefederation of all existing organizations in the State of Vir-ginia of whatever kind or character, whether religious, be-nevolent, or secret societies, social orbusiness conventions,farmers' conferences, or what not, for the common purposeof general improvement of conditions among Negroesthroughout the Old Dominion. Its motto is, "Betterschools, better health, better homes, better farms" amongcolored people. The Negro Organization Society seemsto have federated about all of these organizations, fornever in the history of the race has any movementtaken hold of the various phases of Negro activity as thismovement has done; and though it is only about three yearsold, it has inspired the erection of some twenty-five gradedschools in the state, to say nothing of improving theequipment and surroundings of two score more.We have just closed what we call in Virginia a "clean-up week." A year ago we had a "clean-up day," but wemade it a clean-up week this year for the reason that itwas not convenient in many localities in the state, becauseof storms, etc., to clean up on the day appointed. Weasked the State Board of Health, as well as the countyboards, for their co-operation and help. We prepared aspecial bulletin giving instructions in simple language thatcould easily be understood by Cc/lored people, as to thebest methods of preserving their health, which we call the"Negro Health Handbook." The State Board of Healthpublished, at no expense to the Organization Society,about thirty thousand of these books, which were put intothe hands of the school-teachers and preachers as well as

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RACIAL GOOD WILL 37Other Negro leaders throughout the state; and special ser-mons and health talks and lectures were deliveredthroughout Virginia. We asked the white people whoemployed colored people to excuse their employes andencourage them as far as possible to clean up their premises;and while we have not the facts for the present year, weknow that last year 130,000 people devoted a day to ageneral cleaning up of their premises, disposing of rubbish,whitewashing their houses, outhouses, and fences, anddestroying breeding places for flies and mosquitoes. Themost significant thing accomplished in this healthjmovementis that we got absolutely the co-operation and the backingof the leading papers and leading white people of Virginia.The new " Handbook " has just been published andforty thousand copies distributed, with results even morefar-reaching than those of a year ago.

Last November, in Richmond, six thousand peoplegathered to hear the reports of the year's work of thissociety. Something like a thousand of these were whiteand they represented the leading people of the City ofRichmond and the State of Virginia. There were presentand on the platform, the Governor of the State, the Presi-dent of the Richmond Medical College, the Principal ofHampton Institute, and many leading Negroes, amongthem Mrs. Maggie L. Walker, and such men as Dr.Charles S. Morris and Dr. Booker T. Washington. Mrs. B.B. Munford, one of the leading white ladies of Virginiaand president of the Virginia Co-operative EducationAssociation, was asked to speak on the subject "What whitepeople can do to help colored people." Mrs. Munfordopened her address with these words: "The best way,"she said, "for white people to help colored people is forwhite people to believe in colored people." In my opin-ion the best way for colored people to help white people


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3^ RACIAL GOOD WILLis for colored people to believe in white people.

It seems to me, then, that if we live up to the spirit ofthe colored minister whom I quoted in the beginning ofmy talk, and accept the equally sincere and earnest adviceof Mrs. Munford, we shall have a clue to the maze ofrace prejudice and race misunderstanding, and a key tothe door of Christian co-operation and brotherhood, whichis the spirit and purpose of this Negro Students' ChristianFederation.


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